Friday, January 22, 2010

Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Do Nothing!

Elements of this story are going to continue to provide fodder for writers and commentators for years to come as long as our government is filled with PC fools without the courage or knowledge required to ID our enemy. If this war was conventional we would be talking about a 'foreign' enemy on another continent. But this war is not conventional, it is asymmetrical (one of the few catch words of any value). This enemy comes at you 'side-ways' and lurks in the halls of friendly institutions, schools, government offices and yes, the military. Curiously, the founding Fathers did not exclude them by name when they penned the First Amendment. On the other hand, they were intricately familiar with them and their doctrine, Koran and Jihad. It has been said Thomas Jefferson had a personal copy of the Koran and Keith Ellison swore his oath of office on it. I suppose he felt it carried more significance. Apparently he is another US Leader with very little knowledge of history. It is a widely held belief that Jefferson was a Deist although there are many references to Jesus Christ in his writings and he clearly held to Biblical teachings as a foundational inspiration throughout his political life.

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Of course he also dispatched Marines to Algiers in 1805 and by 1815 had defeated the Muslim hordes (pirates) that plagued our shipping. The Mediterranean problem with Piracy and Muslim interdiction was not new to the Jefferson administration, Muslim hordes had succeeded in taking, by force, the entire north African continent, much of Spain and made incursions into Europe and France. By the time Columbus 'sailed the oceans blue', Spain was actively seeking a safer trade route to the Indies.

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The fact is, since 621 AD, history is replete with stories of Muslim incursions and conquests, slavery and abuses and that imperialistic spirit is alive and well today. Of course it is all for Allah and the religion of peace is only seeking the best for its newly acquired vassals; or is it submission (def: Islam)? And if it is submission; to what or whom? Lest we forget that old adage; 'Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely', let's not forget that by any other name or allegiance, these people are human with human emotions, desires and vices. Our government seems to forget that part. While they are busy selling themselves and the rest of the United States on the lie that Islam is a religion of peace (a lie perpetrated by and gladly shared with our Armed Forces by invitation from our government), they do manage to completely overlook the weakness of humanity to power, money, sex, debauchery. Enter Major Hassan and his dutiful murder of the 'Infidel', on what use to be considered a secure location; an American Base on American soil. The investigation has yet to yield one single word tying Hassan to his religious root.

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Enter Diana West with another superb piece:

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Useless Fort Hood Leaves Americans Unprotected

by Diana West

21 Jan 2010

"Do you believe in 'radical Islam'?" the famous Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders once asked me.

The occasion was a banquet last summer at the Reagan Library outside of Los Angeles where later that evening Wilders would receive a Hero of Conscience award from the American Freedom Alliance. I would have the honor of introducing him. "What did you say?" I could barely hear him over the speaker at the podium elaborating on the perils of, yes, "radical Islam."

"'Radical Islam,'" he repeated. "Do you think there is 'radical Islam,' or only 'Islam'"?

Me, I'm an "only Islam" kind of gal, as I told him. Who am I to argue with Muslims ranging from terror-cleric Abu Qatada to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan? Erdogan is particularly interesting as a democratically elected Islamic leader who eschews all word-modifiers of Islam including "moderate," the adjective the media often applies to his AKP political party. "These descriptions are very ugly," Erdogan said in 2007. "It is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam, and that's it." Erdogan has also bluntly rejected descriptions of Turkey itself as an example of "moderate Islam," saying last April: "It is unacceptable for us to agree with such a definition. Turkey has never been a country to represent such a concept. Moreover, Islam cannot be classified as moderate or not."

I mention this now because after the fireworks over Scott Brown's U.S. Senate victory in Massachusetts have died down, we will have to return to the same, old, equal parts humdrum and deadly wrangle over how to think, talk about and grapple with Islam in what remains a post-9/11 world.

Two related events took place just as the Massachusetts miracle sucked the oxygen from non-election news excepting Haiti coverage. First, the Pentagon report on the Fort Hood massacre came out. It is 86 pages long and doesn't mention the words "Muslim," "Islam," "jihad," "Sharia" (Islamic law), "Koran" -- despite the fact that we know, among other things, that the killer, who initiated his massacre with a cry of "Allahu Akbar," was a Muslim inspired by Islam to perform an act of jihad as sanctioned by Sharia derived from the Koran.

These facts, however, rate official silence. So what else is new? From the Bush years to the present, see-no-Islam denial has turned U.S. government attempts to assess and discuss national security issues into Kabuki gibberish, a perpetual exercise in make-believe that the core doctrines and traditional institutions of Islam -- not "radical Islam," not "Islamism," not other aliases -- pose no threat to the core doctrines and traditional institutions of the non-Islamic Free World. Naturally, mum's the Pentagon word over jihad at Fort Hood. Or, rather, "self-radicalization" is the word. It is mentioned more than a dozen times in the report.

I can't imagine a greater dereliction of duty than this failure of U.S. government leaders to recognize, articulate and defend against what in military parlance is known as the "enemy threat doctrine." But this dereliction, this failure will trigger no investigations or court proceedings on how and why our leaders consistently mask, soft-soap and otherwise fail to assess and repel the existential threat posed by the imposition or accommodation of these same Islamic doctrines.

Talk about irony: Within days of the report's release, one of the few politicians in the world who understands, articulates and fights the imposition and accommodation of these same Islamic doctrines went on trial in the Netherlands for doing exactly that.

I refer again to Geert Wilders, now enmeshed in a Kafkaesque court trial in which the Dutch government is subverting its own democratic institutions -- namely, freedom of speech and the will of the people -- in an effort to shut down Wilders and his political opposition to the Islamization of the Netherlands. The government's case rests on Wilders' increasingly successful efforts to win support for his anti-Islamization program from the Dutch people through speeches, writings and the short film "Fitna" (easily viewable online) -- a body of work that only a tyrannical, Islamically correct government could designate as "evidence" of a crime.

How Dutch government officials must envy America's Sharia-compliant public servants who willingly generate see-no-Islam blather such as the Fort Hood report.

They can have it.

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Go get 'em Diana!

Semper Fidelis;

John Bernard

Thursday, January 21, 2010

The Curious Case of the Illusive Strategy

In a world where winning the war means winning hearts and minds, we have some of those troubling realities messing up the plan once again. An enemy that we still can't quite identify in the midst of a population whose hearts and minds we are buying...sorry... winning. Many questions arise from the piece that follows not the least of which is; how can these attacks continue to happen in the midst of a population of people whose hearts and minds have been won (spelled bought). Conflicting guidance and orders from upper echelon that borders on schizophrenia and a growing frustration among our men and women is taking its toll. In the midst of this insanity comes this little gem;

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This note was written just before a recent attack where a number of CIA agents were murdered.

In paraphrase:

"Our Base is well inside hostile territory. All serious attacks here have been within a few hundred meters of us, including a successful attack on a UN 'Safe House.'

Everyone here is, however, completely unarmed! This is what they say to us, and I am quoting directly:

'... all personnel will have their weapons GREEN (we call it "Storage Mode") at all times. All weapons will be cleared immediately upon entering the compound... at no time are weapons to be loaded, nor is any weapon to have a magazine inserted'

When attacked, we've been directed to run and hide in bunkers, but still not load our weapons! I've tried, unsuccessfully, to get our allowable weapons status upgraded. I'm told, 'We'll have NDs, and that will generate too much paperwork,' another direct quotation! I've even confronted star-wearers, saying 'Why
do we have soldiers in an overseas combat zone, including officers and staff NCOs, under arms, who are apparently so poorly discipline and trained that they can't be trusted with loaded small arms?' With a sneer, the general replied, '... it's just too dangerous having people walking around with loaded guns.' (SOUNDS LIKE CHIEFs Of Police Depts)

After years of continuous lethal contact with an implacable enemy, most reasonable people would think we would have long-since weeded out such emasculate fools, sheep, and attaboys. No such luck. In fact, we've promoted them! As for me, and a number of others, we've long ago decided to ignore stupid rules that endanger our lives, about which no one apparently cares, except us. My pistol is always in "Carry Mode" (called "Red" here), no matter where I am. When stopped by someone who points out that I have a magazine inserted in my pistol. My response is as follows, depending upon the rank of the person who noticed:

(1) 'Go find something else do to, Sonny!'

(2) 'I've never been able to understand violence in any form. Have you? Actually Bud, that is not a magazine. It's a dust-cover. It renders then pistol completely useless. You should get one!"

(3) 'Sir, that regulation negates my ability to defend myself, which is my inalienable right, a right I claim, fearlessly and unapologetically. If you think you want to charge me, go for it!'

Most of the time, my pistols are concealed, and the issue never rears its ugly head. Like so many other capable and dedicated officers and NCOs, I'm getting out, leaving in disgust!" Comment: Although we've made some progress, particularly with the Marines, the foregoing nauseating catastrophe is still all too typical.

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If this seems like a break-down in discipline and order, you are wrong. I would give up my nice quiet life to be back in the struggle in the midst of the Warrior community in a heartbeat! What has broken down is common sense, common decency, any sense of nationalism, the courage to call a spade a spade (in this case our enemy as Islam - self identified by the way), the ability to find truly qualified people to represent us in Washington DC, an educated electorate and General grade Officers with any sense of obligation to tell the truth regardless of ramifications for their careers. The Officer/NCO that sent this to the rear did so anonymously, knowing his career would be jettisoned and might in fact face charges under the UCMJ if identified with these remarks.

The two things I take away from this is first, the ability and willingness of our Warriors to adapt in an environment of insanity and second that they should have to simply to protect themselves - from the enemy. It should be duly noted that upper echelon leadership and their civilian counterparts rarely, if ever, subject themselves to the horrors they project on our Warriors. I wonder how willing our elected representatives would be to spend even one week in the conditions they subject our Warriors to? The answer is pitifully obvious after all, just 21 of the elected in DC have ever worn a uniform.

With the latest political broadside, coming out of Massachusetts, there is undoubtedly a movement afoot that we can only hope will affect foreign affairs and specifically as it affects our Warriors. 'Business as usual' is not being tolerated on the domestic front anymore. It is now clear that the country at large is incensed by the callous, self-centered ideology of the political elite and has effectively put all of DC on notice. Scott Brown does not represent what an election might have been in years past. His was not a 'masterful' sales pitch nor is his career any great study. What this election does represent is a super-charged electorate that is finished with politicians who think they deserve their 'jobs'. One can only hope that the population will be spending as much time reconsidering our non-strategy in handling our Islamic foes and 'throw the bums out' that are responsible for this great travesty.

In the meantime consider this last piece of depravity; Trijicon, which provides many of the scopes currently in use by all branches of our military, has been inscribing its scopes, discreetly, with Biblical references. Today; they announced they were conceding to demands from the DOD due to a 'complaint' from an unnamed person or group. The story is as follows:

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Trijicon:

No more Bible references on

scopes

By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jan 21, 2010 17:00:27 EST

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

A company under fire for etching biblical references on rifle scopes used by the U.S. military said Thursday it will stop the practice, and offered to provide modification kits to the Pentagon to enable their removal on existing optics.

Michigan-based Trijicon Inc. made the announcement in a statement released by Levick Strategic Communications, a Washington, D.C.-based firm that specializes in crisis management.

“Trijicon has proudly served the U.S. military for more than two decades, and our decision to offer to voluntarily remove these references is both prudent and appropriate,” Trijicon president Stephen Bindon said in a statement. “We want to thank the Department of Defense for the opportunity to work with them and will move as quickly as possible to provide the modification kits for deployment overseas.”

Trijicon also said it will remove the inscriptions from all products it has made for the military, but not yet shipped, and that it will provide foreign military services that purchased Trijicon products the same options.

Company officials said Monday in a report on ABC News’ “Nightline” news program that it included coded references to Bible passages on its products, including optics used by U.S. troops currently in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a statement released Tuesday, the company said it adopted the practice “as part of our faith and our belief in service to country.”

The admission led to a maelstrom of media attention and criticism that the practice would allow Muslim extremists to claim that the U.S. is waging a holy war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Marine Corps officials said in a statement Tuesday they were “aware of the issue and concerned with how this may be perceived,” and said they planned to meet with Trijicon.

The inscriptions gained attention on the company’s Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight, which is mounted to M16A4 and M4 service rifles used by tens of thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. In one example, an inscription included “JN8:12,” a reference to John 8:12, a Christian gospel passage: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

The inscription on another optic includes “2COR4:6,” which refers to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

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It will be interesting to watch and see how far the electorate comes this year and how successful we are in turning this vessel around we call a nation.

Semper Fidelis;

John Bernard

Monday, January 18, 2010

Traitors in Our Midst?

It has been well over 200 years since the great American patriot, Nathan Hale uttered his now immortal words, 'My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country'. Although historians may quibble about the precision with which his words have been purveyed to us, the sheer force of those words never fail to strike awe in us; that a man would willingly forfeit his life that his family and friends might live in freedom. This is how we remember and define heroism and even martyrdom.

These concepts have been so obscured in recent years and by recent events that without a determined effort by us, our children might never fully understand the concept of self-sacrifice. These days we see endless examples of men, warped by evil ideology blowing themselves up in crowded bazaars and on crowded planes not to secure freedom for anyone but simply to strike fear in the hearts of free men. This evil ideology is as sinister a doctrine as ever contrived by men and has been offered to us in the guise of divine utterance. While there are many among us who choose to recognize this ideology as something given to a deranged man by a demon, there are still others who accept them as just another example of another way to 'God'. Anyone who was not well trained in any other religion might come to that conclusion and even those of us with a fair understanding of our own religion might fall victim to the belief that it is harmless, if it wasn't for history.

This evil ideology (spelled Islam) and the countless millions who have sold their souls to it are as determined today as they were in the 7th century to transform the entire world into a cesspool of service to their warped version of God. The thing is, they have never hidden their understanding of the mandates of their religion or their intent to carry them out. They have, however, made clever use of deception and omission when discussing it openly with unwitting adversaries (spelled infidels). Like a spider they have lured larger prey into their web and have caused them to do their will and even caused their prey to turn on their own. They are crafty, lying, deceitful murderers of men, rapists, thieves and deluded by the Devil himself. And they are among us.

Our own government has knowledge of these men and their ideology and rather than to identify them and hold them responsible for the atrocities they commit, they reward them by asking them to help us 'understand' them. They hire them to teach our intelligence community and our military a perverted version of the truth of their religion and send these same military personnel and intelligence agents out into hell to fight a war without fire support and with a corrupt knowledge of the culture and the enemy that is a lie. Our government tells our people, daily, that the enemy is a sub-set of a larger group and an anomaly and that the best way to handle it is to convince the larger population to help us. They have been telling us this for years and have not been able to produce ANY proof of what they are saying. They deny history and facts that are piling up by the hour like some kind of mentally traumatized and terminally ill patient refusing to come to terms with his own mortality.

If this sounds a little melodramatic, then you need to start paying attention to all that you are not being told; that means you now have to study, on your own, to determine if what you are being told is in fact so. We who are Christians know this admonition in the form of 1 John 4:1 -'Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.'. In the same way, there are many people in high office who harbor motivations that are not in keeping with their solemn oaths sworn to 'support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;' These men - and women are primarily interested in winning yet another seat in office. They have done, and will continue to do whatever it takes to convince an ever 'dumbed-down' constituency that they have made the country safer because of their due diligence and through their diplomatic prowess when dealing with cultures with these 'anomalous', 'extremist', 'radical' elements in our midst. They will tell you this while they continue to be lured by front groups for this perverse ideology and use them to further confuse the minds of men and women who have sworn their oaths to fight and die for your freedom.

The latest incidences in Afghanistan should at the very least cause even the most skeptical to take another look at the policies of our civilian leadership in Afghanistan and Iraq. In Gamsir, an area where the 'Winning Hearts and Minds' strategy (spelled counter-insurgency), is suppose to be a model of success, one bit of propaganda (presumably by the Taliban) was enough to spark riots with rioters screaming for the death of American and NATO troops. They were upset because they were told someone had damaged or desecrated the Quran. In Kabul where militants attacked several Afghan government buildings and injured and killed many and destroyed millions of dollars worth of property. In Iraq where rockets were fired in to Najaf, killing 15 and wounding 22 near a shrine. We were told that COIN doctrine would garner greater respect and trust among the people and that this would in turn help us eradicate the 'extremists' in their midst. It still hasn't occurred to most that the 'extremists' are simply those in a society of perversion who happen to have the courage to carry out what their ideology demands of them. AND THEY ARE AMONG US.

This year we have an opportunity to undo at least some of the damage caused by years of neglect. We can break the back of the 'world community organizers' that currently hold the power in this country and elect people who will remember that they are servants to us. We can elect men and women who understand that this nation is sovereign and that no people, ideology or influence can have us or our freedom. We can elect men and women who understand the gravity of taking an oath and who are willing to sacrifice whatever of themselves is necessary in carrying out the duties of that oath. We can elect men and women who are educated about this enemy and who are not afraid of demographics, an imagined power base, foreign pestilence, perverse ideologies, their proponents and are not afraid to name the enemies of this nation.

The current seated caretakers of this nation are not created in the image of Nathan Hale, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, or Patrick Henry. They are of another ilk and they have done their best to sell the soul of this nation for a little personal aggrandizement. In the process, they have made us a lot less safe and have invited the enemy into our midst. It is time to take back this country and elect men and women of sound character, moral courage, noble, with a sound sense of service and patriotism because the 536 currently seated in the Dark City are not! Tomorrow, Massachusetts may send a signal that this country is not only disgusted with the self-serving, but ready to meet our enemies head to head. And most importantly, that we are no longer going to tolerate the likes of Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Reid, Murtha or their minions like Gates and McChrystal as they continue to spill the precious blood of the greatest members of this generation on a faulty vision of the world!

Semper Fidelis;

John Bernard