Alexander Haig (1924 - 2010)

Rest With God

"Practice rather than preach. Make of your life an affirmation, defined by your ideals, not the negation of others. Dare to the level of your capability then go beyond to a higher level."

"I'm the only American alive or dead who presided unhappily over the removal of a vice president and a president."

"We didn't lose Vietnam. We quit Vietnam."

"If they analyze the situation as thoroughly as they should, Muslims will realize they are the first targets. What are the fundamentalists really after? Simply taking over Islam and then turning its back on modernity."

"Let them march all they want, as long as they continue to pay their taxes."

"Sooner or later something had to give. But President Bush, faced with the unprecedented affront of 9-11, could not wait to take action. So he had to do what we were capable of doing, and he did it brilliantly."

"The warning message we sent the Russians was a calculated ambiguity that would be clearly understood."

"As of now, I am in control here in the White House"

Mo' Zo . . . A Rant On Obama

Michael Moore's Letter To Obama

The Khaki Elephant has not exactly been a defender of Barack Obama. In fact, the posts on this blog tend to revolve around the revelation that President Obama may well be the worst president in U. S. history, from his juvenile economic policies to his love affair with government control. His leadership has been so amateur and damaging that is seemed nothing could prompt support from these pages . . . enter Michael Moore.

Today Michael Moore released an open letter to Barack Obama criticizing any strategy that would increase troop size in Afghanistan. In Moore's words,

"If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do . . ."

This is a far cry from Moore's initial take on the Afghanistan War depicted in his the epic work of misinformation, Fahrenheit 9/11, where he used a clip of Richard Clarke claiming that Bush's response to 9/11 in Afghanistan was "slow and small," a claim that had Moore's implied agreement in the film since he did not contradict it. Of course, that was back in the day when Moore criticized the Iran war by claiming it wasn't justified because Bin Laden was in Afghanistan. Wait a minute, didn't Obama promise to track down Bin Laden by now? Anyway, back to Michael Moore . . .

I have two problems with virtually everything Michael Moore does. First, his work is always based an overt manipulations of the truth that only his supporters and the functioning brain dead fail to see through. Second, well, if you try to follow his logic for more than a few minutes you need only be mildly observant to determine that Moore simply isn't very bright.

His manipulation of the truth is ever present. If you found Fahrenheit 9/11 then check out Fahrenhype 9/11 which exposes the misleading edits and outright lies of his post-terrorist attack treatise . . . though, come to think of it, in Dude, Where's My Country Moore claims there is no Terrorist threat. His tactics shouldn't surprise us since he launched his career with the film Roger and Me, an alleged documentary containing the primary premise that he could not get an interview with then GM Chair Roger Smith, and the film never mentioned the fact that Smith actually granted an interview.

The letter to Obama contains Moore's trademark manipulations (my gentle-mood way of saying "lies"). In the letter he claims to know that there are "LESS than a hundred al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan," though how he counted them we may never know. He implies that Obama's actions are prompted by "corporate backers" who could only be the dreaded "big oil" that Moore claimed were behind the initial push into Afghanistan (though Moore has never explained why America has failed to get all that blessed oil Bush was after). Moore asks "what would Martin Luther King, Jr. do?" apparently forgetting the Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican with little tolerance for the laundry list of lies that are Michael Moore's make up. He asks Obama "What would your grandmother do?" apparently forgetting that she was a "typical white woman."

But what bothers me the most about Moore is that he's just not very bright, yet some people fail to see it. His logic is virtually non-existent. For example, here is his choice for shining example of a President doing what's right when it comes to avoiding war:

We are a civilian-run government. WE tell the Joint Chiefs what to do, not the other way around. That's the way General Washington insisted it must be. That's what President Truman told General MacArthur when MacArthur wanted to invade China. "You're fired!," said Truman, and that was that.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't Truman the only world leader to drop atomic bombs on populated cities? Nice choice of an "anti-military" president, genius. Of course, in the mind of Moore the intellect is hardly important when one can be blinded by hatred of the U.S. military. As his letter explains,

Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in' hate these generals, from Westmoreland in Vietnam to, yes, even Colin Powell for lying to the UN with his made-up drawings of WMD.

Forget his ignorance that the intelligence agencies of the U.S., Great Britain, Israel, France and Germany all believed in the existence of WMDs in Iran, Moore's insincere "love" for our kids in the military is undercut but his obvious failure to acknowledge that our military leaders are those same "kids in the armed services" with added experience. They are not the rabid torturers Moore pretends them to be. Nor are they hell bent on sending "more poor people to kill other poor people" just for a few kicks (Note: I suppose Moore is referring to our soldiers as the first "poor" in that equation, once again ignoring Pentagon statistics that American soldiers come from families with a higher average income than non-military Americans . . . but let's not let facts get in the way).

The bottom line is that we cannot fail in Afghanistan. Barack Obama may have considered withdrawal while he was campaigning, but it appears as though reality has set in and he knows the price of failure. We paid it on 9/11/01. Michael Moore would have us pay it again.

Party Crashing The State Dinner Prompts Obama To Action

The military has been asking for decisive direction from Barack Obama concerning a certain deadly war in Afghanistan for months, but it took a pair of tax-dodging party crashers to swing the Commander in Chief into immediate action. And this despite his obvious affinity for tax cheats, having carried a number of them into the White House along with the new drapes.

According to NBC:

A Secret Service officer stationed at the first checkpoint at the White House state dinner last Tuesday did not verify the names of a couple allowed in even though they were not on the guest list, a senior law enforcement official told NBC News on Friday.

The officer saw that Tareq and Michaele Salahi were not on the list and, rather than verifying if they were legitimate guests, assumed they would be vetted at the next checkpoint and allowed them to pass, NBC learned.

The source also confirmed what two White House staff sources earlier told NBC News, that the Salahis were not “waved in” or had their names manually entered into the White House computer to gain entry.

The couple were vetted at the next checkpoint, but when their car was turned away they simply got out of the vehicle and walked to the pedestrian entrance. No need to call in Jason Bourne for this security breach.

Obama has called for an immediate investigation. No doubt there where soon be a panel, complete with a new "State Dinner Czar," to provide some expert advice on security . . . perhaps they could use automotive industry representatives for the task since they didn't use them for the "expert" panel on the automotive industry.

Meanwhile, what is Obama's plan for Afghanistan?

H/T: Hot Air

And here is some video of the grand entrance:

(Senator) Boxer Pesters General To Call Her "Senator"

Barbara Boxer is a senator and you'd better acknowledge it to the world (just in case somebody doesn't know) . . . even if you've shown such dedicated service to your country that you've achieved the rank of Brigadier General.

Oh, and this is just a guess but I suspect that Boxer is not aware that military protocol approves the terms "Ma'am" or "Sir."

I'm also guessing that Boxer couldn't wait and had to interrupt his answer to make her demand because . . . well, let's just say that she's not a big fan of the military.

And this is just another guess, but I don't think that is her natural hair color.

D-Day Remembered

On June 6, 1944 history was made by those who's blood would dampened Omaha beach in a courageous confrontation with evil. In the words of fellow native Michiganian (or Michigander if you prefer) Ted Nugent :

"As you read this, 65 years ago almost to the exact day, tens of thousands of scared young American soldiers were crammed together on landing craft in the English Channel heading for the beaches of Normandy, France. Their mission: save the world. Though they surely didn't know it, these young men in all those landing craft would be forever known in American history as the Greatest Generation.

. . . As the gates of the landing crafts fell, the Nazis unleashed Hell upon the Greatest Generation. In mere minutes, hundreds had been killed or wounded. By day's end the American military would suffer 5,000 casualties, all in the name of freedom. Know it.

. . . The American dead and wounded was so severe that American commanders considered abandoning the beach. But what our commanders had not counted on was the tenacity and fighting spirit of the Greatest Generation. Just as the firemen on 9/11 kept rushing up the stairs of the burning Twin Towers into the hands of God, the landing craft full of American infantry kept coming.

. . . Those young Americans who stormed Omaha beach on that morning 65 years ago on June 6th accomplished their mission: they saved the world."

May we never forget the strength and sacrifice of those who decided to face evil that day. And may we live up to their example when evil needs to be faced in our day.

White House Turns Back On Wounded Veterans

File this under, "I support the troops, I just don't want to give them medical support if they are wounded fighting for their country." In an unbelievable boot to the American military crotch, the President who promised to deliver health care for everybody has a plan to take it away from veterans who have been wounded in action.

As reported by CNN:

the Obama administration is considering a controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance. [emphasis added]

It wasn't long ago when Barack Obama took a shot at our fighting men and women by accusing them of "just air raiding villages and killing civilians." Now he wants to make them pay for their service to our country . . . literally. As if it wasn't enough for them to give an arm and a leg . . . literally.

Veterans already have to use private insurance when they receive health care from the VA for issues and conditions that are not related to service injuries, but the current administration wants to take it a step further. They want veterans to carry the financial burden of potentially catastrophic injuries that they received while fighting for freedom. Incredible! I suppose this shouldn't shock me coming from Obama, who spent as much time in military service to his country as Joe Biden . . . or Eric Holder or Hillary Clinton or Timothy Geithner or Hilda Solis or Gary Locke or Arne Duncan or Steven Chu or Janet Napolitano or Shaun Donovan or Ken Salazar or Rahm Emanuel (who did, however, graduate of the Evanston School of Ballet) or Robert Gibbs or, or, or virtually everybody else who Obama anoints as an advisor or cabinet member. But I don't want to digress into speculation as to why Obama's inner circle is proportionately deficient on veterans -- it could simply be that the president is allergic to the dander on people willing to sacrifice their lives for their country.

Naturally, those who are aware the the latest outrage from the White House and have an unaltered admiration of the American military are beginning to speak up. And veterans are stepping forward with force as CNN went on to explain.

Eleven of the most prominent veterans organizations have been lobbying Congress to oppose the idea. In the letter sent last week to the president, the groups warned that the idea "is wholly unacceptable and a total abrogation of our government's moral and legal responsibility to the men and women who have sacrificed so much."

AMEN!

As with his tax plan, perhaps Barack Obama should start thinking about those who work the hardest and sacrifice the most rather than those with whom he can exchange handouts for votes.

Veterans Day 2008

Today is a day to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep Old Glory flying, to thank those who walk among us having answered the call of duty, and pray for those who still stand in harm's way to defend our liberty from tyranny.

God bless those who have served: The Air Force, The Army, The Navy, The Marines, The Coast Guard. Those veterans who fought for their country and those who were never called to take up arms but stood at the ready.

One of the reasons that I am a Republican is our party's concept of America. While Democrats scrambled after 9/11 to find out what we had done wrong and worry incessantly about what the world thinks of us or how we can become more like Europeans, Republicans see America as that shining light on a hill. We see America as flawed, but great; imperfect, but profound in our message of hope. And while the world criticizes us from beneath our protective umbrella, we stand unique as both voice and fist of freedom.

This is the vision of America that surges through our military. This is the idea that makes those men and women determined for victory yet tempered for justice. This is why they deserve every American's respect, admiration and gratitude.

Another Take On McCain's Speech

Rick over at Freadom Nation has a great take on John McCain's convention speech and even included the text of the Senator's stirring conclusion. Incredible and genuine gems from the heart like,

I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency, for its faith in the wisdom, justice, and goodness of its people.

I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again; I wasn't my own man anymore; I was my country's.

Check it out at Freadom Nation: The best candidate for America: John McCain

Barack Obama: Insanity Concerning Iraq

This is a must see ad from the McCain campaign concerning Barack Obama's view of Iraq. It'll never play in its entirety on the Tube, so check it out on the YouTube.



H/T: To Nikki for finding this one!

What Does "Winning In Iraq" Mean For Obama?

Even the folk at the Washington Post found they could no longer view the war in Iraq like Helen Keller viewed ROY G BIV after a rainfall. In a recent editorial they had to open blind eyes and declare, "Don't look now, but the U.S.-backed government and army may be winning the war." Yes, Virginia, there must be a sanity clause in their newsroom. The editorial went on to explain:

There's been a relative lull in news coverage and debate about Iraq in recent weeks -- which is odd, because May could turn out to have been one of the most important months of the war. While Washington's attention has been fixed elsewhere, military analysts have watched with astonishment as the Iraqi government and army have gained control for the first time of the port city of Basra and the sprawling Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, routing the Shiite militias that have ruled them for years and sending key militants scurrying to Iran. At the same time, Iraqi and U.S. forces have pushed forward with a long-promised offensive in Mosul, the last urban refuge of al-Qaeda. So many of its leaders have now been captured or killed that U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, renowned for his cautious assessments, said that the terrorists have "never been closer to defeat than they are now."

Of course, all of this begs the question: if the rest of the media begins treating the war with a thimbleful of honesty, what is Barack Obama supposed to do? The lamb from Illinois has built his campaign on the folly of Iraq and even Husseined Hillary with his own liberal WMD by repeating that she once supported the war while he always knew it would fail. Could we see yet another Obamanable flip-flop?

McCain v. Obama on the GI Bill

OK, I'm a little late to the table on this one but I don't want to let the blog-free vow that I took for the family vacation to get in the way of this beautiful tussle between presidential candidates over Senator Jim Webb's GI Bill that promises increased education funding for U.S. troops. During the debate on the bill, Obama, a supporter of the legislation, took a shot at McCain, who has opposed the bill.

“I respect Senator John McCain’s service to our country. … but I can’t understand why he would line up behind the president in opposition to this GI bill. I can’t believe he believes it is too generous to our veterans. I could not disagree with him and the president more on this issue. There are many issues that lend themselves to partisan posturing but giving our veterans the chance to go to college should not be one of them.”

Of course, McCain didn't appreciate the junior senator from Illinois accusing him of being a Bush puppet who would sell out his fellow veterans for a taste of political Turkish Delight.

“I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did.”

McCain's concern over the bill stems from it's probable impact on reenlistment, which is why his version of the bill increases benefits based on length of military service. And keep in mind that we are not talking about the number of young people who volunteer, but those who rise in the ranks because they reenlist, thus providing the military with much needed experience in positions of leadership. Mac went on to explain in his response statement that:

“It would be easier politically for me to have joined Senator Webb in offering his legislation. More importantly, I feel just as he does, that we owe veterans the respect and generosity of a great nation because no matter how generously we show our gratitude it will never compensate them fully for all the sacrifices they have borne on our behalf. ... Perhaps, if Senator Obama would take the time and trouble to understand this issue he would learn to debate an honest disagreement respectfully. But, as he always does, he prefers impugning the motives of his opponent, and exploiting a thoughtful difference of opinion to advance his own ambitions. If that is how he would behave as president, the country would regret his election.”

This also leads me to once again call into question Obama's judgement. Does this guy really think it's wise to debate McCain on how America should treat its military heroes? What's next? Is he going to confront Derek Jeter on how to treat a wicked hop after Magglio Ordonez has turned on a fastball?

Back From Vacation

Our trips back to my old home town of Orlando are fun but I'm always thankful to make it home, leaving behind daily restaurant meals, ill-timed traffic lights and that ever-present mouse.

Now, I'm not one to share vacation photos or tales from the road, but there was one episode that struck me to the point of sharing . . . and it's not the guy at Epcot sporting a "World's Greatest Dad" t-shirt who hopped on the tram leaving his beloved family behind. No, it is actually a story from the plane ride home.

I sat next to a young couple who were smiling at my "mildly" out-of-control toddler leading me to make some comment about their new-found desire to have kids. They told me that they did have children, four in fact, all young and equally insane. As we got to know one another I learned that they would soon be moving to a military base in Germany. You see, the man had just finished a 15-month tour in Iraq, his second there, and they had just taken a vacation for the two of them before their 3-year reassignment . . . well, 3 years unless he is called back to Iraq.

He fought in Baghdad. It was tough, but he excitedly told me about the progress they'd made. They had reduce attacks on the troops as well as Iraqi-on-Iraqi crime by several hundred percent while at the same time helping to open schools and libraries for the people. "General Petraeus's strategy is working," he explained, and I could see that it was his heart talking. And I couldn't help thinking that we could win this thing because of the type of soldiers our volunteer military produces. The best of the best.

Before we said our goodbyes I told the couple that our kids pray for the soldiers nearly every night. And not just the soldiers, but for their families who share in the sacrifice. I promised to add them to our list.

So, Matthew and Heidi, if you happen to stumble across this blog, know that we are praying for you. We are praying for you and for all of those who risk their lives with an honor and dignity beyond expectation. Be safe. Feel peace. God bless.