Perspective: How Should We Choose a Presidential Candidate?

Our country is in bad shape due to lack of Presidential leadership. We have been through six and a half years of doing nothing to stimulate the economy while doing everything to “transform” the country via redistribution of the wealth. Constant and repetitive talk about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer or that the wage level for unskilled labor is not growing is not an answer. We have had six years of such asinine rhetoric, and we don’t need four more years of it.  Meanwhile our foreign policy is in shambles.

That we are in such a weak position  is amazing considering our windfall of energy supplies, our leadership in the digital revolution and the worldwide leadership the US had a decade ago that pleased our allies and brought fear to our enemies.

So how are we to judge the candidates in terms of what the country needs? We currently have roughly 20 candidates running for President of the United States, and so far the Republican and Democrat candidates for President of the United States do not have specific and concrete plans for getting the US back on track. Many of the candidates just tinker around the edges or get lost in the weeds of alleged problems which do not require immediate solutions such as the decades old immigration problem and climate change concerns.

The candidate that we want should be able to state unequivocally what the major problems are and would show the proven leadership qualities to make us voters think that the candidate could and would solve them.

 

To start let’s list the major problems requiring immediate solutions.

1. Getting the US economy growing again
2. Dealing with the infrastructural needs
3. Dealing with the bankrupted entitlement programs
4. Dealing with the Islamic Terrorist problem

The Economy

The United States is in the best position in decades to grow the economy and create jobs because of our energy windfall and our worldwide lead in digital technology. Natural gas and the products it contains can reduce the energy of manufacturing and provide low cost building blocks for petrochemical and polymer products. Consequently, manufacturing can be encouraged to return to the United States creating high tech digital technology jobs. Coincidentally, millions of low-tech jobs can be created by converting petroleum fueled trucks, trains and even automobiles and their filling stations to compressed natural gas CNG replacing diesel and gasoline fuels.

Excessive Federal regulations, especially related to climate change, keep the US from capitalizing on these assets. Primarily what is needed is to go all out to develop our natural gas breakthrough and use it to replace other fossil fuels as rapidly as possible.

This can reduce green house gases by 25% and toxic emissions by even higher percentages.

In addition to the above, the tax structure for US manufacturing companies must be made competitive with that of overseas competition.

 

The public would agree, and these programs could be put in place by a new administration virtually at once.

 

Infrastructural Needs

Obviously, roads, bridges, electrical infrastructure, airport and rail facilities need to be kept in good repair. That they are not is unacceptable and requires little if any discussion. If government lacks the funds, that can be changed with the stroke of a pen. The aforementioned infrastructure plan needs to include pipelines to supply our natural gas to markets, and the Keystone Pipeline should be authorized at once. Bureaucratic barriers that impede market growth need to be removed, as well.

I am including our educational system as part of infrastructure. The shortage of high tech candidates for the growing digital jobs is an embarrassment and requires a whole new approach to education. An education system that was designed for the Industrial Revolution of the 1900’s is not what the Digital Revolution of the 21^st century requires. The fact that the Smart Phone contains the up to the minute information of the entire world’s knowledge should give educators a clue how to design and apply the new system.

For perspective, we students of the older system had to go to the school library to look up information in the schools usually only copy of the encyclopedia. Imagine what it would have been like to have had a “bookcase” attached to our desk to hold our very own encyclopedia? Nearly every school kid now has that in the palm of his/her hand. Moreover, it is up to date by the minute. You don’t have to wait for the updated book to arrive at your “bookcase”. Oh, and the information can be accessed verbally challenging whether the reading levels need to be equal for all students.

Another way to judge our educational system is to consider it as a business. Imagine that you are manufacturing a product that takes 12 years on the production line and costs about $100,000 to make. However, only 70% of the product meets specifications, i.e. graduates! How long would you be able to remain in business?

 

Entitlement Programs

The Social Security program was put in place in 1935, and was designed to pay out to citizens at age 65. Interestingly, the life expectancy was only 62 at the time so little would have to be paid out. Similarly, Medicare was enacted in 1965 when life expectancy was 67 years. Today, in 2015, life expectancy is 80 years. An elementary school math student could calculate that a system designed for death at 65 might be in financial trouble if the person lived 15 years longer. The problem gets worse. By the end of the century the life expectancy is expected to be above 100. As an aside, the elementary school math student could provide the answer in seconds with the Smart Phone. A thought for our politicians!

So what is to be done to save Social Security and Medicare? Easy! We can stay on the do nothing course we are on which means that the programs go broke so the Millennials, our grandchildren who are just entering the workforce, have nothing when they retire. Or, we could change the retirement date, or we could increase the amount starting workers pay in,  or both. None of these plans including doing nothing will affect those who have already retired. So, what is the problem? The problem is lack of a leader who will tell it as it is and lead us out of this quagmire!

Dealing With the Terrorist Problem

There is no question that we have a world-wide problem from terrorists. The question is what is the source of the terror? If you cannot define a problem, you cannot possibly solve it, and this current Administration refuses to call it what it is. The terrorist attacks are not “workplace incidents”! Clearly the attacks are caused by or instigated by radical Islamic jihadism, and terror is its tactic! And it is not confined to the Middle East. It is world-wide!

If it is radical Islamic jihadism, the next question is whether it involves all the billion plus Muslims in the world. A cursory inspection reveals that it does not involve the entire Muslim population of the world. But what it does reveal is that the good Muslims are frightened to death. They need someone they can trust to protect them. That requires strong US leadership.

At this point only a strong US president can provide that leadership. That leader could build a coalition of allies from Europe, the Middle East and especially the good Muslims who will want to join in the effort to rid the world of the radical Islam jihadists. Such a president would start by personally persuading the good Muslims to join the plan.

The current President’s unwillingness to lead has cost the US the support of the very Muslims we need most as allies against Islamic Extremism. Muslims in the Middle East, indeed in the world, have been terrorized into inaction by the brutal Islamic Jihadists who live among them. Imagine yourself in their place and you see Christians and Jews being beheaded for their being infidels, and you know that if you, a Muslim, were to disagree with the Islamic Extremists, you too would be called an infidel and treated the same way! Are you surprised that Muslims in the Middle East don’t lead as our current Administration claims they should?

In summary, what is needed in our new president is that he or she be first and foremost be a proven leader! A leader who will face the major problems as the ones that needs to be solved first. The number one problem is that the economy is not growing(worse it has shown negative growth this year). Moreover, this is the problem that is causing the stagnant wages and high unemployment. We need a leader who attacks the lagging economy as the primary problem and talks and acts like he or she understands that and is willing to do something to solve it!!! The solutions are at hand!!! And in the case of energy, switching to natural gas would ameliorate the climate change question, as well!

 

 

Perspective: Whither the Republic

Many of us are concerned about the rate at which the United States is abandoning the essential structures of society. The coming July 4^th celebration of the 239^th year of our Republic is a good time to reflect on what is happening to our society as a result.

 

 I have written much about the concern I have for the Millennials who will be trying to work and raise children in this new society. In one generation the four pillars that were the framework for raising a child to become a responsible citizen have been weakened if not completely removed. These pillars were:

1. A parent who knew what a parent was (not just a pal)
2. A neighbor who was a willing partner of the parent  (not to be sued)
3. A school who was also a willing partner of the parent (not to be sued)
4. Children went to Sunday School

 

Now, the Supreme Court is getting into the act by finding language in the 14^th Ammendment of the Constitution that is not there. Next the Court will find new words in the 1^st Amendment about Church and State and Free Speech. Today, in the words of President Bill Clinton, “It depends on what the meaning of “is” is!”

 

Regarding the recent LGBT ruling, Chief Justice Roberts was right on when he said the Court should not get ahead of the States. He might have included that the Courts should not get ahead of “We the People”. “We the People” have been considering and debating the issue regarding changing the century’s long religious belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman. The basic question is will homosexual marriage affect marriage and child rising? Since heterosexual marriage is failing as measured by the divorce rate and out of-wedlock birth rates that exceed 50 %, and 2/3 of the Millennials are not planning to ever get married, regardless of whether they have children, the Electorate would  probably would have reached the conclusion that LGBT marriage would not add harm. This concept was progressing State by State according to Constitutional principles. But now the new words discovered in the Constitution will have a far greater impact on how “We the People” will be permitted to behave. That is the great danger of what the Court has done than whether marriage will be harmed.  

 

Two writers, Pat Buchannan and Jay Leno, put their fingers on it. Their articles follow.

 

Jay Leno wrote. “They talk about writing a constitution for Iraq. Why don’t they just give them ours. It was written by a lot of really smart guys. It worked for more than 200 years. And hell, we’re not using it anymore”.

 

   By Patrick J. Buchanan June 29, 2015

 “Natural law — God’s law — will always trump common law,” said Alveda King,     niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and a Christian leader in her own right, “God will     have the final word in this matter.”

But, for now, Justice Anthony Kennedy has the final word.

Same-sex marriage is the law of the land, as the right of gays and lesbians to marry is right there in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified in 1868. We just didn’t see it.

Tony Kennedy spotted what no previous court had detected.

The absurdity of the decision aside, it represents another stride forward for the revolution preached by Antonio Gramsci. Before we can capture the West, the Italian Marxist argued, we must capture the culture.

For only if we change the culture can we change how people think and believe. And then a new generation will not only come to accept but to embrace what their fathers would have resisted to the death.

Consider the triumphs of the Gramscian revolution in our lifetime.

First, there is the total purge of the nation’s birth faith, Christianity, from America’s public life and educational institutions. Second, there is the overthrow of the old moral order with the legalization, acceptance and even celebration of what the old morality taught was socially destructive and morally decadent.

How dramatic have the changes been?

Until the early 1970s, the American Psychiatric Association regarded homosexuality as a mental disorder. Until this century, homosexual actions were regarded as perverted and even criminal.

Now, homosexuality is a new constitutional right and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is marrying homosexuals in front of Stonewall Inn, the site of the famous 1969 gay riot against police harassment.

Similarly with abortion. It, too, was seen as shameful, sinful and criminal until Harry Blackmun and six other justices decided in 1973 that a right to an abortion was hiding there in the Ninth Amendment.

Did the Constitution change? No, we did, as Gramsci predicted.

We are told that America has “evolved” on issues like abortion and homosexuality. But while thinking may change, beliefs may change, laws may change, and the polls have surely changed, does moral truth change?

Are the Ten Commandments and Christian tradition and Natural Law as defined by Aquinas just fine for their time, but not for ours?

If what Justice Kennedy wrote Friday represents moral truth, what can be said in defense of a Christianity that has taught for 2,000 years that homosexual acts are socially destructive and morally decadent behavior?

Three decades ago, this columnist was denounced for writing that homosexuals “have declared war on human nature. And nature is exacting an awful retribution.” Hateful speech, it was said.

Yet, when I wrote that line, AIDS victims in America numbered in the hundreds. Worldwide today they number in the millions. And there is a pandemic of STDs among America’s young who have joined the sexual revolution preached in the 1960s.

Can true “social progress” produce results like that?

And if it is an enlightened thing for a society to welcome homosexual unions and elevate them to the status of marriage, why have no previous successful societies thought of so brilliant a reform?

The late Roman Empire and Weimar Germany are the two examples of indulgent attitudes toward homosexual conduct that come to mind.

“No-fault” divorce was an early social reform championed by our elites, followed by a celebration of the sexual revolution, the distribution of condoms to the poor and the young, and abortions subsidized by Planned Parenthood when things went wrong.

How has that worked out for America?

Anyone see a connection between these milestones of social progress and the 40 percent illegitimacy rate nationwide, or the 50 percent rate among Hispanic-Americans, or the 72 percent rate among African-Americans?

Any connection between those fatherless boys and the soaring drug use and dropout rates and the near quadrupling of those in jails and prisons over the last third of a century?

One notes a headline the other day, that, among whites in America, deaths now outnumber births. This has been true for decades in Europe, where all the native-born populations are shrinking as the Third World crosses over from the Mahgreb and Middle East.

Any connection between the legalization of abortions — 55 million in the USA since Roe — and the shrinkage of a population?

“God will have the final word in this matter,” says King.

Certainly, in the world to come, He will. Yet, even in this world, it is hard to recall a civilization that rejected its God, repudiated the faith and morality by which it grew great, embraced what was previously regarded as decadence, and survived.

Our utopian president may see ours as an ever “more perfect union.”

Yet, America has never been more disunited and divided — on politics and policy, religion and morality. We no longer even agree on good and evil, right and wrong.

Are we really still “one nation under God, indivisible”?

 

 

Perspective: The Iraq Quandary

We find Iraq in the news again with this question being asked of presidential candidates:

 

If you knew then what you know now about WMD, would you still have invaded Iraq?” The answer today would be an unequivocal NO”

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The problem our leaders had IN 2003 was that they were operating in the atmosphere of our having already being attacked on US soil by radical Islamists with the loss of 3000 American lives. Everyone believed that Saddam had WMD because of these facts:  In 1981 Israel bombed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear research facility, in 1988 Saddam used Chemical and biological weapons against his own country men, and then he went out of his way to pretend that he still had stocks of these devices by tricking the UN inspectors. Is it any wonder that the world’s intelligence community believed without doubt in 2003 that Saddam Hussein had WMD and that he might use them against Americans or their Allies or transfer them to radical Islamic terrorists?

 

Actually, after we captured Saddam, he admitted to our FBI agent, George Piro, that he had WMD and got rid of them, but he nevertheless pretended he have them to fool the UN inspectors and Iran. He also admitted to Piro that he did not believe President Bush would invade and also that he planned to rebuild his WMD stock, including nuclear weapons, as soon as the furor blew over.

 

A more appropriate and pertinent question related to the current Iraq problem is this:

 

“If you  invaded Iraq and spent 4400 military lives and a trillion dollars to convert it to a viable democracy, and by 2009, six years after the invasion, Iraq was well on the way to achieving that goal, would you have left Iraq prematurely in 2011 knowing that the Iraq Army was not ready to defend against an outside invader?

 

That the Iraq Army dropped their weapons and ran when ISIS invaded should not have come as any surprise. The Gulf War in 1991 lasted only 100 hours, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, in the face of a massive sand storm, lasted only 3 months as the Iraq Army dropped their weapons and ran in both wars.

 

Sadly, most Americans then and today wouldn’t support George W Bush’s challenge to build a democracy in Iraq because that goal was “nation building”, and that was certainly not possible with Arabs. However, a little history would have reminded them that the United States did exactly that successfully twice.

 

Consider this! During WWII, we invaded Germany and Japan, captured the dictators Hitler and Hirohito and ripped the governments apart, just like we did to Iraq in 2003. However, the US leaders of WWII knew that after the invasion they had to leave behind democracies that were strong and stable that would survive after the occupying troops left. So, we set about creating democratic governments in Germany and Japan.

 

Building a democracy in Germany was relatively easy because it was a viable democracy before the Nazi destroyed that form of government. General Dwight Eisenhower commanded the occupational forces in Germany, and the US instituted the Marshall Plan, named for Secretary of State George Marshall to bolster the plan. These giant leaders helped rebuild Germany and restore its economic viability. The US and its Allies occupied Germany from 1945 to 1955. Today, Germany is a democracy and one of our greatest allies.

 

By contrast, Japan was headed by an Emperor who was considered a divine godlike figure. Japan had no political parties, had no free elections and women had no rights. The government flowed downward from the Emperor which was a hereditary dictatorship and the people existed to serve it. Few if any believed that Japan could become a viable democracy, but the United States and its Allies achieved that goal!

 

General Douglas MacArthur was appointed Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers to oversee the occupation of Japan. He decided not to establish a US military government, but rather to create a constitution based government. Initially he tried to have the Japanese people write the constitution, but when that did not produce a satisfactory result; he had his staff write it. However, the greatest question was what to do about Emperor Hirohito.  MacArthur persuaded the US Administration and the Allies that Emperor Hirohito should not be executed as a war criminal because that would needlessly anger the Japanese by destroying their sacred symbol.   MacArthur then convinced Hirohito to renounce his divine or godlike position, and on January 1, 1946 Emperor Hirhito publicly announced that he was not a divine or godlike figure and that the Japanese people were not superior to other races and fated to rule the world as the Japanese citizenry all believed. The US occupied Japan from 1945 to 1955, and today Japan is a viable democracy and one of our staunchest allies.

 

Perhaps history isn’t taught anymore. But that shouldn’t even matter! Think about this! In 2011 when we pulled our troops out of Iraq, over 100 million US citizens had the world’s largest encyclopedia glued to the palms of their hands (the I-Phone). One touch of the I-phone or even a spoken word and in seconds anyone could have learned what MacArthur did in Japan, how he did it, how long it took and most importantly, that it worked.

 

In summary, in 2015 Japan and Germany are strong democracies; their people are vibrant, safe and our greatest allies. By contrast President Obama, using the powers of Commander in Chief, in one year in 2011, unilaterally and without approval of Congress, of anyone else, not only pulled our troops from Iraq before Iraq could become a full fledged democracy capable of defending itself, but he “lead from behind” to kill Gaddafi of Libya, got Mubarak out of Egypt and “drew a line in the sand” in an attempt to oust Assad of Syria.  Now he negotiates with the Shiite Iranians, the stark enemies of our Sunni Allies about an atomic bomb which the agreement permits the Iranians to build in ten years, a mere speck of time when you think that this land goes back to Mesopotamia.

 

Meanwhile there is no strategy or plan to restore order in those leaderless countries.  Thus Iraq, Syria and Libya are in shambles, and their citizens are at the mercy of the heinous ravishes of ISIS. Egypt would be in the same state were it not for President Sisi who restored stability to that country. Meanwhile, the US has no realistic plan to help the Iraqis let alone the Libyans and Syrians. Moreover, there is no democratic government in Iraq for the rest of the Middle East countries to model. But the biggest problem is yet to come.

 

What happens to the Middle East and, yes the world, when Iraq acquires the atom bomb in a mere ten years? You know the answer!!

 

Maybe this historic blunder by the United States has occurred because we have no leaders like Eisenhower, Marshall, or MacArthur anymore. Certainly we have no Secretaries of Defense or Generals willing to resign in protest. Sadly, also we have no Congressional leaders to use their Constitutional Authority to rein in or remove the President. Then in 2012 when ‘We the People” had the power to remove him with the vote, we followed Sandra Fluck, a mid-thirties single woman who was in desperate need of gratis contraceptives, and they voted to stop  the Republican War against women.  We deserve the government that we get! Unfortunately the Middle East world that depends upon us does not deserve what we have wrought. We should be ashamed!!

 

 

 

Perspective: Obama's Real Strategy

 

Everyone is confused about why President Obama performs as
he does. Three Secretaries of Defense have resigned questioning his ability as
Commander in Chief. The Media, most Politicians and the Public at large cannot
decide whether his poor performance is due to his not being competent enough
for the job, or whether he is just the no-drama Obama, or whether he is above the
 day-to-day business of governing or
whether it is  something more sinister.  

Here is another theory. Obama’s behavior is based on his ever
stated belief that the number one problem of the world is “Climate Change”
caused by Man’s use of fossil fuels. Therefore, his principal thrust is to make
it as difficult and as expensive as possible to get and use fossil fuels so that
alternative energy sources can replace them. Consider his actions that support
this theory. His reckless Middle East policies are
clearly putting in jeopardy the world’s largest oil reserves and the oceanic
routes to deliver them to world users. Then he vetoed the Keystone Pipeline
thus making it more expensive for Canada’s
oil to reach world markets. He also blocks drilling on US government lands.
After the Gulf oil spill, he authorized new regulations making off shore oil
drilling more expensive. Overriding the US Congress, he authorized the EPA to
label CO2 a
toxic gas thus permitting him to “kill” coal, one of his avowed goals. And
finally he blocks liquefied natural gas from being exported. In short, he knows
exactly what he is doing!  

When you realize that President Obama single handedly and
without Constitutional authority made these actions happen, you start to get
the picture.  We can expect him to spend
his final two years continuing to do everything he can to weaken fossil fuel
supplies. This is the legacy that he wants, and no one seems willing to
challenge him.  

Impossible as it may seem to rational persons, he will
doubtless be rewarded with a second Nobel Peace Prize!  Meanwhile, “We the People” will pay the
price!

 

 

 

Perspective: What Middle East Policy?

If the United States has a Middle East Policy one would not know it unless the policy is to destroy the Middle East. Take a look at this brief history of how the area was structured over the past century or so, and then see what our President has done in the past four years to upset it.

After World War I the territory known as the Ottoman Empire was divided into separate countries by the European Allies. These countries include Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the Persian Gulf States. France controlled Syria and Lebanon, and the United Kingdom controlled Iraq, Palestine and Jordan. They are mostly Sunni Muslim, and they were governed by kings or dictators, and they remained more or less stable right up to the present century. Even Persia, now called Iran, whose Muslim religion is Shiite, has been stable. Consequently, when oil was discovered in the early 1900’s it could be successfully developed by the Western Nations, principally the United States.

Then beginning in 2011, aided and abetted by the President of the United States, key Sunni dictatorships were removed leaving governmental vacuums. Consider these events that occurred that year:
•January, President Obama supported the removal of President Mubarak of Egypt
•October, President Obama helped kill Mudmmar Gaddafi of Libya
•December, President Obama, against all military and diplomatic advice, pulled all US troops out of Iraq, before Iraq was able to defend itself.

The US President subsequently encouraged Islamic radicals in their attempt to remove Bashar al-Assad from Syria. Of the several radical groups the strongest Islamic radical group is named ISIS, which is an outgrowth of al Queda. ISIS took over vast areas of Syria from which they then invaded Iraq. Within days they promptly overran the Iraq army capturing all the major cities to within miles of Baghdad. ISIS calls this land a Caliphate, and is now adding Libya, Tunisia, Yemen and other Middle Eastern lands to this Caliphate .

As though this were not bad enough, on November 2013, President entered into the first negotiations with Iran in 36 years to stop them from building an atomic bomb. Iran has been the avowed enemy of the Sunni nations, Israel and the United States and the major supporter of terrorists Hamas and Hezbollah. Of course, everyone expects Iran to renege on whatever deal is made, so Iran will get the bomb! This will cause the Sunni nations to want to and they will be able to buy the bomb. There is no telling what Israel will do. Therefore, it is not difficult to predict that the Middle East could be aflame in a decade or two thus jeopardizing its huge oil reserves and oil production facilities.

While the Middle East is in a complete state of anxiety and fear of the Islamic terrorists, the United States has done nothing of consequence to aid such vulnerable allies as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the other Gulf States who are pleading for US leadership. Worse we snubbed newly elected President Sisi of Egypt, who saved Egypt from radical Islamists and who just gave a talk totally supporting the US position against Islamic Jihadism. At the very time that anti-Semitism is sweeping Europe and Jews are planning to move to Israel to escape to safety, we are treating our ally Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, as though it were our enemy.

Further, the President’s unwillingness to lead is costing us the support of the very Muslims we need most as allies against Islamic Extremism. Muslims in the Middle East, indeed in the world, have been terrorized into inaction by the brutal Islamic Jihadists who live among them. Imagine yourself in their place when you see Christians and Jews being beheaded for their being infidels, and you know that if you, a Muslim, were to disagree with the Islamic Extremists, you too would be called an infidel and treated the same way! What would you do?

What is so sad is that our Middle East allies will have to endure two more years without America’s leadership. This will virtually assure that more Christians, Jews and good Muslims will be brutally slaughtered by ISIS, and it will attract radicalized Muslims from over the world to go to the new Caliphate making the Middle East even more unstable.

Despite the fact that three of our Secretaries of Defense have resigned over this, and two have written books expressing their fear of the rise of ISIS, our politicians nevertheless still lack the political will to challenge this President’s reckless lack of leadership.

Perspective: Seeing Through a Glass Darkly

Susan Rice with the same straight face as Neville Chamberlain’s in 1938 tells us that there is no existential threat from ISSI! No existential threat means no existing threat. Have we forgotten that Bin Laden declared war on the United States in 1993 and what followed was a series of attacks on US facilities that began in the 1990’s that lasted until the 21st century when they destroyed the Twin Towers and part of the Pentagon? Have we forgotton how many American lives were lost in these attacks on US soil?

In 2003 we decided to fight back by invading Afghanistan and Iraq. We won those wars. But Obama decided to get out of Iraq in December 2011. Two years later, on December 2013, ISIS, an outgrowth of al Qaeda, began to invade Iraq from Syria forming a Caliphate that now claims territory in parts of Syria, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Armenia, South and South East Asia, Saudia Arabia and Yemen. Meantime, we have had to abandon our embassies in Syria, Libya, and now Yemen who only yesterday was considered our ally. This is not only a lot of square miles of territory, but equally important is that this region contains 70% of the world’s known oil reserves. If these reserves are taken over by ISIS, which seems almost certain, the world including Europe, China, India and ourselves will be severely harmed.

In 1938 Chamberlain did not believe that the Nazis would attack the United Kingdom, but they did. And if it were not for the United States, the Nazis would have invaded England just as they did France, and Russia. The issue was existential then, and it is existential now. Wake up Susan Rice!!!

Obama’s continuing refusal to define the terrorists as radical Islamists is unbelievable to our military specialists who state openly that you cannot defeat an enemy that you cannot or won’t define. The plan to bomb Syrian and Iraq targets and take over the territories with Arab ground troops is laughable.Counting on Arab leadership in military operations flies in the face of the world’s experience. We have decades of history of Arab military failures. But perhaps the worst example is how the Iraq army that we trained and equipped dropped their weapons and ran within days of the first ISIS attack. If this were not enough to tell us that Obama is on the wrong track, how about the three Secretaries of Defense who have resigned over this issue and the myriad of retired military generals and officers who now publicly tell us our President is taking us in the wrong direction.

Equally important, the Administration must convince the Muslim religious leaders and leaders of states that are not radical, to help in the fight to destroy the radical Islamic terrorists that are forcing the Muslim religion in the wrong direction. Obama squandered the opportunity to do this at the National Prayer breakfast when he said that the radical terrorists, who are killing any one in sight, are no worse than Christians who performed equally horrific acts centuries ago. He should have said that historically Christianity once had an evil element, but that good Christians got rid or it. We believe that the good Muslims can get rid of their evil element. The President could then have called for a world-wide meeting of Muslim religious leaders along with Muslim Country leaders who are in agreement with this goal.

So what can be done? We have two breaks that we can capitalize upon. First, the military in Egypt, led by its current President, Abdel Fattah el Sisi, has removed the radical jihadists and is speaking positively about the need to remove ISIS. Secondly, the King of Jordan stepped up air attacks on ISIS locations in Syria and Iraq and is amassing Jordanian troops on its border with Iraq. Thus, we have two key Arab states beginning to form the Alliance, and it may not be too late to save Iraq. What the US must do is provide the leadership to support and lead this insipient Arab alliance.

The World abhors a vacuum. It will be filled by the radicals or by the good. As in WWII, only the US was able to lead the good. It remains to be seen whether President Obama is up to the essential task of leading the good Muslims to eradicate this scourge as well as protecting the world’s supply of oil. Otherwise we will have to wait two years for the next President. By then it may be too late!