Africa's Third Term Power Grabs: Prelude to War

(Hat tip: KimR) - In late December 2015, Rwandan President Paul Kagame confirmed that he will seek a third presidential term. In doing so, Kagame became the latest member of sub-Saharan Africa's "Third Term President Club." If this notional "club" sounds like a joke, it is not. The "Club" represents the near-permanent retention of personal and near-authoritarian political power. Read more at Townhall.com Read More......

Glick: The Obama Administration’s Most Covert War

Over the past several weeks, we have learned that the Obama administration believes it is at war with Israel. The war is not a shooting war, but a political war. Its goal is to bring the government to its knees to the point where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu loses power or begs Obama and his advisers to shepherd Israel through a “peace process” in which Israel will renounce its rights to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.

Read more at Truth Revolt
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

South China Sea: Beijing 'not frightened to fight a war' after US move

China is not afraid of fighting a war against the United States in the South China Sea, a state-run newspaper with links to the Communist party has claimed. --Twenty-four hours after Washington challenged Beijing’s territorial claims in the region by deploying a warship to waters around the disputed Spratly archipelago, the notoriously nationalistic Global Times accused the Pentagon of provoking China.

Read more at the UK Guardian
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Chinese media: military must be ready to counter US in South China Sea

Editorial in Global Times, which is close to Communist rulers, condemns Washington’s ‘ceaseless provocations and coercion’ --Chinese media criticised the US on Thursday for “ceaseless provocations” in the South China Sea, with Washington expected to soon send warships close to artificial islands Beijing has built in disputed waters. --An editorial in the Global Times, which is close to China’s ruling Communist party, condemned US “coercion”, adding: “China mustn’t tolerate rampant US violations of China’s adjacent waters and the skies over those expanding islands.”

Read more at the UK Guardian
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

The War Games: Democrats Don't See That We Already Are In The Middle Of A War

Can’t anybody around here play this war game? Russia is sending troops into Syria, alongside the Iranian forces that have been fighting long since, to shore up the Assad regime. The Iranians are convincingly accused of creating terror cells in Kuwait ^[1] and Thailand ^[2] and waging cyberwar and conventional terror attacks against Saudi Arabia ^[3]. We know that Iran organized a scheme to blow up a restaurant in Washington, another to bomb a passenger train between Canada and the U.S., and yet another to destroy Kennedy Airport. --They are all acts of war. Yet, the president and his followers insist that if there is no deal with Iran, “the only alternative is war.”

Read more at PJ Media
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Barack Obama’s quiet war on oil

President Barack Obama’s enemies have long accused him of waging a “war on coal.” But a very different war on oil and gas is coming next. The newest phase of Obama’s environmental agenda has the oil and natural gas industry in its crosshairs, with plans to curb greenhouse gas pollution from rigs and refineries, tighten oversight of drilling on public lands and impose a strict ozone limit that industry lobbyists slam as “the most expensive regulation ever.”

Read more at Politico
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Venezuelan Strongman Wants to Seize 2/3 of Neighboring Guyana

Apparently all of that “anti-imperialist” rhetoric from Caracas was just a farce for public consumption. As Venezuela’s economy implodes amid skyrocketing inflation and crippling shortages of practically everything, Socialist strongman Nicolás Maduro (shown) has a new plan to prop up his imploding regime: annex two thirds of neighboring Guyana’s territory and almost one third of its population. The area eyed by Maduro’s autocracy is especially noteworthy now that potentially lucrative oil deposits have been discovered offshore. Unsurprisingly, a powerful alliance of the region’s socialist strongmen and their allies has sided with the regime in Venezuela. Talk of war is escalating. Now, the United Nations is getting involved, too.

Read more at the New American
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Current Iran framework will make war more likely

The framework concluded last week on Iran’s nuclear program was doomed to disagreement. Even the “fact sheets” issued by the United States, France and Iran — all parties to the talks — didn’t agree on the facts.  Israel has made clear its grave concerns about the framework’s fundamental elements and omissions. The vast nuclear infrastructure to be left in Iran will give it an unacceptably short breakout time to building a bomb. Iran’s long-range ballistic missile program — a threat to Israel as well as the rest of the Middle East, Europe and the United States — is untouched. The sanctions on Iran will be lifted (quickly, according to the Iranians; gradually, according to the United States), while restrictions imposed on the Islamic republic’s nuclear program will expire in about a decade, regardless of Iran’s campaign of murderous aggression in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere across the Middle East; its arming, funding, training and dispatching of terrorists around the world; and its threats and violent efforts to destroy Israel, the region’s only democracy.

Read more at the Washington Post
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

WP: Where Congress stands on Syria

Lawmakers appear to be tentatively dividing into four camps over military action in Syria; 1) AGAINST Military Action, 2) LEANING NO, 3) UNDECIDED and, 4) FOR Military Action. The Washington Post is tracking House and Senate members positions. Read more at the Washington Post...

As of Sept. 12th:

• Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR First District): Leaning NO
  
• Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR Second District): AGAINST - “Absent a direct threat to the United States or our allies and a clear goal and definition of victory, I must oppose using military force in Syria.”
  
• Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR Third District): UNDECIDED
  
• Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR Fourth District): AGAINST - “This situation is incredibly fluid, but I currently do not support an open-ended, ill-defined intervention in another civil war.”
  
• Rep. Curt Schrader (D-OR Fifth District): AGAINST - “...direct U.S. military involvement at this time is one of the worst of many bad options.”
  
• Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR): UNDECIDED
  
• Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): UNDECIDED

Read More......

Gingrich: Reagan Would Say No

Leaders who would consider involving the United States in Syria’s civil war against the will of the American people should weigh their decision against Ronald Reagan’s four principles for “the application of military force abroad.” Reagan established these principles after nearly 300 American and French troops were killed in an attack on their barracks in Beirut in 1983. He listed them in his autobiography:

1. The United States should not commit its forces to military action overseas unless the cause is vital to our national interest.
2. If the decision is made to commit our forces to combat abroad, it must be done with the clear intent and support needed to win. It should not be a halfway or tentative commitment, and there must be clearly defined and realistic objectives.
3. Before we commit our troops to combat, there must be reasonable assurance that the cause we are fighting for and the actions we take will have the support of the American people and Congress. (We all felt that the Vietnam War had turned into such a tragedy because military action had been undertaken without sufficient assurances that the American people were behind it.)
4. Even after all these other combat tests are met, our troops should be committed to combat abroad only as a last resort, when no other choice is available. (Ronald Reagan: An American Life, 466)

Read more at Gingrich Productions... Read More......

Syrian Woman pleads with Sen. McCain to stop America's looming bombing strikes on Syria - Listen to her argument

Read More......

Does Obama know he’s fighting on al-Qa’ida’s side?

By Robert Fisk - If Barack Obama decides to attack the Syrian regime, he has ensured – for the very first time in history – that the United States will be on the same side as al-Qa’ida. ✧ Quite an alliance! Was it not the Three Musketeers who shouted “All for one and one for all” each time they sought combat? This really should be the new battle cry if – or when – the statesmen of the Western world go to war against Bashar al-Assad.

Read more at The Independent (UK)... Read More......

Pravda: The global crisis and the appropriation of wealth

PRAVDA, 2/12/2013 - Reading articles published by Pravda, are interesting in that they let us know how others see us. "The global crisis and the appropriation of wealth" by Gelio Fregapani (translated from the Portuguese version of Pravda/RU) is such an article. Read it here... Read More......

Rice: Syria is central to holding together the Mideast

By Condoleezza Rice (Secretary of State from 2005 to 2009)

The civil war in Syria may well be the last act in the story of the disintegration of the Middle East as we know it. The opportunity to hold the region together and to rebuild it on a firmer foundation of tolerance, freedom and, eventually, democratic stability is slipping from our grasp. Read more at the Washington Post...

Read More......

AIM: The War on Conservative Women

ACCURACY IN MEDIA, 3/7/2012 by Michelle Malkin, Guest Columnist

I’m sorry Rush Limbaugh called 30-year-old Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a “slut.” She’s really just another professional femme-a-gogue helping to manufacture a false narrative about the GOP “war on women.” I’m sorry the civility police now have an opening to demonize the entire right based on one radio comment — because it’s the progressive left in this country that has viciously and systematically slimed female conservatives for their beliefs. Read more at AIM...

Read More......

Local author releases new book: "No Lilies or Violets"

Johathan Hayes' book, No Lilies or Violets, Reminiscences of a Fighter Pilot, is about to be released, just in time for Veterans Day! Hayes is active in local Republican politics and conservative causes.

Title: No Lilies or Violets, Reminiscences of a Fighter Pilot
Publication Date: November 4, 2011

Book Description (Amazon.com): No Lilies or Violets, Reminiscences of a Fighter Pilot, the first book written by author Jonathan A. Hayes, is a fast-paced, in-your-face trip into the world of an F-4 Phantom II fighter pilot and his exploits during eleven years and three tours into the tumultuous Vietnam war. Hayes recounts his reminiscences forty years after the experiences, lending a mature insight into the raucous adventures of a man and his machine. Visceral recollections are dished to the reader in a shotgun of images. This is a man putting his life on the line numerous times a week, having to react at lightning speed in concert with pilots around him as they pursue the ever-moving enemy in hostile and explosive environment. One of the weird things about aerial combat is how quiet it is. The air around you will be filled with explosions from anti-aircraft shells and missiles and the only thing you will hear is your backseater's quiet breathing and the occasional radio transmission. You are totally cut off from the sonic part of your surroundings. They lived hard and played hard in an effort to maintain their sanity and balance so that could go out there and do it again the next day. No Lilies or Violets puts the reader in the mind of a fighter pilot. Daily on-the-ground routines are predictable, but the mind and body are always braced and torqued for the next bombing run. Join Hayes for a journey into war.

Note from the author: Buy a copy for yourself, one for each member of your family and for all your friends, coworkers, people you ride the bus with. It's a great book (says he, modestly) and you'll love it!

Check six,
Jonathan Hayes
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: Amethyst Moon Publishing, Tucson, AZ
ISBN: 978-1-935354-67-67-3 (13 digit) Read More......

U.S. Is Intensifying a Secret Campaign of Yemen Airstrikes

CONSERVATIVE BYTE, 6/9/2011 - The Obama administration has intensified the American covert war in Yemen, exploiting a growing power vacuum in the country to strike at militant suspects with armed drones and fighter jets, according to American officials. Read more at Conservative Byte... Read More......

OPEC's Most-Hostile Meeting Since 1990 Gulf War

6/6/2011 - "OPEC’s decision on production quotas this week may be complicated by hostilities in Libya as members meeting in Vienna find themselves supporting opposing camps of a military conflict for the first time in 21 years." Read more at Bloomberg... Read More......

NYT: Justice Memo Upholds Libya Strikes

NEW YORK TIMES/CAUCUS, 4/7/2011 by Charlie Savage - President Obama had the constitutional power to lawfully launch military strikes in Libya without permission from Congress because he “could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest,” the Justice Department concluded in an internal memorandum released on Thursday. Read more at the NYT... Read More......

In the 10th Year of War, a Harder Army, a More Distant America

POLITICS DAILY, 9/2010 by David Wood, Chief Military Correspondent (Hat tip: John H. Detweiler) - The U.S. Army now begins its 10th continuous year in combat, the first time in its history the United States has excused the vast majority of its citizens from service and engaged in a major, decade-long conflict instead with an Army manned entirely by professional warriors. ∴ This is an Army that, under the pressure of combat, has turned inward, leaving civilian America behind, reduced to the role of a well-wishing but impatient spectator. A decade of fighting has hardened soldiers in ways that civilians can't share. America respects its warriors, but from a distance. Read more at Politics Daily... Read More......