August 24, 2010

The Gaslight Journal is Done

Begun back sometime in 2001, this book was originally a fluke of an idea… [...]

August 7, 2010

Hiroshima 1945, Hiroshima 2010

Hiroshima 1945, Hiroshima 2010


This is Hiroshima today.

By Alan Caruba

It was sixty-five years ago, August 6, 1945, and the anticipation of the end of the war in the Pacific swept across America when the news that an atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Surely they would surrender, but there was no response from the Emperor or Japanese high command.

A second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki six days later. And still we waited! Finally, on August 15, Japan announced its acceptance of an unconditional surrender. That avoided what military experts of the time estimated would be casualties in the hundreds of thousands if the U.S. had been forced to invade.

By May of 1945 the allies had defeated Nazi Germany and secured its surrender. What followed was the division of Europe as the Soviet Union seized control of its Eastern bloc nations. They would remain under its oppression until it finally collapsed in 1991. Continue reading Hiroshima 1945, Hiroshima 2010

July 5, 2010

Answering Mr. Gray

Back in June my friend Minnette Coleman wrote a piece entitled General McChrystal Should Go. As with most of Minnette’s posts it garnered several comments some of which focused on the morale of our troops. My comment, which said that I was not concerned with troop morale, raised the ire of Prentiss Gray.I promised to respond to Prentiss and so, after a bit of a wait, here is my reply. Continue reading Answering Mr. Gray

July 1, 2010

Chicago loses, Americans win!

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bears arms shall not be infringed

Twenty-seven little words packed with so much meaning, and causing so much debate.  The recent McDonald v. Chicago decision seems to put to rest nearly fifty years of debate; especially when teamed with District of Columbia v. Heller.  These two decisions hold that the Constitution of the United States extends the individual right to arms and that the Second Amendment is applicable to every city and state.  Did they make the right decision? Continue reading Chicago loses, Americans win!

June 19, 2010

Auto Draft

The Afghanistan Quagmire


By Alan Caruba

The war in Afghanistan has been going on for more than eight years as of this writing. Over that period of time I have been against it, for it, against it, for it, and now I return to what my instincts and experience told me all along. It’s over.

That war is lost. Once the Taliban acquired surface-to-air missiles, the primarily advantage our military had was removed. In the past month, the Taliban have shot down two of our helicopters. Any low-flying aircraft will be vulnerable along with all our front-line forces. Continue reading The Afghanistan Quagmire

May 31, 2010

Memorial Day Memories

Memorial Day Memories


By Alan Caruba

I have a few enduring Memorial Day memories. Most involve my Dad who never served in the military, being too young for the First World War and too old for the Second twenty years later.

Even so, there was never a Memorial Day in Maplewood, NJ when we did not go down to the park, also named Memorial, and watch the veterans, the police and fire units, the Boy and Girl Scouts, and the high school band march to the grassy area where town officials would give speeches about the fallen heroes. Little Maplewood had its share that had served in all of the nation’s wars. Continue reading Memorial Day Memories

May 30, 2010

For Veterans

As we celebrate our veterans in the middle of yet another war, I have a story told to me by a friend who rarely talks about his Vietnam expierience. It is with his permission I pass this on.

PINK ELEPHANT

             Henry was sixteen when left home in for no particular reason 1963. It was just what impatient young men did. Henry was black, very black. He was thick and muscular, with a penetrating stare and hair with a mind of its own. His gait and demeanor suggested menace, but he was always delightfully cheerful and easygoing. He was what, mythically, white folks feared; a confidant Black man. His restlessness and the belief that he needed to expand his horizons sent him to South Carolina, near his mother’s relatives. After finishing high school and drifting for a while, He enlisted in the Army and never went home again. Continue reading For Veterans

April 29, 2010

Haliburton - a touch of the medievals?

War and money have always been inter-related.

After all, you need money to fight a war – it has been argued that all world empires have collapsed ultimately economically because they had to protect too much territory with too little money – and conquest often brings in money. In the past, wars have often been fought to seize resources and enrich the conqueror – ask any passing European colonialist – and a short war generally proves a great stimulus to the economy too.

In feudal times, the king mostly fought wars to keep his otherwise revolting and over-mighty robber barons exhausted but happy. According to feudal law, the barons had to raise the army, but they then got to go on a glorified fox hunt in foreign lands and to return with goodies and rights to land far more valuable than both ears and the tail.

When the feudal system collapsed in the face of the rise of mercantilism in the sixteenth century, the king had to go to Parliament to raise taxes to fund his army, but he still managed to keep his greatest adventurers adventuring on someone else’s doorstep and bringing back the loot.

Not that the formula was infallible. Charles I of England seemingly got it wrong when he declared an unpopular war on Scotland and then tried to raise Ship Money to pay for it. He made the even bigger mistake of stockpiling all these expensively purchased armaments in Hull which subsequently declared for the rebel parliamentarians. However, as the Marxist historian Christopher Hill pointed out, the truth may have been a little different from the way it has been traditionally painted. Continue reading Haliburton – a touch of the medievals?

April 19, 2010

THE WAR ON TERROR

We’re all in this together. [...]

April 3, 2010

Our Warrior Class

Our Warrior Class


By Alan Caruba

I come from a generation, just as several before it, that was drafted into military service. The Draft, conscription, goes back to the days of the Civil War and, before that, it was understood that able-bodied men would serve in militias.

After the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941, many American men lined up around the corner to volunteer to fight the Japanese. Others would be dispatched to the European theatre of war to fight the Nazis.

Still others waited to be drafted into service. During the years leading up to Pearl Harbor many Americans simply wanted to stay out of the Asian conflict that had begun with the Japanese invasion of China many years earlier and the European conflict that had begun when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. That changed in 1941.

The “greatest generation” fought and won. They did it by being absolutely merciless toward our enemies because that is the only real rule of war. Kill them before they kill us. Lose the war and you are their possession, their slaves. Continue reading Our Warrior Class

March 23, 2010

America in Decline

America in Decline


By Alan Caruba

There are tipping points in people’s lives and in the life of a nation. More and more I am inclined to believe that America has hit a tipping point and that its decline has been in progress now since the end of World War II. How can that be? We were and are a superpower.

While it is true that we have the greatest military power in the world, it is equally true that many of the planes being flown were brought on line in the 1950s, despite the extraordinary aircraft such as the stealth bombers. When Russia can put in a $40 billion bid to build refueling tankers after a major U.S. aircraft firm dropped out of the process, you have to ask yourself whether something is terribly wrong.

Militarily, we have worn out our forces, many of which are National Guard units, with six years of conflict in Iraq and renewed conflict in Afghanistan. All the hardware needed to maintain our troops in conflict zones need replacing. And the President of the United States wants to sign a treaty to reduce our nuclear arsenal. Continue reading America in Decline

March 1, 2010

Afghanistan, Again

Afghanistan, Again


By Alan Caruba

Think about this. Any nation that cannot rebuild the Twin Towers nearly nine years after they were destroyed has lost its ability to function rationally and effectively.

We have been a military presence in Afghanistan since 2001 following 9/11. That’s two years longer than when we were in Vietnam.

Afghanistan has a long history of defying great powers that have invaded. The former Soviet Union could not prevail there and just about every other empire from Great Britain to the armies of Alexander the Great pretty experienced defeat.

What kind of logic puts more U.S. troops in Afghanistan at the same time announcing their withdrawal date? The enemy need only wait for us to leave. What firefights occur are a kind of Taliban show-and-tell to demonstrate they can engage us.

What kind of war is it when U.S. troops cannot shoot at the enemy who has just been shooting at them because they leave their weapons behind and take a hike? These are the most bizarre rules of engagement I have ever heard.

The Pentagon and our military have become so politically correct they feel compelled to issue a public apology for civilians killed in the fog of war. Yes, it’s tragic, but it’s just as tragic when this nation sends its troops to fight a no-win war. Continue reading Afghanistan, Again

February 25, 2010

‘I Was in the First Wave.’

‘I Was in the First Wave.’
 
by John Armor 
 
I was at breakfast on Sunday morning at the Sheraton National, in Arlington, Virginia.  I was attending a conference elsewhere, but could only find space in Virginia.  Also at my hotel were the members of the Iwo Jima Association.
 
That Association was for survivors of that battle, and for the families of those who did not survive.  At the table next to me were two, older gentleman.  The younger man was in his 60′s.  He mentioned at one point where his father was buried at Arlington Cemetery, just a few blocks away.  Then the older man, somewhere in his 90′s said a simple statement that will follow me to the end of my days.
 
“I was in the first wave,” he said in a soft voice with little hint of any emotion.  As he continued, he described how they were taking fire from enemy who were hidden in holes at all points of the compass.
 
I have seen many war movies.  The first one to come to grips with the reality — which I got from books, and from talking to people who were there — was “Saving Private Ryan.”  That movie showed what this elderly man, sitting a few feet away, experienced, 65 years ago this month. Continue reading ‘I Was in the First Wave.’

January 5, 2010

Islam’s Legacy is Constant War

Islam’s Legacy is Constant War


By Alan Caruba

The failed Christmas bomber attack was yet another wake-up call for Americans who have slipped into a self-induced coma regarding Islam’s constant threat to the nation and the West.

Despite the post-9/11 attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq, President Bush and now President Obama have both repeatedly asserted the absurd notion that Islam is “a religion of peace.” It is, in fact, a religion of conquest and one in which the religion and the state are one. To live in a Muslim nation is to live under Sharia law in which conversion to another religion is punished by death.

“When Asia Was the World” by Stewart Gordon is an interesting book about life in Asia during the years 500 to 1500 of the Common Era. “Buddhism and Islam arose and spread along Asia’s far-flung trade routes. So did luxury goods, such as silk, pearls, spices, medicines, glass, and simple things like rice and sugar.” Continue reading Islam’s Legacy is Constant War

December 2, 2009

The Open-Ended War

The Open-Ended War


By Alan Caruba

As I listened to the President address the nation from West Point, I was reminded of how well he can deliver a speech. It’s like watching a slight-of-hand magician. You marvel at his dexterity, but you know he’s still skillfully fooling you.

The speech, given in the Eisenhower auditorium at West Point, reminded me of President Eisenhower, the former general who led allied forces to victory in Europe in World War Two, the man called back to serve his nation, and a man who was hard on the ears when it came to delivering a speech. It made him more human. We forgave him his blunt manner. After all, he had spent his whole adult life in the U.S. Army, taking and giving orders.

Similarly President Bush never seemed all that comfortable giving a set speech, but you knew he meant what he said. You knew he hated the evil of al Qaeda and the Taliban. You knew he despised Saddam Hussein and other enemies of America, of freedom, and human dignity. He was not smooth, not articulate, but he was genuine.

Barack Hussein Obama never spent a day in uniform and something in the area of two years out of six of his first term in the Senate before being launched on the nation as its savior, its messiah. I always found the references to spiritual powers jarring though, like most, amusing in their over-reach. Obama did nothing to discourage the image.

His West Point speech was primarily political. The military elements revealed a get-in and get-out strategy in what has already been a long engagement of the U.S. military in the Middle East. It was filled with talk of NATO partners, Afghani partners, and Pakistani partners, but it also told the enemy that, if they were just patient enough, the U.S. would leave. Continue reading The Open-Ended War

November 29, 2009

The Middle East: Reporting an Enigma

The Middle East: Reporting an Enigma


By Alan Caruba

When President Obama delivers a speech on why he is going to send more thousands of U.S. troops and spend more billions on the eight-year-old conflict in Afghanistan, it would be a good idea to better understand why so much of what is reported from the Middle East suffers a great disconnect from the truth.

In 1998, Joris Luyendijk , a Dutch student who had studied Arabic at Cairo University for a year, was offered a job as a Middle East correspondent for a Dutch news agency despite having no experience as a reporter. What followed was his real education about the Middle East and the way it is presented to the West by the news media.

His book about that experience, “People Like Us: Misrepresenting the Middle East” was initially published in the Netherlands in 2006 and has since then it has been translated and published in Hungary, Italy, Denmark and Germany. In October an English edition was published by Soft Skull Press, an imprint of Counterpoint, a Berkeley, California publisher.

Having begun my career as a journalist, I was interested to learn what Luyendijk had taken from his years hopping around the Middle East before and after 9/11 and during the two Iraq wars waged by the U.S. to resolve a problem called Saddam Hussein.

For anyone digesting the news from his morning newspaper or watching it on television, suspecting that it might be biased or wrong, this book that focuses on reporting from the Middle East is a revelation because Luyendijk strives mightily to expose the way the news is manipulated by all the parties involved. Continue reading The Middle East: Reporting an Enigma

November 10, 2009

Winning Battles, Losing Wars

Winning Battles, Losing Wars


By Alan Caruba

My late Father was too young to serve in World War One and too old to serve in World War Two, but he sent two sons to serve in the U.S. Army, one during the Korean conflict in Tokyo’s command headquarters and myself during early 1960s peacetime at Fort Benning, Georgia.

The closest I ever came to seeing combat was during the Cuban Missile crisis. It extended my active duty by a couple of months while Krushchev and Kennedy considered the consequences and then, as Dean Rusk, Kennedy’s Secretary of State said of Krushchev, “He blinked.” I went back to being a civilian. And, like big brother, a veteran.

In the 1970s, after the sad end of the Vietnam War, the U.S. ended the universal draft in favor of an all volunteer military

The question I have grappled with over the years is actually quite simple. How did the greatest military power in the world manage to only achieve a stalemate in Korea, lose the Vietnam War, and get itself mired in the Middle East after a remarkably brief and successful initial invasion in Afghanistan and twice in Iraq?

Stephen L. Melton retired after twenty years of service as an Army officer and became a member of the faculty at the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College. He is a warrior turned scholar or perhaps was always a scholar because he applies his experience and analysis to answering my question in his new book, “The Clausewitz Delusion: How the American Army Screwed Up the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Continue reading Winning Battles, Losing Wars

November 10, 2009

Bus Story: The Man in Black

He was dressed in black from head to toe. Even his back pack and the duffle bag he carried were all without color. Tall but bent over slightly, you could tell age was creeping up on him quickly and he reserved his energy for things other than running for the bus. He walked and the driver waited perhaps out of respect. I’d like to think it was because of the hat.

I didn’t notice it at first because he looked like so many other men is black jackets and black hats on the streets of New York. It wasn’t a fashion statement but the trim and the writing on the hat were gold, green and red. Big letters proclaimed “Viet Nam Veteran” and he looked the part, looked the age. That slight bit of machismo in his ever so slow but precise step was a reminder of the brothers who came back from that conflict with a different mindset all together. He sat in the very front, behind the driver and once he got settled he pulled out a copy of Jet Magazine. I grew up reading a copy of that publication every week. My mother decided that would be the only publication she continued to subscribe to after my father’s death. Continue reading Bus Story: The Man in Black

November 8, 2009

Should there be a law against it?

In Britain it is now a criminal offence to make any statement which might incite racial hatred. So, if you go around saying that all Irishmen are stupid or all Welshmen are thieves, then you may well find yourself helping the police with their enquiries and facing a sharp fine or even a term of imprisonment.

Some commentators consider this law to be draconian but it does take a clear political stance and one thing I have learnt over my lifetime is that nearly all racism is neither random nor ‘naturally’ grassroots-derived but rather politically or economically motivated, indeed directed.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, black Africans were slaves or treated as slaves. They were shackled, they died in transit under inhuman conditions, they were worked to death, they were unpaid. How do you justify treating a fellow human being this way? How can it be possible even legally to rape and execute black Africans at whim?

There was a simple answer. Black Africans were not human, they were sub-human. Indeed, they hailed from another, lesser, branch of the human family altogether. And there was no shortage of commentators and pseudo-scientists who popped up to argue that black Africans were so bestial that they were really no different from a cow or a horse, that they were incapable of moral understanding (probably the most obscene argument in history), that they were beyond civilisation and, yes, if you measured their brains they were smaller and lighter than a white man’s. Continue reading Should there be a law against it?

November 7, 2009

Ordinary Majesty, Extraordinary Failure

Ordinary Majesty, Extraordinary Failure
 
by John Armor 
 
Until the mass murder at Fort Hood intervened, I’d intended to write about Thursday’s bingo night to benefit the Girl Scouts.
 
It was a cold and stormy night. Almost all of the summer visitors are gone. We thought there’d be sparse attendance at the monthly charity bingo game put on by the Rotary Club. But the place was packed, wall to wall. Dozens of Brownies and Girl Scouts in uniform were scurrying about, serving the players.
 
Final figures weren’t available on the spot. From prior experience, however, I’m sure more than $1,000 was raised for the Scouts.
 
How ordinary is that? Rotary sponsoring bingo to benefit the Girl Scouts in a small town 12 miles south of Nowhere? And yet, as Alexis de Tocqueville observed in his1831 masterpiece, Democracy in America, we are a nation of joiners. We get active in thousands of organizations to help ourselves, and each other. That is the ordinary majesty woven into the fabric of our nation.
 
Events intervened. A devout Muslim, or a radical Muslim, take your pick, went onto the Fort Hood base Thursday and shot 43 people, killing 13. The shooter was an Army officer and an Army-trained psychiatrist. But the most important thing in his life, when he started shooting people, was that he was a Muslim. Continue reading Ordinary Majesty, Extraordinary Failure

October 28, 2009

Afghanistan, Bananistan

Afghanistan, Bananistan


By Alan Caruba

Though it pains me deeply, I have to agree with President Obama’s reluctance to send more troops into Afghanistan.

Perhaps he is thinking about the problems the Soviet Union encountered even though they had an estimated 100,000 troops there in the 1990s? Perhaps he is wondering why the United States has been there now for eight years with not much to show for it?

I am not interested in the “politics” of the President’s decision whether to stay, to increase troop strength, to maintain the current status, or to leave. Only leaving makes any sense and I worry that Obama may want to avoid looking like a wimp by pulling out.

To those that argue that leaving will embolden the Taliban or al Qaeda, may I respectfully suggest they don’t need anything to feel that way other than their fanatical belief in Islam.

Then there is the nasty little problem called Hamid Karzai and his government of Afghanistan; the one that stuffed the ballot boxes so blatantly in a recent election even the United Nations could not ignore it. As for his government, it ends at the city line of Kabul.

In the event you missed the news this week, we are bleeding troops there at an indefensible rate. Meanwhile, in Iraq, al Qaeda or some other group blew up a chunk of the presumably secure “Green Zone” in Baghdad, killing some 165 people, in order to undermine confidence in their current government. Another car bomb just went off in Pakistan; hardly news in a region where car bombs are the calling cards of every insurgency.

That’s what Arabs do. They may not like dictatorships, but they give ample evidence of being incapable of self-governance. The Ottoman Turks controlled the region from the 18th century until the demise of their empire following World War One. What we call the Middle East is largely the invention of the British and French. Continue reading Afghanistan, Bananistan

October 16, 2009

War

War

During America’s brutal and bloody Civil War, General William T. Sherman said, “War is cruel and you cannot refine it” and “war at best is barbarism.” Sherman is also credited with saying “War is hell.”

Alexander the Great was known to be both a wise philosopher and a fearless conqueror. In the fall of 335 BC, Alexander marched to the gates of Thebes (a Greek city that broke free from his Macedonian empire when Alexander was twenty). He let the people of Thebes know that it was not too late for them to change their minds. The next day, the Macedonians stormed the city killing almost everyone in sight, women and children included. They plundered, sacked, burned and razed Thebes, as an example to the rest of Greece. Alexander did not fight a “refined” war where women and children were spared.

After Alexander conquered the Persian Empire, he ran into trouble in Afghanistan and used the same tactics to quell the rebellious Afghans.

Genghis Khan (1165-1227 AD) was one of history’s more charismatic and dynamic leaders. During his lifetime, he conquered more territory than any other conqueror, and his successors established the largest empire in history. As an organizational and strategic genius, Genghis Khan created one of the most highly disciplined and effective armies known, and this same genius gave birth to the administration that ruled that empire. After he died in 1227, the Mongol armies dominated the battlefield until the empire stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the Adriatic Sea. Genghis Khan, like Alexander, spared no one when he met resistance. When people surrendered, he was benevolent. When they resisted, his armies slaughtered everyone like Alexander’s armies did. Continue reading War

October 16, 2009

Memories

I am not certain what made me think of this memory this morning.  I was drafted in 1969 after graduating from college and teaching one year of high school biology.  I changed jobs – and like I was supposed to do – I notified my draft board of my change.  At the time there [...]

October 12, 2009

Mr. President, Please Do NOTHING

Mr. President, Please Do NOTHING

By Alan Caruba

I had a strange epiphany the other day. If I were to write a letter to President Obama, it would say, “Please do nothing.”

It seems to me that Obama’s forte is to do nothing much of the time. Well, not “nothing.” He is giving speeches, but those incessant, self-referencing speeches do nothing to change the minds of America’s critics and enemies. They have rapidly reached a point where Americans find them an object of ridicule.

I am not concerned about his playing golf; a lot of presidents did that. The pick-up basketball game is okay, too. The man is under a lot of pressure to “do something” about problems here in America and around the world, so it is only reasonable that he relax in ways that best suit him.

The effort, however, to do something is what worries me about President Obama because he is so wrong about his top two issues, healthcare reform and his renamed cap-and-trade tax on energy use.

He is wrong about the latter because there is no “global warming” (now called “climate change”) to justify penalizing everyone for turning on a light, watching TV, using their computer, and the million other ways we all use electricity.

He is wrong about healthcare reform because all the polls demonstrate that Americans want to (1) have a choice about whether to have health insurance and (2) like the insurance plans they’re in. He’s wrong, too, because (3) the government is incapable of “cutting waste and fraud” out of Medicare and because adding thousands more to the rolls (4) will require that other thousands are denied treatments they need in a timely manner. Continue reading Mr. President, Please Do NOTHING

October 7, 2009

Defeating Ourselves in Afghanistan

Defeating Ourselves in Afghanistan

By Alan Caruba

It is a familiar question; why eight years after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, haven’t we found Osama bin Laden? And now the greater question before the President and the nation is why are we still in Afghanistan?

You are not likely to hear an answer from either the White House or the Pentagon. You can, however, find part of the answer in a recently published book, Hunting al Qaeda, whose author chose to remain anonymous. ($17.95, Zenith Press, softcover) Bob Mayer, a West Point graduate and Special Forces veteran, the author of more than seventeen books, participated in the writing of the book, based on the experiences of a Special Forces unit.

It is the story of Beast 85, Green Berets drawn from the National Guard special services that, following 9/11, were sent to Afghanistan to find, capture or kill al Qaeda and the Taliban. It is a story of disillusionment.

The foreword by Col. Gerald Schumacher, U.S. Army Special Forces (ret) says much about why the U.S. has not experienced anything resembling “victory” and is not likely to do so in any military engagement we undertake. Continue reading Defeating Ourselves in Afghanistan

October 7, 2009

The Muslim House of Mirrors

The Muslim House of Mirrors

By Alan Caruba

The problem with living in a house of mirrors is that everything you see is in reverse polarity. There is no way to come to grips with anything resembling reality.

A case in point is the recent announcement by Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) who said, “Israel is the number one threat to the Middle East.” He was referring to its nuclear arms.

ElBaradei had just arrived in Iran for talks with Iranian officials who have lied about their nuclear program since it began. Nobody believes the Iranians are enriching uranium or plutonium or whatever for “peaceful purposes.” Nobody doubts that the Iranians, once they can put a nuclear warhead on top of a missile, will do so and very likely launch it at Israel.

But as far as ElBaradei is concerned, the number one threat is Israel.

Let’s briefly review some of the hostilities which have occurred in the Middle East. Hours after Israel announced its independence on May 14, 1948, it was attacked by Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and what was then called Transjordan. Their intention was, in their words, “a war of extinction.” Continue reading The Muslim House of Mirrors

October 1, 2009

Shields Locked

Shield of Faith

By Angela Posey-Arnold

“…….. hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:16 NLT)

The war is on. The nation is attacked by a massive mighty power under the cover of darkness. The morning dawns and destruction meets every eye. The President declares war against the enemy and sends one soldier out alone to fight this battle and expecting him to win. No helmet, no gun, no bullet proof vest, no boots, nothing. Just dressed in duty camos he walks out alone into a barrage of bullets. Alone with no shield, no weapon, no superior officer to give him orders, no medics to save him when he is wounded and no Chaplain to pray for his dying soul.

 Why would any President conceive in his mind that one lone man, defenseless, could possibly survive much less fight a mighty power unarmed? He wouldn’t if he wanted to win. Continue reading Shields Locked

September 28, 2009

First Strike Magic

First Strike Magic

By Alan Caruba

When I was a teenager, I made a lot of money as a magician, entertaining at parties. At Ted Collins Magic Mecca I could buy the wonderful apparatus that existed for the sole purpose of fooling people who, it turned out, loved to be fooled.

Fooling people is a full-time occupation for those seeking to avoid war or planning to engage in one. Saddam Hussein believed that if the world thought he had weapons of mass destruction, Iraq would be safe from attack. He successfully deceived everyone, but it also led people to conclude he could not be left to use them.

Earlier, on Yom Kippur 1973, while Israelis were worshipping during the holiest day of Judaism, Egypt and Syria used deception to begin a fourth Arab-Israeli war that ended in defeat for both of them.

Since its inception, Israel has had to deal with Muslims intent on destroying the nation and its people. Now they are faced with what is often called “an existential” threat from Iran, but there is nothing existential about it, nor is it Israel’s problem alone.

The long quest for nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them is nearing fulfillment for the Iranians and they have never made it a secret that they intend to attack Israel. So Israel and to some extent America has had to work the magic needed to deter Iran from acquiring nukes and the deception needed to eliminate its capacity to ever use them. Continue reading First Strike Magic

September 22, 2009

The Department of Defenselessness

The Department of Defenselessness

By Alan Caruba

When World War Two arrived at America’s doorstep, we had to virtually build an Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines from scratch. The war had been raging in Europe since 1939 by the time the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor propelled us into war in 1941. The Japanese had been sacking, raping and looting Manchuria and China since 1931.

Now President Obama wants to reduce the U.S. arsenal of nuclear weapons to a reported “hundreds rather than thousands” to prepare for deep cuts. Truman was the first and last president to actually use a nuclear weapon to end the war with Japan.

Since then, all presidents have paid lip service to reducing the threat of nuclear weapons, but there is an iron law that says you cannot “un-invent” something once it comes into existence.

The suggestion that the world is “safer” or “less safe” because nuclear weapons exist is purely subjective. What we know is that without nuclear weapons all nations that do not have them are at a severe disadvantage with those that do.

That is why both Pakistan and India, traditional enemies, both developed their own nuclear weapons in secret while ignoring international prohibitions and proscriptions against them, It is also why little North Korea that cannot keep the lights on at night also developed them. They are a tidy source of income to a criminal communist satrap. Continue reading The Department of Defenselessness

September 21, 2009

Thank You Soldier

Since 2004 I have been involved with “Amazing Grace, Ministry to the Troops”. We send packages to Chaplains and soldiers, and individual letters and cards to actively deployed and wounded American troops. [...]

September 16, 2009

Using terrorism against terrorists

In 2003, when President Bush took the U.S. into a war with Iraq, he claimed it was “to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein’s support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people.” Well, obviously there were no WMDs. It’s questionable how “free” the Iraqi people are today, let alone whether or not we Americans have the right to determine what “freedom” should mean to citizens of another nation. However, it’s clear that terrorism is alive and well, regardless of who may be supporting it.

According to the United States Law Code, the term terrorism means “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents”. By that definition, what the U.S., Britain, et al., did in Iraq was war. Now, of course, the American public knows that war really WAS about oil, not to mention some family vendetta against Saddam Hussein. Now that the Iraq hoax has been exposed, President Obama is shifting our focus from Iraq to Afghanistan, where the “real” jihad-minded, terrorism-inflicting, Muslim fanatics live (and hopefully will soon die).

How many lives, how many trillions of dollars must our country sacrifice for wars against entire countries, when we fully realize that the billions of average Muslims are no more teeth-gnashing fanatics than the garden variety Christian? There are some pretty fanatical Christian groups right here at home, you know. Continue reading Using terrorism against terrorists

September 11, 2009

The Disgrace of Ground Zero

The Disgrace of Ground Zero

By Alan Caruba

9/11/2009 took a large psychic toll on Americans.

I am no exception. By early evening, I found myself profoundly angry watching the Mayor of New York explain why Ground Zero is still essentially a hole in the ground eight years after the destruction of the Twin Towers.

This nation fought and won World War Two in four years’ time and in two separate theatres of war in the Pacific and in Europe. By the time it was over, the major cities of Germany and Japan were rubble and both armies and civilians were among the dead because the only way to convince an enemy to stop waging war is to destroy their will to continue.

History tells us this over and over again. It is the reason the Romans laid siege to Masada.

We have been in Afghanistan since 2001 and in Iraq since 2003. What we’ve been doing there is more a police action than a war.

That’s why the Korean War is officially called a United Nations police action, not a war. We settled for a stalemate. Continue reading The Disgrace of Ground Zero

September 10, 2009

Surrender is Not an Option

Surrender is Not an Option

By Alan Caruba

As one drove into New York from New Jersey in the years before 9/11, there was an ellipse of roadway that gently curved into the waiting entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel. From there you could see the Twin Towers in the distance, across the river, dominating the lower end of Manhattan.

It bespoke the nation’s economic strength, its international outreach, its capacity to build two such impressive skyscrapers, made more so by their architectural simplicity. They gleamed in the rays of the Sun. They mirrored the silver Moon.

I had occasion to dine in Windows on the World restaurant several times, high atop one of the towers. A wall of windows ringed the restaurant and one could look at New Jersey on one side and Brooklyn on the other. A walk around that restaurant took in all the boroughs from that great height and there, down in the vast harbor, one could see the Statue of Liberty. So high up were you that it seemed a small thing from that distance.

If I wanted to strike at America’s confidence, America’s bravado, America’s dominance, I would have destroyed the Twin Towers and, of course, that is exactly what Osama bin Laden did. Continue reading Surrender is Not an Option

September 10, 2009

9/11 Eight Years Later and No Safer

9/11 Eight Years Later and No Safer

By Alan Caruba

Has it been eight years?

What I learned from 9/11 was that a lot of Americans have concluded that it was America’s fault we were attacked. That may sound screwy to people who correctly believe that al Qaeda planned, funded and provided the men who carried out the attacks, but why deal with the facts when conspiracies are so much more fun? Why not just blame the victims?

9/11 was not the first attack on the Twin Towers. For those with any attention span, the first attack came in 1993 and was treated as a criminal act by a “gang who couldn’t shoot straight” Muslims, one of whom actually returned to the rental agency to get his money back because the truck used in the attack was destroyed.

Here’s where we are eight years later. As far as the government is concerned, it has learned NOTHING from the event and the subsequent efforts to kill the Taliban and al Qaeda lunatics who were operating in Afghanistan and badlands of Pakistan.

Not only are we still in Afghanistan, not only have we blandished billions on “nation building” in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well on Pakistan, but the Obama Justice Department thinks the CIA interrogators are the bad guys and wants to extend Miranda rights, the full protection of the U.S. Constitution, to terrorists. Continue reading 9/11 Eight Years Later and No Safer

August 23, 2009

America’s Empire of Trust

America’s Empire of Trust

By Alan Caruba

Though most Americans are unaware of it, the rest of the world is taking an active interest in the sometimes heated debate we are having regarding the alleged healthcare “reform” that is, in fact, yet another effort to push the nation further into the same socialist tentacles that have been embraced elsewhere.

Unlike Las Vegas, what happens in America doesn’t stay in America. As the world’s sole superpower, the man we select to be our president becomes the de facto president of the world insofar as his decisions reach into dusty villages in Afghanistan, affect global stock and commodity markets, and can determine the success or failure of movements toward freedom everywhere.

There would be no “Pax Americana” if we were seen to abandon our allies.

The similarities between the Roman Empire and the young American Empire are examined in an excellent book by Thomas F. Madden, “Empires of Trust.” Continue reading America’s Empire of Trust

August 18, 2009

Bela Kiraly, My Kind of Hero

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Bela Kiraly, 1912 – 2009

Long considered a folk hero in Hungary, Bela Kiraly is the kind of man I admire. A general in the Hungarian army, he was sentenced to death four different times for sedition, spending 4 years on death row. Paroled in 1956, he led Hungarian freedom fighters against the Soviet invasion, escaping into exile with some of his forces when they were overwhelmed.

Aside from all of his accomplishments, which include earning a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University, here is what I like about the man, and what makes him a hero to me.

He was a man of honor who stood for the honorable treatment of people. During World War II his unit was assigned several hundred Jewish slave laborers. With the Nazis in power, rather than hand them over for transportation, he put them in uniform and made them part of his troops, saving them from certain death in the camps. He was later honored by Israel for it. Arrested by the Soviets at the war’s end and sent to Siberia with his men, he and a number of them escaped the train and hiked back into Hungary.

During Hungary’s attempted break-away from the Soviet bloc in 1956, he was made commanding general of the rebels while still in the hospital recovering from 5 years of prison for “sedition”.

In 2006, learning that one of the Russian generals who led the 1956 invasion was still alive, he invited him to Budapest to join the 50th anniversary celebrations. When the general declined the invitation, fearing that he might be arrested, 94 year old Kiraly flew to Moscow and spent a weekend reminiscing with his former enemy. Continue reading Bela Kiraly, My Kind of Hero

August 17, 2009

Seamus Irish Musings-Veterans

With double navy crosses, a distinguished flying cross, a bronze star and three purple hearts, I was singled out by a long haired professor my first week back in college as a baby killer. Welcome home, right? [...]

August 14, 2009

My Kind of Hero: Bernard Loeffke, Major General USA (retired)

Bernard Loeffke, Major General USA (retired), Physician’s Assistant, visionary, warrior. My kind of hero. [...]

July 12, 2009

Military ‘Food’ for Thought, America vs. China

 Is China a danger to the world? This is a topic I have wanted to write about for some time. I suspect my motivation for writing this comes from being sent to Vietnam [...]

July 7, 2009

The Saudis Choose Sides

The Saudis Choose Sides

By Alan Caruba

Bit by bit the news is getting out. First it was a news report of Israelis, Egyptians, and Saudis getting together to discuss their mutual interests and concern. In other words, Iran!

Now The Times (UK) is reporting that “The head of Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence service, has assured Benjamin Netanyahu, its prime minister, that Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets flying over the kingdom during any future raid on Iran’s nuclear sites.”

This was followed by news of an ABC News interview with Vice President Biden who said, “Look, Israel can determine for itself—it’s a sovereign nation—what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else, whether we agree or not.”

Translation: We hope they will bomb the heck out of Iran’s nuclear facilities because we do not have the guts to do it ourselves. The President then said Biden had misspoken and that no “green light” had been given. Apparently, it’s okay to “meddle” in Israel’s internal affairs, but not Iran’s.

The least likely partners in the Middle East are Israel and the Saudis, but both have a common enemy and the Saudis have always been shrewd in their judgment as to whom to back in a fight. They also prefer having others do their fighting for them. Unless you haven’t checked lately, Saudi Arabia shares a very long border with Iraq and is just across the Persian Gulf from Iran, along with Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Continue reading The Saudis Choose Sides

July 2, 2009

Gays in the Military

Gays in the Military

By Alan Caruba

When I served in the U.S. military I knew two closeted homosexuals were serving in my unit. My version of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was not to tell because I saw no reason to “out” them and not messing around in other people’s lives has always been a policy of mine.

I was naïve enough to think that, if they wanted to serve and if they remained “closeted”, which is to say as long as their sexual preference did not interfere with their performance of duty, it was not my problem. Fifty years ago being gay meant staying in the closet or paying a price for being open about it. It surely meant not serving in the U.S. Army and these fellows wanted to.

Fast forward to the present when being gay has lost much of its former stigma. Ellen DeGeneres has her own popular talk show. “Will and Grace” was a successful sitcom. “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” was popular for a while. Barney Frank came out of the closet and apparently Massachusetts voters did not care. The level of tolerance is, in many respects, nothing less than astonishing. Continue reading Gays in the Military

June 6, 2009

War! War! War!

War! War! War!

By Alan Caruba

“In defense of our nation, a president must be a clear-eyed realist. There are limits to the smiles and scowls of diplomacy. Armies and missiles are not stopped by stiff notes of condemnation. They are held in check by strength and purpose and the promise of swift punishment.” I will tell you who said that at the end of this commentary.

D-Day, 65 years ago, was one of many days throughout history that determined the final outcome of a war. I suspect one can attach a great battle to just about every day in the calendar because the history of humanity is one of constant warfare somewhere, anywhere in the world where two men, two families, two tribes, two empires, or two or more states clashed.

The courage that Americans, joined by Canadians, British, Free French, Polish, and other troops showed on June 6, 1944 preserved freedom for a bit longer among the victors, though all of Eastern Europe had to be written off as the bribe to keep Soviet Russia involved. It would ultimately loose 20 million of its people.

The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed about 199,000. People forget that the Japanese emperor and the military, though clearly defeated, refused to concede. Continue reading War! War! War!

May 24, 2009

Memorial Day: The Blackbird and You

Memorial Day: The Blackbird and You

By Alan Caruba

It’s about one of the most remarkable airplanes ever produced by this nation, a spy plane that kept an eye on a lot of evil people in bad places. It was known as the Blackbird and was built to replace the U-2 in which Gary Powers was shot down over Soviet Russia in 1960.

It was built to fly three miles higher and a heck of a lot faster, but it was also built to be able to take a photo of the license plate on Nikita Khrushchev’s car or Fidel Castro lighting a cigar.

They only made forty of these remarkable airplanes. Only 93 pilots would ever fly the aircraft throughout the quarter century it served during the Cold War.

Affectionately the crew called it the “sled”. In 1986, the Blackbird flew over Libya when its dictator challenged the United States and it accelerated away from two missiles fired at it so fast the pilot and fellow crew member crossed the Mediterranean Sea and were just south of Sicily in mere moments. They had to turn around to be refueled over Gibraltar.

The last of the Blackbirds sits in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space museum in Washington, D.C. In its last trip there, the Blackbird broke four speed records from Los Angeles to its final place of honor. Continue reading Memorial Day: The Blackbird and You