XPost: dc.urban-planning, wa.politics   
   From: obama-the-puke@barackobama.com   
      
   By Alan Caruba   
      
   “Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the   
   U.S. was too strong.” --  Ronald Reagan   
      
   If you want to know how President Obama feels about the U.S.   
   military, consider that in all the years since D-Day 1945 there   
   have been three occasions when a President failed to go to the D-   
   Day Monument that honors the soldiers killed during the Invasion.   
      
   The occasions were:   
      
   1. Barack Obama 2010   
   2. Barack Obama 2011   
   3. Barack Obama 2012   
      
   For the past 68 years, all Presidents, except Obama, have paid   
   tribute to the fallen soldiers killed on D-Day. This year,   
   instead of honoring the soldiers, he made a campaign trip on Air   
   Force 1 to California to raise funds for his reelection.   
      
   The U.S. military has been systematically weakened from within   
   by a combination of idiotic and duplicitous decisions that   
   suggest how far the nation has come from the fundamental   
   understanding that an enemy must be destroyed with sufficient   
   devastation as to never contemplate attacking us or our allies   
   again.   
      
   World War Two was a success because both Germany and Japan were   
   required to sign instruments of unconditional surrender. Both   
   nations are now our allies. Even Vietnam where the U.S.   
   blundered into a civil war and was ultimately forced to withdraw   
   now has normalized diplomatic relations and welcomes U.S.   
   investment.   
      
   The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan remain inconclusive due to a   
   combination of timid rules of engagement and the transformation   
   of our military’s mission into "nation-building" that have   
   yielded unsatisfactory results.   
      
   The military force that distinguished America as a super power   
   at the mid-point of the last century now is facing draconian   
   funding reductions from a Congress unwilling to make hard   
   decisions about our historic debt.   
      
   A July Wall Street Journal editorial, “The Coming Defense Crack-   
   Up”, warned the automatic sequestration, “If implemented, the   
   Pentagon budget would be cut by another 9% (or $492 billion)   
   over the next decade, on top of the $487 billion in cuts that   
   are already planned. Defense accounts for the largest share of   
   total sequestration, or 42.6%m according to the Congressional   
   Budget Office.”   
      
   “The sequestration cuts would leave the defense budget some 30%   
   smaller in 10 years.” Does anyone believe that the world will be   
   any safer in two years or ten years? Or that weakening our   
   defense will make us safer in a world bristling with nuclear   
   arms and other weapons of mass destruction?   
      
   If the sequestration cuts are pure folly, then the use of our   
   defense forces as a means to avoid “global warming” is sheer   
   insanity. There is no global warming insofar as the Earth   
   entered a natural cooling cycle in 1998 and the claim that   
   carbon dioxide is “causing” global warming is completely   
   baseless. A tiny element of the Earth’s atmosphere—0.038%--   
   carbon dioxide (CO2) has been the excuse environmentalists have   
   used to attack our manufacturing and energy sectors. Now it is   
   being used to render our military weaker through a requirement   
   to use biofuels.   
      
   On October 8, 2009, President Obama issued Executive Order   
   13514, ordering the Defense Department and other agencies to   
   reduce CO2 and other so-called greenhouse gas emissions. He set   
   a goal of having the ships that defend our nuclear carriers   
   powered by biofuels.   
      
   How stupid is this? First of all, America sits atop enough oil   
   reserves to make us energy independent if the Obama   
   administration would permit exploration and extraction   
   domestically and offshore. The U.S. Geological Survey reports   
   that the U.S. possesses 26% of the world’s oil supply. The Obama   
   administration assertion that the U.S. has only 2% of the   
   world’s supply is a lie.   
      
   There is zero need for biofuels. By 2020, the Navy has been   
   instructed to use alternative fuel for half of its consumption.   
   A recent naval exercise cost the Navy $27 per gallon of biofuel,   
   versus $3.50 to $4.00 for standard petroleum fuel. As this is   
   being written, Americans are required to use ethanol, a biofuel,   
   in every gallon of gas they put in their cars, needlessly   
   increasing the cost with no benefit in mileage and at the risk   
   of damaging their car engines.   
      
   The Air Force is also subject to these mandates for biofuels   
   that cost more than $26 per gallon, compared with standard jet   
   fuel at $4 per gallon. Both the Navy and Air Force face the   
   prospect of having to refuel ships and planes in potential   
   battle zones where every gallon of biofuel would have to be   
   transported from the U.S. for lack of biofuel refineries in   
   Asian, Mideast or Mediterranean ports. Can you spell d-e-f-e-a-t?   
      
   These biofuel mandates are part of the Obama administration’s   
   crony capitalism that has seen “alternative energy” lose   
   billions in loan guarantees to solar companies and the   
   government mandates that maintain the wind power industry that,   
   like ethanol, would not exist without federal government support.   
      
   Phil Dunmire, the national president of the Navy League of the   
   United States, on July 18, warned that “The defense and maritime   
   industries are being jeopardized from within” noting that   
   “programs related to our nation’s defense will absorb half of   
   the sequestration costs despite being just 19% of the national   
   spending budget.” These cuts go into effect in January!   
      
   The sequestration and other budget cuts, and the global warming   
   biofuel mandates will leave the U.S. more vulnerable to attack   
   and defeat since the end of World War Two. Our Navy has shrunk.   
   Our combat air fleet is old. The manpower of military forces has   
   been reduced and subjected to restrictions that leave every   
   soldier and marine subject to investigation for every enemy they   
   kill.   
      
   The exception to the long engagement in the Middle East was the   
   successful killing of Osama bin Laden, but even that was   
   tarnished by a President who took full credit for it and   
   released information about it that runs contrary to the safety   
   of all comparable future missions. Within days, the White House   
   provided a briefing on it to a Hollywood producer and writer in   
   order to facilitate a film lauding the mission.   
      
   The greatest force for the defense of the nation and for freedom   
   in the world is being reduced by a Congress and a White House   
   who refuse to recognize the threats that exist in a dangerous   
   world.   
      
   © Alan Caruba, 2012   
      
   http://www.theospark.net/   
      
          
      
        
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)