Two former Secretaries of Defense give scathing rebuke of Defense policies

We know how the Emperor is doing on the home front, but anyone wondering how he is demonstrating his intellectual prowess as the Commander-in-Chief? (Or should I add how Valerie is doing)? We have heard subtle comments that he is micro managing our military actions, but this is a scathing report by two former Secretaries of Defense. This story makes the immigration issue pale for those who are serving or have loved ones serving in our military. Here we go:

President Obama’s former Secretaries of Defense have a low opinion of the boss’ defense policy.

Robert Gates, who served in that position under Obama from 2009 to 2011, and his replacement Leon Panetta (2011 to 2013), sharply criticized Obama on everything from administrative methods to being too insular to fighting the Islamic State terrorist organization in speeches at the Reagan National Defense Forum November 15.

“[President Obama] has given them the mission of destroying ISIS,” Gates said. “But when you then deny the military the authorities they require to achieve the objective, you leave them with a great sense of frustration.”

 

“I think it is important for the president and I think it’s important for our military leaders to know that they have to be able to use every possible option on the table in order to be able to succeed in that effort, and that we ought not to just ad hoc limit certain areas,” Panetta said.

“I think there is a gap between the president’s rhetoric in terms of the objectives and the missions that he sets for the military and then the authorization that he gives them to carry it out,” Gates added

More over at the Free Beacon

 

D.O.D. gives 12,000 fixed bayonets to local Police

Rand Paul asked some interesting questions during a hearing on Tuesday. Say what you want about Paul, he is one of a few willing to hold this administration’s feet to the fire. Just why do the police need bayonets? Anyone recall Kent State? Bayonets were at the ready on that day. Just saying.

Tuesday in Washington D.C. at a Senate Hearing from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on the Department of Defense selling military grade weapons to local police forces, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) grilled Alan F. Estevez, the Assistant Secretary of Defense and from Homeland Security, and FEMA Brian Kamoie, over local police being suppliedwith armored personnel carriers and thousands of bayonets.

Partial transcript as follows:

PAUL ….

But confronting those with armored personnel carriers is thoroughly un-American and for 150 years, we’ve had rules separating the military, keeping the military out of policing affairs. But you sort of obscure that separation if you allow the police to become the military.

In FEMA’s authorized equipment list there’s actually written descriptions for how the equipment should be used and it says it’s specifically not supposed to be used for riot suppression. Mr. Kamoie, is that true, that it’s not supposed to be used for riot suppression? And how do you plan on policing that since the images clearly show us large pieces of equipment that were bought with your grants used in that riot suppression, or protest suppression rather?”

KAMOIE: Sen. Paul, that is accurate. The categories of personal protective equipment that include helmets, ear and eye protection, ballistics, personal protective equipment. There’s a prohibition in the authorized equipment list not to be used for riot suppression.

PAUL:

So I think by supplying all of this free equipment, much of which is, frankly, inappropriate, really shouldn’t be on anybody’s list of authorized equipment. Mr. Estevez, in the NPR investigation of 1033 program they list that 12,000 bayonets have been given out. What purpose are bayonets being given out for?

ESTEVEZ: Senator, bayonets are available under the program. I can’t answer what a local police force would need a bayonet for.

PAUL: I can give you an answer: None. So, what’s President Obama’s Administration’s position on handing out bayonets to the police force? It’s on your list. You guys create the list. Are you going to take it off the list or are we going to keep doing it?

H/T:Breitbart

DOD says Conservatives are dangerous as well as the Founders

They are keeping right at it on this note. Conservatives are dangerous folks. We are now a “Hate Group”. This from the Dept. of Defense. Now even the founders were dangerous folks as well. First the refresher, then the new training materials that are being promulgated.

West Point Think Tank warns of dangerous “Conservatives” January 19, 2013

The report issued this week by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., is titled “Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right.” And just who are these “Violent Far-Right” folks?

It says anti-federalists “espouse strong convictions regarding the federal government, believing it to be corrupt and tyrannical, with a natural tendency to intrude on individuals’ civil and constitutional rights. Finally, they support civil activism, individual freedoms, and self government. Extremists in the anti-federalist movement direct most their violence against the federal government and its proxies in law enforcement.”

The report also draws a link between the mainstream conservative movement and the violent “far right,” and describes liberals as “future oriented” and conservatives as living in the past.

“The far right represents a more extreme version of conservatism, as its political vision is usually justified by the aspiration to restore or preserve values and practices that are part of the idealized historical heritage of the nation or ethnic community.”

Now we learn we are considered one of the Hate Groups. Even our founders??. Here we go:

U.S. Military says we are the enemy

Judicial Watch obtained Defense Department training materials on Friday that described conservative and civil liberties organizations as “hate groups.”

The training materials used by the Air Force were created to help students “recognize extremists ideologies.” The materials identified conservative values, such as individual liberties and states’ rights, as recruiting rhetoric used by “extremists.”

According to Judicial Watch:

A Department of Defense teaching guide meant to fight extremism advises students that rather than “dressing in sheets” modern-day radicals “will talk of individual liberties, states’ rights, and how to make the world a better place,” and describes 18th-century American patriots seeking freedom from the British as belonging to “extremist ideologies.”

Under a section labeled “Extremist Ideologies” the document states, “In U.S. history, there are many examples of extremist ideologies and movements.  The colonists who sought to free themselves from British rule and the Confederate states who sought to secede from the Northern states are just two examples.”

The documents were published by the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute in January 2013. They cited the leftwing Southern Poverty Law Center repeatedly as a source to use when identifying hate groups.

The documents discussed Islamic extremism only in reference to Sudan  and 9/11.

H/T:Free Beacon

Soldiers may be court martialed for sharing Christian faith

The Obama administration is not one to take their foot off the neck of Christians, but not so much the Muslims.

So President Barack Obama’s civilian appointees who lead the Pentagon are confirming that the military will make it a crime–possibly resulting in imprisonment–for those in uniform to share their faith. This would include chaplains—military officers who are ordained clergymen of their faith (mostly Christian pastors or priests, or Jewish rabbis)–whose duty since the founding of the U.S. military under George Washington is to teach their faith and minister to the spiritual needs of troops who come to them for counsel, instruction, or comfort.

Recall earlier Military ready to purge Catholics and Protestants and Evangelicals?

The military is getting ready for the purge of any servicemen and women who may not be ready to turn on their fellow citizens? Recall first  West Point think tank warns of dangerous conservatives?

The report issued this week by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., is titled “Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right.” And just who are these “Violent Far-Right” folks?

It says anti-federalists “espouse strong convictions regarding the federal government, believing it to be corrupt and tyrannical, with a natural tendency to intrude on individuals’ civil and constitutional rights. Finally, they support civil activism, individual freedoms, and self government. Extremists in the anti-federalist movement direct most their violence against the federal government and its proxies in law enforcement.”

“While liberal worldviews are future- or progressive-oriented, conservative  perspectives are more past-oriented, and in general, are interested in  preserving the status quo,” the report says. “The far right represents a more  extreme version of conservatism, as its political vision is usually justified by  the aspiration to restore or preserve values and practices that are part of the  idealized historical heritage of the nation or ethnic community.”

Now we hear from and more at Breitbart

The Pentagon has released a statement confirming that soldiers could be prosecuted for promoting their faith: “Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense…Court martials and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis…”.

The statement, released to Fox News, follows a Breitbart News report on Obama administration Pentagon appointees meeting with anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein to develop court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the military who express or share their faith.

(From an earlier report: Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and says Christians–including chaplains–sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of “treason,” and of committing an act of “spiritual rape” as serious a crime as “sexual assault.” He also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are “enemies of the Constitution.”)

Being convicted in a court martial means that a soldier has committed a crime under federal military law. Punishment for a court martial can include imprisonment and being dishonorably discharged from the military.

Military ready to purge Catholics and Protestant Evangelicals?

So now Catholics and Evangelical Protestants are classified as “extremist” religious groups alongside al Qaeda and the Ku Klux Klan.

The military is getting ready for the purge of any servicemen and women who may not be ready to turn on their fellow citizens? Recall first  West Point think tank warns of dangerous conservatives?

The report issued this week by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., is titled “Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right.” And just who are these “Violent Far-Right” folks?

It says anti-federalists “espouse strong convictions regarding the federal government, believing it to be corrupt and tyrannical, with a natural tendency to intrude on individuals’ civil and constitutional rights. Finally, they support civil activism, individual freedoms, and self government. Extremists in the anti-federalist movement direct most their violence against the federal government and its proxies in law enforcement.”

Now we learn that the DOD is moving on for the purge?

The presentation identified seventeen religious organizations in a slide titled “religious extremism.” They include al Qaeda, Hamas, the Filipino separatist group Abu Sayyaf, and the Ku Klux Klan, which the slide identifies as a Christian organization..

The Defense Department came under fire Thursday for a U.S. Army Reserve presentation that classified Catholics and Evangelical Protestants as “extremist” religious groups alongside al Qaeda and the Ku Klux Klan.

“Men and women of faith who have served the Army faithfully for centuries shouldn’t be likened to those who have regularly threatened the peace and security of the United States,” said Col. Ron Crews, a retired Army chaplain and the executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty.

“It is dishonorable for any U.S. military entity to allow this type of wrongheaded characterization,” Crews said in a news release.

The Archdiocese for the Military Services, a Catholic organization that trains and endorses military priests and chaplains, said in a release that it was “astounded that Catholics were listed alongside groups that are, by their very mission and nature, violent and extremist.”

“Religious extremism is not limited to any single religion, ethnic group, or region of the world,” the slide explains, in language that closely resembles the text of a Wikipedia page on “extremism.”

While outfits such as al Qaeda and the KKK are explicitly violent, the presentation also lists Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism as extremist groups.

 

 The AMS called on the Pentagon “to review these materials and to ensure that tax-payer funds are never again used to present blatantly anti-religious material to the men and women in uniform.”

H/T: Free Beacon