This Is What a Lack of American Leadership Looks Like

There's been a few times over the last half century that America has failed in her role of leadership. Every time it happened it was with a Democrat. Think of the leadership they once believed in; FDR defeating Naziism and imperial Japan, Truman dropping the bomb to save the lives of a million and JFK going eyeball to eyeball with Kruschev over Cuba. but then we were, unfortunately stuck with Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Carter meant well but was way out of his league. He was an old school Democrat but lacked the steely spine of Truman or FDR. He wasn't the liberals we see today but a paleo-liberal who fully believed in the cause. He was the first American president to not believe America was a force for good in the world and believed we should make amends for all the perceived wrongs we had perpetrated. The Russians sensed weakness and they made huge gains during his (thankfully) only term. The Mideast also sensed his weakness as was made extremely evident when they took Americans hostage in Tehran. His response was feckless in a part of the world where the only thing understood was power. We paid for it in his ineffective and damaging leadership of the military that resulted in death, destruction and embarrassment in the Iranian desert. then we got Reagan and the end of the Soviet Union...

Along came Bill Clinton who faced a different enemy but one in which Carter would understand; militant Islam. They attacked the USS Cole and the embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and we did nothing. Osama bin-Laden said he was at war with America and we sent a couple missiles into an empty tent. We had him dead to rights and he and Sandy Burger wavered. They got bolder with every single attack and it resulted in 9-11.

And now we have Obama. He's a liberal of a completely different ilk. His upbringing was anti-American, anti-war propaganda and he wants nothing less than a complete obliteration of America as it was. He pulled the troops from Iraq without even a thought of the consequences--no soldiers remained to train, execute missions in the best interest of the fledgling democracy and more importantly no deterrent to what group rose out of the ashes. Worse than that, he became completely disinterested in what his actions led to. He ran around touting the fact that bin-Laden was dead and al-Qaeda was on the run. But he didn't listen when his intel folks said that something even worse than al-Qaeda split off from the mother organization. What he labeled the JV team was actually growing into the worst terror organization in the world in the void he left. He threatened Assad but had zero plans on acting if the lines were crossed and emboldened ISIS to not only move into Iraq but take territory numerous Americans died to win.

Obama tried to act tough by ordering an air war that took no risks. He used drones to take out leadership that were quickly replaced but allowed him to say he was "doing something". He left a leadership opening that was essentially an invitation to Russia to join the fight and prop up the guy we pledged to take out. Amazingly, while ISIS was beheading journalists, selling children into sexual slavery and murdering homosexuals and Christians Obama opted to sit on the sidelines and do nothing. Putin knew as soon as Obama didn't act against Assad the first, second and eighth time he crossed the red line, he didn't have the heart to act at all. So he moved in and now is not only protecting the man we threatened but taking out his opposition.

Which leads us to today. Putin has been entering sovereign airspace throughout the world and testing our resolve. From Sweden and Norway to England and the US, he's probed and pricked at us and we did nothing. He started doing it into Turkey and was warned by the Turks but not by us. And now, we have a Russian jet shot down and the pilots shot while parachuting to land. The helo sent to rescue them was then shot down by insurgent groups. Putting myself in Mad Vlad's shoes, I'd be pissed. Not only would I be pissed but I'd be pissed at Turkey--a NATO ally of the US and one we are required by treaty to defend. And as an American, an ally who has been anything but. They would not allow us to attack Iraq from the north during the invasion of Iraq in 1993 and have been flying sorties that are aimed at their enemies not NATO's enemies. Their endgame is to take out the Kurds who are their enemy eternal and our ally.

So now they've attacked Russia in what may or not be a Russian provocation. The Russians can't not respond and we are in the middle. So now we have the Russians fighting the Free Syrian Army, al-Qaeda (Nusra), ISIS, the Chechens, and the myriad other enemies of Assad, whom they are protecting. We have the US fighting ISIS and the Syrian Army whom are loyal to Assad. The Turks are fighting the Russians and the Kurds while pledging they are helping against ISIS and finally we have ISIS fighting the US, Russia, Turks, Iraqi's, Assad and now al-Qaeda while establishing an enormous base of operations.

And all of this is because the US ceded our role as leaders. Did we have to continue fighting in Iraq? No, but we did have to continue to make those in Iraq believe that we would. When we allowed Assad to use chemical weapons and give us the finger while not responding, we opened up the door to what we have today.

The damage done by Obama will take decades to fix.

Female Turkish Suicide Bomber Suffers Work-Related Injury

You know sometimes you get up for work and you just know it's going to be a shitty day. The toast burns, you hit traffic, you get a flat or the damn explosives you strapped to yourself in an attempt to kill a former Turkish leader fail to detonate fully leaving you injured but alive and facing life in a Turkish prison. I hate days like that:

This woman believed she was going to die today.

But instead she survived, a failed suicide bomber who managed to harm no one but herself.

Paramedics rushed the woman away today after she tried to blow herself up at a university in Turkey.

Disguised as a student, she detonated her bomb at the Ankara university as a former justice minister visited.

The blast occurred just a metre from where former minister Hikmet Sami Turk was standing.
But something went wrong, and the blast did not kill either the woman or Turk.
Instead she was detained and two separate explosives with fuses were found on her.

Turk was hated by left-wing organisations for his policies when he was in office. Turk also said he had received death threats.

So what do female suicide bombers get in Paradise anyway? I guess if she was a virgin, she could have been Adam Gadahn's or Osama bin-Laden's plaything. Instead she's going to jail or maybe worse.

Obama Throws Aremenians Under the Bus

Another day, another promise broken:

It was presidential candidate Barack Obama who last fall loudly declared that "America deserves a president who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide" -- promising, "I will be that president."

He even wrote then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice blasting the recall of an ambassador to Turkey who'd used the term "genocide" to describe the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire.

The Turks, not surprisingly, blame the deaths on fighting during World War I.

But, as candidate Obama wrote: "The occurrence of the Armenian genocide in 1915 is not an 'allegation,' a 'personal opinion' or a 'point of view.' Supported by overwhelming evidence, it is a widely documented fact."

Well, that was then.

Yesterday, President Obama released the annual White House statement for Armenian Remembrance Day, which commemorates the atrocity. And nowhere in that statement does the word "genocide" appear.

Lighten up Armenians, you're just another in the long line of people and group that Obama used simply for political expediency. You're in good company with luminaries like Rev. Wright, black farmers, Obama's grandmother and the American people to name but a few.

Who do you people think you are--important folks worth being faithful to like Bill Ayers and Tim Geithner?

US Navy Headed Toward Black Sea

The US Navy is headed toward Georgia to offer aid to the Georgian people. It's dubbed a "humanitarian effort" but make no mistake about this, this is surely a show of strength that Moscow must take note of:

As we speak, the USS Kearsarge assault ship is sailing alone in Latin America, totally unescorted, on its own humanitarian mission. Captain Walter Towns said he feels "pretty secure." The Georgia flotilla, by contrast, is stacked with heavily-armed warships. The vanguard includes the Burke-class destroyer McFaul (pictured)and the armed Coast Guard cutter Dallas. (Another Dallas, a nuclear submarine, is also in the area.) Trailing behind is the command ship Mount Whitney with, reportedly, Polish and Canadian frigates as escorts. The naval aid effort isn't taking any chances.

And for good reason. Russia's Black Sea fleet dominated the waters off Georgia from the early days of the fighting, and now it's been announced that the sole Russian aircraft carrier, Kuznetsov, is headed to the eastern Mediterranean. In 1991 Kuznetsov illegally sneaked through Turkey's Bosporus Strait (see map here--ed.) that connects the Med to the Black Sea. "It will be interesting to see if Russia does it again," Galrahn writes over at Information Dissemination.

Ironically, the Kuznetsov was once named the Tblisi. Video here of the carrier.

It's a dangerous game to have warships in close proximity to one another as accidents can happen and tensions can be exacerbated. Here's a map of the Black Sea:



Note the only entrance is through the Sea of Marmara and past Istanbul. Tight quarters to be sure. US Navy and Coast Guard ships in a smallish sea with the Russians only carrier keeping station along the Georgian coast is a recipe for disaster. The Russians are also digging in along the Black Sea coast.

These are real issues that will have far-reaching consequences with regard to Russia's growing influence in the region. Putin has to be met with stiff American and international resistance to make him think twice the next time he makes a move. One must wonder how a President Obama (shudder) would handle a growing crisis like this and would he have the balls to send US warships to a hot area in defense of allies or would he instead meet with Putin or Medvedev with no pre-conditions?

Some good will come from this; US allies will see that we keep our word, plus we'll get to eyeball the Russian carrier and see exactly what technical abilities the rusting Russian navy still possesses.