President Obama and The Blame Game

By now, most of you who follow my blog postings know that I am not a fan of President Obama but all clear thinking individuals should by now have become a bit flummoxed by the consistent pass the blame game onto others that the Obama Administration is guilty of. They have been in office now for 18 months and yet, they still attempt to pass the buck onto the former Bush White House. As my redneck buddies would say, "That dog just don't hunt!" The rumor coming out of the Beltway is that the White House intends to ride this tired old horse up to the finish line in November. Good luck with that plan working out!

It seems to me that President Obama and his cohorts were much more adept at campaigning than they are at governing. Leaders that I've known during my military career who attempted to blame others for their unit's shortcomings were unsuccessful in the long run. Corny as it may sound, there is a whole lot of truth to the saying, "When in charge, take charge." President Obama comes from the academic world. In academia, philosophical viewpoints are much easier to present because they delve in the world of theory and not reality. We had a saying in my old career in Special Forces; "The best operations order in the world will only survive until the first bullet flies." That said, all leaders must have a philosophical belief in their organization's vision, ethos, and values. They must develop long and short range plans to achieve their long and short term goals. They must also be able to adjust these plans to the realities of the world that impacts on these plans. In this respect, the Obama Administration is an abject failure.

Hopefully, the citizenry of this great nation have had enough with all of the whining and bungling coming out of this White House. It is time for us to let President Obama and Congress know that we all are tired of self serving inept politicians who think they know what is best for each of us. Unemployment is still high, North Korea has jumped off a cliff, the Taliban is now training in Iran, oil continues to spill into the Gulf of Mexico but hey, we've got health care. On a positive note, the Obama Administration reaffirms to me on almost a daily basis that yes, I was correct in casting a ballot for John McCain and not Barack Obama.

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Terrorism and President Obama

President Obama has tried a different philosophical approach to dealing with terrorism than the previous administration. His administration has tried to reach out to the Muslim world in hopes that this would make us seem less threatening and hopefully reduce the possibility of another attack on our nation. Unfortunately, this approach will not benefit us in the long run. Warfare is still a largely ritualistic event in the Islamic world. Confident power is more appreciated than any attempt at being a conciliatory foe.

It is hard to say if our continued struggle with Islamic Fundamentalists has evolved under the Obama presidency or, if his policies have led directly to a change of tactics used by our enemies. We do know however; since he has taken office, we have had three terrorist attacks on American soil. The attack on Fort Hood was successful and the other two were not. This is not a prevention percentage that can be sustained over time. We suffered no attacks under the previous administration after 9/11. So, have our enemies tactics evolved or is it merely a coincidence that the present administration has seen three attacks on our shores?

To his credit, the President is aggressively pursuing Al Quaida and Taliban operatives in the tribal regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is doing this primarily through the use of drone strikes. An unintended consequence of using drones is the animosity that technological warfare creates in the Islamic world. As I've said, warfare is still a largely ritualistic human endeavor with Muslims. Many of them despise the use of drones and view their use as a form of cowardly attack. Might it be possible that the use of these drones have led to increased efforts to attack us?

For our part, we will soon have to realize that warfare is still a man on man event. Our soldiers know this but the rest of our nation's populace has been insulated from the violent nature of combat and I believe, we may have lost our ability to realistically confront our foes. The only way that we will be able to defeat Islamic Fundamentalism is to look our opponent in the eye and destroy him. The judicious use of raw physical and not purely technological power is the only thing that our enemy understands. Terrorist cells or Taliban operatives need to learn that they will be physically hunted down and eliminated wherever they may attempt to conduct operations against our national interests or on our soil.

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