The most amazing thing about Tuesday evening’s speech by President Obama at West Point was that if you closed your eyes, and imagined the occasional butchering of the English language, if could have been George W. Bush on the stage.

The Afghani conflict was stated to be crucial to the security of the United States, with no real explanation of why this is the case. And, although the previous strategy didn’t work, the best thing to do is more of what we’ve been doing.

I’ve definitely heard all this before.

© Copyright 2009 Eric Allie – All Rights Reserved.
Used with permission.

President Obama would like us all to believe that there are only two choices on healthcare: his plan and the current situation. In fact, he beats this straw man up whenever possible.

His position is that if you are against his plan, then you must be in support of the current system. This is incorrect. One can, in fact, be against Obama’s plan and the current plan.

© Copyright 2009 John Cole – All Rights Reserved.
Used with permission.

© Copyright 2009 Eric Allie – All Rights Reserved.
Used with permission.

© Copyright 2009 John Cole – All Rights Reserved.
Used with permission.

© Copyright 2009 Eric Allie – All Rights Reserved.
Used with permission

© Copyright 2009 Gary McCoy – All Rights Reserved.
Used with permission.

I’m a believer in the idea that if a political leader angers people on both sides of the issue, he may well have found a reasonable place in the middle.

Barack Obama, who has been tacking hard to the left since January 20th, has thoroughly enraged both the RIght and the Left with his release of four memos detailing CIA methods of extracting information, while concordantly announcing that CIA interrogators who followed these guidelines would not be subject to prosecution.

The recent hijacking of an US-flagged ship and subsequent rescue of its captain by Navy SEAL sharpshooters has finally brought the ongoing piracy in the Gulf of Aden to the front of Americans’ minds. While Somali piracy has been happening since the early 1990’s, it has clearly escalated over the last few years.

Given that the Gulf of Aden is part of the Suez Canal, avoiding it for shipping is not a viable option. Each year, 20,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden, including 12% of the world’s oil supply. The Suez Canal was built because the alternatives were poor.

With the almost complete absence of a functioning government in Somalia, expecting help from the land is a fool’s hope. And sending troops ashore to deal with the pirates on land doesn’t seem likely. Does anyone remember what happened the last time we had soldiers in Somalia?