Smiley tries to re-define the word “lie” as giving information that turns out to be incorrect, whether or not you knew it to be at the time.  Logically, then Tavis Smiley must think Obama lied about the stimulus plan’s impact on unemployment.  Obama said that the stimulus would keep unemployment under 8%.  It’s been over 9% for almost his entire presidency.  By Tavis Smiley’s definition, Obama lied to the American people.  He wanted a Kenseyian solution, and he sold the stimulus bill to the American people.  The fact that Obama honestly believed the stimulus would work is, according to Smiley, irrelevant.

By Tavis Smiley’s confused attempt at logic, Merle Hodge lied when he said the Rams would beat the Eagles this week; and the entire sports world lied when they said the Patriots would beat my beloved Giants in Superbowl XLII.  It’s an idiotic stance to take, and if liberals at PBS think NPR was right for firing Juan Williams, PBS should take a long look at Tavis Smiley’s contract.

Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be.
But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.

At the time, the Spanish empire was crumbling and the United States had just purchased its newest territory, Florida.  Adams was arguing that America should not be involved in the wars for independence, and should instead remain a passive example of hope and democracy.  In the almost 200 years that have passed since Adams’s speech to Congress, a lot has changed.

It is true that stomping around the world, looking for monsters can draw unwanted attention, and can even create new monsters.  One could argue that al Qaeda would not have attacked the United States, had we not kept a base in Saudi Arabia.  Osama bin Laden’s 1996 and 1998 fatwas certainly support that view.  But leaving Saudi Arabia alone in the 1990′s would have meant empowering Saddam Hussein, the only leader ever to order the use of nerve gas.

Just as leaving England would have meant allowing Adolf Hitler to grow in power, or leaving Germany would have strengthened the Soviets and leaving Japan would have meant ceding the Pacific to China; allowing despots and dictators to grow to regional powers allows the monster to feed, to fester and to search abroad to satisfy its power lust.  Our strength does not feed tyrants–our weakness does. “None of the four wars in [the twentieth century] came about because we were too strong. It’s weakness that invites adventurous adversaries to make mistaken judgments.”

An environment that allows despots and tyrants free reign over their people or a region may have be tolerable when oceans served as moats, and men flew only in poetry.  Today’s monsters may still live abroad, but their reach has grown.

In 1821, the force required to raze a city would have been carried by ships–plural.

Only two years before Adams made his remarks, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic did so in 18 days.  Today, you can fly from LA to Singapore in 18 hours.  Correspondence that once was done by letters delivered on horseback, by train, by sail or steamboat, over the course of weeks or months, can now be done via satellite video conference in an instant.

Trips that would take a lifetime to plan and a fortune to finance can now be booked casually as a week-long holiday.  There is no place on Earth that cannot be reached from any other within 24 hours.  But the same technology that lets us relax in another hemisphere can also be used to kill thousands without warning on a clear, Tuesday morning.

In 1821, the force required to raze a city would have been carried by ships–plural.  It’s hard even for the federal government to miss an armada, and they don’t even have to grope coeds in the airport.  In 1821, Governments waged wars. Guerilla warfare was in its fledgling stages, and major conflicts were fought between standing armies.

Today, religious fanatics slaughter civilians indiscriminately.  One fanatic can kill hundreds. 19 fanatics can kill thousands.  The power to destroy a city can be carried in a suitcase, or in a plastic bag, wrapped in newspaper.  There are weapons that can wipe out entire cities in a blinding flash, infect millions with horrible disease or set an economy back for decades.   All that is needed is for one guard to miss a clue as the Ryder truck drives past; one TSA agent to be distracted; one metal detector to click when it should beep.

The monster may still walk abroad, but it can slip through our defenses without warning, act quickly, and leave nothing but tattered steel and broken bodies.  Do we trust our lives and our safety to our untrained citizens to see something and say something?  Do we rely on the TSA to succeed 100% of the time? Or do we ask SEAL Team 6, Army Rangers and the 10th Mountain Division to hunt the bastards down where they live?  I know who I trust more to get the job done.

To keep our lives and our liberty, rough men must slip into its cave at night and slit its beastly throat.

The first, and most important function of government is to protect its citizens from harm.  It is the primary purpose of the social contract–we join together to hold off the Hun.  In today’s world, protecting ourselves here, means slaying the monster abroad.  It cannot be allowed to grow, to breed, or to fester.  To keep our lives and our liberty, rough men must slip into its cave at night and slit its beastly throat.

Isolationism, whether out of economic conservatism or a laissez faire diplomacy, is institutional negligence.  If our government is to meet its primary responsibility, it must go abroad in search of monsters to slay.  To do otherwise is to invite the monster here–and it has no reservations about slaying us.

Obama’s FedEx moment is turning out to be ordering the SEALs to kill Osama bin Laden.  Obama is out singing his praises, noting how risky it was to send in the SEALs.  Don’t get me wrong, I agree that it was the right call, and I have the highest regard for our special forces operators.

But, as President, was that really a gutsy call?  What really is the risk here?  Obviously, the other option was an aerial attack, either by stealth or predator.

So, let’s list out the pros and cons of each:

Aerial Attack

Pros:

• Quick, not much planning.
• Little or no risk of American servicemen being captured.

Cons:

• Little, if any certainty of Osama’s death.
• Collateral damage.
• The “Asprin Factory” risk of getting it wrong.
• Little to no chance of getting additional intel from the house.
• Pakistan gets its panties in a bunch over the breach of its sovereignty.

SEAL Team 6

Pros:

• Certainty of getting Osama (or knowing that you didn’t).
• High likelihood of gathering additional intel.
• Little or no risk of collateral damage.
• No Aspirin Factory Risk.

Cons:

• Low, but non-zero risk of casualties.
• Pakistan gets its panties in a bunch over the breach of its sovereignty.

So, either way, the Pakistanis would be upset, but sending in the SEALs meant certainty of getting the objective and little collateral damage, if any.  Of course, sending men into battle is not a decision to take lightly, but making the choice between (1) sending in the most ruthlessly efficient, highly trained and competent commandos; (2) lobbing in bombs from 30,000 feet or (3) letting the world’s worst terrorist slip through our grasp again–how is this a tough call?  Why does it take 16 hours to make this call?

1. No Drama. The preferred, natural state of things.  Decisions are guarded with extreme secrecy, but the atmosphere is one of cohesion, a sense of camaraderie, and the lack of drama. Biden gets a pat on the back.
2. Cool. Smoking habits increase, rounds of golf are more tense and Teleprompter warmed up. Biden gets the occasional icy glare.
3. Wee-Weed Up.  Standard alert for August and September. Key metrics are demagoguery; inability to eat your waffles; irrational clinging to guns and religion.  Biden gets head slap.
4. Deep Concern. “Long planned” family vacation taken abruptly.  Carefully worded statement drafted for circulation among stakeholders warning that both sides must show restraint, and honor our traditions of [insert tradition here].  Fundamental rights must be respected, violence avoided and open communications allowed.  Biden slapped silly, sent to war zone.
5. Grave Concern. All 58 states put on high alert; hands extended (preferably over our head, with palms out) to those with clenched fists.  International community mobilized; clinging to guns and religion now rational.  Harshly worded statement issued regarding international norms and standards of common decency; use of violence strongly condemned.  Biden sent to undisclosed location at US Naval Observatory.

When it’s planes in the sky,
bombing all day and all night,
That’s linguistics.

When the tanks form a line
Bullets whiz and then whine,
That’s linguistics.

The world reaches the brink
Don’t act, just sit and think,
That’s linguistics.

Lots of eloquent words,
Drop like candy-filled turds,
That’s linguistics

When you call it one thing,
Swing voters will swing,
That’s linguistics.

When our focus report shows,
That support ebbs and then flows,
That’s linguistics

Bombs will rain on the shore,
But we’re not calling it war,
That’s linguistics.

Apologies to UPS.

This fails for several reasons.  First, there were between 270 and 400 Jews who died in the World Trade Center.  This is likely more than 10%.  Second, terror attacks do not kill at random, they kill those in and around the place of the attack at the time of the attack.  Only a truly random vector would provide a death toll that matched the population demographics.

Finally, and most idiotic, the demographics of New York City show that 27% of the population is Black, yet only 7% of those who died were Black.  So, Malik Shabazz, what did the New Black Panther Party know about the terrorist attacks, and when did it know it?

Before Obama won election in 2008, a typically frank Joe Biden had this to say to supporters of his then candidacy:

“Mark my words, it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

“I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate, and he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you – not financially to help him – we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.”

“Gird your loins,” he told Obama’s supporters.  Since that time, several international crises have occurred.  Here is Obama’s response and the effects so far:

So ask yourself, are our relations with the countries mentioned above better or worse than they were before Obama became president?  Are we, and is the world, safer or more perilous thanks to Obama’s policies?

We may need to gird more than just our loins in order to survive the next three years.

To the north, the increasing costs of healthcare and a burdensome welfare state, drives Canada to a more benevolent form of socialism.  Poverty and cost of goods increase as free markets dry up.  Canada is not openly hostile to the United States, but it turns a blind eye as our enemies filter in and cross our mutual border.

In 2013, Venezuela, backed by the surging price of oil, becomes a regional power.  It begins to manufacture and distribute its own weapons.  It comes to terms with Canada, allowing it access to high-end military hardware and know-how.  By 2014, every Latin American dictator has Venezuelan arms.

Cuba becomes an even more fetid cesspool of communism and anti-Americanism.  Charities and putative non-governmental agencies form to offer “moral and charitable” support to Cuba, as it faces the American’s cruel, 50+ year embargo.   These charities, of course, serve another purpose: arming and training Cuban militias and infiltrators.

A steady stream of militant Cubans and their supporters flow into Florida, and our border states.  The violence escalates as the United States takes ever more aggressive measures to stem the violence.   Each Cuban killed or captured sparks outrage in all of Latin America.  Flags are burned daily and schools teach children of the Evil Empire based in Washington.  They indoctrinate their children into believing that their only hope is to give their lives for La Raza, the race.

In 2015, in response to economic sanctions, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela and a handful of satellite states declare war on the United States and attempt an invasion.  The invasion fails epically.  The U.S. military seizes parts of Mexico along the border as a buffer.  The U.S. also keeps Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

By 2019, the violence is constant.  Florida cities constantly face Cuban rockets, sabotage and homicide bombers.  Thousands of citizens are killed and maimed each year.  The U.S. military periodically attacks Cuban installations, but the rockets and violence continue.

To stem the violence, in 2020, the United States Navy and Coast Guard establish a blockade around Cuba.  It searches and seizes every ship headed for Cuban ports.  It offloads legitimate aid and delivers it directly to Cubans on the island.  The violence drops precipitously.

By 2024, attempts to run the blockade grow more and more intense.  Navy SEALs are used to interdict suspicious vessels.  In one incident, the Navy SEALs repel down from a helicopter armed only with paintball guns and their sidearms for personal protection.  The allegedly “peaceful” protesters throw stun grenades, and swarm the Navy SEALs as the reach the boat.  One is thrown overboard.  Others are beaten with metal pipes, chairs and, in one case, a box of plates.  Several of the “peace activists” brandish knives.  A few of the SEALs have their weapons taken.

Battered, beaten and outnumbered by an armed, rioting crowd, the SEALs fire their weapons in self-defense.  They disarm their attackers, 12 of whom are killed.  7 SEALs are injured, 2 critically.  It is later found that the boat, ostensibly carrying humanitarian aid, was also carrying gas masks, night vision goggles and bullet proof vests.  The ship was registered in Mexico and owned by a group known to fund Cuban extremism.

So the question is, how harsh should the U.N. sanctions be against the United States as the aggressor?

On June 13, 2009, thousands of Iranians risked their lives to protest a patently rigged election.  CNN reported over 150 casualties from one day of protest.  But still, Iranians came out to protest for democracy.  3 days later, Obama finally expressed “grave concern” for the protests.  His administration refused to comment on or off the record, fearing Iran would claim the U.S. was meddling, which Iran claimed anyway.  The greatest chance for a peaceful, democratic revolution in a generation, and Obama sat on his hands.

Nearly a year later, on May 30, 2010, Israeli Defense Forces intercept a ship trying to run the Gaza barricade.  The Gaza barricade was set up to prevent smuggling of weapons to Hamas to feed the constant attacks on Israel. The Israeli military offers to transport legitimate aid over land to Gaza.  The boarding party that approached the Mavi Marmara was armed only with paintguns and their side arms.  They were met with metal pipes and chairs.  The “peace activists” used knives to commandeered guns from the boarding party and shot at them.  12 “peace activists” are killed in the firefight. 7 of the boarding party are injured, 2 critically.  The news breaks late on the 30th,  by afternoon on the 31st, Obama is demanding answers from his putative ally, Israel.

The contrast could not be more stark.  Iran conducts a brutal crackdown against peaceful protesters, and the most Obama can muster is “grave concern.”  An ally is ambushed policing its waters, several armed civilians are killed and Obama demands answers.  Never in our history has any leader treated our enemies with such care and our allies with such contempt.  If Obama is elected to a second term, we will deserve the coming reckoning brought about by his naive and destructive policies.  If America and her allies grow weak, God help humanity, because no one else will.

The four Navy Seals from SEAL Team 10, were Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy and petty officers Matthew Axelson, Danny Dietz and Marcus Luttrell.  After a helicopter insertion and a treacherous four mile hike, the SEALs found a hiding space overlooking the Afghan village where Shah was suspected and prepared to stalk him.

Two local goat herders and a fourteen year old boy happened upon them.  Michael Murphy, the leader of the squad, put their fate to a vote.  Axelson voted they should be killed, a sad, but militarily efficient result.  Dietz abstained.  Murphy told Luttrell that it was up to him.  Worried about the consequences, and giving what he called the “liberal media” a chance to drag them and the SEAL name through the mud, Luttrell spared the three Afghans.

That decision, as noble or moral as it may have been, led to the worst day of casualties in U.S. Special Forces history.  Two hours after the Afghans were released, a force of about 80 Taliban swarmed the SEALs.  The SEALs, perched on a perilous cliff with radios that did not work, were alone.  In the brutal firefight that followed, the SEALs were forced to peal off and slide down a nearly vertical mountain of shale. Several times.

Danny Dietz, shot three times, once in the throat, continued to fire on the enemy, even as Taliban reinforcements arrived.  The fourth shot, to the head, killed him instantly.  After nearly an hour holding off the Taliban, Dietz killed, and Murphy, Lutrell and Axelson each shot at least once, Michael Murphy did something that defies belief.  Already shot in the stomach, he climbed out from behind his covered firing position and into the center of the firefight to call for help using his own cell phone.  He raised the Special Forces command, and reinforcements were on their way.  As he returned to his covered position, he was shot in the back, through the chest.  This act bravery was later honored with a Congressional Medal of Honor.

“We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”
- Winston Churchill

Murphy covered their displacement down the hill again, but was overpowered and killed.  Axelson was soon shot in the head, but incredibly, continued to fight, defending his shipmates.  Luttrell was left to fend off the scores of Taliban while rendering aid to a dying Axelson.  A grenade blew Luttrell out of his position, killing Axelson, and ironically, saving Luttrell.

Luttrell’s body was blown clear of the firefight, and the Taliban presumed him dead.  Far away, the SEALs’ reinforcements were landing, but the Taliban had staged an ambush.  When the Chinook helicopter lowered its ramp, a Taliban RPG screamed into the opening, destroying the helicopter and killing eight Navy SEALs and eight Nighstalker crew members.

The Navy SEALs were FCC Jacques J. Fontan, ITCS Daniel R. Healy, LCDR Erik S. Kristensen, Jeffery A. Lucas, LT Michael M. McGreevy, Jr., QM2 James E. Suh, HM1 Jeffrey S. Taylor, and MM2 Shane E. Patton.  The Nightstalkers were Staff Sgt. Shamus O. Goare, Chief Warrant Officer Corey J. Goodnature, Sgt. Kip A. Jacoby, Sgt. 1st Class Marcus V. Muralles, Master Sgt. James W. Ponder III, Maj. Stephen C. Reich, Sgt. 1st Class Michael L. Russell, and Chief Warrant Officer Chris J. Scherkenbach. In all, 19 Special Forces operators were killed.

For the next five days, Luttrell was hidden and protected from the Taliban by Pashtun tribesmen in a small village.  The village elder carried a note from Luttrell to the Special Forces command center, and Luttrell was soon rescued.  Shah survived his encounter with the SEALs, but he did not live long.  Less than three years later, he was killed in a firefight with Pakistani police forces.

Murphy was given the Congressional Medal of Honor, posthumously.  In 2008, a Navy destroyer was named after him.  Axelson, Dietz and Luttrell were each awarded the Navy Cross for their actions during Red Wing.  Luttrell later wrote a book, one you should read: Lone Survivor.  A movie is rumored for next year.

Luttrell has always maintained it was self-preservation, not mercy that lead him to spare the lives of the goat herders.  He knew that killing them was the correct thing to do, but worried about the media and a politically correct Navy court martialing him.  As if to prove Luttrell’s concerns legitimate, this year, three Navy SEALs were court martialed for allegedly punching a terrorist.  All three have been acquitted.

Luttrell’s suffering was not over, however.  Luttrell was given a dog, DASY, as part of his rehabilitation.  The name is an acronym for his comrades, Danny, Axe, Southern Boy (Luttrell) and Yankee (Murphy).  In 2009, in an act of unfathomable cowardice, two teenagers shot and killed his dog, DASY in Texas.  Luttrell gave chase, and fortunately for the scum, the police apprehended them before Luttrell did.

Keep these men in your mind and heart this Memorial Day.  Enjoy your hot dogs and your day off.  But don’t forget what these rough men have done and stand ready to do, to protect your freedom.