‘I Didn’t Join to Be Sacrificed’: US Troop Deaths in Afghanistan Skyrocket Under Obama

Leah Barkoukis / Townhall Columnist

U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan have skyrocketed under President Obama. Since 2009, 73 percent of all U.S. deaths in the country have taken place, amounting to 27.1 fatalities per month, on average. Billy and Karen Vaughn, Gold Star parents of Special Operations Chief (SEAL) Aaron Vaughn who was killed in action in 2011, are speaking out about why.

U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan are now forced to fight a two-fronted war. Before each deployment, these soldiers understand fully that day after day they will do battle against relentless terrorists with shifting loyalties and unspeakable hatred. But what none of them could have foreseen was the killing field that would open from their rear: the Continental United States. 

Our government’s incessant tightening of already restrictive ROE (Rules of Engagement), compounded by the failed COIN (Counterinsurgency) strategy—also known as “winning hearts and minds”—has made an otherwise primitive enemy formidable.

Our best and brightest come home in body bags as politicians and lawyers dine over white linen tablecloths; writing, modifying, and re-modifying these lethal rules. Rules that favor the enemy rather than the American soldier. Rules so absurd they’re difficult to believe until you hear the same stories over and again from those returning from battle.

Rep. Louie Gohmert has spoken out about the current ROE and COIN, which are so restrictive he doesn’t see the “merit in the potential further sacrifice and loss of American lives in Afghanistan.

This sentiment is echoed by some members of the military as well. The Vaughns continue (emphasis mine):

“In a delicate discussion with an Army Ranger who recently left the military, we heard the following: “I had to get out. I have a family who needs me. I didn’t join to be sacrificed. I joined to fight.”” 
 
Under the current ROE, U.S. troops cannot fire without first confirming that a Taliban fighter is armed, even if they are sure the target is the enemy.

And if they violate these rules, troops fear being court martialed, imprisoned, or kicked out of the service all together. “The last thing a warfighter should ever be forced to experience is unnecessary fear,” the Vaughns write. “Fear creates hesitation. Hesitation creates flag-draped caskets. Flag-draped caskets create fatherless children, widowed wives, and childless parents. Our heroes deserve the right to fight with swift hands, clear minds, and confident hearts.”

Retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Jerry R. Curry sums it up best:

“To the American people an American military life is worth far more than the life of an Afghan soldier or civilian. For the current occupants of the White House and the Administration’s staff it seems to be just the opposite.”

Five Years Later: How's that Wreckovery Working Out?

Michelle Malkin / Townhall Columnist

 

On Feb. 17, 2009, President Obama promised the sun and the moon and the stars. That was the day, five years ago, when he signed the $800 billion "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act." 

President Modesty called it "the most sweeping economic recovery package in our history." He promised "unprecedented transparency and accountability." He claimed the spending would lift "two million Americans from poverty." Ready for the reality smackdown? 

 

The actual cost of the $800 billion pork-laden stimulus has ballooned to nearly $2 trillion. At the time of the law's signing, the unemployment rate hovered near 8 percent. Obama's egghead economists projected that the jobless rate would never rise above 8 percent and would plunge to 5 percent by December 2013. The actual jobless rate in January was 6.6 percent, with an abysmal labor force participation rate of 63 percent (a teeny uptick from December, but still at a four-decade low).
 
Five years after the Recovery Act, 10.2 million people are out of work. The number of able-bodied Americans who have simply given up looking for work or are "not in the labor force (but) who currently want a job" has exploded. By some estimates, a record 90 million-plus people are hopelessly sitting on the sidelines.

The unemployment rate for black Americans is 12.1 percent: nearly double the national rate. The Obama campaign excoriated President George W. Bush when it exceeded 10 percent under his watch.

The black teen jobless rate is now a whopping record 38 percent. Some 50 million Americans remain below the poverty level. And 47 million are now on food stamps, a third more than when Obama first took office in the halcyon days of Hope and Change.

After $150 billion in stimulus and other spending on green energy boondoggles, what does the White House have to show for it? According to The Green Corruption Files blog, 32 Obama-backed environmental firms have gone bankrupt as of February 2014. These include crony-clogged Solyndra at a cost to taxpayers of $535 million; Beacon Power, $240 million; Abound Solar, $400 million-plus; Fisker Auto, $529 million; A123, $250 million; ECOtality, $100 million; and Ener1, $118.5 million.

In addition, 22 other Obama green energy projects are now in dire financial trouble.

Unprecedented transparency? Section 1513 of the Recovery Act required the White House to submit a progress report every three months. Last year, blogger Doug Powers noted: "Under their own guidelines, the administration should have released 14 of these reports by now, but they've only submitted eight of them for public review." Whatevs.

Op-ed: 

Obamacare: the death knell for people with cancer

By: Diane Sori

“‘The chronically ill and those towards the end of their lives account for potentially 80% of the total health care bill. We have to have a very difficult conversation about this." 

- Barack HUSSEIN Obama, April 29, 2009

ObamaCare...passed before it was read by the very same Democrats who are now trying to distance themselves from it.

ObamaCare...a law conceived in the bowels of hell by a man who plays footsie with the devil for only a man of pure evil would willingly and knowingly hurt and punish the most vulnerable amongst us.

ObamaCare...a health care plan whose dictatorial monetary blood-sucking will disproportionately fall on those with serious medical conditions, especially those with cancer. What most people do NOT realize is that ObamaCare contains provisions buried deeply within its thousands of pages that directly zero-in on cancer patients whose treatments self-anointed Dr.Barack HUSSEIN Obama perceives as being too costly. Too costly solely because monies needed to treat cancer patients takes away from the monies needed to supply the freebies and handouts he's promised to those whose party loyalty ObamaCare has bought.

And so ObamaCare has now become a crap shoot for those with cancer, for it will be the Obama decreed 15-member government panel that decides if a cancer patient is worthy of being treated...in other words if they're a good enough risk to spend government money on as they will NOT waste money on someone who is NOT what they deem 'productive' and who will most likely die NO matter what treatment they're given. Bureaucratic God-playing with people's lives...the 'death panels' come to life.

And for me this is personal as my BFF is a cancer survivor...a good friend is on the verge of remission (but NOT quite there yet)...and a very dear friend will most assuredly die if NOT gotten into a clinical trial.

Clinical trials...something that ObamaCare has its 'evil eye' focused on. Many cancer patients unresponsive to conventional treatment do apply for clinical trials for that simply is their last hope for survival. But these are the very patients who should be the most leery of anything even lurking in the shadows of ObamaCare, because their care while in those clinical trials most likely will NOT be covered if it's outside the ObamaCare decreed acceptable network of doctors, specialists, and hospitals. This means the monies needed to stay in the trial will have to come out of their pockets and know that some clinical trials are expensive...very expensive. And the simple fact is that top cancer doctors, specialists, and hospitals involved in clinical trials are backing away from taking any and all ObamaCare sanctioned insurance plans...and rightly so as the ObamaCare plans do NOT even cover the actual cost of what the doctor or hospital lays out, never mind any profits that might have been involved.

And the nature of ObamaCare itself actually makes it harder if NOT impossible for cancer patients to seek out the specialists who are the ones doing the very clinical trials that can save their lives as ObamaCare forces offered health care plans to reduce spending by limiting the doctor choices those cancer patients have. And why...in order to reduce the cost of the insurance policies of those NOT sick whose premiums are needed to meet the cost of those who are sick...the classic case of taking from Peter to pay Paul.

And while Section 2709 of ObamaCare states that, "starting on January 1, 2014, health insurance providers may no longer deny individuals participation in clinical trials, deny coverage of routine costs and services furnished in connection with participation in research, or discriminate against individuals on the basis of participation in clinical trials" it does limit coverage to ObamaCare "approved clinical trials" only...meaning a phase I-IV trial that is federally funded or one that is conducted under review by the FDA...translation: NO independent clinical trials will be covered at all...the very clinical trials that many times are the most successful. But even those ObamaCare sanctioned clinical trials will NOT cover 'investigational products' that are normally supplied by the sponsor...so guess who has to pick-up the costs... once again it's the very patient who is fighting for their life and who has probably already laid out huge sums of money (co-pay expenses) for treatments that did NOT work.

But still 'the sponges' will get any and all things they need for free (they just have to walk into any ER in this country to do so) while cancer patients undergoing treatment will still continue to be cancelled from their current policies, and when forced into ObamaCare they will face outrageous policy cost increases. And while even the terminally ill cannot be denied coverage under ObamaCare they can be denied treatment as per ObamaCare's 'death panels and rationed medicine.' And denying these people treatment with all the expenses involved in keeping them alive is yet another way to keep the costs down for the young healthy people they need to help finance ObamaCare.
 

And don't for a minute think 'death panels' don't exist...they do...they're just NOT called 'death panels' for obvious reasons but are referred to as 'patient review boards.'

And cancer patients are NOT the only ones affected by ObamaCare...MS patients, Parkinson's patients, cystic fibrosis patients, and many others with still incurable diseases will be 'reviewed' by a board of DC bureaucrats to decide who is deserving of cutting edge treatment done through clinical trials and who is NOT... whose life will end with the swipe of a pen and who can live a bit longer. And while these diseases remain incurable the lives of these people can be extended... sometime for years...with the new 'breakthrough' drugs being developed. However, ObamaCare also targets for cuts the very drugs that are at the heart of the clinical trials that just might save those people's lives.

And remember, these diseases know NOTHING of party affiliation...they hit across the political spectrum, the racial spectrum, the economic spectrum, and they hit all age groups, making the fallout from ObamaCare non-discriminatory in who it hurts...and the longer this nightmare of a law is in existence the longer people will suffer and die as they and their families have to deal with ObamaCare's many nefarious ramifications.

So the bottom line is that the millions of Americans who have cancer, as well as those with other debilitating diseases, and who had insurance policies that covered their treatments...including clinical trials....before ObamaCare reared its ugly head will now have to face the dreaded 15-member panel of bureaucratic Obama-sanctioned pencil-pushers who deem themselves God, and who will make the decision of who amongst the severely ill will live and who amongst them will die.

And any system of health care that has the government playing a role...any role...in deciding how much care a person can have at what they have deemed is the end of that persons life is indeed a 'death panel'...period.

It’s All in the Numbers — Not the Human Emotion

Bill Tatro  / Townhall Finance

 

 

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, much like her predecessors and the rest of her current Fed cohorts, is a numbers cruncher. Thus, similar to any corporate executive, multitudes of numbers are presented to Janet for analysis, dissection, and ultimate response on a daily basis.

The Federal Reserve, much like a corporation, simply examines jobs, unemployment, and participation pools as mere numbers. If 113,000 jobs were actually created in January, not just the seasonal adjustment, high-fives would be given all around and Janet would truly be the hero of the day. However, even if we put faces on those jobs and realizing that making a latte, flipping a burger, or declaring “welcome to Walmart” is not exactly what the job market was all about in our country for decade after decade, the numbers still looked really good. Congratulations, Janet.

In 1991, the beloved Eastman Kodak Company — headquartered in my former neck of the woods, Rochester, NY — implemented a program designed to make their workforce feel good about themselves. The employees were not to be fired or discharged; the workers were simply being “downsized.” That word had a much softer feel and I’m sure that some psychological numbers cruncher somewhere said it would do a lot for the morale for those who had just lost their jobs. Unfortunately, bottom line corporate decisions and Federal Reserve policies are predicated only on numbers and words — humanity tends take a back seat.

For corporations today it’s all about the share price of their stock, essentially driven by earnings per share. Thus, company buybacks, reducing outstanding shares, is certainly one technique that comes into play. The other method, and most obvious, is reducing head count, applying tactical strategy, and downsizing, but of course it’s never simply “firing.” Dell recently “let go” 15,000, Texas Instruments “reduced” by 1,500, and fast food chains simply “cut” their employees work schedules to less than 30 hours per week, but there is simply no “firing” here.
 
While they watch the unemployment rate plummet, central bankers are encouraged to open entire cases of Dom Pérignon, but when we look closer and see long lines at the food bank, we realize that we’re only viewing the numbers and there’s a definite separation from reality. Moreover, the number crunchers will attempt to tell you the economy is continuing to roll and that the “faceless” economy is steadily getting much healthier.

Janet Yellen, along with the rest of the Federal Reserve and corporate number crunchers, will continue to scrutinize their daily numbers without any clue that behind those numbers are actual people. Indeed, real individuals who are vitally dependent on the decisions made, and regrettably, these number crunching conclusions are based not on blood, sweat, and tears, but only on the bottom line and the most recent numbers.

U.S. “Chose to Stay Silent” on Muslim Persecution of Christians: November 2013

By: Raymond Ibrahim

 

 

Over at Gatestone Institute, via RaymondIbrahim.com, I continue with the latest from my monthly “Muslim persecution of Christians” series:

The endemic rise of Christian persecution in the Middle East was noted in November when Pope Francis declared “We will not resign ourselves to imagining a Middle East without Christians” and stressed the importance of “the universal right to lead a dignified life and freely practice one’s own faith” after he met with patriarchs from Syria, Iran, and Iraq, all countries where Christian minorities are under attack.

 

On the other hand, powers best placed to do something about the plight of Mideast Christians—namely, the U.S. Obama administration—made it clear that they would do nothing, even when well leveraged to do so.

In November, the wife of American pastor Saeed Abedini, who has been imprisoned in Iran for over a year for practicing Christianity, said she and her family were devastated after learning that the Obama administration did not try to secure the release of her husband as part of the newly signed deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

“The talks over Iran’s nuclear program were seen by his [Abedini’s] family and those representing them as one of the most promising avenues yet for securing his release,” said Fox News. “But the White House confirmed over the weekend that Abedini’s status was not on the table during those talks.”

“I don’t think we have any more leverage,” said Abedini’s wife. “We now have to consider other avenues and having other countries speak out because our country when we could have used our leverage chose to stay silent.”

The rest of November’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and country in alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity: 

Islamic Attacks on Christian Places of Worship 

Lebanon: An unidentified attacker firebombed the reception area of the newly built Christian cathedral of the town’s patron Saint, Mar Zakhya.  Despite the loud boom heard in the town’s main square, there was limited damage; some building material used for the building process of the cathedral was destroyed.  Although Lebanon was Christian-majority in the mid-20th century, today it is roughly 60% Muslim, 40% Christian…Click for entire report

The Shark Tank Breaking News February 13, 2014 - Southerland: Crist’s Race Remark “Shameful and Smacks of Political Opportunism” February 14, 2014 - Rand Paul Has Bold Message For The GOP: “Republicans Will Not Win Again In My Lifetime, Unless…” February 14, 2014 - House Democrats Finally Facing “Cold, Hard” Reality February 14, 2014 - Whining Democrat Congressman Supports Obamacare, But Now Tries To Distance Himself From It February 14, 2014 - Charlie Crist Looking For Love On Valentine’s Day? Home / Featured / In the News / Politics / House Democrats Finally Facing “Cold, Hard” Reality Stabenow-appears-safe-for-third-term House Democrats Finally Facing “Cold, Hard” Reality Posted by: Kristin Tate on February 14, 2014 President Obama and Vice President Biden are expected to speak to 110 Democrat lawmakers today. But bad weather and low turnout has “chilled” the House Democrats’ retreat today. House Democrats are finally beginning to face reality that they will probably remain the minority party, and a simple speech from Obama won’t make things any better. Rep. Jim Himes from Connecticut said, “It’s not pessimism—just as it’s not optimism. It is cold, hard realism.” The National Journal reported, “Democrats are stuck with a legislative wish list—items like immigration reform and a minimum-wage increase—that the GOP majority won’t abide. Meanwhile, legislation that might gain traction, like addressing surveillance issues, is not likely not give Democrats a boost in November. At the same time, Democrats on the campaign trail know they must brace for criticism as part of a do-nothing Congress, even though they are not at the helm, as well as Republican body blows over the Affordable Care Act.” Debbie Wasserman Schutlz gave a private talk at the retreat, but refused to say if she thinks Democrats will be able to become the House majority. She said, “We’re not making predictions.” That’s usually not a good sign. And of course, Nancy Pelosi was present at the meeting, as well. She was there pushing a minimum wage hike to $10.10 per hour. She proposed that this would be done through a discharge petition. Of course, to accomplish this, a majority of House members would be required to sign the petition. So this won’t likely happen. Pelosi and fellow Democrats also pushed for immigration reform. Rep. Xavier Becerra, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus said, “We think that’s not only the right thing to do, it’s time to do it.” The National Journal pointed out, “One thing that apparently was not discussed, lawmakers say, was any unhappiness with Pelosi and her leadership team.”

Read more at: http://www.shark-tank.com/2014/02/14/house-democrats-finally-facing-cold-hard-reality/ | The Shark Tank

Obama Defies Constitution, Rule of Law

By Rich Lowry / Newsmax

We were told that President Barack Obama would wield his executive power this year to defy Congress. Instead, he is defying his own healthcare law.

 

The Obama administration announced this week it is delaying and changing the law's employer mandate, the latest in a series of seat-of-the-pants revisions to Obamacare.

 

The president was eager to highlight steps he was taking to bypass Congress in his State of the Union last month, but left this one out. If he had demanded congressional action to delay the employer mandate, he surely would have gotten a bipartisan bill on his desk forthwith.

 

 

His call for executive unilateralism should be amended: "Even if Congress will act . . . I still prefer to act on my own."

 

Congress long ago ceded too much authority to the regulatory apparatus of the administrative state, but this is different. This is the executive branch affirmatively rewriting law in defiance of our constitutional system and the rule of law.

 

Obamacare is quite clear that the employer mandate "shall apply" after Dec. 31, 2013. Nonetheless, the Obama administration delayed it for a year last July. The latest move is even more brazen. It creates a distinction between employers with fewer and more than 100 employees that doesn't exist in the law, and delays the mandate for another year for businesses with 50-99 employees. At the same time, it changes the obligation on employers with more than 100 employees.

 

These aren't waivers or delays, but detailed revisions. Last year, the Treasury Department justified the delay as "transition relief," a euphemism right up there with "shared responsibility payments," the administration's favored term for fines on employers.

 

The examples that the department cites of prior transition relief are so tiny that they are beneath notice. One provision of the Small Business and Work Opportunity Act of 2007 changed the standards that tax preparers had to follow to avoid penalties. The new rules went into effect in May 2007, but in June of that year Treasury said it would follow the old standards for returns filed before Dec. 31, 2007.

 

What the administration is doing now is unilaterally changing a law four years after its passage to try to delay the economic and political pain past a congressional election.

 

Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute points out that the law authorizes waivers of the employer mandate only for states and, more specifically, "only if the state enacts a law that would provide equally comprehensive health insurance to as many residents, and only if that law would impose no additional cost to the federal government, and only if there is a 'meaningful level of public input' over the waiver and its approval, and even then not until 2017."

 

Why did anyone bother to write this stuff? Just think of all the lawyering and negotiating that went into the provisions of the employer mandate — the careful definition of terms, the precisely calculated fines — only to be cast aside with a dismissive wave of the hand from on high.

 

President Obama seems to share something of the attitude of King James I of England, who once confided to the Spanish ambassador of Parliament, "I am surprised that my ancestors should ever have permitted such an institution to come into existence." But, he sighed, "I am obliged to put up with what I cannot get rid of."

 

What makes the president's cavalier treatment of the legislature's handiwork in this instance so remarkable is that Congress did his bidding. It passed the law he desperately wanted. Yet he still treats it as a series of suggestions and little more.

 

President Obama's hero Abraham Lincoln had a famously worshipful view of the rule of law. "Let reverence for the laws," he said in his Lyceum Address, "be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap — let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges."

 

President Obama's implicit rejoinder: "Whatever."

Happy Valentine's Day to all my blog followers.