Common Sense: Obama is “a sinking ship”

The Iraqi government’s response to thousands of its troops simply surrendering without a fight to the ISIS forces was to arm and load as many Shiite Muslims onto trucks and send them to the front lines. It did not matter that they were untrained civilians. Thus in doing so, the Iraqi government flamed a religious civil war which in all likelihood will eventually burn the country down.

If there was anything logical that ever occurred in the Middle East, we would have expected the Iraqi government to rally its organized troops. In theory, these troops would make movements under a command structure which in turn would result in a better result with fewer civilian casualties and less overall destruction.

There would still be a civil war, but one in which the nations wishing to support the Iraqi government could have some level of confidence in an eventual victory. This in turn would make it more likely that they would work with the Iraqi government to end the war as quickly as possible.

Now we just have a gigantic mess. And our president seems to be all over the place in his response. One week, we are doing almost nothing. The next week, we are sending in the Marines to protect American lives. The following week, we are sending in 300 military advisors that will have no combat role. A day or two later, we might be flying combat air support mission, but no troops on the ground.

Been there, done that as the expression goes. The situation is escalating fast. The United States will most likely need to take more decisive action as oil fields become overrun, terrorists become emboldened and the possibility of Iran intervening looms.

President Obama has led the ship of state for almost six years. Our military withdrawal from Iraq and our support for the Iraq government are creations of his administration. He can blame President Bush all he wants. The present situation in Iraq with all its unique dynamics is mostly his administration’s doing. I just pray that the loss of American lives from our return to Iraq is minimal.

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The New York State Conservative Party’s annual dinner held last week at the Sheraton Towers featured Texas Governor Rick Perry. Of course, the governor is considering a run for president in 2016. Perry, who stayed the whole evening, came across as very genuine and approachable as he mingled with the crowd.

In his remarks, Perry made no bones about the fact that he travels the country hoping to attract business to Texas, and he was quite pleased to talk about his successes. Most startling was a figure that indicated that a startling high percentage of the overall new private sector jobs created throughout the United States were created in Texas.

He was armed with a number of other points including a variety of business rankings which placed Texas on top and New York on the bottom. All in all, he seemed to make a great case against re-electing Governor Cuomo without actually mentioning him by name.

The same cannot be said of Conservative-Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino who laid the blame on the Democrats and in particular Cuomo. Astorino takes the governor to task for the Start Up zone program which he considers more of a highly advertised publicity vehicle than a true economic development program.

For his part, Astorino sounds a bit like a New York version of Perry, touting his many victories in attracting or keeping business in Westchester County where he is county executive.

The well attended dinner also heard from each member of the statewide ticket. Mike Long noted that this was a solid ticket that gives the voters of the state real alternatives.

The Brooklyn Conservative Party was well represented at the dinner with Vice Chairperson and state party Treasurer Fran Vella-Marrone on the dais and a number of activists at tables throughout the room.