Obama slyly instills fear in Americans

When our nation faced adversity in the 1930's Great Depression, President Roosevelt braced America by boldly stating in his First Inaugural Address, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

---

Clearly understanding this fact, on Monday night, President Obama used his Oval Office speech to actually spread fear among those listening, to push his gun control agenda ideas for thwarting stateside terrorism. He liberally spread further fear and doubt about Americans having the stomach and ability to apply the full measure of combat to our ISIS enemy, when he repeatedly emphasized and stressed the possibility of that war becoming a long, drawn-out affair. Then slyly bending back his argument it to justify the exact same long, drawn-out and indecisive strategy he currently employs in pursuing an end to the ISIS conflict and most other challenges he faces, like taking seven years to decide on the Keystone XL pipeline. Ordering up pin-prick airstrikes, a minimum number of "boots on the ground," a ring binder chocked full of Rules of Engagement the size of our tax codes; and then behaving like a video gaming 'chairborne commando', our commander-in-chief insists on total control of the squad-sized engagements and firefights, much the way LBJ’s political meddling screwed up the Vietnam War. If President Obama understood anything about warfighting, he would know that like everything else in the world it comes down to simple economics. You fight a war as fast as possible, as hard as possible and as brutally as possible to arrive at the quickest conclusion that costs your nation the least in the blood of its soldiers and the finances of treasury. A real commander-in-chief orders his generals to "Close with and kill the enemy!", and then gets out of their way. A timid leader who merely waves his 'big stick' or uses it to draw red lines in the ever-shifting Middle Eastern political sands, then flying a minimal air campaign, and deploying 'boots on the ground' in teacup-size numbers against an enemy with his "boots on the ground" equal to the fighting strength of a full army corps is not man enough to seize the moment, let alone the day. K.J. Dolney Columbia, SC

---