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Archive for October 6, 2015
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October 6, 2015Accidental Turkish airspace incursion ‘used to involve NATO in info war against Russia over Syria’
October 6, 2015Accidental Turkish airspace incursion ‘used to involve NATO in info war against Russia over Syria’
Published time: 6 Oct, 2015 09:53
Edited time: 6 Oct, 2015 11:01
The incident with the Russian jet, which accidentally violated Turkey’s airspace, has been used to include NATO in the media war against Moscow’s anti-terror op in Syria, said Aleksandr Grushko, Russia’s envoy to the Western military alliance.
“The impression is that the incident in Turkish airspace was used in order to include NATO as an organization into the information campaign unleashed in the West, which perverts and distorts the purposes of the operation conducted by the Russian air forces in Syria,” Grushko said.
According to Grushko, NATO has ignored clarifications from Russia about the plane incident. All attempts to explain the reasons behind the incident fell on deaf ears, however, with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg describing the situation as “unacceptable violations of Turkish airspace.”
“Similar incidents are clarified through bilateral or military channels,” Grushko said. “This is common practice.”
“The fact that clarifications from the Russian side have been ignored just gives away the true intentions of the initiators of the [NATO] Council meeting.”
On Monday, Russia admitted making a mistake after its warplane violated Turkey’s airspace. The Russian Defense Ministry has explained that bad weather caused the incident.
Ankara has accepted the explanation, saying there is no ill feeling between the two countries. NATO has slammed Moscow for what it deemed “irresponsible behavior,” however.
The incident, which took place on Saturday, saw Turkey scramble two F-16 jets after a Russian military aircraft crossed into Turkish airspace near the Syrian border.
Ankara also claimed that a MiG-29 fighter jet, which is used by both Russia and Syria, harassed two of its F-16s on Sunday by locking radar on to them as they patrolled the Turkish-Syrian border.
The NATO chief refused to confirm the report.
“Whether the Russian planes locked their fire control radars onto the Turkish planes is something I cannot comment on,” Stoltenberg told reporters.
AN ARMY OF MCCLELLANS — The Syria Mess and the Pentagon’s Serial Failures
October 6, 2015AN ARMY OF MCCLELLANS — The Syria Mess and the Pentagon’s Serial Failures, The American Interest, October 5, 2015
When Robert Gates was Secretary of Defense, he found that the Pentagon was ruled by a culture of bureaucratic delay and careerism. This culture affected even such vital issues as getting effective armor to military vehicles, leading to many unnecessary deaths and mutilations by IEDs. In the middle of war, that is, the Pentagon was still in a peacetime military mode, a mode in which buck-passers, bureaucrats, and time-servers push paper, and award one another certificates of merit. One hand washes the other as everybody gets trophies, medals, and promotions at the end of the year.
The pathetic failure of the Pentagon’s efforts in Syria indicate that if anything, this culture of self-congratulation and failure is getting more entrenched. An extensive autopsy of the now-infamous Syria training program in the Wall Street Journal today has plenty of damning details about the White House’s lack of decisiveness and micromanagement. But it also details numerous lapses from the military leaders tasked with carrying out the training, all of which culminated in this farce:
“We, who are directly in contact with the Pentagon, I swear to God, we have no clue what is going on. It is very complicated,” [U.S.-trained rebel commander] Abu Iskandar said in late August as his group was falling apart.
Pentagon-trained fighters said they stopped wearing military uniforms provided by the Americans, fearful of being attacked. On Sept. 19, Col. Daher withdrew from Division 30, citing a lack of American support and coordination.Col. Patrick Ryder, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said nine of 54 members of the first class were still operating with the U.S. in Syria. Abu Iskandar said all but three fighters remain.
This isn’t the Pentagon’s only embarrassing, dangerous, and costly failure of late. Think of the collapse of the Iraqi army in the face of ISIS, or the Afghan military. After 14 years of U.S. force building efforts in Afghanistan, we seem to have created a force that is better at raping boys than at fighting the Taliban. The failures in that country show that we have a military culture in which the greatest sin is rocking the boat. It’s apparently far better to let corrupt Afghan soldiers chain slave boys to their beds than to create some kind of public disturbance. This is a strategy of “hearts and minds” that will win popular support against the Taliban?
The U.S. is running a vast, multi-country war effort that has become unhinged from any serious strategic vision, and we have a military system in which the commanders who see the futility and try to do something about it (and there are plenty) are sidelined. Go along to get along is the way things work in Obama’s Pentagon, and both the White House and the Congress are more interested in making the military look pretty on the parade ground than making it perform effectively in the combat zone.
The President and the political overseers in Congress have made their priorities clear: You can persist with strategies that don’t work for years and still get steadily promoted up the ladder as long as you jump through hoops about integrating women and gays into more military roles. There’s nothing wrong with those goals. Integrating the armed services racially was once attacked by traditionalists as a step that would destroy military cohesion, but it’s made both the U.S. and our armed services much stronger over time. But the essence of military leadership (and effective civilian oversight) is to get the combat missions done with the lowest possible cost and loss of life.
Perhaps choosing between successful military operations and reshaping the makeup of the military doesn’t have to be either/or, but under President Obama we have opted for the latter and tanked the former. The Pentagon has failed at its major military objectives in the Middle East. It has not built up the Iraqi Army into an independent force that can defend against ISIS and sectarian militias. It has not made the Afghan army the core of a state that can hold territory and retain the loyalty of its people and so prevent the Taliban’s resurgence. And it has not created an effective rebel force in Syria as a third way between Assad and ISIS. Perhaps these objectives were always unrealistic and the missions should never have been launched, or perhaps they needed more focused and proactive civilian leadership. But in any case, the brass on the Pentagon office doors has been polished to a high shine during the Obama years even as the missions in the field have serially failed.
Failures of military leadership are ultimately failures of civilian oversight. Abraham Lincoln fired General McClellan and promoted General Grant because, while McClellan dressed well, handled himself well in social situations, and polished his army to perfection on the parade ground, he didn’t win battles. General Grant was occasionally drunk, almost always slovenly, and didn’t always say the right things to the press. He did, however, win battles. Right now our political leadership seems to prefer an army of McClellans to an army of Grants, and the consequences are visible across the Middle East.
From Day 1 of Russian anti-ISIS op in Syria MSM launched anti-Moscow information campaign
October 6, 2015From Day 1 of Russian anti-ISIS op in Syria MSM launched anti-Moscow information campaign – FM
Published time: 6 Oct, 2015 12:03
Edited time: 6 Oct, 2015 14:39
The global media are intentionally distorting the objectives of the Russian air operation in Syria, said Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“From the very beginning of the military part of the Russia’s counter-terror operation in Syria, which was initiated after the official request of the government of that country, international media launched a powerful anti-Russian campaign,” Zakharova said.
The main accusations voiced by the global media against Russia are of the alleged illegality, irrationality and ambiguity of its actions in Syria.
“We face various accusations, namely securing primarily Russian interests in the region, allegedly disguised with fighting Islamic State and other terror groups,” Zakharova said.
Almost immediately Russia was slammed for alleged civilian victims and children’s deaths, the Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson said.
“The claims are illustrated with photos and videos that actually either are outdated or have no relation to the subject or the region,” she pointed out.
READ MORE: RT fact checks 4 media fails on Russia’s anti-ISIS op in Syria
Maria Zakharova recalled Moscow’s reaction to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, pointing out that Russia was one of the first countries that offered Washington help.
“We perceived the pain of the American people as our own. When Washington declared there was a challenge to their national security, we, knowing what terrorism really is, we supported the US in all ways without posing questions whether those terrorists were bad or good,” the spokeswoman said.
She urged all countries to maintain direct contact with Moscow to avoid any ambiguities or uncertainties about Russia’s operations in Syria.
“When it is ‘possibly, probably or it seems,’ you can always pick up the phone and make it clear with us,” Zakharova said, adding that Moscow is open to have consultations at “any moment.”
Russia is not planning to join the US-led antiterrorist coalition, as it views its actions as illegitimate since neither the UN Security Council nor the Syrian government have given their approval for military actions inside the country, Zakharova also said.
READ MORE: Putin: Claims Russian jets killed civilians in Syria emerged before airstrikes started
“We cannot take part in unlawful operations. We stood the same ground 10 years ago, at the time of the Iraqi campaign – and we were proved right,” Zakharova said. “Our stance remains unaltered: we won’t take part in unlawful campaigns. With both the UNSC’s decision and Damascus consent’s missing – we are staying out of this.”
Russia has launched its air operation in Syria to protect its national security interests, the Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman stressed.
“It is a true matter of national security for us. We have lived through this [terror] and we do not want the situation with international terrorism to repeat [in Russia], it’s too painful for us,” Zakharova said.
The Russian Defense Ministry is demonstrating an unprecedented level of openness lately, particularly when it comes to the operation in Syria, the spokesperson noted.
“We’re open to contacts of military experts and in case there are any concerns – we’re ready to look into them,” Maria Zakharova said.
The spokesperson ruled out any possibility of a ground operation of the Russian military in Syria.
Russia has ‘substantial’ number of troops inside Syria, says Nato secretary-general
October 6, 2015Russia has ‘substantial’ number of troops inside Syria, says Nato secretary-general
Lizzie Dearden
Tuesday 6 October 2015 10:25 BST 188 comments
Here we go again !
Did we not here this before and proved by false pictures in the Ukraine ?
Vladimir Putin has previously said there will be ‘no Russian boots on the ground’ in Syria AFP/Getty Images.
Russia has built up a “substantial” military presence including ground troops in Syria, according to the Nato secretary-general.
Jens Stoltenberg told journalists that Vladimir Putin’s forces have not mainly been targeting Isis, but other opposition groups.
“I will not go into any specific numbers but I can confirm that we have seen the substantial build-up of Russian forces in Syria – air force, air defences but also ground troops in connection with the air base they have,” he continued.
A Russian pilot climbs from an SU-25M jet fighter at Hmeimim airbase in Syria
“And we also see increased naval presence of Russian ships and naval capabilities outside Syria or in the eastern part of the Mediterranean.
“So there has been a substantial military build-up by Russia with many different kinds of capabilities and forces, over the last weeks.”
Mr Putin previously said that he had no plans to deploy ground troops in Syria.
“Russia will not take part in any field operations on the territory of Syria or in other states; at least, we do not plan it for now,” the Russian President told CBS last week.
Mr Stoltenberg said the US has made contact with Moscow to establish ways to ensure Russian planes and jets from the international coalition fighting Isis do not clash during their missions over Syria.
But relations with Turkey seemed less cordial after Russia’s Air Force reportedly violated its airspace on Saturday and Sunday.
Mr Stoltenberg said the reported incidents were “very serious“, adding: “It doesn’t look like an accident, and we’ve seen two of them over the weekend.”
Russia’s defence ministry said the first incursion was unintentional and lasted only “a few seconds” as a fighter jet approached a Syrian air base just over the nearby border in bad weather.
There were reports of air strikes in the Isis-held city of Palmyra today, targeting the jihadist group’s vehicles and weapons, as the Kremlin’s campaign continued today.
Reminder: US Has Been Blatantly Violating Syria Airspace for Over a Year
October 6, 2015Reminder: US Has Been Blatantly Violating Syria Airspace for Over a Year But is up in arms over a Russian plane in Turkish airspace
Source: Reminder: US Has Been Blatantly Violating Syria Airspace for Over a Year
With all the fuss about a Russian plane which briefly strayed into Turkey due to bad weather it may be a good time for a reminder that US has been illegally violationing Syria airspace for over a year, and that’s in the course of conducting equally illegal military operations against targets on Syria soil. You tell us which is the bigger violation of state sovereigny here?
Indeed here is a graphic that mainstream media wants you to see today:
They’re selling a story where what’s remarkable about the situation in the air over Syria is how close the Russians (yellow) are flying to the Americans (green). But if you look closely you’ll see there’s a huge illegal US presence in the air on the Syria side of the Syria-Turkish border (white line).
Russia Targeting US-Backed Syrians to Challenge Obama
October 6, 2015Russia Intentionally Targeting US-Backed Syrian Rebels to Challenge Obama Policy
BY:
October 6, 2015 10:05 am
Source: Russia Targeting US-Backed Syrians to Challenge Obama
U.S. officials on the ground in Syria said they believe Russia is deliberately targeting CIA-backed Syrian rebels with its airstrikes in the region as a direct challenge to President Obama’s policy in Syria.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the conclusion led the Obama administration to consider how the U.S. can increase help to Syrian rebel groups fighting the Bashar al-Assad regime without getting further involved in the civil war there.
Obama has said that the does not want the U.S. to become more embroiled in the conflict.
According to officials, the Department of Defense has refused to share information with Moscow regarding the position of U.S.-backed rebels. The Pentagon fears Russia, a strong ally of the Assad regime, could use the intelligence to more accurately target the rebels or relay it to Assad.
Russia launched its first airstrikes in Syria last Wednesday near the city of Homs, an area that is not controlled by the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIL or ISIS), despite Moscow’s assurances it has bolstered military involvement in Syria in order to combat IS and other terrorist groups. Most of the subsequent airstrikes have appeared to target rebel groups fighting Assad that have been armed and trained by the CIA.
“On day one, you can say it was a one-time mistake,” a senior U.S. official explained. “But on day three and day four, there’s no question it’s intentional. They know what they’re hitting.”
Officials suspect Russia is attacking U.S.-backed Syrian rebel groups presenting the greatest immediate threat to the Assad regime.
Though Russian President Vladimir Putin and his officials have insisted that the country’s military activity in Syria will only involve airstrikes, Moscow said Monday that its “volunteer” forces will soon begin fighting on the ground in Syria. Similar Russian forces fought on the ground in Ukraine as Putin intervened there.
The White House has yet to offer aid to the Syrian rebels being targeted by Russia.
Off Topic? | A new global police to fight “Violent Extremism” in the U.S.?
October 6, 2015A new global police to fight “Violent Extremism” in the U.S.? Front Page Magazine, Matthew Vadum, October 6, 2015
(Not long ago, I would have thought this a nutty conspiracy article. Now, not so much. With the UN and Obama involved, what could go wrong? — DM)
The Obama administration plans to create a global police force that counters “violent extremism” in the United States and elsewhere.
The problem is that in Obama-speak “violent extremism” refers not only to jihadists wishing to harm Americans but also to conservatives and Tea Party activists. Just ask all the law-abiding right-of-center nonprofit groups targeted by Lois Lerner’s IRS during the Obama presidency.
Ominously, President Obama and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch unveiled the Strong Cities Network last week at the United Nations.
America’s chief executive, who speaks in hushed and reverent tones when discussing the Muslim faith, said the U.S. will use “all of our tools” to fight Islamic State terrorists.
“This is not an easy task,” Obama said. “This is not a conventional battle. This is a long-term campaign — not only against this particular network, but against its ideology.” The United States and a coalition of 60 other countries are “pursuing a comprehensive strategy” for dealing with Islamic State, he said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice teased the Strong Cities Network in a press release:
Cities are vital partners in international efforts to build social cohesion and resilience to violent extremism. Local communities and authorities are the most credible and persuasive voices to challenge violent extremism in all of its forms and manifestations in their local contexts. While many cities and local authorities are developing innovative responses to address this challenge, no systematic efforts are in place to share experiences, pool resources and build a community of cities to inspire local action on a global scale.
“The Strong Cities Network will serve as a vital tool to strengthen capacity-building and improve collaboration,” Lynch was quoted saying. “As we continue to counter a range of domestic and global terror threats, this innovative platform will enable cities to learn from one another, to develop best practices and to build social cohesion and community resilience here at home and around the world.”
The media release continues:
The SCN will include an International Steering Committee of approximately 25 cities and other sub-national entities from different regions that will provide the SCN with its strategic direction. The SCN will also convene an International Advisory Board, which includes representatives from relevant city-focused networks, to help ensure SCN builds upon their work. It will be run by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a leading international “think-and-do” tank with a long-standing track record of working to prevent violent extremism …
Although the European scene is different from the American, the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue doesn’t come across at first glance as a neutral observer.
Its website, which is filled with left-wing buzzwords, warns
The tragic attacks in Norway on 22 July, 2011 drew Europe’s gaze to the dangers of the growing presence of far-right extremism across Europe and the increasing legitimisation of anti-immigration and anti-Islamic discourses within mainstream European politics. The blurred relationship between violence from the extreme right and broader trends of Islamophobia and anti-immigration sentiment poses several challenges for policy makers seeking to address the increasing risk of violent right-wing extremism.
And although American conservatives might not quibble with a new U.S.-based initiative aimed at “violent extremism” outside America’s borders, they have ample reason to be concerned about one that targets organizations within the United States.
Conservative champion Pamela Geller railed against the Strong Cities Network in a column at Breitbart News.
This plan “amounts to nothing less than the overriding of American laws, up to and including the United States Constitution, in favor of United Nations laws that would henceforth be implemented in the United States itself – without any consultation of Congress at all.”
Announcing the plan at the United Nations is curious she writes, because the UN “is a sharia-compliant world body, and Obama, speaking there just days ago, insisted that ‘violent extremism’ is not exclusive to Islam (which it is).”
It is unlikely the new body will be used as a “global police force” to crush counter-jihad forces, she wrote.
After all, with Obama knowingly aiding al-Qaeda forces in Syria, how likely is it that he will use his “global police force” against actual Islamic jihadists?
I suspect that instead, this global police force will be used to impose the blasphemy laws under the sharia (Islamic law), and to silence all criticism of Islam for the President who proclaimed that “the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”
Geller and other conservatives are painfully aware that in the parlance of the Left, “violent extremism” refers to conservatives and other patriotic Americans.
If you are opposed to enlarging the redistributive state and spreading the wealth around then by definition you’re a potential terrorist. If you’re a conservative or a libertarian, if you believe in gun rights or don’t support abortion rights or an immigration amnesty, if you don’t like high taxes or welfare programs or if you dare to believe that the Constitution actually limits the power of the government, you’re at risk of turning to terrorism.
In 2009, Janet Napolitano, then head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security gave her blessing to a spurious DHS report titled, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”
Drawing heavily from so-called research by the loony-left Southern Poverty Law Center, the report lumped Ku Klux Klansmen and violent militias together with good government types and members of the Federalist Society. This law enforcement guidance claimed that large swaths of the nation that did not vote Democratic in the last election were boiling over with hatred and intolerance.
Anticlimactically, the report noted that there is no actual evidence “that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence.” Nonetheless the report speculated, using language that would later be embraced by the violent Occupy Wall Street movement, that “the economic downturn and the election of the first African American president” might help these “rightwing extremists” gain new recruits.
Guffaws from Republicans and some of her fellow Democrats forced Napolitano to disavow the report but in the intervening years Obama’s DHS has kept up the pressure on patriotic Americans in an attempt to stigmatize and marginalize conservative beliefs.
As recently as this past February, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson released a report on what CNN called the grave “domestic terror threat from right-wing sovereign citizen extremists.”
“The government says these are extremists who believe that they can ignore laws and that their individual rights are under attack in routine daily instances such as a traffic stop or being required to obey a court order,” the news network reported.
To the Obama administration, zealous civil libertarians and ornery old guys in pickup trucks are a much greater threat to the homeland than Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, al Qaeda, and Islamic State combined.
CNN paraphrased Mark Potok, a senior fellow at — you guessed it, the Southern Poverty Law Center — hailing the report.
“Potok said that by some estimates, there are as many as 300,000 people involved in some way with sovereign citizen extremism. Perhaps 100,000 people form a core of the movement, he said.”
Around the same time counterinsurgency and counterterrorism expert Sebastian Gorka ridiculed the obviously politicized DHS report for going off the deep end.
Gorka, a professor who lectures on irregular warfare at the College of International Security Affairs at the National Defense University, said over the last two decades he could not remember right-wing extremists flying jumbo jets into buildings, bombing a marathon, or beheading Christian hostages.
“It really is the most egregious politicization of national security,” Gorka opined. “We’re going to be looking for right-wing extremists when ISIS prepares to attack us? It’s outrageous.”
“We have tens of thousands of people in the Middle East and elsewhere and here in America who have committed themselves to the destruction of this great nation. And we’re going to be focusing on the small cluster of right-wingers here in the United States?” he said. “This could endanger American lives.”
All of this brings to mind the jarringly strange thing then-Senator Obama said on the campaign trail in October 2008.
“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set,” he said. “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”
Is the Strong Cities Network the civilian national security force Obama mentioned just once and then never brought up again?
We’re about to find out.
Iran troops to join Syria war, Russia bombs group trained by CIA
October 6, 2015Iran troops to join Syria war, Russia bombs group trained by CIA
BEIRUT/MOSCOW |
By Laila Bassam and Andrew Osborn
Source: Iran troops to join Syria war, Russia bombs group trained by CIA | Reuters
Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria to join a major ground offensive in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s government, Lebanese sources said on Thursday, a sign the civil war is turning still more regional and global in scope.
Russian warplanes, in a second day of strikes, bombed a camp run by rebels trained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the group’s commander said, putting Moscow and Washington on opposing sides in a Middle East conflict for the first time since the Cold War.
Senior U.S. and Russian officials spoke for just over an hour by secure video conference on Thursday, focussing on ways to keep air crews safe, the Pentagon said, as the two militaries carry out parallel campaigns with competing objectives.
“We made crystal clear that, at a minimum, the priority here should be the safe operation of the air crews over Syria,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said.
Two Lebanese sources told Reuters hundreds of Iranian troops had reached Syria in the past 10 days with weapons to mount a major ground offensive. They would also be backed by Assad’s Lebanese Hezbollah allies and by Shi’ite militia fighters from Iraq, while Russia would provide air support.
“The vanguard of Iranian ground forces began arriving in Syria -soldiers and officers specifically to participate in this battle. They are not advisers … we mean hundreds with equipment and weapons. They will be followed by more,” one of the sources said.
So far, direct Iranian military support for Assad has come mostly in the form of military advisers. Iran has also mobilised Shi’ite militia fighters, including Iraqis and some Afghans, to fight alongside Syrian government forces.
Moscow said it had hit Islamic State positions, but the areas it struck near the cities of Hama and Homs are mostly held by a rival insurgent alliance, which unlike Islamic State is supported by U.S. allies including Arab states and Turkey.
Hassan Haj Ali, head of the Liwa Suqour al-Jabal rebel group that is part of the Free Syrian Army, told Reuters one of the targets was his group’s base in Idlib province, struck by about 20 missiles in two separate raids. His fighters had been trained by the CIA in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, part of a programme Washington says is aimed at supporting groups that oppose both Islamic State and Assad.
“Russia is challenging everyone and saying there is no alternative to Bashar,” Haj Ali said. He said the Russian jets had been identified by members of his group who once served as Syrian air force pilots.
The group is one of at least three foreign-backed FSA rebel factions to say they had been hit by the Russians in the last two days.
At the United Nations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference Moscow was targeting Islamic State. He did not specifically deny that Russian planes had attacked Free Syrian Army facilities but said Russia did not view it as a terrorist group and viewed it as part of a political solution in Syria
No moral outrage in the military
October 6, 2015No moral outrage in the military, Washington Times, James A. Lyons, October 5, 2015
Obama Decimates the U.S. Military Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times
[T]he degradation of our military’s core principles must be viewed in a much broader perspective. Actually, it is a key element in President Obama’s declaration to fundamentally transform America. When you want to take down a country, the first thing you do is weaken its military.
***************************
Recent articles highlighting horrifying child abuse atrocities inflicted on defenseless children by our Afghan military and police partners are but the latest examples of how President Obama is destroying U.S. military forces.
Our military leadership’s response to these blatant acts of pedophilia by our so-called Afghan partners has been shocking. In short, the guidance provided to our Army and Marine Corps personnel was to just ignore these Muslim and Afghan seventh-century customs and traditions. They have been instructed to not interfere, even when such horrific acts are being committed on our own bases.
Those U.S. military personnel. whose moral outrage will not let them ignore these atrocities and instead act to stop these unconscionable acts against children, are either disciplined or forced to leave the service. In other words, even if you find a young boy chained to a bed so that a local police commander can sodomize him every night and you hear the screams, you are told to look the other way. This is not only un-American but an act against humanity.
Even the Taliban outlawed such practices and freed a number of children, thereby earning the gratitude of village elders. Does the Taliban with its seventh-century mentality have a higher moral code than the U.S. military leadership? It should be clear to any thinking person that when our honorable military personnel are forced to ignore these crimes against humanity, they are viewed as being complicit.
To those who have followed our involvement in Afghanistan, the current policy to ignore acts of pedophilia should come as no surprise. When “green on blue” attacks gained national attention, our military leadership tried to explain it away by claiming the friction that developed between the two forces was because our military personnel were not sensitive enough to Afghan culture and traditions. In other words, if our Afghan partners conduct violence or kill U.S. military personnel, it is our fault. What nonsense.
Other Afghan cultural idiosyncrasies our military personnel are forced to accept without reservation include wife-beating, rape, drug use, thievery, dog torture, desertion and collusion with the enemy, the Taliban. Furthermore, under no circumstances can our military discuss Islam in any form. The genesis for this goes back to the purging of all our training manuals and instructors who presented Islam in an unfavorable light or linked it to terrorism. It is totally against our core principles and everything we stand for as Americans. It clearly has an adverse impact on individual and unit morale, which affects the ultimate goal of the “will to win.” The bottom line is that we are forcing our great military to submit to Islam and its governing Shariah law, or possibly die.
This is exactly the choice offered to infidels who have been vanquished by Islamic jihad. Our military’s silence and acquiescence, particularly by the leadership, is the humiliating price for our coexistence with our Afghan partners. This is unacceptable.
However, the degradation of our military’s core principles must be viewed in a much broader perspective. Actually, it is a key element in President Obama’s declaration to fundamentally transform America. When you want to take down a country, the first thing you do is weaken its military. We cannot ignore the fact that with or without sequestration, the Obama administration has unilaterally disarmed our military forces and, consequently, our capabilities. Further, the social engineering imposed on our military forces — to include the acceptance of gay, lesbian and soon transgender personnel — further undermines the moral fiber of our military and constitutes a further degradation of our military effectiveness. Forcing women into combat roles only further degrades the situation. The restricted rules of engagement imposed on our forces has reduced our military’s effectiveness and caused unnecessary loss of life and debilitating injuries.
Likewise, the pin-prick attacks on the Islamic State cast a shadow over what a dedicated air campaign could accomplish. It projects an image of weakness and ineffectiveness of our true capabilities. It has taken the “awe” of our invincibility and overwhelming force capabilities out of the equation. The net result is that our enemies no longer fear us, and our allies can no longer trust us.
The imposed limit on the application and capability our military force is not limited to the Middle East. For example, in the Western Pacific, to challenge China’s illegal actions in the South China Sea, the Obama administration has restricted the U.S. Navy from enforcing its freedom of seas concept that has been a fundamental principle of the U.S. Navy for more than 238 years. Our Asian allies in the Western Pacific watch carefully how we respond to China’s aggressive actions. Our directed restraint clearly will not raise their confidence level.
Our national security is being deliberately jeopardized. President Obama’s bloviating to Vladimir Putin at the recent U.N. session that he leads the most powerful military in the world was only true on the day he took office. Since then, Obama has systematically degraded our capabilities. The chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committee must take forceful action now to prevent further emasculation of our military capabilities.
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