War should be Hell

I recently watched the Band of Brothers miniseries from HBO.  It came out a week before 9/11 and I saw a couple of episodes back then.  It is an interesting show, more because of the contrast it provides with war today.  The people who fought World War II have long been called The Greatest Generation and yet much of what they did would be considered war crimes under today's rules.  World War II was fought to victory.  We didn't have ceasefire agreements and peace talks.  We fought until Germany and Japan surrendered unconditionally.  How did that work out?  Germany is the economic powerhouse of Europe and Japan has held that position in East Asia.  Both are peaceful countries that haven't seen war since 1945.  Gee, why don't we fight wars that way anymore?

First, we had another nuclear power on the scene.  When the USSR became a nuclear power, it became necessary to prevent another total war.  Thus, we held back in Korea and Vietnam, settling for a draw in the first and a loss in the second.  With the fall of the Soviet Union, US power was supreme and yet, despite multiple conflicts, we still fought as if we feared escalation.  Iraq cannot escalate.  Afghanistan cannot escalate.  There is no reason to fight a war of half measures.  Or is there?  In WWII, we flattened cities in Germany, Italy, and Japan.  We bombed occupied ally cities.  Civilian deaths were high.  Such a strategy would be considered barbaric today.  Pinpoint bombing has made war much more tolerable for civilians.  Moreover, a reluctance to risk civilian casualties has provided enemies with a perfect shield; hide among civilians and Westerners won't shoot.

 

General Sherman said that 'War is Hell.'  War should be Hell.  War should be made as intolerable as possible so that it will end more quickly.  All our civility has done is make it impossible to win wars.  You want to end Islamic terrorism?  Start flattening cities.  Entire populations must be thoroughly convinced to abandon the current path.  Moreover, any country that has any of this Islamofascist nonsense must be told in no uncertain terms to clean it up or the bombers will start appearing in their skies.  If we fought WWII the way we are fighting the current War on Terror, we would have lost on both fronts.

 

Of course, it may be too late.  Russia is on the rise.  Is a new Soviet Empire being reborn?  China is working on a navy to rival ours.  The window of a single superpower is closing.  In fact, it is closed for the foreseeable future since President Obama wants nothing more than to withdraw the US from the world.  The consequences of that withdrawal are blooming.

Democratic Troubles

http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Democrats-drop-Thomas-Jefferson-and-Andrew-6400544.php

The NAACP has demanded that the names of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson be dropped from an annual fundraiser because both men were slave owners.  This does not bode well for the majority of former Democrat Presidents.  Let's consider:

 

Thomas Jefferson (1801-09), the first Democratic-Republican president, was a slave owner.  In fact, it is widely held that he had children with one of his slaves, Sally Hemmings.

 

James Madison (1809-17), Father of the Constitution, was a slave owner.

 

James Monroe (1817-25), Last of the Founding Fathers to serve as President, was a slave owner.

 

John Quincy Adams (1825-29) did not own slaves and was a noted Abolisionist but he started as a Federalist and died as a Whig.  If he had lived a few more years, he would have joined the Republican Party.

 

Andrew Jackson (1829-37), who founded the Democratic Party and was the 'jackass' that inspired the party symbol, was a slave owner.

 

Martin Van Buren (1837-41), called the Little Magician, was a New Yorker who thought slavery immoral but it was Constitutional and beyond his authority.  He only served one term and was not popular.

 

James Knox Polk (1845-49), the ultimate expression of America's Manifest Destiny, was a slave owner.

 

Franklin Pierce (1853-57) presided over Bleeding Kansas when he abandoned the Missouri Compromise, the Ostend Manifesto which was a secret effort to expand slavery to Cuba through purchase from Spain, and had Jefferson Davis as his Secretary of War.  His is viewed as a failed presidency and he is often ranked as the worst President.

 

James Buchanan (1857-61) saw the Civil War coming and twiddled his thumbs.  Regularly ranked among the worst presidents.

 

Grover Cleveland (1885-89; 1893-97) is the only Democrat elected president between 1861 and 1913.  He is also the only one to server non-consecutive terms.  Little remembered for anything else, he was not an enthusiastic supporter of the 15th Amendment (Votes for former slaves) and refused efforts to enforce their voting rights.

 

Woodrow Wilson (1913-21) was an apologist for the Ku Klux Klan.  He was a segregationist and showed Birth of a Nation (1915) in the White House.  On the other hand, he was in favor of the 19th Amendment (votes for women).

 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-45), who is regularly rated among the greatest presidents, setup internment camps for Japanese (George Takei being one of those interned as a child).  He was also friendly with Joseph "Uncle Joe" Stalin, one of the greatest mass murderers in history.  However, he was generally good to minorities (Japanese excluded), so the NAACP may not complain if his name is associated with a fundraising dinner.

 

Harry Truman (1945-53) presided over the Red Scare which he minimized but history has since shown that it was as bad as the much maligned Joe McCarthy said.  Russia got the bomb and China went communist.  Also, he approved the dropping of the bomb (I'm okay with that but most Democrats today are not).  However, he is noted for desegregating the military and probably acceptable to the NAACP.

 

John F Kennedy (1961-63) allowed the FBI to tap Martin Luther King's phone.  He also toppled the government in Vietnam that brought us fully into the war.

 

Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963-69) is generally viewed as a hero on Civil Rights grounds but his presidency is tainted by Vietnam and urban riots.  He continued the JFK policy of tapping MLK's phone.

 

Jimmy Carter (1977-81) is viewed as the worst president since Hoover.  No one wants to have a fundraising dinner with his name on it.  Who wants to revisit Iran Hostage Crisis right now?

 

William "Bill" Clinton (1993-2001) remains popular among his party despite having been impeached, having his law license revoked, and multiple affairs.  Prior to President Obama, he had been called the 'First Black President.'

 

As many people have forgotten, the Democrats are the party of slavery and segregation.  The NAACP will find that most Democrat presidents are unsuitable in today's climate.  Maybe they should take a look at the Republican Party for a change.

The Coming Mini Ice Age

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3156594/Is-mini-ICE-AGE-way-Scientists-warn-sun-sleep-2020-cause-temperatures-plummet.html

So how do you feel about that 'Global Warming' now?  Gee, maybe this explains the switch to Climate Change.  I wonder how it will turn out to be our fault that the sun is going to sleep.