JVLV: JOHNNY –COME-LATELY PUNDITS FINALLY AWAKEN TO 3-WAR THREATS: “I WISH THEY WOULD HAVE LISTENED TO YOU,” By Jiri & Leni Friedman Valenta, 2-3-2015

 America presently faces three clear and present dangers to our vital national security; War with ISIS, Putin´s escalation of the war in Ukraine and the acquisition of the bomb by rogue state Iran through deceitful negotiations.  The first two threats are immediate.  The third will be full blown in the spring of 2015.  Meanwhile, these have escalated  because of worldwide perceptions that President Obama together with John Kerry, and his predecessor, Hillary, are paper tigers. Moreover, one has rarely seen such a lack of creative states craft in the White House as in the last six years. 

 “I wish they would have listened to you,” an official of a NATO country wrote to us.   The record shows we were among the first to propose arming the Ukraine, April 21, 2014 – Kyiv Post and again on July 29, The World Affairs Journal. We discussed linkages between ISIS and Ukraine in The National Interest.  We also managed to publish some controversial ideas in the Teheran Times, with the uncensored version at RIAC, Moscow.

We keep hearing that our President has no strategy.   Wrong!  He does have one --at worst appeasement, at best, Johnny-come-lately.   Is he aware that his strategies have worked very well -- for our adversaries, not for us or our allies?   He has lulled the American public to the dangers when it should be alerted with a clarion voice,  dangerously cut the military, released 5 terrorists in exchange for a probable deserter, failed to halt Iran´s nuclear ambitions, and is now seeking to close GITMO, supported by Raul Castro´s calls to return Guantanamo to Cuba.  There are also reports that Putin is putting money into U.S. and European ecological lobbies to stymie the Keystone pipeline and development of Alaska´s northern slope.  Both would make us energy independent and help our allies.  See The Russian Money Pipeline.

Brilliant Zbigniew Brzezinski  has  been preoccupied with the Ukraine and seems not to have considered its linkages with ISIS.  Thus, he has endorsed Obama´s failure to even name the enemy as “Islamic terrorism.”  Note that, for Congress to legally  declare war, you have to name  the enemy.  (To his credit, however, Brzezinski has suggested putting some small NATO forces as a trip wire  in the Baltics to discourage Putin.)

Madeleine Albright´s voice sounded decisive testifying before Congress  as she finally proposed arms for the Ukraine.”  Madeleine endorsed this after she got the okay from  Johnny-come-lately´s White House that defensive arms were finally  going to be sent.

The U.S. military, however, has a proactive strategy.  We observed our generals´ testimonies and heard  critiques of the White House from two secretaries of defense, Chuck Hagel and Robert Gates.  They could barely hide their outrage.   The generals who are still in service  might say more, except they fear being forced, like Chuck Hagel,  to resign, or pressured out, like David Petraeus, with a scandal.       

The threat of ISIS should have been encountered with a new strategy last spring  -- Special Forces  on the ground. It´s still not too late to  deploy at least ten thousand troops in both Syria and Iraq.  Air strikes are not enough.  The world is watching and a  response aimed at the destruction of ISIS would have been the most powerful reminder to Putin of America´s military might.   

After the Crimean invasion, and to  bolster the trust of our allies, we should have immediately provided military aid to Kiev and we could have prevented a new Putin intervention by proxies in Eastern Ukraine as well as threats to the Baltics.  We could also have helped Kiev prepare if necessary, for guerilla warfare as we did in the 1940´s after WWII ,while also saving the Yugoslavs from Stalin.  Yet, Russia, a great nuclear power, is not ISIS.  Since we share some interests with Putin in nuclear nonproliferation and fighting international terrorism, we must, while arming Ukraine, continue to offer carrots to Russia.  If Putin pulls out of the Ukraine we get rid of the sanctions and join forces against ISIS:  We might even be helpful in restoring Russia´s sinking economy.

For two of the key threats, we are a year late while White House officials discuss which one is more important.  They both are!  You must never cherry pick national threats or speculate which is more important, or believe that by neglecting ISIS you can concentrate on  the Ukraine and vice versa.  Both are threats to our vital interests in maintaining the world order and preventing enormous losses in human lives through an attack on our homeland. 

In the spring, will come our reckoning with the third conflict -- Iran. Had we insisted  on the total dismantling of their centrifuge, and imposed strict inspections, both Putin and ISIS would have taken notice.    In the modern world, interconnected by 24/7 cable  news,  and social media, the linkages between the threats are obvious to a large audience.

Congress must be more actively involved in national security issues as happened with the Keystone pipeline and with the Congressional invitation to Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.  The American people must get behind their elected representatives with their concerns about attacks on our homeland by ISIS, the threat of nuclear confrontation with Russia and the threat with Iran of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. The media  must be even more critical – must become gadflies – towards the handling of national security affairs by the White House.    Hitler ate up almost all of Europe before Winston Churchill mobilized the British people and convinced FDR that the world was at war.   As Winston noticed,  an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.