The Most Dangerous President Ever? What Would Sun Tzu Say?

OBAMA APOLOGIZES TO THOSE “TRYING TO KILL US”

by Dr. David Earl-Graef, USAFR MC, ©2012  

(Feb. 26, 2012) — I just heard Newt Gingrich make this claim. Wow! It took some courage to put that out there. So what if he is right and what does this say about our military under his stewardship?  What does this say about our security? As I have been watching the recent events in Afghanistan unfold and I see the fearful reactions to include an apologetic “Commander in Chief,” I am reminded of my military training, and in this light, I consider the weight of Newt’s indictment. Why is this “President” so dangerous? Before I state the specifics of my concerns, I must tell you that I am not an expert in Military strategy but I do not have to be. Every military officer knows what I know and what it is I am about to tell you. Soon you will know as well, and I hope the realization is not too frightening.

My position in the USAF is that of a physician. In this capacity I have worked as a flight surgeon and reported directly to my squadron Commander who was a line officer. Although part of the Medical Corps, it was still required for promotion to Lt. Col. to complete an in-depth study of Military Strategy and Doctrine, so I am not completely bereft of a working knowledge of those principles. In fact, every company grade officer and above is required to study and pass a course in Military Strategy and Doctrine to be considered for promotion. In addition, I have had the personal experience of spending the majority of my deployments in the Middle East and I observed with keen interest everything, and I mean everything, in my surroundings.

Now to my point: Over 2000 years ago there was a Chinese warrior who wrote extensively on military tactics. Before you dismiss this, please consider these tactics were so effective that they are still used in modern warfare and taught in the course I mentioned above. The teachings are compiled in a literary work called “The Art of War” and the master teacher was Sun Tzu.  He taught many techniques to include using deception, and he was very good at it. Deception is indeed a very powerful tool. However, the most basic premise some of you may have heard:  “Know your enemy and know yourself.”

By now you must be thinking,  “What possible relevance does some ancient Chinese text have to the burning of a Quran, the person in the Office of the President of the United States and our military Commander in Afghanistan offering an apology?”  Why is this so dangerous? After all, an apology seems only the “right thing” to do when you offend someone and of course the overarching reason given is that the Command and the President are deeply concerned about the safety of the troops. This was the OFFICIAL White House position, right from the top. Sounds good, right? Not so fast!

Let us take the words of Sun Tzu to heart and apply it to the situation by seeing this through the eyes of those who are trying to kill us. In this way, we begin to know our enemy. Let us start by what we already know about them:

1. The terrorists and radical enemy we are fighting are Muslim. A belief in Allah and that he is the one true God and Muhammad is his messenger is the basis of the belief system.
2. In the eyes of a radical Muslim and all Muslims for that matter nothing happens that Allah does not will it to be so. This is not different than Christianity in the sense that a Godly supreme power is sovereign. So it should not surprise you or be difficult to comprehend. Think of  David and Goliath who with a sling and a rock and the power of an all mighty God brought down a Giant and when the Giant fell so did the entire Philistine army.
3. They are fighting a Holy War and in this belief they are resolute.
4. All Muslims are commanded to Jihad. The degree to which they actually carry out this command varies from doing nothing to much more. The most radical hold this belief to the extent they will strap a bomb on their bodies and with shouts of “Allahu Akbar” meet their ETERNAL fate and worse like what we saw 9/11. This is a testament to the strength of their conviction which translates directly into the will to fight and hatred for their enemy. Sun Tzu if alive today would say that this is a formidable opponent – even without conventional weapons.
5. To the radical Muslims who are actively trying to kill us we are a great and powerful Army like the Philistines of old. To them we are also like Israel and from the beginning we are the very embodiment of Satan.
6. They are very skilled in the art of deception and in this regard it is not a sin as long as it promotes Islam.

There is much more to know but let us use what we have in these few statements and apply it to the recent happenings in Afghanistan and even in the broader context of an “Obama Apology Tour.”  Let us see why showing weakness to this particular enemy is especially dangerous.

Under the authority of the US Military, a Quran gets burned. Violent protests outside the US military installation erupt when the Muslim populace learns of this. People, mostly armed only with rocks, confront straight-on the might of the US military (I do not suggest that YOU try this). Now this is important! Not ALL the people are what we would consider radical Muslims, but UNITED with a COMMON BELIEF SYSTEM, you can’t tell them apart as they scream Allahu Akbar and “Death to America.”  Within hours a tsunami of an apology gets proffered, goes all the way to the White House and Obama then pronounces this to the world.

So what the entire world sees, to include over 1.5 billion Muslims, is America trembling in FEAR of what might happen and apologizing to men throwing rocks! Do you see this? I think Sun Tzu himself would be amazed at how much they accomplished already. What Obama and the military commanders offered up is an affirmation of faith, “proof” that Allah is giving strength and victory over the most powerful and “evil” Nation on the entire earth. Seeing this “awesome display of Allah’s power,” the shouts of jubilation from every terrorist training camp in the world must reach the heavens and beyond. Just as the giant, Goliath, collapsed and fell in a heap of dust at the feet of a shepherd boy armed only with a sling and a rock, they see it will not be long until America, under the power of Allah, does the very same thing.

From the beginning of Obama’s apology tour to the Middle East, he has played this over and over each time reinforcing the scenario above. He has consistently shown weakness and deference in the sense of submission or courteous respect to our enemies. Shockingly to this Officer, our military leadership looks on as if they have forgotten everything they ever learned about military tactics, even the most basic principle. Dumbfounded and appearing afraid themselves to honor their Oath to the Constitution and not to ANY MAN, they simply do as they are told. Certainly they must know that a show of weakness to this enemy is dangerous to the extreme and yet they do it anyway. As for the “moderate  Muslims” our military leadership hopes to win over  by this submission, they must also know by now that trying to win the “hearts and minds” of a people that are so quick to turn and kill you for the slightest offense to their sacred and deeply held beliefs is folly.

It has been proven through the centuries that the teachings of Sun Tzu are right and it appears that our military leadership does not know the enemy or perhaps under the marching orders of Barack Hussein Obama have abandoned those teachings. Their secular assessments, ignoring the enemies’ deeply-held spiritual beliefs, leave them blind and vulnerable. It places our country and the stability of the world in great peril. I suspect that literally thousands and likely millions of  radical Muslims who lacked the courage or thought the time was too soon to stand up are now rising up convinced that, with the help of Allah, they will slay us and of course Israel. Our soldiers are already in danger; they know this and it comes with the job. The official White House statement that this was done for the “safety of our soldiers” rings hollow. Even if this were the motivation, it is an enormous price to pay for emboldening our enemy to such an extent as this.

So is Obama the most dangerous “President” we have ever had? I leave that for you and the historians like Newt Gingrich to decide. As for the Ancient Sun Tzu, would he say that Obama is ignorant of the “Art of War” and absolutely not deserving to be a Commander in Chief or would he say he knows his enemy and knows himself, is skilled in the art of deception, a supreme commander? I think that would depend on who Sun Tzu would think Barack Hussein Obama is. The reality is, with a questionable past and his official records under seal, at the time of this writing we still do not know.

Copyright 25 Feb. 2012. All rights reserved.