America can't survive with a foreign policy record like this

Obama has had some successes on the foreign policy front. I mean, some successes that actually benefit the US instead of another crappy, idiotic global warming climate change treaty. He did take out Usama bin Laden, although apparently he and his incompetent Rasputin, Valerie Jarrett, had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do it. And the East Asia desk at the State Department has been working overtime and coming up with some major accomplishments, including a budding alliance against a belligerent China and somehow getting a dissident out of that country.

But on the whole? Obama’s foreign policy has been disastrous. Jed Babbin at American Spectator gives the sickening rundown in an essay appropriately titled “Losing the World to Win Reelection”:

The greatest irony of the year is that Obama is touted as a master of national security and foreign policy. Yes, an operation he approved killed bin Laden. But the only other evidence of that mastery is the Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded in 2009, apparently in anticipation of his great deeds. His record is, simply, appalling.

Remember Honduras? In 2009, after the Honduran supreme court removed dictator wannabe Manuel Zelaya, who was constitutionally precluded from succeeding himself, the Obama administration labeled it a "coup d'état" and refused to stand behind the democratic temporary government. (Zelaya's successor was later chosen in a national election.)

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Damned if we do, damned if we don't, damned whatever we do or don't

Victor Davis Hanson, in another must-read column, asks, "Can we still win wars?" It is another discussion (if far more eloquent than I or most others could do) of the irresistible force of American military power versus the movable object of American political will. The professor gives some historical interpretation that may surprise quite a few but is nevertheless very accurate. He then gives a hard, very obvious, very unpleasant truth about the Middle East:

Remember, there is also an ironclad law about the Middle East, one we keep forgetting: Arab intellectuals (many of them educated or residing in Western universities) hate the U.S. for backing dictators; they hate the U.S. for intervening to remove them; they hate the U.S. for trying to impose postbellum democracy upon them; and they hate the U.S. for staying clear and letting Arabs be Arabs on their own.

Re-read that paragraph. Multiple times. Memorize it. Any time there is a story involving US policy in the Middle East, remember it. Apply it.
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Cascading Failure: The Roman Disaster at Adrianople AD 378

After an incredible amount of work, my latest history article Cascading Failure: The Roman Disaster at Adrianople AD 378 is finally up at Military History Online. The gist of the piece is that a failure cascade led to the Roman defeat; hence the title. That cascade can be arranged as follows:

1. The erroneous estimate of the Gothic forces led to …
2. The Roman decision to force march their troops to the Gothic horde’s location, which …
3. Left the Roman troops thirsty, hungry and tired once they arrived at the battlefield, which …
4. Caused the Emperor Valens to agree to delay the start of hostilities by negotiating with the Gothic Chieftain Fritigern, which …
5. Caused Valens to summon his senior officers to assist with the negotiations, which …
6. Left the fighting troops without senior leadership immediately available, which …
7. Allowed the right wing Roman cavalry, operating without senior officers, to “attack” before the Romans were ready for battle and while Valens was even negotiating a truce with no intention of attacking, which …
8. Caused the Roman defeat.

It's a very long piece, some of which is background on Roman politics and military organization in the late Empire, but the vast majority of which is focused on a close examination of the critical factors in this decisive battle of Western history.

1. The decision to attack;
2. The march to the battlefield;
3. The whereabouts of the senior officers; and
4. The “attack” of the right wing cavalry.

Like I said, it's very long, but I certainly enjoyed writing it. If you like Roman or ancient history, or even just want to learn more about it, check it out.

My latest appearance on Civil Discourse Now

is here. The topic: gay marriage. I support it, as should everyone.

When is an air force not an air force

When it does not have a single fighter plane:

The long overdue completion of the modernization program of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) finds the military in quandary today without a single jet fighter to protect the country’s airspace and an antiquated navy unable to secure the nation’s vast territorial waters.
Military officials interviewed by the Philippines News Agency expressed dismay over the predicament of the AFP with virtually no external defense to speak of No Fighter Jet To Protect PH at present, a far cry from the days of old when the Philippine Air Force (PAF) and the Philippine Navy (PN) were second to none in Asia, except Japan at the end of World War II until the 1970s.
At present, Philippine airspace is vulnerable to intrusion as the Air Force, the nation’s first line of defense, has no fighter jets in its arsenal to intercept hostile aircraft entering into the country's airspace after the PAF decommissioned its aging F-5 interceptors in 2005.
The PAF has to be content with its few remaining S-211 jet trainers as “substitute interceptors” which cannot be compared to the supersonic fighter planes such as the F-22 “Raptor” F-14 Phantom; F-15 “Eagle”; F-16 “Falcon”; F-18 “Hornet”; Mig-29 Tornado GR4; Mi¬rage 2000 Sokhoi S-37, and the F-21 Kfir.
The failure of the AFP to modernize the Air Force and Navy is now be¬ing felt with the intrusion of Chinese fishing vessels at Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal which is within the Philippines’ territorial waters but claimed by the Chinese as theirs.

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A sad end to a great career in the Senate

I can't help but feel sad about the defeat of incumbent Senator Richard Lugar in the GOP primary yesterday. I supported Richard Mourdock this time around, but it was not a choice that I relished. Rcihard Lugar used to be my favorite senator. A security conservative but a social moderate. Primary areas of expertise were defense and foreign policy. Right up my alley.

And he used to be the best senator. By far. No one on Capitol Hill knew more about defense and foreign policy, which after all are the primary areas of responsibility for the federal government.

But notice I'm using the past tense here. Even so, Richard Lugar did more good during his tenure in the Senate than most.

What happened?
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Vote for Paul Ogden

Juist a friendly reminder to vote for blogging and Civil Discourse Now pal Paul Ogden, Republican for Marion Superior Court. Good, ethical lawyer and an honest, great guy. He may not have paid the $12,000 ransom fee to get himself slated by the Marion County GOP, but that's not a bug. That's a feature.