The following was an interview by Rona Barrett in October 1980 just over 39 years ago. He has not changed, except he became fed up that we never found one so he stepped up. Thank you Lord!
Question? Had he not waited for someone to step up and ran for office at 34 and was elected would this have happened? I have my own opinion, what’s yous?
Originally posted 2020-01-19 13:40:42.
I rec’d the following this morning from a Blog to which I subscribe (Bunkerhill – God, Guns, and Guts Comrades). It is a very informative, truthful, well-researched blog filled daily with astounding facts very few are aware of, and this morning’s is a whopper. Today’s blog references an article from The Telegraph, the British News Service, dating back to 15 July 2015. The piece was written by Mr. Con Coughlin, the paper’s Defense Editor on the Iranian Nuclear Deal.
For a decade a more he has been the driving force behind an array of Iranian-sponsored terrorist groups, from Hizbollah to Hamas, which have orchestrated a reign of terror throughout the Middle East.
From a purely British perspective, he was responsible for training and equipping the Shia militias in southern Iraq who killed scores of British troops during the dark days of Iraq’s sectarian conflict following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, and was reported to have trained the Taliban in the art of making deadly roadside bombs that killed and mutilated our Service personnel serving in southern Afghanistan.
So you can imagine my amazement when, leafing through the more obscure annexes of President Barack Obama’s “historic” deal with Iran (page 86 of the annex, to be precise), I found that Mr Suliemani – as the White House no doubt now refers to him – has been granted an amnesty and taken off the list of proscribed Iranians – together with a number of senior members of the Revolutionary Guards.
Thanks to Mr Obama’s scandalous capitulation to Tehran, Mr Suleimani has overnight gone from being one of the world’s most wanted terrorists to the White House’s newest best friend.
This is just one of the many troubling indications contained in the detail of the accord struck in Vienna between the P5 +1 and Tehran – that’s the official line, of course. The reality is this shoddy deal was worked out between the ayatollahs and the White House, with countries like Britain – which used to take a robust view of Iran’s endless procrastination on its nuclear activities – left impotent on the sidelines.
Another example of the craven concessions the White House had made to Tehran is the way future inspections will handled. Iran’s disinclination to make full and transparent disclosures on its nuclear programme is well-documented. Given the opportunity to cheat, they will do so. Which is why inspections by qualified teams of nuclear inspectors is so important.
Only from now on the onus will be on the West to make the case that Iran is not playing by the rules by handing over its intelligence to prove so. For under the terms of the accord, we must “justify” the need for inspections, which in effect means handing over all the intelligence we have on Iran’s illicit activities. Of course Iran has been desperate to find out how Western intelligence learned about the existence of nuclear enrichment sites like Natanz and Fordow and, if we comply with the requirements set out in the accord to the letter, this is what will happen, with all the implications that will have for all our sources who risk their lives to tell us the truth about what the regime is up to.
If I were Suleimani, I’d be organising an enormous party right now to celebrate a deal that is truly a “historic victory” for Tehran.
Should you not believe Mr. Coughlin, you may read the entire piece of trash (below) forced on America by a Muslim loving, narcissistic, incompetent POTUS and brokered by his communist, lying, POS posing as his Secretary of State.
I don’t know about any of you, but I did not know any of this at the time, but there should have been some honest, caring , patriotic Americans at the time who should have been knowledgeable enough to raise holy hell. Now that we have killed the POS someone finds out he was given free reign to do as he pleased by our own hand. Did any of our illustrious MSM take the time to read the entire transcript or did they simply assume if it was brokered by the “Messiah,” it had to be a good deal. Our elected officials, and all the departments of government involved in over site and justice were obviously asleep at the wheel.
What have we become? Sheep!!!
Originally posted 2020-01-13 09:40:26.
If only we could learn from history. An excellent article. A history class for us from a Spanish newspaper – a must read.
What really died at Auschwitz? Here’s an interesting viewpoint. The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodriguez and published in a Spanish newspaper. It doesn’t take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe – and possibly to the rest of the world.
I walked down the streets in Barcelona and suddenly discovered a terrible truth – Europe died in Auschwitz. We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world. The contribution of these people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.
And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.
They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime. Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts. And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition. We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.
What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe.
Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it ‘offends’ the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving in to it.
It is now more than seventy years after the Second World War in Europe ended. Six million Jews, twenty million Russians, ten million Christians, and nineteen-hundred Catholic priests were ‘murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on, and humiliated. Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others, claiming the Holocaust to be ‘a myth,’ it is imperative to make sure the world “never forgets.”
How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center ‘NEVER HAPPENED’ because it offends some Muslim in the United States? If our Judeo-Christian heritage is offensive to Muslims, they should pack up and move to Iran, Iraq or some other Muslim country.
“If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.”
Plato
Wake up America before it’s too late. Questions? Class Dismissed
Originally posted 2018-09-18 10:10:27.
Today is a day that we Marines of yesteryear will never forget. Some of you reading this post may not have even been alive on that dreadful day. It was a day where we as Marines suffered more losses in one day since the battle for that infamous island of Iwo Jima. While I was not there in the heat of all of it, I was impacted indirectly. I was the CO of the Corps’ largest recruiting station at the time, and two of the Marines lost on that tragic day were from Chicago. The city mourned and SgtMaj Collins and I participated in its mourning. Quite a memorable experience for us both. It’s all in “The Book.”
My friend and Marine brother Greg pays tribute to that fateful day. Thank you Greg.
Twenty and Counting By: Greg Maresca
For those not keeping count, it was 20-years ago that this column first appeared in these pages. Through the auspices of the now retired Jake Betz, former editor of The News Item, he gave a fledgling part-time sports’ stringer and broadcaster an opportunity to write a featured op/ed.
Sometimes I wonder if Jake regrets unleashing this space that grew like a cancer – slow at first and then metastasizing to other publications and outlets who were willing to give it a play. That first column has mushroomed to nearly 1,000 was something I debated about writing.
I had possessed no desire to write it but felt compelled. Such an overreaching sentiment would rise like a phoenix about many subsequent issues, questions, and concerns that live rent free within my DNA.
Back in 2003, as the run up to the 20th anniversary of the Hezbollah attack on the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit’s headquarters at the Beirut International Airport approached, I waded through TV guides searching for at least one program on this forsaken piece of American history that should be anything but. Sadly, and to no surprise, there was nothing, no documentary to be seen, heard, or read about. Not one news’ program discussing where the genesis of the War on Terror had its deadly roots firmly planted.
Seemingly, the day was going to innocuously pass like any other.
This was not going to happen on my watch.
There was just too much blood and treasure spent on that fateful early Sunday morning nearly half a world away to not remember. The casualty count on this cowardly suicide attack on the Marine Corps hadn’t been that high since the battle for Iwo Jima. The largest non-nuclear blast since both atomic bombs were unleashed during World War II would claim 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers nestled away in their bunks at 6:22 on that fateful Sunday morning October 23, 1983.
Being a used book aficionado, I found one of the few tomes written on the Beirut deployment in a flea market for the pricy sum of a quarter. The volume was practically brand new, and I wondered if anyone had even read it before being exiled to the flea market circuit. No bookmarks or any notations were found within its pristine binding. The late esteemed military history writer Eric Hammel’s “The Root: The Marines in Beirut” now stands guard over my ever-growing stack of must reads.
John Chipura had quite an incomparable story to tell but never would have the opportunity, but I would. When I read about his tale months after the 9/11 attack, its irony was nauseating. Chipura, a New York City native of Staten Island, was serving in Beirut the day of the attack. He returned unscathed only to meet his end as a member of the NYFD based out of Brooklyn at the World Trade Center nearly 18 years later.
Regrettably, not much has changed as the Middle East remains the graveyard of American foreign policy after years of trying to fashion the region into a stable, peaceful, and prosperous place.
Taking on edgy and provocative issues encouraged me to read widely, while at the same time fostering the principles of an open society and free markets, which are today more important than ever in a culture growing with leftist orthodoxy and fanaticism.
Facts, analysis, and experience are the guide where edification matters more than good intentions or telling folks what they want to hear. You cannot be concerned with what people think, do, or say, since being called into question and criticized is the byproduct and where having the skin and guile of a crocodile is all part of the gig. For those who disagree, the hope is to challenge them with a better understanding of an alternate yet reasoned out perspective.
Putting accuracy ahead of popularity and running counter to the contemporary ethos is both costly personally and professionally. There are plenty who do not care for this column, but thankfully there are also plenty more who do.
Out of fidelity to the truth, certain things must be said and written about.
There is no other way.
Thank you for reading.
Very well said Greg, thank you kind sir!
Another good one from my friend and brother Marine, Greg. Thank you Greg. Yes March Madness is upon us in more ways than one. BTW, the Lady Vols won there first round. LOL. Yeah I know, my bride and I watch Women’s College Basketball. I get ribbed about that a lot, especially from the book’s editor, my best Marine friend, Dennis. He simply cannot understand why I watch the women play but not the men. Because watching 7′ giants beat each other up, while I can watch what basketball used to be many tears ago i.e., the Bulls in their heyday!
By: G. Maresca
Not too long ago, March madness meant college basketball rather than nuclear brinkmanship.
By not winning quickly and outright in Ukraine, former Russian president, and prime minister Dmitri Medvedev, a Putin hand puppet, wasted no time threatening the West saying Russia could rip up its nuclear agreements. Putin endorsed such malfeasance by placing his nuclear forces on heightened alert saying we may face “consequences you have never seen.”
In doing so, Russia placed the once remote possibility that tactical nuclear weapons could be exploited on the battlefield making what was once inconceivable, anything but. Moreover, BCA Research set the odds of a “civilization-ending global nuclear war” over the next year at an “uncomfortably high 10%.”
Russia telegraphed their intentions when troops seized the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant that in 1986 produced the planet’s worst nuclear accident.
Russia is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency where an attack against any nuclear facility committed to civilian power production is a violation of governance. This breach is also included in the United Nations Charter, and the Geneva Conventions.
Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility, Europe’s biggest, triggered a fire in the plant’s administrative building that fortunately did not affect the facility’s six nuclear reactors or produce a radiation leak. This flagrant assault was nothing short of a war crime proving that conventional weapons are far from the only option available in the Russian arsenal.
Putin made it clear for years what he intended to do given his invasion of Georgia and the Crimea proving he has no intention of stopping until his objectives are met. Having NATO intervene to defuse a nuclear disaster risks further escalation but at some point, may be necessary.
Provided Russia captures all of Ukraine’s nuclear reactors it would hold Ukrainians hostage by manipulating the energy supply where small armed detachments would protect the reactors is certainly strategically feasible.
No nation is sovereign without energy independence of which nuclear plays a major role. President Biden voluntarily surrendered ours in exchange for Russian and Middle Eastern oil. American environmentalists approve of fossil fuels provided they come from such perilous places where tyrants like Putin are able to finance their evil.
Provided Ukraine’s nuclear facilities are unsecure, its spent radioactive matter will risk a nuclear catastrophe far beyond Ukraine’s borders. Ukrainians are diligently laboring in the middle of a war to keep the reactors safely operating – unsung heroes in a crusade teeming with them. Ukrainians need an abundance of aid on many levels most especially securing their nuclear power plants and the radioactive material they produce.
Putin’s invasion is not just about returning Ukraine to the Russian fold, but a siege on the international order that for decades has worked to safeguard the peaceful use of nuclear power.
By closing in on Ukraine’s nuclear power plants that total 15 reactors at four sites, Russia rather than the contracted Westinghouse Electric, will profit from Ukrainian nuclear fuel that they had been supplying. What garnered little media attention is the fact that Westinghouse was in the planning stages to build at least five nuclear reactors in Ukraine over the next two decades. According to the World Nuclear Association, that enterprise is worth more than $30 billion for Westinghouse, an American company.
What kept nuclear war at bay during the longstanding Cold War era was M.A.D. — Mutually Assured Destruction. Both the U.S. and Soviet Union knew that any nuclear launch would be returned and annihilate both countries. However, it is another thing entirely to confront a potential nuclear conflict when one side believes it can win.
Russia is not the only American adversary that could employ its nuclear arsenal as a buffer for a conventional invasion. China is modernizing and multiplying its nuclear forces and covets Taiwan the way the Russians do Ukraine. Regarding Ukraine, the Chinese are trying to appear neutral, but in actuality are Russia’s co-conspirator.
The war raging throughout Ukraine should alarm the international community to reassess suppressing nuclear weapons. Failing to take heed to such a benevolent cause will lead to another and unnecessary nuclear arms race.
Add to this toxic mix, the nuclear starved Iranian mullahs – religious zealots possessed with an Islamic apocalyptic mentality – where “mutually assured destruction” is not a deterrent, but an incentive.
