Federal, State, & Local Government’s Threatening U.S. National Security

This may sound strange to many people how governments at all levels across this nation are a threat to the national security of this nation? The one area where the threat will imperil this nation and that is the constant over spending by government! Families are suffering, but government keeps spending at a record clip with no end in sight and eventually this will come to a crises point and bring the economy of this nation to its knees.

Every day reports continue to show mismanagement of the public’s money, but not for the good of the people but only to enrich their political standing. Today the LA times reported how country supervisors have a $27 million dollar fund set aside in the budget for their personnel use with no oversight or accountability on how its spent. This is at a time when government programs that have a direct benefit to the people they serve are being slashed.

At the national level, deals and kickbacks were given to different lawmakers to secure their votes in passing the Senate version of Health Care Reform. The stimulus package passed last year was give away to various politicians, groups and entities that had nothing to do with easing the financial crisis or jump starting the economy.

Every day new reports come out of Sacramento that highlights overspending, misappropriation of funding, even Columnist Dan Walters wrote of the abuse at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CALPERS) all at the expense of the taxpayers.

All levels of government use public funding for their own gain and to satisfy various constituents. The continuation of this unabated spending will imperil the economic security of this nation, and will continue to keep the nation from rebounding and improving the nation’s economy.

We have to hole elected officials at all levels accountable for their actions and stop blaming each other and get our nation’s financial health in order otherwise it will threaten the nations national security for generations.

Secretary of Defense Visits Afghanistan

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made a surprise visit to Afghanistan to assess the current counterinsurgency strategy articulated by General Stanley McChrystal and see firsthand the troop surge into Afghanistan.

The situation in Afghanistan has improved but we still have a long way to go to ensure stability in this war torn nation, but we can’t be over confident that everything will go smoothly for us; there will be challenges in bringing stability to Afghanistan.

Having served there early in the war I know all too well the vast complexities that face the U.S. military, but we have to be patient and not expect too much too soon.

Pakistan is the wild card in all this, recently they have been arresting Taliban leaders and actively engaging the Taliban, but unfortunately know one knows why now they are assisting us. It could be in their best interests as thousands of Pakistani civilians have been killed by Taliban forces. We should not be lured in into any false pretense that this will continue forever; what was turned on can easily be turned off!

For now we have let the counterinsurgency strategy in place continue and allow Gen. McChrystal to move forward with operational planning. We are moving in the right direction and we will have to see when all the surge forces are in place and operating to reevaluate the success of this strategy.

Health Care Reform and National Security

You find it strange that you will find the current health care debate in the same sentence as national security, but both are intertwined in this debate. The reason for this is health care reform whatever form materializes will effect America’s national security, because presently a convincing argument hasn’t been made on how it will be funded as not adding to the growing national debt.

Currently the national debt has exploded and is now affecting the economic viability of this nation. Yesterday the president held a rally in Pennsylvania to gather support for his health care reform plan, but conspicuously missing was how the nation will pay for it.

Currently the plan is to have over $500 billion dollars reduced from Medicare and taxes raised on various Cadillac Health Insurance plans and with other revenue streams. The question then becomes what areas will be cut from Medicare and will the necessary taxes be raised from the various revenues needed to pay for health reform?

Too many times in the past Congress has devised spending and revenue options to pay for a particular proposal or reform legislation that has never meet its intended purpose and come far over budget. Each time Congress has been overly optimistic in its finance proposals. The stimulus is a great example, as Congress appropriated a certain amount only to find out it cost another $75 billion more than intended.

This time Congress and the president can’t be wrong! If they are, if their numbers don’t add up, if they don’t cut $500 billion from Medicare, and if the tax increases don’t materialize as advertised then we will be stuck with another unfunded entitlement program like Social Security and Medicare that is essentially broke and this will increase the national debt and threaten the economic security of this nation.

Let’ make sure Congress and the president tell us how they will pay for it, if we don’t then the consequences will be on us!

The Results of hte Iraqi Election

Over the weekend Iraq concluded its national elections in which every ethnic group took part and had over sixty percent turnout of its people. Now this election is truly significant as a stable Iraq will enable American forces to return home, but there is much to be concerned about.

First an election doesn’t solve all a nations problems only when its leaders address the concerns of its population, not just some of them, but all of them!

The elections have to show that that corruption was not part of the election process and that transparency with the results can be trusted by ordinary Iraqi’s. Iraqi leaders now must reconcile with the various ethnic groups namely Sunni’s and Kurdish to legitimize the government that is free from internal and external forces namely coming from Iran.

To effectively govern the new government has to provide economic stability and industrial growth that will reverberate across the country that benefit all Iraqis not only a select few. Security needs to be established to protect the nation from sectarian forces and against external threats as American forces begin the final pullout in 2011.

The Iraqi government needs to begin passing oil, investment, and tax laws that are needed to bring economic growth to the nation. It has to stabilize the security apparatus that is independent of the United States as it departs the country and that it can act on its own.

The United States has spent much treasure in Iraq not only in monetary contributions but in the lives of its service personnel, it must not abandon Iraq too quickly, but mentor along the process to ensure a stable Iraq.

The president must take the lead on this and not place it to the back burner to focus on domestic priorities, only recently as last week has he spoken on Iraq. He has to take the lead or face its repercussions of the failure of Iraq reverting back to sectarian infighting and external pressure from Iran.

National Debt Higher than White House Forcast

On Friday the Congressional Budget Office stated that President Obama’s proposed budget would add more than $9.7 trillion dollars to the national debt over the next ten years.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office produced much gloomier projections than reported by the White house and analyzed that the president’s budget request would add almost ten trillion to the national debt.

The time has come for this president and this congress has to stop blaming others for their fiscal irresponsibility’s and face reality that they are seriously impeding economic growth for the nation and saddling future generations with enormous debt.

We all know that the previous administration behaved recklessly in regard to the national debt, but this administration make the Bush Administration look saints in regard to fiscal responsibility. President Obama campaigned on bringing fiscal sanity to Washington, but all he brought was tax and spend mentality philosophy of governing.

The times has come for all agencies and departments to have a gut check and stop wasting the people’s money and bring rational spending back, unfortunately Washington knows only one way and that is to spend money!

One only has to look at the massive spending by Washington that has no rational for spending priorities, the only rational is to enrich Washington power brokers and there surrogates. Unit Washington gets a handle on wasteful government spending and prioritize spending it will impede the growth and the economy of this nation.

Both parties are complete in the fiscal meltdown of this nation and if left unchecked will bankrupt this country; one only has to look at California!!

The Academy Award Nominated Film “The Hurt Locker” Inaccurately portrays Military Life in Iraq

The Academy Award Nominated Film “The Hurt Locker” which is up for an Oscar on Sunday has been receiving a chorus of negative press from veterans that it inaccurately portrays military life in Iraq and gives the impression to viewer’s t6hat this is what military operations in Iraq are like.

Having served Iraq, I decided to view the film for myself and see if the controversy was warranted. Upon viewing the film, it gives great atmospherics of actually being in Iraq, as the film was filmed in Jordan and many of the extras were Iraqis themselves. Unfortunately the rest of the film failed to capture the true nature of military operations in Iraq.

The film went back to Hollywood’s ideal conception of military life of the John Wayne image of military personnel. They had to throw in for added touch a soldier with post traumatic stress, as the viewer will believe that all military personnel coming back from Iraq or Afghanistan have some type of mental condition related to their service. Hollywood’s belief that all military personnel returning from Iraq or Afghanistan have mental issues, even the TV series “Law in Oder” has depicted this in different episodes.

Many scenes that were depicted were pure fantasy or taken extremely out of context. Various segments depicted in the film would never have occurred as it would be against military procedure to act in agaisnt putting the lives of soldiers in danger.

The film was predicated of following an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team around its tour in Iraq. The John Wayne image of one of the soldiers depicted would have seriously endangered the unit. The constant actions of lone wolf soldier as he defuses various Individual Explosive Device’s (IED). The methods employed are laughable at best a gives the impression that this is how operations are conducted.

No where am I saying don’t go and view this film, but just treat it as Hollywood’s version of film making and doesn’t represent what truly represent military operations in Iraq or the military service of our brave men an d women serving.

Senator Holds up Extension of Jobless Benefits

One lone Senator holds up passage of extension of jobless benefits for the nations unemployed over opposition to continued federal spending without any rational of how to pay for it. Last month Congress passed and the President Obama signed legislation a “pay-as-you-go” rule that requires expenditures to be paid for before passage.

Senator Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky has halted passage of extension of jobless benefits to the nation’s unemployed until funding is allocated to pay for it. He criticizes both parties for failure to heed the call for fiscal responsibilities after last month they passed a bill designed implement a “pay-as-you-go” system. Unfortunately Congress violated the language of that bill.

It’s time for government at all levels to start getting our fiscal house in order, as we can’t keep on the track we are heading. The continuation of current reckless spending will have the nation in a train wreck where it will not recover from and hamper economic growth.

The states are facing the same train wreck as California is literally bankrupt and all Sacramento continues to do is more smoke and mirror accounting. All politicians are engaging in Enron style accounting, but they harshly criticize corporate America unsavory business practices that they themselves pursue for the nation.

The longer the irresponsible fiscal train is left on the track the nation’s economic well being will be imperil!