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Troops in Africa: Is this why we have a military?

In March, the United States plans to send elements of the Second Brigade, First Infantry Division, to Africa (under AFRICOM) to conduct over a hundred different missions in 34 nations, such as humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and training indigenous forces.  (source: Washington Times) The Second Brigade is a heavy brigade equipped with tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and self-propelled artillery, mind you, not a light infantry brigade or Special Forces unit.  As a result of the deployment, their training on these systems in a wartime scenario will most likely suffer.

We are also a bankrupt nation, yet spending millions deploying portions of our military to areas that are not critical to our national security.  Sounds to me like we may have found a portion of the national budget we can cut if our military has nothing better to do than hand out humanitarian assistance and wait for natural disasters in some far off land.

Our tax dollars need to instead be spent on our military defense, not on ambiguous blanket missions of doing everything except the defense of our nation.  We need to get ourselves out of this recession/depression first before we should even consider doing a mission like that of the 2nd Brigade in Africa.  The national debt is the biggest threat to our national security, not some non-existent disaster in Africa.

We must ask ourselves: Are the Armed Forces of the United States serving as the military force of the United Nations/World Government, or are they protecting America and its citizens?

As an organization, the US military is slowly being forced to reject its original foundation of the Christian faith and in its place accept humanism, as evidenced by the removal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy allowing for open homosexual behavior in the ranks.  Even the mere presence of religion in military organizations is under attack from organizations such as the Military Religious Freedom Foundation who espouse a perverted interpretation of the First Amendment.

A key component of humanism is relativism, where there is no absolute truth.  This has in part led to the development of a manual in Afghanistan that blames our own troops' insensitivity to the Islamic culture for causing the green on blue violence in that nation, rather than blaming the true source--Islamic jihad.

Furthermore, our military is confused as to who the enemy is.  They are attacked by a jihadi at Fort Hood and it is called "workplace violence."  Russian military forces are invited in our borders to participate in "counter-terrorism" exercises.  We are aiding and abetting the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East, an organization that intends to re-establish a hostile Caliphate and destroy America.  One of our Ambassadors is slain in North Africa while the military is forbidden from coming to his aid.  We kill al Qaeda operatives in Yemen (for Saudi Arabia?), while supporting them and their allies in Syria and Libya.

Military leadership has been involved in suppressing the First Amendment rights of United States citizens when it comes to speech against Islam, and have publicly humiliated a fellow officer for teaching the threat that Islam presents.  Then they "pivot to the Pacific," however China is not considered a threat but Iran in the Middle East remains so.  Then some in our government talk about unilaterally reducing our nuclear arsenal to below 300 weapons while Russia is modernizing and exercising their nuclear triad.

Who is the enemy???

We need to get our military back on track and fast.  They are all over the world "chasing Indians," disasters, and handing out humanitarian assistance.  They need to be focused on the one thing they need to get right--defending our nation against existential threats.  They need to be preparing for war, and they need a clear vision as to who are the enemies of America.  With the imminent reduction in the military budget, this becomes all the more critical.

--Against All Enemies

Army plans to shift troops to U.S. Africa Command

Aims for quick crisis response

By Kristina Wong - The Washington Times, Sunday, December 23, 2012

U.S. Africa Command, the military’s newest regional force, will have more troops available early next year as the Pentagon winds down from two ground wars over the past decade, Gen. Raymond T. OdiernoArmy chief of staff, told The Washington Times.

As part of Gen. Odierno’s Regionally Aligned Forces concept, about 1,200 soldiers will deploy to Africa as early as March in an effort to place troops strategically around the globe to respond quickly to sudden challenges in hot spots such as Libya and to develop ties with the people and officials in host countries.

“It’s about us moving towards a scalable, tailorable capability that helps them to shape the environment they’re working in, doing a variety of tasks from building partner capability to engagement, to multilateral training to bilateral training to actual deployment of forces, if necessary,” Gen. Odierno said in an interview.

Amid budget cuts and with President Obama’s new military strategy downplaying the chances of another major land war, the Army has sought to maintain its relevance among admirals and generals in the Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa — likely places for the next flash point. When terrorists attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, no U.S. troops were close enough to help.

[...]


Ready, responsive

Beginning in March, small teams of soldiers from the 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, based in Fort Riley, Kan., will conduct at least 108 missions in at least 34 countries in Africa through mid-2014.

The missions could include humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, training host-nation forces in marksmanship, first aid and other skills, and conducting military exercises. To prepare for these missions, soldiers are studying the regions and cultures of countries where they will deploy, and learning Arabic, Swahili, French and Portuguese.

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Disclaimer: These opinions are solely my own, and do not reflect the opinions or official positions of any United States Government agency, organization or department.

Thoughts on the "Fiscal Cliff"

First my apologies, for these comments on the "fiscal cliff" will not be as complete as I would like.

Based on information from a financial advisor, I understand the "fiscal cliff" to consist of the following events:
  • Expiration of general tax cuts, which will result in $255 billion revenue
  • Expiration of payroll tax cuts, which will result in $112 billion revenue
  • Sequestration hits which will cut $55 billion from the military budget (which could continue each year for 10 years), and cut $55 billion from non-defense spending in 2013
  • Implementation of an Alternative Minimum Tax patch, which will increase revenues by $38 billion
  • Implementation of PPACA (Obamacare) taxes on investments, which will generate $21 billion in revenue
This will result in a total of about $536 billion in additional revenue, or 3.5% of America's GDP, which will result in a negative GDP for early 2013--the "fiscal cliff."

I find it reprehensible that our national "leaders" are posturing as if they are our saviors from the "fiscal cliff" when they are the ones who created this problem.

Our "leaders" involved us in two wars, one (Iraq) most certainly a war of choice, on the cheap, meaning that the American people got tax breaks while the debts from the wars piled up.  It was as if we were being bribed to accept the wars, and now we are paying the price.  Anytime America chooses to go to war, the price of war needs to be immediately felt by the People so that we are more thoughtful about the wars we undertake in the future.  Now we see these wartime tax cuts going away--one component of the "fiscal cliff."

Our "leaders" passed Obamacare, another (unnecessary) component of the "fiscal cliff"...and a threat to our liberties.

Sequestration will happen because the budget supercommittee could not reach an agreement on how to cut $1.2 trillion deficit reduction package as per the Budget Control Act (August 2011). (source)  Another component of the "cliff."

And now we expect our "leaders" to do the right thing.  How can we when their behavior is to the contrary?  For example, the Senate has failed to pass a budget for the past four years.  This is clear dereliction of duty and Congress should either not receive their salaries until they pass a budget, or just go to jail.  And these are the people who will "save" us now?

Our current crisis has been generated by the national "leadership" on both sides of the aisle, not by some alien from another world.  They should be held accountable.  We need to go over this "fiscal cliff" and more so that the American people finally wake up and see our "leadership" for who they are and demand accountability.

It is clear by their actions that the people in all three branches of the government no longer represent We The People, but something else.  This drama being played out over the "fiscal cliff" obscures the real problem which is a true existential threat to our nation: our accelerating national debt.

--Against All Enemies

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