2008 Election, US History

Obama’s Adventure in Libya

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It does not matter what the United Nations may have said. The President of the United States may not commit us to war without authorization by the US Congress. President Obama has ordered the United States military to commit acts of war against the nation of Libya. That he has (so far) only authorized cruise missiles and bombing raids does not make the actions anything other than acts of war.

The President’s impulsive decision to intervene militarily in the rebellion/civil war in Libya is foolish in the extreme. It demonstrates hubris, hypocrisy, and contempt for the Constitution. And a shocking ignorance of history and the dynamics of foreign policy.

And a clumsy disregard for the “Powell Doctrine” (which more accurately ought to be called the “Weinberger Doctrine”):

  1. Is a vital national security interest threatened?
  2. Do we have a clear attainable objective?
  3. Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
  4. Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
  5. Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?
  6. Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
  7. Is the action supported by the American people?
  8. Do we have genuine broad international support?

My overwhelming first response is: A LOT of people owe George W. Bush an apology about now. Starting with Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, and the editorial boards of NPR and the New York Times.

Perhaps the most jarring, maddening aspect of Obama’s military adventurism is his total disregard for the constitutional limitations on the president’s use of military force. Bush sought, and received, congressional authorization for the use of armed force in Iraq. It passed the House 297-133 and the Democratically controlled Senate 77-23. A MAJORITY of the Democratic Senators (29-21) voted for it! The TITLE of the Bill was The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002!

Obama is relying exclusively on a vote of the United Nations Security Council for his decision to make limited war on Libya. He has done this without ANY authorization from Congress.

I’m listening for the howls of outrage from Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, but all I’m hearing is…. [crickets chirping].

I will stipulate to the court that Muammar Gadaffi is a tyrant. I pray for his overthrow and a grant of freedom and a peaceful representative government to the people of Libya (as many did in both Egypt and Tunisia earlier this year).

However, I am ever mindful of the principles of John Quincy Adams. Even before he was elected president, Adams was (and remains) our most experienced foreign diplomat ever. At 11, he went with his father to France. At 14, he went as Secretary to the US mission to Russia. At 26 he was US Ambassador to the Netherlands. At 30, he was our Ambassador to Prussia. He served in the MA legislature and the US Senate. Finally, in his 40’s he was our ambassador to Great Britain, before being appointed Secretary of State in 1817 by the newly elected President James Monroe. The famous “Monroe Doctrine” which warned the european powers to stay out of the affairs of the Western Hemisphere was formulated by John Quincy Adams, though it acquired its name from the President rather than the author.

Let me quote from Adams’ speech on July 4th, 1821:

Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will [America’s] heart, her benedictions and her prayers be.

But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.

She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.

She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.

She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example.

She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.

The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force….

She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit….

[America’s] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.

Afghanistan was the base from which murderous attacks on the United States were launched. We had a right and a duty to respond with military force, though I differ with Presidents Bush and Obama on the wisdom of continuing to remain there.

Iraq invaded an ally of the United States and we were obligated by treaty to come to her defense, and join the war against Iraq. For ten years thereafter, Iraq repeatedly violated the terms of the cease-fire in that first Gulf War and repeatedly provoked and played games with International Inspections that she had agreed to. Both the United Nations and the United States Congress had had enough by 2002.

And Libya? Gaddafi is a tyrant and deserves to be overthrown. He’s the 2nd longest ruling tyrant in the world. But that begs the question, “Why haven’t we launched cruise missiles at Havana?” There are a half a dozen other tyrants who rule cruelly and unjustly. Shall we attack them all?

Obama has now launched more cruise missiles than all the other Nobel Peace Prize Winners. . . combined! And in the words of Michael Moore (oh sweet irony!), perhaps we should declare a 50 mile quarantine around Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Seriously, Obama’s hypocrisy, his hubris, and his disregard for the Constitution are dangerous.

 

 

book reviews

Germany Is Abolishing Itself

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In the mail yesterday I received my copy of the number one best-selling hardback in Germany, Deutschland Schafft Sich Ab, by Theo Sarrazin. German lacks a present continuous tense, so many English notices about the book have used the English simple present, Germany Abolishes Itself. I think the present continuous captures the authors intent much more closely. the subtitle, “Wie wir unser Land aufs Spiel setzen” can be translated, “How we are gambling with our country.”

The author, Theo Sarrazin, is an economist and veteran of the German Department of the Treasury. In 1989-90 he was the head of the Government Commission which oversaw the union of East & West Germany and managed the integration of the two currencies and economic systems. He also served on the executive management team of the German national railway and as Finance Senator for the the city of Berlin. He is a member of the left-center Social Democrat party. A man of many accomplishments, very knowledgeable on financial matters, public policy, and public finance.

His book has provoked a firestorm of criticism. He was forced to resign from the board of the German Federal Bank and there has been talk of expelling him from the Social Democrat party.

The book has not been translated into English, and I’m not aware of any US publisher who has announced plans to. It’s an important book though, with many parallels to the US situation.

Sarrazin identifies three deadly trends which he fears will prove fatal for Germany. 1) A declining birth rate; 2) Unrestricted immigration; 3) Failure of foreign immigrants to integrate into German society.

Underlying all these themes is a repeated denunciation of political correctness which has stifled debate over the problems facing Germany, and the tendency of every part of modern German culture and institutions to absolve individuals for any responsibility for their circumstances.

I’ll post more after I’ve had a chance to read more. Might even try my hand at translating a bit…

book reviews, Movies

She holds center stage for a thousand pages, and she does not utter a dull line in the entire book

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Pat Conroy is one of my favorite authors. His writing is lyrical. Some might think it flowery, but that implies soft or overdone. Conroy’s prose is neither.  His love for language is evident on every page, in every line. His voice is distinctively male, martial, and Southern. The first book I read by him was The Great Santini: A Novel.That prompted me to read everything he’s published since. I’ve known the outlines of his personal story – air force pilot father, graduate of the Citadel (South Carolina’s military academy), English teacher, passionate writer.

Last fall (Nov 2010), Conroy published a literary memoir, My Reading Life. In fifteen chapters, he describes the books and the teachers who shaped his life. The chapters on his high school and college instructors are a celebration of the power of a gifted teacher to inspire. The chapters on books are breath-taking.

Two chapters impressed me greatly. I was delighted to discover that Gone With the Wind is one of his favorites and shaped him profoundly. It was his mother’s favorite book and she read it out loud to him. I had a similar relationship with both the book and my mother. My mother was old school South. Born in Virginia, she grew up in Atlanta. In 1941, she married her high school sweetheart, my father, who had just graduated from West Point. Gone With the Wind was published in 1936 and won the Pulitzer Prize. The movie was released three years later, in 1939 – the year my mother turned 19. I heard her tell the story of going to downtown Atlanta and joining the crowd at the premiere  in order to catch a glimpse of Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh. Pat Conroy’s mother was there, too. Neither could afford a ticket to go in, but they both wanted to be there.

Gone With the Wind was the first “adult” book I can remember reading – when I was 12. I loved the book, and I love the movie. I’ve never really spent much time contemplating why – but after reading Conroy’s descriptions, my immediate reaction was, “I wish I had written that.”

Here is Conroy’s introduction to the book:

“Gone With the Wind is The Iliad with a Southern accent, burning with the humiliation of Reconstruction. It is the song of the fallen, unregenerate Troy, the one sung in a lower key by the women who had to pick up the pieces of a fractured society when their sons and husbands returned with their cause in their throats, when the final battle cry was sounded. It is the story of war told by the women who did not lose it and who refused to believe in its results long after the occupation had begun.”

And here’s his description of Scarlett:

“The book begins and ends with Tara, but it is Scarlett herself who represents the unimaginable changes that the war has wrought on all Southerners. It was in Southern women that the deep hatred the war engendered came to rest for real in the years of Reconstruction. The women of the South became the only American women to know the hard truths of war firsthand. They went hungry just as their men did on the front lines in Virginia and Tennessee, they starved when these men failed to come home for four straight growing seasons, and hunger was an old story when the war finally ended. The men of Chancellorsville, Franklin, and the Wilderness seemed to have left some residue of fury on the smoking, blood-drenched fields of battle, whose very names became sacred in the retelling. But the Southern women, forced to live with that defeat, had to build granaries around the heart to store the poisons that the glands of rage produced during that war and its aftermath. The Civil War still feels personal in the South, and what the women of the South brought to peacetime was Scarlett O’Hara’s sharp memory of exactly what they had lost.”

“Scarlett springs alive in the first sentence of the book and holds the narrative center for more than a thousand pages. She is a fabulous, one-of-a-kind creation, and she does not utter a dull line in the entire book. She makes her uncontrollable self-centeredness seem like the most charming thing in the world and one feels she would be more than a match for Anna Karenina, Lady Macbeth or any of Tennessee Williams’ women. Her entire nature shines with the joy of being pretty and sought after and frivolous in the first chapters and we see her character darkening slowly throughout the book. She rises to meet challenge after challenge as the war destroys the world she was born into as a daughter of the South. Tara made her charming, but the war made her Scarlett O’Hara.”

Scholars and critics have not cared much for Gone With the Wind. Here is Conroy’s observation on that: “Gone With the Wind has outlived a legion of critics and will bury another whole set of them after this century closes. . . Gone With the Wind has many flaws, but it cannot, even now, be easily put down. It still glows and quivers with life. American letters will always be tiptoeing nervously around that room where Scarlett O’Hara dresses for the party at Twelve Oaks as the War Between the States begins to inch its way toward Tara.”

Thank you, Mr. Conroy, for reminding me about an old friend and for helping me to understand why I love that book and movie.

Here’s a modern version of a trailer for the movie:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mM8iNarcRc

2008 Election, National Politics

Decision Points

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I’m not sure how to account for my affection for George W. Bush. I only know that I admire him. I enjoy listening to his speeches. I enjoyed reading his book. Of all the presidents of my lifetime, he’s been the most unfairly treated. The canard that he is dim-witted is the most mendacious. You don’t graduate from Andover, Yale, Harvard Business School and complete jet fighter flight school if you’re dim-witted.

My affection does not automatically spring from a complete  agreement with him on matters of politics and foreign policy. Though I am profoundly grateful to him for saving us from President Gore and President Kerry. And it still makes me smile to recall that for all the “chimpy” catcalls of the left, he won four straight elections over ten years that gave him two terms as governor of Texas and two terms as President of the United States.

I enjoyed Decision Points. He’s a good writer. He’s best when he’s telling an anecdote. Thus, the book is strongest and most interesting when Bush is describing his own life story before he became president or giving some vignette that provides us with a bit of insight into the character of Tony Blair, Vladimir Putin, or Crown Prince Abdullah.

As the child is father to the man, I found his account of his family the most interesting part of the book. He’s the oldest son, a bit of a rebel, a smart-alec, and he clearly idolized his father. His father comes through as a strong man of incredible integrity and accomplishment. Bush senior enlisted in the Navy just after his high school graduation and flew a Navy dive-bomber against the Japanese in World War Two. Came home, married his sweetheart, and enrolled at Yale. Bush, Jr attended his father’s college graduation as a toddler. Bush Sr, incidentally graduated Phi Beta Kappa in two and a half years.

George and Barbara had six children, but their second child, Robin died when she was three. There was a significant gap in years between George and his surviving four younger siblings. He left for Andover as a boarding student during his high school years.

The press have cherry-picked and distorted passages from the book, as is their wont. Bush Derangement Syndrome apparently does not allow for any natural recovery with the passage of time. To give but one example, several accounts have harped on what they have called the “bizarre” anecdote that Bush tells of his mother showing him a fetus that she had miscarried and had in a jar. The garbled press version makes Barbara Bush sound macabre, if not downright deranged. The truth is that George’s mom summoned him for help shortly after he got his driver’s license and told him he needed to drive her to the hospital. She’d had a miscarriage and his dad was out of town. She took the miscarried fetus with her to the hospital because it would be important for the doctors to be able to know how to treat her. In that context, Bush talks about the impact that the whole event had on him and his awareness of the life and humanity of a baby before it is born. Not quite the same story the press has told, is it?

The book is organized thematically rather than chronologically, but the earlier chapters give us his reflections on significant decisions he made early in his life. The first chapter is entitled, “Quitting” and tells the story of his decision to stop drinking. He was not an alcoholic in the classic sense – he wasn’t sloppy drunk every day, or every night, or even every weekend. But he acknowledges he was drinking too much. And he made the decision to quit more because of the things he was missing than anything else.

The second chapter is entitled “Running” and talks about his decision to run for Congress in 1978 when he was 32. It’s the only political race he ever lost. But he decided politics wasn’t something he wanted to pursue and went back to a career in oil and gas real estate for sixteen years. He played a part in his dad’s presidential campaigns in 1980, and again in 1988 – but as eyes and ears and utility player, not as campaign director. He then talks about his decision to run for Governor of  Texas in 1994 against a popular incumbent, Ann Richards. She’s not the first Democrat to have under-estimated him.

Chapter three is titled, “Personnel.” It’s interesting to read his own accounts and thinking in his selection of Dick Cheney for VP, Colin Powell, Don Rumsfeld, Condi Rice and others to serve in his cabinet. He discusses his Supreme Court nominations and remains pleased and proud of both Roberts and Alito. He admits that the nomination of Miers was a mistake, but explains how the choice came to be made.

The other chapters focus on specific incidents and crises of his eight years as president: 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Katrina, the Surge, the Financial Crisis. In each of these one is struck by how much more complex the situations were than was known to the public. And how, in many cases, none of the options were good, all had flaws. One is reminded too that even though the President of the United States might be the most powerful man in the world, there are limits to his power. If the governor of Louisiana doesn’t want federal troops to come into the state, it’s not easy to mandate federal control of a relief operation. As Barack Obama has discovered to his own surprise, being president isn’t as easy as it looks. Governing is different from campaigning.

Perhaps the most intriguing chapter is the next-to-the-last, entitled, “The Freedom Agenda.” Most of this chapter tells the story of the painful three steps forward, 2.5 steps back process of negotiations with Israel and the Palestinians. The situation is hellishly complicated with many bad actors who deliberately seek to sabotage any steps towards peace. Bush’s personal approach and engagement with other national leaders pays him some dividends, but of course it remains a problem which no president in sixty years has been able to find a solution to. The intriguing part of the chapter is the way in which Bush uses the cause of freedom to weave together his dealings with the Palestinians, the Russians, and the Chinese. His concluding sentence expresses his admirable idealism and guarded optimism:

There will be setbacks along the way. But I am confident in the destination. The people of the Middle East will be free, and America will be more secure as a result.

Surely that is an honorable goal, a worthy pursuit. And one it is clear Bush devoted considerable efforts towards achieving.

The verdict on his presidency won’t be rendered for many years of course, if indeed it ever will be. Its safe to predict that future historians will be much kinder to Bush and his legacy than the press or his political enemies were – but I repeat myself. How will his stock fare in twenty years? or fifty years? or a hundred?

I’d bet on Bush. His opponents have consistently under-estimated him over the past twenty years. Its quite possible, probable, even likely that they are  continuing to do so. It’s also clear that many of his critics can’t be bothered to read the book and attempt to understand what it was like to be President from 2001-2009. It’s a book worth reading, for that alone.

book reviews

Great news for Tom Clancy fans

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After a wait of seven years since the last novel, (The Teeth of the Tiger – 2003), I received an advance notice today that Clancy’s new novel, Dead or Alive, will be released on December 7th, 2010. 848 pages (yay!) Initial printing is 1,750,000 copies. Not bad for a $28.95 hardback. First print run should net the author about $5 million in royalties!

The  plot revolves around Jack Ryan, Jr. and The Campus,  the private security agency founded and funded by his father to track down and eliminate terrorists.

To my friends and family: I will have one ordered for the release date. Sorry, can’t wait until Christmas!

book reviews

Beach Books

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For the first time in nine years, our family got to take a highly anticipated vacation this fall. We returned to Pawleys Island, SC – which has always been our kids’ favorite vacation destination.

Part of my ideal vacation is a chance to kick back with a good book on the beach. This year was a great year. I read seven books in seven days.

Here are the titles:


The Year of the Warrior by Lars Walker- not what I expected, but very enjoyable. 1st person tale from the perspective of an Irish Christian, kidnapped by Vikings and persuaded, against his will, to become their priest.

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The Confirmation by Ralph Reed – a political potboiler. Not bad, but not especially memorable.

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Jack Hinson’s One-Man War by Tom McKenney- fascinating account of a Tennessee farmer who takes his revenge as a sniper after Yankee soldiers brutally murder two of his sons.

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Don’t Vote! It Just Encourages the Bastards by P.J. O’Rourke – I identify with PJ. And he’s very funny. He does not suffer fools gladly.

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – Everyone should re-read this book at regular intervals. Still a powerful story.

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Brothers, We Are Not Professionals by John Piper – I certainly buy the main premise, that the drive to “professionalize” pastors has been a disaster. But I found Piper’s book a bit too long in the end. While I agreed with his points, the structure of the book became a bit repetitive.

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And finally, Citizens of London by Lynn Olson – the story of Gil Winant, Averell Harriman, Ed Murrow and a dozen other key players who helped the British in their hour of need. Good history, organized as a series of biographical sketches. Many stories and anecdotes which I’d never heard before. Very good at capturing and conveying what life was like in England during the darkest days of WW II.

That’s how I spent my vacation!

What good books have you been reading?

2010 Election, National Politics

Quote of the day

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“. . . the liberal mindset thinks a Christmas creche on a courthouse lawn, or a cross on a desolate Mojave hilltop, is a grave affront to the “separation of church and state” yet the building of a mosque/islamic community center/target beacon on land made available for development by the 9/11 terror attacks is a constitutional right.”

h/t to Redstate.com

Ancient history

Famous Figures of Ancient Times and Ancient Rome

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Greetings!

A few more new books worth adding to your library. Figures in Motion is a neat concept to add to your study of the ancient world. DK continues to add well-designed titles to their Eyewitness series. And we continue to find some often over-looked treasures in the new books being published

Without further ado, here are two new titles worth reading:

Famous Figures of Ancient Times

Famous Figures of Ancient Times
by Cathy Diez-Luckie

Yes, these action figures really move! All you need is this book, a hole punch, and easy-to-use fasteners for assembly. Move their arms and legs, use their swords and shields and act out the real stories of history or make up your own and travel through time with moving figures!Famous Figures of Ancient Times includes a short biography of each historic figure, from Narmer, who united Upper and Lower Egypt, to Augustine, a leader of the Church at the fall of the Ancient Roman Empire.

This book makes a great activity book to use with your Greenleaf Study Package on Old Testament History, Egypt, Greece, or Rome. The set includes 20 figures in all:
  • Narmer
  • Khufu
  • Sargon
  • Hammurabi
  • Moses
  • King David
  • Ashurbanipal
  • Nebuchadnezzar II
  • Cyrus the Great
  • A Greek Hoplite
  • Qin Shi Huangdi
  • Aristotle
  • Alexander the Great
  • Hannibal
  • Hannibal’s Elephant
  • Julius Caesar
  • Caesar Augustus
  • Jesus
  • Constantine
  • Augustine
Each of these figures comes to life as children create their moving figures. Printed on heavy cardstock, 20 figures, 96 pages, $19.95. You can order by clicking on the image above or on this link.

Eyewitness Expert Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome
Eyewitness Expert

The DK Eyewitness series have set new standards for reference books for children & young adults. Each is conceived and laid out as if it were a museum exhibition. The most significant and most well known artifacts in each category are beautifully photographed and displayed with lengthy explanatory captions. The format of all 136 books is identical: hardback, 64 pages, glossy paperstock, four color photography on each of the 25+ two-page spreads.

The Eyewitness Expert series takes this concept several steps further. Along with the Eyewitness reference book (in paperback), the large slipcase includes:

  • a wall chart / poster
  • profile flashcards
  • a clip-art CD to use in computer illustration programs
  • a separate “Expert Files” paperback (64 pages) which is a hands-on guide to Ancient Rome, as explained by professional archeologists in the field
  • a large folded map of the Roman World
  • a paper model of the Colosseum printed in color on card stock to be punched out and assembled.
The publisher describes the book as targeted for ages 8-13. Younger children will certainly be fascinated by the pictures. Older students will find the text intriguing and informative.

Eyewitness Expert Ancient Rome

The total package is neatly packed in a fold-up portfolio which slides into the heavy-duty slipcase. Can be ordered direct from Greenleaf for $29.99 by clicking on either of the images or on this link.
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Watch this space for more book reviews! We have three new titles close to release that we are very excited about, and a small stack of worthy books from other publishers to recommend.

The Director's Blog – Rob Shearer, Francis Schaeffer Study Center, Mt. Juliet, TN