Trump Pulls Troops Out of Syria and Afghanistan

Mattis, a superb combat warrior, disagrees with a  superb strategist
They're both right! 

We may take a bit of flack from pseudo-hawks and NeoCons, but we support Trump's decision 100%.

Old Military and Intelligence guys have wondered at the rationale of keeping our troops in the Middle East.
Saddam is dead,
Osama bin Laden is still dead.

We have no stake in the Middle East other than to assist governments to stabilize, which does not include the massive presence of Central Command Forces. Nor does it require keeping massive US Military forces in Europe under the European Command -- a relic of the Cold War. Let the Europeans fund and populate NATO; we're tired of taking their lip and funding their exquisite tastes.

As necessary, we have the capability of transporting a fully equipped combat division, with combat support aircraft from the US to a crisis site within hours via our Transportation Command's  C-5 and
C-17 cargo planes.  We can deploy supersonic bombers and fighters from the US to arrive over the Middle East with minimal flight time with maximized combat effectiveness.

We should learn from history [an odd idea, now, isn't it?]

We've been involved in these faux wars for decades, the purpose of which always remains vague - other than to support the Military-Industrial Complex -- as detailed by General/POTUS Eisenhower.

As the Soviet Empire was crumbling, we sat with Bill Clark, then the Assistant Secretary of the Army [General Mark Clark's son] as he bemoaned the future/demise of the Military without a defined enemy.

Specifically, without a definable enemy, we would have no reason to maintain a large, standing Military; and if a new global crisis arose, how could we mobilize in time to meet that crisis?

We've spent a few years in combat in a variety of countries, supposedly to "defend our country", only to learn the enemies we fought were once our friends, and our current friends were once our enemies.

Worse, we learned our "leaders" [e.g., Kissinger, Bush-1, W, Robert Gates, Obama, Billary] were the actual enemy we've come to know as the Deep State, all leading us into senseless wars.

After we [personally] were able to defeat the insurgency in Northeast Thailand, we gloated until we learned the insurgency had been sponsored by the Chinese who coopted the anti-government movement protesting the government's confiscation of farmlands in order to build a hydro-electric dam, funded by our very own Agency for International Development [USAID].  The dam construction devastated famers by claiming their fertile land and relegating this once prosperous group to generations of poverty and government subsidies.

But, the "greater good" prevailed as the region received electricity -- although few could use it.

That revelation in 1974, got us to thinking about our major Military commitments.

China and Vietnam [Ho Chi Minh] were some of our greatest supporters in WW2, establishing OSS spy networks (which we inherited during the Vietnam War) and recovering our downed pilots; but now, that enemy, Japan - the invading force, is our close ally in the Pacific, and China is now our enemy.

Ho Chi Minh worked in England and in France, and on the docks in Baltimore, so he was fluent in English as well as the US culture.

He led the movement for independence from France and formed the Indochinese Communist Party, and following WW2, sought Eisenhower's support for Vietnam's independence - which Ike declined.

LBJ initiated the war with North Vietnam by sending our warships into their territorial waters, drawing fire, thus convincing Congressional hawks to declare war.

As it turns out, the Tonkin Gulf Resolution was drafted a full six months before the attacks on US vessels occurred.

While we valiantly fought that war until 1975, Henry Kissinger, without the knowledge of Nixon, was selling us out to the Chinese in 1972, in exchange for a trade agreement.

But, throughout that war, we were often reminded of the heroin trade, via the Golden Triangle, through US Military transport, to the US.  Some folks are convinced that trade was sponsored or conducted by the CIA.

Iraq, for decades before we invaded to depose Saddam, was our closest Middle East Arab Ally [see our colleague, #Rick Francona's book "Ally to Adversary"], as well as our principal oil supplier.

Dick Cheney's Defense Contractors made a fortune exploiting the war -- and our soldiers, and we then had a generation of soldiers succumb to the Gulf War Syndrome [attributed to the oil vapor from burning wells, or, depleted uranium munitions, but in fact, derived from the Anthrax vaccine immunizations in 1990 by order of the Department of Defense on all Army troops who "might" be deployed to Iraq -- Bush's friends in the Pharmaceutical Industry profited mightily from that requirement -- even though it had not been through more than one (incomplete) trial.

Theoretically, the US would use oil sales from Iraq to pay for that war, but, in the end, the oil fields went under the control of other countries, and the US got not a cent!  On the other hand, US Defense contractors made fortunes.

Estimates by Reuters put the estimated total cost of the Iraq War at more than $5.6 Trillion.  
The war killed an estimated 150,000 Iraqi civilians, with unconfirmed estimates ranging up to 600,000, including security forces, insurgents, journalists, and humanitarian workers!  Bush demonstrated US power by publicly executing Saddam by hanging him, by the neck, until dead.
[Rumor has it that W faced that same sentence in Gitmo in December, 2018]

The social impact in Iraq included the reinvigoration of Islamic militants, reversal of women's rights, and a weakened an already precarious healthcare system.  The multi-billion reconstruction effort was regarded a failure as most of the monies spent on security was lost to waste or fraud.

Keep in mind that the basis of George W Bush's invasion of Iraq was based on his announcement that Saddam Hussein held "Weapons of Mass Destruction" [WMD] a claim discounted by Rick Francona who was/is an expert on the region and acted as General Schwartzkopf's personal Arabic interpreter and Intelligence Advisor.

Schwartzkopf, opposed by Dick Cheney later became critical of the rationale behind the war once he learned the "WMD" claim was fraudulent and handed in his retirement papers rather than remain on Active Duty.  No evidence was ever substantiated of WMDs in Iraq.

Our legacy in Iraq was, perhaps, to create the subsequent regional terrorist factions which represent our current global threat.

The Afghans were our closest allies in their battles against the Soviets, as we helped create and aided the Mujahiden; but, there were even allegations that the CIA created Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, via Operation Cyclone, -- and then, once the Soviets were defeated, we abandoned our Afghan colleagues, allowing religious zealots to control the Taliban who were then dubbed terrorists; they're now our enemy because bin Laden was reportedly hiding out in Afghanistan.

In spite of the Special Operations assault on bin Laden's Pakistan hideout and his assassination, he has been repeatedly reported in sightings vacationing in the Caribbean with his family.

The faux assassination of bin Laden was conducted by Admiral McRaven's Special Operations units under the guise of Operation Neptune Spear as a public relations event for then-POTUS Obama.  McRaven reportedly was one of the flag rank officers who signed on to Obama's requirement that they agreed to fire on US Civilians if so ordered.

Contrary to all Intelligence protocols, bin Laden was killed and his [supposedly his] mutilated body was dumped in the ocean, sparking Muslim outrage throughout the world, and leaving professional Intelligence officers bewildered that he was not taken captive [he was unarmed] and interrogated to obtain his knowledge of regional and global terrorist groups.

Notably, SEAL Team Six, the lead on the bin Laden assault, later suffered 38 casualties, to include 15 participants of the bin Laden raid when their Chinook helicopter was shot down on August 6, 2011IN [Extortion 17] -- not long after members of the Team lampooned Obama as in Clint Eastwood's Empty Chair soliloquy.

Loading 38 SEALs aboard a chopper in a combat zone strains credulity, but, apparently, the orders came down from McRaven -- an officer we all respected until too many of these incidents surfaced, and he has recently become a highly vocal critic of President Trump.

The chopper was allegedly shot down by a Surface to Air [SAM/MANPAD]


But, why are we in Afghanistan now?

Most experts remain bewildered, other than the US now tacitly protects the poppy/heroin trade.

And, we learned that ISIS, our Enemy-du-Jour, has been led and funded by senior officers of our closest Mid-East Allies, apparently so we would have an officially recognized enemy.

Later, we learned that Benghazi was all about covering up Hillary's arms deals with ISIS and al Qaeda by overthrowing Qadafi and transferring the contents of Libyan armories to al Qaeda -- who just might be tempted use those weapons against US forces.


Of late, we received from an anonymous donor, the complete [unclassified] war-plan designed by [former General] Wesley Clark [Clinton's protege and commander of the Military raid on Waco] in which Clark planned a war between Ukraine and Russia, into which US forces would be inserted and engaged.
[It was difficult to determine who would have been the enemy in that war, but US engagement would guarantee profits for our Defense Contractors.]

In Central America, a grouping of 'banana republics" and a hotbed of corruption, the US built up the Southern Command [SouthCom] headquarters from a Military retirement vacationland to a highly energized and blossoming combat command, focused on defeating the communist threat to Nicaragua, which Jimmy Carter had turned over to the Sandinistas by pulling support from the "evil despot", Somoza - [a West Point graduate] and allowing communist Daniel Ortega to come to power and who then ushered in the Cubans and Soviets -- who presented The Threat.

We were assigned as the Special Intelligence Advisor to SouthCom, a thinly staffed regional headquarters which could respond to any regional crisis, and watched it mushroom into a bloated, top heavy bureaucracy which justified its existence by toppling our host and ally, Noriega with a massive invasion, built a huge Military force in Honduras and El Salvador, created a war zone in El Salvador, and essentially destabilized an entire sub-continent by becoming the common enemy of all, and a seeming ally of the Drug Cartels, thanks to Bush-1, Clinton, Bush-2, and Obama.

The US militarized El Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica, and headquartered Army and Air Force bases in each country, and supported Panama's Noriega as a "benevolent despot", who profited by accepting payments from the KGB, the CIA, Army Intelligence, -- and the Chinese.

[We managed HUMINT programs in CentAm following a by-name request by the CIA DDO-LA [D Clarridge] and the former DCI [V Walters] to restructure both the CIA and the Military Intelligence HUMINT operations in Latin America]

Noriega was also a drug runner and arms dealer; but, then we created an intelligence program that revealed that Noriega was not just a tin-horn dictator, but masterminded a global network of hundreds of front companies through which he moved drugs, arms, and laundered money -- a sophisticated network CIA/Deep State coveted, so Noriega was declared evil, and the US invaded Panama, and the CIA took control of all the Noriega Front Companies to carry on their global, Black enterprises.

But, all that is hidden in the background, and Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria are sort of enemy strongholds, but, we're not sure who are the good guys, or the bad guys.

So, now, who will the US have to identify and combat "The "Threat"?
Afghanistan for another 10 or 15 years? or Syria, for another 10 years!

We have the highly skilled and specialized Special Forces [the Special Operations Commmand (SOCOM) designed for insertion into hostile zones to address "Terrorists".

We have a Cyber Command which theoretically can combat hacking by all our Cyber enemies, and even the Russians, if we can admit that the US targets the successor to the USSR
[the Cyber Command apparently includes Spookdblog as an enemy since they have bombarded our residences with impulse waves, hacked our cell-phones and texted Clapper's threats to us, along with excerpts of our highly classified Officer Evaluation Reports (OER)-- just to let us know they could do it.]

Notably, there are several other Unified Commands [AfriCom, SouthCom, Strategic Command, etc.,] which serve no purpose other than to create command slots for unnecessary generals and bureaucrats, and to fund NATO.

But, let's not forget the Defense contractors who provide that expensive support for our Military forces deployed in those regions. The massive expansion of our Military and Intelligence organizations under Bush and Obama have created a huge financial burden, and a bloated Military hierarchy unseen in the history of the US -- even at the peak of World War 2.

These Commands waste manpower and equipment, and create the scenarios for regional wars - usually backing the wrong elements; they augment their forces by deploying National Guard units from the US at great expense. It's time to rethink our Military from top to bottom.

Do we need to remain in Afghanistan or Syria?

Lots of senior Military officers will state adamantly that the US must live up to its commitments in both areas of operation [AO].  But, precisely what commitment is there?

1) Afghanistan: 
After 17 years, our accomplishments consist of:
   a) Trillions of dollars spent,
   b) Deployment of countless National Guard units in six month deployments barely long enough
        to familiarize them with the environment before coming under attack,
    c) Countless suicides during, and after deployments, abominable leadership, massive
        post-deployment illnesses,
    d) Assassination of US personnel by Afghan allies, and
    e) Absolutely no positive results other than protecting Poppy fields for local drug lords,
    f) Bad guys control most of the country and the Afghan Government [our Ally] controls
        a few acres
    g) Most Afghans regard us as their enemy

2) Syria:
We've only been engaged in Syria for seven years, since 2011, and here's a list of accomplishments:
   a) Roughly 500,00 people are dead
   b) Dozens of countries are involved
   c)  Many [exact number unknown] terrorist groups are involved -- on both sides
   d)  Syrian President Assad is backed by Iran and Russia [our current "enemies"] and Pakistan
   c)  Opposition to Assad includes
        (1) hundreds of "militias" from an estimated 85 countries,
        (2) Syrian Democratic Forces [Kurdish-led coalition of Arab and Kurdish Militias],
              (a) led by the Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK)
              (b) regarded by the US and the UK as a Terrorist group although the US provides
                   them air support against ISIS]
              (c) BUT, Turkey fights the Kurds fearing they will use a victory to declare an independent
                    state along the border
        (3) Miscellaneous Arabs, Sunnis, Christians, Druze, and Kurds],
        (4) Islamic extremists -- some of which have been declared terrorists,
              including the Syrian version of al Qaeda [armed by Hillary from Libyan
              military warehouses]
        (5) ISIS- supposedly local Islamic extremists, although manpower derives from a variety
              of countries including Canada, the US, Australia, Israel, the UK, Iraq, etc.
        (6) Official backing by outside nations includes the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey
       

Mr Trump has stated he will pull out of Syria, but, given the complexities listed above, he faces a great deal of opposition from Allies, the Democrats, the Pentagon, the GOP, and all those who anticipate profiting from the continuation of this conflict.

Essentially, Trump is removing his "Boots-On-The-Ground" units and still maintaining a protective shield by creating a "No-Fly-Zone" in the Northeast of Syria which is rich in Agriculture, Water, and Energy resources - the target of all the Bad Guys.

The US can remove its primary units deployed by Obama, but tactically, can still respond, as needed from other Middle East areas, or,  from the US with Special Operations units and A-10 Warthogs, the close-air support aircraft Obama was intent on eliminating.

Assuming the reports of satellite enabled weaponry [Star Wars], bad guys [if accurately identified] could be targeted and blasted into oblivion in seconds using the Directed Energy Weapons developed back in the 1970s, or lasers developed during the 1960s, now significantly enhanced, with targeting via sophisticated technology developed since then.

In the ancient words of Walt Kelly's POGO,

"We have met the enemy, and he is US!"

Trump has an uphill battle to fix this.

Assessing Trump vs Hillary

Typical Trump Rally
Unlike Hillary's sparsely attended events

One of our old friends, a dyed in the wool Democrat, challenged Trump's candidacy by referring to him  as a "...  loose cannon, megalomaniac sociopath -- in the very clinical sense of those last wow words.  anyone that thinks his charismatic 'TV persona' is refreshing and entertaining does not understand the draw than an Adolf Hitler or Charles Manson can exert on the weak-minded.  Wake up people."

This overflow crowd required three more chairs to be set up!

We agree that Trump is bombastic, but in being so, he raised his visibility with the average American who has issues with the current Administration's bankrupt policies and total disregard for the Constitution, and who sees Hillary as a continuation of the "status quo", i.e., massive corruption in Washington, DC, and the absence of Congressional representation of the American People by either Party.   

Is he a Hitler, or a Manson?

Well, he has charisma, and a forceful personality -- but, if you use those descriptors, you'd have to include Teddy Roosevelt, General Patton, Ike, and JFK.  Trump speaks from the heart and resonates with "We The People" who are sick and tired of the Political Correctness that's been jammed down our throats, starting with Jimmy Carter's demands in the late 1970s; we are tired of massive unemployment; we're tired of the racial strife created under the Obama Administration; we're appalled at Obama's welcoming in hordes of illegals and pampering them with free housing, food, and medical care, plus giving them bundles of cash -- only to have these people assault US citizens.  

Ultimately, we're tired of seeing massive corruption in this Administration -- much of it carried out by political appointees such as Hillary, who used her position as Secretary of State solicit "contributions" from foreign leaders to her "Foundation" in return for political and business favors [which the FBI is currently investigating].

Thus, the massive turnout for Trump rallies, and the admission by the leading newspapers that Trump has a substantial lead over Hillary.

Outed by Hillary

Of late, we've been keeping track of Hillary, who has cancelled a number of events for lack of interest, her current events seem well-staged with her own people lest the "hoi polloi" and the Press disrupt the event with awkward inquiries. Notably, she seems prone [according to Secret Service agents] to psychotic fits of temper, not to speak of a total disregard for national security, not the least of which was discussing 

-- and outing -- in her unguarded emails, the identity and activities of a recruited Iranian agent, directly causing his arrest and execution.

And then we have that awkward Benghazi situation, where arms from the Libyan Military warehouses were being shipped to al Qaeda and the early elements of ISIS by CIA operatives. 

When Ambassador Stevens attempted to report these illegal transactions [which included Surface to Air Missiles to be used against US aircraft]. Most awkward was the assailant leader who shouted to the Libyan guard force


"Don't shoot! 

Morsi sent us!"

Hillary arranging Benghazi attack with Morsi?

This event followed Hillary's visit to President Morsi in Cairo, where she was the object of cursing and massive protests tied to her advisor, Huma Abedin, whose support to the Muslim Sisterhood and Muslim Brotherhood linked to Morsi's, causing outrage among the Egyptians.







Trump is a bit rough around the edges, but, many of us believe he is the only person who has not been bought and paid for by the Establishment. Ultimately, it is clear that both Parties are completely corrupt and can't be trusted to continue to run this country.

As for his being a loose cannon, virtually every charge he's made in this campaign has been borne out by fact, so, I'd say that perhaps we need that kind of "loose cannon" for a change of pace from Hillary's and Obama's chronic prevarication.

Is he charismatic?
Of course he is.

Is he intelligent and shrewd?
Of course he is; 

1) He built a $4 billion empire on the basis of a $10 million loan from his father, which he paid back.
 
2) His academic background includes Wharton, the most respected business school in the US.

3) And, he manipulated Hillary into admitting that she knew her emails contained classified intelligence information -- AFTER she denied knowing that was the case.

Trump projects = Economic Booms

Have some of his enterprises failed?


Of course, most successful businessmen have a few failures; but his success rate remains at better than 95%, which is better than that of the Fortune 50.  

His bankruptcies -- Chapters 11, involved putting his creditors on temporary hold while he reorganized the project to ensure workers got paid, and all the creditors received their fair payment.  

[Chapter 11 ensures creditors and employees don't get stiffed]




Is he the most qualified of the candidates to be President?
An overwhelming majority of voters seem to think so.

1)  He's negotiated with urban and national leaders in the US and dozens of countries throughout the world to create his projects.

2)  His enterprises have created tens of thousands of jobs in the US and abroad.

3)  He is a respected businessman in international commerce -- in spite of the negatives the DNC and GOP pander as negatives [they can't produce facts to support their allegations]

4)  His education is superb, with a degree from the Wharton School, 
     rated as one of the best schools of finance in the country.  
     [His transcripts and college records are available for review
      --  unlike Obama's].

5)  His track record, supporting the US Military and Veterans is exemplary, although he has not touted his actions for political purposes.  

Those he's assisted remember his largesse.  Here are two, of many, incidents,

  a) 1995:  Trump contributed $1 million to fund the 50th Anniversary NYC Veterans Parade
  
  b) 1991:  200 Marines were stranded after Operation Desert Storm.  
                  Trump flew them home



Will we see the Democrats try to manipulate the election through rigged machines and voter fraud?

Absolutely!

The only question is whether they'll be able to pull it off.

Hillary Dropping Out?

Will Hillary's Seizures affect voter confidence?

Here's an interesting rumor [unconfirmed, as yet].

Problem #1:  

Hillary had what appeared to be a seizure [video attached] during a photo op on 21 July 2016.  She quickly recovered, passing it off as a "brain freeze" from her drink, while her staff said she was just making fun of people with seizures.

Noteworthy is the concern of foreign government intelligence analysts who scrutinize every word, every movement, every health indicator of world leadership candidates to interpret their health, and particularly their mental health.  In this case, Hillary's mental health falls into question, creating a serious breach of confidence in her possible role as a world leader.  

-- Will she be capable of handling that 3:00 am call if she's in the midst of a seizure?  

-- Will she make a rational decision with her thumb on the nuclear missile launch button?

-- Will she be able to talk on the Red Phone if she's stumbling around the Lincoln Bedroom?

Is she mentally stable?
Ask the Secret Service.

Problem #2:

Apparently all the "polls" the DNC has been publishing about how overwhelmingly popular Hillary is doing with potential voters of either Party have been as bogus as we've presumed.

Turn-out for Hillary event;
one busload works if you crop the image

As we've observed, we've seen very few wide angle shots, either still or video, of Hillary's campaign events.  

Each image or video has been closely cropped to show a bunch of people [rarely more than 20] jammed together behind her -- with many appearing to be completely bored [perhaps because their pay for attending is so little].

Astute reporters who have attended the airport rallies have noted that the only crowds awaiting Hillary's plane consisted of airport crews on-hand to service her plane, plus a limousine waiting to take her to meet with donors.  Other than that, the airfields have been empty  of "supporters".

Speculation has been that the voting stations through which she was awarded the number of delegates required for her nomination were equipped with Soros voting machines, which oddly, awarded Bernie a paucity of votes, with overwhelming numbers for Hillary.  

The bewildering aspect of that voting was that exit polls reflected overwhelming support for Bernie.  

Could those machines have been rigged?

Well, by golly; it appears there was more than just rigging going on, and the Wicked Witch of the South, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was outed on 23 July 2016 in the Wikileaks dump of damning emails.  Now, Debbie is under fire, by Bernie and many others, to resign; it couldn't happen to a more appropriate person.

Now, as for rigging, we've seen it at its best in northern Virginia where voting sites had two machines, one for GOP and one for Democrat voters.  Strangely, the GOP machine at many sites was not functional, so all GOP registered voters had to vote using the Democrat-designated machine, which had only circles for two candidates:  Hillary or Bernie.  Since all GOP ballots were read dead-center, only the two of the five GOP candidates whose names appeared in the center of the ballot received votes.

A poll watcher at one location advised that a Spanish speaker caught a "volunteer interpreter" handing out Democrat ballots, instructing Latin voters that they "... have to use this [Democrat] ballot, and vote for either one."  They were not offered the GOP ballot, even when they requested one.  [The other poll workers had the "interpreter" removed, and filed charges against her, but we have to assume this practice was not unusual in the Primary.]

But, now we come to an interesting juncture in the election process.

The DNC has been gauging how Hillary can fare in this election, and their estimates are pretty grim, particularly in light of Wikileaks publication of a massive number of Hillary emails [which were intercepted most likely by Russian/Chinese/Mexican/Serbian/German/British/French/Swaziland Intelligence services.

It appears they fear Hillary is easily the most hated and distrusted candidate in the 21st Century, and that her chances of winning the election -- until two days ago -- were moderate to slim.  

But then, there appears to have been an Act of God.  

In the midst of an interview, Hillary appears to have had an epileptic fit during which her eyes glazed over, her head twisted and bounced, and she looked a bit crazy, causing political observers to presume that this medical malady was not one we'd like to see in a President who had her finger on the Nuclear Missile Button.
[Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC Delegate) moves in from behind to perform damage control and get Hillary back into human form before the alien insider her becomes visible]

Rest assured that our potential adversaries, the Chinese and the Russians, ISIS, Mexico, and Swaziland, along with our current allies [we can't think of any nation we can still call an ally at this point though] would interpret this medical incident as a positive.  

They all like to know that the US President, who is capable of initiating World War 3, is of sound mind and body.

Some may recall Hillary's "covert action" a while back where she commandeered a Military Attache aircraft and directed it to fly her to a remote spot in Iran for a covert meeting with Iran's leader -- the purpose being for her to proclaim that she had reached a secret agreement favorable to the US, and on which she could later claim success and run for President.  

Unfortunately, the plane was shot down, with the entire crew killed or captured, to include a Navy SEAL officer  [Commander Price] escorting her [he was later listed as having committed suicide in Afghanistan].

No one is sure who shot her plane down; the Israelis or the Iranian opposition; in any event, she somehow ended up in an Israeli hospital while the State Department/News Media announced she had the flu, had fallen, and had a concussion.



Interestingly, the Israelis nursed her to health and shipped her back to New York where she was transferred to a local hospital to ".. treat her flu and concussion."

But, we digress.

The DNC conundrum now is that Hillary is damaged goods.  [And Wasserman is destroyed.]

Valerie Jarrett is rumored to be staging Hillary's withdrawal based on "health issues" and may even openly refer to "epilepsy" -- without mentioning the head injuries Hillary suffered in the plane wreckage.  

Shotgun Joe

The template here is that Hillary will gracefully withdraw as a "fallen warrior", exit Stage Left to pre-recorded cheers and adulation, after which the DNC will announce that Joe Biden will graciously accept the nomination in Hillary's place.

That, of course, has been the fall-back position for the DNC from the beginning of this campaign, since Joe can be counted on to do what he is told.  And the Trump campaign organization hasn't had time to gather the dirt on Joe the Clown.  But, make no mistake; Joe is no more stupid or incompetent than W was.  Both are bright, accomplished fellows, but both have operated under severe threats by The Establishment mechanism, which dictates policy to both Parties.


Nonetheless, the GOP would be ecstatic to have Biden as the DNC candidate it could quietly support him in order to keep Trump out of the Oval Office.  If the GOP can defeat Trump by quietly backing Biden, they can continue taking all the bribes and perks they can handle, and go back to the "same old, same old", the constituency be damned!
[Impossible! you say; well, for example, in the 2010 Nevada Senate election, the GOP actively campaigned for that Evil-Doer, Harry Reid, whom the GOP officially and publicly hated, but they nonetheless threw every resource available against Sharon Angle to reelect Harry.]

Of course, once in office, there's no telling what Joe might do; and he still carries a grudge against the Clintons for their sabotage and smear campaign against him in earlier campaigns.  

Why, Joe just might appoint an Attorney General capable of taking the FBI investigations and evidence and prosecuting both Hillary and Bill, and shipping them both off to prison for 25 years.

Stranger things have happened.

Could Joe win the election?

Possibly.

He'd be much harder to beat than Hillary.

Gresham - In Memory of an Intellectual Giant [8 August 1957 - 2 July 2016]

John D Gresham Expert on Spec Ops and Intel Ops

This is another of our Guest Posts, 

i.e., 

reprints of articles which are important enough to 

rebroadcast to our unique audience in six continents.  

The obituary below is particularly significant since John Gresham authored a series of books which were exceptionally accurate, and in some cases, included material from Top Secret/Codeword reports which we assume had been released/declassified for his use by key Pentagon/Intelligence/White House officials.  

Since we spent a bit of time with John Gresham in his final years, during which a "mysterious illness" systematically destroyed his health, and finally, his ability to resist infection and his pulmonary functions -- a condition which destroyed his research and writing ability, we wanted to include some ancillary information in this tribute to him by Chuck Oldham.

Tom Clancy

His association and research support for the Maryland insurance salesman - Tom Clancy - comes to mind as we recall Tom Clancy's first and most famous novel The Hunt For Red October [1984], which recounted in exceptional detail the defection of a Soviet Navy captain commanding a submarine with the most advanced propulsion system of any Navy.  

We found this detail entrancing since we had been on the Pentagon's Current Intelligence [Soviet] Desk as this true story unfolded only a few years earlier, and we briefed a very small, select group of flag rank officers and Pentagon executives each day of the event.  The total number of personnel cleared for those briefs was perhaps 40, and neither Clancy nor Gresham were among them.  

But, as we had first hand experience, both analytical and operational in other noteworthy intelligence operations, we were once again surprised to see them recounted, in some noteworthy detail, by Clancy via Gresham's "research"; among those "novels" were Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, which were completely accurate with the exception of the juxtaposition of key characters.

Heart Stoppage Victim

Notably, both John Gresham and Tom Clancy died of "undisclosed illnesses", common among highly visible authors who have discovered, or have been made privy to most sensitive secrets.  

Clancy died of the Breitbart syndrome known as "heart stoppage", which also took the life of William Colby, former Director of Central Intelligence - who, coincidentally, lived not far from Tom Clancy on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Reagan & Walters - Strategists

President Reagan was perhaps Clancy's most visible and enthusiastic fan, and we suspect coordinated with former DCI Vernon Walters [for whom we worked (1981-83)] to ensure Clancy and Gresham were provided all the sensitive information necessary for full disclosure of these scenarios.  

Walters and Reagan were masters at the use of such information to expand the focus of intelligent observers and actionable people on actual events which posed a threat to national security.  [Walters, by the way, was the real Deep Throat in Watergate]



In reality, both John Gresham and Tom Clancy fall into the national hero category, so, this blog post today pays tribute to two fallen warriors, whose 
"pen was mightier than the sword." 

-------------------

Click here for original story
[Chuck Oldham (Editor, DefenseMediaNetwork]

Our friend and colleague John D. Gresham died July 2, 2016, after fighting serious health issues for the past several years.

An author, researcher, game designer, commentator and historian, John was well known for his interviews, commentary, research, screenwriting, and production assistance for various documentary series produced for TLC and the History, Military, New York Times, Discovery, and National Geographic channels.

He was the primary researcher and partner to Tom Clancy on his best-selling series of non-fiction “guided tour” books about military units.

These included Submarine (1993), Armored Cav (1994), Fighter Wing (1995), Marine (1996), Airborne (1997), Carrier (1999), and Special Forces (2001), all published by Berkley Books.

He also was the award-winning co-designer of Supermarina I and Supermarina II (Clash of Arms Games, 1996 and 1997), naval wargames based upon Larry Bond’s award-winning Command at Sea game system.

His book DEFCON-2 (with Norman Polmar) was a single-volume history of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Beyond Hell and Back (2007, with Dwight Jon Zimmerman), describes seven key U.S. special operations missions.

His last book was Uncommon Valor, covering six Medal of Honor recipients and their deeds in Iraq and Afghanistan, also co-authored with Zimmerman.

He was the consulting editor of The Year in Special Operations for more than a decade, and was an integral part of its growth and success over the years.

John had big ambitions for the publication from the beginning and achieved most of them. He also wrote many stories for other Faircount publications, and was a regular contributor to the Defense Media Network website.

John was a proud and passionate man, and wore his heart on his sleeve with respect to his avocations, his politics, his heroes, and his country. He was an expert on most things military or security-related, but read widely and well, and could discuss a wide range of subjects with authority. He felt privileged to be able to work with and write about the military, and held strong opinions about what shape it should take, as well as about various weapons, strategies, communities, programs, and people.

Chuck, About That Deadline

Most of his friends have a “John story” that demonstrates his personality or character. As one of his editors, over the years I collected a lot of John stories of a different sort, since I cannot recall him having ever made a deadline.

 While this often caused enormous stress, I can look back on it now with a smile, because John’s excuses became increasingly creative as the years went by. Equipment failures became old hat, although the old “Didn’t you get my email? I sent that to you” remained a favorite.

Hard drives died, laptops expired, email was hacked. My personal favorites were the acts of God and Mother Nature.

At deadline time, John’s home became the focus of strange and inexplicable phenomena, an uncanny vortex attracting the extremes of weather and chance, where pop-up tornadoes, mini-blizzards, neighborhood flash floods, sudden, violent downpours, and localized windstorms showering tree limbs from the skies could knock out power and communications for days at a time.

I won’t miss tearing my hair out over missing stories when the next deadline comes, but I’ll miss our long conversations about military history, technology, and publishing, our debates over strategy and tactics, and our arguments over politics. John was an outsized personality – fiercely proud, brimming with enthusiasm, a big kid at heart – the world will be a little less colorful without him.

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Editorial Note: 
John Gresham's final years were filled with pain and agony as he was reduced from a dynamic, healthy guy with an athletic physique, frequently visiting and engaging with Special Operations units, to a faltering, wavering frail body barely able to stand without a cane. 

Frequent visits to doctors resulted in their failure to determine the cause of his ailments, the combination of which destroyed him, slowly, shutting down his bodily functions, one by one.  No one could figure out his condition, and so all gave up trying.

In retrospect, we presume he had been targeted by the CIA since his research revealed extraordinarily accurate details of actual events of the Intelligence Community, the source of which was likely Bill Colby and Vernon Walters [we worked for both of these men].  His apartment was pillaged after his death, apparently to determine what other secrets he'd gathered and might publish; then again, it was probably "terrorists" and not CIA flunkies.

Until the revelations of Wikileaks, we would not have believed the horror stories about the CIA and DNI since we had been an executive in the Intelligence Community prior to its corruption 
[actually, we later learned its corruption dated back to the 1960s, though were were blissfully patriotic and never imagined just how corrupt the IC leadership was (perhaps that was why Colby offered up the Family Jewels to the Church Committee] 

Given the Wikileaks revelations, plus the details surrounding Colby's murder, plus the murder of Breitbart, plus the health details of Gresham leading up to his death, we naturally assume CIA murdered him, most likely with their frozen dart gun inflicting multiple viruses into his system.