donbendell.com

Dear Mr. President,

            With all due respect, we need to talk. You are a great communicator and so am I, some say. That is great for picking up women, selling cars, or getting elected. However, it is by no means leadership. A good leader inspires people to believe in him, but a great leader inspires people to believe in themselves. That is the whole premise of the free enterprise system. I’m a cowboy, Mr. President. You can herd sheep and you can drive cattle, but you must lead men and women. I am sure you mean well and probably think all those platitudes and attitudes about everybody sharing the pie is great that you learned when you were a community organizer. However, that is not what I want to talk about today.

            I have sons in harm’s way. This is life and death for my family. The US military, especially during a time of war, must not and cannot be a social experiment. This is the real world not a college classroom and people’s lives are at stake. You are the Commander-In-Chief, Mr. President but have known nothing of the military your whole life, and given your politics, you probably have had great disdain for it for much of your life. 

            As a young US Army Special Forces (Green Beret) officer in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969, one guiding principle kept me alive, and I still use that principle to this day: “Give a sergeant a job, then do not tell him how to do it, or try to do it for him.”

            The same holds true for generals if you are the commander-in-chief. Your commander in Afghanistan has asked strongly for more troops. General Petraeus, the now very-popular architect of “The Surge,” totally supports him. As a political opposite, I hate to point out the obvious, but George Bush’s ratings really climbed back up after “The Surge.” Please, send him what he needs now, even more.

            You now have troops being killed and wounded because of ludicrous Rules of Engagement, similar to some that cost needless lives in Vietnam. Troops are told not to fire at Taliban or al-Qaida unless fired on first. That is one of the fastest ways to lose a war. There is no such thing as a politically-correct war. In fact, if all countries were forced to pay for wars in advance that would bring peace.

            Your Rules of Engagement should be simple and clear: Kill the enemy, unless and until they surrender. War is hell and innocent and good people die, so let’s win and get this over with as quickly as possible. I will make sure that you troops have better and more guns, more bullets, bigger bombs, lots of support, and will tell my generals and admirals that the commander and senior NCOs with boots on the ground run the battles that they are engaged in, like we spent millions to train them to do. They will not be micro-managed or commanded over a radio or SAT phone by a chairborne ranger in an air-conditioned office somewhere who is not being shot at.

            Follow all rules of the Geneva Accords, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and always make moral decisions, trying hard to never harm any civilians. You are to hunt down, locate by all means possible, and shoot, or blow up as many of the enemy as possible until they are defeated. Be merciful to prisoners, but interrogate them immediately to extract information that will save American lives. They will be treated humanely as such until the war ends, so they cannot return to fight. Being prisoners of course, they will not enjoy the fruits of our justice system, as they will use that against us a propaganda tool. 

            We will keep a press pool apprised of your progress, so they do not naively assist the enemy with needed intelligence to use against us in battle, so you will not have to protect embedded reporters.           

            In Vietnam, American pilots and aviators flew over places like Hanoi and Haiphong, while President Johnson, not generals or admirals, picked out bombing targets. They flew over SAM missile factories, but were not allowed to bomb them, because civilians worked there. Then SAM missiles shot down American fighter jets, captured some of the pilots who lived, and tortured them all. I mean real torture. Stupid, huh?  I promise I will not allow Washington to act that stupidly while your courageous young lives are on the line.

            I give you my word, I will leave none of you behind, take good care of you if you are wounded, or your family if God-forbid, you make the ultimate sacrifice. And when you come home, for the rest of your life, we will embrace you and your brothers and sisters, insure you always have great medical care, schooling, or whatever this nation can give to let you know how much we will always respect and admire you and your valorous endeavors in the cause of freedom.

            Mr. President, every day you make personal appearances and speeches, but none of your words will ever go down in history without great actions to support them. Until then, they are just rhetoric. In fact, we could easily cut down gaseous emissions significantly if some judge simply issued a gag order on Beltway politicians.

            We are both talkers, but I am a warrior and know what I told you will make you win and become a hero to all. All Presidents go down in history but some go much farther down than others. Just ask your cheerleader, Jimmy Carter. You and our nation are in our fervent prayers. I pray God gives you wisdom and discernment.

                                                                        Sincerely,

                                                                        Don Bendell, a patriot

Don Bendell, 62, is an author of 26 books, including his newest novel, DETACHMENT DELTA, about modern day Delta Force, which was released worldwide in January, 2009 by Berkley Books (Penguin-USA), with over 2,000,000 copies of his books in print worldwide. Don is a popular editorialist who has appeared on FOX NEWS LIVE, and many national radio shows. A 70% disabled vet, Don served as an officer in 4 Special Forces (Green Beret) Groups, including a 1968-1969 tour on an A-team in Vietnam, as well as in the Top Secret Phoenix Program and has two sons in Special Forces.  A 1995 inductee into the International Karate Hall of Fame and a Grandmaster in 5 martial arts, he and his black belt master wife, Shirley, also own karate schools in southern Colorado. Don is “a real cowboy with a real horse” and lives outside Florence, Colorado. Write him at don@donbendell.com.

            In my first job after leaving the army in the seventies, I was assigned Cleveland, Ohio as my sales territory, but that industry was controlled by the mafia, La Cosa Nostra. I knew a man who reportedly was a capo, a captain in the mafia, and bought him dinner in Akron, my hometown. I explained that I did not agree with but understood his lifestyle and friends, which is what they called each other. I said my friends, the US Army Special Forces, were also all about respect. I told him I wanted to be respectful and explain my intentions, but also wanted to be treated with respect myself and feed my family. He said he would speak to his friends, and we would meet again. Later, he told me his friends appreciated me showing them respect and also appreciated my service in Vietnam. He said I had their full blessings and respect, and nobody would ever hassle me in Cleveland. His friends kept their word.

            I could never have such a conversation with the al-Qaida and other Muslim radicals. Nobody can. They have no code of honor. They know nothing of offering respect to anybody with differing views. Everything we hold dear such as charity, women’s rights, loving thy neighbor; they see as total weakness. They could care less that our President has a Muslim name. It means nothing to them that every Hollywood star now has a good friend who is their token Muslim. To them, respect has a different connotation: abject, cowering fear. It is all they understand and all that they offer, the raised scimitar of oppression.

            Simply put, they have a 7^th century mindset, and will lie, behead, intimidate, and do whatever is necessary to destroy Christians and Jews, including using our own system against us to that end. They not only do that very well, we help them with brazen ignorance. We naïve, now often-wimpy, Americans; or I should say our leaders, know nothing of respect either, and it all starts at the top. At town hall meetings across our nation, Americans are angrily exercising their first amendment rights, and are being chastised and belittled for it by our elected officials, instead of them respecting us and listening to our concerns. Our President bows in subservience to the King of Saudi Arabia, apologizes for our actions to foreign countries who should be fawning at our feet for the good and rebuilding we have done there, and disrespects us as he lectures us on television almost daily, instead of spending most of his time managing our affairs.

            The Hollywood Hyper-liberal Head-bangers have recorded pledges to support the President, and he welcomes it. President Obama, here is a thought: Have you ever heard of “servant leadership?” You pledged to work for us, not the other way around! You are a manager, the Chief Executive, not the monarch, king, or our Grand Poobah. It is the same thing with each of you in the Congress, republicans and democrats alike. We are the bosses, not you, or your union thugs, your unvetted czars, your liberal media lackeys, and your Brooks Brothers-suited apologists and hangers-on. If you Washington elitists actually work for us, you earn respect from us. If you do not, then we will fire you with our votes, or by recall if you anger us enough.

            Because of you, our supposed leaders, racing hell-bent for government healthcare, we daily teeter on the steep cliff-edge of an economic depression. You ignore the al-Qaida threat with the mistaken impression that we will not be attacked again. You attack CIA employees from yesteryear, to try to take our eyes and ears off of healthcare and cap and trade debacles that over two-thirds of Americans do not want. Hear me, you elected Pharisees, everyone will occasionally be ignorant, but it is pure folly to make a career out of it. That, however, is what you inside the Beltway have been doing. In American jurisprudence they say that ignorance of the law is no excuse, but we should remember that the ignorance of lawmakers is also inexcusable.

            Our former President and do-nothing Congress, protected us well from attack, but also spent money like a Beverly Hills housewife with a platinum card to match her hair color. But now, our current President and do-even-less Congress are spending our children’s money, our grand-children’s, and their children’s. We have 33 czars now running our lives who had to go through no congressional vetting whatsoever, like cabinet members, congressmen, and major appointees have to do. Congress has not even plugged that dike. Checks and balances went out the window. We also have some Americans now who love America for the same reason some farmers love their cow; Because they can milk it, and that is who you politicians play to. American work ethic, freedom to compete, and ingenuity created the fatted cow, and now you do all you can to let it get drained, so you can buy votes with promises of free milk and cookies for the lazy, ignorant, and unprincipled. And so, you suppress and do not help them. They remain poor, as they never learn that through struggle comes growth and self-actualization. You have made patriotism a dirty word, but whenever that happens we get taken to the cleaners.

            So, what is the answer? The answer is simple, very simple. In fact, it is already written down. It is the US Constitution. In the past, world leaders, even some of our own, have disrespected that great document and all that it represents. And when they have, brave determined Americans have made believers of them no matter how great the challenge to do so.  

            Many raised and trained in the word of God, Americans are the first there to assist and give when there is a major catastrophe anywhere in the world, often the only ones there. It is our volunteer spirit that is borne of all our precious freedoms, and our naive leaders cannot even see that. They are too blinded by their own ego and idealistic theories of Shangri-La. Here and around the world, courageous American fighting men and women faced down tyranny and freed the oppressed, risking their very lives to do so. So many, so very many shed their blood and tears into the soil of foreign lands and far-off places, and even here in America, to teach respect for what our Constitution clearly defines. That is what America is about. American heroes defined freedom in Bouganville, St Mere Eglise, Bataan, the Chosin Reservoir, Khe Sanh, Ahn Khe, Mosul, Kandahar, Baghdad, Normandy, Sicily, North Africa, Selma, Alabama, Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, and San Juan Hill. American patriots defeated, liberated, and educated people all over the world and taught billions to respect our Constitution and all it represents, including the legacy of valor of those Americans who have protected it at all costs. We Americans, under God, will always rise up in defense of our freedoms and that treasured symbol in the cause of freedom, even when its attackers are our own elected leaders.  It is a lesson that I caution our leaders to learn from history, because when you attack our freedoms and our very Constitution, then do not whine if you see bloody wounds in your flesh, the result of eagle’s talons.

            May God bless America and strike down, any way He sees fit, those who are attacking it.

Don Bendell, 62, is an author of 26 books, including his newest novel, DETACHMENT DELTA, about modern day Delta Force, which was released worldwide in January, 2009 by Berkley Books (Penguin-USA), with over 2,000,000 copies of his books in print worldwide. Don is a popular editorialist who has appeared on FOX NEWS LIVE, and many national radio shows. A 70% disabled vet, Don served as an officer in 4 Special Forces (Green Beret) Groups, including a 1968-1969 tour on an A-team in Vietnam, as well as in the Top Secret Phoenix Program and has two sons in Special Forces.  A 1995 inductee into the International Karate Hall of Fame and a Grandmaster in 5 martial arts, he and his black belt master wife, Shirley, also own karate schools in southern Colorado. Don is “a real cowboy with a real horse” and lives outside Florence, Colorado. Write him at don@donbendell.com.

            As Vietnam veterans; for decades, we were like the shiny black lumps in our coal cellar when I was a little boy. That coal bin was dark, cold, scary, and out of sight of the neighbors. That is where the American public shoveled all of us after Vietnam. Out of sight, out of mind after-all. We were not seen or heard from for years, except as psycho killers in movies and TV shows. War is always hell, but a lot of our real pain came from the heartbreak of Americans not giving us enough credit. Newsmen said it, so many thought we all lost our values and character that we grew up with. Instead, in the publics’ minds; amazingly, we became brain-washed, robotic killers, and rapists after only a year or two of military training. Please! It was chilly and emotionally-barren in that coal bin all those years, because we, “Vietnam Untouchables,” were blanketed by an icy coldness of public shame and apathy.

            Then, a few years ago, we came into vogue. Even the left saw us as fashionable, so now there are 11,000,000 Vietnam vets running around. Except for one problem, there were only 2.7 million of us in Vietnam. People finally learned though that we are not sociopaths, that only 12.5% of us were black, which was commensurate with that racial percentage nationally, that we did not mostly come from low income families, and most of us were; like me, volunteers, not draftees. And so many more myths about Vietnam have been exploded.

            So what now, a parade, a national holiday? No, our President and our congressional leaders, instead of honoring us, want us to start figuring out how we want to die, (so we will not be a burden to their spending plans, I believe). I have a copy of Obama’s now infamous “Death Book for Veterans.” It is actually called “Your life, Your Choices,” and camouflages itself as a guide for living wills. In actuality, it encourages euthanasia if you feel depressed, are wheelchair–bound, in a nursing home, are a burden to loved ones, either emotionally or financially, or in similar circumstance. And this book is real; morbid and shameful, but real. There is page after page about “pulling the plug,” the horrors of comas, and other debilitating conditions. It is indeed a macabre guide, and much unlike any military field manual I have ever read. This one is how to lose, not win.

            Since FDR was wheelchair-bound as our President, I wonder how he would have felt about self-euthanasia. Then I remembered that the President and Congress are too good for our health care plan. In fact, if our health care system is so bad, why didn’t Teddy Kennedy go to Canda, Great Britain, or maybe Cuba for his brain cancer? Why do all their terminal cancer patients come to the US for care? And, do you know what they call many of them who don’t? Corpses.

            Any nation takes care of its troops during war, but the true test of a nation’s greatness is how that nation treats its warriors when they come home. Can they seek shade, rest, and peace on the porches of America or must they immediately head for the coal chute “out back?” Obama and Congress want us to save them money and head to the boneyard so they can spend some more.

            The problem is that this is not just about vets. It is about a government-run and mandated healthcare program for America. I am a disabled Vietnam veteran and am treated by government-paid doctors, nurses, druggists, and administrators. In other words, I am taken care of by  government-run healthcare through a dysfunctional bureaucracy that is broken. No, not broken, trashed, in case you haven’t read. Now, get this: Our leaders in Washington want to create a much, much larger bureaucracy in the midst of a recession and saddle our entire nation with what my brother vets and I go through but on a grander scale. What are they, nuts?

            Let’s see, just in 2009 alone, our government began “Cash for Clunkers,” and it went broke in just weeks. People traded in big American-made cars, and most purchased new foreign-made cars. Wow! The government sure is taking care of American auto workers . . . not. Car dealers have not been paid their promised federal dollars either.

            How about the still-naïve one-third of Americans who want Big Brother to provide us with Obamacare? How has our government done over the decades managing other federal programs? Just look at: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Amtrak, Medicaid, Medicare, or Social Security. And say, what about the US Postal Service? Even the President joked in a speech in August about their incompetence compared to FEDEX or UPS. Do you want to go to the post office on the day that some worker comes in “disgruntled?”

            We have legislators actually suggesting we copy Great Britain’s healthcare system. In Great Britain, MS patients are forced to wait two and a half years there for the latest MS medicines and treatments. I have two daughters with MS, probably because I was exposed to Agent Orange. One of them is even a liberal and may even want Obamacare, not realizing what will happen to MS patients if it happens.       

            Over two-thirds of Americans, democrats and republicans are against Obamacare, but legislators at town halls are still trying to cram it down our throats. They are not listening to the majority, only their own spin-doctors insulting us, the citizens. Our so-called leaders forgot that the hidden coal in the coal cellar of my youth, also provided my family with life-giving warmth and comfort during the cold Ohio winters. Similarly, my fellow veterans and I did not lose our warmth or fires of passion hidden away all those years.

            These “empty suit” pinheads in Washington think I am going to let my daughters get re-victimized? The real problem is, that just because some us were dumb enough to elect them, they think we are all stupid. I have news for them and any of their co-dependent hangers-on just wanting more government freebies. Veterans are not like giggling, slogan-chanting Woodstockers and peaceniks. American veterans actually risked our lives for what we believed in. In Vietnam, 58,000 gave up theirs. It is not just veterans though. It is an American public, democrats, republicans, and independents who feel like me: I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.

            Ronald Reagan was faced with a greater recession, higher inflation, much higher interest rates, and much higher unemployment than Obama faced. Democrats and Republicans alike voted for Reagan, and he drastically cut taxes and immediately started us on the road to recovery. Obama put us $3 trillion deeper in debt with a worse economy to show for it. Reagan studied world leaders before becoming President. Obama’s mentor prior to heading off to college was Frank Marshall Davis, a member of the Communist Party USA, who was a heavy pot-smoker, and wrote a porno book.  Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama have one major similarity though: One term Presidents due to pie-in-the-sky unworkable fiscal policies.

            The first thing we must do to fix our sky-rocketing medical care is not talked about. If a surgeon passes gas in the operating room, a patient files a multi-million dollar lawsuit against him for causing air pollution. Trial lawyers run the democratic party and a good portion of the republican party. We must force our legislators to pass good, rock solid tort reform legislation. The insurance premiums doctors, especially those in private practice, and hospitals, pay is through the ceiling.

My Solutions:

1.      Tort Reform: We must get the size of lawsuits, especially in the medical profession, significantly lowered back to earth, insurance rates will come down, and health care costs will start dropping immediately.

2.      Conservatives must take back the congress in 2010, lower taxes, and ease the ludicrous government regulations. “Checks and balances” works.

3.      Moderates and Conservatives must unite behind one common Reagan-like Presidential 2012 candidate who understands economics.

4.      We must continue tea parties, phone calls, emails, and faxes to our legislators.

5.      We must start supporting those who want to run for Congress who have proven they want to serve country first, not self, and not party.

6.      While we are at it, regarding the various attacks now on-going against our Constitution, let’s just use the 2^nd Amendment for example. 11 years ago, Great Britain outlawed private ownership of firearms. Their Violent Crime Rate increased by over 340%. It was worse in Australia. In comparison, NOBODY will ever break into my house or carjack my car. Why? People know, either my wife or me will shoot them very dead with very large bullet holes ventilating their carcasses. Pretty good motivation to obey the law around my property and family.

7.      And speaking of the Constitution, our nation only functions with our system of checks and balances. Czars are not accountable to anybody, and that must be changed by Congress. The unethical utilization of that loophole tells me all I need to know about Obama’s so-called “transparency in government.” Action walks and BS talks.

            Freedom is a very jealous mistress. To possess her, we must reject her longtime competitor; slavery to governmental intrusion. Lady Liberty will not accept a divided allegiance, and freedom comes as a package deal. With freedom comes responsibilities and consequences. Government intrusion is the dirty lonely coal cellar, but freedom is like soap. It smells sweet, is clean, and loses all its effectiveness if it is watered down.

            May God bless America, and may Americans get back to praising God.

Don Bendell, 62, is an author of 26 books, including his newest novel, DETACHMENT DELTA, about modern day Delta Force, which was released worldwide in January, 2009 by Berkley Books (Penguin-USA), with over 2,000,000 copies of his books in print worldwide. Don is a popular editorialist who has appeared on FOX NEWS LIVE, and many national radio shows. A 70% disabled vet, Don served as an officer in 4 Special Forces (Green Beret) Groups, including a 1968-1969 tour on an A-team in Vietnam, as well as in the Top Secret Phoenix Program and has two sons in Special Forces.  A 1995 inductee into the International Karate Hall of Fame and a Grandmaster in 5 martial arts, he and his black belt master wife, Shirley, also own karate schools in southern Colorado. Don is “a real cowboy with a real horse” and lives outside Florence, Colorado. Write him at don@donbendell.com.

The ‘Cap And Tax’ Dead End

Reprinted from the Washington Post

By Sarah Palin
Tuesday, July 14, 2009

There is no shortage of threats to our economy. America’s unemployment rate recently hit its highest mark in more than 25 years and is expected to continue climbing. Worries are widespread that even when the economy finally rebounds, the recovery won’t bring jobs. Our nation’s debt is unsustainable, and the federal government’s reach into the private sector is unprecedented.

Unfortunately, many in the national media would rather focus on the personality-driven political gossip of the day than on the gravity of these challenges. So, at risk of disappointing the chattering class, let me make clear what is foremost on my mind and where my focus will be:

I am deeply concerned about President Obama’s cap-and-trade energy plan, and I believe it is an enormous threat to our economy. It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage.

American prosperity has always been driven by the steady supply of abundant, affordable energy. Particularly in Alaska, we understand the inherent link between energy and prosperity, energy and opportunity, and energy and security. Consequently, many of us in this huge, energy-rich state recognize that the president’s cap-and-trade energy tax would adversely affect every aspect of the U.S. economy.

There is no denying that as the world becomes more industrialized, we need to reform our energy policy and become less dependent on foreign energy sources. But the answer doesn’t lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive! Those who understand the issue know we can meet our energy needs and environmental challenges without destroying America’s economy.

Job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs.

In addition to immediately increasing unemployment in the energy sector, even more American jobs will be threatened by the rising cost of doing business under the cap-and-tax plan. For example, the cost of farming will certainly increase, driving down farm incomes while driving up grocery prices. The costs of manufacturing, warehousing and transportation will also increase.

The ironic beauty in this plan? Soon, even the most ardent liberal will understand supply-side economics.

The Americans hit hardest will be those already struggling to make ends meet. As the president eloquently puts it, their electricity bills will “necessarily skyrocket.” So much for not raising taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year.

Even Warren Buffett, an ardent Obama supporter, admitted that under the cap-and-tax scheme, “poor people are going to pay a lot more for electricity.”

We must move in a new direction. We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil. Just as important, we have more desire and ability to protect the environment than any foreign nation from which we purchase energy today.

In Alaska, we are progressing on the largest private-sector energy project in history. Our 3,000-mile natural gas pipeline will transport hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of our clean natural gas to hungry markets across America. We can safely drill for U.S. oil offshore and in a tiny, 2,000-acre corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if ever given the go-ahead by Washington bureaucrats.

Of course, Alaska is not the sole source of American energy. Many states have abundant coal, whose technology is continuously making it into a cleaner energy source. Westerners literally sit on mountains of oil and gas, and every state can consider the possibility of nuclear energy.

We have an important choice to make. Do we want to control our energy supply and its environmental impact? Or, do we want to outsource it to China, Russia and Saudi Arabia? Make no mistake: President Obama’s plan will result in the latter.

For so many reasons, we can’t afford to kill responsible domestic energy production or clobber every American consumer with higher prices.

Can America produce more of its own energy through strategic investments that protect the environment, revive our economy and secure our nation?

Yes, we can. Just not with Barack Obama’s energy cap-and-tax plan.

The writer, a Republican, is governor of Alaska.

Today, I was listening to a beautiful rendition of “America the Beautiful,” performed by the late-Elvis Presley, who shares a birthday with me. I really focused on the words, “For purple mountains majesty above the fruited-plains. America, America, God shed his grace on thee, and crowned thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.”

It suddenly hit me. I’m a real American cowboy with a real horse, and frequently ride on those “purple mountains majesty,” usually on 13,000 and 14,000-foot peaks in the majestic Sangre de Cristo range in southern Colorado. Meaning, the “Blood of Christ” the Sangre de Cristos are so named for the red hue on the snow-capped peaks at sunset and sunrise. I have been so richly-blessed, I thought, to live my dream borne of my childhood imagination in Akron, Ohio while watching Roy Rogers, the Range Rider, and John Wayne.

I ride my beautiful black and white pinto Eagle up in the “high lonesome” and do indeed look out “above the fruited plains.” Recently criss-crossing the nation, traveling to Orlando, Florida, Las Vegas, then Oklahoma City, I spent a week in each location in different time zones, different environs, and different climates. I have been in all fifty states and today thought about the wonder of it all and the differing climes throughout our country. However, the majestic varied types of beauty found throughout our nation are not what makes this country great.

“And crowned thy good with brotherhood.” That is how it is supposed to be, and that is what we must get back to if we truly want to reclaim our bounteous blessings. GM used to stand for General Motors, but now it stands for Government Motors. That is reminiscent of the defunct Soviet Union or communist China, but not the country where I grew up. Brotherhood? Politicians have convinced the poor that the rich are greedy and should be forced to give it all to the poor. Poverty pimps convince black children they are victims, instead of teaching them they came from a strong powerful race of people that survived slavery and the wilds of Africa. As a cowboy and a western author, I wrote my own Code of the West, and one of its principal tenets is “A cowboy is only as good as his word.” When you are a politician, you can promise all the free cake and ice cream to voters all day long, but except for the very ignorant, at some point, people will realize that somehow, someway, somebody is eventually going to have to pay for all that free cake and ice cream. 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence and most of them died in poverty, because they gave to this nation for our freedoms, not for our freebies. They did not collect food stamps, welfare, social security, or ask for a guaranteed rocking chair to go along with their gold watch and dead turkey on retirement day. They looked ahead to see what we all need: Our most precious individual freedoms and liberty, and they gave their all, so that we could each enjoy those blessings.

In my Code of the West, I state that “A cowboy will share his grub and campfire with you.” That is voluntary, but if you try to take what is mine or my family’s, you better have a .45 in your hand and shoot straight, because I darned sure will have two Colts in mine. And if you try to force free men and free women to work harder to pay more money to those who want only to take from this nation without giving, you will find yourself under a stout cottonwood limb, listening to those famous old words: “Somebody grab a rope.”

For this nation was nurtured by the blood and sweat of heroes and true  Americans will live free like eagles, and will not be herded like mindless cattle for very long. The biggest mistake made; over the years, by tyrants, dictators, selfish politicians, carpet-baggers, and land-grabbers, is to underestimate the will and might of free men and free women. The self-serving beware: Don’t tread on me, for nobody fights harder than a man or woman in the cause of protecting their God-given freedoms.  Keep herding us into a box canyon with rock walls of new laws, hidden taxes, and regulations, and we will teach you a new game. It’s called “Cowboys and Bureaucrats.”

Don Bendell has written 26 books with 2,000,000 copies in print worldwide and is the author of a new western Strongheart being released by Berkley Books worldwide in March, 2010, and his current book at bookstores is a modern day military thriller Detachment Delta (Berkley Books, Feb, 2009). A former Green Beret captain and disabled Vietnam veteran, he also owns martial arts schools in southern Colorado and was a 1995 inductee into the International Karate Hall of Fame. Don and his wife Shirley are earning their Master of Science degrees in Leadership from Grand Canyon University. He has 6 grown children and 7 grandchildren. Because of his editorials, he has been interviewed on Fox News and appears regularly on national radio shows and in national magazines.

Many Americans; democrats, republicans, and independents who actually believe in working are scared, very, very scared. Those who do not believe in working, who think our government is a bottomless money pit, were told they were victims and promised ice cream cones if they voted for a Change to Believe In. Many republicans have given up hope on their own party and our nation. Why? Our economy was doing fine until 2006, when we elected a liberal Congress, and our President and many other republican legislators joined the liberal crowd and spent money like a spoiled stepchild. In fact, the biggest whiners right now are republicans who stayed at home on election day. Many showed up but decried the chosen republican nominee, and that enabled Obama to become elected.

Now, with President Obama still promising ice cream cones, our country is rapidly plunging headfirst into a major economic depression. In the two-months after Obama was elected the DOW plunged over 25%. Many jobs and businesses have been lost and many more will. Some people have even lost half of their retirement. Yes, it is going to get worse before it gets better, but it will eventually get better. Then, when it does, we will be facing double digit inflation because of the Obama government now printing money while businesses are losing money. The things that have propelled the United States to the forefront of the world in regards to success, personal freedoms, and privacy are being destroyed right before our eyes; in order to keep liberals getting re-elected.

In times of world or national crisis, we have always depended on our President to reassure us, to remove our fears and our doubts. However, our new President has failed us there miserably and has been using our fear, and in fact, magnifying it to get support for his runaway spending spree. The President and our Congress are spending like Paris Hilton with a gold card in a party store. Do we get reassurances? No, we get more smoke-blowing than untaxed free cigarettes at a NASCAR race.

Yes, the President inherited a recession, but he took his inheritance and tossed it down into the deep, dry well of Depression. It has not dawned on him that you can never tax your way into prosperity, that in every country where the government takes care of everybody and distributes the wealth, it never, ever works. Human rights disappear. Freedoms come with strings attached. When the economy is in a freefall, you throw it a parachute, which is called “tax breaks,” as many as possible. Socialism has never worked and has always failed miserably, but licking those free ice cream cones; nobody cares, because the ice cream tastes so good.

I have never seen our freedoms, rights, and traditions so quickly eroded and so much apathy about such demise. On top of that, buying the line about a “Change to Believe in,” many voters not only elected Obama and re-elected the Congress with the lowest popularity ratings in history, but they added even more liberal legislators to the Congressional tax-and-spend clique. Obama and this Congress want to punish people for making money, and then are surprised when those same people will not play that game. Those who make lots of money, KNOW the stimulus plan will only make matters worse not better. Gas and oil rates are down but will sky-rocket before long, because the government has stopped our drilling offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, although China is drilling to its heart’s content a little further out. Millions of acres of land with oil and natural gas underneath have been closed to drilling by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar simply because oil or gas rigs might be seen from National Parks lands a mile or so away. Amazingly, Obama’s approval ratings are high at around 60%, but he is still blaming GWB for his problems and getting away with it but not for long. Now, for example, close to 70% believe Obama’s mortgage salvation plan will not work, and they are right. When incentive is removed, people do not try to succeed. The old cliché “the rich only get richer,” does not work when they get punished for getting rich. The rich are protecting what they have and will not work to make more to get punished for it, so the poor do not get jobs or money anyway, as a result.

However, the good news is that we can recover and recover quickly. What goes down, will come up. The country might be in a depression, but I refuse to be in a depression. Please join me, and we can bring America back to, well, becoming America again. If you hold a pencil in your fist and push on the upper half with your thumb, you can break it easily, but if you hold a large group of pencils together, you cannot break them with both hands no matter how strong you might be. We will survive this by workng together, doing what is needed to regroup, turning to God for help, and getting back to solid, real conservative principles.

            When the Boogeyman goes to bed at night and is ready to turn off his lights, his heart pounding and his breaths rapid; he slowly, carefully looks under his bed then moves to his closet and opens the door with a whimper, then a relaxed sigh. The Boogeyman then jumps into bed very relieved that I am not hiding anywhere in his room or closet. That has been my attitude my whole adult life, and it must be the attitude we need to survive anything. That is precisely the attitude we Americans must get back to in order to survive this frightening ordeal we are all going through.

            There are specific things we must do to get our nation back from those who woo the lazy masses who want a guaranteed rocking chair at sunset, redistribution of wealth, and undeserved government handouts:

1.                           We must target and call-out Republican legislators who vote with the democrats on tax or spending bills, and then we must back their opponents in upcoming primaries.

2.                           We must only elect conservatives, not phony conservatives, and get back to Reagan-like conservative politics.

3.                           We must act now to help elect conservatives to Congress in 2010. We must also elect conservatives to our state houses and in our state gubernatorial races.

4.                           We must take a very hard line on any republican politicians who feather their own nests for personal profit or power.

5.                           Finally, we must get united behind one very conservative Ronald Reagan-like Presidential candidate starting now.

Our hope lies in God we trust and a united, unbending stand for true conservatism which built America and made America great. Nothing else will work.  If Obama stops spending and cuts taxes like crazy, especially business taxes which are the highest in the free world; that can end the Recession and coming Depression, but he will not. He needs the ice cream cone lickers in order to get re-elected. As George Bernard Shaw said, “A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.”

If you believe in hard work, just rewards, personal freedoms, lower taxes, the US Constitution exactly the way it was written and intended, and keeping Big Brother out of our private lives; please join me in a fight for America. Where do we start? Our nation is being knocked down on our knees. From there, we can only look up, and that is also the perfect position for prayer.

Don Bendell, 62, is an author of 25 books including his newest novel, DETACHMENT DELTA, about modern day Delta Force, which was released worldwide in January, 2009 by Berkley Books (Penguin-USA), with over 1,500,000 copies of his books in print worldwide. Don is a popular editorialist who has appeared on FOX NEWS LIVE, and many national radio shows. A 60% disabled vet, Don served as an officer in 4 Special Forces (Green Beret) Groups, including a 1968-1969 tour on an A-team in Vietnam, as well as in the Top Secret Phoenix Program and has two sons in Special Forces.  A 1995 inductee into the International Karate Hall of Fame and a Grandmaster in 5 martial arts, he and his black belt master wife, Shirley, also own karate schools in southern Colorado. Don lives in Florence, Colorado. Write him at don@donbendell.com

Michael’s post:

Rick I had to reply to the war college issue.  I am a Muslim and have been since i was 12 yrs old.  American foreign policy is a funny thing.  It’s always the good ole boys club that sets things in motion.  My dad is a retired detective nypd 20 yrs.  His whole career he never wore a uniform except to parades.  He got into the dept in 1968 during a time when they needed blacks to infiltrate the Black Panther party. You know how that campaign went.  He brought home a lot of their literature and I read being the sponge that I was and it helped me form a lot of the ideas and ideals I hold true today.  Mind you both my parents are immigrants.  I joined the military and did 6 yrs. there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I will defend this country.  Trust me I am far from being a liberal.  My shooting buddies will vouch for me on that one.  I have always been a student of history and watched the Vietnam War on TV.  Had an uncle that was there and he was sf?  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize the bush admin screwed this up badly.  Yeah things are improving supposedly in Iraq.  And that a whole different ball game.  It’s about the poppy fields buddy.  If they don’t destroy them our troops are pissing in the win because that the money.  Israel and Hamas.  Oh boy those clowns don’t want peace.  If Israel would have recognized Hamas as the people’s choice voted in by the Palestinian people Hamas would have had to recognize Israel right to exist and really come to the table with a peace agreement.  But as usual the guys in charge got to keep the gravy train rolling.  The average Muslim wants what the average American wants no matter what their religion is.   Peace, to feed his family, work, and a better way for their children.  It’s not about religion; it’s always going to be about power, money, and real estate.  Religion is just used for those parties to justify the evil that they do.  All the crap that these jihadist knuckleheads claim from the Quran is a fantasy.  But at the same time these administrations need to get their heads out there booty.  Because when it affects our military to operate it affects our kids in uniform putting it on the line for us back at home.

Don’s Reply:

Dear Michael;

            Hogwash! This is a chat group about Special Operations, not a forum for people like you to start spouting a bunch of anti-Semitic bull! Israeli men, women, and children have been attacked by Hamas rockets and mortars over 6,000 times since there was supposedly a ceasefire with no definitive targeting of military or strategic targets. That is terrorism. They have simply defended themselves, and no, I am not a Jew. I am a Christian (and proud of it). I have also been friends with Muhammad Ali since 1973 and have other Muslim friends, so do not give me the “You-hate-Muslims” crap, either.

             “I HAVE AWAYS BEEN A STUDENT OF HISTORY AND WATCHED THE VIETNAM WAR ON TV.”  No wonder you sound so brain-washed. How can you be a student of history and then say you watched the RVN War on TV? The two are polar opposites. You watched sound-bytes from a liberal news media version of the RVN War on TV, which had zero to do with what was happening. Pipe-smoking, everybody’s uncle Walter Cronkite was in those days, just like Tom Brokaw is regarded today, by the gullible American public. When the Tet Offensive occurred in 1968, the NVA and Viet Cong finally come out of hiding, and we devastated their forces all over the country of Vietnam. They were ready to surrender they suffered so many looses. Do you know why they did not? Instead of reporting the news, Walter Cronkite declared that the NVA and VC made a giant coordinated attack simultaneously all over the country of Vietnam, which was true, but he added to the story saying it was an overwhelming victory for our enemy, WHEN IT WAS ACTUALLY THE EXACT OPPOSITE.  They would have surrendered but Cronkite’s remarks, picked up by all the other mindless news and Hollywood elitists, really turned on the fledgling anti-war machine and Hanoi realized if they could just hang on, America would wimp out and give up. All of our enemies since learned the same lesson. And uninformed people like you help their cause by rewriting history all the time.

Now, Barrack Obama, much of the left, and almost all of our news media are doing the same BS propaganda in Iraq. There were more murders in Chicago, the President’s hometown, this past year, than soldiers being killed in Iraq. I had two sons just return from Iraq two weeks ago. We have won that war. Won it, but the news media and now even the White House want to hand the al-Qaida their best recruiting tool ever by leaving too early, so the al-Qaida, al-Jezeera, and guys like you with an agenda, can run around for years saying that the al-Qaida kicked the US out of Iraq recruiting more zealots to kill more innocents.

            And how exactly did that Black Panther campaign go? I was a First Lieutenant in the 5^th Special Forces Group getting my ass shot at in 1968, so I would not know; except for knowing about the 9 men, like your dad, who were fine police officers, that were murdered by Black Panthers or the 56 police officers that were wounded by Black Panthers. So, what is your rewrite of history? In fact, never mind. I have heard it all before. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a true hero and a man of principle who believed in our Constitution and non-violence(and a devout Republican I might add) and proved it by risking and finally giving his very life for his principles. The Black Panthers were, and are smply punks who promote violence and hate, and are no different than the Crips and Bloods, except they claim to promote a noble agenda, which they do not. That is simply what gives them an excuse to act like punks and thugs.   

In regards to us attacking other countries, how about those 4 Soviet 57-pound backpack nuclear bombs that Saddam Hussein bought off the international arms black-market that was classified? Are you going to tell me that one agent (probably Hamas) detonating one of them in a market in Tel Aviv would not have started WWIII?

            Our nation has not been doing any evil, and if you think we do, I will buy you a ticket to a country where they do things your way. I know of several. And that ticket will be One-Way, no return. Have you ever noticed they have never had to build a fence along any of the borders of any of the dictatorships, or any Muslim, communist, or socialist countries around the world TO KEEP PEOPLE OUT like they do along our southern border?

Do you know how our enemies took R and R during the war in Vietnam, the North Vietnamese Army? They would surrender to us under our Chieu Hoi Program, go to a Chieu Hoi center for food, rest, clothing, free medical care, and they would wander off when they were rested up and make it back to their units. Why? Because we are always more humanitarian than the countries we fight against. In every war, it is always the American soldier handing candy bars to the little kids, but people like you want to make it sound like all of our leaders are bloodthirsty, war-mongering, greedy, killers, while we in the military are their mindless robotic stupid minions who do their bidding with no thought to morality. Bull! I am sick of it and sick of such propaganda. Abu Ghraib? Torture? I was water-boarded in OCS and in Special Forces training, and it simply made me a better officer, because I proved I could take it and lead men in the hell of combat and the wimps got weeded out who would have gotten your soldiers killed. Women’s panties on the head? That was not torture. I did that at parties off-duty from training, and they call that torture?

            Israel does not have to do crap except want to continue to have their people exist in peace as a sovereign nation. Hamas is a terrorist group that is totally against the interests of the United States of America and our strongest ally, Israel, so take your soft-soaping treasonous propaganda pitch elsewhere. Your father, God bless him, has got to be ashamed of your comments. You should be at his feet once per week thanking him for his courageous service to the NY police and to our nation. And you should also thank him for being a good male role model for you, working hard in a noble job, and not fathering you and running off like so many poverty pimps teach young black men to do in America with more of that victim mentality propaganda. That is an example of people who prosper much more by causing class discrimination than any leaders in Washington. Dr. King (and Coretta) could not stand Jesse Jackson, which shows Dr. King also had good taste.

            In the first and second World Trade Center attacks, the bombing of the Marine Barracks in Lebanon, train attacks in Spain, subway bombings  in London, attack on the Pentagon, Flight 93, et al; the culprits in each were Muslim males between the ages of 18 and 35 years of age. We are not being attacked all over the world by outraged gay Quaker parishioners.

            Part of that worldwide terrorist MUSLIM network is the Hamas. Islam is a religion of peace, you say? How many Muslim mullahs in America or any other country have EVER gotten on radio or television and publicly condemned the attacks on the places I mentioned, the videotaped beheadings, the stonings in Islamic fundamentalist communities, and other such atrocities?

            My religion teaches me to love my brother, but in my religion, my God died for me. He never required that I die for Him, especially by slamming planeloads of innocents into buildings containing innocents. That is not love. That is hate, at its absolutely most evil presentation. While you were reading your Black Panther literature, why didn’t you also read your father’s oath he took as a police officer before he infiltrated the Black Panthers? In fact, why didn’t you try reading the Holy Bible? Or are you one of those naïve blacks who buy into the American Black Muslim crap line that whites owned black slaves; without ever bothering to  mention how many slaves that Muslims have owned over the years, or how many blacks in Africa were actually sold into slavery by other blacks, often their own tribesmen?

            You are not going to get away using the honorable legacy laid down by our brave fighting men and women to spout your anti-Israel, pro-Hamas terrorist group propaganda, at least not while I am around and have a breath in my body.

            All that being said, thank you for your service in our military. You are the one who obviously needs to pull your head out of your fifth point of contact (If you were airborne, Son, you will understand that comment).

De Oppresso Liber,

Don Bendell 

Excerpt from a February, 2009 letter sent by Don Bendell to the parents of a karate student who was threatened with suspension if he fought back against bullies that had been harassing him for months:

In regards to the bullying, I am very disappointed Joey has not shared that with me. We tell students if they are getting harassed by bullies, without physical confrontation, they should tell their teacher, parents, and us about it; so all are aware in case an incident does happen. That way the student is covered in case they have to defend themselves physically, and it gives us a chance to figure out a way to deter the bullies before they actually attack him.

            I ask you to please make an appointment with the Vice-Principal and Principal and share this email with them, because the message your son is being given is so very wrong and convenient for the school, but a gross violation of your son’s civil rights.

On the one hand, the school administrators have an ongoing problem in that kids are kids and that is how they communicate. Insecurities come out as bullying, extreme shyness, suicidal tendencies, or a whole variety of psychological and emotional problems. In our jobs, we have those who will bully and intimidate too in the workplace. Children, not knowing how to communicate about problems resort to fighting, so school officials, even local police who work with the schools, completely disregard the US Constitution and make a school rule that both parties get into trouble whenever there is a fight, period. This is ignorant, foolish; and rightfully, sets the school up for a major lawsuit and administrative firings and personal lawsuits the first time a student, legally having the right to defend himself when attacked, does not do so for fear of suspension or expulsion for fighting, and the aggressor kills him or her. You tell me which sane judge in this nation will side with the school administrators when they have effectively tied a child’s hands and let him or her get beaten to death, strike their head on concrete while being shoved by bullies and get paralyzed, etc.? There is not a judge anywhere who will, because the US Constitution, which teachers are supposed to educate students about, clearly states every single American has the right to defend themselves when attacked. Further, the state of Colorado even allows the use of deadly force if someone makes you fear for your life or well-being or for that of a loved one. Additionally, in Colorado, you can use deadly force to prevent someone from committing arson if you suspect that the building has living humans within. The US Constitution clearly states that no state, county, city, municipality, or any other organizational entity; such as a school district or system, can set their laws or regulations above Federal Law. The Constitution is the law of the land, and teachers are supposed to teach children this, not make their jobs easier by depriving students of their Constitutional rights by making unconstitutional school regulations.

            You and your husband spend a lot of money to pay  us to teach your sons how to defend themselves and how to do everything they can to avoid violence. You have every right in the world to expect Joey or Jacob to knock somebody on their duff who attacks them physically. I have offered to go to court as an expert witness with a number of parents previously to defend their child’s Constitutional rights and am happy to do so for you. I have also met with school officials and helped parents educate them about the tenets of the US Constitution, and realizing same, they revised their school codes on fighting. I will be happy to meet with your sons’ officials with either or both of you and assist you in educating your own school officials, and if they disagree, I’ll be happy to go with you to the Superintendent and educate him, or her, if need be.

            If Joey is attacked by bullies at school, and he tells the teacher afterwards, he has still been victimized nonetheless. He is the one with the loose teeth, split lips, bloody nose, or maybe worse.  The teacher suffers nothing other than failing at his or her job. One that is incumbent upon us who are entrusted with the welfare and education of your children to excel at. Teachers are expected to teach their young charges about life’s lessons as well as normal curriculum, and that includes how to set and enforce healthy boundaries.  This can set one up to be victimized throughout their lives, because the teacher put the bully in their place, not the potential victim, and it erodes self-actualization. Additionally, the educator or administrator making such rules gives no thought or concern to the repercussions the child must endure afterwards from the bullies for being a “squealer” or “tattletale.” It also does not address the fact the child does not feel empowered over the aggressiveness and has lower self-esteem and ends up having to deal with bullies anyway, except with the bullies feeling more empowered. I wish I could remind all school officials that Oprah Winfrey has never even had the courage to marry, much less raise children, and I wish administrators would start using common sense when they make rules, not such “feel good” sources.

            Please feel free to call on us if needed.

Blessings,

Don Bendell

Aron;

            Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great man and a great American. He was also a very staunch Republican, and he would be turning over in his grave if he was watching what is going on in our nation now.  Yes, Dr. King was a Republican. Jesse Jackson, like Al Sharpton has become a hero in the black community. Dr. King could not stand Jackson who wanted to hang on King’s coat-tails, nor could Coretta Scott King stand him. Jackson and Sharpton are “poverty pimps,” both ministers but fathered kids out of wedlock after having affairs. Both keep themselves in positions of power by constantly proclaiming that black children and adults are victims. They, not whitey, keep blacks down; instead of telling black kids they evolved from a strong, great, and powerful race of people who survived slavery, racism, unbearable heat and humidity of continental Africa, wild animals, poisonous bugs, snakes, etc. Instead, these guys and many more like Charles Rangel keep blacks down so they can each be a “black Tarzan” and be their savior. This victim mentality was used to the max with blacks and Latinos to get Obama into power.  That is the liberal strategy now. Promise free ice cream cones for votes after you tell everybody the other guys hate you and they hate ice cream. You will end up seeing more minorities on drugs, in gangs, into crime, and in prison during the next few years as Obama continues to remove people’s opportunity to fail. This dynamic also removes the ability to succeed and gives the message, “You are not strong enough to make it on your own (and people believe it). Our government will take care of you.”

            By removing the incentive to succeed, wait and see how many jobs disappear and how deep our deficit gets as Obama increases it. By 2010 or 11, Obama’s ratings will be every bit as low as Bush’s after the great hatchet job done on Bush. You are not going to hold hands with jihadists and sing Kumbaya and deter attacks. The only will be deterred through total fear of getting their asses handed to them if they dare attack us. If you do not believe me, go attack Israel and see what happens to you. Oh, you wouldn’t dream of attacking Israel? Hmmmm! Maybe it is because they will love you to death, Huh?

            By the way, in 1967, as a white Special Forces second lieutenant, I was the ONLY white soldier who stood with black soldiers arguing for integration and racial harmony in voluntary racial seminars at Fort Bragg, NC. In 1970, as a Special Forces captain at Fort Bragg, I took six large black SF NCO’s to lunch in Wadesboro, NC in a restaurant owned by the Grand Wizard of the KKK at 12 noon on a weekday, and we had a long leisurely, talk-and-laughter-filled meal. I have been good friends with Muhammad Ali since 1973. His daughters, who are grown women now, sat on my lap when they were little girls, and my daughters and one son who are grown sat on his lap when they were small. I have slap-fought with him. My children were spanked if they ever said racial slurs when they were kids or told racist jokes. Even as sick as he is now, a few years ago, my youngest son who is now an SF NCO was a champion Muay Thai kickboxer and Muhammad Ali spent an hour in his suite in a Las Vegas casino meeting privately with my son giving him pointers prior to Joshua’s match in that casino. I have always walked the walk on race relations, so please no lecture about racism in our society. I have attached a picture of Joshua and Ali from that day.

            Just wait and see what happens when the Honeymoon ends in a few years. And yes, we will be attacked again by al-Qaida.

De Oppresso Liber,

Don Bendell

Mayor Ed Koch is one of my liberal friends, who sometimes makes great sense, especially with his editorial below. Please read and heed.

Blessings,

Don

Ed Koch Commentary 

January 12, 2009

            On January 8th, the United Nations Security Council voted on Resolution 1860, which called for a cease-fire in Gaza.  The resolution passed 14 to 0, with the United States abstaining. 

            The Resolution only mentions Israel by name and does not mention or refer to to the terrorist organization,  Hamas, which started this war by firing rockets at Israel.

            The governments of the United States, Great Britain, Egypt, as well as the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas, all acknowledge that Hamas began the latest hostilities by declaring the cease-fire that was agreed to in June 2008 to be at an end in mid-December 2008. 

            The position of the United States, as expressed by a White House spokesman, is that “Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, was responsible for the outbreak of violence and called its rocket attacks ‘completely unacceptable.’  The people are nothing but thugs…and Israel is going to defend its people against terrorists like Hamas.”

            British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on Hamas “to cease all rocket attacks on Israel immediately” and said he could “understand the Israeli government’s sense of obligation to its population.”

            According to the New York Times of January 3, 2009, “…government officials including Mr. Mubarak and Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit have blamed Hamas for abandoning the cease-fire with Israel and seeming to seek Israeli retaliation.”  The New York Post reported on January 3^rd that Nimr Hammad, an adviser to Palestinian President Manmoud Abbas told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar that “The one responsible for the massacres is Hamas, and not the Zionist entity, which in its own view reacted to the firing of Palestinian missiles.”

            Israel’s stated goal in Gaza has been and continues to be stopping and preventing in the future the raining of rockets on the State of Israel, terrorizing 750,000 Israelis who live and work within the current range of the rockets.  Israel is also determined to prevent Hamas from smuggling  rockets and other weapons through tunnels that run beneath the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

            The case-fire, which was approved by the Security Council, does not address how to accomplish those two objectives.  That is why Israel has rejected the Resolution and continues its battle to defend its people from current and future attacks.  Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel, disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israelis, as well as maiming and killing Israelis.  Because of the inaccuracy of the missiles, which are intentionally aimed at civilian areas, the attacks do not always accomplish their mission, which is to kill as many Israelis as possible.  

            That Hamas has rejected the United Nations’ cease-fire Resolution is an indication of how extremist it is.  Hamas is saying in effect that it hopes to wipe Israel off  the face of the earth, aided by other terrorist states like Iran, whose President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has stated that the destruction of Israel is his goal.

            Some American media outlets have contributed to the incitement of violence against Israel by publishing false reports on the conduct of the Israeli Defense Forces.  On January 7, 2009, a misleading headline in The New York Times reported, “Israeli Shells Kill 40 at Gaza U.N. School.”  The article does mention that the casualties took place “outside [italics added] a United Nations’ school in Gaza.”  Nicholas Kristoff, Times columnist, was even more outrageous in his recent column, urging President-elect Barack Obama to punish Israel.

            On January 8^th, The Times again reported, “The Israeli mortar rounds killed as many as 40 people outside the school.  Palestinian hospital officials said Tuesday that 10 of the dead were children and 5 were women.  Residents of the neighborhood said two brothers who were Hamas fighters were in the area at the time of the attack.”

            As the incident at the U.N. school demonstrates, Hamas attacks and then uses civilians as shields when Israel fires back in self defense.  Obviously, Hamas is responsible for the resulting civilian deaths.

            The Associated Press was even more detailed on the Hamas attack that provoked the Israeli response.  The AP reported, “Two neighborhood residents confirmed the Israeli account, saying a group of militants fired mortars from a street near the school, then fled into a crowd of people in the streets.  Israel then opened fire.”

            I agree with the statement issued by Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League on January 9^th: “U.N. Security Council Resolution 1860 is deeply flawed and falls far short of offering a realistic approach to ending Hamas’ reign of terror against Israel. It lacks the kind of clarity needed to actually accomplish a “durable” ceasefire and fails to address the fundamental need to stop once and for all Hamas’ ability to launch rockets on Israel and smuggle weapons and munitions into Gaza.  Before the ink was dry, Hamas let the world know what it thinks of the resolution by continuing to launch more than 30 rockets and mortars aimed at densely populated communities in southern Israel.  We were surprised that the United States allowed this flawed resolution to be adopted by voting to abstain rather than veto. At a time when Israel is engaged in defending its citizens against the brutality of Hamas terrorism, which has unleashed an outpouring of anti-Semitic rhetoric, threats and intimidation and violence in the U.S. and around the world, we expected the Administration to abide by its longstanding commitment to fighting global terrorism and the scourge of anti-Semitism and Israel’s role on the front lines of that fight. This is the wrong resolution at the wrong time.”

            I have sent two letters, which follow – one, to The New York Times and one, to CNN – which are self-explanatory.

January 8, 2009

Letters To The Editor

The New York Times

To the Editor:

            In his column of January 8^th, Nicholas Kristoff calls on President-elect Obama, when he becomes president, to punish Israel for attacking Hamas to the extent it has in the Gaza Strip.  Kristoff states, “So, Obama, find your voice.  Fall in tough love with Israel.”

            Kristoff believes Israel should have limited itself to “[b]ombing the [smuggling] tunnels…”  Better still, “ease[ing] the siege in Gaza.”  He deliberately omits the fact that since terrorists flexed their muscles in Gaza seven years ago, they have launched 10,000 rockets and mortars at Israel, over 1,000 of which were shot in the last six months, terrorizing 750,000 Israelis living in southern Israel, disrupting their daily lives with at least 20 shells falling each day.  Also, the shells, first limited to six miles, now fly 24 miles and may soon be aimed at Tel-Aviv or Israel’s nuclear reactor at Dimona, 45 miles away.  Kristoff will perhaps urge Israel to ignore the latest rocket attacks on northern Israel launched from Lebanon.  And what if Iran launches a missile at Israel?  Shall Israel simply petition the U.N. to help it, as have the people of Darfur?  Fortunately, Israel has the capacity to defend itself and doesn’t need Kristoff’s advice, let alone his love.

All the best.

Ed Koch

January 8, 2009

Jack Cafferty

The Cafferty File

CNN

Dear Jack:

            Watching television, particularly CNN, the public would conclude that at least 40 Gazans, mostly children, staying in a U.N. school were deliberately killed by Israeli troops.  The New York Times, to its credit, reported on January 8^th, “The Israeli mortar rounds killed as many as 40 people outside [italics added] the school.  Palestinian hospital officials said Tuesday that 10 of the dead were children and 5 were women.  Residents of the neighborhood said two brothers who were Hamas fighters were in the area at the time of the attack.”  The Associated Press reported, “Two neighborhood residents confirmed the Israeli account, saying a group of militants fired mortars from a street near the school, then fled into a crowd of people in the streets.  Israel then opened fire.”

            What should Israel have done, ignore the attacks upon its soldiers because the U.N. school was nearby?  The mothers of those Israeli soldiers who were the subject of Hamas mortaring would feel the same pain as all other mothers, Palestinian mothers included.

            The President of Israel, Shimon Peres, recently said, “We are not asking for surrender or submission.  We are simply entitled to our security like anybody else.”

            What would we, the great United States, do under similar provocations by neighboring countries?  I have no doubt that we would have responded militarily and with even more military power.  I regularly watch the reporting of CNN on the fighting in Gaza.  Regrettably, they have joined those who denounce Israel for defending itself instead of rolling over and allowing its own citizens to be terrorized, have their lives disrupted daily, and suffer injuries and death. 

All the best.

Ed Koch

This electronic message is from a law firm. It may contain confidential or privileged information. If you received this transmission in error, please reply to the sender to advise of the error and delete this transmission and any attachments.

IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.