Cuban Missile Crisis

From JFK And The Cuban Missile Crisis To Barack Obama And Al Qaeda, Iraq, And Libya: Statesmanship Personified

Ronald Leave a comment

49 years ago today, President John F. Kennedy informed the nation about the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Now, 49 years later, President Barack Obama was able to tell us in the past few months that leading Al Qaeda figures (Osama Bin Laden and Anwar al Awlaki) had been neutralized; that our involvement in the Iraq War is finally coming to an end by Christmas; and that Libya has finally been liberated from its war criminal despot, Moammar Gaddafi.

Is there a link between these two Presidents nearly a half century apart? Absolutely, as in both cases, we have seen wisdom, good judgment, and statesmanship, characteristics all too rare.

Kennedy decided NOT to launch a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union or a direct hit on missile bases in Cuba, but instead to negotiate a peaceful settlement of the greatest crisis of the nuclear age after starting a naval blockade.

Obama, often considered not ready for crisis leadership, has successfully overcome terrorist threats and eliminated leading terrorists; has brought about a final end to involvement in Iraq, a war we did not need to fight; and cooperated with NATO allies in liberating Libya, at a low cost of about $2 billion, and NO American casualties.

Both Presidents have demonstrated strong, assertive leadership in ways that should be emulated by future Presidents. When one engages in war, one must be careful and cautious, and recognize international cooperation promotes a better result than being a LONE RANGER, out to swagger and flaunt American power, without concern as to how the international community perceives the United States.

Hopefully, the age of George W. Bush is a bad memory that will not be repeated by future Presidents, but the lack of insights by the Republican Presidential field is troubling as a sign that we may be in danger of moving away from the statesmanship represented by these two Democratic Presidents, John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama.

This is an issue that MUST become a major part of the Presidential Election of 2012, the qualifications and views of the Republican contenders to lead our nation into an uncertain future in international relations.

With foreign policy to be the center of the next presidential debate in November, it is time that the nation focus on and realize that economic policy is not the only consideration in the selection of the next President. We need a statesman on the level of JFK or Obama, and the prognosis to find such a person in the Republican field (outside of maybe Jon Huntsman) is NOT promising.

The Targeting Of Bin Laden: The Most Important Accomplishment Of Barack Obama And Will Guarantee A Second Term In The White House!

Ronald Leave a comment

Here we are 14 months away from Election Day 2012, and many observers project that Barack Obama is in deep trouble, and will lose reelection.

Certainly, with the horrible economy and the highest number of unemployed citizens in history, and the lack of any cooperation by the Republican opposition, Barack Obama has many problems and issues that could affect how people vote in 2012.

Despite these realities, the President remains personally popular, which is a major positive in his favor.

And after having watched the HISTORY CHANNEL two hour special tonight, entitled TARGETING BIN LADEN, revealing all of the details of the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden, it became clear to the author that this accomplishment will always be remembered as the most significant single action of Barack Obama, just as the Cuban Missile Crisis will be always seen as the major accomplishment of John F. Kennedy in office!

The courage, the decisiveness, the handling of the Bin Laden matter will be enough to give Barack Obama a second term as President!

Imagine if this action had failed! Barack Obama would be seen as Jimmy Carter after the failed mission to release the hostages in Iran in April 1980, the major reason for Carter’s loss to Ronald Reagan in the Election of 1980.

For the same reason, Obama will be able to use this great deed to insure that he will be reelected in 2012!

Republican Lies And Deception After Bin Laden Is Killed Under Obama’s Watch

Ronald Leave a comment

It is amazing how the Republican leadership feels a need to promote lies and deception in a moment of great triumph for President Obama!

They have to put in the concept that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and others working under the last administration were responsible for providing information that helped Obama accomplish a goal that Bush could not achieve in more than seven years.

They try to claim that “enhanced interrogation techniques”, meaning torture including water boarding, were responsible for information that led to the successful mission. But it is clear that is a total fabrication, meant to justify the Bush Administration’s violation of international law and the laws of war!

Also, it is clear that George W. Bush, himself, had dismissed the importance of finding Bin Laden within less than a year after September 11!

It is also clear that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and General Tommy Franks, in charge of the Afghanistan invasion in 2001, chose not to pursue Bin Laden at Tora Bora when we knew he was there in the months after September 11, allowing him to get away and live in hiding for nine and a half years!

So for the Bush loyalists to claim that Bush and his administration deserve credit for what has happened is totally without substance, and it is time for the Republicans to give full credit to the courage and brilliance of Barack Obama, who has accomplished the greatest single victory by his actions since John F. Kennedy accomplished the solution of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962!

The Change In The Democratic Party Image On Foreign Policy: From JFK To Obama

Ronald Leave a comment

Ever since the failure of John F. Kennedy to overthrow Fidel Castro at the Bay of Pigs fiasco in April, 1961, Democratic Presidents have had to carry the burden of being perceived as weak and ineffective in foreign policy.

Of course, this is not totally the truth as John F. Kennedy negotiated very skillfully through the Cuban Missile Crisis a year after the Bay of Pigs, but the concept stuck to the party image.

In so many cases, it proved to be true in many people’s minds.

Lyndon Johnson escalated our involvement in Vietnam, and could not resolve the conflict in a satisfactory manner, and was forced out of the race for the Presidency in 1968 as a result.

Jimmy Carter was unable to accomplish the goal of rescuing the 52 hostages being held in Iran after the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. and the humiliation of those hostages being held for 444 days still rankles many Americans.

Carter’s inability to stop Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in 1979, and the problems involved in the Cuban wave of immigrants to Florida, known as the Mariel Boat Lift, also doomed his image.

Bill Clinton’s constant threats to intervene in Bosnia with air power, a total of eleven threats, before actual intervention in a successful way, also doomed him as being perceived as weak and ineffective.

The fact that JFK not only handled the Cuban Missile Crisis expertly, but also brought about the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, is forgotten.

The fact that Carter brought about the Panama Canal Treaty and the Egyptian Israeli Camp David Accords is forgotten.

The fact that Bill Clinton brought about the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the fighting in Bosnia; the successful intervention in Kosovo by NATO; and the peace arrangement in Northern Ireland is also forgotten.

And, of course, the fact that Barack Obama overcame the Somali Pirates seizure of a merchant ship in 2009 is also forgotten, conveniently.

But now, with the death of Osama Bin Laden, and the gathering of much evidence that should help the apprehending of more Al Qaeda terrorist operatives, suddenly the reputation of Democratic Presidents may be undergoing a renaissance!

It will be very difficult for the Republican Party to sully the reputation of Barack Obama, as they have been doing for the past two plus years, as a result of this gutsy, courageous, daring decision by Obama to take a chance, realizing it could have been total failure, but demonstrating resolve and commitment to the principle of fighting terrorism wherever it is!

So from April 17, 1961 to the first day of May 2011, exactly fifty years and two weeks apart, the image of the Democrats has now been transformed for the good of the future of the “party of the people”!

A Half Century Since John F. Kennedy Was Elected President!

Ronald Leave a comment

Fifty years ago today, John F. Kennedy was elected the 35th President of the United States!

Our youngest elected President, and the first and only Roman Catholic President to this point, Kennedy inspired the nation in a way that cannot fully be measured even after fifty years!

In a short Presidency of 1,036 days, ended by a tragic assassination which anyone who lived through it will never forget, Kennedy promoted the space program, the Peace Corps, civil rights, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and the beginning of recognition that the Cold War confrontation needed to be changed in some way so as to avoid the kind of danger that the Cuban Missile Crisis represented to world peace and stability!

Kennedy gave us the thought of new beginnings and a sense of optimism, which sadly no longer exists in the highly charged world of American politics in 2010!

His memory should be honored by working toward unity and cooperation, but neither is likely anytime soon! 🙁