Thanks to all the vets who served and lived to make this country a better place. I’m more sad and thoughtful than usual this year, because I’m afraid history is about to repeat itself. Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” Either Einstein or Rita Mae Brown said, “The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results.”

The incoming Obama Administration seems poised to pull out of Iraq on an arbitrary timetable without regard for the situation on the ground. At least that’s what I think Barack Obama said. He may have changed his mind five or six times since I thought I heard him say that. Didn’t he run on an anti-war platform? That seemed like his only position, “accomplishment,” and about his only qualification. Oh well. Far be it from me to question “The Chosen One.” As he is fond of saying, “Understand!”

The last time the U.S. Leftists snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, about 2.5 million Asians died and the U.S. Military suffered a decades-long crisis of confidence. If we abandon the Iraqi People, who will ever again trust the word of America?

What do we say to the families of those who gave their lives to protect our freedom, indeed, our very existence, from those who would impose their fanatical religion on the world, regardless of the cost? What will we say to the families of future military personnel? Will we even be able to recruit soldiers after another Vietnam-like sell-out in Iraq?

Compare the current situation in America to the last days of ancient Rome. If the parallels don’t make you lose sleep, it’s time for another pulse check.

(See my Post “Will Iraq become another Vietnam?” under the Category “War on Terror.”

Def Mech

It also came out in the Fox News report that Newsweek Magazine reporters with the Obama Campaign were embargoed from telling anything about the Campaign’s operations until after the election. You see, they made a deal. We won’t mention the tingling feeling in the leg that some female TV personalities seem to get in the presence of “The Chosen One.”

It’s typical of the Left-wing media to slant their coverage. It’s also typical of the Left to shaft you, then tell you how stupid you were to fall for their lies and omissions after it is too late to do anything about them.

The press covered up FDR’s paralysis. The Left-wing press covered up Joe Stalin’s political murders. The Left-wing press covered up John Kennedy’s bad back and his philandering. The Left-wing press covered up Saddam Hussein’s murderous tyranny. They made a deal!

The Left-wing press sat on Clinton’s affair with Lewinski. Now the Left-wing press has covered up for Barack Hussein Obama, “The Chosen One,” the Leader “We have been waiting for,” or shall we just call him Il Duce or Der Fuhrer? Don’t forget who “made the deal” with the press!

Those of us concerned with the fundamental individual right to armed self-defense against crime and tyranny have been all too aware of the Marxist Mainstream Media bias for several decades. We have seen the same anti-American, Left-wing slant in coverage of the Vietnam War and the War against Islamofascist Terror. Some other people are just finding out.

Before ChucK Schumer and his “inclusive, tolerant of diversity” comrades drive a stake through the heart of Conservative talk radio with “The Fairness Doctrine,” Here’s the Defense Mechanism version of a real Fairness Doctrine.

For every story that you read in the Mainstream Media on guns, you have to visit the NRA Website to get the other side of the story. For every hour that you watch MSM news programs, you must watch one hour of Fox News or listen to an hour of Conservative talk radio. (While you still can.) Every time you read a book by a liberal author, you have to read a book from the last two decades by David Horowitz, or a book by Sean Hannity, Hugh Hewitt, David Kopel, Ann Coulter, Bernie Goldberg, Dick Morris, Bill O’Reilly, or other Conservative writer. This is a “Fairness Doctrine” that just might save the country.

Def Mech

The Liberal, who had already voted, was sure that Obama isn’t going to pass anti-gun legislation, in spite of the semi-automatic weapons ban plank in the Democrat Party Platform and the fourteen or fifteen Democrat anti-gun rights bills already in Congress, one of which is designed to kill gun shows. I don’t know if he thinks Obama was less than truthful when he said that he didn’t like concealed carry and supports the D.C. and Chicago gun bans, or that Obama was lying when he said he supports the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment “supported” by Obama isn’t the one in my Bill of Rights.

The Libertarian, who had already voted, didn’t understand at first that he had wasted his vote on a third party candidate who has no chance to win. His eyes got big when I explained to him the extent of “The Chosen One’s” antipathy toward the individual rights of American Citizens to armed self-defense against crime and tyranny. I don’t think the young man at the show will cast another third party vote, if he gets another chance to vote in a national election.

I educated the undecided gun show patron, who had not yet voted, on Obama’s real position on civilian ownership of firearms and his disrespect for people he thinks are xenophobic rednecks who cling desperately to guns and religion. Hopefully, this young patron will make his vote count.

The man from Eastern Europe assured me that he had voted for John McCain. He said something like, “I came from Europe to this county, so that I could be free. If the Communists take over here, I don’t know where I can go.”

The fourth gun show visitor reminded me of a man that I met in South Vietnam in 1972. We were standing guard together on the roof of a building on a muggy night watching parachute flares light up the sky north of Saigon. This man had escaped from his native Communist North Vietnam after they had imprisoned him. His crime? He had a college education.

Sometimes people from other countries can see our political landscape more clearly than some native-born American Citizens. (See Antonio Sosa’s comment on my last post, “Obama a Marxist? Say it ain’t so, Joe.”

Be safe. Vote wisely.

Def Mech

Oops!  Lost another Bob Schaffer sign Sunday night.  Schaffer is running against Boulder, Colorado Liberal Mark Udall.  That makes three stolen Schaffer signs!  I have two extras in the garage.  I’ll head down to Schaffer’s Headquarters and pick up a few more.  Can’t have too many Schaffer signs.  (Saw a fox by the sign location last night.  Maybe he or she took it.)

I believe that this Democrat yard sign theft of epidemic proportions is merely a symptom of a larger problem within the Party.  David Horowitz, a former Communist and leader of the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, said of the Left, ”If you believe in a future that will redeem mankind, what lie will you not tell, what crime will you not commit to make the future happen?”  This “Progressive” ideological hubris, this absolute certainly of moral superiority, this crusader mentality, this attempt to live out and exploit what Horowitz has called “the romance of the underdog,” are factors that I believe drive people of the Left to steal yard signs and attempt to steal elections.  (Horowitz, David, Left Illusions, Spence Publishing Company, Dallas, TX, 2003, pages 356-360, 366.)  Back to McCain and the Presidential Race!

John McCain was continually tortured for a year and a half in North Vietnam, because he would not accept an early release from his captors, while his fellow POWs remained in Communist hands.  That makes him an American Hero by any standards.   John McCain sounded the alarm on the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Crisis in 2005, while the Democrat Party defended the bad lending practices that ultimately drove both organizations into the ground.

I don’t agree with McCain on every policy, but his experience and fortitude in the struggle against Islamofascist Terror and his relatively strong support of the Second Amendment make him my choice.  It is foolish for us to allow transient economic problems to obscure the fact that we are in a struggle to the death with a violent terrorist element that wishes and plans for our destruction.  (I’m not talking about the Left-Wing of the Democrat Party.)

Sarah Palin is the Governor of Alaska.  She has more executive experience than the whole Obama/Biden ticket.  She cut government expenses in Alaska.  I think she believes “jobs” is a four-letter word.  Obama’s choice for VP seems to think that ”jobs” has only three letters.  Unlike  some of the terms you used in your comment, Tiffany, ”jobs” is a four letter word with a good connotation.

Barack H. Obama is the junior senator from Illinois.  He is the least experienced presidential candidate for at least a generation.  He comes out of what is arguably the most corrupt Democrat political machine in the country.  He has blatantly misrepresented his position on the Second Amendment and tried to suppress the First Amendment rights of people who disagree with him.  He wants to end the use of secret ballots in union elections.  Quite frankly, his anti-democratic tendencies scare me. 

Obama has continually associated with Communists, including: Frank Davis in Hawaii. and William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn in Chicago.  He has continuously been involved with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now(ACORN), which is at least in part responsible for the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Crisis, and which has a long-time record of voter fraud. 

Obama, with only four years in the Senate, has taken more money from Fannie and Freddie than long-time Senator Ted Kennedy.  Only Senator Dodd got more contributions for his support of Fan and Fred’s failed practices than your candidate, Tiffany.

Obama wants to raise taxes for everybody who pays taxes, not just the wealthy.  If he gets elected and repeals the Bush tax cuts, everybody’s taxes go up.  If he taxes corporations at a higher rate, the companies will simply raise their prices, passing on the expense to people who use their goods and services.  You and me!  Obama wants to increase taxes on retirement accounts (capital gains tax.)  If you plan to save any money and to retire some day, Obama plans to tax you!

Another bad thing that will happen, if Senator Obama is elected President, is that some companies will move overseas to other countries where wages and taxes are lower.  That will mean fewer jobs in the United States.  Obama’s tax plans would be like pouring gasoline on a house fire.

Obama wants to give drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens.  Why?  I don’t know.  Wait!  Here’s an idea!  The issuance of licenses to illegals increases opportunities for voter fraud.  ACORN comes to mind again. 

Finally, I believe Obama is wrong on the War on Terror.  In 1975, when the American Left forced the abandonment of Southeast Asia to the Communists, about two and a half million people were murdered.  The North Vietnamese Army, the Khmer Rouge, the Pathet Lao, and the Red Chinese and Soviets who supported them didn’t follow us home.  If we abandon the Middle East to radical terrorists, who have already killed about 3,000 U.S. Citizens in attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., not only will untold thousands more die outside this country; we will face the prospect of chemical and nuclear attacks in our own cities.

In an incident that received little attention in the Mainstream Media, because it didn’t fit the party-line “narrative” of the Left in the War on Terror, Islamofascist operatives tried to launch a chemical attack on Amman, Jordan.  The attack, which could have killed thousands, was thwarted.  Some of the would-be perpetrators confessed to being trained and supervised by Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi, an al Qaida terrorist with ties to Iraq.

Former Iraqi Air Force General Georges Sada said he believes that the chemicals for the weapons in the planned bombing were sent from Saddam Hussein in Iraq to Syria, during the months before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.  General Sada is the author of the book, Saddam’s Secrets, published by Thomas Nelson, 2006.

Junior Senator Obama opposed and opposes the War on Terror.  I believe he is incredibly naive, which is not surprising, given his complete lack of foreign policy experience.  As Hillary Rodham Clinton astutely said, the Oval Office is not a place where we can afford to train on the job. 

Tiffany, I don’t have time to comment in detail on your “use” of the English Language, but please lose the profanity and proofread your comments, before you send them.  Everyone makes errors, but punctuation and capitalization are our friends.  We shouldn’t abuse them.

Def Mech 

History is a slippery thing, especially as close as we are to Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, 9-11, and the destruction of the Iraqi dictatorship in 2003.  It will take decades for all the facts to come out and for scholars to form opinions on what actually happened.  We are still experiencing revelations and debate about World War Two, the Cold War, and Vietnam.

Even so, in order to function in the time in which we live, I believe we must try to understand the complex events that brought us to our current situation.  This involves bringing our individual perspectives to the choice of sources that we trust to provide the most objective information possible about the topic at hand.

My own perspective has been shaped as a child of the Cold War and my service as an intelligence officer with the United States Army in Vietnam and Europe.  I also have a liberal arts background and experience and education in the field of counseling and psychology.  Others will bring their own experiences and perspectives to the debate.

Liberals and some conservatives will undoubtedly find fault with my sources and conclusions.  That is a right they have under what I believe to be the best form of government in the best country yet created on our planet.  I do urge everyone that believes that Saddam Hussein should have been left in power to consider the following.  To disagree with him would have meant an ugly appointment with an electrode, an electric drill, and/or a firing squad, followed by a quick drop into an unmarked grave.

It may be useful to remember that Saddam Hussein’s uncle, Khairallah Tulfah,  was a disciple of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a rabid anti-Jewish radical who helped Adolph Hitler organize Muslim brigades to fight against the Allies in World War Two.  Saddam Hussein reportedly modeled the governance of his dictatorship after Hitler’s methods.

Hussein rose to power in Iraq after serving an apprenticeship as an assassin in the Baath Party.  He purged some enemies in party congress meetings or conventions.  The unfortunate victims were dragged from the halls to face torture and death at the hands of their Baath Party comrades.  Hussein used chemical weapons in his war against Iran in the 1980’s.  These weapons included nerve gas.

In 1990, Hussein invaded Kuwait, a small oil-rich nation southeast of Iraq on the Persian Gulf.  His troops raped, burned, pillaged, and killed.  The Iraqi dictator also massed forces on the border of Saudi Arabia.

As U.S.-led coalition moved troops into the region under Operation Desert Shield to defend the Sauidis from a possible attack.  Hussein could simply have retreated from Kuwait with his ill-gotten loot, but he doubted the will of the United States and its Coalition allies to dislodge him from his conquest.

In 1991, U.N.-backed Operation Desert Storm threw Hussein out of Kuwait.  The fighting ended with a cease-fire designed to stop the slaughter of Iraqi troops for humanitarian reasons and to meet the political concerns of the Saudis and other Muslim coalition partners.

The terms of the cease-fire included establishment of a “no-fly” zone for fixed wing aircraft over parts of Iraq.  U.S. military commanders hoped that this restriction would help protect Kurds and Shiites in Iraq who had chafed under Hussein’s harsh rule.  (Helicopters were exempt from the no-fly rule so that they could be used for medical missions and supply distribution to the Iraqi People.  The cease-fire also mandated a limit on the range of Iraqi missiles, and the destruction of Iraq’s WMD capabilities in accordance with UN guidelines.

Following the cease-fire, throughout the 1990’s and up to the U.S.-led coalition invasion of 2003, Hussein’s forces fired on allied aircraft patrolling the no-fly zone, used rotary-winged helicopters to attack Kurds and Shiites, and obstructed and spied on UN Weapons Inspectors attempting to monitor the destruction of his weapons of mass destruction.

Saddam failed to provide required records documenting the destruction of his WMD.  He built up huge stockpiles of conventional weapons by diverting UN Oil for Food Program money that had been destined to feed his people.  Hussein corrupted the UN and bought the support of France, Russia, and several other member countries with kickbacks on Oil for Food contracts.

Hussein ignored 17 UN resolutions regarding his refusal to comply with the conditions of the cease-fire agreement.  (Saddam’s terrorist ties and information regarding the status of his WMD programs will be the topics of future posts.)

The most salient point of this post is that the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq was the continuation of a war started by Saddam Hussein when he invaded Kuwait.  Operation Desert Storm ended with a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.  U.S. and Coalition troops invaded Iraq in 2003 in response to Hussein’s failure to abide by the cease-fire agreement, UN mandates, and the potential threat that he posed by his support of terrorists, including Al Qaida, and his possession of, capability to develop, use, or export WMD. 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt said in a pre-World War Two Fireside Chat on this date in 1941, “When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck before you crush him.”  At that point in time, FDR was supporting England with the Lend-Lease Program in the defense of Great Britain against the formidable Nazi War Machine.

In 2003, George W. Bush, virtually every intelligence service in the world, almost every American government official, with the exceptions of State Legislator Barack Obama and other Hard-Left Radicals, saw in Saddam Hussein a coiling snake.  Many high-level officials in Saddam’s own regime believed he had WMD.  (Pages 3 and 13)  In subsequent posts, I will detail why I believe most of the world was right and Obama and the radicals were wrong about Saddam Hussein, his intentions, his ties to terrorists, and his possession/development of weapons of mass destruction.

The Iraq War is important to me, because I served in Vietnam and do not want another 2.5 million or so deaths to occur because of Liberal perfidy and/or incompetence.  Also, interestingly enough, many of the same people who were against the Vietnam War and are against the Iraq War also seem interested in stripping the American People of their right to self-defense against crime and tyranny.

Def Mech 

Much is often made by Left-wing “pacifists” about the fact that Gandhi was successful in ending British rule in India through the use of non-violent protest. If the game is Gandhi versus Great Britain with the world press looking on and sympathizing with the anti-colonials, Gandhi wins. But what would have happened, if Gandhi had been dealing with Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Saddam, Castro or their successors? I believe that non-violence would have miserably failed and any one of the dictators would simply have murdered Gandhi, Nehru, and anyone else associated with the anti-colonial movement in India. Why have I reached this conclusion?

First, modern dictators have largely succeeded in destroying, buying, bribing, expelling, seducing, or otherwise controlling both the indigenous and foreign press in their countries. The Communist dictators were able to take advantage of dupes, fellow travelers, and paid agents.

Stalin and Company had Lincoln Steffens to trumpet after visiting the USSR, “I have been over into the future and it works.” Steffens later reportedly lost his zeal for Communism.  I.F. Stone was apparently a paid agent of Moscow.  He also became disillusioned with Stalinism, much too late for many of the dictator’s victims. 

In spite of the howls of Hollywood and movies to the contrary, e.g., The way we were, and Good Night and Good Luck, there were Communists in the American Entertainment Industry at a time when the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was advancing its goal of world domination. Lillian Hellman didn’t repudiate Stalin until 1956.  Pete Seeger didn’t come down on “Uncle Joe” in song until well into the 21^st Century, although according to a New York Times article, Seeger first denounced Stalin in 1993, just a few years too late.  Seeger, interestingly enough, mentioned non-violence in his interview for the article.

The North Vietnamese Dich Van propaganda program paralyzed the U.S. Government’s ability to defend South Vietnam by cleverly using the Mainstream American Media, university professors and students. They managed to change American Public Opinion against the conflict, even though the UN mandated the original partition of Vietnam and the U.S. won every major battle in the military arena.

Pictures of Castro’s Cuban Revolution and the Vietnamese Conflict were extremely telling of the Left-wing orientation of most American TV, newspapers and magazines. Look at the pictures of the insurgents. Virtually all photos and film show resolute, handsome and beautiful young men and women with their shining faces directed toward the hated enemy as they advance resolutely to victory. Compare that coverage to pictures of exhausted, wounded, or dead American military personnel or allies and civilian casualties attributed to friendly action. There is virtually no difference between enemy propaganda and American media coverage in many cases. You didn’t have to guess which side the U.S. Media was on.

(By the way, check out the coverage of the war against Islamofascist Terror. Any doubts?)

Saddam Hussein solved the press problem by making deals with TV networks. They either self-censored their reports to minimize criticism of his regime, or he denied them access to Iraq.  Read the story here on how CNN “modified” its reporting to stay in the country.  “…simple and beautiful as all truly great swindles are.” O’Henry was “right on,” to quote a popular 1960’s expression.

Saddam also corrupted the UN with his oil for food kickback scheme, but that is another story.  No wonder France and Russia opposed the 2003 invasion.

Second, remember what Mao said about political power and gun barrels? The above mentioned dictators disarmed “ordinary” citizens and vested recourse to force exclusively with their henchmen. You want to stage a peaceful demonstration? Ask the few survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Czechs who survived the Russian invasion following the Prague Spring, how large groups of political opponents were dealt with by the dictators. (Hint: resolution of the situations usually involved tanks and heavy machine guns.) 

Adolph Hitler and his associated developed a handy technique for dealing with dissidents called “Nacht und Nebel,” night and fog. The Gestapo came at night in the Nazi version of no-knock raids and arrested/abducted political opponents, who were never seen again. This proved to be quite an effective deterrent to non-violent protest.

Finally, the Indian version of Hitler’s death camps, Castro’s Isle of Pines, and Stalin’s gulags would have been the final destinations of hundreds of thousands or millions of persistent pacifist protesters not senior enough to be given the individual attention of Nacht und Nebel. Ghettos would have been created and “cleansed.” India would have been scientifically subjugated according to the tried and true formulas of media control and disarmament employed by modern statist dictators of whatever stripe. QED.

How does this little historical expose relate to us sophisticated, post-political, post-modern Americans? Protect the First and Second Amendments and the rest of the Bill of Rights as though your life depended on it, because it does. Stop the “Fairness Doctrine” and other attempts to muzzle free speech.  Stop gun control, before an increasing socialist state mentality assumes a monopoly on armed force and destroys our legal right to self-defense against crime and tyranny.

Vote Republican, because they are the only ones with a chance to win with whom we have any influence.  Sarah Palin, the Governor of an unrestricted concealed carry state could be the future of the GOP, or she could be an also-ran defeated by third-party, stay-at-home, or write-in voters.

“Ask not for whom the Bell Tolls…”

Def Mech

It is pretty clear from the title and the text of this article that was originally published in the Los Angeles Times,that the sympathies of the writer are with the poor, war-torn residents of the town of Amarah, with little regard for the viewpoint that the legitimate government of Iraq, supported by the United States, was conducting operations to stabilize territory within the country of Iraq for the benefit of those citizens “bracing” for the “offensive.” (Denver Post, Denver Newspaper Agency, Denver, Colorado, 06-15-08, page 7A.)

This type of coverage reminds me of the Anti-American bias displayed during the Vietnam War by what we now know as the “mainstream,” or more optimistically, the “dinosaur” media.  The American People were told over and over again that the average South Vietnamese didn’t care who ran the country, as long as he or she was left alone.

We often forget, and many were never told, that the Viet Cong (communist guerrilla) method of operation was to move into a village, kill anyone who appeared guilty of sympathizing with the government of the Republic of Vietnam, and set up their own local government, including tax collection “services.”  Disagreement of any kind, at any time, was very bad for your health under Viet Cong rule.

I personally spoke with a refugee from North Vietnam, who came south after he was released from a three-year prison term in that bastion of socialist democracy.  His crime?  He had a college education.  That individual cared who governed South Vietnam.

During the Vietnam War, it was virtually impossible to tell if most news stories were published in North Vietnam, or by the U.S. “dinosaur” media.  Most “news” stories portrayed resolute communist fighters moving to battle, exhausted or wounded U.S. troops, or injured or traumatized South Vietnamese civilians.  No mention was made of successful civic action programs, and military successes were overlooked or denegrated.  Look and sound familiar?

The leftist media is using the same tried and true tactic to erode support for the War on Terror that they used to undermine the U.S. effort to stop communist expansion in Southeast Asia.  We should remember that the communists killed around 70,000 South Vietnamese and about 1.5 million Cambodians after the Democrats in Congress cut off funding in 1974-1975.

I knew some of those Vietnamese and Cambodians.  I can tell you that they cared who was running their countries.  But what the heck?  As Stalin, the “Man of Steel,” is reported to have said, “One death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic.”

If the left-wing “dinosaur” media has its way, and the U.S. cuts and runs in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are going to be more “statistics.”  Those statistics are going to be the people in the region who were naive enough to believe that the U.S. actually had the intelligence, the will, the nerve, and the staying power to give them a chance to increase their control over their own lives.

We should stay the course and finish the mission in the Middle East.  We should do it, if not for the souls in the region who have had the courage to vote and fight for their freedom, then for the lost souls abandoned to their fates, when U.S. will and national purpose collapsed in Southeast Asia.

This election is about courage, national will, staying power and willingness to face and correct past mistakes.  In addition to gutting the Bill of Rights, a sweeping left-wing Democrat victory will morally and  psychologically cripple the U.S. Military and damage U.S. foreign policy for decades, as did the liberal sell-out in Southeast Asia.

By the way, our current enemy has already attacked American citizens on U.S. soil.  Relieved of the need to fight in Iraq, they will be free to turn their somewhat less-than-friendly attentions to places like St. Louis, Boston, and Denver.

Def Mech