Over the past few weeks the White House has openly declared war on the Fox News Channel. It has been going on since before the election when the Obama campaign refused to send campaign staff to appear on Fox. Now the senior staff and even President Obama have openly criticized an entire news organization. The President was asked about the squabble during an interview with NBC on Wednesday. He responded that he is not losing much sleep over it, and that he believes that the American people are more concerned with the war in Afghanistan and unemployment.

It is interesting that the President would choose to bring Afghanistan and unemployment. The Labor Department reported that in September 23 states saw a rise in unemployment. They also reported that 43 states lost jobs in September. The national unemployment numbers reached 9.8% for the first time in 26 years. It could be that my memory is failing me, but I seem to recall an unequivocal promise from the administration before the “stimulus” package was passed that if Congress passed the bill that no one read, unemployment would not go higher than 8%. Now economists are predicting unemployment above 10% and it will be at least the middle of next year before we start to see any type of turn around. Of course, those predictions could be proven wrong if the administration decides that they just haven’t spent enough money; money that we do not have. It has gotten so bad that Congress had to raise the federal debt ceiling to $13 trillion.

Afghanistan is another ignorant remark to make because the President is continuing to drag his feet in deciding whether or not to send the 40,000 requested troops. The administration is still trying their tired excuse of blaming Bush and Cheney for their woes. The problem is that they were fully briefed on Afghanistan during the transition time before the Inauguration. Obama had claimed all along that we were following a flawed strategy in Afghanistan and that he had the solution. He even picked his own commanding General to lead our soldiers in Afghanistan, but now he can barely seem to find the time to talk to the man. He refuses to make a decision on sending troops because he is terrified of angering his radical left-wing base by sending more troops. The problem is that the longer he waffles, the more danger our troops will face. This decision should be based solely on the intelligence from the commanders on the ground in Afghanistan, and not by Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod. This is a military strategy decision, not one to be made for political gain.

Since the nation of Israel was re-established after the Second World War, there has been building violence against Israel. The violence has culminated with the seemingly, never ending struggle with Palestine and their militant rulers, Hamas. Yasser Arafat, of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, led Palestine from the mid 1970’s until his death in 2004. Arafat and the PLO were committed to the destruction of the state of Israel and the killing of innocent Israeli civilians. After his death, the people of Palestine elected members of Hamas to lead them. 

Hamas is an admitted terrorist organization committed to wiping Israel off of the map and replacing it with an Islamic state. Their funding has been traced to Syria and Iran, whose leaders have themselves called for the destruction of Israel. From June 2007 until June 2008, more than 1500 missiles were fired into Israel and almost 1800 mortar shells fell on Israeli soil. In 2005 Israel pulled completely out of Gaza in an attempt to end the violence. Unfortunately, Israel is learning that you cannot negotiate with terrorists.

Last week, Israel finally decided to stop rolling over and allowing the terrorists to attack them without any retribution; Israeli jets started bombing Hamas compounds and rocket launchers. Israeli ground forces also prepared for a full-scale invasion. While they have not moved into Gaza, they are ready to commence their ground assault at a moment’s notice. The United Nations has called for Israeli restraint, but was noticeably silent for the past year and a half while Hamas was continually attacking Israeli civilians.

The Bush administration has called for Hamas to stop firing their missiles into Israel and has defended Israel’s right to defend herself. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice correctly applied the blame for the current attacks to Hamas and the constant barrage of missile and mortar attacks. President Bush and his staff have only a few weeks left in office before President-elect Obama and his staff will decide the U.S. position. Surprisingly, Obama has been silent on his position of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In the past, Obama has stated that if someone were constantly firing missiles at his children he would do something about it. We will soon know whether Obama was serious about talking to terrorists without any preconditions, or whether he understands that there is no negotiating with someone that will strap a bomb on their own child and send them off to kill as many infidels as possible. My prediction is that there will be no peace until there is a clear winner and a clear loser. The continual forced ceasefires only serve to prolong the violence.

This week the Congress held committee briefings with General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The briefings were the first since last September, when the General and Ambassador first reported of the successes of the troop surge. This briefing contained more good news from Iraq. The two men reported that the violence in Iraq has subsided substantially over the past several months, but that the successes of our brave men and women are tenuous and reversible. The report was updated with relevant facts from the ground in Iraq, but it was essentially the same report as in September. The overlying meaning in this report as well as the one from September is that we should continue to allow our troops to secure the country while the Iraqi’s forces are trained and take over the security of their own country. 

Here are the links to General Petraeus September report, and to his April report.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still warned in the days leading up to the briefings, that the General had better be truthful. Does Ms. Pelosi believe that the commander of our military in Iraq would lie under oath? Several other Democrats on the committees did nothing more than play to the cameras and make speeches about how they didn’t believe that we could win. Senator Carl Levin, after finally realizing the correct titles of the men he was addressing, launched into his diatribe about how the surge had failed because of recent attacks in Basra and Baghdad. He discounts all of the General’s experience and knowledge to say that we should set a timetable for withdrawal and promptly turn over control to the Iraqi security forces. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid equates the recommendation of Petraeus and Crocker to halt troop withdrawals for a 45 day cooling off period to taking one step forward and two steps back. I am unaware of Mr. Reid’s extensive qualifications on military operations and strategy, but he surely must be hiding a Congressional Medal of Honor in his desk to claim to know more that the two distinguished gentleman who appeared before Congress.

All three candidates for the presidency had the opportunity to question Petraeus and Crocker on Capitol Hill this week. In my opinion, McCain showed his experience and knowledge with his questioning. Clinton appeared to still be searching to find the right angle to spin this into a much-needed political gain for herself. Obama showed his vulnerabilities on foreign policy and military affairs.