Soldier of Fortune Turns 35 – an Exceptional Magazine and Much More

By Jim Simpson


35th Anniversary Issue

Like most things unapologetically conservative and unapologetically pro-American, Soldier of Fortune magazine has been pilloried for years by the organized Left’s venomously anti-American press and culture. But SOF, founded in 1975 by decorated Special Forces veteran and lifelong adventurer, Lt. Col. Robert K. Brown (USAR - Ret.), stands out as a singular example of American exceptionalism in print media. But that the rest were half as good.

SOF is more than that too, for unknown to most people, Soldier of Fortune magazine and its staff of intrepid reporters – almost all with special operations backgrounds, some who paid the ultimate price while on assignment – has voluntarily assisted the U.S. military and our allies for decades, with little or no recognition, providing intelligence, training and combat support to freedom fighters throughout the world. They did so much of this in fact, that they could almost be characterized as the first “private contractor,” except they did all their work for free, with expenses being covered by the magazine itself.

Started in 1975, the year of the Vietnam War’s ignoble end, Soldier of Fortune magazine quickly gained a wide following among Vietnam veterans. It was one of the few journals then in print that gave an honest and appreciative assessment of veterans’ wartime sacrifices, with articles written mostly by fellow veterans who knew about war firsthand, up close and personal.

The magazine remains dedicated to our Nation’s military and is avidly read and appreciated by veteran and active duty alike. As editor Brown stated in SOF’s 25 year anniversary issue:

Overnight, SOF offered Vietnam vets the recognition they deserved, a home in a sense, a meeting place for like souls. Like a banner, it acknowledged their sacrifices and continues to do so, loudly and loyally.

Current Cover Features
Congressional Candidate
Gy. Sgt. Nick Popaditch

Americans fed on network news had little idea what was really happening over there. Many still don’t. Shamefully, the mass media (they are not mainstream) has never come clean about their central role in the systematic deception of the American public that led to America’s first military defeat. America did not lose the Vietnam War on the battlefield, despite military missteps. It was lost due to a conspiracy of deliberate misreporting by American media and the incompetent, feckless and in some cases treasonous, activities of the White House and Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress.

In addition to becoming a voice for Vietnam vets, SOF rapidly gained a reputation for cutting-edge reporting at the front lines of bush wars throughout the world, many of which were and still are ignored by the mass media. For example, since 1982 SOF has reported on the plight of Burma’s Karen people, who have fought a war of liberation against that country’s brutal, Stalinist regime for decades.

10th Anniversary Issue

SOF’s reporting on the Karens inspired Sylvester Stallone to make his 4th Rambo movie about the Burmese conflict. As Sly puts it:

I think SOF has proven time and time again that it has its thumb on the pulse of what is really transpiring in the remote, dark parts of the world that the drive-by media tends to overlook. 

One of SOF’s correspondents, Lance Motley, was killed by Burmese forces in 1989 while reporting on the conflict. Wounded three times on previous expeditions around the globe for SOF, Lance was as usual, right on the front lines.

Motley personified the archetypical SOF reporter. A West Point graduate and Special Forces officer, Lance quit the Army out of boredom. He then made a solo trip to Afghanistan. He had no backing from anyone, no knowledge of the people, language or culture, but managed to sneak in, find his way to the action, fight with the Mujahideen against the Soviet occupiers, and help compile a list for the U.S. Congress of weapons the Afghans needed – all in six months! This was before anyone had ever heard of Charlie Wilson. Lance’s obituary is a testimonial to the caliber of men who wrote for Soldier of Fortune.

SOF is about the only journal that has reported on Laos and Vietnam’s relentless genocide against its indigenous tribes. The Degar people of Vietnam’s Central Highlands, known collectively as “Montagnards” (mountain people) fought valiantly alongside American Special Forces throughout the Vietnam War, but were shamelessly abandoned when we decided to pull out. The U.S. government forgot about them, but their former enemies didn’t. Since that time, the Degar have been systematically repressed, with many tortured and killed in “reeducation” camps.

The Laotian Hmong who assisted the U.S. during its CIA-operated secret war in Laos, have suffered similarly. For the last thirty five years, the Laotian communist government has engaged in a bush war with the goal of exterminating remaining Hmong, killing as many as 100,000, including the use of chemical weapons. Remaining Hmong have retreated to remote mountainous areas, where they survive in primitive conditions, living off the land.

To add insult to injury, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, (ATF) saw an opportunity to lure Hmong expatriate leader, then 77 year-old Major General Vang Pao, into a sting operation. Vang led Laotian forces for the CIA during the secret war and has spent his life devoted to the Hmong cause. He remains a widely respected leader, both among the Hmong expatriate community and in Laos. Those remaining in Laos would likely have perished long ago were it not for the external assistance provided to them through Vang’s efforts.

ATF agents convinced Vang to become involved in a plot to overthrow the communist Laotian government. Assured that this was a CIA-backed operation, he agreed. He and his compatriots were later arrested and charged with violating the Neutrality Act. Fortunately Vang’s case was dismissed in 2009. The fate of his co-defendants has not yet been determined. See a very good video about this case and the plight of the Hmong here.

The reality of Southeast Asia’s Communists’ brutal genocide against the Hmong and Degar people stands in stark contrast to their wartime propaganda about “liberating the oppressed.” But for SOF, we wouldn’t know about it.

Meanwhile, American communists like Bill Ayers and Tom Hayden, who actively, blatantly supported communist North Vietnam during the war, have nothing to say about the miserable aftermath they helped bring about. Many of these same Leftists, by the way, were the foremost organizers of Progressives for Obama – just one great big cesspool.

25th Anniversary Issue

SOF’s Brown also became personally and professionally involved in the search for living POW/MIAs after the war, dumping about $350,000 into the effort. This unfortunate chapter in our Vietnam experience had its share of charlatans, who capitalized on the hopes of POW/MIA families and concerned veterans like Brown. SOF, however, wasted no time in challenging those who appeared to be frauds, even fellow decorated Special Forces veterans like Bo Gritz.

SOF was also one of the few, if not the only, publication that reported on the situation in Afghanistan during the years between the Soviet withdrawal and the rise of the Taliban. By reading SOF, one would come to know the various factions within Afghanistan and especially, dispositions of the large, Soviet-backed force organized to continue the war on the Soviets’ behalf after they left. This force was commanded by Abdul Rashid Dostum, a notorious, brutal communist warlord, who has figured prominently in the post-9-11 Northern Alliance.

During the 1980s, SOF staff took many trips to Afghanistan. One trip yielded two 5.45 mm cartridges for the new Russian AK-74. Neither the weapon nor the ammunition had previously been seen by Western intelligence. This new ammunition was believed to be the culprit in massive wounds reportedly being suffered by Mujahideen in their battles with the Soviets. On a subsequent trip, Col. Brown smuggled out another 5,000 rounds of ammunition and a sample of the AK-74 weapon itself, turning it all over to the U.S. military attaché in Islamabad.

SOF staff has engaged directly in training of allied troops, supplementing the U.S. military’s effort. They were particularly active in Central America’s recent civil wars. A recent Newsmax article by Barrett Tillman relates:

The byword is professionalism. For instance, a 1983 report describing the work of a 12-man SOF team in El Salvador covers 47 pages. It includes weapons maintenance, sound discipline on ambush, field medicine and sanitation.

On September 30th 1995, the El Salvadorian government awarded Brown their Combat Star medal. The citation reads: “In Recognition of Your Combat Support Services With Units of the Armed Forces of El Salvador, 1980 to 1992.”

SOF provided similar training to Nicaragua’s Contras during the Nicaraguan civil war. While they were at it, Brown grounded the Sandinistas’ entire fleet of Soviet Hind attack helicopters by posting the advertisement shown here. I interviewed Unintended Consequences author and firearms expert John Ross about it by phone, who confirmed the following account:

“In the 1980s, Danny Ortega’s oppressive Communist regime in Nicaragua received a fleet of Russian Hind helicopters… to put down the Contras. When the Contras started to take heavy losses from these gunships, Bob Brown single-handedly grounded the entire fleet in less than 72 hours. How? By printing a full-page ad in his own magazine offering a million dollar reward to anyone who would bring us one of these choppers. The Russians knew damn well that every Cuban pilot would jump at the chance to fly into nearby El Salvador and get a million bucks and a Miami liquor license for his efforts. Bob’s actions helped cause Ortega’s fall, and stopped the spread of Communism in Central America dead in its tracks.”

Ross’s account is exaggerated but not entirely off the mark. An ABC reporter, Peter Collins, who had contacts in the Nicaraguan military, confirmed to Brown that they had, in fact, grounded their fleet of Hinds for three weeks because it took that much time to bring in trustworthy replacement pilots.

Brown had placed the ad hoping it would have just such an effect. As explained to me for this article, the idea was modeled after a similar PSYOPS plan conducted during the Korean War to ground MIG-15s in advance of an important bombing campaign. Brown had no interest in actually securing a helicopter.

The history of SOF is replete with such examples – too many to mention. Brown himself has received numerous awards and citations for his contributions by governments far and wide. His unique staff of reporters recall the “warrior philosophers” of ancient Greece. Fearless, highly intelligent, well-read and well-educated, (many without benefit of a college degree), they provided on deadline, crisp, clear, straightforward analyses of complicated political/military issues that still vex ivory tower political scientists.

Some paid the ultimate price. Lance Motley was mentioned earlier. Three others were killed in action. These men reflected the dedication and ability of SOF’s unique staff.

Robert MacKenzie

Lt. Col Robert MacKenzie was SOF’s contributing editor for unconventional operations. A truly gifted soldier, MacKenzie was retired from the Army 70 percent disabled two years after enlisting, due to a wound suffered in Vietnam. Not to be deterred, in 1970 he joined the Rhodesian Special Forces (SAS) and served 10 years, receiving both the Bronze and Silver Crosses of Rhodesia for bravery and leadership in action. He later served as second-in-command of the Transkei, South Africa Special Forces.

Hired as an SOF journalist in 1985, MacKenzie reported on conflicts all over the globe, including Bosnia and Croatia, African hot spots, Russia, South America and Southeast Asia, to name a few, and was responsible for rescuing seven Westerners held hostage in Africa. He was hired by the Sierra Leone government in 1995 to train government forces, and was killed in an ambush by Revolutionary United Front (RUF) guerillas while trying to assist another wounded soldier.

Mike Echanis was a U.S. Army Ranger, renowned martial artist and martial arts editor for SOF in the mid-1970s. . In 1978 he was he was working in Nicaragua as a contractor for the CIA, and was killed in a helicopter crash after a bomb planted on board detonated. Foreign correspondent George Bacon III was another highly-decorated soldier, who received the CIA Intelligence Star for his work in Laos. He was killed in Africa while fighting for the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA). Motley, MacKenzie, Echanis and Bacon share a special place on the SOF masthead, along with a list of other noteworthy contributors who have since passed on.

Keep in mind that all these men (and many more) died in the line of service fighting enemies borne of the worldwide communist movement, which has prospered largely because incompetent, cowardly and sometimes treasonous U.S. “leaders” have allowed it to. In this President and Congress, such "leadership" is endemic, or perhaps I should say epidemic. Fortunately, a record number of military veterans are running for national office this year, who, if elected will bring a measure of sanity back to our Nation’s capital. Please check them out at Veterans for Freedom, Iraq Veterans for Congress and Combat Veterans for Congress and do all you can to lend support.

For his part, SOF founder Brown spends little time behind a desk. He was one of the first journalists to enter Kuwait City following its liberation by American forces in 1991 and SOF provided extensive on-the-ground reporting of the first Gulf War. It continues to provide cutting-edge coverage of operations in Iraqi, the conflict in Afghanistan, and other conflicts large and small throughout the world. Through its unique network of contacts, SOF continues to scoop the mass media on major stories involving military and intelligence issues, and brings a refreshing, insightful perspective that you will not find in the militarily-illiterate, anti-American mass media.

Finally, SOF and its editor are tireless advocates for gun rights. Col. Brown has been on the NRA Board of Directors for decades. Over the years, the magazine has featured reviews on new firearms and equipment and columns by noted gun experts such as John Farnam, Maj. John Plaster, Jeff Cooper and others.

In summing up his attitude toward life, Col. Brown says, “Slay dragons, do noble deeds and never, never, never, give up.” That attitude is certainly reflected in the storied history of Soldier of Fortune magazine, 35 this year and going strong.

Obama Making Room For Hillary At The Top?

Obama Making Room For Hillary At The Top?
Hillary Clinton for President in 2012?
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

On August 10th, 2010 we suggested that Hillary Clinton would be the democrat’s nominee for President in 2012. You may read the entire article HERE.

In the article we said: “I believe Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic Party’s candidate for US President in 2012. Over the past -- little more than a year and a half -- I have watched Obama going through the motions while his handlers pull the strings. (The Shadow Government, remember?) As we approach the Mid-Term election in November, I believe the Obama puppeteers know they have accomplished nearly all they can hope for with Obama, and they are very near to cutting his strings.”

We went on to say: “Let’s face it. Obama is a joke! A costly joke, but a joke, nevertheless. His own fellow democrats are distancing themselves from him as far as they can get -- and that includes hardcore democrats.”

We continued: “All this while, Hillary’s troops have been polishing her image while watching and evaluating the voter’s reactions to Obama’s agenda. They have been planning accordingly. When the time is right, in their estimation, Hillary will step from the wings and offer herself as the voice of reason, sounding, for all the world like a Ronald Reagan conservative– at least, when compared to Obama!”

And finally we stuck our neck out even more by predicting the following: “It is my opinion, that if Obama does not change his angle of attack very soon now, he will not get the Democratic nomination for President. Hillary will.”

I thought at the time that piece was published there would be a lot of challenges to my less than stunning attempt at punditry. I was surprized when there were far less than I expected.

As I mentioned in the original article – I am not a pundit. I am just an old southern, conservative, country boy who finds national and international politics fascinating and have for at least 50 years.

So I was not surprised --gratified, mind you-- but not surprised, by an article written by Julie Mason at the Washington Examiner, entitled: “Biden - Clinton job swap?! The article was published October 5th, 2010.

In the article Ms. Mason says: “Remember the 2008 so-called "Dream Ticket" with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama? Bob Woodward went on CNN today and said there is discussion inside the White House about swapping out Joe Biden for Clinton ahead of 2012. "It's on the table," Woodward said.

Now you talk to Hillary Clinton or her advisers and they say 'no, no there's not a political consideration here,'" Woodward continued. "Of course the answer is, you point out to them that her clout around the world when she goes to Europe, Asia, anywhere is in part, not just because she's Secretary of State or because she was married to President Clinton, that people see a potential future president in her." (SOURCE).

Interesting, what?

I would challenge Mr. Woodward on his choice of 2016 as the year Hillary runs, again, for President. I stand by my earlier prediction that she will run in 2012 because, I believe, the Democratic Party will lean on her to do so in order to relieve themselves of the millstone around their necks known as Obama.

The left-wing democrats (which is practically ALL of them now) have become kamikaze adherents. Their ideology is so strong they will do whatever it takes to get their Socialist/Marxists agenda passed through the Congress and signed by a fellow Socialist/Marxist -- the President. They placed the survival of their liberal-socialist Democratic Party, as well as their own political survival, on the line to force socialized medicine on the American public. They are true socialist/marxists.

Now that the façade, behind which they have been hiding, has been blown away by their fanatical ideology, Americans are seeing the Democratic Party for what it really is. Some are shocked, some are genuinely surprised, and others, most, actually, are mad as heck and would really love to indulge in a little tarring and feathering, but will settle for purging the Congress of as many of the Democratic Party socialist/marxists as they possible can -- in a little over three weeks.

So far as whether Biden and Clinton will swap positions, soon, in the administration, well, if that happens, we will interpret that as the Democratic Party forcing Obama to allow the positioning of Hillary in the office of Vice-President in order to afford her an optimal launching pad for her campaign for the office of President in 2012.

All of this leads one to wonder just how humiliating such a shuffling of chairs in the Obama Regime must be to Obama, himself. We know he is a leftist ideologue. Humiliating, or not, it follows then that he would willingly throw himself on his own sword to further the party’s socialist/marxist agenda.

But something is troubling me. The Democratic Party is in such disarray these days it is difficult to believe they would force their own President to toss his Vice President overboard in order to provide a launching pad for his number one opposition in 2012. But, could it be the so-called “Shadow Party” issuing the orders? Now – THAT would NOT be a surprise!

Of course, denials are flying. But that is par for the course in Washington. The truth is anybody’s guess.

If the November election goes as expected, there are bound to be a number of changes in the Obama Regime. Power players will be seeking more permissive environs within which to exercise their talents. And that will be good for the American people’s government.

J. D. Longstreet

Going Rogue, Part IV: Guess what the EPA is going to regulate now?

Commentary by James H. Shott

Maybe you’ve seen that email that tells you about a harmful chemical and asks you to sign a petition to ban it. The email tells you that the chemical – dihydrogen monoxide – is the main ingredient in acid rain and is capable of causing suffocation if too much of it is ingested. Some of the email readers are horrified, sign the petition and forward it to their email list to warn others of this threat.

The email is a joke, but the non-chemists among us may not realize that. You see, dihydrogen monoxide is two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, or H2O: water!

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing stricter standards on another pollutant, particulate matter, which can foul air and water, cause breathing problems and impair visibility. What horrible substance is the EPA trying to protect us from now? Dust.

This may seem as much a joke as that H2O email, but the EPA is deadly serious about this one, and is at it again, indulging in rogue behavior that punishes businesses unnecessarily, makes life both more expensive and less enjoyable, and is generally over-stepping its bounds in the furtherance of its highly ideological agenda.

Kelsey Huber, writing for “The Foundry,” a blog of The Heritage Foundation, explains that “when EPA regulations were first applied to particulates in 1971, they were created to target soot,” which consists of carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of coal, oil, wood and other fuels, and soot actually is harmful, in sufficient quantities. “Dust,” on the other hand, is merely soil that has gone airborne.

Apparently, soot is no longer a problem, or perhaps the agency just realized that it wasn’t creating enough turmoil for the country. We can’t be sure. In any case, the EPA now wants to regulate dust. Why?

Well, the Clean Air Act requires the EPA to reassess national air quality standards every five years, and new regulations are scheduled to be in place by 2011. A federal agency under statist control cannot let that deadline pass without imposing new regulations and increasing control over its subjects.

Mr. Huber continues: “From this regulation, several problems arise. First, while human activity can create dust, it is also … a natural occurrence. How can it be effectively regulated?” A fair question.

Dust occurs pretty often, like when a car drives down a gravel or dirt road, or when kids play baseball, or when the wind blows across dry ground.

Further, Mr. Huber notes, the people most affected by dust clouds are those who cause them, and they already try to minimize dust out of a sense of self-preservation. He believes that regulating this natural phenomenon will stifle farm productivity and cause wasting of other resources. These regulations mean that people could be fined for not meeting particulate matter standards while still practicing good land management on their own property.

Of course, anytime some government body imposes new requirements on businesses, one result is an increase in the cost of doing business, and in this case the cost of domestic food products will rise accordingly. When a farmer works his fields producing the food we eat, that may stir up some dust. Is the EPA going to fine farmers for planting or harvesting food if in the process of doing so they kick up some dust? Does that mean that farmers will have to water fields before working them? How much is that going to cost in additional water use and time? Some crops, like corn, cannot be harvested that way.

Tamara Thies, chief environmental counsel for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, said the regulations under consideration would prove twice as stringent as the current standard.
"It would be virtually impossible for many critical U.S. industries to comply with this standard, even with use of best management practices to control dust," she said.

In an attempt to forestall this ill-conceived initiative a group of Senators has written to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, suggesting she replace the EPA’s seemingly manic desire to regulate everything we do with a little common sense, and to recognize the harm the agency will do if it pursues these regulations.

Whether this effort will succeed depends upon whether it is possible for the statist ideologues at the EPA and in the Obama administration to put their ideology on hold and allow commhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifon sense to rule the day. History is not on our side on this one.

The liberal and statist policies that got us where we are cannot get us where we need to be. What the EPA proposes will be just as effective as the measures the White House and the Congress have put into effect to stabilize the economy and get unemployment down, which is to say, it will impede private sector activity and may well worsen an already bad situation.

Years ago the US resisted and defeated the threat of communism because we had leaders who recognized the threat. The threat today is statism, and instead of resisting this threat, today’s leaders embrace it.

As Pogo famously said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

==================================

Cross-posted from Observations

Obama's Wars

Obama’s Wars
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

Remember how Obama continually stated how the war in Iraq was “The Wrong War.”

Remember how Obama remarked that President George W. Bush made a mistake by moving much of our war fighting capability from Afghanistan to Iraq?

Remember how Obama leaned on Bush for concentrating on Iraq instead of Afghanistan… over and over and over, ad infinitum?

Now: Remember how we told you that these wars would become Obama’s wars?

We remind you of all this because, just as we suspected, Obama has no clue how to run a war -- or how to relate neither to his generals nor to the military in general.

I have thought for sometime that the President of the United States, of a necessity, ought to have had military service in one branch, or the other, of the US Military. I still do. I think it ought to be a requirement, one of the qualifications for a would-be candidate seeking the office of the US Presidency.

So few members of the US government, these days, have had military service, of any kind, that there is only a weak connection between the government overall and the military.

When “The Brass,” the generals and admirals, begin to mock, criticize, or correct the Commander-in-Chief, even in public, that is evidence of a serious breakdown between the war fighters and their Commander-in-Chief. That is NEVER good.

When a Commander-in-Chief’s main objective is to withdraw the troops from a war, which is still raging, and concede defeat of the American military, that demonstrates a deep disrespect for the men and women in the ranks, in the foxholes, in the line of fire, in harm’s way. The men and women who have volunteered to put their lives on the line for America’s freedom all around the globe deserve more than that – MUCH more. They deserve a Commander-in-Chief who, even if he does not have their courage, at least respects them FOR their courage and their efforts for their fellow countrymen.

To put it bluntly, the US military deserves a much better Commander-in-Chief than Obama has been, is, or ever will be.

The revelation (in a recent publication) that Obama was seeking a way out of Afghanistan came as no surprise to this scribe. We have a leftist President and that is what leftists do when someone challenges his or her right to be free on a battlefield. They immediately head for the exits. They run.

The left, Obama among them, has no concept of military honor.” Having never served a single day in uniform, he cannot relate to those brave people who protect you and me with their lives. He simple doesn’t understand his soldiers, he doesn’t understand his generals, and he does not understand the war planners and war fighters. At some level, I suspect he fears them.

Obama’s ineptness in foreign affairs, as a whole, is staggering. Obama’s joyful visit with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, a fellow socialist, told Americans all they needed to know about Obama’s distaste for our constitutional republic. Many conservatives understood immediately that he was on a mission to transform America into another Venezuela.

So what does this have to do with Obama and his wars? Practically everything. He is dealing with a part of the US government that is hugely politically conservative. I have come to believe that Obama fears the US military.

The US Military is filled with conservatives. A whopping portion of the US Military is made up of Southerners who are born with “Warrior” stamped, indelibly, on their heels. An important part of their DNA is “honor.” They don’t have to learn what honor is; they know from birth what is expected of them -- to protect the honor of their family, their country, their fellow soldiers, and finally, themselves. Too, they understand the oath they take when entering the military is a solemn and sacred oath to protect the constitution and everything they love and care from ALL enemies foreign AND DOMESTIC. They also understand there is no expiration date on that oath.

It is no small thing when the leader of those military men and women places their honor in jeopardy by seeking a way to “cut and run” in the face of the enemy!

An army MUST respect its leader. It must trust his leadership. It is his command that may cost a soldier his or her life. When the troops lose respect for their leader it is a sad and a dangerous thing. Oh, they will obey his commands, but they will do so grudgingly. Evidence of that can be seen even in the US military’s top brass today.

When that lack of respect for their leadership infiltrates the troops on the frontlines, casualties begin to go up. We see that today in Afghanistan.

NO SOLDIER WANTS TO BE THE LAST SOLDIER KILLED IN ANY WAR! Now that Obama has set a date for withdrawal of the troops from Afghanistan, the enemy feels emboldened because they know that US troops will psychologically go into a defensive mode. Suddenly, the advantage in the war swings to the enemy’s side. We see that, today in Afghanistan, as well.

Obama’s Wars are not going well. In Iraq, just about everyone outside the Obama White House understands that as soon as US troops finally leave Iraq, it will be taken over by another strongman dictator and revert back to its former repressive totalitarian condition. In Afghanistan, we know the Taliban will move, almost instantly, to re-establish their control of the Afghanis and the drug trade.

Frankly, I do not believe the Obama Regime cares, one way or the other. All the evidence tells us Obama just wants out of both theatres of war. As Commander-in-Chief he is demoralizing our troops. As President, he is emboldening our enemies and demoralizing our allies.

As a wartime president Obama is pitifully lacking. But, then again, that can be said of all other aspects of his presidency, as well. Pitiful.

J. D. Longstreet

Renewed Effort Toward Global Governance At The UN?

Renewed Effort Toward Global Governance At The UN?

One-World Government Aborning?

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

“Outlining priorities for the 65th session at a news conference last week, Mr. Deiss (Thomas Deiss, the UN General Assembly President) called for efforts to “reinstate” the UN and its 192-member General Assembly to the centre of global governance.” (SOURCE)

The paragraph above is from an article titled: “Countries welcome new Assembly President’s focus on global governance,” which can be found HERE. The article is dated the 21^st of September 2010. It also states: “Several countries have expressed support for the initiative of the General Assembly President to make global governance a central theme of the current session of the United Nations body.

Prime Minister Klaus Tschütscher of Liechtenstein, as well as Sheikh Khalid ibn Ahmad Al Khalifa, the Foreign Minister of Bahrain; Xavier Espot Miró, the Foreign Minister of Andorra; and Amr Moussa, the Secretary-General of the Arab League concurred with Joseph Deiss on prioritizing such an important topic.”

The article quotes Mr. Deiss as having said: “The challenges which we face today have acquired a global dimension and require global solutions. Our actions must have broad legitimacy and be the result of inclusive processes. We have to improve the mechanisms for information, consultation and cooperation between the United Nations and other actors and tools of global governance …,”

It surely appears that warnings concerning the determination of the UN to formulate a one-world government were prescient, indeed.

It is fairly easy to understand why an organization, any organization, would want to rule the world … RAW, UNADULTERATED, POWER … but, it absolutely escapes me as to how they plan to actually GOVERN all the peoples of the earth for a single instant, let alone forever.

The expression “herding cats” comes immediately to mind when I think of the impossibility of a single ruling body governing the “earth people.”

But first we must ask ourselves how, exactly, will global governance be established? It will surely be through one of two avenues. Think about it. A one-world government must be achieved either by consent -- or by conquest.

It is inconceivable that the people of the United States would willingly give up their freedom and liberty, forsake their constitution and their bill of rights, and swear fealty to the United Nations, or any other would-be global ruling body … at least for a few more generations, anyway.

Americans, of a necessity, will have to be conditioned to accept less and less freedom, as the years go by, before there can be any thing approaching a reasonable expectation that they will accept what can only be described as “global slavery” overseen by a single globe encompassing authority.

Look, a one-world government would immediately bring us global poverty, and global war(s). That is the bottom line. Earth would overnight become a single battleground as the forces of that ruling authority attempt to impose its will on every single person on the planet. All wars would be “world wars” as they would affect every person on the globe.

Only one form of global governance has any chance of success – at all. That is totalitarianism -- a one-world dictatorship – period. As we said above global governance is all about power – absolute power.

The current American government is trying, as best it can, to condition Americans and drive them toward acceptance of global governance at some level, to some degree, with the goal of having America willingly submit itself to a single global authority. Unfortunately, the current American presidential administration is, for all intents and purposes, just a puppet government whose strings are being pulled by international financiers and moneymen.

Nobody has been able to convince me, yet, that the 2008 financial crash was not orchestrated to elect the Obama Administration in order to pave the way for the totalitarian one-world government those powerful world financiers covet.

Sounds like another conspiracy theory, doesn’t it? Well, as the television program says: “Not all conspiracies are theories.”

I am convinced the idea was to bring America to her knees to make her malleable to their wishes. For a global government to have any chance, at all, the puppeteers need America in the vanguard of the creators of that government. But most of all they need the American people to willingly submit to it.

But, they ran into a problem, a big problem. The problem they mistakenly thought they could avoid turned out to be -- the American people themselves!

Almost immediately, Americans began fighting back. Can you say: “TEA PARTY?”

The weak-spined American government will be shown the back of the American people’s hands in about four weeks at the polls.

Much of the world does not understand that here, in America, the government serves at the pleasure of the people. The power of the American government is granted by the “consent of the governed.” We, the governed, are about to rescind the privilege to wield that power for a great number of those in our government in about a month. Its what we do to a rogue government.

While the Obama Regime is busy back-slapping each other, and applauding each other, and reveling in the deepest depths of denial we have seen since “Baghdad Bob,” their world is about to crumble about them. And the global governance crowd? Well, their plans will be set back, at least for a while. But they will be back. Count on it. And we will confuse their plans again. “Sic Semper Tyrannis!”

J. D. Longstreet

A Sermon

This is a sermon delivered by Rabbi Schlomo Lewis of Atlanta. It was e-mailed to me by a friend. I am cross-posting it here. Rabbi Lewis does not accuse all Muslims, yet he states that peaceful Muslims must speak out.

Posted at Monkey in the Middle by Gary Fouse of Fousesquawk
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EHR KUMT

First Day of Rosh Hashanah 2010

"I thought long and I thought hard on whether to deliver the sermon I am about to share. We all wish to bounce happily out of shul on the High Holidays, filled with warm fuzzies, ready to gobble up our brisket, our honey cakes and our kugel. We want to be shaken and stirred – but not too much. We want to be guilt-schlepped – but not too much. We want to be provoked but not too much. We want to be transformed but not too much.

I get it, but as a rabbi I have a compelling obligation, a responsibility to articulate what is in my heart and what I passionately believe must be said and must be heard. And so, I am guided not by what is easy to say but by what is painful to express. I am guided not by the frivolous but by the serious. I am guided not by delicacy but by urgency.

We are at war. We are at war with an enemy as savage, as voracious, as heartless as the Nazis but one wouldn’t know it from our behavior. During WWII we didn’t refer to storm troopers as freedom fighters. We didn’t call the Gestapo, militants. We didn’t see the attacks on our Merchant Marine as acts by rogue sailors. We did not justify the Nazis rise to power as our fault. We did not grovel before the Nazis, thumping our hearts and confessing to abusing and mistreating and humiliating the German people. We did not apologize for Dresden, nor for The Battle of the Bulge, nor for El Alamein, nor for D-Day.

Evil – ultimate, irreconcilable, evil threatened us and Roosevelt and Churchill had moral clarity and an exquisite understanding of what was at stake. It was not just the Sudetenland, not just Tubruk, not just Vienna, not just Casablanca. It was the entire planet. Read history and be shocked at how frighteningly close Hitler came to creating a Pax Germana on every continent.


Not all Germans were Nazis – most were decent, most were revolted by the Third Reich, most were good citizens hoisting a beer, earning a living and tucking in their children at night. But, too many looked away, too many cried out in lame defense – I didn’t know.” Too many were silent. Guilt absolutely falls upon those who committed the atrocities, but responsibility and guilt falls upon those who did nothing as well. Fault was not just with the goose steppers but with those who pulled the curtains shut, said and did nothing.

In WWII we won because we got it. We understood who the enemy was and we knew that the end had to be unconditional and absolute. We did not stumble around worrying about offending the Nazis. We did not measure every word so as not to upset our foe. We built planes and tanks and battleships and went to war to win….. to rid the world of malevolence.

We are at war… yet too many stubbornly and foolishly don’t put the pieces together and refuse to identify the evil doers. We are circumspect and disgracefully politically correct.

Let me mince no words in saying that from Fort Hood to Bali, from Times Square to London, from Madrid to Mumbai, from 9/11 to Gaza, the murderers, the barbarians are radical Islamists.

To camouflage their identity is sedition. To excuse their deeds is contemptible. To mask their intentions is unconscionable.

A few years ago I visited Lithuania on a Jewish genealogical tour. It was a stunning journey and a very personal, spiritual pilgrimage. When we visited Kovno we davened Maariv at the only remaining shul in the city. Before the war there were thirty-seven shuls for 38,000 Jews. Now only one, a shrinking, gray congregation. We made minyon for the handful of aged worshippers in the Choral Synagogue, a once majestic, jewel in Kovno.

After my return home I visited Cherry Hill for Shabbos. At the oneg an elderly family friend, Joe Magun, came over to me.

“Shalom,” he said. “Your abba told me you just came back from Lithuania.” “Yes,” I replied. “It was quite a powerful experience.” “Did you visit the Choral Synagogue in Kovno? The one with the big arch in the courtyard?” “Yes, I did. In fact, we helped them make minyon.” His eyes opened wide in joy at our shared memory. For a moment he gazed into the distance and then, he returned. “Shalom, I grew up only a few feet away from the arch. The Choral Synagogue was where I davened as a child.”

He paused for a moment and once again was lost in the past. His smile faded. Pain filled his wrinkled face. “I remember one Shabbos in 1938 when Vladimir Jabotinsky came to the shul” (Jabotinsky was Menachim Begin’s mentor – he was a fiery orator, an unflinching Zionist radical, whose politics were to the far right.) Joe continued “When Jabotinsky came, he delivered the drash on Shabbos morning and I can still hear his words burning in my ears. He climbed up to the shtender, stared at us from the bima, glared at us with eyes full of fire and cried out. ‘EHR KUMT. YIDN FARLAWST AYER SHTETL – He’s coming. Jews abandon your city.’ ”

We thought we were safe in Lithuania from the Nazis, from Hitler. We had lived there, thrived for a thousand years but Jabotinsky was right -- his warning prophetic. We got out but most did not.”

We are not in Lithuania. It is not the 1930s. There is no Luftwaffe overhead. No U-boats off the coast of long Island. No Panzer divisions on our borders. But make no mistake; we are under attack – our values, our tolerance, our freedom, our virtue, our land.

Now before some folks roll their eyes and glance at their watches let me state emphatically, unmistakably – I have no pathology of hate, nor am I a manic Paul Revere, galloping through the countryside. I am not a pessimist, nor prone to panic attacks. I am a lover of humanity, all humanity. Whether they worship in a synagogue, a church, a mosque, a temple or don’t worship at all. I have no bone of bigotry in my body, but what I do have is hatred for those who hate, intolerance for those who are intolerant, and a guiltless, unstoppable obsession to see evil eradicated.

Today the enemy is radical Islam but it must be said sadly and reluctantly that there are unwitting, co-conspirators who strengthen the hands of the evil doers. Let me state that the overwhelming number of Muslims want nothing more than a Jeep Cherokee in their driveway, a flat screen TV on their wall and a good education for their children, but these good Muslims have an obligation to destiny, to decency that thus far for the most part they have avoided. The Kulturkampf is not only external but internal as well. The good Muslims must sponsor rallies in Times Square, in Trafalgar Square, in the UN Plaza, on the Champs Elysee, in Mecca condemning terrorism, denouncing unequivocally the slaughter of the innocent. Thus far, they have not. The good Muslims must place ads in the NY Times. They must buy time on network TV, on cable stations, in the Jerusalem Post, in Le Monde, in Al Watan, on Al Jazeena condemning terrorism, denouncing unequivocally the slaughter of the innocent – thus far, they have not. Their silence allows the vicious to tarnish Islam and define it.

Brutal acts of commission and yawning acts of omission both strengthen the hand of the devil.

I recall a conversation with my father shortly before he died that helped me understand how perilous and how broken is our world; that we are living on the narrow seam of civilization and moral oblivion. Knowing he had little time left he shared the following – “Shal. I am ready to leave this earth. Sure I’d like to live a little longer, see a few more sunrises, but truthfully, I’ve had it. I’m done. Finished. I hope the Good Lord takes me soon because I am unable to live in this world knowing what it has become.”

This startling admission of moral exhaustion from a man who witnessed and lived through the Depression, the Holocaust, WWII, Communist Triumphalism, McCarthyism, Strontium 90 and polio. – Yet his twilight observation was – “The worst is yet to come.” And he wanted out. I am convinced that it was not his age speaking but his heart.

I share my father’s angst and fear that too many do not see the authentic, existential threat we face nor confront the source of our peril. We must wake up and smell the hookah.

“Lighten up, Lewis. Take a chill pill, some of you are quietly thinking. You’re sounding like Glen Beck. It’s not that bad. It’s not that real.” But I am here to tell you – “It is.” Ask the member of our shul whose sister was vaporized in the Twin Towers and identified finally by her charred teeth, if this is real or not. Ask the members of our shul who fled a bus in downtown Paris, fearing for their safety from a gang of Muslim thugs, if this is an exaggeration. Ask the member of our shul whose son tracks Arab terrorist infiltrators who target – pizza parlors, nursery schools, Pesach seders, city buses and play grounds, if this is dramatic, paranoid hyperbole.

Ask them, ask all of them – ask the American GI’s we sit next to on planes who are here for a brief respite while we fly off on our Delta vacation package. Ask them if it’s bad. Ask them if it’s real.
Not a perfect parallel but did anyone imagine in the 1920’s what Europe would look like in the 1940’s. Did anyone presume to know in the coffee houses of Berlin or in the opera halls of Vienna that genocide would soon become the celebrated culture? Did anyone think that a goofy-looking painter named Shickelgruber would go from the beer halls of Munich and jail, to the Reichstag as Feuhrer in less than a decade? Did Jews pack their bags and leave Warsaw, Vilna, Athens, Paris, Bialystok, Minsk, knowing that soon their new address would be Treblinka, Sobibor, Dachau and Auschwitz?

The sages teach – “Aizehu chacham – haroeh et hanolad – Who is a wise person – he who sees into the future.” We dare not wallow in complacency, in a misguided tolerance and naïve sense of security.

We must be diligent students of history and not sit in ash cloth at the waters of Babylon weeping. We cannot be hypnotized by eloquent-sounding rhetoric that soothes our heart but endangers our soul. We cannot be lulled into inaction for fear of offending the offenders. Radical Islam is the scourge and this must be cried out from every mountain top. From sea to shining sea, we must stand tall, prideful of our stunning decency and moral resilience. Immediately after 9/11 how many mosques were destroyed in America? None. After 9/11, how many Muslims were killed in America? None. After 9/11, how many anti-Muslim rallies were held in America? None. And yet, we apologize. We grovel. We beg forgiveness.

The mystifying litany of our foolishness continues. Should there be a shul in Hebron on the site where Baruch Goldstein gunned down twenty-seven Arabs at noonday prayers? Should there be a museum praising the U.S. Calvary on the site of Wounded Knee? Should there be a German cultural center in Auschwitz? Should a church be built in the Syrian town of Ma’arra where Crusaders slaughtered over 100,000 Muslims? Should there be a thirteen story mosque and Islamic Center only a few steps from Ground Zero?

Despsite all the rhetoric, the essence of the matter can be distilled quite easily. The Muslim community has the absolute, constitutional right to build their building wherever they wish. I don’t buy the argument – “When we can build a church or a synagogue in Mecca they can build a mosque here.” America is greater than Saudi Arabia. And New York is greater than Mecca. Democracy and freedom must prevail.

Can they build? Certainly. May they build? Certainly. But should they build at that site? No -- but that decision must come from them, not from us. Sensitivity, compassion cannot be measured in feet or yards or in blocks. One either feels the pain of others and cares, or does not.

If those behind this project are good, peace-loving, tolerant Muslims, as they claim, then they should know better, rip up the zoning permits and build elsewhere.

Believe it or not, I am a dues-paying, card carrying member of the ACLU, yet from start of finish, I find this sorry episode disturbing to say the least.

William Burroughs, the novelist and poet, in a wry moment wrote – “After one look at this planet, any visitor from outer space would say – “I want to see the manager.”
Let us understand that the radical Islamist assaults all over the globe are but skirmishes, fire fights, and vicious decoys. Christ and the anti-Christ. Gog U’Magog. The Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness; the bloody collision between civilization and depravity is on the border between Lebanon and Israel. It is on the Gaza Coast and in the Judean Hills of the West Bank. It is on the sandy beaches of Tel Aviv and on the cobblestoned mall of Ben Yehuda Street. It is in the underground schools of Sderot and on the bullet-proofed inner-city buses. It is in every school yard, hospital, nursery, classroom, park, theater – in every place of innocence and purity.

Israel is the laboratory – the test market. Every death, every explosion, every grisly encounter is not a random, bloody orgy. It is a calculated, strategic probe into the heart, guts and soul of the West.

In the Six Day War, Israel was the proxy of Western values and strategy while the Arab alliance was the proxy of Eastern, Soviet values and strategy. Today too, it is a confrontation of proxies, but the stakes are greater than East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Israel in her struggle represents the civilized world, while Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Queda, Iran, Islamic Jihad, represent the world of psychopathic, loathesome evil.
As Israel, imperfect as she is, resists the onslaught, many in the Western World have lost their way displaying not admiration, not sympathy, not understanding, for Israel’s galling plight, but downright hostility and contempt. Without moral clarity, we are doomed because Israel’s galling plight ultimately will be ours. Hanna Arendt in her classic Origins of Totalitarianism accurately portrays the first target of tyranny as the Jew. We are the trial balloon. The canary in the coal mine. If the Jew/Israel is permitted to bleed with nary a protest from “good guys” then tyranny snickers and pushes forward with its agenda.

Moral confusion is a deadly weakness and it has reached epic proportions in the West; from the Oval Office to the UN, from the BBC to Reuters to MSNBC, from the New York Times to Le Monde, from university campuses to British teachers unions, from the International Red Cross to Amnesty International, from Goldstone to Elvis Costello, from the Presbyterian Church to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

There is a message sent and consequences when our president visits Turkey and Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and not Israel.

There is a message sent and consequences when free speech on campus is only for those championing Palestinian rights.

There is a message sent and consequences when the media deliberately doctors and edits film clips to demonize Israel.

There is a message sent and consequences when the UN blasts Israel relentlessly, effectively ignoring Iran, Sudan, Venezuela, North Korea, China and other noxious states.
There is a message sent and consequences when liberal churches are motivated by Liberation Theology, not historical accuracy.

There is a message sent and consequences when murderers and terrorists are defended by the obscenely transparent “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.”

John Milton warned, “Hypocrisy is the only evil that walks invisible.”

A few days after the Gaza blockade incident in the spring, a congregant happened past my office, glanced in and asked in a friendly tone –

“Rabbi. How’re y’ doing?”

I looked up, sort of smiled and replied – “I’ve had better days.”

“What’s the matter? Is there anything I can do to cheer you up?” he inquired.

“Thank you for the offer but I’m just bummed out today and I showed him a newspaper article I was reading.

“Madrid gay pride parade bans Israeli group over Gaza Ship Raid.” I explained to my visitor – “The Israeli gay pride contingent from Tel Aviv was not allowed to participate in the Spanish gay pride parade because the mayor of Tel Aviv did not apologize for the raid by the Israeli military.”

The only country in the entire Middle East where gay rights exist, is Israel. The only country in the entire Middle East where there is a gay pride parade, is Israel. The only country in the Middle East that has gay neighborhoods and gay bars, is Israel.

Gays in the Gaza would be strung up, executed by Hamas if they came out and yet Israel is vilified and ostracized. Disinvited to the parade – by moral morons.

Looking for logic?
Looking for reason?
Looking for sanity?

Kafka on his darkest, gloomiest day could not keep up with this bizarre spectacle and we “useful idiots” pander and fawn over cutthroats, sinking deeper and deeper into moral decay, as the enemy laughs all the way to the West Bank and beyond.

It is exhausting and dispiriting. We live in an age that is redefining righteousness where those with moral clarity are an endangered, beleaguered specie.
Isaiah warned us thousands of years ago – “Oye Lehem Sheh-Korim Layome, Laila v’Laila, yome – Woe to them who call the day, night and the night, day.” We live on a planet that is both Chelm and Sodom. It is a frightening and maddening place to be.

How do we convince the world and many of our own, that this is not just anti-Semitism, that this is not just anti-Zionism but a full throttled attack by unholy, radical Islamists on everything that is morally precious to us?

How do we convince the world and many of our own that conciliation is not an option, that compromise is not a choice?

Everything we are. Everything we believe. Everything we treasure, is at risk.

The threat is so unbelievably clear and the enemy so unbelievably ruthless how anyone in their right mind doesn’t get it is baffling. Let’s try an analogy. If someone contracted a life-threatening infection and we not only scolded them for using antibiotics but insisted that the bacteria had a right to infect their body and that perhaps, if we gave the invading infection an arm and a few toes, the bacteria would be satisfied and stop spreading

Anyone buy that medical advice? Well, folks, that’s our approach to the radical Islamist bacteria. It is amoral, has no conscience and will spread unless it is eradicated. – There is no negotiating. Appeasement is death.

I was no great fan of George Bush – didn’t vote for him. (By the way, I’m still a registered Democrat.) I disagreed with many of his policies but one thing he had right. His moral clarity was flawless when it came to the War on Terror, the War on Radical Islamist Terror. There was no middle ground – either you were friend or foe. There was no place in Bush’s world for Switzerland. He knew that this competition was not Toyota against G.M., not the Iphone against the Droid, not the Braves against the Phillies, but a deadly serious war, winner take all. Blink and you lose. Underestimate, and you get crushed.

I know that there are those sitting here today who have turned me off. But I also know that many turned off their rabbis seventy five years ago in Warsaw, Riga, Berlin, Amsterdam, Cracow, Vilna. I get no satisfaction from that knowledge, only a bitter sense that there is nothing new under the sun.

Enough rhetoric – how about a little “show and tell?” A few weeks ago on the cover of Time magazine was a horrific picture with a horrific story. The photo was of an eighteen year old Afghani woman, Bibi Aisha, who fled her abusive husband and his abusive family. Days later the Taliban found her and dragged her to a mountain clearing where she was found guilty of violating Sharia Law. Her punishment was immediate. She was pinned to the ground by four men while her husband sliced off her ears, and then he cut off her nose.

That is the enemy.

If nothing else stirs us. If nothing else convinces us, let Bibi Aisha’s mutilated face be the face of Islamic radicalism. Let her face shake up even the most complacent and naïve among us. In the holy crusade against this ultimate evil, pictures of Bibi Aisha’s disfigurement should be displayed on billboards, along every highway from Route 66 to the Autobahn, to the Transarabian Highway. Her picture should be posted on every lobby wall from Tokyo to Stockholm to Rio. On every network, at every commercial break, Bibi Aisha’s face should appear with the caption – “Radical Islamic savages did this.” And underneath – “This ad was approved by Hamas, by Hezbollah, by Taliban, by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, by Islamic Jihad, by Fatah al Islam, by Magar Nodal Hassan, by Richard Reid, by Ahmanijad, by Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, by Osama bin Laden, by Edward Said, by The Muslim Brotherhood, by Al Queda, by CAIR.”

“The moral sentiment is the drop that balances the sea” said Ralph Waldo Emerson. Today, my friends, the sea is woefully out of balance and we could easily drown in our moral myopia and worship of political correctness.
We peer up into the heavens sending probes to distant galaxies. We peer down into quarks discovering particles that would astonish Einstein. We create computers that rival the mind, technologies that surpass science fiction. What we imagine, with astounding rapidity, becomes real. If we dream it, it does, indeed, come. And yet, we are at a critical point in the history of this planet that could send us back into the cave, to a culture that would make the Neanderthal blush with shame.

Our parents and grandparents saw the swastika and recoiled, understood the threat and destroyed the Nazis. We see the banner of Radical Islam and can do no less.

A rabbi was once asked by his students….

“Rebbi. Why are your sermons so stern?” Replied the rabbi, “If a house is on fire and we chose not to wake up our children, for fear of disturbing their sleep, would that be love?” Kinderlach, ‘di hoyz brent.’ Children our house is on fire and I must arouse you from your slumber.”

During WWII and the Holocaust was it business as usual for priests, ministers, rabbis? Did they deliver benign homilies and lovely sermons as Europe fell, as the Pacific fell, as North Africa fell, as the Mideast and South America tottered, as England bled? Did they ignore the demonic juggernaut and the foul breath of evil? They did not. There was clarity, courage, vision, determination, sacrifice, and we were victorious. Today it must be our finest hour as well. We dare not retreat into the banality of our routines, glance at headlines and presume that the good guys will prevail.

Democracies don’t always win.
Tyrannies don’t always lose.

My friends – the world is on fire and we must awake from our slumber. “EHR KUMT.”

The GOP’s Choice For President

The GOP’s Choice For President
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

There are those who will say NOW is not the time to expend mental energy on ciphering the inner workings of the GOP and the machinations they go through to choose a presidential candidate. Those who say that may very well be correct, but here we go, anyway.

If I could make one suggestion to the GOP candidate selection corp – it would be that they not present their base with the same tired old candidates they continue to run out each h election cycle.

Oh, and allow me to mention something they may have missed. Sarah Palin, for all her likeability within the conservative branch of the Republican Party, will not be an acceptable choice to carry the GOP banner into the 2012 election for President of the US.

Don’t misunderstand. I LIKE Ms. Palin. In my opinion, she is a powerful engine within the conservatives of the GOP. She can gather a crowd, create a tidal wave of energy within the ranks of the party, and her skill at raising money is akin to that of a money machine. Her support can push a little known candidate across the finish line to victory, as we have seen a number of times already. But she cannot win a race for President against Obama.

That needed saying, as the expression as it, so I said it.

In the first place I think the upper echelon of the Republican Party had rather ingest cyanide than support Ms. Palin as their candidate for President. Left to their own devices I am convinced they would, as they did in 2008, discard the conservative wing of their party and place their support behind a liberal or a RINO candidate with the belief that they can win the 2012 Presidential Election with the support of only liberal and moderate republicans, plus the independent voters. That move was doomed to failure, right from the start, in the 2008 election cycle and it has even less chance of ending in victory in the 2012 election cycle.

I have voted a conservative ballot since my first election at the tender age of 21. I will do the same this next month and again in November of 2012. Like all conservatives my votes always reflect my core beliefs. Conservatives are like that. We will not compromise our beliefs to vote for a GOP candidate who does not share those beliefs just so the Republican Party can claim a victory. Such a victory often turns out to be pyrric, anyway.

There is some evidence that the “higher-ups” in the GOP are beginning to understand this fact. I hope so, for, indeed, the survival of the Republican Party, as a political force in America, literally hangs on their understanding that and accepting that and embracing conservative republicans.

The Republican Party must recognize that Conservatives have the power now to create that viable “third Party” which, I am convinced would quickly move the GOP into third party status and itself into direct contention with the Democratic Party to become the controlling political party in the US. The truth is the Tea Party Movement in America has accomplished that for conservatives.

In one month America’s electorate will go to the polls to decide whether America remain a constitutional republic or is dragged into the slavery of a socialist state akin to the pathetic European socialist entities sometimes referred to as “states.” The conservative movement in America is going head-to-head with the liberal socialists in America to stop that from happening. Conservatives understand, better than anyone, it seems, that socialism is assured death for the American way of life. They give all indications they are determined to concentrate their considerable power on preserving the country and the political system our forefathers labored so hard to obtain and to guarantee for us.

The GOP MUST understand conservatives will settle for nothing less than a genuine conservative candidate for President of the US in 2012. This is not negotiable, period.

Before the GOP makes a mistake they will rue to their dying day, allow me to state as clearly as I know how the following: Conservatives are not so desirous of being rid of the Obama Regime that they (conservatives) will vote for practically anyone the GOP decides to push forward as the party’s choice for President. I assure you that is NOT the case. In fact, it is a sure and certain way to return the Obama Regime to power for another four years.

The bottom line is this: If the GOP decides to ignore the conservative branch of their party this time around, then I expect conservatives will accept the GOP rejection of their values and move on to form their own political party, separate from the Republicans, into which they can pour their considerable political clout, their energy, and their collective talents in an effort to build a better America.

J. D. Longstreet