“a hands off, leading from behind approach”

The U.S. has made the case as strongly as they can to regional countries, including Kuwait. But ultimately when you take a hands off, leading from behind approach to things, people don’t take you seriously and they take matters into their own hands.
— America’s Allies Are Funding ISIS, Josh Rogin, The Daily Beast.com

“The elephant in the room, unmentioned by Obama, is what happens if Iraq’s leaders — or the rebels — turn out to be uninterested in compromise. In particular, the president never said anything approaching this: “We will under no circumstances permit the terrorists to take control of Iraq.”

Barack Obama is a man who knows how to use words. It’s possible, then, that this omission was intended to prepare us for the worst.”
— What Obama Didn’t Say About Iraq, Stephen L. Carter, Bloombergview.com

America didn’t lose Iraq, it was given away by a party and an Administration bound and determined to “get out of Bush’s War.” The left cares not for foreign affairs, it distracts from the domestic agenda of taxing and spending*. When they do show interest, it’s to kiss the ass of oil sucking dictators or to kow-tow to any foreign tyrant. Or simply parrot the current thinking of Europe’s intellectual class.

Iraq could have used American troops. ISIS is an Al-Qaeda spin-off. A failed Iraq spells trouble for the US. Sadly, we American’s don’t care about foreign wars, but foreign wars do care about us.

The left likes to say that they ended Vietnam and now Iraq. That somehow the Democrats brought us troops home. Lies. George Bush signed the agreement to withdraw from Iraq when their coalition government didn’t want a Status Of Forces Agreement.

But if you see Tumblr, Reddit or other hives of lefty scum and villainy, the Democrats are treated like royalty for “bringing the troops home” (not really, we’re still gonna be in Afghanistan until 2017). Don’t forget the drone strikes. Clinton has his cruise missiles, this Whitehouse has kill lists and drones. Hands off and leading from behind.

So as the media has sown, so shall the American public be forced to reap the bitter harvest.

*: I’m not kidding about that. See TheOtherMcCain for our “reality based community’s” take on Iraq:

Yes, the most urgent business facing the United States Senate is a newspaper columnist’s thoughts about sex on college campuses.
— R.S. McCain

And the “racist military” smear continues.

All thorough out Hollywood and the media’s depiction of the military, we’re shown a bunch of mooks beacuse the military is teh evilz!

Part of this meme is that the US military is/has/trains/recruits rabid racists. They become “veterans” who are planning to/training to/stocking up guns for/working for INSERTSINISTERPLANSHERE.

Jackasses like Timothy McVeigh get branded about every so often (a SF washout and marginal soldier who was demoted from E-5 to E-1).

“Frazier Glenn Cross, also known as Frazier Glenn Miller, is accused of killing three people outside a Jewish community center and Jewish retirement community on April 13, according to media reports. The Fayetteville Observer reported that Miller is a former Ku Klux Klan leader as well as a retired master sergeant who served in Army Special Forces. He was forced to retire in 1979 for distributing racist materials.”
— Veterans slam New York Times piece linking vets to hate groups, Militarytimes.com

Yep, another “veteran”. And here is the MSM stock narrative:

“The number of Vietnam veterans in that movement was small — a tiny proportion of those who served — but Vietnam veterans forged the first links between Klansmen and Nazis since World War II. They were central in leading Klan and neo-Nazi groups past the anti-civil rights backlash of the 1960s and toward paramilitary violence. The white power movement they forged had strongholds not only in the South, but also in the Pacific Northwest, Colorado, California and Pennsylvania. Its members carried weapons like those they had used in Vietnam, and used boot-camp rhetoric to frame their pursuit of domestic enemies. They condoned violence against innocent people and, eventually, the state itself.”
— Veterans and White Supremacy, By KATHLEEN BELEW, NYT.com

Plenty of “weasle words” there, I’ve highlighted them. She goes on to say:

Mr. Miller obviously represents an extreme, both in his politics and in his violence. A vast majority of veterans are neither violent nor mentally ill. When they turn violent, they often harm themselves, by committing suicide.

And here is the epic smack down:

“Make no mistake—if there were extremists in the ranks, commanders would be quick to give them the boot; the Army’s regulations give them plenty of latitude to do so. In fact, that actually happened in the case of Frazier Miller,
…
Finally, understand that Mr. Miller represents just one of over 20 million veterans in America—roughly the entire population of the state of New York. One person does not make a trend.”
—
Racists in the ranks? Not in this Army., Crispin J. Burke, Medium.com

As both XBradTC, the Military Times and the Department Of Defense are quick to point out, being a racist nutjob gets a soldier back on the street with a quickness.

Tattoos are inspected, background checks are done. Sure there are some idiots who fall through the cracks. But contrary to what liberals, progressives and places like the Southern “Poverty” Law Center think, there is no mass movement of racist “vets”.

Extremist groups try, they send pamphlets, use the internets and attempt to use social media. And the IG, the DoD’s special law enforcement agencies and the FBI are quick to find them.

I suspect that this “meme” is more battlespace prep for 2014 and backlash over the fail of progressive causes. Expect to see Tea Party rallies peppered with “racist milita” and veterans running for office smeared with this.

The left hates the military and this is one way they have to swipe at recruitment and the treatment of vets.

Played

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a liberal independent from Vermont and chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, is pushing a broad veterans measure that would restore veterans’ pensions and expand their access to health care and educational benefits.
–“The Veterans-Benefits Bandwagon Is Getting Mighty Crowded” National Journal

Are you imagining how that’s going to play out in November during the mid-term elections. Something like this; “the Republicans cut military pensions and Democrats restored them”. Yeah, if you believe that avowed communist, Bernie Sanders cares about the troops beyond their value as a campaign slogan, you’re kidding yourself.
— Jonn Lilyea deconstructs.

Presented without comment.

Compare and contrast

The war in Afghanistan continues. The war in Iraq is still fresh in the minds of the soldiers who fought it. The war on terror seems far from over. Good war movies will be made about these conflicts, but only after they’re long over.

Until then, speculative fiction allows storytellers to talk about the conflicts in a way that incompetent “realistic” crap like Lone Survivor and The Hurt Locker just can’t.
Matthew Gault in War is Boring

Consider the film Lone Survivor, which tells the true story of heroic Navy SEALs in Afghanistan. The film has been denounced by some critics; a “jingoistic, pornographic work of war propaganda,” in the words of one reviewer. Richard Corliss of Time chimed in: “That these events actually happened doesn’t necessarily make it plausible or powerful in a movie, or keep it from seeming like convenient propaganda.” Similar complaints (from non-conservatives, at least) about antiwar films made during the George W. Bush years are much harder to find.
Tinseltown’s Propaganda Problem , By Jonah Goldberg, NRO.com

Hollywood and the liberals in the MSM want blood and gore, sex and violence. As long as it makes America and her military look bad.

They want the fall of Saigon, US caskets. Hence the “demand” for “access” to Dover Air Force Base. With a Democrat in the White House?

Nope. And Lone Survivor is about the Navy SEALs. So was Zero Dark Thirty and Captain Phillips. And the left hates them. Oh they likes it when Bin Laden assumed room temp, we heard “Osama is dead and Detroit is Alive” over and over.

But then the economy and the ACA hit.

So the War On Terror(tm) grinds on. There will be no Deer Hunter, no psycho veterans shooting up bars or running around in fatigues and army surplus. Thanks to the internets vets are getting our voices out. There are directors who don’t want to do propaganda. We’re sick of 9/11 images and the left screaming about how “Bush/Cheney/the GOP” did [INSERT CONSPIRACY HERE].

The X-files and hippie anti-war b.s. had their day. I say let old Hollywood burn.

The ATF’s new building

There is a plan to name the new ATF headquarters after Elliot Ness:

Moreover, Eig writes that Ness played around on his wife, tried to cover up an accident in which he was involved while driving drunk, he drank too much, and ended up selling frozen hamburger patties in the last years of his life because he was strapped for cash.

To summarize, Ness didn’t get his man, he had questionable morals, he probably was an alcoholic, he covered up a crime, he couldn’t manage his money, and he was prone to wild exaggeration about his accomplishments.
–“Naming ATF Headquarters After Eliot Ness Might Actually Be Appropriate ” No Lawyers, Only Guns and Money.

Given that the ATF gave guns to Mexican cartels in exchange for some info, I agree.

Boeing, Boeing

So this happened:

SEATTLE (KING) – Boeing machinists have voted to approve Boeing’s latest eight-year contract proposal, securing assembly of the company’s new 777X airplane in Washington state.

Thousands of union members cast their ballots – some waiting in line for hours outside of the union hall in Everett – in Friday’s crucial vote.
— “Seattle machinists approve Boeing 777X production contract“, Ksdk.com

So Kshama Sawant must be spinning, she called for Boeing workers to “Take Over” their plant if Boeing left. Yeah, talking like a Batman villain makes all kinds of sense…

Boeing’s workers have working brains. Their Union doubled down and lost. Boeing could move to those “right to work” states. The voted to keep their jobs. Hopefully they will vote new union leadership.

ZeroHedge nails it

I always wondered why the “tea party” and “limited government” see to be a dog-whistle to the left. Why do they hate these terms?

“Power, or perceived power, is a viciously addictive narcotic. It doesn’t matter what political or philosophical background a person hails from, very few have the self discipline or the self awareness necessary to relinquish the trappings of power once they have tasted it. This truth applies to conservatives as much as it applies to liberals.”
–“Guest Post: Are Constitutional Conservatives Really The Boogeyman?” Zerohedge.com

The Washington DC RINO‘s and Democrats are interchangeable. Those career politicians (something the founders feared and despised) are interested in power and the money from being the DC elite.

So they fear the group with the hand painted signs, the people meeting in their homes and on blogs. They sic the MSM and the IRS on innocent people.

Maybe on November 4th we should show them who’s the real boss.

UPDATE: Instapundit links to this:

Mr. Seitz-Wald’s alternative, using technology and innovation in the service of a more powerful, consolidated, and monopolistic state, is in an altogether different spirit, one that would have been familiar to George Orwell, who, in his more charitable moments, understood that nobody plans on becoming Napoleon, it just works out that way — something that happens as “they constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within by dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good.
–“ Memories of Futures Past:
A brief history of bold new visions of the American order “,
Kevin D. Williamson, National Review.

It’s never about “reform”, it’s about securing jobs for those in power. The media, the lawyers, the politicians, they all want money and power. If we let them dictate reform we’ll never get true reform, just more of the same cronyism.

Ignorance

Compare and contrast:

“One point from the exchange worth mentioning is that, although I believe that there is a good deal of evidence indicating that political ignorance has caused great harm at various points in American history, scholars have only begun to systematically study its effects on past policy decisions.”
— Debating the Impact of Political Ignorance,By Ilya Somin

“Pam Kehaly, president of Anthem Blue Cross in California, said she received a recent letter from a young woman complaining about a 50% rate hike related to the healthcare law.

“She said, ‘I was all for Obamacare until I found out I was paying for it,’” Kehaly said.”
Some health insurance gets pricier as Obamacare rolls out

If we don’t organize we’ll just get more of this.

404

So the pre-2010 Congress and the White Hose forced the “We have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it” Affordable Care Act.

What did we get?

404

“But nearly a week after launch and the site is still unable to function. It seems that there is at least one American who has successfully registered on the site. The fact that all news agencies seem to have called this one man implies that he may be the only one.”
—
“Healthcare.gov goes 404 on America“, exploreb2b.com

One Congressman wants Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to resign.

I agree. They had 3 years to get this to work. Healthcare costs are going up and the site is being taken down as of 11 October to be “fixed”. In the corporate world Sebelius would be forced out.

Oh and this travesty cost $500 million to build. The Canadians FIRED the firm behind Healthcare.gov…

We were warned:

This very personal relationship, “value”, has two factors for a human being: first, what he can do with a thing, its use to him… and second, what he must do to get it, its cost to him. There is an old song which asserts that “the best things in life are free”. Not true! Utterly false! This was the tragic fallacy which brought on the decadence and collapse of the democracies of the twentieth century; those noble experiments failed because the people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted… and get it, without toil, without sweat, without tears
—
Robert A. Heinlein “StarshipTroopers”

Chew On This: Truth to Power

And this nation finds itself on the brink of war. Ten years ago we hear the left howl in protest. And we heard many lies from the “reality based community”.

The more things change:

1. A lefty author has the vapors over the phrase “Support Our Troops” This Ain’t Hell takes the whinny leftist down. Anti-war was naver about supporting troops or ending war, it was about Marxist hogwash and hating America.
2. Instapundit looks at the Left’s war on Golden Rice and other GMO’s. Even Slate finds the left’s lies anti-science.
3. Hotair.com links to a report on that Hillary’s press secretary refuses to admits that Alger Hiss was a dirty commie spy. Truth never stopped the left, why start now?
4. Slate doubles down on #waronwomen, Ace o’Spades points out that somehow slience is teh sexist.
5. Roger Kimall on a former US attorney flying into a rage when someone actually speaks truth to power. There are realfacts and there are goodfacts. He just wanted to send James O’Keefe to the Ministry of Love.
6. Someone on Buzzfeed does speak truth to the power and the Guardian’s Fruzsina Eordogh won’t have any of that nonsense. Legal Insurrection is on it like a hobo on a ham sandwich.
7. President goes to war without Congressional Approval. Stop Bushoh wait..never mind!

It was never about stopping war, world peace, science or truth. It’s always about the left and their love of power. The power to control the debate, take from your wallet and push other people around.

If you question the left’s agenda, you’re a tool or a pawn of the rich/Koch/government/GOP/Jews/girl scouts/the church/rich white men/etc. If you don’t believe the left you’re a racist/in denial/stupid.

They don’t what a debate. When there is one, they go insane. Either we take up the fight or we get the left’s boot on our faces.