Posts Tagged ‘war’
September 6th, 2011 by John Feehery
My dad learned how to make his bed in the Army.
His bed-making skills are much more impressive than mine will ever be. He creases his sheets just so. He could easily get a quarter to bounce high off the finished product.
He tried to instill his bed-making skills onto his sons, but somehow, we never were able to follow in his footsteps.
Part of that was because we didn’t really care about making our bed. Part of that was because as teenagers, you are lucky to get to school, let alone worry about making your bed with military precision.
My dad learned a bunch of other things in the Army. He learned how to polish his boots. He learned all about physical fitness. He learned about different cultures in America (and in Korea).
He learned some things that he will probably never tell his grandkids, and some things he never told his mother.
My dad enlisted in the Army before he was drafted. But in all likelihood, he would have been drafted anyway. And many of the skills he first learned at boot camp, he kept with him his entire life. Read more...
Tags: America, Army, military, United States, war
Posted in Foreign Relations, Government, Theory, national security, war | No Comments »
August 23rd, 2011 by John Feehery
Muammar Gaddafi
If and when Muammar Gaddafi is finally deposed in Libya, President Obama probably deserves some credit. He backed Nicholas Sarkozy and NATO’s efforts to aid the rebels (whoever they are). He authorized the Navy and the Air Force to bomb the hell out of the bad guys. And of course, he has been boldly predicting that Gaddafi’s days are numbered, a nice counter-balance to the Libyan dictator’s assurances that he was going nowhere.
Will Obama get that credit? Probably not.
Most Americans don’t care what happens to Mr. Gaddafi. They are worried less about the economic future of Tripoli and more worried about jobs in their own community. Why should we spend our hard-earned tax dollars deposing a far-away dictator when we have a huge budget deficit and a struggling economy back here?
For the conspiracy theorists out there, there is a persistent rumor that we went into Libya to bailout Goldman Sachs.
Goldman lost 98% of Libya’s Sovereign Wealth Fund in 2007 (which amounted to $1.3 billion, a lot of it personal Gaddafi money, undoubtedly), and the Libyans were not very happy about it. Goldman could never come up with a solution to this problem that could make the dictator happy. Read more...
Tags: America, Assad, Barack Obama, Economy, Goldman-Sachs, Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, NATO, Nicholas Sarkozy, Obama, Politics, spending, Syria, Tripoli, Wall Street Journal, war, Zarti
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Foreign Relations, Government, History, Media, Politics, Scandals, Theory, bad news, national security, spending, taxes, war | 1 Comment »
July 20th, 2011 by John Feehery
I love when the Senate comes up with a grand bargain. It gets all the Washington insiders excited. The pundits love grand bargains. The media goes crazy over grand bargains.
I remember when the Senate came up with a grand bargain on immigration a couple of years ago. Ted Kennedy and John McCain came together to hammer out a comprehensive approach to fixing our borders and allowing illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship. Mel Martinez (a good guy and my wife’s former boss) went around town talking about how they were going to jam this agreement through the House.
The House balked on immigration and my guess is that they will balk on this latest grand bargain.
It is rare that the Senate can completely jam the House on issues as big as entitlement spending and taxes. As much as it might disdain the lower body, under our Constitution, the Senate cannot unilaterally impose laws without getting the House to pass them too.
Now, on the merits, I think a grand bargain sounds grand.
I agree with the President that we have a unique opportunity to do some common-sense things to cure our debt problems. Read more...
Tags: afghanistan, Barack Obama, Congress, Conservatives, Democrats, Economy, Government, grand bargains, health care, House Republicans, John Boehner, McCain, Media, Mel Martinez, Obama, Politics, spending, taxes, Ted Kennedy, war
Posted in Bad Decisions, Bailouts, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Laws, Liberal Media, Media, Politics, Theory, national security, spending, taxes | No Comments »
June 23rd, 2011 by John Feehery
President Obama took 13 minutes to say something he could have said in 30 seconds. He is taking 10,000 troops out of Afghanistan immediately and plans to take out 30,000 or so more by the end of the year.
The rest of the speech was pure puffery, told with some dramatic flair, and with a left hand that kept stabbing the air for emphasis.
He left both sides unsatisfied. The left is clamoring for an immediate withdrawal, joined by more and more libertarians on the right. Neo-conservatives saw the President’s decision as dangerous sign of creeping isolationism. Most members are stuck in the middle with the President, hearing from their constituents that this war should be coming to a quick close but also being briefed by the Pentagon, which warns that too precipitous a withdrawal could have negative ramifications for our national security.
I am not an isolationist, but that doesn’t mean that I think we should stay in Afghanistan. I think you can make a case that leaving the Afghans to their own devices could be dangerous, but I mostly think that because of the heroin problem, not because of the Taliban. Read more...
Tags: adam belmar, afghanistan, America, Barack Obama, Conservatives, Democrats, Economy, Government, Iraq, Iraq war, Joe Manchin, national security, Obama, Politics, President Obama, Roy Blunt, spending, war
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Politics, Theory, middle-east, speeches, spending, war | No Comments »
June 15th, 2011 by John Feehery
It took awhile, but the Cold War consensus is finally shattering.
The Cold War consensus centered around a basic proposition: America was going to both pay and provide the military might to insure the national security of the free world.
America founded NATO as the alliance to promote that security and Congress paid for a national security establishment that guaranteed the dominance of American troops.
That Cold War consensus obviously started at the conclusion of the Second World War, survived both Korea and Vietnam, teetered a bit during the Carter years, and then came back strong during the Reagan years. After the Soviet Union fell apart, it took a while for the Cold War consensus to gain its bearings and its true raison d’etre.
The collapse of Yugoslavia gave the Cold War consensus a shot in the arm, as NATO rushed to the rescue of the Serbian Muslims. George Bush browbeat the alliance in helping with the War on Terror, as the Cold War consensus stretched beyond its natural life.
The war on terror is winding down. We will be out of Iraq before the next election and we may be out of Afghanistan if Congress has anything to say about it. Read more...
Tags: afghanistan, America, American troops, Cold War, Congress, Conservatives, Dick Cheney, Economy, election, foriegn wars, George Bush, Korea, NATO, Politics, Reagan, Republican, Ron Paul, Second World War, Secretary Gates, Soviet Union, spending, United States Congress, Vietnam, war, Yugoslavia
Posted in Education, Financial Crisis, Foreign Relations, Government, History, Politics, Promises, Theory, election, middle-east, spending, taxes, terrorism, tragedy, war | 2 Comments »
May 27th, 2011 by John Feehery
“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”
Dwight Eisenhower, the last general to successfully run for President, said that, and as the man who was responsible for the Normandy Invasion, he knew something about war.
I was thinking of Ike and war in the context of Memorial Day and the upcoming Presidential election.
Unless Ron Paul magically wins the Republican nomination, the Presidential election of 2012 will pit two contenders who have no military experience whatsoever.
The last time that happened, Herbert Hoover ran against Al Smith in 1928.
From the end of the Second World War until 1992, every one of our Presidents had significant military experience. And then an interesting thing happened. Military experience became a liability. Every loser –George Bush, Bob Dole, John Kerry and John McCain – had significantly more military experience than the eventual winners. (Al Gore and George W. Bush basically tied, and they had basically the same military experience).
Those who saw significant military action, who saw first hand the stupidity, brutality and futility of war, could not overcome those who saw war through the glass darkly. Read more...
Tags: Al Smith, America, Barack Obama, Bob Dole, Conservatives, Democrats, Dwight Eisenhower, election, George Bush, Herbert Hoover, John Kerry, John McCain, Memorial Day, Presidential election, Presidential election of 2012, Republicans, war, World War II
Posted in Foreign Relations, Government, History, Politics, Presidential election, Theory, election, national security, war | No Comments »
May 20th, 2011 by John Feehery
Golan Heights
About a decade ago, I visited the Golan Heights as part of a broader trip that took me all around Israel.
Back then, visiting Israel brought out a jumble of emotions. Fear was never far from the surface. Awe came from visiting so many historically important religious sights. Claustrophobia came from the small size of the country, and the fact that the Israelis had so many bitter enemies so close to its border.
When you are on top of the Golan Heights, you get a pretty good understanding why the Israelis have absolutely no intention of giving that strategically important land back to the Syrians. They would be completely insane if they did so.
The Golan Heights gives you a towering position from which to impose your will on the region. Shooting down on attackers is far easier than shooting up on attackers. It gives the Israelis an impregnable fortress from which it can defend itself.
Now, having the Golan Heights wouldn’t be such a big deal, if for example, the Canadians were on your border. But it becomes a much bigger deal if it is the Syrians. Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, Congress, Golan Heights, Government, Isreal, Jewish, Netanyahu, Obama, Politics, President Obama, Syria, war
Posted in Bad Decisions, Foreign Relations, Government, History, Politics, Religion, Theory, middle-east, national security, terrorism, war | No Comments »
April 21st, 2011 by John Feehery
The President traveled to Facebook yesterday to make the case to his Facebook friends that he is still the same old Barack Obama, the mythical figure who would deliver us all from the evil of the Bush Administration, that he said he was when he electrified the voting public two short years ago.
The problem for St. Barack is that the voters are getting wise to his schtick.
According to the Real Clear Politics poll of polls, Mr. Obama is pretty much near his all-time high when it comes to his unpopularity. In January of 2009, only 19 percent of the voters disapproved of the job he was doing. Today, over 50% disapprove.
While Congress as a whole is less popular than the President, voters prefer Republicans more than they prefer Democrats to be elected to Congress, according to the latest surveys. Given that Republicans are taking on high-profile challenges, and given that the Democrats have already thrown up millions of dollars worth of ads attacking GOP budget votes, the fact that the Republicans haven’t completely fallen apart in the polls is remarkable. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, china, Congress, Conservatives, Democrats, Facebook, Government, John Boehner, Libya, Obama, Politics, Presidential election, Republican, Republicans, spending, taxes, war
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, Foreign Relations, Government, Politics, Presidential election, Promises, bad news, spending, war | No Comments »
March 24th, 2011 by John Feehery
I hate b
ullies.
Muammar Gaddafi is a bully.
He has bullied his own people for years, he has bullied all who try to do business in Libya, and he has bullied his neighbors.
America likes to stand up to bullies.
We have a long tradition in the United States that we fight the bullies.
Whether the bully is King George the Third or Slobodan Milošević, we don’t let bullies win.
It usually takes us a while, though, to figure out who is a bully that threatens our interests and who is a bully that we can do business with.
We didn’t declare war on Hitler for example until the Japanese attacked us.
George Bush the first allowed Saddam Hussein to stay in power after the first Persian Gulf War, and it wasn’t until Al-Qaeda attacked us on September 11th, that George Bush the second finished the job.
The problem with going after every bully is that there are a lot of bullies out there.
North Korea is run by a bully. So is Russia. As is Zimbabwe. And the list goes on.
We can’t stop all the bullies everywhere. Read more...
Tags: America, bully, dictator, middle-east, war
Posted in middle-east, war | 1 Comment »
December 17th, 2010 by John Feehery
Here are some questions that I have for the smart people who think about this stuff when it comes to our continued presence in Afghanistan:
1) What would happen if we pick up and leave tomorrow? How many people would die in a civil war? Would Afghanistan revert back to warlordism? And how would that impact American national security?
2) What are the costs to our military and especially our military families as we stay and continue to fight there? What are we learning about the successes and failures of the COIN strategy? What else could we be spending our precious defense dollars on, but aren’t because of this war?
3) Can Afghanistan ever become another Vietnam, but in the good sense? Vietnam is now one of our biggest trading partners. If we leave or decide to stay in Afghanistan, will it ever become a trading partner for us? Do they have any natural resources, other than opium, that we can use on our market? At least, the Iraqis had plenty of oil. Do the Afghan have enough rare earth minerals to make it worth our while. Read more...
Tags: afghanistan, India, Pakistan, troops, war
Posted in war | No Comments »
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