Obama's Speech vs American Principles as We Commemorate 9/11

President Barack Obama's vaunted ISIS speech last night was fifteen minutes of platitudes. The goal - certainly not to eliminate ISIS because without IS military leadership on the ground, no one else will be there committed to dig in on the ground and take the heat that Obama has refused to accept as coalition leader. To summarize -- There was nothing new but there were huge gaping holes in Obama's explanatipn of his policy. There was no recognition that ISIS was created by the 2011 US troop withdrawal engineered by Obama and no reconsideration about a total withdrawal from Afghanistan, which Obama described as ready to take on the burden of leading Afghans even though the new government is at best a joke, with the two candidates refusing to agree on who won and with one of them threatening to form a parallel government. There was no definition of who the coalition is because there is no coalition as yet, with the Arabs saying they will "do their part" and European governments hesitating about putting their own military boots on the ground, or planes in the air over Syria in the case of Germany. There was no explanation about what the 1600 US Special Forces now on the ground in Iraq will be doing or how they will be backed up by ground troops, as they must be if they are to remain over extended periods. There was no reality shown about al-Assad's importance in Syria, or his obvious refusal to allow US military jets over his territory without his permission. And it should be noted that Russia, Syria's protector, has already said that unilateral US airstrikes in Syria would be an act of aggression that violates international law. His decision to train and arm "moderate" Syria rebels comes too late, in my opinion, because they have been largely sidelined or radicalized by ISIS. Obama's change of heart is irrelevant now. And so is his reliance on an Iraq government that isn't yet fully formed and that has no commitment from the Iraq sunni community to integrate. And he spoke of the Iraqi army as if is battle-ready when in fact it is still in a shambles, as Obama recognized when he said US military advisors would help them get reorganized. And Obama had not one word of thanks for the Kurds and their Peshmerga army, which has singlehandedly confronted ISIS in northern Iraq, with US airstrikes and Iranian arms, unfortunately, in the face of Obama's desire to work through Baghdad. Obama also gave no indication that he will arm the Peshmerga as they require if they are to fill the void left by the abandonment of the field by the Iraqi regular army. The speech was a sad performance, once again showing Obama's incompetence. We all know US Special Forces members will be killed, wounded and possibly captured, just as American troops were killed and maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan only to be kicked aside, all because Obama's view of the Middle East has not changed. The bottom line? -- he might as well have admitted that his first six years were wrongheaded because his speech...weak as it was...negated all he has said and done till now. ~~~~~ But, dear readers, because it is 9/11, I would like to end on a more positive note, looking back to September 11, 1960, and The Sharon Statement. In the fall of 1960, 90 young conservatives met at the Sharon, Connecticut, home of National Review editor William F. Buckley, Jr., where they founded Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) to serve as an organization for young conservative activists. As their statement of principle, the group adopted The Sharon Statement, which was drafted by 26-year-old news­paper editor M. Stanton Evans. Written “at this time of moral and political crisis,” the statement is a succinct summary of the central ideas of modern American conservatism. Among those principles are : Free will and moral authority come from God; political and economic liberty are essential for a free people and free institutions; government must be strictly and constitutionally limited; the market economy is the economic system most compatible with freedom; and Communism (today, we may substitute jihadist terrorism) must be defeated, not merely contained. This statement of principles denies the basic premises of Progressivism and liberalism. It also recalls earlier New England declarations about fundamenta liberties -- for example, the Essex Resolves and Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. While the language differs, the concerns for liberty remain the same over the centuries. YAF became one of the most influential groups in the history of modern conservatism. ~~~~~ “The Sharon Statement” Adopted in conference at Sharon, Connecticut, September 11, 1960. "In this time of moral and political crises, it is the responsibility of the youth of America to affirm certain eternal truths. We, as young conservatives, believe : That foremost among the transcendent values is the individual’s use of his God-given free will, whence derives his right to be free from the restrictions of arbitrary force; That liberty is indivisible, and that political freedom cannot long exist without economic freedom; That the purpose of government is to protect those freedoms through the preservation of internal order, the provision of national defense, and the administration of justice; That when government ventures beyond these rightful functions, it accumulates power, which tends to diminish order and liberty; That the Constitution of the United States is the best arrangement yet devised for empowering government to fulfill its proper role, while restraining it from the concentration and abuse of power; That the genius of the Constitution - the division of powers - is summed up in the clause that reserves primacy to the several states, or to the people, in those spheres not specifically delegated to the Federa government; That the market economy, allocating resources by the free play of supply and demand, is the single economic system compatible with the requirements of personal freedom and constitutional government, and that it is at the same time the most productive supplier of human needs; That when government interferes with the work of the market economy, it tends to reduce the moral and physical strength of the nation; That when it takes from one man to bestow on another, it diminishes the incentive of the first, the integrity of the second, and the moral autonomy of both; That we will be free only so long as the national sovereignty of the United States is secure; That history shows periods of freedom are rare, and can exist only when free citizens concertedly defend their rights against all enemies; That the forces of international Communism are, at present, the greatest single threat to these liberties; That the United States should stress victory over, rather than coexistence with, this menace; and, That American foreign policy must be judged by this criterion: does it serve the just interests of the United States?" ~~~~~ Reflect on The Sharon Statenent as we commemorate 9/11 and resolve to protect democratic institutions and America as their defender.