Ramadi, Baltimore, and the Obama Power Vacuum

Sometimes events are just events.  Sometimes they are related and show a trend.  But sometimes events are so linked, they paint a vivid picture worth well more than a thousand words.  So it is with Ramadi and Baltimore.

 

Ramadi and Baltimore are just the latest manifestations of the Obama power vacuum.  (No, the Obama power vacuum is not like a Hoover or Dyson.  It won’t help you clean your house.  The Obama power vacuum is actually quite deadly and claims lives on an hourly basis..)   All the ISIS chaos, Putin’s imperialism, Iran’s aggression, as well as the chaos befalling cities across America essentially share the same pathology as Ramadi and Baltimore.  And Obama’s hand in all of it is undeniable.  (For a black Democrat president with a Muslim name who identifies as a Christian, he sure is presiding over the death and suffering of a lot of blacks, Democrats, Muslims, and Christians!) 

       

In Ramadi, and Iraq in general, Obama’s precipitous withdrawal of all US forces left a power vacuum which ISIS has filled with tragic effect.  When George W Bush turned things over, US soldiers were no longer fighting in Iraq.  Our role was as a stabilizing force.  Serving in Iraq in 2009 was actually safer than walking the streets of Baltimore is today!  Now, just a few years into the Obama power vacuum, and the whole place is a tragic mess.  We fought, died, and prevailed in a bi-partisan effort, only to have it squandered by an irresponsible, arrogant, and petulant pol.

  

In Baltimore, and cities across America, the Obama power vacuum resulted from the same kind of behavior. Again there was a long effort which had largely prevailed against rising inner-city crime and murder.  Enter Obama.  Instead of using his bully pulpit to encourage the rule of law and allow the criminal justice system to play-out, he jumped in and inserted himself into every high profile case implying the police and criminal justice system were racist and criminal.  He deployed his de-facto race czar, Al Sharpton, to stir animosity.  He deployed his Department of Justice to charge police departments with civil rights violations and impose onerous restrictions.  In every high profile case so far he’s been proven wrong.   Nevertheless, Obama’s assault on local police and criminal justice systems persists.  Cops have realized that being pro-active is not worth the effort.  They have stopped doing what works and left a power vacuum into which chaos and murder have flooded.

A vacuum is not a thing.  It’s the absence of things.  Obama’s principles are also not things.  They are the absence of things.  Obama’s approach to foreign affairs can best be described as “not Bush’.  In domestic affairs it can be best described as “not the Constitution”.

“Not Bush” is how we get a troop surge and a tripling of casualties in Afghanistan, a complete withdrawal from Iraq, appeasement with Putin, Nukes for Iran, intervention in Libya, an overrun embassy, and chaos in Ramadi.  “Not the Constitution” is how we get a virtual takeover of local police departments, criminalization of routine police work, federalization of everything, executive takeover of the legislative function, and chaos in Baltimore.

Ramadi and Baltimore are just the latest examples of the Obama power vacuum from “not Bush” and “not the Constitution”.  Into those vacuums have rushed ISIS and inner-city mayhem across America.     

Kinetic Islam Déjà vu

In March of 2001, Mullah Omar and the Taliban destroyed two 1700 year-old stone Buddahs in Afghanistan.  One of them stood 165 feet tall.  At the time, few westerners understood that act.  Six months later when the twin towers of The World Trade Center were destroyed, we all got an education in how kinetic Islam feels about infidel idols and symbols. 

Fast forward to today, and the exact same thing is happening in Iraq.  Islamic State, or ISIS, or ISIL, is summarily destroying ancient churches, statues, artwork, and symbols of the infidels.  This time we have some perspective on why this behavior is occurring – Islam, or at least a fundamental interpretation of Islam, leads its followers to destroy these symbols.  Turns out the Quran, like the Old and New Testaments, contains a fair amount of idol destruction.  The difference is, Christians and Jews do not go about re-enacting these verses from the early days of monotheism.  Muslims do, particularly the kinetic radical fundamental type. 

What scares me is the timing of all this.  Six months after the Buddahs came down, we got 9/11.  I hope kinetic Islam has a different schedule this time.   

What To Do About ISIS? (bumped again)

What should we do about ISIS?  (Or as the president prefers, ISIL, which uses the French diplo-speak term "Levant" for the mideast, and after all who amongst us doesn’t get a tingle up their leg from using French diplo-speak?)  Whatever you call it, we should do everything we can here in the US to prevent domestic attacks from these extremely dangerous jihadists.  Overseas, we should retreat from areas where any jihadists may attack.  Beyond that we should probably just pray.

I realize this is a contrarian position.  There seems to be a bi-partisan consensus forming that the Obama administration must take bold and decisive action to fight ISIS “over there, so we don’t have to do it here”.  Never mind that this sentiment was once known as “The Bush Doctrine”, and that it’s repudiation is one of the core ideologies of our current president -- it only makes sense as national policy with a competent Commander in Chief.  Barack Hussein Obama is not and will never be that person. 

If you want to occupy the student union, Obama is your guy.  If you want to choose brackets for March Madness, Obama is your guy.  If you want to hear platitudes read off a teleprompter, Obama is your guy.   If you want to hear how this country is racist, guilty, flawed, corrupt, unfair, mean, nasty, sexist, and has a crappy constitution, Obama is your guy.  If you want to play golf, attend fundraisers, and do talk shows, Obama is your guy.  But if you want to communicate with deadly jihadists in the only language they understand, the language of force, I’d recommend anyone other than Barack Hussein Obama, and that includes my Labradoodle.  

So let’s prepare ourselves here and do everything we can to ensure the jihadists can't hurt us.   Beyond that, let's do nothing until we have a competent president.  Will there be chaos and mass casualties?  Perhaps.  But going to war with an incompetent commander would be like having open heart surgery performed by a comedian -- better to do nothing, pray, eat healthy, and get to the gym.

Obama - "Islamic State is NOT Islamic". Well, that clears that up!

#WhenMoronsVote

PEACE PRIZE PRESIDENT POUNDS ISIS!  Today Obama began the third Iraq war, which of course was completely avoidable had he not failed to keep a deterrent force in place.  We were no longer losing soldiers there on a regular basis, the peace was holding, the government was bad, but not as bad as Hussein, it was a nascent democracy that was free to elect new leaders, and it was costing us very little to be there and deter radicals like ISIS.  But no, Obama had a campaign promise to keep so we pulled out completely and left a vacuum.  In the last week alone, ISIS murdered some 3000 civilians in Iraq.  That's in one week.    

So now we are bombing from 30,000 feet, which of course is the preferred method for Peace Prize enthusiasts.  I'm sure Obama will use the Israeli system of dropping leaflets, making phone calls, and knocking first before bombing.  Hey, that's what he did in Libya, right?

In light of this, it's time to revisit the whole series of "Obama is Awesome!" cartoon videos.  Here they are in order:







 

Obama's Rules: Chapter 23 - Military Interventions

Iraq - 10 Years On

Comparing Iraq and Libya

(In observance of the 10 year anniversary of the Iraq war -

originally posted 3/11) 

Libya vs. Iraq - Some Thoughts

Did you know that Chimpanzees and Humans share overwhelming similarities in their genetic makeup? Though the percent varies depending on how deep the data goes, the similarities range from the high 70s to the high 90s. In other words, the similarities greatly outweigh the differences on the genetic level, yet the two are so completely different that no rational person taking a holistic view could mistake a Chimp for a Human. Yet, a top scientist locked in a room with only the two genetic codes in front of him could toil through a majority of the genetic code before finding any significant differences!

The point of this is simply to repeat the ancient observation that little can be understood about the true nature of things by examining their similarities; only by understanding their differences do we really get to know them.

The cartoon I recently posted comparing Libya vs. Iraq is a good example of the futility of focusing on similarities, or for that matter, the petty differences. As many commenters have pointed out, the cartoon, and those who liked it, cannot make a strong enough case that the two conflicts are comparable. Of course, the cartoon is limited to being a caricature of hypocrisy, ignorance and irrational devotion. It is not meant to argue a case that the two conflicts are equivalent. However, the nature of caricature is that it only works through exaggeration and that has resulted in quite the debate among viewers which has shed much heat but little light. (Also some funny stuff and some really nasty stuff too!)

So what do I think? Are these two wars comparable and if not what are the salient differences? For me, they are not comparable actions in their essence. Iraq was about trying to save American lives by enforcing something which came to be known as “The Bush Doctrine”, and Libya is about trying to save non-American lives on one side of a civil war by enforcing something known as UN 1973.

You may agree or disagree with “The Bush Doctrine” and the threats posed by the Iraqi regime, but your representatives in Washington voted for it overwhelmingly and that is what Democracy in a Republic looks like. Deal with it.

As for UN 1973, you may agree or disagree with it, but your representatives in Washington have no say in it whatsoever. That is what Global Totalitarianism looks like. Deal with it.

• If you have the time and inclination, here are some older posts you might enjoy: 
• The Healthcare Gecko - What we should have done, and still can.
• Obamanomics - Digging holes and filling them up again.

Libya vs. Iraq