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The Month Of August: A Crisis Month In History For The American Presidency!

Ronald Leave a comment

Now that we have seen the month of August slip into history, it is worthwhile to look back and notice how significant the month is in Presidential history, how it is often a crisis month!

Examples include:

August 24, 1814–Great Britain invaded and burned the nation’s capitol, Washington, DC during the War of 1812, sending President James Madison and Congress fleeing to nearby Baltimore. This was the only invasion of American territory until Pearl Harbor in 1941.

August 4, 1914–World War I began in full swing, as all of the major European powers had finally declared war a week after the initial declaration. This alarmed President Woodrow Wilson issued a declaration that the United States would remain “neutral in thought, as well as action”, a statement which could not be upheld as the war progressed into a long term stalemate, leading to US entrance in 1917.

August 6 and 9, 1945–Newly inaugurated President Harry Truman, in office less than four months after the sudden death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, unleashes the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, leading to the end of World War II.

August 13, 1961–The Soviet Union begins the construction of the Berlin Wall, separating East Berlin from West Berlin, during the first year of the administration of President John F. Kennedy. It will remain a symbol of oppression until its destruction in November 1989.

August 4, 1964–The Tonkin Gulf Incident is reported during the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, a supposed attack on US Navy ships in the Gulf of Tonkin by North Vietnamese patrol boats. This led to Johnson’s request of a resolution allowing the use of force to react to the reported aggression, and was the first step in the escalation of the war in Vietnam to a full scale conflict.

August 9, 1974–President Richard Nixon resigned from office, the first President to take such action, due to the “smoking gun” tape that showed his involvement in a coverup of the Watergate scandal. President Gerald Ford succeeded him in office, and later pardoned Nixon from prosecution, allowing Nixon to evade punishment, including being removed from office in an impeachment trial had he stayed in office.

August 2, 1990–Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, invaded its oil rich neighbor, Kuwait, alarming Saudi Arabia and other Arab and oil nations, and led to US involvement, in unison with a United Nations coalition, to force Iraq out of Kuwait, but also putting US troops for the first time in the Middle East, and inciting Muslims who became involved in terrorism through participation with Al Qaeda under the leadership of Osama Bin Laden,

August 2011–President Barack Obama faced the crisis of the Debt Ceiling, which led to a lowering of the credit rating of the United States by Standard and Poor’s and a stock market crisis. Additionally, the Atlantic Coast Earthquake and Hurricane Irene became major crises, along with the final steps toward the removal of Moammar Gaddafi from power in Libya after a five month effort by the US, with backing of NATO allies, the United Nations, and the Arab League.

So there has to be a sign of relief that the ugly month of August has again passed into history!

The Obama Doctrine: Uphold Values Of Human Life By Intervening To Stop Massacres Overseas!

Ronald Leave a comment

President Obama tonight gave a speech at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, DC, justifying American intervention in Libya as part of an international force to prevent a massacre of civilians in that civil war.

Obama called it a basic principle of the United States that we should oppose all violations of human rights when it involves the likelihood of mass murder by a deranged dictator who does not value human life, and is only too willing to conduct mass operations against civilians in large numbers.

This is a direct contradiction of what the United States did in the past: failure by Woodrow Wilson to intervene in the Armenian Massacre by Turkey in 1915 during World War I; failure by Franklin D. Roosevelt to step in during the mass Holocaust by Nazi Germany against Jews, gypsies, and others during World War II; refusal by Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter to intervene during the holocaust in Cambodia in the late 1970s; and failure by Bill Clinton to step in during the massacre that went on in Rwanda in 1994.

All of the above are seen as moral failures by the United States and the world, but this new doctrine, while admirable and principled, does bring up the issue of how the United States and NATO are supposed to afford the cost of constant interventions all over the world!

What if similar massacres are imminent in Syria, Iran, and other unfriendly nations in the Middle East? Why should not the United States step into the situation in the Sudan, the Ivory Coast, the Congo Republic, Zimbabwe, Myanmar and elsewhere?

Are we to be selective in where the US and NATO intervene? And what about the deaths in Bahrain, where the US Naval Command in the Middle East is situated, and in Yemen, where there are dangers of Al Qaeda influences that could affect world wide terrorism?

And how in the world are we to afford more defense and war spending long run, as we cut ruthlessly into education, health care, and other public services all over the country? How much longer can we tolerate the worsening of our every day lives and commit ourselves to reforming the world of its evils?

It is hard NOT to agree with the purposes of the Obama Doctrine in theory, but in practice, it seems impossible and a losing proposition politically for Barack Obama to seem to commit us to never ending intervention in the name of human rights and decency!

This is a torment for those of us who consider ourselves progressives and liberals, as even the best intentions cannot be fulfilled within the budget constraints the country faces in the short run and the long run!

Disappointments With Barack Obama: Guns, Labor, And Bradley Manning

Ronald Leave a comment

President Obama is overwhelmed with one problem after another, and with no break in stress and tension, as the world and the nation seem to be going from one problem to another.

Already, we have seen four major issues arise in 2011, which are bound to be among the top ten news stories of the year: the guns issue, after the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona in January; the uprisings in the Middle East, particularly Egypt and now Libya, leading to American involvement with NATO, the UN, and the Arab League, and Obama’s decision to intervene militarily against Moammar Gaddafi; the Wisconsin battle over organized labor, which has spread to other states as well; and the disastrous Japanese earthquake, ensuing tsunami, and the nuclear power plants emergency that followed those natural events.

So the ability of Barack Obama to do and say everything that one might feel he should, is, of course, unrealistic, but still there are three key issues that need to be addressed at some point soon by our President.

The first is to take strong leadership on the issue of the need for some greater regulation of guns, as since the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, and the killing of six others and wounding of thirteen, we have seen the murder by gun of close to 3,000 people. If this is not a national crisis, and with the additional murders of young black youths that we see in Chicago and elsewhere, then what is? It is hard to fight the gun lobby and the National Rifle Association, but the President MUST not sit on the sidelines as gun violence escalates, and the growing danger of political assassination of himself, or some other office holder grows by leaps and bounds as the economy continues to create a crisis atmosphere in regards to jobs and housing.

Secondly, Obama had said during his Presidential campaign in 2008 that he would march with labor if there was ever a threat against the rights of workers, but he has hardly spoken up, and certainly has not gone to Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, or Florida to speak up on the issue and to confront the “Bully” GOP Governors, including most infamously, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Rick Snyder, Mitch Daniels, or Rick Scott, who are destroying the rights of public employees, making them the scapegoat, as these governors favor the rich and the powerful, and set out to destroy collective bargaining. Obama will have to campaign on labor support in 2012, but he has been slow to react publicly with adequate words and actions!

Finally, there is the issue of Private Bradley Manning, who is accused of releasing and disseminating Wikileaks information on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who is being held in inhumane conditions in the military brig at Quantico Naval Base in Virginia, stripped naked, not allowed to sleep normally, kept in solitary confinement, being mentally destroyed, all on the basis of accusations, but not yet coming to trial.

President Obama made a reference to Manning when asked at a news conference, that he had been assured that what was being done with Manning was totally appropriate, but that is clearly the furthest from the truth. It is clear that his mistreatment is an outrage that the President needs to stop immediately, and it is a tremendous disappointment that he seems up to this point to be totally insensitive to what is happening to Manning.

Urgent action on all three matters is needed, and hopefully, the first will be to relieve Manning of his inhumane treatment NOW!

Mr. President, we believe in you, but you need to take immediate action on all three of the above matters!