I was listening to President-elect Obama announcing his cabinet this morning and I have to say, he still does not have a clue! There are two parts that really got me when he was announcing that Sec. Gates was going to stay on as Sec. of Defense for at least a year into his administration. He said that he was going to task Sec. Gates with a new mission, the responsible ending of the war in Iraq. Huh? How do you end a war responsibly? Who is this man responsible to? I thought it was the American people, not the “Global Community”. But, then again he is a “Community Organizer”.He also said that the “War on Terror” began in Afghanistan and that is where he thinks it should end. I wish it was that simple. That is like saying that World War II began in Japan and it should have ended there as well. First of all it is a “Global War on Terror”, this means that it is a global fight; I would think that a guy who thinks “globally” would understand this. We need to go and fight these bad guys no matter where they are. If that means that we chase terrorists into Syria, then we chase and kill terrorists into Syria and let the chips fall where they may. Second, this war did not start in Afghanistan, it started in New Jersey. Well that is where terrorists rented a Ryder van that they packed with explosives and parked in the underground parking structure at the World Trade Center. It continued in a Yemen port where we lost 17 Sailors on the U.S.S. Cole, and then in two African countries where our embassies were bombed. And all of this happened before two planes were flown into the Twin Towers.

On a side note, even Osama bin Laden said that the central front in their fight against the west was in Iraq. He also said that Baghdad was going to be the Capital of the Caliphate.

I may be a simple black and white kind of guy, I was only a Lance Corporal in the United States Marine Corps (E3), but I just don’t understand how to responsibly end a war. I only know of two ways that a war ends. You either win the war or you lose the war. If someone could shed more light on this subject I would be eager to learn. And out of the two ways that I know only one of them is responsible, winning.

Mr. President-elect this in not one of those hypothetical or rhetorical wars that our country has been conditioned to endure. This is not the “War on Poverty”, this is not the “War on Drugs”, and this is not a fight for the NFC Central Championship title. This is a very serious and important fight that we cannot back down from; responsibly we cannot afford to lose this fight. For if we do our country, our way of life, and our nations respect is on the line! If you do not believe me look at a couple of countries in Europe like England and France. Look at the problems that they are having with the aggressive islamization of those two countries.

Maybe I should try to explain my way of thinking in terms that are better understood by the movie watching public. Have you seen the movie “Heat”? I love this movie! It has the most realistic fire fight that I had ever seen, before I saw “Saving Private Ryan”, right at the end of the movie. If you have not seen it put it on your Netflix list, it is worth the watch. Anyways, the gun fight is right out in the middle of busy city streets, I believe it is supposed to be Los Angeles, both the bad guys and the police a in a running gun fight using fully automatic weapons. Now it is a given that yes this is not real world, but it was based on a real bank heist. The Bank of America robbery in Burbank, CA. in the mid ‘90’s. This robbery turned into a running gun battle on the streets of Burbank. The police blocked off streets and evacuated as many civilians as they could before and during the gun fight. The LA police did what they felt was responsible, and both civilians and police officers lost their lives in the fight. That fight started in the banks parking lot, maybe it should have stayed there even after the bad guys moved down the block looking for a way to escape. Maybe the responsible thing for the LA Police Department to have done is just let the bad guys drive away; I mean the bank was protected by FDIC insurance. Or maybe the responsible thing for the police to have done is a gradual withdrawal, turning the protection of the neighborhoods affected back to the residents of those blocks even if they were not prepared to defend themselves and their neighbors.

I personally believe that they did the responsible thing. Brave police officers were both injured and killed trying valiantly to protect the lives and well being of the civilians that got stuck in the kill zone and could not get out. Brave police officers ran into harms way to attempt to evacuate civilians and injured police officers that remained stuck in the kill zone. The Los Angeles Police Department got it. They understood that sometimes, even when you are not out looking for the fight, the fight comes to you. They understood you cannot responsibly end a gun fight by running away and turning the fight over to a group of people that are not ready to take that fight over. The only responsible way to end that gun fight was to win, or die trying to win. Even police officers that were not tasked with street duty like the group of instructors at the Police Academy ran to the fight, these cops got it and they don’t hold the same fancy degrees that our President-elect does.

President-elect Obama is working from a flawed batch of assumptions. The train of thought that we can pick and choose where and when we fight terrorist that are hell-bent on dying as they destroy America, and kill as many Americans as they can is just “mentally challenged” (my PC contribution for the day)!