Winds of Change

Employing Obama's logic would mean that I myself am even more qualified than he to be president.

by: jayme evans | published: 07 21, 2008

In these times of economic uncertainty, global terrorism and nationwide tumult, the last thing this country needs is a Commander-In-Chief that has absolutely no military or foreign policy experience.

• A Commander-In-Chief who believes our own nuclear deterrent is a "threat" that we must rid the world of.
• A Commander-In-Chief who has taken military action against Iran completely off the table despite their continued insistence that a halt to uranium enrichment is not possible.
• A Commander-In-Chief who calls our continued presence in Iraq an "occupation", a term favored by terrorists and our enemies, despite the fact that we are still guests of a sovereign Iraq head of state.
• A Commander-In-Chief who says that an immediate withdrawal from Iraq is not just desirable, but absolutely necessary for us to actually succeed there.
• A Commander-In-Chief who said that a surge against al Qaeda in Iraq would fail, while a surge against al Qaeda in Afghanistan is required for success.
• A Commander-In-Chief who doesn't represent the best interests of the men he aspires to lead and is in fact actively working to ensure that regardless of when they do return from battle, the world sees it as a defeat. 
• A Commander-In-Chief who refuses to commit to an August veteran's town hall hosted by the wife of an Iraq veteran, citing a "scheduling conflict".
• A Commander-In-Chief who has treated his country's flag with utter contempt time and time again; removing it from his lapel, calling it a "distraction" and then fishing it from his junk drawer so he can wear it in front of veterans to try and prove his patriotism when he doesn't have any scheduling conflicts.
• A Commander-In-Chief who elicits warm praise from our enemies at the mere thought of his election.
• A Commander-In-Chief who needs training wheels and hundreds of handlers to prop him up and do his homework so that he can concentrate on appearing more Presidential in front of the unwashed masses of True Believers who actually know nothing about him or his intentions.

The last thing this country needs right now is Barack Obama. But unless the American electorate can snap out of its collective, Obamaniacal orgy and start demanding answers to tough questions about Obama's relationships, qualifications, positions and yes, even eligibility to lead this country, that's what you're going to get.

Fighting terrorism requires a steadfast, measured, consistent approach, not calculated political opportunism. We need a Commander-In-Chief who understands not just the terrorist psyche, but also the Muslim psyche. And despite the fact that Obama spent much of his childhood in predominantly Muslim Indonesia - claiming those were his foreign policy bona fides, his wrong-headed position on Iraq shows he understands neither.

Obama wants you to believe that it wasn't the blood debt paid by our military forces that brought Iraq back from the brink. It wasn't their gallantry under fire or the brilliant plan by commanders to ring Baghdad with concentric security zones and a surge of troops to enforce them. No, he downplays their sacrifice, calling it "new tactics" and says that "Sunni tribes began rejecting al Qaeda." In his distorted mind, Sunnis just suddenly stopped supporting al Qaeda for no apparent reason.

Whether they be civilians in Baghdad, tribal leaders in South Waziristan, or Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, Muslims in general tend to gravitate towards the centers of power and wealth.

That is why there is so much internal political unrest in Gaza. They can't make up their mind whether peace or war is more beneficial.

That is why tips from ordinary Iraqis led to the intelligence that ultimately allowed us to send Uday and Qusay Hussein and Abu Musab al Zarqawi to their 72 pre-pubescent virgins. A nice hefty reward of U.S. greenbacks is plenty of incentive to turn in the dictators sons or a murderous foreigner.

That is why Muslims fighting during the Afghan invasion switched sides like we change underwear. It was simply more profitable or less suicidal to fight alongside the coalition than to be attacked by cluster bombs dropped by B-52s.

And that is why the warlord mentality persists in much of the Muslim world today. No matter what Barack Obama says, what happened in Iraq was a direct result of adding more US Army and Marine units to dominate their opposition. Once we began to secure Baghdad's explosive neighborhoods and root out the bad guys, it became not only safe, but also practical to support the US and Iraqi forces.

Obama blew it on Iraq, plain and simple. His judgment is not as sound as he would like us to believe. He went out on a limb and staked out an extreme, rigid position of hasty retreat, claiming the surge was doomed. And now, he's stuck up in that tree, trying to inject Afghanistan into the Iraq debate, looking rather foolish while the US Army and Marines mop up the last remnants of al Qaeda.

He keeps blathering about some arbitrary 16-month withdrawal date while completely ignoring events on the ground. Sixteen months from the day Obama would presumably be sworn in would be May of 2010. Events on the ground in Iraq are so fluid that some units have started already pulling out. By the time Obama's random date arrives, we may have completed the mission already, yet he still claims that his position of withdrawal is indeed the right one.

Concerning Obama's judgment and the historical record of his comments on Iraq, what we're left with is the simple fact that regardless of how much US forces have sacrificed to succeed in their mission or how much progress has beeen made, he's already made up his mind what should be done.

• Before talking to a single commander in charge of Iraqi training and readiness. 
• Before touring a single Baghdad neighborhood to make and informed decision.
• Before asking a single Marine on his second or third tour why he would reenlist.

He just wants to quit, because victory would mean that history would view him as a magnificent failure with bad judgment. That's not just a slap in the face to US forces, it's also quite scary and dangerous to our country when we confront terrorists on future battlefields.

Barack Obama's world view is extremely dangerous to this country. He claims that his lack of ties to Washington lobbyists, his utter lack of experience and his years in Indonesia uniquely qualify him to be the leader of the free world. But  employing Obama's logic would mean that I myself am even more qualified than he to be president.

• I don't know a single lobbyist.
• I have absolutely zero political experience - even less than Obama does.
• I have been to well over a dozen countries and can read and write in more than one language while understanding a few dozen words from two others. How's that for Foreign Affairs experience?
• Unlike Obama, I have military experience. While he was busy lawyering and drumming up resentment to try and woo more grievances among minorities, I was bleeding for my country. I understand what it's like to have to make tough sacrifices in support of something bigger than a paycheck or your own ego.

People would scoff at the notion that above list qualifies me to be President, but in this case, we're talking about the post-partisan, post-racial media darling, the Messiah and perfect male specimen. Therefore the normal rules don't apply. The media won't criticize him, the comedians won't satirize him and the public won't scrutinize him. It must be very, very nice to be given a free pass to the White House.

The only thing that distinguishes Obama from anyone else is a few hundred million dollars and the hundreds of advisers and groupies he relies upon to ensure he doesn't say anything foolish or to put up a wall of denial when he does.

Regardless of the outcome of the Presidential election, history will judge Obama harshly for his Iraq foolishness.

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