Back To Baghdad

I wish to show at length the reason why I believe that Saddam Hussein of Iraq, not Osama Bin Ladin of Al Qaida, was the real perpetrator of 9/11 and how at the end of the Cold War we entered a new political paradigm that Saddam felt he could challenge with either brute conventional forces or by unconventional but equally brutal state-sponsored terrorism. Saddam Hussein of Iraq was renowned for his arrogance and could never bow down to another person or power without having the last word, a typical Twentieth Century dictator. The following speeches will show that Iraq, Saddam Hussein and the United States under various Presidents had been waging a prolonged campaign against each other since the end of the Cold War and which ultimately led to the downfall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Some dictators during this time period such as Milosevic in Serbia and Noriega in Panama were brought down with relative ease and have been forgotten in time, however, Iraq has been a focal point of US interest since the fall of the Berlin Wall and continues to be of interest to this day. Clearly, the complete focus on this country should lead one to conclude that indeed it was Saddam Hussein that struck the Twin Towers in New York as an act of revenge in 1993 and 2001 after losing Kuwait to US military forces in 1991. I suspect that even the F. Murray building in Oklahoma which was destroyed by a car bomb in 1995 was also related to Saddam Hussein. Too many connections exist between Islamic terrorists and Saddam Hussein's' Iraq that we should objectively come to the rational conclusion that he was the paymaster of Al Qaida and all around perpetrator of international Islamic terrorism in the United States between 1990 and 2001.

Why then the secrecy by the US Government regarding this revelation? I believe the secrecy allows the United States Government more latitude from having to take a position to remain committed to waging war against less than faithful allies such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. There are just too many terrorist organizations and states that support them for the US to "crusade" against. The destruction of Iraq and Saddam Hussein sent a clear message to all the terror supporting states in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran - attack the United States in this fashion and face the possibility of permanent regime change. Clearly, Gaddafi in Libya and Assad in Syria got the message and duly gave up their aspirations with Gaddafi giving up his WMD program and Assad retreating from Lebanon militarily.  However, it remains to be seen if our response will endure the test of time. Our occupation of Afghanistan satisfied our desire to destroy a global Islamic terrorist network. Our occupation of Iraq satisfied our desire to destroy a state-sponsoring terrorist nation. Killing these two birds with one stone hopefully is all that is needed. These twin objectives thus played itself out before and after 9/11 and became a national priority that may last as long as the Cold War itself lasting from 1947 - 1990, a 40-year war both hot and cold. 

Will the Islamic regimes of the Middle East and Southwest Asia accept the ramifications of the Global War On Terror or are they in the midst of a grave mistake by rearming and planning for the next 9/11 on American soil? Only time will tell.

GH Bush 9/11/90 - The infamous New World Order speech, chock full of references to Saddam Hussein.

GH Bush 1/16/91 - Operation Desert Storm.

Bill Clinton 6/26/93 - Little known speech regarding Saddam's attempt on GH Bush's life and Clinton's response to it.

Bill Clinton 9/03/96 - Saddam Hussein attacks Kurdish city of Irbil and President Clinton's response. No-fly zone extended from Kuwait to Southern Baghdad.

Bill Clinton 1/21/98 - Interview with Jim Leher regarding Iraq's WMD production and possible US response.

Bill Clinton 1/27/98 - State Of The Union speech regarding Saddam Hussein's WMD program.

Bill Clinton 2/17/98 - Defiance of Saddam Hussein and clear evidence of WMD program.

Bill Clinton 11/15/98 - Iraq Liberation Act.

Bill Clinton 12/16/98 - US attack on Iraq with 290 cruise missiles for defying UN Security Council.

Richard Butler 8/03/99 - Chief Weapons Inspector for UNSCOM discusses Saddam Hussein's WMD addiction.

GW Bush 9/20/01 - War On Terror speech nine days after 9/11. War against nations supporting terrorism.

GW Bush 1/29/02 - Axis of Evil speech. North Korea, Iran and Iraq singled out.

GW Bush 10/10/02 - President Bush's remarks on House of Representatives' approval of Iraq Resolution for use of force in Iraq.

Hillary Clinton 10/15/02 - Senator Hillary Clinton regarding the use of force in Iraq.

GW Bush 3/17/03 - Ultimatum for Saddam Hussein to step down.

GW Bush 3/19/03 - Operation Iraqi Freedom.

GW Bush 12/14/03 - Saddam Hussein captured.

Saddam Hussein 11/05/06 - Saddam sentenced to death by Iraqi court and his last comments.

BH Obama 8/31/10 - End of combat operations in Iraq. Smaller contingent of US troops to remain in Iraq.

Ukraine Is Lost

President Obama and his administration has decided to let Ukraine go under the Russian flag without firing a single shot. The official US response to Ukraine is "don't fire even if you see the whites of the Russian eyes!" All attempts to remain sovereign by force has been met in Washington with apparent disdain. No American planes will be landing in Kiev. Nor will American or Western arms be shipped to Ukraine in defense of Kiev in the face of the most obvious provocation since 1938 when Germany marched into the Rhineland and the West did nothing.

For Russia, their troops are not in the open but masked and hooded figures that move in the night and day to seize property and lands unopposed. They are unopposed because Washington and Brussels have counseled a passive response and even a saccharine surrender in Kiev so as not to anger the Russian Bear. Like a dog that barks behind the fence, the West only appears tough and has decided that whatever actions are taken in Kiev will be one that does not involve combat of any sort against a clear and present Russian invasion of an independent state in Europe. We should not be surprised by these developments as the soft and leftwing leadership in the West has clearly backed down against a greater foe in the North. To the victor go the spoils.

Ukraine's only hope is to go it alone and with its own initiative, seize the moment and attack the Russians using it's own infantry. Will this invite calamity in a conventional counterattack by the Russians with actual troops, tanks and planes? Perhaps. It no doubt will be a long and bloody brawl. But then Moscow's complete and utter disregard for living in a Christian dominion abiding by Christian rules and etiquette will now be laid bare as the farce it always was.  In the past twenty years, Russia has allowed the Eastern Orthodox Church to rise once more but not as a way to win converts to Christ but as a mechanism and tool for the Russian state to exploit the weakness of Russian arms which was the Russian spirit to fight and to win.

Under Communism, it was well known in all military circles around the world, that Russia was the military weakling, despite its numbers, because communists destroyed all initiative and creative know-how so critical in a modern military system. The officers were mere subjects of the commissar who worked directly with the Communist Party to ensure discipline and love of "the leader" and his party. The communist purge of the army during the 1930's by Stalin showed the way for other soviet and soviet-like states around the world how to ensure communist loyalty in their armed forces. The communist armies of the world were reduced to mere tin soldiers with no hope of freedom to respond in a combat environment so critical to success. Unfortunately, World War II was the Soviets greatest triumph in that it gave the Red Army an ersatz invincibility that only recently has been recognized as completely unwarranted. However, after World War II, the Middle East Wars between Russia's client states in the form of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq against the Western supported Israel between 1948 and 1982 exposed this rather large Achilles' heal of the Soviet system of governance. Then, the Russians invaded Afghanistan in support of another client state in 1979 which continued to further erode this image of the mighty Red Army even more.

Glasnost under Gorbachev in 1989 was the Russian attempt to change that calculus. We are seeing today the fruits of their recalibration with Russian infantry covering as "separatists" in Eastern Ukraine and taking everything they desire unopposed amid the chaos of indecision that has now gripped the pro-western Ukrainian state. However, it's not really Kiev's fault. They want to be part of the West and they want Western military support. It's unfortunate that Barack Obama is at the helm in the White House, we could only imagine what the response would be if Reagan were in charge. Of course, I doubt the Russians would have sent in their troops to sow discord if he were still around. Nevertheless, the Russian "invasion" of Ukraine by masked marauders is paying off huge for the Red Army. They have seized the initiative and have shown results that Moscow can be proud of.

It all comes down to who moves first. And the Russians, under their new "model army" with the support of the nascent Eastern Orthodox Church which only recently was just a mere shell of its former self under the Communists, can now claim success in Europe. The fusion of religious orthodoxy and military might is a lethal combination. Interesting, that the West is breaking down it's Christian backbone in it's military with a revived paganism which will directly affect military operations against the Russians or their client states including other areas of the world. Obama is the Pagan leader of the West and will not defend Ukraine against a more rapacious and newly inspired Eastern Orthodox Russian army that wants to liberate the old Slavic Rus capital from greedy pagan Westerns, as they see it.

Unfortunately, the Russians may be more right than we care to admit. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.

Double Eagle

With last Sunday's Crimea vote to return to Russia that was engineered recently by Vladimir Putin, the West has been completely upstaged and surprised by the rapidity of the Russian state to seize the moment. The West led by a weakened and docile United States, has flailed impotently while Moscow has moved its chess pieces expertly on the board by invoking its rightful place over a vital and strategic port city on the Black Sea that was once an important Ukrainian asset. Now, in one fell swoop, Crimea is now in the hands of the Russians. The Ukrainians, after overthrowing their Russian savant, the ex-Ukrainian Premier Victor Yanukovych, by marching and occupying the main square in Kiev, now are starring down the abyss of war as Mother Russia masses her troops on their northern and eastern doorstep. The world now awaits the next moves between East and West as the battle lines are drawn over the bread basket of Europe.

 To be fair, the Russians already occupied much of the Crimean Peninsula before last Sunday, however, they simply took the title deed from Ukraine, given to the Ukrainians by a drunk Nikita Khrushchev back in '56, and with it now back in the hands of the Russians, have declared to the entire world by a hastily arranged plebiscite, that they and only they are now the true rulers of this piece of naval real estate so vital to Russian national security and interest. The question now looms before us: what else do they want? Is the rest of Ukraine now up for grabs and can anyone do anything about it? Will Ukraine also find out, much like Georgia did several years ago, that when push (or should I say putsch) comes to shove, the West will do nothing and allow weaker states to be bullied into submission by their overbearing Russian overlords?

The Baltic states including Poland have recently announced the arrival of some American military assets in the form of F-15 and F-16 Fighter wings to their countries to remind Moscow that they are firmly rooted in the West and must not be tampered with by a hungry Russian state bent on subverting their relations with the United States and Western Europe. In many ways, Poland can now say to President Obama - we told you so! Under President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld back in 2006, Poland and the Czech Republic were given assurances of American protection by incorporating those nations directly in a missile defense shield stationed on their home soils. But then the Democrat administration of Obama came along two years later and dismantled this defense posture stating that a Russian "re-set" was the order of the day and missile defense was more of a testicular reminder of a bygone era. The Russians couldn't have agreed more. Now, Poland smiles to itself as Obama looks like a kid caught urinating in the bushes as the Russians clamor for additional parcels of Ukrainian soil with Moldova and Belarus in its cross-hairs. Funny how history keeps repeating itself.

The only way out of this debacle is for hard American military assets, say an F-15 fighter wing, to be transferred directly to Ukraine, before any outbreak of hostilities by the Russians seals the Ukrainians to a fate they least desire. If the Russians should attack first or make a sudden military venture into Ukrainian territory outside of Crimea then I'm afraid the West has lost Ukraine. The United States will not fight the Russians and they will not fight us. Which is imperative that someone, preferably us, make the first move and do it quickly. Events are very fluid even as I write this post and anything can happen. I suppose, we could support the Ukrainians with direct military aid and let them fight for their independence while we cover for them at the United Nations and in other political and economic institutions. However, war is the least desirable outcome and has far reaching consequences that very few can predict.

Oh, by the way, this August will be the 100th anniversary of World War One. And it started because the Russians mobilized their army and didn't back down.