Chris Charles: Obama Doctrine: Peace Through Inferior Firepower



The US is doing everything possible to please and placate the Russian government in regards to reducing nuclear arms and the Russian are doing everything in their power to gain a strategic advantage over the United States.

We have: agreed to reduce stockpiles of weapons and ended plans to install missile shields in Eastern Europe.

They have: created new nuclear missiles, and test fired ICBM’s that carry 10 individually targeted warheads with a range of 10,000 miles. (1)

After the cold war, the US and Russia signed a nuclear non-proliferation agreement in 1991. The US was in a position of strength because of the policies enacted by President Reagan. ‘Peace through strength’ was the Reagan doctrine; so far ‘peace through weakness’ seems to be the Obama administrations doctrine. The 1991 agreement is about to expire and so both sides are feverously working to create a new pact to save the world from total annihilation. I am quite sure President Obama is sincere in wishes to reduce the arsenal of nuclear weaponry in the world. The Russ’kis I am not so sure about, they seem to be hell bent on gaining the upper hand on the US.

Recent reports on the negotiations for a new arms agreement have suggested that the Russians are doing just that. (2) Among the provisions said to be included in the new pact:

-Russia no longer has to share data with the US on test launches
-The US can no longer monitor Russian weapon production
-Sets caps for nuclear delivery vehicles, excluding Russian mobile launchers

This is obviously a steal of a deal for the Russian side, even top Russian officials agree that Russia is getting more than they could expect from this deal. In fact, it would be more accurate to say the Obama Administration is getting their pants pulled down in this deal. Given all of this you might expect Russian PM Vladimir Putin to be overcome with joy. Instead this sneaky Russian wants more, a lot more. Putin wants ‘information’ on US missile defense capabilities and if he doesn’t get it he says Russia will develop even more new offensive missiles. If recent history is any indication I am sure Putin will get any and all information he desires about US missile shields from the Obama White House.

The US seems to be doing all of the conceding in recent months and the former Soviet Union seems content accept all of the US concessions while making no real concessions of their own. In fact, the Russians are demanding even more from us. I am no expert negotiator, but I am pretty sure negotiations are supposed to involve demands and concessions from both sides. In this case the Russians are making all of the demands and the Obama administration is making all of the concessions.

Chris Charles: Change You Can’t Believe In

One year ago many Americans were swept up in the populist rhetoric of a certain Presidential candidate. We were told to expect an open and transparent government that would shed light on the way American politics worked. We were assured that that the status quo in Washington would not continue. We were promised change but not just any change, we were promised ‘change we can believe in’.

I do have to admit President Obama sure is bringing ‘change’ to America but unless you desire a Soviet style government I am not sure it is change that we can believe in.

After promising open and honest debate during the 2008 campaign President Obama and the Dems have taken the health care debate from; Townhall meetings with you, to the floor of the House and Senate, to closed door committee rooms, to smoke filled back rooms, to underground bunkers at undisclosed locations. In case President Obama is unaware, there are no C-Span cameras in the smoke filled back rooms with locked doors at the US Capitol! GOP Senators don’t even know what is happening here, what chance do the voters have? If the Dems could conduct health care negotiations on Mars, they would.

Fortunately for us, legislation cannot be passed in some private meeting room in one of the Senate office buildings. Bills still need to be voted on in the Senate Chamber in full view of the C-SPAN cameras. The same cameras that President Obama vowed would be there to capture the negotiations. This puts Dems in a pickle because they know that you don’t particularly like their health care ‘reforms’. They know that they might very well lose their jobs should you discover just what they are up to in those smoky back rooms. This is why the Dems were so incensed by the GOP’s insistence to read aloud one of the bills many amendments on the Senate floor.

How can Harry Reid and his Democratic buddies ram through health care and hope to retain their lofty position after the next election cycle? Because they also know that very few pay attention to politics on weekends, hence the need for weekend sessions all month. What’s more, they know that even fewer pay attention to politics in the middle of the night on a weekend. There are more people alive that survived the Titanic sinking than are awake watching C-SPAN at 1AM on a weekend.

We all are awaking to find the USS USA taking on water, and there are not enough lifeboats for everyone. SEIU members, woman and children first! Better head to the stern like Leonardo DiCaprio and hope the water isn’t too cold.

If you think that that is counter to the promises made by Mister Hope and Change himself than you will be really discouraged to hear that another ‘change’ of sorts is happening on Capitol Hill. Since not even the most RINO-ist Republicans in the Senate would consider voting for the Dems health care package, Harry Reid and President Obama had to have every single Democrat in line in order to bring the bill to a vote. Even though not all Dems are die hard leftists, they are all seemingly open to whoring themselves out for bribe money. Lucky for Harry Reid he has his own personal US Treasury checkbook, not to mention an ink jet that can print a thousand hundred dollar bills every minute!

In just under a year we have gone from Hope and Change we can believe in, to top-secret stealth legislation and votes bought by you the taxpayer. All we can do now is Hope the Changes stop soon.

Chris Charles: Problem Solving Or Problem Creating?

  

America has many problems right now, these problems need solutions. With every minute that passes the situation worsens, action must be taken. Our left wing government is taking action, immediate action. Unfortunately for us, they are not taking action on any of our real, important problems. 

Everything is an emergency in DC these days, except the actual emergencies. Congress, President Bush and President Obama said that we needed to act fast to hand out bailout and TARP funds to banks and businesses alike. There was no time to debate, only time to vote to add trillions to the national deficit. More than a year after the bailout began, and there are still hundreds of billions of bailout and TARP dollars unspent. Why was it so important to expedite the bailouts? Why aren’t we expediting any solutions for the double-digit unemployment? Is this not an ‘emergency’ that requires the Feds immediate attention? 

Another issue that must be acted upon without hesitation is global warming or ‘climate change’ if you like. Democrats and greens claim not only that there no time for debate but that the debate is over, and they won! This would be like the Dallas Cowboys claiming that the season is over and they won, I think the New Orleans Saints, Indianapolis Colts, San Diego Chargers, and twenty-some-odd other teams might object to that. Since the issue cannot wait (due to the forthcoming Armageddon) Congress and President Obama are going to solve this ‘problem’ by creating another, much larger problem. By capping ‘poisonous’ CO2 they are essentially capping energy production and industry. Just to be clear, we are going to sacrifice our energy usage and economy because Al Gore says global temperatures are increasing, slightly. I think our priorities are mixed up.  

Now is also the time to pass ‘health care reforms’ according to the Dems. Of course we have little time to debate, because this issue must be dealt with by Christmas. If this were so important, why then will the ‘reforms’ not begin until after 2013? Can’t we think about this one a little longer? Why the rush? I’ll tell you one issue that should be dealt with by Christmas, the record deficit this country is under. The only action on this from the majority in Congress is a proposal to raise the debt ceiling so we can borrow even more. That is not the kind of action I was talking about!  

Granting amnesty to illegals is another pressing issue for the Dems. Yes! This is exactly what we need right now, millions of low skilled refuges flooding the already floundering job market. To me the more pressing issue here would be closing the southern border, maybe even erecting a fence or something. If you are waiting for the Dems to act on this, don’t hold your breath. 

Seemingly everyday in Washington somebody comes up with another idea to raise taxes. They want to raise taxes on the wealthy, the dead, the corporations, the insurance industry, the well off, the CEO’s, the polluters, the junk food industry, and of course the rich. I have yet to hear of any plans to cut spending or even to control spending. In fact the only changes to spending by the federal government will be spending increases. 

We have two wars be conducted right now. You might expect this to be a top priority of the government, an issue that requires immediate attention. Oh no! On the contrary, President Obama took his sweet time planning our next move in Afghanistan. What was and continues to be of paramount importance to this administration and the Democrats, is the closure of a certain Caribbean detention facility used to house dangerous terrorists. In fact, the closure of Guantanamo is so important to this administration it was the first executive order President Obama made after taking office.  

Not only is our government not taking action on the real issues that threaten this country, they are even now, worsening existing problems as well as creating new ones. With every day that goes by the MENSA’s on Capitol Hill and in The White House manage to dig the country ever deeper into the hole we are in. We would be much better off if the President and Congress would just take the rest of the year off and enjoy Christmas with their families, instead of continuing to worsen an already bad situation. We desperately need solutions from our elected representatives, but I would be happy if they would cease worsening our problems.

Chris Charles: Victims to Villains & Villains to Victims

 

We are living in an increasingly upside-down world. A world where right is wrong, and where good is bad. Victims are looked at as villains, and villains are looked at as victims. Sanity has given way to insanity, and the sane that remain are having trouble remaining sane. 

This alarming trend can be illustrated just by a few news stories from last Friday alone.  

Sussex Square, Virginia
A 90 year old Metal of Honor winner was told that he cannot fly the American flag outside his home because it violates his homeowners association’s aesthetics policy. Since when are the stars and stripes an eyesore? In the sane world, the homeowners association would grant an exception for a man that served his country in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. And if I were in charge, whoever was responsible would get six months in jail for being a horse's ass.

Norfolk, Virginia
Navy SEALs are facing court marshal and serious prison time for hitting a terrorist. The terrorist was the same terrorist that killed 4 American contractors and dragged their burning bodies through the streets of Fallujah. In a sane world the SEALs would be given a metal for that. Unfortunately this is not a sane world, the heroes will be given a military show trial and the Villains will be given a jury trial in downtown Manhattan (if not released because of abuse suffered at the hands of the SEALs).

Washington, DC
Democrats have reinstituted at 45% death tax on estates valued over $3.5 million. That is nearly a fifty percent tax on money that has already been taxed. That money belongs to an individual not the government. In a sane world people would be allowed to pass on money and property to loved ones without the government sticking their greedy little fingers in the pot first. Since when is attaining wealth a bad thing? I thought that making a good living and leaving some of it to others once you’re gone was an admirable and advisable to do. Americans would be better off keeping their accrued wealth in Russia or China; I bet they wouldn’t even take 45% off the top! What is this the Mafia?

Vienna, Austria
The UN has given Iran a leadership role on one of the governing bodies many commissions, despite the fact that Iran continuously disobeys UN resolutions to cease their Nuclear weapons development. In a sane world Iran would be expelled from the UN. What UN commission are the Iranians going to head? The fair elections and human rights commission? Or perhaps the anti-nuclear proliferation committee would be better for them.

State College, Pennsylvania
One of the so called ‘scientists’ embroiled in the global warming conspiracy has said that he is the victim of a ‘smear campaign’. They are not smears if they are true, and besides you have been ‘smearing’ those of us that have said that global warming was a load of crap, for years! In a sane world this guy would be ashamed and embarrassed but if not the rest of the world would scorn him for perpetrating a hoax on the entire world. Instead, the villain becomes the victim.

Chris Charles: A Dichotomous Decision

In recent months, there has been an increase in polls that say Americans disapprove of the war in Afghanistan that coincides with the increase of violence in Afghanistan. Do Americans have weak stomachs? Are we incapable of fighting tough battles? The polls suggest this; they suggest that when the going gets tough the USA runs.

I, however, suggest otherwise. There will always be a small percentage of liberal Americans that would raise the French white flag of surrender at the drop of a hat, but the rest of us have bigger ‘attachments’, if you know what I mean. The rest of us want to win the war against radical Islamic terrorists that killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11 and many thousands more in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

So why then are the approval numbers so low for the Afghan War? Polls can be a bit misleading; they tend to oversimplify poll questions into yes or no questions.

Do you support the war in Afghanistan? Yes or no? The answer to that question is much more complicated than a yes or no. Complicated questions cannot be answered in black or white, answers are usually in shades of grey, especially when it comes to questions of war. Even everyday questions are somewhat complicated and cannot be answered with a simple yes or no.

Do you like Pancakes? Yes or no? Ummm, Sure I like pancakes sometimes, what kind of pancakes, because I hate pancakes with fruit on top, I only eat chocolate funny face pancakes with whipped cream and cherries on top from IHOP, even then I usually order eggs for breakfast.

If a relatively simple question about a breakfast preference cannot be answered with a simple yes or no, then how can people tell a pollster whether or not they approve of a war with a yes or no? The poll might as well ask whether or not people approve of war in general. This issue has too many variable factors that make it impossible to pass judgment without explanation.

I believe most Americans would explain, if given the chance, that they do support the cause in Afghanistan, but they do not support the way the war is conducted.  I think they support General McCrystal and the top military brass, I do not think Americans approve of waiting months to decide whether or not to send additional troops to Afghanistan. General McCrystal requested 60,000 additional troops in September and the White House finally says in December that they are going to send 30,000 troops. Was the President too busy to be bothered to make a decision sooner? Apparently, he spent the time brushing up on war strategy, because The President is now telling a career military man Staley McCrystal that he only needs half the troops he requested to execute the plan. Refresh my memory, what branch of the armed services did President Obama serve in?

I say the majority of Americans want to take the fight to the enemy. I do not believe that they support the crippling rules of engagement our soldiers are forced to follow in Afghanistan (see ‘Rules To Live (And Die) By’ from November 18^th).

I think Americans want to help the Afghan people, but I also think we are tired of our soldiers passing out lolly pops to children that in a few short years will replace those lollies with AK-47’s. While we are offering Afghan children Tonka trucks and sugary treats, the enemy is offering eternal paradise and 72 virgins in exchange for becoming little mercenaries of death. What are we trying to prove here? How benevolent we are? Afghan civilians would just as soon kill us before they would kiss us. We are busy building them schools and hospitals, and they are busy helping the enemy build roadside bombs. Helping innocent civilians is an honorable thing to do, but first we should insure those innocent civilians are not, in reality, soldiers of Allah.

If we are going to fight a proper war, I think Americans will overwhelmingly approve of it. If politicians and top commanders continue to let our soldiers be taken advantage of, very few will continue to support a continuation of such lunacy.