Prager U: America's 2nd War of Independence, Brian Kilmeade

Film discussion: "The Price of Peace"

Recorded on March 22, 2018 

Leading up to the onset of World War II, western democracies like Britain and France viewed a policy of appeasement toward Germany as the path of wisdom and restraint. It seemed prudent to make concessions to aggressors if it meant avoiding a bloody war. When Nazi Germany rearmed the Rhineland, annexed Austria, and seized an area of Czechoslovakia, the British and French response came in the form of paper: the Munich Agreement, which conceded these territories to Germany under the condition they make no land grabs. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared to a cheering crowd that the agreement meant “peace for our time.” 

Concessions often bring about peace in the short term, defusing tensions for a while… but the aggressor’s initial demands are not forgotten and, in fact, they are often bolstered by newfound doubts about their enemies’ resolve. As such, a greater conflict ensues. This was the case in 1939 when Germany broke the still-new Munich Agreement and invaded Poland, starting World War II. 

The lesson of deterrence is one which is hard-learned time and time again. Hoover Institution Research Fellow Kiron Skinner and Claudia Rosett sit down for a discussion moderated by Mary Kissel about the film "The Price of Peace" and lessons that can be drawn from it.

Churchill: The Man Who Saved the Free World

Father Capodanno: Ultimate Missionary of Mercy

From The Remnant today:

A Remnant Audio Article

Tired of open season on Catholic priests? Sick of the distorted image of modern, weak and emasculated priests tainting the memory and the legacy of the hundreds of thousands of heroic priests of the past? It's time to tell the stories of real Catholic priests, both in the past and living today. Father Vince Capodanno is one of them. He offered the old Latin Mass every day, gave his life for his friends on the battlefield, and is the ultimate 'missionary of mercy.' Here's his story, narrated by Michael J. Matt

Uncommon Knowledge: America’s Will to Lead

Watch as 1000 years of European borders change timelapse map

From Fr. Z's Blog today.

A Plan To Defeat ISIS

HAPPY 240TH BIRTHDAY UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

Memorial Day: Remembering Those Who Died

NATIONAL WW II MEMORIAL

Dr. Kathy Platoni on The Fort Hood Disgrace

Dr. Kathy Platoni, a clinical psychologist, retired Army colonel, and Fort Hood survivor, wrote today in the Wall Street Journal
an excellent summary of the total miscarriage of justice known as the Fort Hood Workplace Violence incident.   Her essay is a virtual indictment of the former supervisors of Nidal Hasan, the senior Army officers and civilians at the pentagon at the time, and three successive secretaries of defense, for refusing to acknowledge the massacre as a terrorist attack.  Anyone who would defend the politically correct behavior of those just mentioned, should harken to the instruction given to such blind allegiance to the indefensible : "Dispute the facts!"
You can read Dr. Platoni's entire essay by clicking on the above hyperlink, but herewith some pertinent snippets:

It was more than five years ago that the gunshots rang out, but those of us who survived can still hear their echoes. On Nov. 5, 2009, an Army psychiatrist named Nidal Hasan—an American radicalized by extremist Islamic beliefs—opened fire on his fellow soldiers in Fort Hood, Texas, killing 14 people, including an unborn child, and wounding 32...

At about 1:34 p.m., Hasan, seated in a building on base and armed with an FN five-seven pistol and a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver, paused to bow his head. Then he stood up from behind a cubicle, shouted “Allahu akbar!” (God is great) and began spraying bullets throughout the room... 

Hasan took direct aim at those in uniform, including 21-year-old Pvt. Francheska Velez, who had disarmed bombs in Iraq and recently learned she was nine weeks pregnant...

Hasan’s goal was to kill as many soldiers as possible. He was cold-eyed and systematic. We should have seen him coming...

The FBI and the Defense Department possessed sufficient information, collected over several years, to have detected Hasan’s radicalization. During his training, Hasan routinely and unmistakably violated strict standards by communicating with suspected terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki—email that the FBI intercepted. In 2007 he was required for his residency to give a scholarly psychiatric presentation. Instead he lectured on Islam, stating that nonbelievers should be beheaded and set on fire, and suggested that Muslim-Americans in the military pose a risk of fratricide. In another talk, Hasan justified suicide bombings on grounds that the U.S. is at war with Islam...

It is a gross miscarriage of justice that no one who supervised the shooter—overlooked his behavior and promoted him—has been held accountable. That the massacre is still labeled an incident of workplace violence committed by a disgruntled employee is delusional and contemptible. Because the massacre was not recognized as a terrorist attack, victims were deemed ineligible for combat-injury benefits, the Purple Heart, and its civilian counterpart, the Defense of Freedom medal. Three successive defense secretaries refused to change this designation, and five years passed...

Survivors of the massacre and the families of the dead are now finding some measure of justice. Congress has rewritten the language governing fallen warriors, and Army Secretary John McHugh has announced that Fort Hood victims will receive long-overdue medals. They will be offered burial plots at Arlington National Cemetery and compensation pay upon retirement. But further details remain unclear...

The victims of Nidal Hasan were denied pay, benefits and recognition because our leaders refused to acknowledge what the massacre clearly was: an act of terror by an Islamic extremist. They said it wasn’t combat, but it sure as hell felt like that. Hasan turned Fort Hood into a battlefield...

Congress has provided an opening to give my fellow soldiers what they are owed. It’s time for the Army to do so.

Words of Relevance: "Mad Dog" Mattis on Telegraphing Plans to the Enemy

James "Mad Dog" Mattis is a retired United States Marine Corps general, who last served as the 11th commander of United States Central Command.  He retired (or was retired) in August 2010.

He testified this past Thursday before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and in his usual fashion did not mince words.  His testimony, part of which was published in today's Wall Street Journal, could be judged a rebuke to the commander-in-chief's penchant for displaying a level of ignorance about waging war thankfully never before observed in someone of that rank.  He addressed the lack of clarity on the part of the current administration regarding the strategy needed to be employed against our latest existential threat.

Here's the quote:

Whichever strategy is chosen, we should be reticent in telling our adversaries in advance any timeline that governs us or which of our capabilities we will not employ.  Specifically, if this threat to our nation is determined to be as significant as I believe it is, we may not wish to reassure our enemies in advance that they will not see American "boots on the ground…"

Words of Relevance: Jeane Kirkpatrick's Prescience and ISIS

Jeane Duane Kirkpatrick (1926-2006) served our country in many capacities before becoming the first woman to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

If we were ever fortunate to have the likes of a Margaret Thatcher serve in our government, it would have been Jeane Kirkpatrick.  To stay with the British meme, her prescience had to rival that of Winston Churchill who was the only man on the planet warning of the coming threat of Nazi Germany in 1934.

A quote from the Introduction to Kirkpatrick's book:   Making War To Keep Peace, published in 2007, a year after her death, provided an example of her prescience and served as a warning of the coming of a threat such as ISIS.

Here's the quote:

We have had ample opportunity in this century of wars and revolutions to observe what happens when violent elites, who espouse coercive ideologies, gain access to the resources of states.  They start with murder and denial of freedom in their own states, and move on to war, which may spill over to their neighbors and sometimes to genocide.

Time to Set The Red Line

This was posted earlier today by Caroline Glick.  To sign the petition, go HERE.

A Warrior's Mother Speaks Out

That's the mother of State Department official Sean Smith, who was killed September 11, 2012 in the terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya.  She appeared with Anderson Cooper on CNN last night.

Marine Aviation is 100 Years Old: Semper Fidelis!

H/T: rutusmc

Marines Taking Care of Marines

True story of the recovery of 19 US Marines Killed in Action on Makin Island in WWII and their return home to Arlington National Cemetery 58 years later. Story: Pat Mendoza. Music arranged by Pat Mendoza Trumpet: Steve Wiest. Singers: the Islanders and Pat Mendoza

One of the most moving videos ever posted on YouTube demonstrates how much Marines believe in taking care of their own.  God bless the U.S. Marines.

SEMPER FIDELIS!

H/T: edscis

Judge Mukasey on Heroic Actions of Presidents

Judge Michael Mukasey is the man who tried the "Blind Sheikh" for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and sentenced him to life in prison.  He also served as the 81st Attorney General of the United States.  He is not one to leap to criticize political or philosophical opponents, but the recent self-aggrandizing statements by our narcissistic president apparently caused him to pick up his pen.

He wrote this Opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal this week, comparing Obama's grandiose credit-grabbing statements with statements by previous presidents who were statesmen.  Herewith some highlights:

The first anniversary of the SEAL Team 6 operation that killed Osama bin Laden brings the news that President Obama plans during the coming campaign to exploit the bragging rights to the achievement. That plan invites scrutiny that is unlikely to benefit him.

Consider the events surrounding the operation. A recently disclosed memorandum from then-CIA Director Leon Panetta shows that the president's celebrated derring-do in authorizing the operation included a responsibility-escape clause: "The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven's hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out."

Which is to say, if the mission went wrong, the fault would be Adm. McRaven's, not the president's. Moreover, the president does not seem to have addressed at all the possibility of seizing material with intelligence value—which may explain his disclosure immediately following the event not only that bin Laden was killed, but also that a valuable trove of intelligence had been seized, including even the location of al Qaeda safe-houses. That disclosure infuriated the intelligence community because it squandered the opportunity to exploit the intelligence that was the subject of the boast...

While contemplating how the killing of bin Laden reflects on the president, consider the way he emphasized his own role in the hazardous mission accomplished by SEAL Team 6:

"I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority . . . even as I continued our broader effort. . . . Then, after years of painstaking work by my intelligence community I was briefed . . . I met repeatedly with my national security team . . . And finally last week I determined that I had enough intelligence to take action. . . . Today, at my direction . . ."

That seems a jarring formulation coming from a man who, when first elected, was asked which president he would model himself on and replied, Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln, on the night after Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender ended the Civil War, delivered from the window of the White House a speech that mentioned his own achievements not at all, but instead looked forward to the difficulties of reconstruction and called for black suffrage...

The man from whom President Obama has sought incessantly to distance himself, George W. Bush, also had occasion during his presidency to announce to the nation a triumph of intelligence: the capture of Saddam Hussein. He called that success "a tribute to our men and women now serving in Iraq." He attributed it to "the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the dictator's footprints in a vast country. The operation was carried out with skill and precision by a brave fighting force. Our servicemen and women and our coalition allies have faced many dangers. . . . Their work continues, and so do the risks."

He did mention himself at the end: "Today, on behalf of the nation, I thank the members of our Armed Forces and I congratulate them."

That is not to say that great leaders, including presidents, have not placed themselves at the center of great events. But generally it has been to accept responsibility for failure...

Dwight Eisenhower is famous for having penned a statement to be issued in anticipation of the failure of the Normandy invasion that reads in relevant part: "My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."

President Obama has had almost four years to "grow in office;" he hasn't.

Military Atheists Battle Air Force on Bibles

The military atheists won't go away.  Now they're objecting to the presence of the Gideon Bibles (which, by the way, are provided free by The Gideons International) in lodging facilities on Air Force bases .

...after a legal review, Air Force officials ruled there is no requirement to have Bibles in the lodging checklist. They added that there were no plans yet to remove the books from Air Force Inns.

"We continue to review the situation and weigh our multiple First Amendment responsibilities and obligations," Air Force Personnel Center spokesman Mike Dickerson said in an email. 

However, the Air Force will no longer require that Bibles be put on its checklist of items in lodging facilities on its bases, so if one should be stolen or turn up missing (wonder who would steal one?), it will not be replaced.  

Military Atheists Stop Another Cross

Members of Marine Lance Cpl. Benjamin Whetstone Schmidt's platoon who recently returned from Afghanistan pose at Camp Pendleton, Calif. with a cross they made as a memorial tribute. Placement of religious symbols at the base has been prohibited while the Marine commandant considers the issue in light of a complaint last year by an atheist group. COURTESY PHOTO

/ SA


The Military Association of Atheists and Free Thinkers has complained again about the erecting of a cross to honor a fallen Marine.  The decision by Marine Commandant James Amos on the two crosses already in place at Camp Pendleton is pending at this writing, and, until that decision is made, the ten foot cross made by the buddies of L/Cpl Benjamin Schmidt will not be planted as planned on "Old Smokey," a mountain overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Here's a link to the story from today's San Antonio paper:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Dispute-grounds-10-foot-cross-3517059.php

If you're unaware of the controversy over the Camp Pendleton crosses, go HERE.

The Camp Pendleton Crosses Must Stay

The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers or MAAF, has objected - AFTER TEN YEARS - to the existence of two crosses erected at Camp Pendleton to honor ALL Marines who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The objection by the MAAF is based on the premise that such symbols are not inclusive, because they honor only Christians.  Such people cannot understand that Christians pray for everybody, regardless of their beliefs.  That, simply, is what Christians do, and atheists and freethinkers (if they pause for a moment and actually think) might come to understand that.  We pray that they do so, and also that Marine Corps Commandant James Amos will emulate the courage of his predecessors by making the right decision, and allow the crosses to stay where they are.

Here's the rest of the story from Fox News:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/12/marines-fight-to-protect-crosses-at-camp-pendleton-as-atheist-groups-seek/