Another sneaky Friday evening announcement: Obama hints he may abandon Syria strike

Obama hints he may abandon Syria strike   "But that surprising announcement to delay the strike was foreshadowed in prepared statements that he and his Secretary of State, John Kerry had made the day before, Friday.The Friday statements included many combative and emotional sections about the Syrian nerve gas attack killed more than 1,400 civilians in a rebel-held neighborhood.
....
"The response “will directly effect our role in the world and our interests in the world,” he said. “It is also about who we are — we are the United States of America, we are the country that has tried, not always successfully … to honor a set of universal values.' ”

The Red Lines Obama Chooses To Ignore…

Report: Obama “Vetoed” Israeli Strike On Iran In 2012…  " “Israel has the capability to destroy the Iranian nuclear program” and was prepared to do so, Eiland was quoted as saying in a private meeting earlier this month, according to the Israeli paper Mida.
"However, top White House officials “pressured” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel the attack on Iranian nuclear sites, according to Eiland."

'The Gettysburg Story' told with drone photography

" 'The Gettysburg Story' film dramatically tells the history of the greatest battle fought in the Western Hemisphere. Narrated by Stephen Lang (Avatar, Gettysburg) and directed by Jake Boritt, the stories of characters who experience the battle come alive through dynamic, innovative imagery that captures the historic battleground as you have never seen it before."
 

The film will be broadcast on Public Television in November, 2013 to correspond with the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

  

NEW GETTYSBURG PUBLIC TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY USES CUTTING EDGE FILMMAKING TECHNOLOGY TO TELL TIMELESS STORY   "Aerial Cinema
"To tell this story an array of innovative technology is being used including radio-controlled helicopters equipped with electronic gyro stabilization and mounted with high definition cameras. West Coast-based FreeFly Cinema, a pioneer in this rapidly evolving field, captured the battlefield in stunning clarity from never before seen vantage points. The high-resolution imagery captures battle sites from inches above the ground to 400 feet in the air. Aerial drones allowed the camera to follow the flow of battle over the exact ground men fought and died on 150 years ago. Footage was also shot with a full size Bell JetRanger helicopter and with a 5K Red Epic digital camera to capture the storied landscape in rich colors and unparalleled resolution."

Christian church fights to erect cross as pastor claims city officials fear Muslims ...in Mississippi!

Effingham, IL cross

Washington Times  "The pastor and some members of a Christian church in Brandon, Miss., say city officials won’t grant them their permit request for a massive cross to be built on their property because the city is afraid the symbol might offend Muslims."
....
"The tallest structure in the city is two stories,” said Mayor Butch Lee in Fox News. “The cross is 11 stories,” and city rules only allow that it could be 20 feet in height. The matter will head to the local aldermen for final decision, but the pastor isn’t optimistic. He thinks another agenda is at play.

Cross at Brandon Facebook page.

Oh Please: Mississippi Town Objects to Church’s Cross Over Fear It Might Offend Muslims "But Mayor Lee said the planning commission’s decision has nothing to do with Muslims or non-Christians. He also rejected accusations on social networking websites that the no-vote was an attack on Christians."

Christians must keep in mind that our Lord calls on us to not bring ridicule to the name of Christ and to submit to the governing authorities. Publishing the Tunnel Wall has been a bit out of my comfort zone for just this reason. I hasten to add that this blog is published not because I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, but sometimes in spite of that fact.
I only ask, were the founding fathers wrong to rebel against King George? In a government of the people, are Christians wrong to dissent?

FLASHBACK: Biden Accuses Romney Of Wanting “To Go To War In Syria”…

Weasel Zippers  "And yet in the end it’s Obama and Biden who are pushing us into a war nobody wants to get involved with."

 

Obama’s Global-Warming Folly; No, Mr. President, we don’t need a war on coal.

Charles Krauthammer  "The economy stagnates. Syria burns. Scandals lap at his feet. China and Russia mock him, even as a “29-year-old hacker” revealed his nation’s spy secrets to the world. How does President Obama respond? With a grandiloquent speech on climate change.

"Climate change? It lies at the very bottom of a list of Americans’ concerns (last of 21 — Pew poll). Which means that Obama’s declaration of unilateral American war on global warming, whatever the cost — and it will be heavy — is either highly visionary or hopelessly solipsistic. You decide:"....

More discussion on the Great Syrian Debate

Peter Wehner; Barack Obama’s Staggering Incompetence  "Senior administration officials describing Obama’s about-face Saturday offered a portrait of a president who began to wrestle with his own decision – at first internally, then confiding his views to his chief of staff, and finally summoning his aides for an evening session in the Oval Office to say he’d had a change of heart.

"In light of all this, it’s worth posing a few questions:"....

What he does see is a political (and geopolitical) disaster in the making. And so what is emerging is what comes most naturally to Mr. Obama: Blame shifting and blame sharing.

Voting "present", in other words.  

Barack Obama's pusillanimous bumbling brings powerfully to mind Winston Churchill's condemnation of the Baldwin government in 1936: "So they go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent." The President's staggering incompetence is, to me, the most cogent argument against striking Syria. We may as well have Bradley Manning in the Oval Office.

From the comments to this article.

By the way, does anyone remember this from Letterman? Letterman Writer Boasts of Discrediting McCain, Obama 'Too Competent' to Joke About

"Scheft insisted the only reason the comedy shows don't make fun of President Barack Obama is because he's “a little too damn competent and we ain't used to that.” (emphasis in the original)

Anyway, back to the original subject:

.cracked.com

Iran plans retaliation if US bombs Syria  "But the kind of retaliation detailed in this Wall Street Journal article can be seen as escalating beyond anyone's ability to control:"  Full article here.

How big will Obama lose on Syria resolution in the House?  "This has the makings of an old fashioned hide beating."

House Whip Count Shows Syria Resolution in Deep Trouble  "If Obama fails, it will have been a disaster 4 years in the making. His arrogance, his inability to work effectively and consult with Congress, his sneering condescension toward his opponents, and a glaring lack of leadership have all combined to set him up for a bi-partisan fall on Syria."
(Just making sure you saw this one)

Charles Krauthammer; Unserious Commander-in-Chief   ...."Assad has to go, says Obama, and then lifts not a finger for two years. Obama lays down a red line, and then ignores it. Shamed finally by a massive poison-gas attack, he sends Kerry to make an impassioned case for righteous and urgent retaliation — and the very next day, Obama undermines everything by declaring an indefinite timeout to seek congressional approval."....

From France: The American Paradox in Syria   "Finally, to explain this weakening of America’s influence in the Middle East, there is the Obama factor...."

From Russia: Being Barack Obama "It is much more reasonable to assume that Obama’s caution and his concept of “leading from behind” are not the marks of a new foreign policy, but an attempt to cover up a complete lack of strategy."  Dmitry Drobnitsky

From Syria:  America’s Calculation Errors   "Fighters have come from all around the world — mercenaries, criminals, bandits, drug dealers, al-Qaida members, former offenders and thieves."

From the military blog, Blackfive:  Unicorns, Rainbows, Lollipops and Puppies   "Wasn't it awesome when the Anti-war Left actually had the courage of their convictions to protest both LBJ and Nixon instead of just protesting a Republican president who went to war in a Middle Eastern country based upon a brutal dictator suppressing his own people, using and possessing chemical weapons, using them on innocent people, using "hard intelligence" about WMD and terrorism as justification and getting approval from Congress and making his case to the American people."

Oh, yeah; remember those antiwar " human shields" who went to Iraq to protect Iraqis from the evil American bombing? 

What red line? I didn't make no stinkin' red line!

Chip Bok   "During a press conference on August 20 President Obama said, “a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.”

"Yesterday in Stockholm, he said,  “I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line.”
"He didn’t build that red line. Somebody else made that happen.".....

Who ya gonna believe; me or your lyin' ears?

Blame-shifting

Everything you need to know about Syria’s chemical weapons

Washington Post  "The Obama administration’s case for striking Syria hinges on the question of chemical weapons. The Syrian government allegedly used nerve gas on civilians, and that violates long-standing norms. So, the White House argues, the regime needs to be punished.

That’s the short version. But let’s step back and unpack this for a moment. Why, exactly, are chemical weapons so horrible? Where did Syria get its weapons? And what is Bashar al-Assad’s regime suspected of doing? Here’s a primer:.....

"Just how solid is the intelligence that the Syrian government actually used chemical weapons?
"Most of the details are still classified, so it’s hard for the public to know. Secretary of State John Kerry laid out the broad brushstrokes on Tuesday:"....

"Is there reason to doubt the Syrian government used chemical weapons?
"One note of skepticism has come from William R. Polk, who served on the State Department’s Policy Planning staff during the Kennedy years. ”Assad had much to lose and his enemies had much to gain [from the use of chemical weapons],” wrote Polk. “That conclusion does not prove who did it, but it should give us pause to find conclusive evidence which we do not now have.”

Historical footage of carrier ops in the Pacific during WWII.

 www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=9dR3h2HdnBQ

 

Hat tip to Val Brose; Santa Maria, CA

The pilots trained with the help of films like this: 

Aircraft Carrier Landings - 1946 - Navy Training Cartoon

Safety training film evidently aimed at young naval aviators. Among other things, this film stresses the proper approach angle for pilots to catch the wire with their ...

Internet search challenge for you:

Open the Google search page and type in "Obama blames" to see what comes up.
Then go to Bing and type those same words.
Hat tip to Jaker  at Yahoo Answers

http://restore-dc-catholicism.blogspot.com/ 

In case you had been wondering after the Boston bombing manhunt: Keeping Your Family Safe During a Terrorist Attack

Noisy Room   "A series of studies conducted by researchers at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness show that while 72% of Americans anticipate future terror attacks, fewer than 50% of us have a family emergency plan in place. It is not likely that any of us will forget the images of the families who were affected during the Boston bombing, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, or the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater shooting."
....
The Seven Signs of Terrorism
"Fearing future terrorist attacks does not mean that people have to live in fear every day. There are several steps people may take to help prepare and protect their families. One such action is to become familiar with the Seven Signs of Terrorism, developed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York, that have been adopted by State Police across the country as an educational tool."

Image via HomelandSecurity.ms.gov

Videos Implicate Syrian Opposition In Chemical Attacks, BUT...(UPDATE)

Remember, what matters most is that we do not lose Jordan to the Islamists. Jordan is friendly to Israel; to lose them to radical Islam will be to hem Israel in completely by nations sworn to destroy them.

Sad to say, those nations will be aided and abetted by leftists in the US such as Code Pink and (name "liberal", "progressive" "anti-war" faction here)..

(Screenshot of Saudi chemical bags labeled in Arabic and English)

 

JAWA  "Walid Shoebat writes:

Recent news of a chemical weapons attack in Syria smacks of desperation. The question comes down to who is most desperate right now, the Assad regime or the Muslim Brotherhood rebels? Consider that since June, Assad's forces have been winning.

According to a CBS News report from last month, victories for the rebels had become "increasingly rare" and that the Muslim Brotherhood-backed opposition fighters were sustaining "some of their heaviest losses" near Damascus.

The New York Times echoed this sentiment, even saying that before gaining the upper hand, concerns were that Assad would use chemical weapons; he did not 

.
In fact, even before Assad's forces gained the momentum, a UN official reportedly found evidence of rebels using chemical weapons but no evidence Assad's regime did.

 

More.

UN has testimony showing Syrian rebels used sarin gas  

"UN human rights investigators say they have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria's civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve ..."

But consider this update:

Exclusive: Intercepted Calls Prove Syrian Army Used Nerve Gas, U.S. Spies Say

"Last Wednesday, in the hours after a horrific chemical attack east of Damascus, an official at the Syrian Ministry of Defense exchanged panicked phone calls with a leader of a chemical weapons unit, demanding answers for a nerve agent strike that killed more than 1,000 people. Those conversations were overheard by U.S. intelligence services, The Cable has learned. And that is the major reason why American officials now say they're certain that the attacks were the work of the Bashar al-Assad regime -- and why the U.S. military is likely to attack that regime in a matter of days."

Everything you need to know about Syria’s chemical weapons  "Why, exactly, are chemical weapons so horrible? Where did Syria get its weapons? And what is Bashar al-Assad’s regime suspected of doing? Here’s a primer:"

Do this Google search: Type  "evidence of syrian army use of gas"

Then with Bing: "evidence of syrian army use of gas"