Return on Investment

The Colonel isn't a conspiracy theorist -- when it comes to this republic's national government, he just doesn't think it is competent enough to pull off the kinds of convoluted secretive plans with which it is often credited.

What the Colonel does believe our republic's national government is very capable of is taking the path of least resistance and punishing its citizens instead of the nation's enemies.

For the past two decades plus, the U.S. federal government has done just that -- justifying restrictions on constitutionally protected rights in the name of security, while conducting little more than what professional military thinkers and planners would regard as "limited objective" operations.

To be sure, that sort of governmental reaction to outside threats is not a new phenomenon.  One can find federal reactionary restrictions in every "emergency" since the founding of the Republic.  They all amount to accumulation and consolidation of power in the hands of the national governing elite at the expense of the individual and State rights explicitly "guaranteed" in the Constitution and justified as necessary for the safety and security of the individuals and States.

Here's the rub -- the citizens of the Republic already pay an exorbitant price in blood and treasure for their security. The American people fund and field the most effective security apparatus the world has ever seen -- the United States Armed Forces.  American taxpayers field an all-volunteer force, equip it with state-of-the-art weapons, supply it like no other force in the history of warfare, train it like no other force in the history of armies, and compensate its members on a scale way beyond any other on earth.   And yet, instead of seeing a return on their most costly investment, the American people watch the most effective bulk of their military sit idly in their barracks as threats to their security gather in plain sight.

Mark the Colonel's words, another major attack on U.S. soil is coming.  The Colonel harbors not one shred of doubt in his military mind that another attack is coming -- and you don't either.

When it does, (in the Colonel's version of a perfect world -- BEFORE it does), the citizens of this great republic deserve a rich return on their investment -- not a doubling down of restrictions on their rights.

Threat to Democracy

 

The Colonel is a threat to democracy.

Yep -- you read that right.  In fact, the Colonel is required by the highest law of the land to act, indefinitely, against the sedition that is democracy.

It's quite simple to understand, actually.  Yet, it's only understood by a small few.  The Constitution of the United States of America -- the supreme law of the land -- stands in defense against the free practice of "democracy" in the Republic that constitution established.  

Nowhere in the Constitution is the word "democracy" found.  Nowhere.

Nowhere in the Declaration of Independence does the word appear.

Don't take the Colonel's word for it.  Google it.

You see, the founders of our Republic -- yes, imperfect men -- established a representative republic with safeguards to limit the intrusion of government into the rights of that republic's states, citizens, and legal residents.  Though imperfect, our founders were, by and large, classically educated. Their study of history informed them that of the various forms of government, one of the most destructive of the rights of minority opinions, religions, and ethnicities was a pure democracy.  Their study of history also showed them that democracies always devolve into dictatorships.  

So, the founders who crafted the Constitution, did so mindful of the inherent dangers of democracy, and built a form of republican (little "r") national government with citizen -- and state -- representation.  Per this federal constitution, and each state's differing versions, the federal and state governments of our Republic would be officiated by citizens chosen by their fellow citizens, but those citizens would be protected from the capricious rampages of pure democracy. 

The first ten amendments to the original Constitution -- known colloquially as the Bill of Rights -- enshrined specific, but not limited, rights of the people, and the sovereign States (see the 10th Amendment), of these United States against abridgment by the government and the whims of a majority in a democracy. 

Okay, the Colonel knows that he's in danger of losing the attention of the Bama and LSU fans at this point, so he'll get to the point.  

Anyone who swears an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the United States is a threat to democracy.  

Anyone who blindly defends democracy, in contravention to the Constitution, is an enemy of the Republic.  

    

   

Bushes' Fault

The current Geo-political situation in the Middle East causes the Colonel to chew on his tongue..., because..., he told you so.

Two decades ago, back at the beginning of the idiotically named Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) -- successful wars are fought against specific regimes; not their tactics -- the Colonel opined that unless and until the specific regimes employing terrorism as their asymmetric weapon of choice were deposed/destroyed, state-sponsored terrorism would continue to plague the planet.

Specifically, the Colonel identified the strategic center of gravity in this fight, and he will repeat it here: 

The strategic center of gravity of the current troubles in the Middle East (with spill-over effects globally) is the Iranian theo-fascist regime. 

Parenthetically, it matters not what the brand of theism is. Despite the inane and shallow attempts by many to portray the current conflict in the region as religiously motivated, the root cause of this conflict is the same as it has always been in every war in history: Land, Resources, and Power.

Let the Colonel repeat that for clarity.  The root cause of all conflict is Land, Resources, and Power.  And, yes, the Colonel includes supposedly religion-based conflicts such as the spread of various caliphates across the Middle East, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula, and the strategic counterattacks of the Crusades and the Castille-Aragon alliance.              

Certainly, leaders cloak their ambitions in religious garb to inflame the passions of the people, but they couldn't care less for the spiritual welfare of their people -- only that they fall in line.  

Iran -- more specifically, the theocratic dictatorship running the nation of Iran -- is the single largest supporter of terrorism on the planet.  Has been for the last two generations.  Without Iran's material support, Hamas, Hezbollah, and a plethora of lesser-known militant groups employing terror -- internally, as well as externally -- to exert control over local land, resources, and power, would not exist.  Iran bankrolls these groups' terror tactics. Period.

The Iranian regime cloaks its territorial, resource, and power ambitions in the garb of Shia Islam, but the theo-fascist Iranian regime cares not one whit for the spiritual welfare of the people of the region.  

So, if the Iranian regime is the strategic center of gravity of the current conflict in the Middle East, why did we waste so much time, blood, and treasure on peripheral campaigns (Afghanistan and Iraq, mainly) that had no appreciable effect on diminishing Iranian influence in the region?

Bushes' fault.

For those of you whose historical memory is limited by lack of study and/or age, the expeditionary forces of the United States and an unprecedented coalition of Middle Eastern and European nations had Saddam Hussein's bloody regime on the ropes in the Spring of 1991 and failed to administer the coup d' gras.  What took another expensive expedition twelve years later to effect regime change, could have been accomplished quickly in 1991.  That was George (the elder) Bush's fault.  

The intervening decade saw a weakened Sadam Hussein's Baathist regime struggle (with bloody results) to resist growing Iranian influence over the majority Shia population in the southeastern portion of their territory, and a growing Kurdish nationalism in the northeastern portion.  

Because we didn't depose Sadaam in 1991, he was left alive to plot an assassination attempt against Bush 41, for which Bush 43 held an understandable grudge.  But grudges rarely make good bases for strategy.  The attacks of 9/11/2001 and the resultant Congressional Authorization of Force for the Global War on Terror (the phrase still sets the Colonel's teeth on edge) gave Bush 43 the green light to topple Sadaam in the Spring of 2023.  

A brilliantly executed destruction of Sadaam's forces was followed by a dismally bad occupation and rehabilitation of the nation of Iraq.  Instead of maintaining an overwhelming force in Iraq until we re-established the security apparatus we broke, token forces were left in place with large red targets on their backs.  Not only did the understrength US and allied forces struggle to defeat the Sunni insurgency in the west, but US forces were increasingly under attack by Iranian-backed militias in the south.  It is no exaggeration to say that the theo-fascist regime in Tehran was directly responsible for several hundred US military deaths at the hands of Shia militia trained and supported by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).  

Bushes' fault.  

Had we liberated the Iraqi people from the brutal Baathist Regime immediately following the liberation of Kuwait in 1991, we would have been free to address the true center of gravity for the current terrorism scourge: the mad mullahs in Teheran.

And now, two decades later, the theo-fascist regime in Iran, whose tentacles have spread not only across the Middle East, but also throughout our own hemisphere, is at the bottom of the vast majority of the terroristic mischief plaguing regions whose fate are undeniably in the strategic interest of the United States.  

It's not rocket science -- it's basic strategic thought.  Iran's ruling regime is the Center of Gravity.  Take it out and peace will break out.