Biggest Big News

You may be amazed as you look at the newspaper and see all the big news, but there is one story to keep your eyes on closely because it holds the potential for great danger; and that is Mr. Vladimir Putin and the Russian nation.
by Charlie Leck

I’m not a scare-tactics kind of guy; and I do not frighten easily. That doesn’t mean I’m a tough guy, because I’m not. I often get wary about certain news items, but they don’t downright scare me. I’m just a chary kind of guy.

However, I’m a bit shaken these days as I read about the activities of the Russian military and the brazenfaced actions of the Russian president. I’m less afraid of Putin, who I believe can be handled properly and without violence; but I’m uncommonly afraid of certain segments of the American population and government which have become rather hawkish these days.

Their little nipping criticisms of President Obama have already begun over this Russian matter.

“Why hasn’t he stopped that son-of-a-bitch?”

“What we’ve got here is a president with no guts!”

“Ronald Reagan wouldn’t have allowed this Rooskie to get away with this!”

I’ve got some years on me folks; yet I’ve also got a danged-good memory. I remember times when hawks within politics badgered presidents into wars that they later regretted (even if they didn’t publically admit it). Let’s talk…

Lyndon Baines Johnson in Vietnam!

Richard Nixon in Cambodia!

Ronald Reagan in Granada!

George W. Bush in Iraq!

The wars listed above (take away the invasion of Granada) just about brought us down economically and spread enormous pain and injury throughout our military.

One is not being unpatriotic to talk about the foolishness of each of these wars. No, rather, one is being in-tune with history and fact.

“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to relive it!”

I don’t know that anything more important and accurate has ever been said. George Santayana said it and it is often quoted in one form or another. He was a discerning and practical guy. As I think of his brilliant comment above, I also remember that he said…

“Even the most inspired verse, which boasts not without a relative justification to be immortal, becomes in the course of ages a scarcely legible hieroglyphic; the language it was written in dies, a learned education and an imaginative effort are requisite to catch even a vestige of its original force. Nothing is so irrevocable as mind.”

My god, how easily we forget. History will one day record that President Obama was correct in not allowing troops to be placed in harm’s way in Egypt, Libya or Syria, in spite of the constant snarfing of the hawks in Congress. He’s correct now to rally the nations of Europe and NATO to take non-military stands against Putin and Russia. And already the bully bear is feeling the pressure and the heat!

One must note that the pressure on Russia is being felt by them and we need to continue on this course without a public, congressional show of opposition to the nation’s leader.

Putin and Russia have been ousted from the select Group of Eight (this is a select gathering of the world’s greatest industrial powers). The group may next impose a series of sanctions against Putin’s government that could both embarrass him and do harm to his nation’s economy.

Germany and its chancellor, Angela Merkel, have been the most outspoken about Mr. Putin’s activities over the last two weeks. And, in spite of the hawks’ criticism of our President for not taking that role, it is wise for the President not to be a leader in these actions against Russia because of the historic rancor and rivalry between our nations. (Obama, you see, is a bright enough president that he thinks of these things!)

It is so refreshing to have a president who believes in the diplomatic route toward harmony and peace and doesn’t promptly begin to shake the iron fist. The Secretary of State and the President are working diligently and in harmony to bring about the best results they can from this brutish behavior of the Russian president.

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The Frightening Hatred of the Tea Party
A tea party organization put out a flier the other day with some comment about how sorry the world was about the disappearance of the Malaysian passenger jet. Below it was a photograph of Air Force One cruising in the sky. Below this photo was the statement: “Too bad it wasn’t this flight!”

I have a copy of it. I won’t post it here (or anywhere) because it is too sickening. I cannot tell you how shaken I was when I read that piece of trash. And these are people who boast of their extreme patriotism!

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