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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (241004)	3/7/2008 4:15:12 PM
From: Andrew N. Cothran	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793925

Newsmax.com Washington Insider with Ronald Kessler Obama Minister's Hatred of America Thursday, March 6, 2008 3:54 PM By: Ronald Kessler Article Font Size In a sermon delivered at Howard University, Barack Obama’s longtime minister, friend, and adviser blamed America for starting the AIDS virus, training professional killers, importing drugs, and creating a racist society that would never elect a black man as president. The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor of Obama’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, gave the sermon at the school’s Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel in Washington on Jan. 15, 2006. While snippets from the sermon have appeared in a few magazines, no news outlet has previously run the entire text of Wright’s diatribe. An audio recording of the sermon appears on YouTube. Raising his voice in rage, Wright began his sermon by saying, “Fact No. 1: We’ve got more black men in prison than there are in college. Racism is alive and well. Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run. No black man will ever be considered for president, no matter how hard you run Jesse [Jackson] and no black woman can ever be considered for anything outside what she can give with her body.” Omitting fact No. 2, Wright thundered on: “Fact No. 3: America is still the No. 1 killer in the world. We invaded Grenada for no other reason than to get Maurice Bishop [a Grenada revolutionary who seized power in 1979], invaded Panama because Noriega would not dance to our tune any more. We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns, and the training of professional killers. We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children while trying to get public opinion turned against Castro and Qaddafi.” Wright continued: “Fact No. 4: We put [Nelson] Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. Fact No. 5: We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-semitic.” His voice rising, Wright was on a roll: “Fact No. 6: We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. They’re just finding out about that. We care nothing about human life if the ends justifies the means. Fact No. 7: We do not care if poor black and brown children cannot read and kill each other senselessly. We abandoned the cities back in the '60s when the riots started and it really doesn’t matter what those nations do to each other; we gave up on them and public education of poor people who live in the projects . . .” Wright went on: “Fact No. 8: We started the AIDS virus, and now that it is out of control, we still put more money in the military than in medicine; more money in hate than in humanitarian concerns. Everybody does not have access to healthcare, I don’t care what the rich white boys in the Senate say. Listen up: If you are poor, black and elderly, forget it.” Concluding, Wright said: “Fact No. 9: We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty. And fact No. 10: We are selfish, self-centered egotists who are arrogant and ignorant and betray our church and do not try to make the kingdom that Jesus talked about a reality. And — and — and in light of these 10 facts, God has got to be sick of this s***.” Meeting with Jewish leaders in Cleveland on Feb. 24, Obama described Wright as being like “an old uncle who sometimes will say things that I don't agree with.” He rarely mentions the items of disagreement. Obama went on to explain away Wright’s anti-Zionist statements as being rooted in his anger over the Jewish state’s support for South Africa under its previous policy of apartheid. As with a previous claim that his church gave an award to Louis Farrakhan because of his work with ex-offenders, Obama made that up out of thin air. Wright’s statements denouncing Israel have not been qualified in any way. As for Wright’s repeated comments blaming America for the 9/11 attacks, Obama has said it sounds as if the minister was trying to be “provocative.” Hearing Wright’s venomous and paranoid denunciations of this country, the vast majority of Americans would walk out. Instead, Obama and his wife Michelle have presumably sat through hundreds of similar sermons. Indeed, Obama has described Wright as his “sounding board” during the two decades he has known him. Obama has said he found religion through Wright in the 1980s and consulted him before deciding to run for president. He prayed privately with Wright before announcing his candidacy last year. Aside from showing poor judgment, it’s difficult to imagine that Obama could be so close to Wright without agreeing with at least some of his views. In light of Wright’s perspective, Michelle Obama’s comment that she feels proud of America for the first time makes perfect sense. (In a second iteration, she said she feels “really proud” for the first time.) Wright’s blame-America mentality also fits in neatly with many on the left who support Obama’s weak approach to national security and dealing with foreign dictators. To date, the Obama-loving media have largely ignored the senator’s close association with Wright. The question is whether the blackout will be lifted before voters decide whether they want to entrust Obama with America’s future.

To: KLP who wrote (241004)	3/8/2008 5:41:31 PM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793925

Are you saying you think the President and/or the Congress have allowed the Military to call too many of the "shots"...????? Or are you saying the top Military leaders have been calling for the wrong directions? Both. The pols let the military call the shots because over 90% of congress doesn't know how to wear a uniform...and never have. Meanwhile the military kept those in command who had no clue how to manage an insurgency. I can understand why they did that initially because they did not expect one (They should have planned for one however, because most wars result in some kind of insurgent effort). Once the insurgency started there was no excuse for not bringing in our own experts. Well maybe one excuse....their own greed for power and money. They were more interested in taking advantage of the situation to get another promotion than prevailing in the war. I believe that with all my heart. What happened? The military won the first phase one. The political decisions made immediately thereafter screwed it up. The problem is at that point the decisions should have been made by pols but were delegated to the military because the pols also had no plan (nor a clue). Our military doesn't know how to stand up a government. That is not taught in our military schools. We had the blind leading the blind. That may be why Petraeus announced in an interview this week that he is feeling his way. Isn't that how the blind get around? The military sent the entire Iraqi army home with weapons and ammo and surprise surprise...some of them were still willing to fight. While they were getting organized our military was busy disbanding every Iraqi security structure. When the insurgency started there were no Iraqis available to secure free Iraq. Things rolled ever faster down hill from there. Those running that direct action piece have been provided too much power to call the long-term shots and to subordinate even - fracture - our other efforts. Do you think this is because no Westerner can really understand the Arab mindset? Or were we being too PC? Or is there anyone in the entire government (ours) who knows anything? Direct action is anything but PC. That is not the problem. The problem is we have allowed and enabled power shifts in our forces that make no sense. In the 1920s or 30s, while explaining man's greed, TE Lawrence wrote - "The fools don't realize that their possessions, in time, come to possess them." Think about that one. It applies to our senior leadership. Lawrence also wrote, "the only minds worth winning are the warm ones about us. If we miss those we are failures." We are working to appease so many minds that are cold to us, we look like fools. He wrote these things after having spent years living with Arabs. His book "Seven Pillars of Wisdom or the earlier version titled "Revolt in the Desert" should be mandatory reading for our military. I have yet to find an officer outside SF who read it. I have a copy of the early version (Revolt) dated 1926, and have never considered parting with it. Lawrence was a true master of counterinsurgency and a successful one at that. He understood and wrote about our way not being their way and we must let them do it their way as imperfect as it may seem to us. For 6 and 1/2 years we have been trying to impose our way. Some gall, eh! The direct action guys have won the hearts and minds of those who control our nation's purse strings....all of them collectively believe thay can win this through attrition. GWB, himself, recently bragged about the direct action guys killing 1100 extremists a month or 13,200 annually. There are 125-150 million of them. Figure out how in many years years the direct action guys should prevail unless the extremists recruit some more. After you do the math you will come to realize that is not the solution and never was....yet that is where the bulk of our effort and money has flowed and continues to flow. The real question after 6 and 1/2 years is what have we won, what have we gained politically or militarily? The answer to that question defines our progress or lack thereof. One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. Is that not exactly what we are doing?