This is not just a question of which side is he on. This is a question of which planet is he on. "Obama's National Defence Review ignores Iran and Islam in favour of... climate change!," by James Corum in the Telegraph, February 11 (thanks to Pamela):
Under American law, every four years the US Defence Department must present to Congress a comprehensive review of the security threats and challenges to America. The security picture presented in the review provides the justification for planning and creating the appropriate military forces and capabilities. The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) is supposed to be a non-partisan and objective strategic document - free of partisan politics. After all, the duty to protect the nation and its citizens is supposed to take a higher priority than subsidies to labour unions, or hand-outs to party loyalists.Last week the Defence Department released the 2010 QDR. It is a remarkable document. As guidance for American strategy it might even take a historical place alongside some of the great assessments of the Bush administration--such as the 2003 Congressional testimony by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz that a war in Iraq could be waged at little cost.
The 128-page Defence Review says some important things. It outlines the problems with maintaining the US military's technological lead over potential adversaries. It discusses the need to counter terrorism. The threat to Western cyber systems is noted. The proliferation of Russian high-tech anti-aircraft missiles around the world is noted as a problem.
However, it's not what is in the document that surprises the reader - it's what was left out. There presence of two elephants in their living room apparently escaped the notice of American's top civilian and military leaders. Islamic radicalism does not receive any mention whatsoever in the American Defence Review and the threat posed by a nuclear Iran is mentioned in only one general sentence at the end of a document (page 101). To put this lack of discussion in proportion, contrast this non-discussion with other security issues mentioned in the document. For example, the security effects of climate change are highlighted and discussed in depth in eight pages of the document.
I would not have thought it possible that one could publish a book-length assessment of America's security challenges and responses and NOT address the problem of Islamic radicalism or the Iranian bomb - but that's just what Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mullen have done. From this one can draw one of two possible conclusions: these men are really, really stupid (not very likely), or they have deliberately minimised the current security threats to please the Obama administration and support the President's desire to cut defence spending. The smart money is on the latter explanation....
Yep.
And the threat from Islam is not only to be thought of as consisting of whatever terrorism, or other instruments of Jihad, are being used against the United States directly. The weapons of Jihad, especially the Money Weapon, campaigns of Da'wa, demographic conquest from within, and the concomitant increasingly aggressive behavior of Muslims demanding changes in the legal and political institutions, and social arrangements, within the Western world, are at work in Western Europe, the historic heart of the West, without whose continued existence America would be largely alone, and civilisationally adrift.
I can't think cogently after reading this. All that forms in my brain is a question mark, followed by a string of deletable expletives.
Never mind that to this day not a single scientific study exists which proves that any warming in the environment since the late nineteenth century is due to man (all that has been proffered for those who believe in the nonsense {and religion} of man-made global warming are correlation studies and computer model projections, both of which have notorious track records for accuracy and neither of which constitute scientific proof), the fact that Islamic jihad is not mentioned at all in this report and the likelihood of Iran developing a nuclear weapon capacity is only tangentially noted serves as ipso facto evidence that even the greatest of polities can get things absolutely ass-backwards from time to time. Right now, I'd say America is in deep shit, courtesy of political correctness, general ignorance and pseudo-science.
The first of the two possible explanations offered is dismissed a bit too hastily. Acquaintance with Official Washington -- especially with those Taking A Leadership Role after years of being dutiful team-players, submissive to whatever is the received opinion or party line (and there's nothing like the Pentagon for Team Players, unaccustomed to thinking for themselves, and unlikely in any case to have the time necessary to study Islam in order to grasp its meaning and menace) suggest that the first may well be the right answer, or certainly part of the answer. James Corum is too kind.
Obama's national defense report ignores Islamic jihad, focuses on climate change
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When reality is this depressing, perhaps we can turn to fiction for some inspiration?
DC Comics' Captain America, who's character was created in the 1940s to fight Hitler and the Nazis, is not going after Jihad terrorists. He's going up against—the non-violent Tea Party movement. His partner, the Falcon, who is African-American, opined while observing a Tea Party protest that he "would not be too welcome there", implying that the protesters were all big racists.
Glad to know this *is the biggest threat America faces today*. sarc/off
I have to wonder at what point this denial and obfuscation becomes gross negligence or even treason? It seems to me that ignoring an obvious threat to our security creeps dangerously toward the line on both charges.
The Bamster and his people will ultimately pay the price for this; but not until who knows how many American people have paid in advance with their lives.
It's a setup for tragedy...tragedy of the worst kind--tragedy that could have and should have been prevented with truth and resolute action...
Just another display of egregious liberal stupidity. This time the stupidity is much deeper than surface observations indicate. It immediately springs to mind that if the US' ability to defend itself is going to be affected by ... uhmm ... the weather, would not that same weather impact on the enemy as well? Unless the authors are seriously suggesting that climate change (what a nonsense term) is only going to impact on America.
Further, even if one assumes that the climate is going to change there is nothing that we can do about it anyway. Even if we shut down the world economies for the next twenty years the resulting decrease in warming would not be able to be measured by current instruments (See Monckton).
So that leaves us with a potential problem that cannot be addressed and the effects will be felt just as severely by the enemy. Therefore, even if anthropogenic global warming was sound science, the only solution would be to design defence solutions that would not be adversely affected by the weather and that could exploit vulnerabilities in the enemy's ability to wage war.
To do this we need to understand the enemy.
So I agree with Hugh's assessment. Explanation 1.
Yes, gravenimage, saw that yesterday about Captain America. Pretty damn sad. PC has even taken over the comics. It's like a virus that resists containment.
What a double whammy-------Islam and Western PC/MC. The best and the free will survive, I think, but not without a lot of unnecessary pain and much fortune wasted.
Wellington, it is sad. We need Pigman more than ever now!
Is there a 3rd, or even 4th reason for not focusing on the war we are in?
Could it be possible that we are not showing are hand to our enemy by not addressing the threat that is Islamic Jihad in this National Defence Review?
I have trouble believing that those who put this report together are failing to grasp the way to obvious threat that is Islamic jihadism on display in numerous countries every single day.
Just asking.
Yes Wellington, "The best and the free will survive" but only because of the "brave and strong".
This comes as no surprise to me. I just got back from a panel at one of the Claremont Colleges (West coast locale, deservedly Ivy League rep. academically, traditionally moderate, compared to the average big ticket school)where they had a panel on the first year of Obama's Forgein Policy.
Balanced it was NOT.
The funniest part was how I openly recorded, and my asst. took photos but, it was not until during the q&a at the end - after I had asked a question not assuming hostility toward Israel, that I got twitted severely about not identifying myself AND who I would write for at the beginning and asking for permission to record. Nothing was said on the flyers or at the start of the panel about this policy.
They wanted to know who I write for before letting me have a record of WHAT THEY ACTUALLY SAY!
More to come over at heretics crusade...recap and analysis/rebuttal by tomorrow.
I guess you have to admire some who can be that faithful to his religion....NAH, Even under the guise of the Leftist "faith" this goes beyond sanity.
I've wondered about that, too. I'd like to think that our leaders are playing a game of deception and purposely playing the Fool while at the same time quietly taking measures behind the scenes to deal with the Islamic threat. Sometimes one can almost detect this by reading between the lines in a speech that, except for making explicit references to Islam and Muslims and jihad, perhaps purposely so as to avoid infaming Muslim passions, contains glimmers of recognition of what the real problem is.
The problem is that if this is what is really happening, and I have my doubts (arrogance usually goes to great measures to avoid being considered a fool), this approach runs the risk of being too clever by half and confusing both friend and foe alike, thereby running the risk of misinterpretation of signals and unintended consequences that would certainly follow.
If this is not what's going on here, and this really does reflect the priorities at the top, we're in trouble. Sooner or later such cockeyed thinking will come face to face with reality, but in the meantime we could be in for a rocky ride.
What to do? We can start by voting out of office the fools in power who have allowed this kind of distorted thinking to become the basis for policy. The American mid-term elections are now only nine months away, so everyone who is eligible to do so, VOTE.
Barack O'Carter and his administration are inept....everyone knows that. This doesn't surprise me at all. Wait until Hilary gets the nomination in 2012. Then we'll hear CAIR-esque crying from liberals.
I can't wait.
More proof, if any were needed, of the utter incompetence and ignorance of the present administration. Defense expenditures, both as a percentage of GDP and as a percentage of government spending, have been on a steady downward trend for nearly 50 years. And BHO and his Acorn gang only want to reduce defense spending still further, so that they'll have more billions of $ for their health bureaucracy, and to give away to Islamic hell-holes like Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, and Palestine. A little over 200 years ago, before the days of any QDR,when faced with Islamic agression, the national cry was "millions for defense, not one cent for tribute". Now it's just the opposite. America, how far you have fallen.
He's worried about climate change...The climate is going to change drasticaly If Iran starts firing off nukes at the infedels...Hopefully Obama realizes this.
"Defense expenditures, both as a percentage of GDP and as a percentage of government spending, have been on a steady downward trend for nearly 50 years."
NASA, while of more recent vintage, is undergoing similar cuts. If the NASA budget today claimed the same percentage of GDP as in it's heyday during the Moon program 50 years ago it would be $150B per year, but even at that level it would only barely be of the same order of magnitude as one of the Wall Street banks' recent bailouts. Obama has scuttled the one program the U.S. had to replace the Space Shuttle to keep man in space. In a few years the programs beamed from orbit will be in Chinese or Russian, and the footprints on the moon and/or Mars will be from boots made in Beijing or Moscow. NASA was one of the few agencies in the gov't that managed to do things more or less right and on schedule, but of course as with the military it falls into Obama's intellectual blind spot. I imagine now the money will go to ACORN, or affirmative action programs, or pie-in-the-sky-green energy programs.
How is it this administration ignores the Islamic threat? Are we not fighting two wars right now?
The terrorists we have at G-Bay, what ideology do they follow? Islam yeah the ideology of Jihad that has been at war with the USA since the USA was a country.
The pantie bomber, yes another Muslim, a great SOA just doing his duty as a devout Muslim, making war on the free world.
How is it the BO administration has forgotten why we now have bomb sniffing doggies, full body scanners, and Patriots Day on September 11?
BO and his people are willfully ignorant when it comes to Muslims and Islam. They are in denial, and that denial endangers all of us.
Three more years of this crap?
« Earth Wind and Fire »?! Climate change.
It started with « Islam is peace » G.W. Bush, which surprised and above all disappointed us a lot, for we were thinking that his policy would be different from his father's and Clinton's. For example, nobody has forgotten that the latter made of the White House, House of Freedom, the terrorist and killer Arafat's second permanent apartment.
The first G.W.Bush administration - « les néoconservateurs » - was fighting terrorism and islamo-fascism but not his second one.
So, the new American « neo-communist » present administration of President Obama imitates the same submission policy as the European leaders too.
Why do you want the Jihad to stop then ?
And why are we amazed that President is evacuating the fight against Jihad or helping those who are doing so from his strategic agenda ?
Now, Jihad has been fired out to the benefit of … climate change, as you said.
What a wonderful change ! Is it a miracle from their Allah ?!
This attitude will ruin the credibility of our leaders in the eyes of islamists and the latter will never stop. Yet we will keep saying that we are not at war with them: but what about them?
Has anybody heard anyone of them say that they are not at war against us? No.
Has anybody hear them apologizing once ? No.
Did they declare so at Cairo, as an answer to President Obama's « historical dhimmi speech » ? No.
Has anybody seen any reciprocity from their part ? No.
Such a situation comes from the fact that our leaders, from the beginning ( let's assume 911 as a starting date for their terrorism against our civilization - whereas actually it began 1400 years ago ),
did not want to fight the Jihad and the racist antimsemitic islamist ideology reducing it to the concept of « mere terrorism », a classical one etc.
When President Obama says for example « We are not in war against islam », has anyone among you heard if he got an answer stating that they are not at war against us, against judaism, against christianity? No, never.
Because they are at war against us.
They know why and what they are fighting for, who they are fighting. Reasons for our defeat, not only in Iraq or Afganistan, but everywhere: at universities, at schools, in planes, and even at... swimming pools !
Worse: we do not want to see anything. This is what I call the « Three monkey strategy » and not a «smart power » ( J. Nye).
In the meantime, let's have a rest and for the ... climate change, let's listen to
http://www.mojvideo.com/video-earth-wind-fire-fantasy-1978/595209b880974a9b669a
and any resemblance to leaders living, dead, dying or even sleeping is purely coincidental.
http://www.mojvideo.com/video-earth-wind-fire-fall-in-love-with-me-1982/40bae553068a28c5d53d
Beware: while you are listening, Jihad is going on and with it the murder of our values, liberties and civilization.
Simon Néhmé. France.
It was actually Marvel (Timely at the time) but point taken.
Simon, we are in agreement. We Yanks are not happy with Obama, either. Even his supporters are starting to become increasingly disillusioned by him as he reveals himself and his Leftist agenda more and more. There is a lot of on-the-ground political activity here to make sure he and his political party are removed from power at the earliest possible electoral opportunity. All countries who call themselves Western and value Western civilization have a stake in halting Islamic infiltration and creeping sharia.
Update to my comment on NASA budget cuts:
Obama has also cut one of the most promising missile defense projects among the many test programs fielded by the U.S., the Airborne Laser project. ABL had only just recently had it's first sucessful test. The story is at http://closingvelocity.typepad.com/closing_velocity/2010/02/video-so-long-airborne-laser.html
The ABL uses a high power laser beam to shoot down missiles. It has been demonstrated to work. Obama just killed it. Presumably the money that was saved will be given to ACORN and SEIU, or used for bailouts of Wall Street banks.
No doubt if Obama had been president in 1902 he would also have disapproved of that crazy project by the Wright brothers. So, what's next on the chopping block?
Aryan Mjolnir wrote:
It was actually Marvel (Timely at the time) but point taken.
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Thanks, Aryan. You are quite right—I realized my bone-headed error as soon as I posted it. I did consider posting a correction, but didn't think it would matter that much to most people.
Sometimes I miss the old IntenseDebate edit function...
"Sometimes I miss the old IntenseDebate edit function..." -- gravenimage
Me, too. ID had many other attractive features, as well. I wouldn't mind one bit if JW went back to this system.
I also miss Intense Debate. I have no problem with it over at NewsReal Blog.