Wednesday, September 10, 2014
From: Gary L. Bauer
Obama To Lay Out ISIS Strategy
President Obama will address the nation tonight, perhaps offering his strategy for defeating ISIS. Some analysts believe the president has an opportunity to revive himself. Polls indicate that the public is primed for action. The question is whether Obama will deliver.
During yesterday’s White House press briefing, CBS reporter Major Garrett hammered Obama Press Secretary Josh Earnest, asking: “If I listened to you correctly today, you said that the president will tell the country that there will be no ground troops involved, no tactical operational details, no timeline for victory, no cost associated with the pursuit of victory. Why should anyone watch?”
After getting a non-answer from Earnest, Garrett shot back: “The audience wants to know how we’re going to win. ‘Mr. President, tell us how we’re going to win.’ And I don’t hear, based on what you said, the president telling people that tomorrow night.”
It is important to remember why there is such chaos in the Middle East and around the world. Obama told us that if America and its cowboy policies would get out of the way, all would be better.
He wanted to reorient our foreign policy away from traditional allies and interests. He fomented the Arab Spring and undermined Egypt. Now he seems shocked to find that few in the “Muslim world” think like Thomas Jefferson.
In the wake of Obama’s “outreach,” we have seen the rise of ISIS, Boko Haram, killings on a horrific scale, beheadings, church bombings, civil wars in Libya and Syria and another war between Israel and Hamas. Allies like Israel and Ukraine question our commitment, while our enemies are on the march. All of this will bedevil the next president.
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds that more Americans think we are less safe (47%) from terrorism now than we were before 9/11, while just 26% think we are more safe. That’s a huge change from a year ago when only 28% of Americans felt we were less safe.
House Condemns Taliban Release
The House of Representatives voted yesterday to condemn the administration’s illegal release of five Taliban leaders in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Twenty-two House Democrats joined all House Republicans in supporting the resolution.
Obama was swept into office promising to bring hope and change, promising to unite a divided and anxious country. Nearly six years later, most Americans (55%) believe Obama has further divided the country.
A big way Obama has divided Americans is by routinely ignoring laws he disagrees with — whether it’s the meaning of marriage, immigration, religious liberty, the limits of his appointment powers or laws regarding the release of terrorists. Yesterday, Republicans and Democrats came together to express their opposition to this disregard for the rule of law.
Legalize Pot? Bad Idea
While the Obama Administration hasn’t embraced the legalization of marijuana, it is not enforcing federal drugs law either. Sadly, libertarians in the Republican Party are pushing the GOP to go soft on drugs. I have even heard from some of my own supporters who say we need to back off.
I disagree.
Today’s Washington Post reports on an Australian study that followed the marijuana use of more than 3,700 teenagers. After controlling for dozens of factors, researchers found that teenagers who regularly smoked marijuana were 60% less likely to graduate high school and seven times more likely to attempt suicide.
But there was more bad news. Even infrequent users were significantly more likely to experience negative outcomes, leading one researcher to tell reporters that “the results suggest that there may not be a threshold where use can be deemed safe.”
Nevertheless, the left has embraced this bad idea. And at least one left-wing town is now mandating “weed welfare.” You can’t make this stuff up!
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