The conventional wisdom, among both Democrats and Republicans, is that the Iraq war was an enormous blunder.  A lot of people, who should know better, pompously opine that we would be better off with Saddam Hussein still in power.  All they really display is gross ignorance of history.  The U.S. did try to use Saddam Hussein as a buffer against Iran from 1980 to 1988 with horrible results:

http://www.history.com/topics/iran-iraq-war

The protracted war between these neighboring Middle Eastern countries resulted in at least half a million casualties and several billion dollars’ worth of damages, but no real gains by other side. Started by Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein in September 1980, the war was marked by indiscriminate ballistic-missile attacks, extensive use of chemical weapons and attacks on third-country oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. 

Does anyone in their right mind want to return to this scenario?  Does anyone really think Saddam Hussein would have just let Iran get a nuke?  Please!

There is also little room for doubt with regard to a relationship between al Qaeda and Iraq. Following is from the November 6, 1998 Grand Jury indictment of Osama bin Laden.  The President of the United States at the time was William Jefferson Clinton.

In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq.

The 9-11 Commission report explains why Bill Clinton authorized a cruise missile strike on the al Shifa (“aspirin factory”) plant in the Sudan:  Following is from Page 117:

the CIA reported that a soil sample from the vicinity of the al Shifa plant had tested positive for EMPTA, a precursor chemical for VX, a nerve gas whose lone use was for mass killings.

President Clinton, Vice President Gore, Berger, Tenet and Clarke all told the 9-11 Commission that they still believed that CIA report was accurate.

The Weekly Standard provided more details about this incident in an article dated December 29, 2003

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/527uwabl.asp

For nearly two years, starting in 1996, the CIA monitored the al Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, Sudan. The plant was known to have deep connections to Sudan’s Military Industrial Corporation, and the CIA had gathered intelligence on the budding relationship between Iraqi chemical weapons experts and the plant’s top officials. The intelligence included information that several top chemical weapons specialists from Iraq had attended ceremonies to celebrate the plant’s opening in 1996. And, more compelling, the National Security Agency had intercepted telephone calls between Iraqi scientists and the plant’s general manager.

The clincher, however, came later in the spring of 1998, when the CIA secretly gathered a soil sample from 60 feet outside of the plant’s main gate. The sample showed high levels of O-ethylmethylphosphonothioic acid, known as EMPTA, which is a key ingredient for the deadly nerve agent VX. A senior intelligence official who briefed reporters at the time was asked which countries make VX using EMPTA. “Iraq is the only country we’re aware of,” the official said. “There are a variety of ways of making VX, a variety of recipes, and EMPTA is fairly unique.”

So how bad is VX?  Following the 1995 terrorist attack using Sarin gas on the Tokyo subway experts said if the terrorist had disbursed the Sarin more efficiently they could have killed tens of thousands of people VX is 100 times more dangerous than Sarin.

I have asked many of my liberal friends a simple question:  “If the U.S. believed that Saddam Hussein was providing Osama bin Laden with access to VX Nerve gas, would that justify invading Iraq.”  

Iraq admitted that it had produced 3.9 tons of VX.  Two hundred tons of VX could literally wipe out mankind.  A large stockpile of chemical or biological weapons does not necessarily take up a lot of physical space.  The amount of Sarin used in the Tokyo subway incident consisted of small packages wrapped in a newspaper.  Each perpetrator carried two packages totaling about .9 liters of Sarin.  One perpetrator had three packages totalling approximately 1.3 liters.  All of this would have easily fit in a small suitcase.

In fact, there wouldn’t necessarily be any stockpiles of the final product.  VX is so dangerous that the preferred form is binary VX, comprised of two sets of chemicals that are not mixed until the last possible minute.

So the next time some liberal, or a Donald Trump or Bill O’Reilly huffs and puffs about how the Iraq war was a huge mistake ask them a question.  “If you were President of the United States and you had intelligence indicating that Iraq was providing VX to al Qaeda, what would you do? Would you be willing to risk allowing terrorists to have access to VX or a similar chemical or biological weapon?”

George W. Bush pointed out that we would always have some level of terrorism, but the real danger would be if terrorists got their hands on WMD.  He wasn’t the only one who believed that.  Following is from a speech given by Al Gore in February 2002:

Even if we give first priority to the destruction of terrorist networks, and even if we succeed, there are still governments that could bring us great harm. And there is a clear case that one of these governments in particular represents a virulent threat in a class by itself: Iraq.

This was just a few short months after 9-11.  Al Gore wasn’t exactly getting national security briefings from the Bush administration.  He came to this conclusion based on intelligence he reviewed during his two terms as Vice President of the United States.

Now remind me of how George W. Bush got this so wrong.  Please explain to me why we would be so much safer if Saddam Hussein was still in power.

TDM

Terrorist is the hottest issue of the day.  Even CBS realized that.  The first portion of the debate was all about terrorism.  None of the Democratic candidates for President had a clue.  Hillary said that ISIS must be destroyed, but she offered no strategy to achieve that.  Bernie Sanders is still convinced that global warming causes terrorism.  Really!  He actually said that! Mark O’Malley bragged about his great work in Baltimore, only to be shredded by Bernie Sanders who pointed out, correctly, that Baltimore is one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S.  Nice!

If, and that is a big IF, any Democrats actually listened to this and they have the slightest bit of concern about their personal safety this was devastating for everyone on that stage.  The only thing that saved Hillary from total humiliation is that no other candidate on that stage and none of the moderators were ready, willing or even able to confront her.

I deliberately sat down with a glass of wine so I could stomach the post-debate analysis by CNN.  Sometimes intelligence requires listening to the opposition.  It was stunning.   The panel literally looked and acted shell-shocked.  They were all too aware that if Terrorism and National Security sets the agenda Democrats are in big trouble.  No one even pretended that Bernie Sanders or Mark O’Malley had a clue.  No one even pretended that the Obama foreign policy was anything other than a complete and total disaster.  They couldn’t even pretend that Hillary had done well.  The best they could come up with is that she still has more experience than some of the Republicans, like Marco Rubio.  Seriously?  That is delusional.  Marco Rubio is far more up to speed on national security than Hillary Clinton.  I can pretty much guarantee that the really smart Democrats who watched this performance are now desperately trying to avoid throwing up.  This was an unmitigated disaster.

Then there was the delusional response to the e-mail scandal.  The moderator asked Bernie Sanders if it mattered that Hillary may have failed to properly protect classified material and all Bernie could say was that he was tired of hearing about the e-mails.  The only way this makes sense is that Hillary has promised Bernie some plush administration job and he is stupid enough to think that is remotely possible.  Hillary, of course, was desperately waving her hand in the air trying to change the subject.  Sadly the moderators were all too willing to let the issue slide and Hillary did not answer a single question regarding her e-mails.  However, at some point she is going to have to answer questions and she can’t possibly have good answers.

Imagine a debate with anyone of these Republicans.  Image Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz or Carly Fiorina looking Hillary directly in the eye and saying something like this:

Madame Secretary, you told the American people that the attack in Benghazi was the result of a video.  You told the families of the victims that this was the result of the video and that you would make sure the person producing this video was punished.  But you told your daughter this was clearly a terrorist attack by someone connected with al Qaeda.  You told the Prime Minister of Libya that this had nothing to do with a video.  With all due respect, Madame Secretary, the only thing clear is that you were either hopelessly confused or you were deliberately lying to someone?  Assuming that you were not hopelessly confused, Madame Secretary who was you lying to and why? 

Hillary can’t possibly answer that question.  When pressed for her “moment in the sun” the only thing Hillary could come up with was “allegedly” urging Obama to authorize the raid on Osama bin Laden.  Seriously?  This was a difficult decision.  Give me a break.  It was one of the easiest decisions in the history of the U.S. Presidency. Gee.  Should I try to kill Osama bin Laden?  Give me a break!

No matter what you hear in the media, from either side, this was a huge disaster for Democrats.  None of us can predict the future and something could easily happen to turn this around, but right now Republicans are poised to run the table.

A word of caution.  Most people think that Barry Goldwater was defeated by Lyndon Johnson because Johnson successfully painted Goldwater as a loose cannon likely to set off a nuclear war.  We even have memories of the commercial with the little girl plucking pedals from a daisy while a mushroom cloud epodes in the background.  But that is not what happened at all.  The reality is that Goldwater was gaining on Johnson and Democrats were terrified.  In a moment of desperation,  Johnson took a meaningless incident and turned it into the Tonkin Gulf incident.  The people rallied around the Democratic President who was willing to take on communism and Goldwater never recovered.

That could happen again.  President Obama could launch a full scale war against ISIS, cheered on loudly by Hillary Clinton.  If you don’t think that is possible remember that Bill Clinton literally launched air raids against Saddam Hussein during his impeachment trial.

We are headed for troubled waters.  Almost anything is possible.  We desperately need to pray that the American people will see through the nonsense and make the right decision.  We can and will survive Barack Obama.  I am not sure we could survive being stupid enough to elect either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders to replace him.

In the meantime, this debate was nothing short of double exposure.  It exposed all the Democratic candidates for President as being totally incapable of defending this country.

TDM

When I wrote my “Tweed” blog last night, I never dreamed that things could change so soon.  These terrorist attacks in France are going to dramatically shake up the Presidential race.

The Democratic debate scheduled for tomorrow night was designed to showcase Hillary Clinton.  The fix was in.  The CBS moderator coordinated with the campaigns of the three candidates so that he could dive deep on major issues like income inequality, gun control, the death penalty and raising taxes on the rich.   Good luck with that now!  I wouldn’t be surprised if the DNC tries to postpone the debate.

Democrats only have one option; blame everything on George W. Bush. They will also demand gun control, conveniently ignoring the fact that France has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world.

This is a signal event.  This is too awful to ignore and everyone watching this knows we could be next. There isn’t enough Democratic spin in the world to cover this mess.  In the ultimate Irony, Al Gore is hosting a 24 hour webcast from the Eiffel Tower to warn everyone about the dangers of global warming.  You can’t make this stuff up.  Way to go Al!

http://www.usnews.com/news/entertainment/articles/2015/11/13/al-gore-hosting-climate-telethon-from-paris-eiffel-tower

It gets worse.  Here is part of President Obama’s statement:

I don’t want to speculate at this point in terms of who was responsible for this. 

No doubt the Obama administration was desperately hoping this was some Tea Party members vacationing in Paris.  If not that, at least some white Christians from somewhere.  But, sadly, it turns out, gasp, that these are Muslim extremists with direct ties to ISIS.

Abraham Lincoln famously said:

You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Democrats are rapidly running out of fools.

TDM

In May of 1871, William M. (“Boss”) Tweed ruled New York City through Tammany Hall, a Democratic Party Political Machine. (Some things never change.) His daughter had a lavish wedding that showcased his wealth.  Some estimate the value of the wedding gifts to be as much as $750,000 which would be over $14 million today.  Tweed began wearing a 10 ½ carat diamond stickpin.  Although Tweed was hopeless corrupt and everyone knew he was hopelessly corrupt, no scandal seemed to touch him.  That was about to change.

It all started with an event that meant almost nothing at the time.  The man who kept the books for Tammany hall was killed in Central Park.  Tammany Hall was too slow to realize the threat and under cover reporters managed to get their hands on crucial documents.  The main stream media began to report on this and the corruption became too well documented to ignore.  But even this wasn’t enough to take down Tweed.  What finally turned the tide was a parade.  New York City had a lot of Irish, most of which were Catholic but there were also a lot of Irish Protestants.  They didn’t exactly like each other.  In previous years when the Orange (Protestant) Irish tried to have a parade the Green (Catholic) Irish attacked them.  The Orange wanted to have another parade and Tammany Hall reluctantly agreed.  It was a hot mess with over 60 people killed.  That ultimately was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall.  It turned out that the Democrats of the time were willing to overlook some corruption, but they weren’t willing to overlook riots and chaos.  In other words, it was the incompetence, not just the corruption that brought down Boss Tweed.

Keep this in mind when evaluating Hillary Clinton.  There is a parallel here.  In May 1871 everyone knew Tweed was hopeless corrupt but no one thought it would matter. They were wrong.  It is increasingly obvious that Hillary Clinton is hopelessly corrupt.  She is not only a pathological liar; she is a bad pathological liar.  For example the real question is not whether or not she is lying about trying to join the Marines.  It is why she would tell such a stupid story in the first place.

Democrats sure appear to be ready to ignore all this.  But corruption is not the only issue.  Our foreign policy under the Obama administration is a complete mess.  Now we have an airliner allegedly brought down by an ISIS bomb.  If the incompetence of this administration results in a significant terrorist attack in this country, Hillary could find herself floating to jail on the newest version of the River Tweed.  The River Tweed is very real and it can move faster than you think..

TDM

The Carson Sink is a “playa,” which means a temporary lake that ends up looking more like a desert.  The Carson trail ran right across the Carson Sink during the Gold Rush days and there was even a Pony Express stop there for a short period of time.  Most visitors probably thought they were in a desert.  However, when there is a lot of rain, Carson Sink quickly becomes a rather large lake.  That has happened several times.  I believe that Carson Sink can be used to describe the peril awaiting those people desperately trying to slime Ben Carson.  It may look like solid ground but there is real danger there.

The main stream media, or at least Politico, is trying desperately to discredit Ben Carson.  Apparently investigating Barack Obama is racist, because he is a liberal black, but Ben Carson is a conservative so race doesn’t matter.  This is similar to how the main stream media slimed Sarah Palin while worshiping Hillary Clinton wearing rose colored glasses.  Predictably, Donald Trump jumped in with both feet before checking out the depth of the water.  Donald apparently forgot that earlier this week he accused Politico of being run by a bunch of liars.  He was right about that, by the way.

There is no doubt that Ben Carson, like the vast majority of politicians, exaggerated his personal history.  Welcome to the club.  If that was a disqualifying factor we would have serious trouble staffing congress or any other elected position.  While the press ignores the overwhelming evidence that Hillary Clinton lies about really important things they are hyperventilating because Ben Carson may have exaggerated a conversation with General Westmoreland while he was in high school.  Give me a break.  The man went on to become a brilliant neurosurgeon.  Who cares about a conversation he may or may not have had with anyone while in High School?  I, for one, barely remember high school.

I am not sure Ben Carson is the ideal choice for President, but this is ridiculous.  I predict a major backlash.  Carson is pissed and he is pointing fingers and naming names.   He may just shame the media into actually investigating Hillary Clinton.  That could be very bad for Madame Secretary.   At a minimum, they will absolutely scrutinize Donald Trump.  Don’t be surprised if a lot of politicians, who should know better, end up in the Carson Sink with egg on their face.

TDM

Somethings are extremely rare.  One is where a shamelessly corrupt individual comes clean.  That may have happened during an interview of former major league ball player Lenny Dykstra by Colin Cowherd on CBS.  Dykstra said that he paid $500,000 to private investigators to dig up dirt used to intimidate umpires.  This was an incredibly stupid thing for Dykstra to do, particularly on the air.  This is beyond embarrassing for Major League Baseball.  It threatens the integrity of the game.  They are almost certain to take action.  I suspect they will come down publicly on Dykstra and try to discredit him.  I also suspect a lot of umpires will have some serious ‘plaining’ to do in private sessions.  Dykstra gave a “hypothetical” example of how this works:

“Their blood is just as red as ours. Some of them like women, some of them like men, some of them gamble,” said Dykstra. He then imagined a scenario in which he asked the umpire if he “covered the spread last night” after a called strike, then the strike zone shrunk to his advantage.

Dykstra is already famous for financial and legal issues, so anything he says must be accompanied by more than a grain of salt. But this has the ugly odor of truth.

Now ask yourself a couple of questions.

What does Barack Obama know about Hillary Clinton? 

What does Hillary Clinton know about Barack Obama? 

What does Joe Biden know about Hillary Clinton?

What does Hillary Clinton know about Joe Biden? 

This reminds me of the little old lady who went to see her dentist.  He asked her if she needed to have any pain killers.  She smiled and said no, she would be just fine.  Just before the dentist started to work on her teeth she reached over and grabbed him in the most sensitive possible spot and said:  “Now we’re not going to hurt each other are we?”

In January 1997, Bill Cosby was threatened with blackmail from a woman claiming to be his illegitimate daughter.  Cosby went to the cops and videotaped her demanding $24 million. She is in jail, but Cosby did admit to having an affair with the girl’s mother.  Cosby won the battle, but he may have lost the war.  Once people starting looking into Bill Cosby’s personal history the results were beyond catastrophic for him.

Blackmail works, until it doesn’t.  It is dangerous for everyone.  Just ask Bill Cosby.

TDM

NOTE:  I decided to write on more blog article and see if anyone is paying attention.  The potential for future blog articles will be determined by whether or not I think enough people are actually reading this.

Yogi Berra, who recently died allegedly said:  “if you see a fork in the road, take it.”  He was indeed one of a kind.  I have decided to take his advice, in a slightly different way.  I guess you could say:  “put a fork in me, I’m done.”   I am going to suspend writing any more blogs on scotshonor.com.  I have just decided that too few people read them to make a difference.  Thanks to those of you who did read my blogs.  I appreciate that more than you know.

TDM

There is a report that a Chinese fighter nearly collided with a U.S. Surveillance Plane last week.

http://news.usni.org/2015/09/22/pentagon-chinese-aircraft-conducted-an-unsafe-intercept-of-u-s-surveillance-plane-last-week

“The department is reviewing a report from U.S. [Pacific Command] regarding a Sept. 15 intercept of a U.S. RC-135 by two JH-7 aircraft from the People’s Republic of China,” Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban told USNI News on Tuesday.
“One of the maneuvers conducted by a PRC aircraft during the intercept was perceived as unsafe by the RC-135 aircrew. At this point there is no indication that there was a ‘near collision’.”

I found this very interesting because during my tours in South East Asia I flew several combat missions on RC135 Surveillance planes. When you think about it that is pretty incredible.  We are flying the same planes today, doing the same kind of missions, more than 45 years later.

This is a reminder that every day brave crew members fly these kinds of missions, literally tweaking the tail of the tiger. They receive almost no recognition, because these types of missions are highly classified.  That does not make them less dangerous.  Some of my friends from language school were killed when North Korea shot down an EC121 Surveillance plane.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_EC-121_shootdown_incident

The following article, published on June 19, 2013 gives a redacted history of the RC-135.  Interestingly this does not discuss the missions I was on.  These missions, Combat Apple, are discussed in the following article:

http://www.coldwar.org/text_files/rb47_rc135.pdf

Combat Apple was on station 24 hours a day without break for several years.  We did not lose any RC-135 during these harrowing incidents.  That, unfortunately, was not true for some of the other aircraft I flew on. The following paragraph was particularly interesting to me:

The RC-135Ms sometimes became so weary, they had to be flown back to the U.S. for major maintenance or complete overhaul. During those occasions, one or two RC-135Ds, from the 6SW at Eielson AFB, were flown in to help out. That often caused more problems than it solved. The D-models, acclimated to the cold dry conditions in Alaska, began to leak badly and malfunction in the hot, humid Pacific environment. They also had to compensate for the reduced range and altitude of the smaller-engined D-models.

I flew on several missions on the D-model and if anything it was much worse than indicated.  The plane could not take off with a full load of fuel.  In fact, it could barely take off at all.  We had these incredibly long take-off runs while the airplane struggled to lift off.  Then, as soon as we reached altitude, we had to refuel almost immediately.  It made an intolerably long mission even longer.

I just wrote this to pay tribute to those brave men and now women who continue to risk their lives protecting us every day.  In most cases very few people even know they exist. Freedom isn’t free.

TDM

Something interesting is going on.  The Washington Times headline reports that:  FBI refuses to cooperate in Hillary Clinton email server probe.  However in reading the actual article this may be extremely misleading:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/21/hillary-clinton-emails-fbi-refuses-cooperate-serve/

The FBI did not say that it was not investigating this.  What it said was the following:

“At this time, consistent with long-standing Department of Justice and FBI policy, we can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoing investigation, nor are we in a position to provide additional information at this time,”

This was written by FBI General Counsel James A. Baker and he is a very serious guy.  This is not an Obama lackey.  He worked in the DOJ during the Bush administration providing the Attorney General, the White House and the U.S. Intelligence community advice with regard to National Security and he conducted oversight of the intelligence community, including the FBI on behalf of the Attorney General.  That means he reported to both Alberto Gonzales and later Michael Mukasey and that should really frighten Democrats.

Obviously the FBI is playing this very close to the vest and no one knows what is going on.  This may be part of the traditional cover-up of everything Clinton, but it could also be the exact opposite. They could be withholding information because they are considering criminal charges.

On August 24, 2015 Former Attorney General Michael Muskasey said Hillary Clinton is the focus of a Justice Department probe:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/08/24/mukasey-argument-fbi-probe-is-about-clinton-server-emails-not-her-ridiculous/

Then he said something that should give everyone pause:

“The FBI doesn’t investigate machines, It investigates people.”

TDM

There was a saying in Vietnam used by those of us who experienced something really horrific.  Sometimes the pain was literally too much to bear, so we would just turn off our emotions and say “it don’t mean nothin.”  Obviously, this is a classic example of reverse psychology.  By saying “it don’t mean nothin” we actually meant the exact opposite.

During the Republican debate we saw another opportunity for using this phrase, because in reality the two debates literally “don’t mean nothin.”  What on earth do either of this fiasco’s have to do with choosing the next President of the United States?  This is insane.  Does “winning” the debate this week mean anything?  I don’t think so.

It’s not like somebody boldly stepped forth with a brilliant new vision.  That happened during the Lincoln – Douglas debates when Abraham Lincoln focused the national spotlight on slavery.  It is not what happened Wednesday night.  This was closer to a poor conceived reality TV show that represents everything but reality.

Now, after eight years of just plain awful results, we are trying to choose a President by the worst possible method.  The typical CNN question was:  “Donald Trump said this about you, how would you like to respond.”  The response should have been:  give me a break.  We are not here to trade insults.  We are here to choose a President of the United States.  If you have any questions about something said by Mr. Trump, ask him about it.  The problems we face are too serious to waste time with a meaningless exchange of insults.

The only way to really win such a debate would be to refuse to participate in the verbal food fight.  My vote goes for the candidates who didn’t bother wasting time insulting each other.  If someone wants to be President, it would be a good start to try acting like one.  This process is beyond insane.  If we are this stupid, we probably deserve our fate.

TDM