Iran Attack
Filed under: International Reflections, International War, National Party Politics, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary, Terrorism
At some point within the next 30 days the Obama administration will have to make a decision as to how to address the attempted attack on U.S. soil by Iran. Included within that deliberation will be Iran’s current nuclear capability and its defense thereof.
Since 9/11 America’s national security policy has been ambivalent when deciding how to deal with a defiant, fanatic and now a possibly nuclear armed Iran. Throughout these last ten years Iran has been wantonly involved in the killing and maiming of our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has been the source of power behind Israel’s enemies, Hezbollah and Hamas. And it has harbored and protected al-Qaeda fugitives and has allowed them to continue their war against the U.S.
Notwithstanding its overt hostility to the U.S. and its covert attacks upon our armed forces it has never attempted to attack our mainland believing that such an attack would result in an enraged America and therefore finding itself the subject of an armed attack upon their country by U.S. forces. This recent attempted attack by Iran reflects a possible belief by its theocratic leaders that they can now treat America with little deference since Iran has the nuclear capability to destroy whole American cities if the U.S. retaliates with armed force.
If this is true we can blame all of America’s prior administrations after Iran’s revolution in 1979 but in particular that of the current Obama administration since this is only one which actually believes that the U.S. can talk its way into a peaceful relationship with Iran. Even Hillary Clinton pointed out in the debates with Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign that such a policy was juvenile and dangerous.
Jewish New Year
Last week Jews throughout the world celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of a New Year. This year is 5,772 and represents the beginning of the universe or to some the beginning of man on earth. In either case it is a time of reflection and preparation for atonement.
Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah by attending services in synagogue where they pray for themselves, their families and for their country. They reflect upon their behavior to others and to God in the year past and pray for a better future. And then the rabbi, the leader of the congregation, gives a sermon usually about some aspect of life in our time.
Being a Jew I have attended many such services and heard numerous sermons. Most have been pedestrian, some were good but as would be expected very few have been exceptional or touched my heart or addressed the deeply troubling times in which we live. I have observed that rabbis are no more prepared to deal with issues in our time than the members of the congregations they address. They are as lost, conflicted and confused as are all of us, the listeners. Sometimes the words of a rabbi make us wince or bow our heads in sad memory of some shameful act. But notwithstanding that dreadful day of September 11, 2001 when 19 crazed and murderous Islamists flews planes filled with fuel into the symbols of country and killed 3,000 of our citizens have I ever heard these words from a rabbi: “We are at war…yet too many stubbornly and foolishly don’t put the pieces together and refuse to identify the evil doers. We are in fearful denial. We are circumspect and disgracefully politically correct. To camouflage their identity is sedition. To excuse their deeds is contemptible. To mask their intentions is unconscionable.”
All Wars Are Wars Of Choice
Filed under: Social Commentary, Terrorism, United States at War
All wars are wars of choice. In war there are no innocent victims.
Last Sunday was the tenth anniversary of the most deadly attack on our homeland in modern history. On September 11, 2001 three jet liners with fuel tanks filled to capacity were deliberately and with pre-mediation flown into three targets, the two world trade center buildings in New York City, resulting in both buildings being completely obliterated and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. But for the courageous acts of passengers on a fourth jet liner, American Airlines Flight 93, who forced the plane to crash land rather than be another missile of destruction, an additional target, either the White House or the U.S. Capital would have experienced the same fates.
Nearly 3,000 people, mostly civilians, died on that day and within a period of no more than 2 hours. At the various ceremonies in New York City, Washington, D.C. or Shanksville, P.A. where Flight 93 was forced down the 3,000 dead were consistently referred to by various eulogizers and speakers as “innocent victims.” I refer to them not as innocent victims but rather as casualties of war. An innocent victim is one who finds him or herself in the cross fire of deadly enemies and who takes no side in the conflict. The 3,000 that were killed were Americans or if not those who chose to live and work here. They chose America and by so choosing they chose America’s values, its history, its future. The Islamists that killed them knew exactly who they were killing. The Islamists did not consider them innocent victims. In this war against the Islamists we are all warriors defending this land and this place and not one of us, God willing, will be innocent.
The Masquerade
Filed under: International Reflections, Social Commentary, Terrorism, U.S. Economics
It has been four days now since the American people learned that Osama bin Laden, the scourge of 9/11 was killed in Abbotabad, Pakistan and as our euphoria is beginning to subside our deep-rooted national problems of unemployment, unsustainable debt and overspending are beginning to hit the front pages of our daily newspapers again.
The dramatic attack by our Navy Seals on the compound where Osama bin Laden was hold up for nearly 6 years, which resulted in his removal from this earth, grabbed America’s attention with such emotion that all other national troubling concerns were instantly forgotten. In some perverse way it was a welcome relief to leave behind for a moment the mundane and have a moment when all Americans could find, as Lincoln described 150 years ago, those “mystic chords of memory” which bind us as a people and a nation.
But now it’s time to return the issues that will ultimately decide our future at home and our place in the world. If we don’t address these mundane issues of excessive and unsustainable debt, unacceptable rates of unemployment and deficits as far as the eye can see we shall leave to our children and our children’s children a country that will be denied a few days of euphoria.
Osama Bin Laden Is Dead. May He Rot In Hell.
Filed under: International Reflections, International War, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary, Terrorism, United States at War
The sun was down and the day had finally finished its cruel work. The evening air, which should have been crisp and jolting as a harbinger of fall, was filled with flecks of toasted tasting human dust which grabbed at my throat. On this bitterly quiet but disturbing evening, still September 11, 2001, I began to see something in those faces of my neighbors on the Upper West Side which I had never seen before. I saw on their faces the deep and abiding sadness of one who anticipates the untimely death as of a loved one, as if the cherished companion of a lifetime had passed permanently from this world. But the beloved cherished companion for whom my neighbors grieved was no living personage that walked these streets, it was rather a political philosophy, held, cuddled and defended for over a century. They were grieving for what they now knew was inevitable: the death of Socialism.
But, you may ask, what does Socialism have to do with Islamo-fascism? Socialism and Islamo-fascism passionately share a deep and abiding hate for individual freedom, a desire to control human beings and a violent focus upon any person or institution that contradicts this philosophic and dogmatic belief system. On that September 11th those who supported socialist principles for the first time understood this connection. It is now 10 years later and the fight against Socialism and Islamo-fascism continues.
Osama Bin Laden is dead and Americans rejoice. But we cannot rest until these two related evil philosophies die with him.
Who’s Next?
Filed under: International Reflections, International War, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary, Terrorism, United States at War
Will this President of the United States ever become a president of the United States? If the American people are asking this question in November of 2012 President Obama will serve only one term.
Let’s start from the top. President Obama doesn’t go to Congress when deliberating about whether the United States should involve itself in the Libyan rebellion, which, constitutionally he doesn’t have to do, but rather seeks UN approval which he seems to believe he is obligated to do.
Then, after the United States obtained UN approval to engage our armed forces, he makes no attempt to come before the American people and explain the basis of his action. This allows his opposition, which ironically comes from his liberal base, to have a field day in attacking the President as just another neo-con in sheep’s clothing.
The Libyan campaign, limited notwithstanding, at least so far, constitutes the sixth American military action involving Muslims in general or the Middle East in particular, over the last 20 years, 3 of which occurred since 9/11. Just to give some clarity to this, the United States has not been militarily involved in any other country or region during the same period. It is obvious therefore that those countries or regions that adhere to the Islamic faith, and especially located near or in the Middle East, have become a cauldron of revolution and rebellion. I don’t point this out as necessarily a bad thing since most of the governments of these Islamic countries which are presently on fire are autocratic and vicious. However every one of them, without exception, to one extent or another, are breeding grounds of America’s number one enemy, al-Qaeda. And many of them produce America’s number one and essential import, oil. So it’s not by accident that the United States finds itself entangled in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya while at the same time warily circling Iran looking for openings for conflict.
Tomorrow night, finally, the President of the United States will be addressing the American people about why we are now fighting in Libya. But he’s got to do more than that. The American people sense that this president lacks a vision when it comes to our role on the world stage. Worse they suspect that he does have a vision and it’s a United States that should take a back seat when it comes to international affairs. Will he actually come to the American people tomorrow and explain that the Libyan campaign is nothing more than a one-off? It’s not. But does he have the courage, or better yet the insight, to come before the American people and explain what as a candidate he denied: America is at war with a resolute enemy which promotes a theocratic, virulent Islamic vision for world governance. Tomorrow if he doesn’t provide for us the big picture Americans, on both sides of the political spectrum, will abandon him in droves.
To Hell With Freedom!
The question that is being asked among the cognoscenti is whether WikiLeaks is a legitimate journalistic organization or just a very special form of anarchism. Not surprisingly The New York Times thinks that Wikileaks, its partner, is just another form of journalism. Would you like to guess what the Pentagon thinks?
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
This Monday David Carr of the New York Times wrote that WikiLeaks is “a new form of hybrid journalism emerging in the space between so-called hacktivists and mainstream media outlets…” To me the argument is similar to the one between pro-life and pro-choice adversaries: Where you stand on the subject has a lot to do with whether you consider human embryos human or just ordinary tissue. If you believe that governments, particularly the United States government, are nothing more than corrupt, secretive and inherently evil states and that its foreign and defense ministries are illegitimate organizations then it becomes quite easy to reveal information that can damage their ability to speak to other governments and even more importantly, to themselves. One of the main reasons that the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were able to be attacked on 9/11 is that America’s intelligence agencies weren’t allowed to talk to each other. This has obviously changed and the very purpose of WikiLeaks, as its founder Julian Assange has clearly affirmed, is to return America to its September 10, 2001 mentality.
What The New York Times and the other so-called legitimate journalists such as Le Monde, The Guardian and Der Spiegel, the enablers of WikiLeaks, fail to appreciate is that governments, with the United States leading the way, will ultimately conclude after enough damage is done that these so-called legitimate journalist organizations are no more than in your face enemies. That will happen when America is attacked again, when thousands die and the reason will be traced back to the likes of a WikiLeaks and its enablers. That’s when the American people will say to their government, “To hell with freedom of the press and freedom of speech, stop the leaks and keep us safe.” And that’s when the question as to whether WikiLeaks is a legitimate journalistic organization goes right out the window.
This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
Ground Zero Mosque Will Hurt Cuomo, Dems
Filed under: International Reflections, Local Party Politics, Social Commentary, Terrorism, United States at War
Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General of the State of New York and Democratic candidate for governor refuses to investigate the source of the proposed $100 million to be used for the building of the Ground Zero mosque.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
Ask any one on the streets of NYC from Brooklyn to the Bronx where the $100 million will be coming from to build the Ground Zero mosque and what you will be told is that it comes from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or any other oil rich country in the Middle East. And if this is true does it not raise a serious security issue for the city, state and nation? Darn right it does. I guarantee that if the fictional Don Corleone family of Godfather fame wanted to buy that same piece of property for the purpose of building a museum honoring the dead heroes of every shoot-out in which the family was involved and had $100 million to do it there would definitely be an investigation by the Attorney General of the State of New York as to the source of the money.
So what’s stopping Attorney General Cuomo? It’s simple. Cuomo is running for governor as Democratic candidate and his party has adopted a national and state platform that can’t seem to get its head around the simple fact that we are at war with a radical Islamic ideology. Rick Lazio a Republican primary candidate for governor is beginning to target Cuomo on this issue and just last week Cuomo has finally begun to stir realizing that this issue has more legs than a centipede.
The loudest cries of objection to the building of the mosque seem to be coming from the city and state police, firefighters and emergency workers who had experienced an incredible death toll on 9/11 and their many union supporters. And without their support in his race for governor Cuomo will be in trouble. Where is he going to get his money for his upcoming campaign, Saudi Arabia?
On this issue Rick Lazio has become a junk yard dog grabbing on to Cuomo’s ankle and he won’t let go. If Cuomo continues to stonewall on this issue the Republican Party has a good shot for the governorship.
This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
Don’t Mess With The U.S.
Filed under: Social Commentary, Terrorism, United States at War
When discussing the destruction of the Twin Towers and the attack on the Pentagon that occurred on 9/11 my liberal friends invariably say that when they think about it they feel sad. Well, when I think about it I feel a deep and unforgiving anger. And I might add so do most Americans.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
To feel sad requires a sense of disappointment, a violation of a trust. To be angry is an attack on your self-esteem. Therefore the more we value our own worth or the worth of something valued, like our country, the angrier we become when we perceive that we have been dealt with unjustly. Is there anyone therefore with any sense of love for this country that could not feel outraged at the attack on September 11, 2001? And knowing that the attack came from Afghanistan, protected by the ruling Taliban is there any question that we were going to attack that country if the they refused to hand over the bastards that attacked us? And since the Taliban did refuse we attacked without forethought, without some deep plan, without any sense of what would be the consequences, the burdens or the responsibilities that would result from such an act. We attacked with rage.
Now 9 years later I still burn with anger. For me and for most Americans there is no forgetting. So let’s see if we can get this thing straight: America shall not leave Afghanistan until every last al Queda and Taliban that supports him is dead or dying and when that country is free of every one of those SOB’s who believed that it was OK to tangle with the United States of America without placing their very existence at risk.
This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
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