Advice To Obama

When I was younger there were two phrases, both borrowed from sports, advising what to do when things were failing around you. Since I like football and baseball and since it kind of represented the chaos of it all, I combined them. So it became "drop back ten and hit to left". Right now Barack Obama is surrounded by the chaos of his own making. So maybe he should drop back ten and hit to left. At the very least he should stop doing what he is doing.

Whether from ignorance or arrogance he seems not to recognize that he has created his own turmoil. Of course, this was with the help of a feckless and self absorbed Congress. In a short five years, our President has done more harm to this country than I ever imagined possible. And now he stands to double down on misery. There is no overwhelming reason for America to be involved with Syria. This is a middle east conflict. Let the Saudi army and air force go in and do the heavy lifting. It seems every time our people are getting killed in the middle east the Saudis are hiding behind some sand dune. When have they ever spilled blood?

Since WWII we have been involved in far too many conflicts. We always went to war as part of a group. We were never alone. We had faithful allies that were willing to stand with us because they knew we were loyal to them. Today, no one trusts our loyalty. 

Through mishandling and misstatement we have helped to fan the flames of the fire that is the mid east. It is time to call a halt to the meddling that has destabilized that area. There is no plan. There are no goals set. We have telegraphed our moves. It is time to stop and carefully reexamine who we are and where we stand as a country.

I am no isolationist. But it is time to withdraw our troops from the international scene. It is time to bring them home and let the military heal and evaluate what they need to bring us back to a first line power. Not a power to be used. A power to protect. They must be used to protect American interests not be mercenaries for some king or sheikh who's land covers a lake of oil.

We are sitting on enough energy to see us well into the next century. The only reason we are not developing it is a President that bows to those kings and sheikhs and buys into the green movement. America can be and should be self sufficient. We need to get back to a manufacturing economy. America innovates technology. We can use that technology to build high tech manufacturing that is clean and competitive with the slave labor cost of other countries.

Our country has been brought low by mismanagement. Because of Obamacare we are moving to a part time work economy. That is not the America that I grew up in and it is not the America that I want my grand children to live in. This has occurred through the overweening ego of one man and the lack of courage and statesmanship of those that are elected to keep the President in check. Although I don't expect it to happen, I pray that Mr. Obama will see the error of his ways and just stop.

Since I wrote this, yesterday morning, a John Kerry gaff may have bailed Obama out with the help of Vladimir Putin. Isn't it ironic that John Kerry made Obama look like an amateur and Putin like a statesman.