Truman, JFK, LBJ, Carter … and yes William Jefferson Clinton. These men are the true impetus to the difficulties we now wrestle with in today’s Global War on Terror (GWOT). The progression to today’s current state of affairs is clear if one steps back to see where this country began to fall apart, and who pulled the strings - or failed to, actually.
Inaction is just as bad, if not worse, than any miscalculated action. Mistakes are commonplace when one leads. But mistakes do not have to end in disaster. Disaster is the result of a leader that compounds a mistake with inaction, and another mistake, or more inaction, as the leader thrashes to regain control - by not doing anything at all. Any leader worth his or her salt knows that the “governing law of inaction” is the fulcrum from which peace is quickly uprooted and propels the leader on a course of devolving into an irreparable state of chaos.
The following is not an exact record of history, but a look at the broader picture of influences that now plague the GWOT, and the current administration’s leadership. It is not, I submit, the leadership that is at fault, but the forces at work to construct a fulcrum from which chaos can take root. It is sad that those working to put this into action are focused on a political gain (political gains of all shapes and sizes) ignoring the fact that chaos hurts us all, no matter your party and no matter your religion.
We are all infidels, and the wave does not discriminate. It had used the “governing law of inaction” to benefit it’s cause. Today it faces not inaction but conviction, commitment, and a force that takes this battle seriously - that force is leadership.
After World War II, the United States was in a period of understanding and alignment with the USSR. We were, as a nation, focused on repelling any encroachment on our freedoms and especially those countries and political systems that threatened our survival. Even though we had great differences with the USSR we both fought the terrorism of that day, Adolph Hitler’s fascism. We both knew that Hitler envisioned a fascism that was not going to allow the US and USSR to be sovereign, ever. That great fulcrum would have plunged us all into a form of chaos that no one wanted, and we all fought to the death to prevent.
Reparations, political restructuring, and repatriation were the specials of the day which fostered a complacency that was slight, but still very much present. While the world wrestled with these huge responsibilities, taking their eye off the ball by building the United Nations, and cleaving two worlds with the use of “The Wall”, a greater power was beginning to emerge. “The Red Menace” began to spread across the great land masses and wastelands due to the vacuum of a missing war machine and the ravages of WWII.
Shift the stage and we move forward to 1950, and Harry S. Truman. Truman has been President for about 5 years and has been overseeing the signing of the armistice with Japan, he made the Berlin Airlift happen to bring comfort to the West Berliners, and he thrust free nations into the development of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). However, what was looming in the background was “The Red Menace” on the move and manipulating actions in North Korea. When North Korea attacked South Korea, Truman wrote that there was:
“complete, almost unspoken acceptance on the part of everyone that whatever had to be done to meet this aggression had to be done. There was no suggestion from anyone that either the United Nations or the United States could back away from it.”
While that level of conviction and action resulted in the signing of an armistice between North and South Korea, Truman was plagued with a softer side, though not complete inaction. Even the White House Past Presidents biography of Truman shows:
“A long, discouraging struggle ensued as U.N. forces held a line above the old boundary of South Korea. Truman kept the war a limited one, rather than risk a major conflict with China and perhaps Russia.”
Enter Dwight D. Eisenhower, a true man of conviction and action. A show of force was the rule of the day, and that “governing law of inaction” not in Eisenhower’s lexicon. After Stalin died, tensions were high but lightened as Eisenhower pushed hard with power and acted as a leader. No second guessing. However, “The Red Menace” was at it again, building another fulcrum, and by the time Eisenhower left office there were 900 advisers in South Vietnam. It was beginning …
John F. Kennedy was dead set on fighting “The Red Menace”. This new “Red Menace” was a newer form derived from a burgeoning USSR that was being spread thin on an ever dwindling war chest. In the first 9 months of JFK’s presidency, the advisers in South Vietnam had grown to 2,000. Our presence was felt, but we were not committed - a slight inaction allowing for a larger fulcrum. The USSR was sensing a new, shift, in the United States - one that she could exploit to her ultimate gain. Cuba, then Vietnam, were to bring this to a head until a sniper’s bullet ended John F. Kennedy’s life on that ill fated day of 22 November, 1963. On the same day, Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the Thirty-Sixth President of the United States of America.
By the end of 1963, there are 15,000 advisers in South Vietnam. Do you see a pattern? As these past Presidents are quick to demonstrate, except Eisenhower, inaction or the fear of risking a major conflict is beginning to rear itself and provide purchase for a new fulcrum - one no one sees just yet.
Lyndon B. Johnson assumed command of the fight against “The Red Menace” in the Southeast Asian Theater. LBJ’s administration was bent on continuing the situation in Vietnam, but finishing the job was an illusive achievement due to conflicting orders and overall theater mismanagement. Leadership is not left to the officer corps alone, it begins and ends in the White House, with the CinC (Commander in Chief). The failure of inaction in Vietnam took time.
The failure was aided by a grassroots groundswell of anti-military, anti-US sentiments fomented on US soil in our university campuses. To buttress that groundswell was another campaign being waged by daily reports served up from a media schooled in those very universities. This is where the soft underbelly of inaction began to show. It was being lifted up for all to see by the fulcrum constructed by academia and elitists afraid of doing their duty and serving their country (last sentence is my strong opinion, obviously). LBJ continued to be jerked back and forth by external forces, thereby succumbing to the “governing law of inaction”. The USSR lies in wait - but she shall soon be eclipsed by a far worse harbinger of chaos.
The USSR had dipped her toe into waters that were taxing her to great lengths and she was beginning to waiver. It was not overt, but her power was beginning to fracture. There were glimpses afforded to the entire world, even though the USSR was successful in North Korea and ultimately becoming so in North Vietnam.
Richard M. Nixon, again not a man of inaction, took control of a world theater in near chaos. By taking charge and going to China, President Nixon began a new front of operations that signaled a change in US strength. However, his conviction and take charge attitude in a sea of internal US strife being waged by an anti-US elite forced to the surface a strong desire to control the flow of information. The final blow, Richard M. Nixon’s impeachment and his resignation, further grounded a huge fulcrum that gave way to a new chaos - the fall of “The Red Menace” and the rise of Islamofascism.
Carter, and is failure to handle Iran, showed the world the inability of the United States to fight this up and coming new threat, Islamofascism. In those days, the late 70’s, only a select few saw the rise of this great tyranny. We were still focused on the great evil, “The Red Menace”. The “governing law of inaction” was in full swing, and the degradation of our US Military and our standing in the world as a super power was threatened - from within. Inaction was strangling leadership and we needed to remove the fulcrum and recognize there was a new one just beneath the surface waiting to pry open a new form of chaos.
Until Ronald W. Reagan broke the will of the USSR, “The Red Menace”, the world knew nothing of islamofascists. Reagan was the ultimate leader, one I am very proud to have served under. There was a man that truly understood leadership, and fostered it throughout his command (which we know is top to bottom, bottom to top). Throughout his Presidency the world saw the new United States of America - and so did the islamofascists.
It wasn’t until the US pulled out of the first Gulf War, too soon, that islamofascists began to see the underbelly truly emerge. George H.W. Bush made mistakes, I’ll grant that, but his was not one of inaction. Miscalculation was due to our focus being squarely on “The Red Menace” and an honest miscue in responding to the greater threat being promulgated by terrorists building their forces in the Middle East. The new battle was beginning, and the US was still looking in the wrong direction.
Enter William Jefferson Clinton on the heels of huge reforms in taxation and a growing economy compliments of the previous 12 years under Reagan and Bush 41. The focus of the new administration was to bring the Democratic Party back into power. The problem is that over the previous 50 years, Democrat Presidents succumbed to the “governing law of inaction”, never providing true leadership. At the same time, Clinton was busy breaking down the US Military and relinquishing control of US Forces overseas to the United Nations. Once the Monica Lewinsky scandal took hold, and the lies began, islamofascist leaders of terrorism began to take stabs at the soft underbelly of the United States of America. All the while, that lull of US supremacy in the world provided a vacuum into which islamofascism could rush in, unabated, securing the new fulcrum and introducing a chaos none but a few knew would come - September 11th, 2001.
And now, we have a full-on battle on our hands, a battle against those seeking to destroy us. Our new “old” enemy, in no way resembles a true force of any one nation or government. This enemy is one that does not follow the Geneva Convention, nor does it wear a distinct uniform carrying a standard from which all can determine a true combatant on the field of battle. And, there is an insurgency threatening the leadership in this battle which has roots within the United States. This insurgency is one lead by those that have grown up believing and succumbing to the “governing law of inaction”. They are in places of power and influence and are even members of the Republican Party (RHINOs)! Those of us that recognize true leadership and abhor chaos must stand firm and fight this new enemy to our last breath.
Because, in the end, making concessions, appeasement, lack of force, weak leadership, and ultimately succumbing to the “governing law of inaction” will be our demise. To promote and support such soft positions on tough subjects like interrogation of terrorists, full prosecution of actions in battle, securing our borders, surveillance of foreign persons, amnesty for illegal aliens, and ultimately the subjugation by the likes of “The Gang of 14″, well, we’ll be exposing our soft underbelly to those that have erected the newest fulcrum with the goal of wresting peace from within our grasp.
Make no mistake, if we let “The Gang of 14″ and their supporters, the Mainstream Media, and Liberal college professors and actors expose our flank, islamofascism will strike with such a force as to propel the whole world into a state of chaos no one can envision or even fantasize.
Do you want that to happen? Not I. Let us first start with the “Gang of 14″ and work our way outward. We, the Milblogging community, have a duty to take back this country.
It is time.
UPDATE: Wow, hadn’t read Investor’s Business Daily in some time. Found this article with the same thread as this post - different take is the Editor utilizes Democrat Presidents at the outset whereas I posit all Democrat Presidents were “governed by the law of inaction”.
TAGS: Fix4RSO, Milblog, Military, GWOT, Islamofascists
