CONUNDRUM

A man walks into a bar in New York City.

The bartender asks the man, "what will you have?"

The man replies, "where am I?"

The bartender brings the man a drink.

What drink did the bartender bring him?

Perspective: American Arms for Ukraine

Arming Ukraine would be good foreign policy. The alternative, to do nothing, is to permit the incipient resurrection of the Soviet Union. To let the Euros handle it is a nonstarter. 

Do you remember the Bosnian War (1992 – 1995)? That ‘war in the time of peace’, was a fight America did not have a dog in. Moreover, it was in Europe’s backyard. The Soviet Union was finished. Without the threat of Russian involvement, certainly the European Union (EU) and United Nations (UN) could take control of this little war in the Balkans. 

But they didn’t, and it didn’t end swiftly or well. The result was death and destruction, and a safe haven and an open door for Islamic terrorists in Europe. In other words, don’t expect the corrupt and incompetent elitist of the EU and UN, to interrupt their 3-hour lunches to aid the Ukraine.

One other history lesson is instructive. Ronald Reagan decision to arm the Afghans and Mujahedeen with Stinger missiles was a game changer. The Soviet Union (Russia) concluded that the fight was not worth the cost. Today, a well-armed Ukraine would cause Russia to recalculate the cost of their aggression. 

Now this is very important, I do not proffer the introduction of any US Military personnel into this conflict. I would not trust the amateurish, incompetent, inept, inferior, clumsy, unqualified, ham-fisted, cack-handed, bush league Obama White House to undertake any military activity in the Ukraine.

Arming the Ukrainians could be a difference maker. At the very least, it will give Mr. Putin something to think about. Thinking is good.

Wake Up! *

"I prefer to die standing than live on my knees."
                                         - Stephane Charbonnier
                                           editor of Charlie Hebdo

"For all we have and are, For all our children's fate, Stand up and take the war, The Hun (Jihadist) is at the gate! "
                                           - Rudyard  Kipling 

The Pope makes a speech in which he philosophically quotes a 14th-century Byzantine Emperor critical of Islam and most of the Islamic world is up in arms - literally. Previously, the Middle East erupts - literally - over a cartoon. These events should not be minimized or ignored as a cultural misunderstanding or the machinations of an Islamic lunatic fringe. It is being used, like the alleged flushing of the Koran at Guantanamo, as part of the propaganda war being orchestrated by radical Islam's Gorings and Goebbels. It is time to stop pretending that the West and the world of radical Islam, where terrorism is seen as a legitimate expression of political opposition, can peacefully co-exist.

When Pakistan's Foreign Minister opines, "Even if our government is pro-west, our
people are increasingly not," we are right to ask, 'Why do they hate us?' There has been no paucity of hand wringing explanations such as poverty and lack of opportunity, but the answer is really very simple. In many cases they hate their governments, which are undemocratic and repressive, and correctly blame the West for supporting these governments. They hate us because their governments through their state controlled media tell them to hate us. They hate that they can't help but admire our modern world, its technological innovations and Hollywood glamour, and we, in turn, respect nothing more of theirs but the oil reserves upon which they sit, eat and pray. But, most of all, they hate us because they have been taught to hate us. Day after day, year after year, young children are taught to hate the infidel. Is there any wonder we are where we are today. Still, why would these Middle East regimes teach their children to hate the West?

One explanation is this. When government is not "of and by the people," and all is not well in the kingdom - then someone or something else must be blamed other than the government. The West, the infidels, the outsiders, have always served this purpose for Middle East rulers. By blaming the West for all that is not right the Ruler cannot be blamed. Their perfidious gambit has been this: on the one hand, behind closed doors and in English, you tell Western leaders how terrible this all is and that freedom of expression is as important to you as them; and on the other hand, you are increasing your funding to the Mullahs so they may spread their venous attacks against the West throughout the Muslim world, speak in Arabic and Farsi, and beat the drums of hatred through your state controlled media. This is a farrago of disingenuousness.

There is a war of civilizations. The first salvos were the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the bombing of the US World Trade Center in 1992, the bombing of US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the attack on the USS Cole, September 11th, the Madrid train bombings in 2004, and the London Subway bombings in 2005, to name some. How many times do we need to hear, read, and experience the ranting and deeds of radical Islam before we accept that their intent is to destroy us?

It is Islam's responsibility to lift its' religion out of the hands of radicals and extremist mullahs. We have yet to hear those other voices in Arabic and Farsi.

Appeasement results from mental laziness. Calls for calm and understanding may be well meaning but they are naive, and prefer the ostrich to the lion. There is no going back the Rubicon has been crossed - the struggle has surely begun. The pundits will proffer that this is only an expression of radical Islam and not the will of the majority of Muslims. Then, where are they? Certainly not in the West Bank or Gaza after Hamas's victory. In how many other Middle East counties, given a fair election, will the extremists win? When will the Iranian citizens take to streets to demand that their government seek better relations with the West? It is foolish to believe that these peace-lovers number in the majority. It contradicts every reality.

"If," said Churchill, "a mad dog makes a dash for my trousers I shoot him down before he can bite". 

* This 0p-ed was written September 2006.

Wake Up! The Jihadist Is At The Gate

"If a mad dog makes a dash for my trousers I shoot him down before he can bite".

                                    - Winston Churchill

In September 2006, I wrote an op-ed entitled, "Wake Up! The Jihadist Is At The Gate." Today, we know, or should know, they are inside. There have been so many wake up calls it is difficult to name them all; 9/11; 7/7; Madrid; Benghazi; Peshawar; Mumbai; Nairobi; Nigeria; Brussels; and now (again) France.

This is only the third time that another Blogger is represented on The Grey Grater. Pamela Geller's "Atlas Shrugs" is not just a blog, but a service to freedom. If you don't read it everyday, you should. The following is Ms. Geller's American Freedom Defense Initiative ("AFDI") plan to stop Jihad:

AFDI 18 POINT PLATFORM IN DEFENSE OF FREEDOM 

– AFDI calls for the U.S. and other non-Muslim governments to recognize officially that Islam is a political movement and so not solely religious in the strict sense of the U.S. Constitution. AFDI recognizes that Islam in it mainstream theological formulations and its dominant form throughout its history, not “extremist Islam” or “hijacked Islam” or “Islamism,” but Islam in the Qur’an and Sunnah as understood by Islamic jurists and theologians, can and should be regarded as an authoritarian and supremacist political system as well as a religion, and thus that Muslim groups should be subject to all the scrutiny and legal requirements of political organizations, without being able to shield their political activities behind the protection of religious freedom.

– AFDI denounces the crippling rules of engagement under which our soldiers are forced to labor. They should be given the freedom to defend themselves and protect their comrades.

— AFDI calls for profiling of Muslims at airports and in hiring in professions in which national security and public safety could be 
compromised.

— AFDI calls for immediate investigation into foreign mosque funding in
 the West and for new legislation making foreign funding of mosques in
 non-Muslim nations illegal.

— AFDI calls for surveillance of mosques and regular inspections of mosques in the U.S. and other non-Muslim nations to look for pro-violence materials. Any mosque advocating jihad or any aspects of Sharia that conflict with Constitutional freedoms and protections should be closed.

— AFDI calls for curriculum and Islam-related materials in textbooks and museums to describe the Islamic doctrine and history accurately, including its violent doctrines and 1,400-year war against unbelievers.

— AFDI calls for a halt of foreign aid to Islamic nations with Sharia-based constitutions and/or governments.

– AFDI denounces the use of Sharia law in any Western court or nation.

– AFDI advocates deportation hearings against non-citizens who promote jihad in our nations.

– AFDI calls for an immediate halt of immigration by Muslims into nations that do not currently have a Muslim majority population.

— AFDI calls for laws providing that anyone seeking citizenship in the United States should be asked if he or she supports Sharia law, and investigated for ties to pro-Sharia groups. If so, citizenship should not be granted.

– AFDI calls for the cancellation of citizenship or permanent residency status for anyone who leaves the country of his residence to travel for the purpose of engaging in jihad activity, and for the refusal of reentry into his country of residence after that jihad activity.

— AFDI calls careful investigation of Muslims resident in non-Muslim country that have obtained naturalized citizenship or permanent residency status, to ensure that that status was not obtained under false pretenses.

— AFDI calls for the designation of the following as grounds for immediate deportation: fomenting, plotting, financing, attempting or carrying out jihad attacks; encouraging or threatening or attempting to carry out the punishments Islamic law mandates for apostasy, adultery, blasphemy, fornication or theft; threatening or attempting or carrying out honor murders, forced marriage, underage marriage, female genital mutilation, or polygamy.

— AFDI calls for the U.S. and other free nations to have jihad, as it is traditionally understood in Islamic jurisprudence to involve warfare against and subjugation of non-Muslims, declared a crime against humanity at the U.N., or to withdraw from the U.N. and have its headquarters moved to a Muslim nation.

– AFDI calls for legislating making illegal the foreign funding of Islamic Studies departments and faculty positions in our universities.

– AFDI demands the repeal of U.N. resolution 16/18 and any other resolutions that might limit the freedom of speech.

– AFDI calls for all Muslim chaplains in prisons and the military to be thoroughly vetted, and dismissed if they have ties to any Islamic supremacist group, or if they advocate jihad.

– AFDI calls for the development of energy policies that will free us from dependence upon oil from Muslim countries.

AFDI establishes a common American/European coalition of free people determined to stand for freedom and oppose the advance of Islamic law, Sharia. Islamic law is not simply a religious system, but a political system that encompasses every aspect of life; is authoritarian, discriminatory, and repressive; and contradicts Western laws and principles in numerous particulars. 

AFDI stand for:

— The freedom of speech – as opposed to Islamic prohibitions of “blasphemy” and “slander,” which are used effectively to quash honest discussion of jihad and Islamic supremacism;

— The freedom of conscience – as opposed to the Islamic death penalty for apostasy;

— The equality of rights of all people before the law – as opposed to Sharia’s institutionalized discrimination against women and non-Muslims.

Are you awake yet?

A New Year Aspiration 2015*

For all that is so fair and good, 
For all our daughters and sons, 
We give our thanks and cheer today at nights' last 
hour come. 

For tomorrow is another day and there is hope all will be well, 
We pray God's continued blessing, 
for all that this New Year tell. 


* Original poem by Lawrence S. Schneiderman first published January 2011.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: Schizophrenic, Delusional, Deceiver, and Dangerous

ISIS beheads an American Journalist, and televises the atrocity for the entire world to see. ISIS seizes a Syrian military airport – now they have an Air Force. India is repelling Pakistan aggression yet again. Hamas continues its attack on Israeli civilians, and whines like babies when Israel defends its citizens. Russia for all practical purposes invades eastern Ukraine. Islamist terrorist, Boko Haram, in sub-Sahara Africa, murder, rape, enslave Christians. Iran continues its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Libya is a terrorist state. And, ad nauseam.

What is the point of this piece? The point is that we never forget what the mainstream media and Washington élites want us to forget – and that is, who is instrumentally responsible for this horrific mess. The United States Secretary of State, from 2009 to 2013, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Hillary Clinton, who is attempting to distance herself from the Obama Administration’s foreign policy, recently said she wanted to arm the "Syrian Freedom Fighters" in the earlier stages of the Syrian civil war. She posits that this would have stopped ISIS from becoming the terrorist organization it is today. Does she still not understand "who" these freedom fighters were? Apparently she does not.

In other words, the clueless and pathological deceiver Mrs. Clinton says she wanted to give U.S. weapons to ISIS. ISIS was the vast majority of "Freedom Fighters" from the start in Syria. Make no mistake of that. On top of that, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on March 27, 2011, that the U.S. would not intervene militarily in Syria as it did in Libya, and drew a distinction between Libya's Muammar Qaddafi and Syria's Bashar Assad. The latter, she explained, is seen as “a reformer.” Until that narrative proved to be false. Thereafter, she wanted his head. This was not foreign policy – this was schizophrenia.

In 2010 Mrs. Clinton, along with her boss Mr. Obama, supported the Hamas flotilla to bring weapons and military supplies to Gaza. She joined the contemptuous UN çakals, to condemn Israel and not the Islamic terrorist group Hamas. Mrs. Clinton, then - Secretary of State, posited that the Gaza blockade by Israel was "unsustainable and unacceptable." As Mona Charen has astutely observed, "the Obama administration and Mrs. Clinton has consistently found little to criticize in our adversaries and everything to mock and disdain in our friends."

Mrs. Clinton supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization. It was the primary supporter of Hamas, another terrorist organization. Its slogan is “Islam is the solution.” The Brotherhood’s stated goal is to instill the Qur’an and Sharia Law as the foundations of an Islamic government. An Islamic government under Sharia Law cannot be good for Mrs. Clinton’s Women’s Crusade. Yet, she supported them! 

Mrs. Clinton, the person who wants to lead the free world, believes that our intervention in Libya was 'a good thing.' Indeed, Benghazi was a good thing! On September 11, 2012, an Islamic terrorist group, Ansar al-Sharia, in Benghazi, murdered the United States Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. At no time did Libyan security forces intervene to protect U.S. personnel or property in accordance with International Law.

More importantly, Mrs. Clinton did nothing. In fact, she deep-six requests for military support to save the life of her Ambassador and the men who tried to save him. In the 2008 Presidential Election Campaign, Mrs. Clinton asked the American people: "It's 3 a.m., and your children are safe and asleep ... But there's a phone in the White House, and it's ringing ... who do you want answering the phone?" Mrs. Clinton got that phone call. It was not 3 a.m., but 3 p.m. in the afternoon. And, she was not in the White House, but the State Department. Mrs. Clinton didn't answer that call. Rather, she preferred to let Americans be murdered. Unfortunately for the American people, with Mrs. Clinton domestic politics is everything, and there was an election in two months. Do you really want Mrs. Clinton to take another phone call on behalf of the American people?

In short, Mrs. Clinton puts Americans in harm's way and leaves them to die, when it interferes with her political agenda. Then lies and destroys evidence to cover-up her despicable acts. Libya is a foreign policy failure. We removed a secular dictator, who had renounced terrorism and a nuclear weapons program, to give birth to an Islamic terrorist nation.

Mrs. Clinton’s standing in the Obama Administration can be briefly summarized. On the one hand, it may be argued that Mrs. Clinton being appointed by Barack Obama was obligated to carryout his policies. Yet, on the other hand, Mrs. Clinton was Mr. Obama’s principle foreign policy advisor. The US Secretary of State is responsible for setting the foreign policy agenda and implementing the chosen options. Failure is failure. Moreover, if Mrs. Clinton was vehemently opposed to Mr. Obama’s policies – she could have resign.

She did not resign. She did not even take exception to the Obama Administration's foreign policy. She was a principle actor in the Benghazi cover-up. She can run, but she can't hide. Her guilt as an architect of today's world chaos is undeniable, except to the delusional.

Obama Brings Ebola to the U.S.

You think the Obama Administration wants to “Change,” err destroy America? Well, if you weren’t sure by now, you just got your answer – Yes!

Opening up the southern border to communicable diseases, Mexican Drug Cartels, and Islamic Jihadist wasn't quite doing it. So now Mr. Obama takes the unprecedented decision to bring Ebola, the world's most deadly communicable disease, to the United States and the North American Continent.

Why? For the purpose, we were told, of "potentially" saving two U.S. citizens. Who on arrival, are not near death's door, but are in “serious but stable condition.” In fact, video of the first to arrive, Dr. Kent Brantly, showed him not on a stretcher, but walking in a hazmat suit from the ambulance that transported him to Emory University Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia. He is the first person, ever, to be infected with the Ebola virus to be on U.S. soil.

But Government officials and health experts tell us not to be worried. CDC Director, Dr. Tom Frieden, explained the infected patients pose little risk to others. Then why have over one hundred health workers in Africa, in biohazard suits been infected?

Dr. Frieden further proffers that "these are American citizens. American citizens have a right of return.”  From the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, whose primary mission is to protect the health and safety of the nation through disease prevention and control, this is an alarming statement. In other words, an American citizen has the “right” to return to the United States with the world’s deadliest communicable disease.

The CDC, it should be noted, was originally an agency within the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS). The USPHS was founded 1798. Its earliest mission was the care of sick and disabled seamen in USPHS established hospitals. But more significantly to the matter at hand, in 1878, the USPHS mission was expanded to take on control of infectious diseases, including quarantine, which previously had been a state function. As immigration increased, in the late 19^th century, the USPHS took on the responsibility.

Yet today, the Director of the CDC proclaims that a U.S. citizen has a “right” to return to the United States, to a hospital of his/her choosing with the world’s deadliest communicable disease – Ebola. No Government quarantine required.

Today we learn that a Tennessee doctor, Alan Jamison MD, working at the same Liberian clinic as Dr. Kent Brantly, returned home to Morristown, Tenn., after he was evacuated from Liberia by the aid group he was volunteering (for). Dr. Jamison, a retired pediatrician, says he's "well" and asymptomatic. Apparently, Dr. Jamison has put himself in quarantine in his home. I guess the Obama Administration did not get the memo on who is responsible in this county to quarantine an individual for communicable diseases. That was not meant as a joke.

Finally, today, Dr. Frieden lectured the American public that he ‘certainly hopes people’s fear doesn’t trump their compassion.’ Where have we heard that “compassion” thing recently? Yes, in conjunction with the massive illegal immigration on our Nation’s southern border. I wonder if the Obama Administration is following U.S. Code, Section 34.3 of 42 CFR Part 34[1]? Should not Dr. Frieden be concerned that thousands of illegal immigrants from Central America are not only on American soil, but are being dispersed to all parts of the United States?

Still, we are told not to worry. The United States Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) will be there to ensure our safety. Never mind that just in the last months, the CDC: 

1.             Mishandled live anthrax;

2.            Misplaced live smallpox;

3.            Mislabeled influenza virus that had been cross-contaminated 
         with the highly deadly H5NI strain of bird flu.

Words escape me to describe the pandemic potential this moronic and inept decision by the Obama Administration can bring to the America people. And who stands between a catastrophic pandemic and us? The CDC and the Obama Administration.

If this doesn't bring America to its senses (remove Obama), than maybe it is time that the surplus population is removed. 

Author: Lawrence S. Schneiderman is a Capt. USPHS (Ret.), an International Consultant, and Dr. of Public Policy, Vanderbilt University. The views expressed are his own.

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[1] This provision provides specific screening and testing requirements for diseases that meet the definition of a communicable disease of public health significance.