Divided at Home – Weak to Allies & Enemies?
We have grown weak in spirit and resolve at home and abroad. At home, the current administration pits groups of Americans against one another by income levels, by race and by religion…and especially pits African-Americans against law enforcement. We have become divided and as President Lincoln reminded us, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
On March 11, 2015— only hours before two police officers were shot at protests in Ferguson, either targeted directly or the unintended casualties of a gang dispute— a six-year-old boy named Marcus Johnson was killed by a stray bullet in a St. Louis park. There have been no protests against his killer; Al Sharpton has not shown up to demand a federal investigation. Marcus is just one of the 6,000 black homicide victims a year (more than all white and Hispanic homicide victims combined) who receive virtually no attention because their killers are other black civilians. (MacDonald, 2016, p. 30)
Black males between the ages of 14 and 17 die from shootings at more than six times the rate of white and Hispanic male teens combined, thanks to a ten times higher rate of homicide committed by black teens. Until the black family is reconstituted, the best protection that the law-abiding residents of urban neighborhoods have is the police. They are the government agency most committed to the proposition that “black lives matter.” (MacDonald, 2016, p. 30)
Abroad, we have drawn red lines (Syria) and then failed to act; we have pulled troops out of Iraq too soon and let Iraq collapse back into chaos and then had to send troops back in harms way again. We have given a billion of dollars in cash to the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism, Iran, and yet Iran’s gunboats harass our Navy ships and Iran’s Yemen proxies fire missiles at US Navy ships. Our enemies do not fear us and our allies do not trust us. Although President Mubarak of Egypt helped us with the war on terror and acted as one of the few counters to Iran, the current administration [State Department] abandoned him during the Arab spring and as a result the Muslim Brotherhood took over Egypt, completely destabilizing the entire region. After encouraging the uprising that ousted Kaddafi in Libya, the current administration walked away and reduced the security to prove, just before the 2012 Presidential election, that Libya was a State Department success story. However, on September 11, 2012, Ansar al-Sharia attacked the American Consular compound in Benghazi Libya, killing Ambassador Stevens, Foreign Services Officer Sean Smith, CIA officers Tyronne Woods and Glen Dougherty and wounding ten others. One might think that Sept 11 of any year would require additional security for U.S. facilities? It does not appear we have an effective political, economic and military national security strategy.
Our current practice of announcing to the public what we intend to do militarily against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Afghanistan (and throughout the Middle East) does not make sense. Sun Tzu (544-496 BC) was a Chinese general, military strategist, and philosopher who wrote the Art of War, a text taught in all our military colleges. Our current strategy is the opposite of Sun Tzu’s strategy. This lack of a common sense strategy is yet one more example of how we have declined from the “Shining City on a Hill” that President Reagan spoke about and that so many immigrants brave all hardships and danger to reach (Few immigrants are flocking to Russia, China, North Korea or Iran…I wonder why). If we in America are so bad why do so many people want to come live here?
There are those (e.g., the President & former Secretary of State) who believe that we can decide, on our own, when the war with ISIS is over, but no war has ever ended until both sides agree it is over (Throughout history, usually only when one side wins). And, it makes little sense to announce to your enemy how many troops will be deployed, when we will deploy them and when we will withdraw them…allowing our enemy to make plans to counter our announced movements?
“The president said Thursday that the American force of 9,800 troops would remain in Afghanistan through most of 2016, before dropping to 5,500.” [Dr. C adds: Sun Tzu would advise that we not make public our military force levels or deployment dates?]
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS on Publish Date October 15, 2015.
Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/16/world/asia/obama-troop-withdrawal-afghanistan.html?_r=0
Obama increases U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan past 2016
By Neelesh Moorthy on Wednesday, July 6th, 2016
Retrieved from http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/1096/end-war-afghanistan-2014/
President Barack Obama announced July 6, 2016; even more troops will remain in Afghanistan by the end of his term, a heightened departure from his failed promise to end the war in the country by 2014. [Dr. C adds: It is usually not the sole decision of one nation in a war to decide when the war is over. If our enemy is not ready for the war to be over, it will not be over.]
Obama said 8,400 troops will remain when he leaves office, an increase from when he announced 5,500 troops will remain in October. And that came just seven months after he anticipated only an embassy presence by 2016's end. [Dr. C adds: Sun Tzu wrote that it was critical to use spies to obtain important intelligence like the numbers of troops and timetable of troop movements, attacks and repositioning (See Sun Tzu quotes below). However, under the current administration we save the enemy the trouble of using spies when we announce our troop numbers and deployment dates in the news media? If we announce we will attack Mosul (or any other city) on a certain date our enemy will either prepare to defend or to escape, whichever is to their advantage? If we announce we will withdraw on a certain date, the enemy will wait for us to leave so as to preserve their own forces for use after the USA has left.]
Sun Tzu. The Art of War
All warfare is based on deception, great in so many military qualities, was especially distinguished by “the extraordinary skill with which he concealed his movements and deceived both friend and foe.”]
Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. It is more natural to suppose that Sun Tzu is still illustrating the uses of deception in war.
Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected. These military devices, leading to victory, must not be divulged beforehand. (Ball, 1910, pp. 961-968)
Although to use deception in any action is detestable, nevertheless in waging war it is praiseworthy and brings fame: he who conquers the enemy by deception is praised as much as he who conquers them by force.
— Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy (Hedrick & Paret, 1985)
It seems we do not have a coherent plan to coordinate the use of our political, economic and military power in defending America and our allies. We have released high-level terrorists and they have returned to the fight to kill Americans. We have provided Iran pallets of hard currency to ransom four American hostages and initiated an agreement that allows IRAN to have a nuclear weapon capability in ten years (Iran has not signed any document…the Iranian nuclear deal was verbal…Not very effective diplomacy). Even now the Iranians fast attack boats are harassing US Navy ships and Russian fighter aircraft continue to fly too close (buzzing) to US Navy ships in the region. Now the Iranians have taken more American hostages and are demanding another billion dollars ransom. Since we paid them with pallets of hard currency the first time they are repeating their evil but profitable behavior (When any behavior is rewarded, you get more of that behavior). Our enemies are emboldened because we appear weak. We seem to just be reacting to the crisis of the day?
The Syrian refugee crisis continues to get worse. The number of refugee-related sexual assaults and rapes in Europe continues to grow larger each day. [And we in America are volunteering to take even more Syrian refugees?]
“Sexual violence in Germany has skyrocketed since Angela Merkel allowed more than one million mostly male [Muslim] migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East into the country. Police in Cologne received more than 1,000 complaints from women, including 454 reports of sexual assaults, related to New Year's Eve [One day?]. Police in Hamburg received complaints from 351 women, including 218 reports of sexual assault that took place on the same evening.” [Retrieved from https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7557/germany-rape-migrants-crisis ]
The Russian military has taken Crimea and continues to threaten the Ukraine. China continues to build man-made islands in the South China Sea and aggressively project their naval power in the region. The President of the Philippines is seeking to work more closely with China and Russia and wants all US military presence out of the Philippines [How much American blood was spent freeing the Philippines from the Japanese during WWII?]. North Korea continues to develop and test nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.
Everyday the number of radical Islamic terrorist-inspired attacks grows larger in the US. [24 Islamic terrorist attacks causing deaths during the current administration] and the Black Lives Matter movement ignores the problem of Black-on-Black murders [6,000 in the U.S. during one year, 2015 (MacDonald, 2016, p. 30)] in big cities like Chicago while targeting police officers as the villains? Although African-Americans hold the highest law enforcement leadership positions in the country (e.g., President of the United States, Attorney General and many of the big cities’ mayors, prosecutors, chiefs of police), BLM blame law enforcement officers for racial bias against African-Americans? The racial tension and violence continues to worsen and is mostly based on outright lies and faulty reports via social media (e.g., proven lies like, “hands-up don’t shoot.” “He was unarmed...he only had a book in his hand” [not a gun]).
We need to be united as American citizens and restore the individual liberties and freedoms no other country in history has enjoyed. We need a coherent national security strategy, combining the political, economic and military elements of power for America to once again provide the stability we used to provide in a dangerous world. (Thompson & Morgenthau, 1985). In America we now seem more divided and angry than ever before. In the world there is more uncertainty, misery, war and injustice than at any time since WWII. One of the main reasons for all this mailaise is that America has withdrawn from its leadership role. We have become uncertain and apologized over and over when no apology was warranted. We have become weak of spirit and resolve. The world’s bad actors, terrorist states like Iran, corrupt countries like Russia see us as weak and take advantage. “All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” I hope America will unite to save individual liberty and freedom…to find the strength and resolve to once again stand strong against the forces of evil both here at home and internationally.
References
Ball, J. D. (1910). Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War. Translated from the Chinese, with Introduction and Critical Notes, by Lionel Giles Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland, 42(03), 961-968.
Hedrick, D. R., & Paret, P. (1988). Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age.
MacDonald, H. (2016). The war on cops. New York: Encounter Books.
Thompson, K., & Morgenthau, H. (1985). Politics among nations: The struggle for power and peace. McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. New York. Alfred A. Knopf.