The role of government is first and foremost to provide for the safety and security of the people. It is only when the state lives up to its primary directive, this sacred trust to establish a security blanket for the population, that the citizens of the country can fully pursue their God given rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In the fragile security of the Cold War Era, the struggle for global hegemony between the Eagle and the Bear, only the doctrines of détente and mutually assured destruction allowed some measure of peaceful existence, while the specter of Soviet military might, under control of an ideology bent on breaking America, loomed at the periphery of our daily lives, like menacing clouds encroaching on a bright summer sky. It would take a unique set of circumstances to provide the fabric that America, and much of the world, could use to weave the wrap of security that would allow for hopes of a brighter future.
It can be said that the loom began to spin on August 26, 1978 when the first wisps of white smoke appeared above the Vatican, announcing the election of a new pope, as Albino Luciani ascended Peter’s throne as John Paul I. In Britain, economic hard times grew and the Labour Party bore the brunt of blame during the 1978-1979 Winter of Discontent, while miles away in the Middle East, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini made a triumphant return to Iran.
Luciani’s death, a short 33 days after his election, allowed the College of Cardinals to make the timely selection of the young, charismatic Pole, Karol Wojtyla, who would embark on an historic papacy as John Paul II. It was this globetrotting man of conviction, who, upon returning to his beloved Poland in June 1979, inspired his native countrymen, who would then form the Solidarity movement that would eventually throw off the yoke of Soviet tyranny and serve as a precursor of the demise of the USSR.
Under the anti-American influence of Khomeini, Islamist students stormed the American embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, and captured 52 embassy workers, holding them hostage for 444 days. While the world watched, President Carter appeared helpless, and mired with domestic economic problems on top of the international embarrassment of the Iranian Hostage Crisis, retreated to the solitude of the Oval Office as America’s prestige plummeted.
In the midst of this Carter era malaise, emerged Ronald Reagan with his upbeat message of a better America. Espousing conservative ideology, military might, capitalism and opportunity, Reagan’s words and convictions resonated with the American electorate, who swept him into power and rode his coattails to greater prosperity. With the conservative, strong willed Margaret Thatcher already ensconced as Prime Minister of Great Britain since May 1979, the triumvirate was now in place, the threads ready to weave.
Over the course of the 1980s Reagan engaged the Soviets in a battle of ideologies, using American enterprise and prosperity to ratchet up military spending at a rate that the cumbersome Soviet economy could not maintain without inflicting harsh economic sanctions on its already impoverished population. Under Thatcher’s steady hand, Britain held fast as America’s wingman, and John Paul continued to spread his message far and wide. In time, the unwavering moral convictions of three leaders, guiding their respective charges without apology and without flinching at obstructions, literally bankrupted their adversary without firing a shot. As the last days of 1991 faded into the past, so too the USSR finally breathed its last breath and the security blanket was complete.
As with all things we hold precious, our security requires constant vigilance and regular repair. The Soviet threat had been abated, however a new evil had festered in Khomeini’s Iran, and Islamist Fundamentalism began to tug at the threads of American security, testing the resolve of the Clinton administration while the president was entangled in domestic issues and distracted by personal indiscretions.
On February 26, 1993 the first World Trade Center bombing shocked the nation, but was treated as a crime, not as a terrorist attack. The Battle of Mogadishu on October 3-4, 1993 in Somalia served as a watershed event for terrorists. Osama bin Laden later commented that it was there in Somalia that he realized that America did not have the intestinal fortitude to shed its blood.
The Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia were bombed on June 25, 1996, followed by the coordinated bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on August 7, 1998, all perpetrated with impunity. With the brazen attack on the U.S.S. Cole on October 12, 2000 the blanket had already started to unravel and bin Laden felt confident that America had become a paper tiger.
The fabric was finally torn asunder on September 11, 2001, when the horror of terrorism arrived on our shores. The years of neglect, the lack of credible response, the politically correct downplaying of military might had finally come home to roost. American lives were forever changed and security became a nebulous notion, sometimes apparent, often no more than a hope, an apparition that we prayed would materialize into a reality while we wandered through a rainbow of terror alerts.
Fortunately the ship of state now had a worthy captain at the helm who guided the country through the storm. George W. Bush understood his sacred duty, his prime directive, to safeguard the citizens of the nation. America’s response was quick and measured. The war was brought back to the enemy and away from our shores. Demonized by the Left, ridicules in the press, Bush nevertheless stayed the course, conducting an increasingly unpopular action, which nonetheless kept the scourge of terrorism off our soil for 8 years, allowing the blanket of security to mend and the prosperity of the nation to rebound.
Now we find ourselves with a new leader, a man who seems uncomfortable with the idea of American greatness. In Barack Obama’s world, military strength is old world and boorish. Those who have vowed to destroy our way of life are just misguided, blinded by America’s arrogance, and surely susceptible to his charm and rhetoric. He has bent over backwards to coddle our enemies while chastising our allies. He speaks of Israeli occupation and Palestinian hardships. Dictators are embraced and those brave Americans who interrogated those who would kill us are prosecuted as criminals. Our armed forces are demoralized and our intelligence agencies are compromised. Rules of engagement in Afghanistan have put the lives of our forces in danger as we try to fight a politically correct war with directives from bureaucrats in Washington. Military leaders are being censored and politics trumps success, even at the cost of American lives.
We now find out that the administration has been aware for months of a new uranium enrichment facility in the Iranian city of Qom, but has chosen not to alert the American people of this continuing threat from Iran, while at the same time moving forward with plans to hold negotiations with Iranian President Ahmadinejad. Concurrently, we discover that an al-Qaeda cell has been operating in America, and was planning a follow-up terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9-11, but was stopped through the efforts of the FBI, Homeland Security and local law enforcement. While the attack was thwarted, members of the conspiracy remain at large, and the specter of another terrorist incident overshadows any sense of security that may have existed prior. The president has thus far not spoken of these events, but would anyone be so surprised if his initial announcement would be the investigation of the techniques used by the authorities to uncover this plot?
In the latest show of incompetence, Obama has appeared as if by divine providence at the United Nations. Speaking to that vile assembly of anti-Semitic, anti-American, corrupt despots and human rights abusers, he again apologized for all that is America. He embraces the fantasy of nuclear disarmament and has abandoned the doctrine of diplomacy through strength. As Obama continues his apologist agenda on the world stage, our enemies no longer fear the Eagle’s talons, but take aim at the soft underbelly of the beast.
Where does that leave our nation today? Our security blanket is tattered, unraveled not from any foreign entity, but rather from those entrusted with its protection. North Korea and Iran look with scorn on the weakness being portrayed by America’s president. Venezuela’s President Chavez rattles sabers with impunity as he spreads his poison throughout Latin America and Libyan Leader Khadaffi has emerged from his years of silence as a new man, railing against the west. A re-emergent Russia, under Vladimir Putin, is calmly taking the measure of the American President, winning concessions, and gaining ground with the chess moves of a Russian genius against an overmatched opponent, while lurking in the shadows, the Islamist threat must surely be weighing its options, biding its time, as its sworn enemy emasculates himself with a shameful lack of historic understanding.
Preoccupied with his legacy, continuing to campaign rather than govern, spending more time in green rooms doing show prep than reading the monumental legislation he wants rushed through Congress, and intent on passing a health care reform bill that the nation neither wants nor can afford, it can be said that Barack Obama’s malfeasance regarding America’s security is akin to Nero fiddling while Rome burned, but in reality the messiah President, by undermining the nation’s economic stability and attempting to dismantle the free market machine that produces the prosperity that America will need to combat a threat to its security, is not just fiddling, but is in fact throwing gasoline on the fire as he abandons his prime directive, his sacred trust to provide for the security of the nation.
In the fragile security of the Cold War Era, the struggle for global hegemony between the Eagle and the Bear, only the doctrines of détente and mutually assured destruction allowed some measure of peaceful existence, while the specter of Soviet military might, under control of an ideology bent on breaking America, loomed at the periphery of our daily lives, like menacing clouds encroaching on a bright summer sky. It would take a unique set of circumstances to provide the fabric that America, and much of the world, could use to weave the wrap of security that would allow for hopes of a brighter future.
It can be said that the loom began to spin on August 26, 1978 when the first wisps of white smoke appeared above the Vatican, announcing the election of a new pope, as Albino Luciani ascended Peter’s throne as John Paul I. In Britain, economic hard times grew and the Labour Party bore the brunt of blame during the 1978-1979 Winter of Discontent, while miles away in the Middle East, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini made a triumphant return to Iran.
Luciani’s death, a short 33 days after his election, allowed the College of Cardinals to make the timely selection of the young, charismatic Pole, Karol Wojtyla, who would embark on an historic papacy as John Paul II. It was this globetrotting man of conviction, who, upon returning to his beloved Poland in June 1979, inspired his native countrymen, who would then form the Solidarity movement that would eventually throw off the yoke of Soviet tyranny and serve as a precursor of the demise of the USSR.
Under the anti-American influence of Khomeini, Islamist students stormed the American embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, and captured 52 embassy workers, holding them hostage for 444 days. While the world watched, President Carter appeared helpless, and mired with domestic economic problems on top of the international embarrassment of the Iranian Hostage Crisis, retreated to the solitude of the Oval Office as America’s prestige plummeted.
In the midst of this Carter era malaise, emerged Ronald Reagan with his upbeat message of a better America. Espousing conservative ideology, military might, capitalism and opportunity, Reagan’s words and convictions resonated with the American electorate, who swept him into power and rode his coattails to greater prosperity. With the conservative, strong willed Margaret Thatcher already ensconced as Prime Minister of Great Britain since May 1979, the triumvirate was now in place, the threads ready to weave.
Over the course of the 1980s Reagan engaged the Soviets in a battle of ideologies, using American enterprise and prosperity to ratchet up military spending at a rate that the cumbersome Soviet economy could not maintain without inflicting harsh economic sanctions on its already impoverished population. Under Thatcher’s steady hand, Britain held fast as America’s wingman, and John Paul continued to spread his message far and wide. In time, the unwavering moral convictions of three leaders, guiding their respective charges without apology and without flinching at obstructions, literally bankrupted their adversary without firing a shot. As the last days of 1991 faded into the past, so too the USSR finally breathed its last breath and the security blanket was complete.
As with all things we hold precious, our security requires constant vigilance and regular repair. The Soviet threat had been abated, however a new evil had festered in Khomeini’s Iran, and Islamist Fundamentalism began to tug at the threads of American security, testing the resolve of the Clinton administration while the president was entangled in domestic issues and distracted by personal indiscretions.
On February 26, 1993 the first World Trade Center bombing shocked the nation, but was treated as a crime, not as a terrorist attack. The Battle of Mogadishu on October 3-4, 1993 in Somalia served as a watershed event for terrorists. Osama bin Laden later commented that it was there in Somalia that he realized that America did not have the intestinal fortitude to shed its blood.
The Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia were bombed on June 25, 1996, followed by the coordinated bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on August 7, 1998, all perpetrated with impunity. With the brazen attack on the U.S.S. Cole on October 12, 2000 the blanket had already started to unravel and bin Laden felt confident that America had become a paper tiger.
The fabric was finally torn asunder on September 11, 2001, when the horror of terrorism arrived on our shores. The years of neglect, the lack of credible response, the politically correct downplaying of military might had finally come home to roost. American lives were forever changed and security became a nebulous notion, sometimes apparent, often no more than a hope, an apparition that we prayed would materialize into a reality while we wandered through a rainbow of terror alerts.
Fortunately the ship of state now had a worthy captain at the helm who guided the country through the storm. George W. Bush understood his sacred duty, his prime directive, to safeguard the citizens of the nation. America’s response was quick and measured. The war was brought back to the enemy and away from our shores. Demonized by the Left, ridicules in the press, Bush nevertheless stayed the course, conducting an increasingly unpopular action, which nonetheless kept the scourge of terrorism off our soil for 8 years, allowing the blanket of security to mend and the prosperity of the nation to rebound.
Now we find ourselves with a new leader, a man who seems uncomfortable with the idea of American greatness. In Barack Obama’s world, military strength is old world and boorish. Those who have vowed to destroy our way of life are just misguided, blinded by America’s arrogance, and surely susceptible to his charm and rhetoric. He has bent over backwards to coddle our enemies while chastising our allies. He speaks of Israeli occupation and Palestinian hardships. Dictators are embraced and those brave Americans who interrogated those who would kill us are prosecuted as criminals. Our armed forces are demoralized and our intelligence agencies are compromised. Rules of engagement in Afghanistan have put the lives of our forces in danger as we try to fight a politically correct war with directives from bureaucrats in Washington. Military leaders are being censored and politics trumps success, even at the cost of American lives.
We now find out that the administration has been aware for months of a new uranium enrichment facility in the Iranian city of Qom, but has chosen not to alert the American people of this continuing threat from Iran, while at the same time moving forward with plans to hold negotiations with Iranian President Ahmadinejad. Concurrently, we discover that an al-Qaeda cell has been operating in America, and was planning a follow-up terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9-11, but was stopped through the efforts of the FBI, Homeland Security and local law enforcement. While the attack was thwarted, members of the conspiracy remain at large, and the specter of another terrorist incident overshadows any sense of security that may have existed prior. The president has thus far not spoken of these events, but would anyone be so surprised if his initial announcement would be the investigation of the techniques used by the authorities to uncover this plot?
In the latest show of incompetence, Obama has appeared as if by divine providence at the United Nations. Speaking to that vile assembly of anti-Semitic, anti-American, corrupt despots and human rights abusers, he again apologized for all that is America. He embraces the fantasy of nuclear disarmament and has abandoned the doctrine of diplomacy through strength. As Obama continues his apologist agenda on the world stage, our enemies no longer fear the Eagle’s talons, but take aim at the soft underbelly of the beast.
Where does that leave our nation today? Our security blanket is tattered, unraveled not from any foreign entity, but rather from those entrusted with its protection. North Korea and Iran look with scorn on the weakness being portrayed by America’s president. Venezuela’s President Chavez rattles sabers with impunity as he spreads his poison throughout Latin America and Libyan Leader Khadaffi has emerged from his years of silence as a new man, railing against the west. A re-emergent Russia, under Vladimir Putin, is calmly taking the measure of the American President, winning concessions, and gaining ground with the chess moves of a Russian genius against an overmatched opponent, while lurking in the shadows, the Islamist threat must surely be weighing its options, biding its time, as its sworn enemy emasculates himself with a shameful lack of historic understanding.
Preoccupied with his legacy, continuing to campaign rather than govern, spending more time in green rooms doing show prep than reading the monumental legislation he wants rushed through Congress, and intent on passing a health care reform bill that the nation neither wants nor can afford, it can be said that Barack Obama’s malfeasance regarding America’s security is akin to Nero fiddling while Rome burned, but in reality the messiah President, by undermining the nation’s economic stability and attempting to dismantle the free market machine that produces the prosperity that America will need to combat a threat to its security, is not just fiddling, but is in fact throwing gasoline on the fire as he abandons his prime directive, his sacred trust to provide for the security of the nation.
Nico
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