Pentagon

Cutting Military Spending A Good Step, Since We Have As Much Spending as Next Twelve Nations Combined!

Ronald 5 Comments

The world is an unsafe place, and yes, we have to be prepared for any eventuality, but does that mean that we need to spend as much as the next twelve nations combined?

Can we possibly match the two nations with bigger armies, China and India, when they both have3-4 times our population?

Do we really need so many aircraft carriers, and more nuclear weapons, and more bombers than we have now, which cost billions upon billions, while the ranks of the poor and the near poor continue to grow?

Can we intervene in every international crisis, even if the cause is good and moral, or do we have to pick our battles, and only engage militarily when the urgency of intervention is clear cut?

The plan, announced this week by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, to scale down the military to the smallest number of troops since before World War II engagement, in a world where technology, including drones, is going to be used more and more, makes total sense, as future wars will not be fought like World War II or even the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

We will still be number one, but have extra funds available to help promote the “American Dream” for future generations, emphasizing health care, education, housing, and the revival of the flagging middle class!

The Republican Party will have a “knee jerk” reaction to any proposal to scale down the military, but it can and must be done in a sensible, rational way, or else the national debt increase, much fueled by defense spending out of all control in the past decade, doubling over that time, will suffocate American democracy!

The Founding Fathers did not wish a defense behemoth as the Pentagon has become since World War II, and the Cold War is over, and the whole strategy of defense can be modified safely, and save trillions of dollars over time!

Michele Bachmann, Steve King, Louie Gohmert (Three House Republican Wingnuts) Remake History!

Ronald 6 Comments

The three leading House Republican wingnuts–Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Steve King of Iowa, and Louie Gohmert of Texas– were in Egypt last week, hailing the military coup against Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.

And in the process of backing dictatorship, the three loonies made a statement about the 12th Anniversary of September 11 that is totally false and misleading.

They said the Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which Morsi emerged, and won a democratic election, the first in modern Egyptian history, were responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon!

The facts are, and even intelligent, sane Republicans know this, that it was Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden who were responsible for that dastardly deed!

Labeling all Muslims as guilty of a horrible deed is what we call scapegoating, and only makes the ability of the world to learn to coexist, since there is no way to eliminate any religion, no matter how objectionable to people of other faiths, so much more difficult!

These members of Congress bring the dignity of the House of Representatives and the Republican Party to a new, all time low!

Disgraceful Action By Republicans Against Former Republican Colleague, Chuck Hagel, Demonstrates Mistake Democrats Made In Refusing To Reform Filibuster!

Ronald 19 Comments

The Republican Senate minority has reached a new low, in rejecting former colleague, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, for Secretary of Defense, as a measure of spite against Hagel for backing Barack Obama in 2008, criticizing the George W. Bush “surge” in Iraq in 2007, and the exploitation of the Benghazi, Libya tragedy as a means to smack the President directly!

Hagel is perfectly qualified to be Secretary of Defense, and to have utilized the filibuster as a means to deny a vote, is reprehensible beyond description! Even Senator John Tower of Texas, a George H. W. Bush appointment as Secretary of Defense in 1989, while rejected for that position in 1989 over womanizing and liquor abuses, had the dignity of going down in an actual vote, rather than the prevention of such a vote, through the dastardly misuse of the filibuster tactic!

The Democrats and Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada had a opportunity to change the filibuster rules, and had no guts or courage, and this is the disastrous result!

The Democrats need to learn to play hardball, since the Republicans fail to understand anything else! They should be ashamed at their weakness, and the Republicans, led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, once again, prove how unprincipled and despicable they are in their “war” on the Obama Administration! They have no common decency, and it is clear that any attempt at bipartisanship over the next two years is out of the question!

So Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who already has had a farewell at the Pentagon, will have to stay on longer, until another attempt at overcoming the filibuster on Hagel is attempted, or Hagel withdraws, and another individual is selected to head the Defense Department.

Chuck Hagel Will Survive Rough Treatment Of John McCain And Other Republicans On Senate Armed Services Committee, And Be Confirmed As Secretary Of Defense!

Ronald 18 Comments

Former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel will survive his rough handling in the Senate Armed Services Committee and be confirmed to be the next Secretary of Defense, despite the efforts of Arizona Senator John McCain, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, and newly minted Texas Senator Ted Cruz, to derail his nomination, more on vindictiveness than anything else. Here was a basically conservative Republican, who like Richard Lugar, had the nerve to be independent, and be willing to cross the aisle and work with Democrats, and even, in the case of Hagel, endorse Barack Obama in 2008.

Hagel is a man of principle, a man of courage and determination, a man of levelheadedness, a man who has served his country well during his years in the military, a man who has been a successful businessman which makes him able to handle the massive bureaucracy of the Pentagon, and a man who is able to deal with adversity as it already has visited him, with his two Purple Hearts while serving in Vietnam, including his bravery in saving his own brother when both were wounded at the same time.

Hagel has a steadiness about him that will make him an outstanding Secretary of Defense, and his criticism of the “surge” in Iraq in 2007, which killed 1200 soldiers and wounded thousands others will stand the test of time, long after John McCain and his hawkishness, which calls for constant military intervention and invasion, is repudiated, as having been the wrong choice for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, two “chicken hawks”, to make.

John McCain will be looked back upon as a man who, fortunately, we did not elect President of the United States, while we will look back upon Chuck Hagel’s service as Secretary of Defense under Barack Obama as one of the best cabinet choices ever made for the Pentagon, if not the best, since the agency was created in 1947!

Popularity Of Barack Obama And Hillary Clinton At High, Along With Stock Market, As February Begins!

Ronald 36 Comments

As Hillary Clinton leaves the State Department, after four successful and accomplished years as Secretary of State, her public opinion rating is at an all time high, 67 percent. She goes off to a well deserved rest, and a possible run for President in 2016, with the Republican Party hoping she will not run, as they know very well that they would have an extremely difficult time defeating her, if she was the Democratic Presidential nominee!

As Hillary leaves in triumph, our President, Barack Obama, has reached a peak of popularity, now reaching 60 percent, and his agenda, including gun regulation and immigration reform at the forefront, along with the continued creation of jobs and a hoped for budget deal in the next few months, is making him look at his strongest point since he was first elected in 2008.

The Republican Party is floundering badly, and all we see are Tea Party radicals, including Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas makes fools of themselves, and also witness Senator John McCain of Arizona and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina go on the attack against a former colleague, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who they once were friends with, as he seeks to bring a new direction in the Pentagon. Their vindictiveness and nastiness is appalling, and diminishes both Senators immensely!

The Republican Party is mired in 26 percent support, and while they complain about the economy, a readjusted set of results for November and December shows greater growth in jobs than expected, and housing starts are up, and the stock market just today went over 14,000 in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the highest since October 2007!

So the Democrats, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton have a lot to be proud of, while the Republicans are demonstrating they have learned nothing from their defeat.. Their future is gloomy, until and when they realize that they must repudiate the Tea Party Movement and the extreme right wing.

The country is rapidly becoming more “Blue”, and once Arizona, Texas and Georgia become so, which seems inevitable by the next decade, the Republican Party will be unable to recover and gain government control and win the White House.

This country is not what they wish it to be–Southern, rural, white, and old. Instead, the Atlantic and Pacific Coastlines and the Great Lakes Region, urban and suburban areas, diverse population of all races, and young, and also women, are the future, and they are going “Blue” by leaps and bounds!

Chuck Hagel And The Bloated Defense Budget

Ronald Leave a comment

Newly nominated Defense Department Secretary Chuck Hagel was a war hero, wounded in Vietnam, helping his brother in the war theatre, being himself an enlisted man and first Vietnam veteran to be nominated to lead the Pentagon, and now he faces the neoconservatives, many of whom NEVER served in the military, and have no real concept of what life is like for the average soldier in the war theatres, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, or earlier in Vietnam!

As President Barack Obama said yesterday, Hagel can relate to the soldiers bleeding in the soil and mud of combat zones, since he experienced it himself. And Hagel knows that there is a lot of unnecessary waste, fraud, abuse in defense spending, and that America no longer can commit major combat troops all over the world, and that there is a need for a cutback in our defense spending, which has gone out of control since September 11, 2001.

We have over $700 billion a year spent on defense now, more than the next THIRTEEN nations combined, and this includes many of our own allies and friends. But even China, with four times our population, has a miniscule amount of money spent annually on defense!

The question is why we need such a large number of bases all over the world, particularly in Germany and Japan, but also the multitude of bases in many other nations that most Americans are not even aware of the extent of our military commitment, which eats up money that could better be spent on domestic needs!

Chuck Hagel is the right man to cut back unnecessary bases and spending, as he is not beholden to the Defense establishment, and knows how to position our military to deal with threats in the future.

Barack Obama is perceptive in his choice of Hagel, and while there will be a battle over his nomination, the inconsistencies of his critics will be displayed in testimony, including laudatory comments by Mitch McConnell and John McCain and many others, who once thought Hagel was an outstanding colleague and showed regret when he chose not to run for another Senate term in 2008, in disgust at the partisanship and pettiness that existed.

Just because he chose to be an independent person, a maverick, is no reason to deny his capablities and talents to be Secretary of Defense, and politics should “stop at the water’s edge” when it comes to the operation of the Pentagon!

Hagel is worth fighting for, and despite opposition, the nation will be fortunate to have this courageous Republican maverick as the creative, reformist oriented leader that our Defense Department needs in the second decade of the 21st century as we face the need for budget reform and savings on expenditures!

Pending Nomination Of Chuck Hagel As Pentagon Head A Good Move In Many Ways!

Ronald Leave a comment

The pending nomination of former Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel to head the Defense Department is a good move in many ways.

It demonstrates that Barack Obama will not allow criticism and opposition to stand in the way of which person he wants to head the Pentagon.

It shows that Obama has faith in Hagel, a man of strong opinions, sometimes controversial, to clean up defense waste in the Pentagon.

It shows that Obama is willing to put into that office a man who is not a knee jerk “hawk”, and would prefer to avoid armed conflict if at all possible, such as with Iran.

It shows that Obama will not let John McCain and other “hawks” and neoconservatives promote an agenda of constant war, and the extension of our commitment to Afghanistan.

It shows that Obama is willing to back a man who simply made it clear that while we will always defend Israel, we will not allow any pressure group such as AIPAC (American-Israel Public Affairs Committee) to wield undue influence on American foreign policy.

Hagel is a man of his own mind, but also loyal to Obama, who he backed against his own party’s choice of McCain in 2008, and will be a good team player with Senator John Kerry, the choice for Secretary of State.

And both men, Vietnam veterans, with Hagel wounded, truly understand and appreciate the effects of war, and will work together in a smart and effective way to promote a foreign and defense policy that fits the second decade of the 21st century!

Yes, there will be opposition, including those who are upset at past anti gay comments by Hagel, but he has grown on the issue and will enforce the changes that have been made on this matter in the military, and the President is entitled to who he wants in his cabinet, and after a battle, which is nothing new for Obama, he will gain Hagel as his Defense Secretary, and the country will be better off for it!

Finally, recognize that many former military and naval leaders, and former Secretaries of State and Secretaries of Defense, and National Security Advisers under earlier Republican and Democratic Presidents, back Hagel, so let the politics of the Senate play themselves out, but at the end, we will have Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, another Republican in the Pentagon, as Robert Gates was in the first two years of the Barack Obama Presidency!

The Unwarranted Attack On Chuck Hagel’s Possible Nomination To Be Secretary Of Defense

Ronald Leave a comment

Former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska has been rumored to be the possible choice of President Barack Obama to be the next Secretary of Defense, but he has been assaulted by critics on the left and on the right since the rumors began about ten days ago.

This is totally unwarranted, as Hagel is an exceptional choice for the Pentagon.

The attacks are based on the following factors:

In 1998, Hagel was critical of an ambassadorial nominee of President Bill Clinton, because the nominee was a gay man. But that is nearly fifteen years ago, and Hagel, as many others, has grown in his tolerance on matters involving homosexuality, and should not be held as anti gay anymore, and has apologized for his past views and statements. It would be actually be great to have a Secretary of Defense who would be enforcing fair policies on gays in the military, and recognizes the wrong of his ways. if we are to say that having a view disqualifies anyone for the rest of his natural life, then no one could fill a cabinet position or any other political job! And for the gay Republican group known as the Log Cabin Republicans to be critical, is true hypocrisy as they backed Mitt Romney and other Republicans who took a stand against gay rights in the recent Presidential campaign!

The Republican Party seems to be working against Hagel, because he was a rare man of principle in his years in the US Senate, and had the “gall” to be critical of the neoconservatives who dominated the Bush Administration foreign policy, which got us enmeshed in Iraq and Afghanistan for so many years. So despite Hagel’s sacrifices in Vietnam, a fellow Vietnam warrior named John McCain, who wants to send US troops everywhere, it seems, has been a major critic of Hagel, as unacceptable for Defense Secretary because he advised against moving toward war against Iran in 2007, and believes in the continuation of diplomacy! Imagine a Secretary of Defense who actually wishes, if possible, to avoid war, and sees the chance to cut Pentagon spending as a priority, with any sane person knowing there is much unnecessary spending that can be cut, and needs to be cut. It is only a continuation of what former Republican Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was trying to promote under Obama in his first two years in office.

Also, the fact that Hagel has disagreed with Israel’s government at times, and had the “temerity” to say that the “Jewish lobby” had too much input into US foreign policy, has made AIPAC (American Israel Political Action Committee) to say that he is “anti Semitic”, which is totally preposterous!

As a Jew myself, this author is irritated that if someone disagrees with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or any other Israeli politician or government statement or policy, that right away that person is considered anti Jewish! This author and many other Jews and non Jews do not wish that ANY foreign government has the ability to have so much impact that it interferes with our President, any President, deciding what is good to do for America, particularly when it is perfectly clear that IF Israel is endangered in any viable way, America will come to their defense! But this does not mean that there cannot be disagreements on strategy or policy with the Israeli government, without being called anti Jewish, or anti Semitic. And the fact is that another Jewish group, J Street, has no problem with Hagel, and many objections to the policies and statements of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government. America must have an independent policy from any other nation, but again, with the understanding, which certainly exists, that we will be there for the survival of Israel no matter what might develop!

So Chuck Hagel should not be passed over because some gays are unhappy with his past; because neoconservatives, Republicans and John McCain are unhappy with him; or because a group that is overly loyal to Israeli government policies is unhappy with him!

Chuck Hagel is the right man for the job, who would reform the bloated bureaucracy and budget of the Pentagon, while using his talents, courage, and abilities to be an outstanding Secretary of Defense for Barack Obama, and defend Israel in a pinch, as any leader or cabinet member under any President would do! And the President, having been reelected with a clear popular vote majority a second time, is entitled to have the cabinet members he wants to serve him in his second term!

The Case For A Team Of John Kerry And Chuck Hagel As Barack Obama’s National Security Team

Ronald 1 Comment

President Barack Obama has already faced problems with his thought to appoint UN Ambassador Susan Rice to the State Department, and she dropped out and allowed him to move toward the appointment of Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee, to be his Secretary of State, but not yet announced officially.

But now, his planned but unannounced appointment of former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska to be his Secretary of Defense in his second term as President is meeting resistance.

The point to be made is that any President should be able to choose his team, particularly a National Security team, that fits his desires, and therefore, automatically, the President should be given slack to pick who he wishes.

The opposition to Hagel comes from those in the Pentagon who do not like that Hagel has said in the past that there is waste in the Defense Department that can be cut, a statement which has absolute validity. It is clear that Hagel would widh to “clean house” if he came to the Pentagon, but that is good, and should not be a reason to deny him the post.

Also, the Pro Israel Lobby, and particulary AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), is against Hagel because he has, at times, in the US Senate, been critical of Israeli policy in the West Bank, building Jewish settlements.

While certainly AIPAC can have its views on any nominee, it should not be allowed to deny a President who he wants, and the important point, that is necessary to say again and again, is that under no circumstances will Barack Obama and his government ever allow any harm to Israel, and this was made very clear in the recent Gaza Strip events when the IRON DOME system provided and financed by the United States, saved Israel from greater attack. But our government cannot and should not feel that it can be dictated to by ANY foreign government or pressure group to have to agree one hundred percent on every action and statement of a foreign government!

Also, in favor of Hagel, as well as Kerry, is that both were Vietnam War veterans, and understand the horrors of war, and it is great to have two such men, both having served in the Senate, and possessing great principles and courage, to head our National Security team under President Obama in his second term.

So, hopefully, the soon announcement of the appointments of Kerry and Hagel will be forthcoming!

Sandy Hook Elementary School Another In A Long Line Of Tragedies That Will Never End Unless There Is Effective Gun Control Legislation!

Ronald Leave a comment

The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut is just the latest in a long line of gun tragedies, while the gun industry and the National Rifle Association, in the mad dash for capitalistic profit, resist ANY regulation of those who are able to obtain weapons, including assault rifles that no one needs!

If it is not elementary school children in Connecticut; or patrons in a movie theater in Colorado; or worshipers in a church in Wisconsin; or shoppers in a mall in Oregon; or constituents of a Congresswoman in Arizona, it may very well be a President of the United States, or a United States Senator, or a rock musician, or an actor, or an athlete who in some way triggers mental illness in some crackpot who wants fame, and makes for new gun victims!

Of course, no gun legislation will prevent all murders, but with 11,000 murders per year because of gun violence, more than any nation in the world, we cannot sit by and just “tsk tsk”, and do nothing!

We need effective gun regulation, and background checks of people before they can purchase weapons legally, and banning of all assault weapons. We can also decide that people cannot carry guns into bars, onto college campuses, into public schools, into hospitals, into government buildings, and prosecute anyone who endangers others by his or her recklessness!

We have to teach our children that guns are not fun, or not just to be used for target practice, and to stop glorifying hunting of birds and animals, as that is worshiping and glorifying death!

We must promote protection, but not think that everyone being strapped with a gun is going to promote safety in all public places, as just the opposite is true!

And this has nothing to do with God, as in the name of God, we have seen loads of bloodshed and death and warfare in human history, and religion has done more to promote hate and division, because of those fanatics believing their religious beliefs justify such crimes!

We are on the road to civil war, if we do not control the level of violence that we claim cannot be controlled, throw up our hands, and just keep on counting corpses!

For some gun nuts, only when they lose their own loved ones will they finally “get it”, and we need our government leaders to stop fighting politically, and look at gun violence as just as needy of a response as when we were attacked at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001!