The United States is the Arms Maker for the World

When you want the very best in military hardware buy American. Ours is the highest quality and most reliable. Our arms are the equivalent of Lexus, BMW, and Mercedes Benz high quality cars.

President Dwight Eisenhower famously warned the U.S. about the “military–industrial complex” in his farewell address. To this day armament manufacturers have provided thousands of well-paying jobs to Americans. With the wind down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and reduced military budgets there has been a significant reduction in those arms purchases.

The Los Angeles Times reports that “Three days after the U.S. fired 47 cruise missiles into Syria last week, the Pentagon signed a $251-million deal to buy more missiles from Raytheon Co.”

Thanks to the president’s “no boots on the ground” plans we are all happy to know that our children will have limited exposure to the Middle East war zone.

Why are we in this war at all? Congress won’t vote money for America’s infrastructure or other domestic spending proposals. However, given any threat abroad and the need for more jobs at home, why not keep shooting those GPS guided bombs? After all the cost of those guidance systems is a mere $25,000 each.

Make war, make money, and no boots on the ground. Perfect! Something both Democrats and Republicans can both agree on.

The military–industrial complex is alive and well.

Another Holocaust

Ron Rosenbaum wrote this piece in Slate.com. His point is the consequence of victory by Hamas. My question is who would come to the aid of Jews being slaughtered in Israel?

Israel’s most vehement critics like to accuse it of Nazi-like “genocide” in Gaza, said Ron Rosenbaum. Now, there’s a legitimate debate about whether Israel could have caused fewer civilian deaths in defending itself against Hamas’s rocket attacks and tunnel building. But genocide has a specific meaning, which is the deliberate, total annihilation of a people. “Where do we find actual genocide in Gaza”? In Hamas’s “Covenant”-its statement of its sacred mission. “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it,” the Covenant states, adding, “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews).” When Hamas fired thousands of rockets into Israeli towns and cities, its leaders meant to kill as many Jews as possible and failed only because of the Iron Dome defense system. If these terrorists were to acquire more-sophisticated missiles or tactical nuclear weapons, they’d happily kill millions of Jews in a Second Holocaust. All critics of Israel are not anti-Semitic. But those who ignore Hamas’s genocidal intent and then hurl the word “genocide” at its intended victims “give themselves away.”

DAVID BANCROFT

Obama’s Strategy for Fighting ISIS Isn’t All About Us

By Thomas L. Friedman in the N.Y. Times, September 14, 2014

THERE are three things in life that you should never do ambivalently: get married, buy a house or go to war. Alas, we’re about to do No. 3. Should we?

President Obama clearly took this decision to lead the coalition to degrade and destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, with deep ambivalence. How could he not? Our staying power is ambiguous, our enemy is barbarous, our regional allies are duplicitous, our European allies are feckless and the Iraqis and Syrians we’re trying to help are fractious. There is not a straight shooter in the bunch.

Other than that, it’s just like D-Day.

Consider Saudi Arabia. It’s going to help train Free Syrian Army soldiers, but, at the same time, is one of the biggest sources of volunteer jihadists in Syria. And, according to a secret 2009 U.S. study signed by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and divulged by WikiLeaks, private “donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.”

Turkey allowed foreign jihadists to pass into and out of Syria and has been an important market for oil that ISIS is smuggling out of Iraq for cash. Iran built the E.F.P.’s — explosively formed penetrators — that Iraqi Shiite militias used to help drive America out of Iraq and encouraged Iraq’s Shiite leaders to strip Iraqi Sunnis of as much power and money as possible, which helped create the ISIS Sunni counterrevolt. Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, deliberately allowed ISIS to emerge so he could show the world that he was not the only mass murderer in Syria. And Qatar is with us Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and against us Tuesdays and Thursdays. Fortunately, it takes the weekends off.

Meanwhile, back home, Obama knows that the members of his own party and the Republican Party who are urging him to bomb ISIS will be the first to run for the hills if we get stuck, fail or accidentally bomb a kindergarten class.

So why did the president decide to go ahead? It’s a combination of a legitimate geostrategic concern — if ISIS jihadists consolidate their power in the heart of Iraq and Syria, it could threaten some real islands of decency, like Kurdistan, Jordan and Lebanon, and might one day generate enough capacity to harm the West more directly — and the polls. Obama clearly feels drummed into this by the sudden shift in public opinion after ISIS’s ghastly videotaped beheadings of two American journalists.

O.K., but given this cast of characters, is there any way this Obama plan can end well? Only if we are extremely disciplined and tough-minded about how, when and for whom we use our power.

Before we step up the bombing campaign on ISIS, it needs to be absolutely clear on whose behalf we are fighting. ISIS did not emerge by accident and from nowhere. It is the hate-child of two civil wars in which the Sunni Muslims have been crushed. One is the vicious civil war in Syria in which the Iranian-backed Alawite-Shiite regime has killed roughly 200,000 people, many of them Sunni Muslims, with chemical weapons and barrel bombs. And the other is the Iraqi civil war in which the Iranian-backed Shiite government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki systematically stripped the Sunnis of Iraq of their power and resources.

There will be no self-sustained stability unless those civil wars are ended and a foundation is laid for decent governance and citizenship. Only Arabs and Muslims can do that by ending their sectarian wars and tribal feuds. We keep telling ourselves that the problem is “training,” when the real problem is governance. We spent billions of dollars training Iraqi soldiers who ran away from ISIS’s path — not because they didn’t have proper training, but because they knew that their officers were corrupt hacks who were not appointed on merit and that the filthy Maliki government was unworthy of fighting for. We so underestimate how starved Arabs are, in all these awakenings, for clean, decent governance.

Never forget, this is a two-front war: ISIS is the external enemy, and sectarianism and corruption in Iraq and Syria are the internal enemies. We can and should help degrade the first, but only if Iraqis and Syrians, Sunnis and Shiites, truly curtail the second. If our stepped-up bombing, in Iraq and Syria, gets ahead of their reconciliation, we will become the story and the target. And that is exactly what ISIS is waiting for.

ISIS loses if our moderate Arab-Muslim partners can unite and make this a civil war within Islam — a civil war in which America is the air force for the Sunnis and Shiites of decency versus those of barbarism. ISIS wins if it can make this America’s war with Sunni Islam — a war where America is the Shiite/Alawite air force against Sunnis in Iraq and Syria. ISIS will use every bit of its Twitter/Facebook network to try to depict it as the latter, and draw more recruits.

We keep making this story about us, about Obama, about what we do. But it is not about us. It is about them and who they want to be. It’s about a pluralistic region that lacks pluralism and needs to learn how to coexist. It’s the 21st century. It’s about time.

TO WHOM DOES THE LAND OF ISRAEL BELONG??

An Israeli Sense of Humor at United Nations set the record straight.

An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the United Nations Assembly and made the world community smile.

A representative from Israel began:
‘Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Moses:
When he struck the rock and it brought forth water, he thought,
“What a good opportunity to have a bath!”

Moses removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water.
When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished.
A Palestinian had stolen them!

The Palestinian representative at the UN jumped up furiously and
shouted, “What are you talking about? The Palestinians weren’t there then.”

The Israeli representative smiled and said,
“And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech.”

Author of this piece is unknown

DAVID BANCROFT

Remember the Maine and other Reasons for Starting a War

History has taught us nothing!

Two Americans were beheaded and those acts, as horrible as they are, is about to lead the United States into another war.

On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. For some unknown reason, Austria-Hungary believed that Serbia was involved either directly or indirectly. Some people believe that Austria-Hungary was just looking for an excuse to start a war.

“REMEMBER THE MAINE, TO HELL WITH SPAIN!” was the cry after an explosion on that ship caused it to sink with 260 American sailors on board. On April 11, 1898, McKinley asked the Congress for permission to use force in Cuba. To send a message to the rest of the world that the United States was interested in Cuban independence instead of American colonization, Congress passed the TELLER AMENDMENT, which promised that America would not annex the precious islands. After that conscience-clearing measure, American leaders threw caution to the wind and declared open warfare on the Spanish throne.

The Spanish-American War is often referred to as the first “media war.” During the 1890s, journalism that sensationalized—and sometimes even manufactured—dramatic events was a powerful force that helped propel the United States into war with Spain. Led by newspaper owners William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, journalism of the 1890s used melodrama, romance, and hyperbole to sell millions of newspapers–a style that became known as yellow journalism.

The term yellow journalism came from a popular New York World comic called “Hogan’s Alley,” which featured a yellow-dressed character named the “the yellow kid.” Determined to compete with Pulitzer’s World in every way, rival New York Journal owner William Randolph Hearst copied Pulitzer’s sensationalist style and even hired “Hogan’s Alley” artist R.F. Outcault away from the World. In response, Pulitzer commissioned another cartoonist to create a second yellow kid. Soon, the sensationalist press of the 1890s became a competition between the “yellow kids,” and the journalistic style was coined “yellow journalism.”

Hearst created several schemes to spark U.S. intervention. The most well-known involved the imprisonment and release of Cuban prisoner Evangeline Cisneros. With his hand in her dramatic escape, Hearst successfully used publicity to rally U.S. interest for the Cuban struggle.

Perhaps the most famous anecdote surrounding Heart’s zeal for the war involves a legendary communication between illustrator Frederick Remington and Hearst. As the story goes, Remington, who had been sent to Cuba to cover the insurrection, cabled to Hearst that there was no war to cover. Hearst allegedly replied with, “You furnish the pictures. I’ll furnish the war.” More detail here.

Tune in to FOX, CNN, NBC, etc. today and you will see the images and hear the tales of ISIS soldiers now reportedly numbering 30,000 or more that are threatening Syria, Iraq, and adjoining nations with their very existence. “Contractors Ready to Cash In On ISIS War” is an article posted by Eli Lake on THE DAILY BEAST. “Islamic State’s rapid growth caught U.S. by surprise” is a headline of the Los Angeles Times.

Don’t you see how headlines and stories are fanning the flames of war? In the confusion the president calls his plans a war then call it an action against terrorists but not a war. “No boots on the ground” is repeated endlessly. What does that accomplish? Proof that the United States is not getting into another war. – The confusion causes the president’s highest advisers to sometimes say the word “war” and then re-state that we are not going to war.

Even in his Wednesday night speech the president said there is no credible threat on the “homeland.”

When a president has no firm foreign policy he is impacted by the noisiest among us. Prepare for loss of life and other unintended consequences.

Another Sad Military Adventure for the U.S.A.

Our president has succumbed to the war mongers.

President Obama’s speech to destroy ISIS (or ISIL) was for the most part excellent. The latter part of the speech where he spoke of the United States recovering from the Great Recession was irrelevant.

He told us his plans to accomplish the goal. He placed only one condition on those plans. There will be no American army doing the ground fighting. Without spelling out every detail he implied that American forces would be used in Syria.

I have one big problem with this military adventure. The president did not tell Americans why we need to be involved in the effort. Other questions:
• Where is the evidence that America will be attacked if ISIS is not destroyed?
• What interests of the United States will be effected by the rise of ISIS?
• Who will do the ground fighting if it’s not Americans?
• How can we rely on the Iraqi army when they dropped their weapons and ran away in the face of attack by ISIS?
• Why hasn’t the Arab League lead this fight?
• Given our track record in the Middle East, why will the outcome of this war be any different?
• When will we know we have won the fight?

Two things we can be sure of is that the manufacturers of military hardware will be earning more money and American lives will be lost.

Charlie Rose talks to Khaled Meshaal

Charlie Rose is a highly respected interviewer who has television programs on Bloomberg, CBS, and PBS in the United States.

Hamas’s exiled leader on the Gaza bloodshed and the effects of Israel’s seven-year blockade of the Palestinian enclave. Carefully read, Khaled Meshaal considers Israel as an occupier nation. The goal of Hamas, as stated in their charter, is the destruction of Israel.

Mr. Rose’s questions are in bold font. Key reply statements are underlined.

This interview was scanned from Bloomberg BusinessWeek and was shown on PBS.

How does the killing stop?
What do you want?
Human beings have to defend themselves. If we are starved, if we are besieged, we have to defend ourselves. When [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu stops every effort to reach peace, the rest of the world ought to expect an explosion in the West Bank and Gaza. What do I believe Hamas needs or wants? Peace. But we want peace without occupation, without settlements, without Judaization without the siege. We want to live on par with every single nation. We need to live in Palestine.

Will you pledge not to eradicate Israel?
Do you want to live in coexistence with Israel?
I do not coexist with occupation and with settlements. Do you think that Palestinians who suffer from occupation and settlements can eradicate Israel? No, this is beguiling, misleading propaganda …. We in Hamas believe in moderation of Islam. We are not fanatics. We do not fight the Jews because they are Jews per se. We fight the occupiers. I’m ready to coexist with the Jews, with the Christians, with the Arabs, with the non-Arabs. I do coexist with other religions …. When we have a Palestinian state, then the Palestinian people can have their say. There are disproportionate standards, but we have the upper hand. Every single occupation ends, and the people are victorious.

Will the people of Gaza continue to support
Hamas despite the terrible consequences?
The Palestinians of Gaza are saying we are suffering because of the crimes of Israel. Even with the carnage and their homes reduced to rubble, they say, “Mr. Khaled Meshaal, we don’t want to emerge from this war without breaking the siege. We were dying slowly. Now we are dying instantly because of the F-16s and all the Israeli and American technology.” The Palestinian people have had enough. They do not make distinctions between slow death and instant death. They say, “Our families are targeted in their homes. However, we want to resist, to insist on lifting the siege.”

Why are you in Qatar and not Gaza?
This is a very reasonable question. You can ask not only Khaled Meshaal, you can ask the 6 million people in the diaspora. Why are they not in the West Bank? Why are they not in Gaza? Because Israel expelled the Palestinians in 1948 and 1967. I’m from the West Bank. Since 1967,I was expelled. I used to live in Jordan, in Kuwait, when I used to be a student. Then I moved to Syria and now Qatar. You have hundreds and thousands of Palestinians in America. They long to go back to Palestine. Although they are American citizens, Palestinians long for their home country. That’s why we insist on the return of the refugees, for me and for others to return. My natural existence is there, but I’m compelled to be here.

Some suggest, to preserve Israel’s
security, the sovereignty of a
Palestinian state must be restricted.
Why does the world understand Israeli security issues and not take heed of Palestinian security issues? In order to have a Palestinian state, why ought that state be demilitarized? Who accepts a state without arms? It will be subject to the aggression of others. I cannot accept any tutelage of any other entity. If you say, “Come, you are Palestinian. We can give you a piece here an a piece there in piecemeal fashion”-no. No.

How do you create trust between
Israelis and Palestinians?
You think the key is trust. We actually are enemies. They are the occupiers. The solution doesn’t start with trust. The international community’s full mission is to say to the Israeli occupation, “Stop. Enough is enough.” They ought to compel Israel to withdraw. How could I trust my enemy? We had a number of negotiations. The negotiations failed.

Do you need the approval
of the military wing of
Hamas to commit to any
agreement?
We are not two heads or two bodies. We are one single movement. When the political leadership commits to something, then the military wing will commit itself, too. If the leaders take a decision, then every single person, whether militant or civilian, they will follow.

DAVID BANCROFT

Gaza Underground Infrastructure Photos

Underground tunneling from Gaza to Israel was apparently unknown by Israeli’s prior to this current 2014 conflict. Along with Hamas’ more powerful long range rockets the these tunnels will obviously make Israelis more fearful and perhaps more determined to strike critical blows to that terrorist organization. However, the very existence of Israel is a rallying topic for all Muslims. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, and most other Middle East nations are pouring more arms and money into destroying the Jewish state. The long term likelihood of peace are remote.

Click the first link at this web site to see some of the significant tunneling dug by the Hamas fighters. http://cryptome.org/2014-info/gaza-ugi/gaza-ugi.htm

David Bancroft

Israel Palestinian War of 2014 – A Hamas PR

Israel has the right to defend itself, by itself, from the continued campaign of terror being waged by Hamas. The moral bankruptcy of Hamas, its lack of concern for civilians or international law (on Thursday, the UN said it had found rockets hidden in one of its Gaza schools), its indiscriminate rocket launches that it hopes will cause civilian casualties, its refusal to recognize the very existence of Israel gives Israel absolute right to defend itself.

Margaret Wente wrote the following commentary in the Canadian Globe and Mail newspaper

Human shields are Hamas’s PR

Published Tuesday, Jul. 15 2014, 7:00 AM EDT

Last updated Tuesday, Jul. 15 2014, 7:00 AM EDT

It’s hard to figure out why Hamas would launch a missile attack against Israel. They can’t possibly win. Their missiles are useless, and seldom hit anything before the Israelis blow them up. If they wanted to, they could crush Hamas like a bug.

What Hamas does get is good PR. The visuals are golden: fleeing civilians, injured kids, apartment buildings bombed to rubble. So are the lopsided statistics – hundreds of Palestinians dead but zero Israelis. European press coverage has been overwhelmingly sympathetic to the Palestinians. In the Guardian, one commentator called the conflict “as perverse as Mike Tyson punching a toddler.”

There’s another difference between the two sides. Israel doesn’t want to shed civilian blood. Hamas needs it – especially from its own civilians. That’s one reason why it puts rocket launchers and ammunition dumps in mosques and homes in crowded neighbourhoods. That’s why it told people not to leave northern Gaza this weekend after Israel warned it was going to bomb.

Even Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has called out Hamas. “We are the losing side, and every minute there are more and more unnecessary deaths,” Mr. Abbas said in an interview on Lebanese television. “I don’t like trading in Palestinian blood.” (In response, Hamas called him a criminal.)

Israel tries to minimize civilian deaths by warning people in advance of a strike, either with a telephone call or a harmless missile (known as a “knock on the roof”). These tactics don’t always work. A few days ago, the IDF mistakenly bombed a home for the disabled, whose residents were unable to flee despite the warning. Advance warnings also fail because instead of running away from the scene, some people rush to it. They hope their presence might deter an attack. Either it works or they become martyrs.

Earlier this month, the IDF targeted a compound in Khan Younis that was allegedly a headquarters for leading Hamas bad guys. They made a phone call warning noncombatants to get out. They also sent a knock-knock missile. But instead of leaving, people rushed in and headed to the roof to form a human shield. Eight noncombatants died, including several children. The IDF called it a “tragic mistake,” noting that by the time the people were spotted on the roof, the missile was already in the air.

Hamas openly encourages civilians to act as human shields. Here’s what Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri had to say recently on Al-Aqsa TV (via the Middle East Media Research Institute): “This attests to the character of our noble, jihad-fighting people, who defend their rights and their homes with their bare chests and their blood … We in Hamas call upon our people to adopt this policy in order to protect the Palestinian homes.”

The willingness to sacrifice Palestinian children has served Hamas well. Rights groups have condemned the advanced-warning efforts as just another version of collective punishment. “There is no way that firing a missile at a civilian home can constitute an effective ‘warning,’ ” said Amnesty International’s Philip Luther. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says there is “serious doubt” that Israel is complying with international human-rights law.

In the greater bloodbath that has engulfed the Middle East, this doesn’t add up to much. It will probably be over soon, and things will quiet down until next time. And there will be a next time – the younger generation of Israelis isn’t all that interested in peace. Nor are the kids on the other side. As one boy said on Palestinian TV, “We love the resistance. We want to die as martyrs. Long live the martyrs.”

David Bancroft

Some Muslim History

Reflecting on the facts

Just a few things to ponder on a warm summer evening….

– In 732 AD the Muslim Army which was moving on Paris was defeated and turned back at Tours, France, by Charles Martell.

– In 1571 AD the Muslim Army/ Navy was defeated by the Italians and Austrians as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to attack southern Europe in the Battle of Lepanto.

– In 1683 AD the Turkish Muslim Army, attacking Eastern Europe, was finally defeated in the Battle of Vienna by German and Polish Christian Armies.

This crap has been going on for 1,400 years and half of these damn politicians don’t even know it!!! If these battles had not been won we might be speaking Arabic and Christianity could be non – existent;

Judaism certainly would be… And let us not forget that Hitler was an admirer of Islam and that the Mufti of Jerusalem was Hitler’s guest in Berlin and raised Bosnian Muslim SS Divisions: the 13th and 21st Waffen SS Divisions who killed Jews, Russians, Gypsies, and any other “subhumans”.

Reflecting A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine that America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.

Pause a moment, reflect back. These events are actual events from history. They really happened!!! Do you remember?

1. In 1968, Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by a Muslim male.

2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by Muslim males.

3. In 1972 a Pan Am 747 was hijacked and eventually diverted to Cairo where a fuse was lit on final approach, it was blown up shortly after landing by Muslim males.

4. In 1973 a Pan Am 707 was destroyed in Rome, with 33 people killed, when it was attacked with grenades by Muslim males.

5. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by Muslim males.

6. During the 1980’s a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by Muslim males.

7. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by Muslim males.

8. In 1985, the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by Muslim males.

9. In 1985, TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by Muslim males.

10. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by Muslim males.

11. In 1993 , the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by Muslim males.

12. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim males.

13. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take down the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by Muslim males.

14. In 2002, the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against Muslim males.

15. In 2002, reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded by—you guessed it was a— Muslim male.

16. In 2013, Boston Marathon Bombing 4 Innocent people including a child killed, 264 injured by Muslim males.

No, I really don’t see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you?

So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. Absolutely No Profiling! They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President’s security detail, 85-year old, Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males, alone lest they be guilty of profiling.

Have the American people completely lost their Minds, or just their Power of Reason???

Let’s send this to as many people as we can so that the Gloria Allred and other stupid attorneys along with Federal Justices that want to thwart common sense, feel ashamed of themselves — if they have any such sense.

As the writer of the award winning story ‘Forrest Gump’ so aptly put it, ‘Stupid Is As Stupid Does’.

Author is unknown

David Bancroft