We Are Losing.

I hate to admit this, but I find it to be an impossible fact to ignore.

We are losing the war.

No, I am not referring to the wars being fought in Iraq or Afghanistan. I’m not even referring to the War on Terror. No, we are losing a much larger war, a war where the stakes, literally, could not get any higher.

We are losing the existential war against radical Islam.

The fact that we are losing this war is extremely troubling to me; however, when you understand why we are losing, it makes the situation exponentially worse.

We are losing this war not because we are militarily outmatched; in fact, we have absolutely no rivals in regards to military might. We are not losing due to the fact that we are intellectually inferior, lacking in numbers or economically inadequate.

None of those factors are why we are losing this war. The reason we are losing is because we lack the will to win.

I believe this lack of will emanates from the Obama administration’s cowardice, naïveté and criminal misunderstanding of what is at stake in this war.

Want some examples? All you have to do is pick up a newspaper or watch the news to see what I’m talking about.

Example One: The Iranian Nuclear Crisis.

Iran is clearly developing nuclear weapons. They know it, we know it, the Israelis know it and the U.N. knows it.

What are we doing to stop them?

Toothless sanctions, meaningless deadlines set, lopsided deals proposed.

In short, nothing.

While we do nothing, Iran is busy at work. They recently conducted war games to practice for a possible invasion that threatens their nuclear facilities. There are also plans to greatly increase their capacity to enrich uranium. They are also restarting a secret uranium enrichment site that has been inoperative for years.

In Washington, hands are being wrung.

Example Two: The Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Trial in New York.

While KSM has steadfastly refused to show any remorse for masterminding the 9/11 plot that directly killed 3,000 American citizens and launched the multi-front War on Terror, we are bending over backwards to ensure this terrorist gets a fair trial… in a U.S. civilian court no less.

Never mind the fact that he does not meet the criteria for an enemy combatant as outlined in the Geneva Convention, never mind that if released, he would go right back to plotting the deaths of untold numbers of Americans and never mind the fact that this trial will make him a martyr and source of inspiration for would-be Islamo-fascists, the real issue is the intelligence boon this trial presents to Al-Qaeda, The Taliban, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.

First, like in any civilian case, the government will have to disclose huge amounts of evidence; evidence gained through highly sensitive intelligence procedures. This not only harms our future ability to gather intelligence, but it also places our intelligence operatives in harm’s way.

Secondly, the question of whether we can convict KSM is a legitimate one in my mind. He certainly wasn’t Mirandized when he was captured, so how much information can they use and how much will be thrown out?

On top of that, he now plans to plead not guilty to all charges (along with his four cohorts also being tried with him), after offering to plead guilty in front of a military tribunal only ten months ago.

Example Three: The War in Afghanistan.

Yes, President Obama has committed to sending more troops, but he failed to meet the requested amount given to him by his handpicked general. More importantly, his speech clearly communicated that he is more interested in pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan rather than winning the war. His arbitrary timeline to pull troops out more than illustrates that point. As troubling, the vagueness of his “plan” puts the entire mission in Afghanistan in serious jeopardy.

Example Four: The Fort Hood Massacre.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan’s horrific action was not the deed of a deranged man. He was calculating, composed and brutally efficient. He didn’t just wake up one day and decide that he had had enough with military life. Quite the contrary, he was fed up with what he perceived as sins against Islam, committed by the U.S. military and he planned to exact revenge for his religion.

In the hours and days that followed this travesty, I found it utterly appalling that so many members of the administration went out of their way to state that this was not an instance of Islamic terrorism. The sanctimonious platitudes offered up about Islam and the ignoring of the obvious was disgusting.

Additionally, how was this savagery received by the President? First, he was so concerned with the wellbeing of the soldiers stationed at Fort Hood that he had to give a “shoutout” to a member of his Native American constituency (this illustrates Obama’s sickening inability to break away from his perpetual campaigning) before he mentioned the killed and wounded. To me, this is his most vile performance to date. For a Commander-in-Chief to act that way when his soldiers are dead and dying is purely despicable.

All of these cases illustrate that the Islamo-fascists will do whatever it takes to win this war and we simply will not. We need to stop being the good guy. We need to stop worrying about what the international community will think of us if we get tough with these terrorists. We need to put the lives of honest and innocent Americans first rather than seeking social justice.

If we don’t, the lives of every American, yours and mine alike, may be at risk.

That’s all for now folks. Until next time, take care and be well.

-John

Newsflash kids: It’s ok to lose…it’s even ok to lose big.

I am sure most of you have already heard about the girl’s high school basketball game that ended in a 100-0 rout a couple of weeks back. For those of you who have not, on January 13, Dallas Academy and Covenant School played an intra-conference girl’s, high school basketball game in the Dallas, Texas area.

Dallas Academy is a very small school for developmentally challenged (Dyslexia and ADD for example) girls. In fact, only 20 girls attend the school, eight of them playing on the basketball team.

Covenant School won the game by using some questionable actions that did not exactly scream sportsmanship, like continuing to shoot 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, pressing Dallas Academy well into the second half and celebrating on the court when they scored their 100^th point of the game.

Now the media has been in an uproar over this. The coach for Covenant School, Micah Grimes, has been fired after refusing to apologize for the lopsided victory. The principal of Covenant School even offered to forfeit the game, an act that makes, literally, no sense to me. What would that even accomplish?

Maybe I am insensitive, but I do not understand the outrage here.

Were the coach and players for Covenant School jags? Of course they were, but when is being a jag a crime? Did they win with sportsmanship and dignity? Absolutely not, but that is certainly not a new phenomenon either…in sporting events or in life in general.

Listen, I’ve been on the wrong side of many routs in my day and I do sympathize with the girls from Dallas Academy. The St. Veronica Vulcans, my grade school basketball team, were regularly killed in the vast majority of our basketball games (yes, you did read that correctly, my grade school mascot was a Vulcan…live long and prosper indeed!) and I turned out alright. I mean, if this loss is the worst thing to happen to these girls, they will live unbelievably wonderful lives.

I think this is just the latest example of our society’s misguided attempt to artificially inflate the self-esteem of children.

You see it all the time now. Events where everyone gets a trophy, athletic games where scores are not kept and mercy rules all have good intentions, but I think do more harm than good.

By eliminating losses, you rob kids of the thrill of victory. By praising everyone, you neglect the kids that succeed. By rewarding mediocrity and failure, you denigrate excellence and achievement.

Additionally, if people do not learn how to handle losses or disappointments during fairly insignificant events like childhood sporting events, how are they going to handle real losses and real disappointments later in life that do matter, like missing out on a job, not being accepted to their dream college or when a relationship disintegrates?

To me, there were great lessons taught to everyone during this game.

The girls at Dallas Academy learned that sometimes, life can be incredibly cruel and you are not always going to get your way. The best thing to do in those situations is do your best and figure out how to do better next time.

The girls at Covenant School learned that humility, dignity and grace are far more valuable and difficult to gain than a win in a high school basketball game. They will also learn, very soon I suspect, that what goes around comes around as well.

Micah Grimes (what a perfect name for the villain of this story, by the way) learned that you should admit when you are wrong and seek forgiveness. He also learned that nobody likes it when you rout a bunch of developmentally challenged high school girls either.

I realize the conundrum parents and league officials face when dealing with kids at young ages, because you do not want them humiliated or shown up. However, I also think that kids are far more resilient than what most adults realize and learning a lesson or two will do more good than the harm caused by a lopsided defeat…even one that’s 100-0.

That’s all for now folks. Until next time, take care and be well.

-John