Can the Republican Party be Saved?

Recently the Republican hierarchy released their report detailing the problems the party is facing and attempting to detail the deficiencies and propose solutions. There were numerous voting blocs where they also found problems. One prime example was their losing the under thirty vote by at least a ratio of three to one. Other such blocs included single women, the less well off, almost the entirety of minority voters, and so forth. From what I saw it was possibly debatable if they even won a majority of the registered Republicans. Ok, I made that up but it was really almost that bad. They also found that they managed to receive fewer votes in every voting group over the results from four years earlier. Somehow the Republicans with candidate Romney were unable to even hold on to the McCain voters as they received fewer votes across the board in this last election. As horrible as this news was it was not as unsettling as the solutions the report provided. The main gist of the offered solution was to move the candidates and campaigns to align them closer to the Democrat message.

My bet is should they pursue this path it will lead to the death of the Republican Party. When the base voters who are the lifeblood of your political party are not getting to the polls your problem is not that you are too far removed from the other party, it is that you are not offering them anything distinctly different from the other party. The solution is not to attempt to be perceived as the Democrat Lite Party but to be the heart and soul Republican Party. Show a difference and celebrate that difference. The Republican Party has not given the feeling that they are proud, confident, or even that they believe in their party. They sound almost apologetic whenever they sound all that different from what the Democrats stand for. If you want a near perfect example of the real problem is that is cursing the Republicans all you need to do is listen to the “old guard” of the GOP during the debates on virtually any legislation where immigration reform is one of the most glaring examples. Another problem is the seeming lack of unity and cooperation between the different factions that make up the Republican Party. Sometimes it appears as if as a whole the Republicans do not stand unified for anything and are without honest and driving principles. We had a perfect example after Rand Paul’s efforts to make a serious protest over the evasiveness and apparent policy which would allow the use of drone strikes on American civilians inside the country’s borders in place of arrests and a trial if the President so deemed necessary with his thirteen hour filibuster and a number of the senior Republican Senators demeaned his efforts on the floor of the Senate. Such disagreements should never be fought out in the public square but should be discussed and resolved within the party. When was the last time you heard one Democrat Senator demean another Democrat on the floor of the Senate? Such would never happen as the Democrats have party discipline and would not stand for parading the party laundry in public.

Another problem the Republican Party needs to work on is simply getting their message out and being heard. Since the mainstream press is actually a willing partner in any Democrat candidate’s campaign, the Republicans have to find a delivery for their message which does not rely on the mainstream press. They definitely need to work on their Internet usage and make more and better use of U-tube, Twitter, Facebook, and all other forms of social media as well as blogs and the new media. There are a good number of conservative bloggers who would be anxious to support getting the republican message out if they only would be included in the campaign planning and get some assistance in coordinating with the candidate. They could offer releases to these bloggers once they had compiled an extensive list. But the most important challenge facing the Republican Party hierarchy and planners is a message around which the membership can rally and be excited over. The current state of the Republican can be summed up in two words, disjointed disarray. Until they can establish something that can be advertised as the Republican core beliefs around which every party candidate tailors their message, the Republican Party will continue to wander leaderless in the political wastelands.

Beyond the Cusp

Women in Combat, the United States Joins the World

Secretary of Defense Panetta told the press and the world that the United States ban on women in combat was to be terminated and now all military positions and MOS are now available to all regardless of gender. There were the expected gasps and exclamations predicting the end of the military as we have known it. Others congratulated the United States for finally joining the modern world and recognizing that women are equal to men and should be allowed entrance into all fields, especially those provincially thought to be the providence of men. We would like to make a bold prediction. There will be very few women lining up to enter into combat arms and of those who take that route the majority will decide it is not worth the effort demanded. There will not be an end to the world or the military as we know them and everything will continue on with barely a ripple. Oh, sure there will be a great din from the extremes still fighting the same battle over the wisdom of allowing women into combat arms, except the sides will have changed. Now it will be those who once argued against the status quo defending it and vice-versa. The only question left to answer is what will happen should the United States become involved in a war with women on the front lines?

The answer to that question has actually already been answered. Does anybody remember Jessica Lynch? Not how her story turned tragic, but the initial shock and reaction to her being taken captive in Iraq. Suddenly Jessica Lynch became the most important captive in the entire Iraq War. The rescue of Private Lynch became the highest priority for the military, the press and pretty much the entire country if not the world, or at least much of it. Special Forces went into high gear with planning and executing a plan without taking six months to do practice runs, or even six days. We heard all about the valiant Private Lynch who fought off as long as she could finally going down with serious injuries to which she finally succumbed allowing her capture. It was the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster. There was even a movie made based on the theme of her resistance and capture. Then something really terrible happened, the truth. The truth sparked outrage and hearings in Congress where Private Lynch explained she never fired her weapon or put up any resistance or even knew any of the events. It turn out she was knocked unconscious when her truck wrecked and woke up captured. The whole house of cards collapsed and the brave woman fighting as bravely just like a man or even better was borne out as the lie it was. The arguments that Private Lynch’s heroic stance was proof that women could stand in combat just as strong and steady as any man also fell apart with the rest of the myth that was sold to the public.

The United States nearly fell apart over one woman caught by the freak instance, something which could become more prevalent with women in combat roles, so what happens when such is reported regularly on the nightly news. My question is what would happen should a battle go poorly and a fair number, say four or five, women be captured. Then what will happen when the press reports this incident? The truth about women being placed on the front lines is not the real question which ever needed to be answered. The real question is how will the United States public react when women are captured or worse, come home in numbers in caskets? Are the people of the United States ready when such occurrences become a common part of future conflicts? Whether or not women can perform in a combat role has never been the question. Even what affect women fighting and possibly dying or being captured will have on their male comrades was not the question. The training and daily rigors of being in a combat unit will weed out any women not physically strong or mentally capable of thriving or even barely surviving in a combat role. Thirty mile forced marches and the other physical and mental requirements which are a part of every year’s training along with the daily runs, calisthenics, weapons training, weapons maintenance and the rest of the rigors involved with being in a front line unit will weed out those who find such to be beyond what they are willing to do.

There are reasonable questions about unit cohesion and the possibilities of relation between soldiers within units are another angle which will produce problems which will need to be addressed. Such problems will not be as difficult as those faced since the change of the policy regarding homosexuals allowing them to serve openly. Any problem that has been predicted to result from women in a combat unit are not as critical as they have been made out to be and likely already there are procedures on how to handle them which can be adopted from other units which have had women and men serving together, even in the field, for as long as we have had a standing military. The military is not where the problem will lie as the one thing the military is adept at it is solving problems and taking care of those who do not follow the rules. The military has procedures, rules, regulations, and all that any organization could ever need to cover any situation which might crop up. It’s the civilians that are the largest potential for problems as we are not under any strict regimentation and stringent codes of conduct, nor are we used to the kind of environment which the military is at its most efficient. We need not concern ourselves with how the military will operate and adjust to women serving in combat units and on the front lines as the military will take it all in stride, write a few more rules, establish some new customs, and then march off to take care of business because that is what the military does. As long as we, the civilians, can give them our support or at least stay out of their way, then the military will take care and adjust to women within their combat ranks just as they have handled every other change societies have been placing upon their shoulders since before Thermopylae. So, hopefully we can have people stop claiming that the military will have big problems when what we really mean is that many in the public will have big problems adjusting and accepting women serving in front line combat units.

Beyond the Cusp

Fear of Netanyahu Implementing Another Disengagement too Limited

One of the major points of contention being exploited against the new Likud-Beiteinu conjoined effort in the coming Israeli elections are based on the theory that if Benyamin Netanyahu is reelected to the office of Prime Minister with a sufficient mandate by the electorate he will implement another disengagement with the Palestinians, this time in much of the West Bank. Theories about how much of Judea and Samaria Bibi will be willing to surrender to the Palestinians is the subject of pure conjecture. The most optimistic estimations claim Israel will retain all of Area C while allowing for a Palestinian State to be formed within Areas A and B while the most pessimistic predictions propose that solely the major blocks around Jerusalem and bordering the Green Line will be retained and anywhere from fifty to ninety settlements approximately may be evacuated, forcefully if necessary. This would result in anywhere from fifty-thousand to one-hundred-thousand Jews to be torn out of their communities and relocated in similar fashion to the forced evacuation of Gush Katif, and we know exactly what a series of disasters were spawned as a result. Unfortunately the truth of the matter may be far more sinister and depressing than anyone might wish.

No matter who is elected to be Prime Minister of Israel in the coming elections, that person will end up facing pressures and situations where the only available choices are bad, worse, and disastrously worse. The problem that will vex and tax the next Prime Minister of Israel will be in the form of attacks on political and legal levels married to ultimatums tied to threats of war, dissolution, abandonment or complete isolation from the rest of the nations of the world. The initial warning came with the announcement of a request, nay, a demand by the Arab League directed to President Obama to do everything in his power to force a solution that meets and satisfies the needs expressed by the Palestinian demands for their borders upon Israel. Even should President Obama choose to ignore this call from the Arab League, the Palestinians have worked in coordination with the Arab League in taking steps, measures, judicial procedures, petitions of world bodies, especially the United Nations, and alliance building in mutual treaties aimed at isolating Israel with nations sympathetic to their cause, including some of the European Union as well as most of the nations in the Non-Aligned Movement. All of these will serve to slowly force Israel into making the concessions or face what may seem to be terrifying consequences. So, it is very possible that it really does not matter who sits in the Prime Minister’s office, they will face such dire consequences that they may see no other acceptable path than to grant the Palestinians their State on the terms dictated to them as reasonable by those nations, institutions, NGOs and other alliances which have joined in the coming storm that will be aimed at Jerusalem. Yes, I mean Jerusalem as control over the Temple Mount and the Old City is as important if not more so as any other demand made by the Palestinians and their Islamic allies because by controlling Jerusalem they hold the beating heart of Judaism and a central node of Christianity and as such, possessing Jerusalem is of tantamount importance for simply psychological and propaganda purposes. For a corollary to what exactly Jerusalem means to the forces of Islam, simply read up on the conquest by the powers of Islam of Constantinople and their conversion of the Hagia Sophia Cathedral into a Mosque, transforming from the largest Cathedral of its time to the largest Mosque in its time.

To those who head their respective parties’ lists and dream of being the next Prime Minister of Israel, I have the following well known and over used admonition; be careful what you wish for, you just may get it. I really feel for the person, whoever it will be, who is chosen to be the Israeli Prime Minister as he will end up facing the most polarized divide of Israelis and have to make decisions which will make one third or more of the population call for his head on a pike. The Israeli population will divide on issues along differing fault lines depending on the subject. Some of these divides are the Secular and Religious; those living beyond the Green Line and those living inside the Green Line; the ones who still believe in the land for peace formula as a valid path to a solution and those who have completely lost any faith in peace by any means; the extreme leftists with the anarchists who support the Palestinians over Israel and those who support Israel above all else; The Ardent Zionists and the Post Zionists; and even many of the old divides found in almost every country such as the well off against the needy. The traumas that could possibly assault the Israeli population resulting from the forces aligning against the existence of a Jewish State may cause new divisions within the population that have never been witnessed before but the one thing which will act as a multiplier of any divide that forms within the public is the media and their drive to cause news and form public opinions rather than provide nonpartisan and purely factual reporting of events and situations.

There is one saving prayer that Israel needs to find is some avenue which would bring the public together and unite them in overwhelming numbers behind the Prime Minister and the government allowing them to represent a united face to the world and enable the Israeli governance to resist the pressures of an antagonistic world. This hatred and antagonism has been building for decades and has been most evident in the changing attitudes of much of Europe which have steadily moved to align with the Islamic forces which have the destruction of the Jewish State as one of their foremost priorities. Another front where a growing antagonism towards Israel and with it a resultant rise in anti-Semitism has been the campuses of universities worldwide and is manifested during the yearly campaign calling for supporting the Palestinians by agitating for countries, organizations and anybody else they can influence to join the BDS campaign against Israel and also impose boycotts, disengagements, and sanction on Israel with the intent of isolating Israel and slowly destroy the economy. The most disturbing occurrences of these efforts within the University communities which aim to destroy Israel, or at the very least remove any vestige of Jewish identity from Israel, are those which occur inside Israel on the very institutions of higher learning where a segment of ardent anti-religion leftists who call for and urge support of the BDS campaigns.

The other confrontation which will assail Israel and be a threat that the next Prime Minister will need to resolve will be a legal assault through some of the most anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic agencies spawned by the United Nations at the urging of the Non-Aligned Nations, the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and others sympathetic to their ideas concerning Israel or the Jewish people. Since the United Nations General Assembly granted the PLO, and thus the Palestinian Authority and potentially all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, nonmember statehood, there have surfaced numerous threats made by Mahmoud Abbas, other leadership from the PLO, Fatah, Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinian Authority to take their grievances to higher authorities and use various means and routes now made a viable for them to destroy Israel by other than military means. Some such threats may even deserve mention. One of the most laughable was the threat to take Benyamin Netanyahu before the International Criminal Court on charges of committing war crimes. There has been mention of taking a petition to the United Nations Security Council to demand an enforceable motion demanding that Israel return all of the lands beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines that they gained during the Six Day War including East Jerusalem, the Old City, the Temple Mount, the Kotel, and all of the settlement blocks placing them under Palestinian rule as well as requesting the assistance of the forces that would be marshaled to force this implementation to also assure that all Jews were removed by any means necessary. There have been references to the Palestinian “Right of Return” for five to seven million; the number varies from one day to the next, Muslim Arabs to their original homes within pre-1967 Israel along with immediate citizenship thus allowing for a Muslim majority which could vote to totally change the makeup of Israel as the Jewish State and possible vote in Sharia and thus even force the Jews to leave Israel. The ideas and avenues that granting of statehood by the United Nations General Assembly vote has opened up for the Palestinians new and simply fantastic avenues to harass and possible to eventually eviscerate and destroy Israel as it is currently understood. For this reason alone it has become of paramount importance that the people of Israel must come together or they risk losing the country which is the sole place of refuge for Jews should the world once again choose to follow the insanity which has gripped it so many times in history culminating in the horrors of the Nazi camps.

Beyond the Cusp