Happy New Year

Happy New Year

Death of a Good Man

Courtesy Gerald R. Ford Library


Views was sad to hear that President Gerald R. Ford had died on Tuesday at the age of 93. The Right Man at the Right Time with the Right policies for the USA after Watergate and Vietnam.
Views sends his sympathy to the Ford Family at this time.

Here are links to the different American News on the death.

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum

CNN

Fox News

The White House

The Washington Post

Interesting Story in the Post by Bob Woodward, on Ford, Nixon and Watergate.

New York Times

Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All

Happy Christmas and Happy Holidays to All

Taking Out the Trash

Sandy Berger, National Security Advisor to President Bill Clinton hid Secret Documents CNN reports. The documents looked at the response of the Clinton Administration to the threat from Terrorism.

Fox News Reports on the case, ' Berger pleaded guilty to unlawfully removing and retaining classified documents. He was fined $50,000, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and was barred from access to classified material for three years. ' The Report on the case has security restrictions.

The Washington Post states the following on the case, ' What Berger did, and the ham-handed and comical methods by which he did it, are freshly detailed in the National Archives report, which the Associated Press obtained first under a Freedom of Information Act request. '

If Berger had been a Republican, VIEWS thinks the Elite Media would have played the story more.

Off - Subject: Best Deserts in North Wales

As this is the Festive season, what ever the PC lobby think, Views has taken the great trouble of visiting the finer pubs that do excellent Deserts, if a viewer of this Page has a chance, they could find themselves having a nice drink and a desert at the following establishments, The Ship in Porthmadog, The Prince of Wales near Pwllheli. All are excellent places to unwind during the festive season and after the Xmas shopping.

Bush News Conference

Bush wants to increase the size of the Army and the Marines. Iraq, Iraq,Iraq again.

The Xmas Season

The end of the year has seen press reports that the cash for honours enquiry is looking in to acts that could be seen as perverting the course of justice, it should be recalled that it was not Watergate that bought down Richard Nixon it was the cover up afterwards. It should be pointed out that as of now there has been no charges bought, arrests yes but no formal charges. The New Year is should be interesting, will there by further arrests and charges and will cash for honours scandal cost any one a job.

In the Pentagon Robert Gates has taken over, and it is reported that the President is going to send more troops to Iraq not less, the Iraq Study Group report has been to use a sporting term, benched. The Former Secretary of State, Colin Powell is not impressed with the idea of sending more troops to Iraq. Hillary Clinton is shifting to left to regain her leadership of the Liberal wing of the Democratic Party; the Senator has stated she is opposed to more troops. The Prospect of Edwards, Gore, Obama coming from her left must becoming a valid worry for the Junior Senator form New York.

Kennedy Smells the Coffee

It is reported in the Boston Globe ( Registration Required ) that Senator Edward Kennedy has seen the light and is making it clear that 2004 Nominee, Senator John F. Kerry does not have all the time in the world; in other words get in or get out for the race in 2008; Kennedy's support and interest can get better attention from other candidates. Can Kerry really became the comeback JFK? Kennedy has already smelled the coffee, its about time Kerry also smelled the Coffee, its over for 2008 for the Senator, even his running mate, Ex- Senator Edward's has no chance and he was ahead of Hillary Clinton in Iowa. This year looks like the Clinton and Obama race has already started and Kerry is a also ran who never got passed himself.

After Xmas for Iraq

It is reported today in both the Washington Post and CNN that the new policy on Iraq will come after xmas holiday, how many troops will that cost, this is to important to wait, this is a matter of national security of the USA and the UK, if the USA and UK are getting a new policy, lets get it out there, it might save some troops who are fighting in Iraq. Views has been a strong supporter of the War and even argues it was the right move now, but if change is coming lets change, does waiting for xmas help a soldier stuck in a fox hole, Views has his doubts, new policy might help. Waiting has been the problem, lets get ahead of the curve on Iraq.

Iraq and American Politics

An interesting article in the LA Times on the effect of Iraq on President Bush and Domestic Politics. The article states the following, ' the chief result of last week's report from former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and his squadron of wise men has been to corner an already weakened president by proposing a general strategy of retreat and withdrawal, while remaining maddeningly opaque about how to go about it without delivering Iraq into the hands of its many budding civil-war makers. ' The article in essence argues that the President needs to regain his authority in Washington or he will be seen as weak by the Democrats and worse abroad by America's foes. The answer is wrong, some grand partnership with Demcorats, like as the article mentions in WW2 in Britain, in that case the Labour Party was in power with Churchill. And what did the great man get for this, thrown out in the next election. George W. Bush is President of the United States and Commander in Chief, he should run his foreign policy and dare the Democrats to try and thwart his policy in Iraq. Nice does not Pay, Nixon was tough it cost but no one told him how to run foreign policy.

Iraq Study Group Report, Click for Full Report For VIEWS view see last blog.

Bush Gets Advice from State Department

The Speech, Dec 18 2006

Well we have had the Iraq Study Group Report, now we wait for President George W. Bush to look at the views from the Pentagon, National security Council and outside experts on Iraq. Recent statements from the President seem to suggest that Democracy has been pushed aside in favor of STRONG MAN approach to Iraq. What was the point of the War.

Iraq Study Group Report - Summary

Well folks its here the REPORT that is meant to solve Iraq, slight problem it does not and the solutions could cause more problems later down the line. In the Executive Summary the Report states that the USA should talk to Iran and Syria, but it seems to think that the interest of these countries is somehow on the fringes of the interest of the United States, Iran’s nuclear issue should be dealt with by the UN Security Council and that Lebanon is part of the Regional problems of the Middle East that the USA should deal with outside Iraq. The Solution to all these problems comes through Iraq, and are not in different boxes. The Report also argues for more troops as an end game for getting troops out, its like saying that we want to score a goal in soccer to lose the game overall, well that how it reads.

The policy of stating that Troops should be out by 2008 given the security environment is stupid, if you’re an insurgent, simple keep quite till 2008 and then let lose the dogs of war, the Americans on the whole would be out and they would not wan to get back in to a major civil war in Iraq in a American Presidential Election year.

The Report sounds like something written by moderate Democrats not quite wanting to cut and run but not wanting to fight either, the worse of both worlds, if you are not going to win you get OUT, a Soldier who fights for his or her country deserves the right to expect his leaders to want to win, in Vietnam in the end they did not want to win, winning mean taking tough and hard decisions, expanding not contraction of War, weakness breeds contempt, after the defeat in Vietnam in 1975.

The idea that if Iraq should fail to meet benchmarks then the USA should leave it to its fate, is almost as bad as Vietnam or worse, the war will not stop if American walks away.

This is brief summary after reading the Executive Summary, VIEWS will get his further thoughts back when he has read the whole thing with a decent cup tea, if the summary is bad, what will the rest be like…

Gates New Secretary of Defense

Robert Gates has been passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee to be the Next Secretary of Defense. Gates as the Washington Post notes, stated that ' all options are on the table ' when in comes to the War in Iraq. But as Gates stated there is only one President of the United States and that is George W. Bush, and Bush does not need the confirmation of the Democrats for actions, they could pull the money for the War and there are those that want to do that if they had the chance, but that would place the 2008 Presidential Nominee having to run away from his or her own party. Gates views to the Committee are interesting, it seems that he wants to create a broad church when it comes to Foreign Policy, Gates stated the following. ' to see if we can forge that kind of bipartisan approach going forward ' It should be noted that although on the whole the Republicans and Democrats had a common policy when it came to the USSR, it was the wrong policy, Reagan had it right in 1976, " We win they lose" it should be noted that for the most part the Foreign Policy Establishment wanted to work with the USSR, and President Reagan had trouble with the State Department when he wanted to say in West Berlin for the Soviet President to tear down the Berlin Wall. If the Foreing Policy Establishment has been listened to , the Berlin Wall would still be up and the USSR would still be an Evil Empire.

It should be noted and understood that when Bush 41 came in to Power, he placed a lot of Ford people in to his administration, he took six months to review Reagan's policy with the USSR, by the time they got around to getting a policy the Berlin Wall was coming down and Iraq and the New World Order post USSR was forming.

The actual result was 21 - 0

Transcript of Hearing

Sunday Read

Interesting Articles for Sunday: The Bush Second Term

Fred Barnes in the Weekly Standard argues that Bush should hang tough from Iraq to the Courts, as he has nothing to lose.

Douglas Brinkley in the Washington Post argues that Bush has failed and that he can be considered in the same league as Hoover.

A different view also in the Washington Post argues that Bush has time, and points out that Truman was not that popular on leaving Office but is now considered near great President.

As President George W. Bush pointed out, history will be written and rewritten when we here now are dust and wont care!