Soap Box

All it takes is a scan of the headlines or a few minutes watching the nightly news to realize the nation, and for that matter, the world we live in, is an unpredictable and dangerous place. In debt, divided, untrusting and untrustworthy.

Old allies, who once looked up to America for leadership no longer trust us because we can't be relied on to follow through with the commitments we make, our promises are empty, our threats hollow, our red lines crossable and our prestige level has fallen to an all time low.

We have not finished a war since WW II. We have walked away, leaving the people on the ground who sided with us in dangerous and precarious situations, at the mercy of the forces they stood against with us, abandoning them with no help and no hope.

We have shed American blood and squandered American treasure fighting wars only to pull out and let the territory we paid so dearly to conquer, fall into the hands of an enemy worse than the one we deposed.

The current administration, while claiming to be doing everything possible to fight terrorism, domestically and internationally, tie the hands of law enforcement and border patrol agencies, allows sanctuary cities and sets impossible rules of engagement in our fight against foreign terrorists.

Nobody has any idea who or what has entered through our southern border the last few decades and the president wants to bring in ten thousand more who we have no way of adequately documenting.

When I write these commentaries people often say, "We know all that, the question is, what do we do about it."

I can only answer that question from the standpoint of a citizen who claims no political or academic credentials, but almost 80 years of observing the unraveling of American greatness,
a nation that won every war it took on, a nation who projected confidence and competence, an image of invincibility and compassion.

In my opinion, it all started coming apart at the end of the second world war, when an unhealthy and tired president, anxious to return a war weary nation to peacetime, allowed Russia to gobble up eastern Europe, and begin building their military and intelligence services to be among the most formidable in the world.

Then foreign spies, some of them from friendly nations, infiltrated our nuclear research programs, ultimately passing the secrets along to the Soviets who quickly began their own nuclear program, soon rivaling ours in scope and leading to mutually assured destruction and began the cold war status which we lived under until Ronald Reagan broke the log jam by accelerating the arms race to the point that Russia couldn't possibly keep up.

So Russia backed off, but they never backed down, just biding their time until the political and international climate reached a point favorable to begin rattling their sabers again, which recent events bear out.

Korea was the advent of wars controlled by politicians with the rules of engagement being set, not for military advantage but political expediency, with our reluctance to finish what we started, resulting in a nation divided to this day, with a second generation idiot with nuclear capabilities ruling the northern half.

Vietnam was a political fiasco, a war, at least in my opinion, we could have won, had the planning and execution have been turned over to the military rather than presidents seeking reelection.

The first Gulf War was by no means finished and we walked out leaving Saddam Hussein very much alive and in charge and actively pursuing nuclear weapons.

How far he got, although I have my own feelings on it, is a subject I don't wish to broach at this time because it changes the direction I want to take in this column.

Whatever the truth of the matter, the fact remains that our president, allies, much of the congress and senate and the best available intelligence concurred that it had to be addressed and the second gulf war was fought.

To say that Iraq was at peace when George Bush left office would be a false statement because Iraq will never be at peace, but Saddam was dead, there was an election and the back of organized military resistance had been broken.

President Obama, against the advice of his best military advisors pulled most of the troops out of Iraq and the rest is history and chaos.

What do we do about it?

My opinion.

We do not get involved in wars we have no intention of finishing and winning. If a situation is serious enough to threaten the security of us or one of our allies we should go in with both barrels blazing, throw everything we've got at the enemy, accept the inevitable collateral damage, win, pack up and come home.

Turning down the Keystone XL Pipeline - which would create U.S. jobs, allow us to buy oil from our friends to the North instead of our worst enemies - is downright silly. It should be built up and running immediately.

All American energy sources should be tapped, drill, frack, take Obama's vendetta against coal offline and put the miners of Appalachia back to work.

Even if we have to pay more for fuel, the tremendous uptick in the economy would more than make up for it and our long dependence on foreign oil would finally come to an end.

Stop the insane dismantling of our military, build it back to the most modern, well equipped, best trained, rapidly deployed fighting force on the planet, anything less is not acceptable.

Identify our true allies, renew our treaties of mutual protection and present a united front to the rest of the world.

Take the gloves off the people in this country charged with rooting out terrorists, no off limits, no go zones or sanctuary cities, find them and incarcerate or destroy them, whichever the situation requires.

Revoke the passports of any citizen who has gone abroad to join any terror organization, declare them enemies of the state and never let them back into the country.

Destroy ISIS by whatever means necessary, bombs, boots, drones, black ops, destroy their oil producing capacity, jam their social media capabilities, whatever it takes.

Then, with the exception of established bases around the world, since we have no intention of winning, bring our troops home.

Obama has already said he has no interest in America winning, so why should we even be involved.

I only hope that the next president we elect, whoever he or she happens to be, will realize how far we've fallen and begin to pay the debts, relax federal regulations and corporate taxes to the point of regaining our lost manufacturing, respect and rebuild our military and tell the American people the truth.

Where do we go from here?

Almighty God only knows

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem

God Bless America

� Charlie Daniels

PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU POST

Feel free to comment on Charlie's soapboxes, but please refrain from profanity and "Anonymous" posts are not allowed, we need a name (it doesn't have to be your first and last name) and you MUST provide a valid email address. If you provide an email address, but leave the name as "Anonymous" we will pick a name for you based on your email address. No one other than website adminstrators will see your email address, not other posters. If you post without a valid email address, your comment (whether postive or negative) will be deleted. � TeamCDB