HISTORIC FAILURES OF OBAMA AS PRESIDENT

1)      Just like George W. Bush, Obama failed to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the ending of the Cold War.

2)      He failed to end the war in Afghanistan in a timely manner. He accepted the time line established by George W. Bush to end the military involvement in Iraq.

3)      He lost the Moral High Ground to Vladimir Putin in the case of Edward Snowden.

4)      He failed to end the Bush Tax Cuts in December 2010 costing the economy 4 trillion dollars in lost revenue. (Source: David Stockman, Budget Director under Ronald Reagan)

5)      He failed to set his priorities right. Instead of seeking a Tax Reform to enhance revenues when he first get elected, he opted for ACA to spend more.

6)      In every opportunity, he betrayed and violated all political principles of Progressives Agenda.

7)      He failed to prosecute corrupt Wall Street Bankers.

8)      Instead of offering a vision for the country and leading, he simply opted to be a hands-on manager.

9)      He instigated and supported the social unrest in Syria.

10)   He hurt the image of the Office of the President of the United States of America by projecting weakness and indecisiveness.

11)   He failed to take any steps to decelerate the war on terror by failing to understand the root causes of terrorism.

12)   He opposed to investigations looking into Saudi involvement in 9/11.

13)   He failed to take concrete steps to improve economy and create jobs.

14)   He became a suspect of war crimes and crimes against the humanity by ordering drone strikes.

15)   He failed to close the Guantanamo.

16)   He promised but failed to balance the budget at the end of his first term.

17)   He failed to push Universal Health Care instead of ACA.

18)   He failed to differentiate his Presidency from that of George W. Bush by continuing to implement his predecessor’s foreign policies he criticized so much during his campaign.

19)   He failed to change the course of decline the country is currently in.

20)   In every opportunity, he opted to elevate his political interests and image instead of dealing with our nation’s challenges.

21)   When he was first elected, he failed to form a White House team of intellectuals. Instead he surrounded himself with Wall Street Bankers.

22)   To this day, he does not understand the economic problems we are facing. Instead he acts like a song and dance man tap dancing around the issues.

Rightly or wrongly, this is how I see it. Of course, I could be wrong.

THE BIG PICTURE

Part 1... Are we failing to see the big picture on the US economy? After the WWII, most of Europe, Russia and Japan laid in ruins. Their factories were leveled, their industrial capacity decimated. The United States, on the other hand, came out of the war with their full industrial base intact, ready to supply all other nations with manufactured goods. As a result, the US economy prospered, especially in 50s and 60s. Today, however, the situation is different. Europe, Russia and Japan once again are power houses of industrial capacity and manufactured goods. Add to that a powerful China with a high capacity industrial complex and an ever expanding massive global trade reach. As a result, today, we import more than we export which means huge trade deficits and continuously shrinking industrial base and manufacturing jobs. To make matters worse, our consecutive Administrations are more interested in pleasing special interests, satisfying greed and running astronomical budget deficits while our two party system systematically engages in ever worsening political back biting and gridlock.

It is easy to see that our economic challenges are structural and they seem to be feeding on themselves to get worse by the minute. So what, if any, can be done to come out of this historic quagmire? Solutions can be found but implementing those solutions seem to be out of the question considering today’s poisonous political atmosphere. Nevertheless, failure is not an option unless we choose to drift into oblivion and take our inevitable place on history’s dusty pages to become a “has been” empire like once majestic Rome.

History is full of examples of great empires, long disappeared taking with them their once exceptional cultures. Only thing that is common among them is not how they had become great empires but rather how they all have disappeared from the scene with the passing of time proving once again that nothing is permanent except change, leaving us with the inescapable conclusion that greed, corruption, grid lock and never ending military adventurism do inevitably lead to destruction from within.

Despite prevailing pessimism that we as a nation have reached a point of no return, we must stand up and fight back with vigor and determination to change the course of history we are currently on and once again try to be the nation everyone admires.  

Be on the look out in the near future for Part 2...

2nd Amendment

2nd Amendment was enacted on December 15, 1791… It simply says;

“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Does the 2^nd Amendment guarantee individuals the right to bear arms? Thousands of volumes of opinions and interpretations have been written on the subject so is there a need for one more opinion?

If you think there is, keep on reading…

As far as I can gather, in 1791, we lived in a very different country. Most of the population used to live in farms, engaged in husbandry. When the need arose, people were called upon to bear arms and join together to form a “militia”. This was the case when The Continental Army was established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775. The Continental Army also included a number of militia units from the States. Most of the weaponry of the Continental army was muskets, canons and pistols and cavalry also had sabers. (The Continental Army was disbanded in 1783 after the Treaty of Paris ended the revolutionary war. The 1st and 2nd Regiments went on to form the nucleus of the Legion of the United States in 1792 under General Anthony Wayne. This became the foundation of the United States Army in 1796, 5 years after the adoption of the 2^nd Amendment).

According to historians and Constitutional scholars, early English settlers in America viewed the right to bear arms and form state militias as important part of their rights for the purpose of enabling the people to organize a well-regulated militia system, participating in law enforcement by forming a posse, deterring a future tyrannical government in form of a monarchy, repelling a possible invasion force, suppressing insurrection (allegedly including slave revolts) and facilitating a natural right of collective self-defense.

During that period, public use of the English language was also somewhat different. Years later, Lincoln would start his Gettysburg address on November 19, 1863 by saying “Four score and seven years ago…” instead of just saying “87 years ago”. Today, the term of “A Well Regulated Militia” roughly refers to the equivalent of present day National Guard. Yet, there were no regular Army units at that time which would resemble anything like today’s Army, Navy or Air Force. Even during the Civil War, most of the combatants on both sides were regular folks who answered the call of duty and after the end of the war, those who survived simply laid their arms and went home.

When considered against this context, 2^nd Amendment is simply saying that people have the right to bear arms to form a well-regulated militia (army) since a well-regulated militia is essential for the security of a free state. As far as I can see, there is nothing in the 2^nd Amendment to secure the right of individuals to own assault weapons, high capacity magazines, armor piercing bullets, RPG-7s, IEDs, fissile material, ICBMs and nuclear warheads for personal use or defense.

Situation on Korean Peninsula, April 2013

Let us look into the situation on Korean Peninsula;

1) We have 30K troops in South Korea, North has 1 million plus 6 million reserves.

2) Most of our military is tied up in Afghanistan till the end of 2014.

3) Our troops are showing combat fatigue since many are on their 3rd or 4th deployment.

4) We can't use nuclear or chemical weapons against the North because of China and Russia and yet if         they have them, North Korea has every reason to use them to  spread the conflict worldwide and win.

5) Air superiority alone can’t win wars. Carpet bombing could not win Vietnam War.

6) Where will the money come from for this war? Borrow more from Chinese while fighting Chinese or print more?

7) Kim Jung Un figured out that China simply can’t afford to let North Korea be taken off the map regardless of the rhetoric.

8) Strategic equation between North Korea, China, Russia and the US has not changed since the end of Korean War in 1953. Soviet Mig-15s flew combat missions against us during Korean War. Chinese soldiers made the back bone of the Communist forces, a scenario likely to repeat.

9) Kim Jung Un has a window of opportunity to attack since we are militarily spread thin right now.

10) Economic sanctions have led to wars before.

11) Obama is no JFK.

Feel free to draw your own conclusions but I think we are headed into another major war in the Far East with possibly unpleasant consequences for us.