Being Right Has Taken The Anxiety Out of Being Right! Woe Is Us! Fighting Terrorism Poses New Moral and Economic Problems for Open Societies!

Don't believe everything you read in the newspapers.  It would appear those who write for the papers don't even read what they write.




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The time has come when I believe I have been right all along about Obama and each passing day simply continues to validate and reinforce  my conviction.

In the past six months I have witnessed  the decline in Obama's popularity, an  increase in the distrust of him by a spreading populace, domestic and foreign, and now even his closest advisers are dumping on him.

Consequently, I now find myself  at loose ends  because I am no longer as alone as I was when he first campaigned and snowed the nation with his tongue etc..

So where do I go from here?

a) ISIS is winning, as I feared, because Obama has no desire to challenge them in an effective manner.  He would rather campaign and  bask in the stupidity of his new airbrain, witless Hollywood admirer who could not even introduce him because she was so smitten.

b)  Iran will probably go nuclear unless Israel keeps sabotaging their efforts or attacks them in desperation because Obama has no desire to carry through on his commitment to our ally. Having your back has proven to be simply empty words and lines in the sand simply fade. (See 1 below.)

c)  Turkey's Erdogan , Obama's best friend in the region by his ownadmission, is unwilling to help the Kurds against ISIS because Turkey and the Kurds have been at each other's throats for decades.

d) The nation's press and media folks have abdicated their responsibility to objectively inform.

e) Radical liberals have taken over the Democrat party and thus,  can no longer use the specious argument 'social driven Tea Party  nut cases' are in control of the Republican Party.  Yes, I believe the Republican Party wandered too far with respect to embracing social issues which cost them many campaigns and thus, allowed radicals, from the left, to tar them but I believe that misbegotten phase has passed.

f) The economic recovery is anemic regardless of what statistics are reported to buttress Obama's false claims. America's middle class is shrinking, their income, from meaningful full time work, has been crushed both by the recession as well as the uncertainties and costs caused by Obamacare, decades of  inane legislation,  restrictive  red tape and Obama's unconscionable and politically motivated attacks on America's productive.

Even The Fed understands it cannot continue to pump money into our economy forever.

g) Our borders have become porous, the principles espoused in our Constitution have been ignored and the division between the races has widened all because Obama is a political animal whose  formative associations were and continue to be those who hold deep seated antipathies towards America.

h) Being right has taken the anxiety out of being right. What is left are two more years of wasted opportunities and a nation continuing to sink.  Even an overwhelming win by Republicans in 2014, will not remove the contentious political atmosphere that hangs over our nation because the current  incompetent ideologue, who occupies The White House, will be fighting to burnish his legacy and his party will be engaged in selling us another serving of rancid meat in the guise of Hillary Clinton!

Kelly was right - Woe Is Us!
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Israel was/is more vulnerable than they understood and were , initially, willing to reveal.  (See 2 below.)

Fighting terrorism brings new moral and economic problems that Western Democracies must face and learn how to cope. Developed and open societies are economically vulnerable to terrorism.

First, ISIS, and their like, have utter disregard for casualties and will use civilians as shields thus creating moral issues for their opponents.

Second, Terrorists are not as distinguishable a fighting force as nation state a military.

Third,, the cost relationship fighting the likes of ISIS can have disastrous economic consequences because their opponents must spend millions to eliminate weaponry that costs pittances by comparison.

Fourth, I am of the view that the substantial number of  fires in our nation's west are being started by terrorists who have come through our porous borders and run in the billions of dollars not only to fight and  are costing insurance companies even more.  I believe this information is known but is being withheld by the Obama Administration.

Fifth, future wars will be dirtier and more unending.
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Dick
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1) Reports: Mystery blast on Iran military base proves "nuclear weapons program Tehran has long denied is real"


Speculation continues to deepen surrounding Monday's mysterious explosion at Iran's Parchin military base, where it is widely believed -including by the UN's nuclear watchdog (IAEA) - that the Iranians conducted tests relevant to the development of nuclear warheads.Official Iranian outlets had acknowledged early in the week that there had been a fire on a military base somewhere east of Tehran, but opposition sources insisted more specifically that the fire had been generated by an enormous blast and that the military base in question was Parchin. Before-and-after satellite images published Wednesday by Israeli media outlets all but confirmed the opposition description of the events. They showed what seems to be the aftermath of a massive blast, with one expert telling Israel Defense that "a complete section of structures was simply eliminated by an unexplained explosion." At least half a dozen buildings were leveled, including some in an area near where the IAEA believes that weapons-related work had taken place. The New York Times on Thursday published an extensive report on the incident, suggesting that it raised "new questions about whether the blast was an accident or sabotage" and comparing it to a November 2011 explosion at a missile-development site. Fox News reported the same day that the blast - whether it was an accident or deliberately triggered - in any case "cleared up one thing... the nuclear weapons program Tehran has long denied is real." The outlet conveyed comments from regional terror analyst Ronen Bergman - also published in Israel's Yediot Ahronoth, where Bergman is a senior political and military analyst - situating the explosion at the center of ongoing debates about the nature of Iran's nuclear program. Bergman assessed that "Western officials suspect that at the heart of this secret development is the weapon group developing the nuclear lens mechanism... if the smoking gun for the existence of the weapon group is found, it will serve as decisive evidence that Iran has been lying and that there is no point in negotiating with it." Fox News read the developments alongside 

Iran's continued refusal, most recently renewed on Wednesday, to allow IAEA inspectors access to Parchin. The outlet assessed that Tehran's intransigence on this issue is "a fact that many opponents of the P5+1 talks have long insisted in itself makes a mockery of the so-called negotiation process."
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2)- The IDF had grossly misrepresented the severity of the underground breach
Essay: Gaza Tunnel Threat More Severe Than Thought
By BARBARA OPALL-ROME - Defense News
A few months before the outbreak of Israel’s summertime war with Hamas, I was invited to join Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, Israel Defense Force (IDF) chief of staff, for on-site briefings from Gaza sector commanders.

As the only reporter in a field of brass, I reluctantly agreed to demands that the mid-March day trip remain off the record.

Restrictions were only recently rescinded as the IDF seeks billions of dollars to cover costs and invest in new capabilities that found lacking during the 50-day Gaza war.

Our first stop was across from Khan Yunis, near Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, where just days earlier, the IDF announced the discovery of a tunnel extending some 300 meters beyond the border fence.

At the time, the area was strictly off limits to the press. Gantz had not yet glimpsed the find.

It became immediately clear: The IDF had grossly misrepresented the severity of the underground breach, which extended perilously close to the kibbutz perimeter.

That tunnel didn’t penetrate “a few hundred meters” into Israeli territory — as the military spokesman publicly claimed — but a kilometer beyond the border fence.

Brig. Gen. Micky Edelstein, Gaza Division commander, took my hand as we descended several meters to the exposed opening. We didn’t have to traverse far inside to realize the sophistication of the freshly built structure.

Like at least three, albeit much shorter, tunnels discovered since Israel’s 2012 Pillar of Defense air campaign, this one was fully wired with electrical lines and communications cables. At some two meters high and one meter wide, a gear-laden fighter could walk or run through it unimpeded.

Edelstein said that particular “terror tunnel” was supported by more than 500 tons of cement arches and represented the easternmost subterranean threat exposed thus far.

“You can see how they’ve prepared this advanced infrastructure for purposes of attacking our soldiers and citizens,” he said.

From the on-site inspections that followed and briefings by northern and southern sector brigade commanders, it was clear the tunnel threat was a high priority.

Col. Amos Hacohen, commander of the Gaza South Brigade, and Col. Yaron Finkleman, commander of Gaza North Brigade, detailed how their brigades were working to apply new technologies and techniques for detecting, mapping and ultimately destroying the tunnels.

But despite introduction of seismic, magnetic, radar and hyper-spectral sensors, combat engineering specialists said they continued to rely on low-tech methods, such as flooding suspected areas with millions of cubic meters of water to expose apertures and cause segments to collapse.

Both brigade commanders — politically savvy from respective stints as bureau chiefs to Gantz’ predecessors at the top of the IDF command chain — insisted that in parallel to ongoing operational activity, it was equally important not to undermine the sense of security in communities near the border.

“We’re managing the problem and constantly improving our ability to operate as necessary,” said Hacohen, who headed the bureau of former Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, the IDF chief during Israel’s last ground war in Gaza.

“There’s no need to spark undue concern in neighboring communities,” he said.

To underscore upgraded capabilities, officers noted that just six months earlier, in October 2013, it took IDF specialists three months to map the entire route of a tunnel discovered near a neighboring kibbutz.

This time, officers told Gantz, it took only three days.

Gantz shared his concern about the tunnel threat.

“There’s a lot of things related to the tunnels from Gaza that worries me,” he said. While the phenomenon is not new, the IDF chief said the tunnels have become “very mature” based on years of experience acquired by Hamas and other militant groups since Israel’s late-2008 Cast Lead ground war in Gaza.

At the time, Gantz surmised that deterrence was still holding from the November 2012 air war in Gaza. Nevertheless, he said the other side was “improving this [tunnel-based] strategy… and challenging us to a point where it could be we will be dragged into another conflict.”

“In the end, what is this tunnel? It’s an operational tool; a tool that, if activated operationally, could bring them strategic achievements,” Gantz said. “And we must deny them this tool. We must take it away from them.”

When asked to rate IDF readiness regarding the tunnel threat, he replied: “We’re doing not bad.”

About 100 days later, as Gantz surmised, Israel indeed got itself dragged into grueling ground war in Gaza.

In a Sept. 30 address at a Tel Aviv think tank, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon offered a candid account of how unplanned actions and reactions spiraled into a 74-day, high-intensity summer of war — 24 days in the West Bank followed by the 50-day Protective Edge campaign in Gaza.

It started with the mid-June kidnapping and murder of three Israeli youths, which precipitated an extensive IDF incursion targeting Hamas in the West Bank.

“Then, during our search [for the murderers of the three teens], there was escalation. Sporadic rockets were launched at us from proxies in Gaza. Not Hamas, but Hamas allowed these proxies to operate. And afterward, we rolled into Protective Edge,” Ya’alon said.

Four IDF soldiers were killed and scores wounded on the Israeli side of the border fending off Palestinian fighters who had penetrated via four separate assault tunnels.

Dozens more died in 17 days of nearly house-to-house maneuvering war against assault tunnels and subterranean command centers throughout the Gaza Strip.

Sources note that just days before the ground war began and after two and a half years of crash development, Israel’s Defense Ministry managed to deploy an anti-tunnel detection system along parts of the border with Gaza.

The effort remains classified, but defense and industry sources describe it as a sensor-fused network designed to function as a virtual fence against subterranean border breaches.

But despite hopes for a repeat of Israel’s widely acclaimed Iron Dome — which scored its first operational intercept less than a month after its initial fielding in March 2011 — the freshly deployed system proved insufficient to deal with the threat.

Israel’s MoD and a local industry consortium led by Elbit Systems are now poring over voluminous post-operational data aimed at upgrading the system for the next time around.

It is estimated to cost hundreds of millions of shekels when fully deployed.

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