CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, February 8, 2010

Campaign promises & the War on Common Sense

Apparently, record snows in the D.C. area have ended Western Civilization as we know it; however, snow does not stop the Obama Administration from waging its War on Common Sense.

A Senate Armed Services Committee report recently revealed that 36 former U.S. convicts, who converted to Islam while serving their terms in U.S. prisons, are now in Yemen being trained by al-Qaeda. An earlier report disclosed that 20-percent of the enemy combatants who were detained at Gitmo and then released by either the Bush or the Obama Administrations have rejoined al-Qaeda. Yet, Mr. Obama insists that the Gitmo detainees be moved into the U.S. prison system.

Of course, when Candidate Obama pledged to close Gitmo, he had never experienced its balmy, tropical climate or the millions spent by the Bush Administration to make Gitmo a nicer prison than where Martha Stewart stayed. Now, millions of tax dollars are being spent in snow-covered Illinois to rehab an old federal prison for some of the Gitmo detainees.

Why does Mr. Obama want 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM) tried just blocks from the scene of his 9/11 crime? Do you suppose the jury pool might be tainted? A good defense lawyer would ask for a change of venue. If denied, KSM would, most likely, win on appeal.

Mr. Obama and Attorney General, Eric Holder, keep making public statements that KSM will be punished. How can a fair trial take place when the nation’s chief law enforcement officers have stated that KSM is going to be punished for his crimes? Again, on appeal, KSM would likely walk.

The latest is that Mr. Obama wants to have gays in the military. But aren’t military commanders challenged enough trying to deal with Iraq, with Afghanistan and with attracting and retaining sufficient volunteers? Over 1,000 retired generals and admirals (no longer subject to the coercive force of the White House) have signed a letter telling the Pentagon that gays in the military would be a very bad idea.

Because of the demands and rigors of its mission, the military has always discriminated against people with poor eyesight or poor hearing or flat feet or missing limbs, etc. The Courts have upheld that kind of discrimination because our armed forces have a unique job to do: They kill people and breaks things. Ergo: the Courts have always held that the military can put aside anything that deflects it from its basic mission and/or is prejudicial to good order and discipline.

Yet, the Obamessiahs don’t seem to understand the Law of Unintended Consequences. For example: Let’s say the Democrat-controlled Congress says gays can serve in the armed forces. Will that put the military into the position of having to observe civil unions and/or same-sex marriages? Will military chaplains be required to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies?

Will same-sex-married couples merit the always too-scarce on-base housing? Will Political Correctness cause gay couples to have priority over traditional-marriage couples? (A scheme for getting out of living in the barracks would be for two (actually, straight) males or females to obtain some kind of same-sex marriage certificate and then get on the family housing waiting list.)

Should homosexual couples serve in the same unit or ship? What if a homosexual soldier or sailor belongs to the North American Man/Boy Love Association – the group that advocates homosexual sex with boys below the age of consent? Is that a disqualifier? As had to be done with women, will the taxpayer have to pay for separate bathing facilities? Or, have separate shower hours?

Gitmo, gays in the military, civil rights for terrorists? Now, Mr. Obama is asking Congress to redeem his campaign promises. But, despite their liberal, pro-gay, anti-Gitmo rhetoric, -many Congressional Democrats are running for cover. Watch for a lot of voice, rather than recorded, votes.

Syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, studied at Harvard’s JFK School of Government. Dr. Hamilton is a former assistant professor of political science and history at Nebraska Wesleyan University.

©2010 William Hamilton.

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com