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June 19, 2008

Exclusive: Obama’s Latest Gaffe

Leslie Sacks

If Barack Obama had his way he would replace the incomparably successful cult movieStar Wars with Mary Poppins, a sentiment clearly evinced byhis recent video postedon his website and by theCenter for Individual Freedom (CFIF) on YouTube.

He seems determined to weaken our military as though that will appease our enemies and convert all to pacifism and universal tolerance. Were it to be so!

Obama states that he will "cut investments in unproven missile defense systems" (unlike Russia), that he "will not weaponize space" (unlike theChinese) and that "unnecessary" spending will be eliminated (unlike with Chavez, Iran and Syria).

Most worrying is his promise to "slow development of future combat systems" (which is exactly what we need to combat more dangerously asymmetrical warfare) putting at risk our modernization and our superiority. Otheraspiring nations seek to match our prowess,but so far fortunatelywithout success.

The CFIFcited new satellite technology that "allows us to pinpoint and eliminate the enemy, unmanned drones that promise amazing advances in battlefield safety and effectiveness, bunker-buster weapons that penetrate deep into the caves in which remote terrorists hide and communications systems that allow lightning-quick troop deployment and rescue missions." These technologies"ultimately protect the lives and health of our troops, just as they protect us."

Thisprecision-guided weaponry saved not only American lives but those of all combatants. Iraq was the least lethal military takeover of a major army and country in living history. In no small part American superiority also helped forceGorbachev's hand andcontributed toending the Cold War.

Obama seems to feelcomfortable in leveraging his children's futurebased onhis bucolic fantasies - I don't believe Michelle Obama would do likewise (she maynot respectmuch of America as shepointedly stated but I doubt she'd wager her family's safety) and I certainly would be mightily uncomfortable going forward in this world of nuclear proliferation and increasing terrorism if I were not able to hedge my bets, or if I had torely on theLeft's belief in the munificence of Ahmadinejad.

Obama has expressed willingness to meet, without any preconditions whatsoever, the autocratic leaders of Iran, North Korea andSyria, all amongst the world's most reprehensible regimes. Yet he never clarifies what he would do if the talks failed, he never seems motivated to leverage America's unrivaled strength and power to achieve his laudable goals.

Obama has not visited Iraq since January 2006 or since the all important surge. Neither has he met with General Petraeus who was responsible for the surge, or with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki. Yet Democrat Sen. Biden and Republican Sen. John McCain have been to Iraq 10 and 8 times respectively. Is Obama so dogmatic, so stubborn and confident in his own personal theories, his own isolated judgment that he is astonishingly disinterested in the facts on the ground andin talking to the soldiers, the citizens, the commanders in Iraq? It is these people whose reality must necessarilybe a crucial and truthful cog in the wheel that is now post-surge Iraq and is also at the center of America's and al Qaeda's primary strategies in the war.

What remains perplexing is Obama's childlike worldview (similar to Jimmy Carter's) and his promised decimation of the military, certainly not a position I imagine the center of America will knowingly support.

Obama has stated that hewill set a goal for a world without nuclear weapons. Will he be so kind as to first wait for Iran, Syria, North Korea, Pakistan and other rogue nations to first disarm (weapons and research)and verify beyond any doubt?Furthermore, according to Harvard national security expert Graham Allison, if the U.S. and other governments just continue to keep doing what they are presently doing today,then more likely than not a nuclear terrorist attack in a major city is going to happen by 2014.

Obama's anti-military passion seems certain to supersede even Jimmy Carter's in undermining our military forces. He seems to be allergic to the possibility that the military may still have a role to play in the 21st century (see Bret Stephens' incisive view on the subject in his Wall Street Journal article "There is a Military Solution to Terror."

And what if al Qaeda or another well financed terrorist group or regime ever develop such nuclear weapons - do we allconvert immediately to Islam or do we emigrate to Mars or other more hospitable environments? After all, the radical Islamicnations have shown such admirable ability to honor agreements andto tolerate our separate and very different existences.

We would thus do far better toensure the eternal city ofJerusalem (which literally means "Vision of Peace") remains safe and free than to follow Obama's advice if we ever want to achieve penultimate peace, for it is indeed Jerusalem that is at the center of the world,at the center of the Middle Eastand not Obama's temporal visions. We will need to stand unusuallytall and free, bending to no one, no matter what, if we are to allow our children to inherit the wondrous freedoms and liberties we take so for granted.

It seems that Obama and the substantially Left-leaning Democratic Party leaders need very much to learn the lesson outlined by Dean Acheson, that great Democratic Secretary of State who once warned that "no people in history have ever survived, who thought they could protect their freedom by making themselves inoffensive to their enemies."

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