"PANEM ET CIRCENSES": WHATEVER HAPPENED TO REAL STATESMEN?

The beginning of my disillusionment with President Barack H. Obama began quite early in 2009, when I heard him speaking on Iran and Afghanistan.  During those talks, he declared that the vernacular of both countries was Arabic.  As someone who had spent a great deal of time in the Middle East and had also visited Central Asia, I was appalled.  Perhaps, I thought, he or his speech writers were confused.  But, as time went on, several of his subsequent speeches were marred by similar instances of inaccurate information.

Eventually, I simply threw up my hands and cried out, "What have we done?"  To think that someone coming out of the thuggish politics of Chicago who had his most productive employment as a "community organizer" and had passed a mere 2 years in the Senate would be an effective chief executive was nothing more than a pipe dream.

That we have twice elected Barack H. Obama to the highest office in this land speaks volumes about America in the 21st century.  Perhaps there were many who wished to believe they were "good people" and wanted to see a minority president as proof of the exceptional quality of the nation and its citizens.  However, I fear that the basis for the election of our 44th president goes far more deeply and is, on reflection, somewhat disturbing, although capable of remediation.

As one who has never been far from the study of history in his lifetime, I often find myself engaged in attempting to find past parallels to the state of today's society, although that, admittedly, can be a dangerous preoccupation.  Unfortunately, one hears more and more lately talk of deterioration and decline.  The Spenglerian liberals and progressives now in  power seem convinced of imminent American failure, following the example of Europe to rack and ruin.  And it appears that they see themselves as the modern day equivalent of British Labourites, who ushered the Empire to the dustbin of history.  But, to me, this is nothing short of begging the question.

Dear readers, decline is nothing more than a mindset.  If we were of a mind, for example, to destroy ourselves, then  an interpretation of our plight based on a pessimistic view of the future would likely be valid.  To be sure, there are infinite numbers of  interpretations to explain the decrepitude of civilizations.  Certainly, in our case, we could speak to civic breakdown and even refer to being inundated by legions of newcomers having nothing to contribute to the established order, nor any frame of reference to even relate to it.  Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that the remedy to our present desolate course is at hand.

By now, owing to serial crises and scandals ranging from government shutdown to Benghazi and the IRS to attacks on the 1st Amendment and a free press, the minds of Americans are beginning to gauge the seriousness of of the shortcomings of the Obama administration, which has exploited its "rock-star" image to conceal and deceive.  And, despite the all-too-apparent sham and fraud of the charlatans surrounding the president, our rock-star-in chief persists in drawing more acolytes to his altar of self-adulation..  On what basis, for example, could a chief executive of a great country nominate a shallow-minded pseudo-intellectual, who has compared the policies of her country to those of Nazi Germany to represent us in the U.N.?  And to cap it off, how could it be acceptable to move a prevaricating, failed U.N. ambassador to the White House to advise the president on security matters?

Yes, dear readers, many of us were taken in by the mask of duplicity and deceit.  But now the mask is off, and we have looked political extremism, opportunism and power-seeking in the eye, seeing it for what it is..  Thankfully, the antidote is in our hands, and our 1st opportunity to remedy the situation will arise in November 2014.  At that time, we must be ready to repudiate the disaster of Barack H. Obama and the minions of his administration!  Let us rally to join together at the polls to return sanity, American principles and competence to the United States of America!

Deo vindice!

INNOCENTS ABROAD: WHO CARES ABOUT BENGHAZI, ANYWAY?

How embarrassed I was when I saw photographs of the president of my country bowing to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.  Having lived for six years in the Kingdom and having met and interacted with a couple of that land's some 5,000 princes of the royal blood, I had passed the muster of protocol by simply nodding and politely shaking hands while saying, "Sir, I am honored to meet you."

As citizens of a republic, we do not acknowledge any sort of fealty to royalty by deed or by word.  Indeed, it was a quandary in the early history of our republic as to how our presidents would be addressed.  Appropriately, the practice was sanctioned that we would refer to the holder of our highest office as "Mr. President."  This custom embodies the spirit of a republic in which, at least theoretically, no man is above the law.

Unfortunately, it is more and more common to find authorities at the highest levels of our government who seem totally unfamiliar with history and how their lack of knowledge, along with the  symbolism which they mangle or ignore, redounds to the disadvantage of their fellow citizens.  A case in point is that of Lieutenant  General (retired) James Clapper, who serves the present administration in Washington as Director of National Intelligence.

It was General Clapper who, during the ill-fated "Egyptian Spring" of early 2011, demonstrated the depth and breadth of his "intelligence" by defining the Muslim Brotherhood as an "umbrella term for a variety of movements...a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence...."  Oh, my goodness, where was the good general when the political science courses he received credit for at the University of Maryland and St. Mary's were covering  the Middle East?  Apparently, the general was never familiar with the motto of the Muslim Brotherhood: "The Koran is our law, and Jihad is our way."  Neither, it seems, was he familiar with numerous acts by the Brotherhood against secular Egyptian governments, including the assassination of Anwar Sadat.

With greenhorns like General Clapper riding herd on our Middle East intelligence, it is remarkable that there have not been even more blunders, as if Benghazi itself was not failure enough to deep-six most administrations. Would it not be feasible for our National Intelligence Director to have been considering what the role of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood might have been in next-door Libya? Was Clapper even aware that there was an American consulate located in Benghazi?  And, will our government ever come clean with its citizens as to what actually happened at Benghazi?

In 100 years hence, what will historians considering the American Republic have to say about its citizens and their government?  That they were derailed by contentious social issues and neglected basics such as foreign affairs, the economy and defense; and, along the way, allowed bumblers and stumblers to shape crucial policy?  That the great goal of "E Pluribus Unum" was shattered by greed and selfishness, so that the Republic, splintered into a melange of snarling interest groups, lapsed into a system of autocracy and discarded its constitution?  May God forbid!

Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth,
Proverbs 17: 24