A Hard Rain Is Going to Fall

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VDH:

This summer, President Obama was often golfing. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were promising to let the world be. The end of summer seemed sleepy, the world relatively calm.

The summer of 1914 in Europe also seemed quiet. But on July 28, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip with help from his accomplices, fellow Serbian separatists. That isolated act sparked World War I.

In the summer of 1939, most observers thought Adolf Hitler was finally through with his serial bullying. Appeasement supposedly had satiated his once enormous territorial appetites. But on September 1, Nazi Germany unexpectedly invaded Poland and touched off World War II, which consumed some 60 million lives.

Wars often seem to come out of nowhere, as unlikely events ignite long-simmering disputes into global conflagrations.

The instigators often are weaker attackers who foolishly assume that more powerful nations wish peace at any cost, and so will not react to opportunistic aggression.

Unfortunately, our late-summer calm of 2016 has masked a lot of festering tensions that are now coming to a head — largely due to disengagement by a supposedly tired United States.

In contrast, war, unlike individual states, does not sleep.

Russia has been massing troops on its border with Ukraine. Russian president Vladimir Putin apparently believes that Europe is in utter disarray and assumes that President Obama remains most interested in apologizing to foreigners for the past evils of the United States. Putin is wagering that no tired Western power could or would stop his reabsorption of Ukraine — or the Baltic states next. Who in hip Amsterdam cares what happens to faraway Kiev?

Iran swapped American hostages for cash. An Iranian missile narrowly missed a U.S. aircraft carrier not long ago. Iranians hijacked an American boat and buzzed our warships in the Persian Gulf. There are frequent promises from Tehran to destroy either Israel, America, or both. So much for the peace dividend of the “Iran deal.”

North Korea is more than just delusional. Recent nuclear tests and missile launches toward Japan suggest that North Korean strongman Kim Jong-un actually believes that he could win a war — and thereby gain even larger concessions from the West and from his Asian neighbors.

Radical Islamists likewise seem emboldened to try more attacks on the premise that Western nations will hardly respond with overwhelming power. The past weekend brought pipe bombings in Manhattan and New Jersey as well as a mass stabbing in a Minnesota mall — and American frustration.

Europe and the United States have been bewildered by huge numbers of largely young male migrants from the war-torn Middle East. Political correctness has paralyzed Western leaders from even articulating the threat, much less replying to it.

Instead, the American government appears more concerned with shutting down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, ensuring that no administration official utters the words “Islamic terror,” and issuing warnings to Americans not to lash out due to their supposedly innate prejudices.

Aggressors are also encouraged by vast cutbacks in the U.S. defense budget. The lame-duck Obama presidency, lead-from-behind policies, and a culturally and racially divided America reflect voter weariness with overseas commitments.

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Obama’s serial weakness has emboldened every enemy. I fear Trump may not be fully up to the task of cleaning up the massive mess Obama has left, but Hillary would only seek to make a buck off it, only making matters worse.

@Bill… Deplorable Me:

I share your thoughts. I think if the inevitable happens as VDH seems to imply, Trump who might have otherwise been unwilling to firmly flex muscle, ala Reagan, may be forced to respond with strength.

But, that remains in question given the current state of our military and it’s readiness for multiple confrontations. Trump would be wise to begin most riki tic, to build up our military.

I have a nephew recently promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Air Force and he had a three year stint in Hawaii cut short by a year and was moved to South Korea. It wasn’t a move to enjoy the scenery if you get what I mean…

What a grand legacy of the Obama administration.

@kitt: And they only mentioned his ‘good points’.

Victor Davis Hanson’s article in the National Review is pointed. I would strongly suggest the you read Ivan Kershaw’s work: To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949. the terrorist pres. continues to broke a political holocaust and thanks to clinton and terrorist pres American is firmly entrenched in an era of self-destruction. Micheal Corday wrote “Silent crowds…The requirements march past with their bands; remember that all of these men are on their way to the slaughter.”

@MOS #8541:

The world is less safe than it has been for decades. We have serious issues facing the security of this Nation and it’s citizenry.

The president has failed at the most minimal of Constitutional requirements, keep the Country and us safe.

Rhetorically, how could such a venomous America hating individual become the pResident one must ask. A terrible mistake for people who deserve so much better.

@July 4th American:

A terrible mistake for people who deserve so much better.

But, weren’t we looking for a golfer to run things? Didn’t we need someone to fiddle while Rome burned? We’re now having at least 2 terrorists attacks in the US every week. Obama was the ‘setup’ to allow this to happen.

@Redteam (One of The Proud Deplorables):

America is already burning.

Russia has been massing troops on its border with Ukraine. Russian president Vladimir Putin apparently believes that Europe is in utter disarray and assumes that President Obama remains most interested in apologizing to foreigners for the past evils of the United States. Putin is wagering that no tired Western power could or would stop his reabsorption of Ukraine — or the Baltic states next. Who in hip Amsterdam cares what happens to faraway Kiev?

But Putin hasn’t made a big move on Eastern Europe with Obama in the White House, has he? He has made a number of feints, probing borders and testing NATO and American resolve, but he has been very careful not to go too far. He’s not actually playing a fully aggressive game yet. He’s setting up the board and waiting for his opening.

Why do you think he’s trying to put a man in the White House who has openly questioned U.S. NATO commitments, who has repeatedly expressed his admiration for Putin’s leadership, who has repeatedly suggested we should have closer relations with a totalitarian leader that is a military ally of our geopolitical adversaries, and who seems oblivious to the fact that Putin has a grand ambition to reclaim and rule the former Soviet Union’s empire?

Oblivious is good word. It seems to have an increasingly wide range of applications.

@Greg: Why do you suppose the Russians paid Bill hundreds of thousands of dollars for worthless speeches? Why do you suppose Hillary green-lighted the purchase of US uranium by Russian straw buyers?

Perhaps he’s waiting for Hillary to take office so he can just BUY Ukraine or blackmail Hillary with a few hundred of her dirty emails.

Obama’s projected weakness will have to be erased at some point and it will take US blood to do it.

Obama’s projected weakness will have to be erased at some point and it will take US blood to do it.

I rather appreciate the fact that Obama’s policies haven’t resulted in thousands of unnecessary flag-draped caskets. Soaking foreign soil with the blood of young Americans isn’t my idea of a good outcome, nor does it demonstrate the strength and resolve of old men sitting safely behind their presidential desk.

@Greg: I know you dont want the blame placed upon your IDOL, arming rebels that turn out to be terrorists, Destabilizing the most advanced country in africa, letting Russia, China and Korea get away with what they are doing is nothing but sissy pants weakness , Oh I see they caught one of your relatives http://www.coasttocoastam.com/article/cops-catch-creepy-clown-in-kentucky/

@Greg: We suffered more casualties in Afghanistan under Obama than under Bush. All the blood and treasure spent to secure Iraq was squandered by Obama so he could claim he ended the war… and unleashed ISIS.

Now every nation views the US as weak and stupid (Syria, Iraq, Iran, N. Korea, Ukraine) and we will have to prove otherwise at some point, to keep world peace.

That will be Obama’s legacy.

@Bill- Deplorable Me, #10:

Why do you suppose the Russians paid Bill hundreds of thousands of dollars for worthless speeches? Why do you suppose Hillary green-lighted the purchase of US uranium by Russian straw buyers?

Suppose you try explaining this imaginary quid pro quo transaction to me, referencing the actual facts rather than the right’s fairy tale account, which has virtually nothing to do with either facts or reality. Lots of luck with that.

How did they buy Clinton’s approval of the deal, when Clinton didn’t have the power to approve or disapprove anything? A panel consisting of representatives of nine separate federal agencies and departments evaluated the deal, none of them had unilateral power to approve or disapprove it, and Clinton wasn’t even one of the nine. Further, the company was responsible for only a tiny percentage of uranium production, and the purchase of a didn’t include a license to export it. The entire quid pro quo story is a fabrication.

The fact is that Bill Clinton received $500,000 for making a speech in Russia while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, and there’s no real indication that they got anything more than the speech they paid for. He definitely got the better end of that deal. They didn’t do so well on the uranium deal, either.

None of which keeps Trump from repeating the story, of course, because Trump doesn’t care a whit whether a politically useful story is the truth or a bald-face lie. He doesn’t even keep his lies straight. There were no nine investors. Apparently he’s thinking about the nine voting members of the Foreign Investment Committee.

@Bill- Deplorable Me: @kitt: You can not argue with a blind stump. Liberals like Greg can never see beyond their noses. They lack historical perspective. They never see the consequences of their actions until it is too late and then they blame someone else, change the subject or lie like a Clinton. They actually believed in the hope and change promise made by someone who never accomplished anything in his life. Everything he has touched has turned to crap. HRC will make sure those things that are still good and working will also fail while enriching the Clintons. They are trailer trash wanting to be royalty. Only fools believe them.

Trump is nothing more than a highly accomplished huckster, who is now selling the idea of himself as president rather than questionable investments or no-stick frying pans. He’s a slick-talking New York con man who has spent his entire life perfecting his sales pitches.

What you’re buying is the sales pitch. Most often the sales pitch turns out to be a lot different than the actual product that arrives after you’ve placed your order and given them your credit card number.

@Greg:

Yea,
Then there is the hildabeast…..

More baggage than all of the airlines in the world combined carry in one year…

No thank you..

@Greg: #16 Yup but what I am voting is keeping Hillary out of that office at all costs, he can easily be impeached.
She has no redeeming characteristics.

@Randy: #15 I know, Bill knows, Greg is Greg he never answers any of my questions, its called feeding the pet troll. Comedy for regular readers.

@kitt:

A completely flawed candidate, as well as a person. The hildabeast is another Alinsky Disciple.

@Greg: Hillary is a corrupt liar that made thousands of classified documents to our adversaries. Like Obama, she is an incompetent merchant of destruction but unlike Obama we have seen her incompetency clearly and know better than to give her power again.