Op-ed:
The Generals, the Cabinet, and the Lefts Anything but Righteous Indignation
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots on American Political Radio bit.ly/2cpXuRd
"America is today the strongest, most influential, and most productive nation in the world."
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president and retired general
There’s always something for the left to whine about especially when it plays off the fact that Hillary Clinton is not now nor will she ever be president. Her time playing in the political arena is over...a crushing Electoral College vote has seen to that...the best thing she can do is move on with her life both for her sake and for ours...but unfortunately neither she nor those in her orbit want to do that as they actually relish in continuing a fight they cannot win.
Not accepted the fact that Donald J. Trump will be our next president come January 20th, Hillary, her shills via Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein and her die-hard supporters, having spent millions of our hard earned taxpayer dollars on useless recount efforts that changed the election outcome not one little bit, have now had their kumbaya sensibilities upset by the fact that Trump has chosen three generals for key cabinet positions...4-star (ret.) General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis for Defense Secretary, 4-star (ret.) Marine General John Kelly for Homeland Security Secretary, and 3-star (ret.) Army Lt. General Michael Flynn for National Security Adviser...all good men who understand not just the intricacies of the war that we are currently fighting but who understand who the true enemy is...islam.
And while many on the Democratic side of the aisle along with the usual rooster of sell-outs on our side...Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham come immediately to mind...question Trump’s choices even though the military is paramount to keeping us safe and free at home...even though our military leaders are now more trusted and respected than any politician currently in office. And while the misinformed say that our Constitution favors civilian leadership over military leadership what they don’t get is that history itself shows otherwise. Many who wore our nation’s uniform have served not just as members of a president’s cabinet but were war heroes, and others actually having become president...in fact, three of our presidents have not only served in the military but have seen the face of war up close as commanding generals.
Let’s start a brief history lesson with George Washington...a man who was a retired general by the time he became our nation’s first president...a man who served in the Continental Army, in the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War, and was a commanding general during the American Revolution. 18th president Ulysses S. Grant was the commanding general who led the Union Armies to victory over the Confederacy in America’s Civil War. And America’s 34th president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, was the commanding general of the victorious allied forces in Europe during World War ll, as well as being the general who obtained a truce in Korea.
"Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country."
- President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, war hero
And a few of our most beloved modern-day presidents themselves were war heroes or volunteered to serve. Our 35th President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a WWll war hero, we all know the story of PT-109 where despite his serious injuries he led the boat’s survivors through perilous shark and Japanese infested waters to safety. And George H.W. Bush, our 41st president was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery in action during WWll. And dare we forget that one of America’s greatest and most beloved of presidents, Ronald Reagan, was the man whose demanding that then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev “tear down that wall,” led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and was himself a U.S. Army Reservist and WWII volunteer.
And know that other presidents served in our military as well ranging from Thomas Jefferson to Andrew Jackson to Chester A. Arthur to Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush amongst just a few who honorably and proudly wore our nation’s uniform.
Now as far as generals serving specifically in presidential cabinets, many post WWll presidents have appointed generals to their cabinet without a peep from the naysayers. Barack HUSSEIN Obama had four-star Marine General Jim Jones as his first National Security Adviser and nominated retired four-star Army General Eric Shinseki for Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Obama also appointed retired four-star Marine General John Allen as U.S. envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, in addition to having had General David Petraeus as head of the CIA, General Jim Jones as National Security Adviser and, in succession, Admiral Dennis Blair and General James Clapper as Director of National Intelligence. George W. Bush, had four-star Gen. Colin Powell as his Secretary of State, and under his dad George H.W. Bush, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft became National Security Adviser and later Bush’s Chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. And let’s not forget that President Reagan chose retired four-star Army General Alexander Haig to serve as his Secretary of State.
And not to be overlooked is the fact that President Ulysses S. Grant's Secretary of War, Secretary of the Navy, and Vice-President (all cabinet positions at the time) had been Civil War generals. And Rutherford B. Hayes appointed two former Union generals to his Cabinet, as did William McKinley.
“Appointing too many generals would throw off the balance of a system that for good reason favors civilian leadership.”
- The New York Times’ writer and uber liberal Carol Giacomo
And so the simple fact is that generals serving in presidential cabinets is nothing new nor is it unique to the future Trump administration, and the Democrats, their media-generated minions and cronies, and the RINOs amongst us, need to understand that their appointments in no way is intended to negate time-honored “civilian control” nor “civil-military relations,” especially when military experience is a tactical plus in today’s world...in a world where civilian control of the military is becoming an obsolete concept in light of on-going and escalating islamic terrorism. We need...we must have...strong military leaders who will go in, take out the trash, and get the job done...we do not need some kumbaya political hack who in a time of war cowardly wants to continue on with Obama’s failed strategy of trying to win the “hearts and minds” of an enemy they still will not name instead of their seeing America as the victor over those wanting to kill us all.
“They passed the test of life.”
– President-elect Donald J. Trump in last Sunday’s Chris Wallace interview defending his choice of generals for key cabinet positions
See full interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zor-2pJ5B4U
And yet the conflict over the generals continues on. Let’s start with the Democrats and the naysayers on our side zeroing in on General Mattis’s nomination as Secretary of Defense. Claiming this nomination butts heads with a federal law intended to help preserve the afore mentioned “civilian control” of the armed forces, they cite said law that no one who has served on active duty within the last 10 years can lead the Pentagon, and that the Defense Department itself actually bans military officers from serving as Secretary of Defense for seven years after serving in active duty. But what’s forgotten or simply ignored is that a waiver can be obtained from Congress to circumvent that law...and in the case of General ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis that would be the right thing to do for no one recognizes who the true enemy is better than General Mattis.
“Is political Islam in the best interest of the United States?…If we won’t even ask the question then how do we even get to the point of recognizing which is our side in the fight? And if we don’t take our own side in this fight we’re leaving others adrift.”
- General Mattis in a speech before the Heritage Foundation late last year
And with Mattis’ understanding that islam is indeed a political system and not a religion...with his knowing that neither islam nor the sharia has any place in America... Trump has rightful confidence that General Mattis intends to correct the mistakes of Obama and his administration who had and still has America pursuing a policy of “leading from behind” while ignoring America’s interests abroad...an administration who still refuses to say the enemy’s name let alone kill them...an administration who still has political correctness being the order of the day for to them America was and remains a colonist power that must be stopped no matter that it’s political islam...that it’s islam...that’s gobbling up countries as it strives for total world domination...as it strives for the fruition of the caliphate via their terrorist armies and an invasion of foreign lands by those who are anything but refugees.
And contrary to the bloviations of some talking heads who are joining in what amounts to an anti-Mattis movement...for ratings perhaps...a waiver for General Mattis is indeed highly possible for precedence has already been set with the waiver granted to General George Marshall, the man who in 1950 became head of the Pentagon, a mere three years after the military officer ban was put in place.
In nominating General Mattis for Secretary of Defense, Donald J. Trump has appointed a proven leader of men...after all Mattis was the 11th Commander of the United States Central Command from 2010-2013 (the Unified Combatant Command responsible for American military operations in the Middle East, Northeast Africa, and Central Asia)...and is a man who has both strategic understanding of the enemy and the know how to deal with not just the enemy called islam but with all those working against America and our allies...especially those working against Israel whom Mattis strongly supports.
“Obama and Hillary's Refusal to Name Radical Islamic Terrorism: Aiming to 'Dumb Us Down...”
- Lt. General Michael Flynn on why he supported Donald Trump from day one
Now as for Trump’s pick of registered Democrat 3-star (ret.) Army Lt. General Michael Flynn for National Security Adviser...the very man who headed military intelligence in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2011 and who was fired by Obama as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency because he refused to spout Obama’s untrue line that islamist militants were in retreat...the main concern with him as per the left appears to be that during the presidential campaign two former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff criticized Lt. General Flynn for intervening in politics (translation: working as Donald Trump’s foreign policy adviser instead of showing party loyalty to both Obama and Hillary) and for what he calls “militant islam” and “the rational fear of muslims” being the eminent “existential threat” to America.
And when you couple that with the fact that Flynn has called for any and all actions to be used to stop “militant islam” and the muslim invasion...and he’s right on the mark for it’s now come down to kill them before they kill us...you just know why the left wants anybody but General Flynn in that position. But know they can do not a thing about this pick as the person chosen for National Security Adviser does not have to be approved by Congress. Score another one for our side.
See General Flynn’s tweet “Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL...” and the video about just that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJnW8HRHLLw
Also, the left fears that with Flynn’s (rightful) militant stance against islam together with his anything but kumbaya world views helping to shape Trump’s military and foreign policy, might just have a negative effect on civilian-military relations...something I do not believe for allowing our military to do what they were trained to do can only improve said civilian-military relations as it gives the civilian population one less thing to worry about. But why does the left feel that way... because Flynn has not been shy in saying that he believes we are already in a “world war” with “militant islam”and that we must work together with any and all willing allies to win that fight, including with Russian President Vladimir Putin...and we all know the left...from Soros to Obama to Hillary and on down...blames Russia and Putin for all their woes.
But the fact is that Lt. General Flynn is right...America cannot win this battle alone nor must we be forced to.
“The relative ease with which human smugglers moved tens of thousands of people to our nation’s doorstep shows that these smuggling routes are a potential vulnerability to our homeland... terrorist organizations could seek to leverage those same smuggling routes to move operatives with intent to cause grave harm to our citizens or even bring weapons of mass destruction into the United States.”
- Marine General John Kelly speaking before the U.S. Senate
And the last of Trump’s military nominations is (ret.) Marine General John Kelly for Homeland Security Secretary, the very department responsible for enforcing U.S. immigration laws, as well as a number of important agencies including the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). General Kelly is the former head of U.S. Southern Command, and is the man who stood strong against Obama during his attempts to close Gitmo. Also, General Kelly remains an outspoken critic of both Obama’s and Congress’ laze-faire attitude towards Latin America, instead calling for more money, drones, and warships to aid in the fight against the flood of refugees, drugs, and weapons coming into our country from all of Latin America not just from Mexico.
And Kelly warned Obama...but it of course fell on deaf ears...that Russia, China, and Iran are getting a bit too cozy with Latin American governments, and that many terrorist groups, ISIS being but one, have now started recruiting members in Caribbean nations that do not have the ability to track down or prevent them from being smuggled into the U.S...do not have the ability to stop them from bringing terrorism to our shores.
And all this makes Kelly a good fit for Trump who has said since day one that the lack of security along our southern border encourages terrorism and crime...yet he’s also right in saying that “No wall will work by itself”...something I have said since day one for all a wall will do is slow down the flow of those wanting in, for those wanting in will always find ways to go over, under, or around a wall.
So what is the left’s problem with General Kelly...first, he is strong proponent of maintaining a civil-military divide not having the two meld together something the Democrats desperately want. Second, Kelly called what he referred to as the “media elite” to task for “set[ting] up the ‘know it all’ chattering class to offer their endless criticism” of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars...wars he definitely supported. And third, Kelly dared to question the patriotism of ‘unnamed elites’ and rejected the support of anyone who did not back the wars themselves, saying veterans “hold in disdain those who claim to support them but not the cause that takes their innocence, their limbs, and even their lives.”
And we all know the truth about the left’s decidedly anti-military stance now don’t we.
And so the bottom line remains that Donald J. Trump’s nominating generals for key positions in his cabinet is a very wise move for the positions they are being tapped for are positions whose bottom line is war...both protecting the homeland from war coming to our shores and deciding if a given war is winnable or just the spilling of more American blood in the name of those who do not like us very much. And with the generals personally knowing the horrors of war you just know that whatever decision they reach will be in America’s best interests alone...and that is how it should be and how it should have always been. Case closed.
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RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE!
Today, Friday, December 16th, from 7 to 9pm EST on American Political Radio, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori will discuss why Trump appointed generals to key cabinet positions, America's culture decline, and the Russian's did NOT do it!
Hope you can tune in at: bit.ly/2cpXuRd