"AMERICA's BEST DAYS ARE YET TO COME" - Ronald Reagan

I love America. I love everything she stands for. I love the freedoms I enjoy here, and I love the fact that America is the most powerful beacon for Freedom - which to me translates as Hope and Opportunity - in the entire world.

Having said that, here's a great piece I found on Donald Douglas' worthy blog American Power from Walter Russell Mead at Wall Street Journal:

The Future Still Belongs to America
This century will throw challenges at everyone. The U.S. is better positioned to adapt than China, Europe or the Arab world.

It is, the pundits keep telling us, a time of American decline, of a post-American world. The 21st century will belong to someone else. Crippled by debt at home, hammered by the aftermath of a financial crisis, bloodied by long wars in the Middle East, the American Atlas can no longer hold up the sky. Like Britain before us, America is headed into an assisted-living facility for retired global powers.

This fashionable chatter could not be more wrong. Sure, America has big problems. Trillions of dollars in national debt and uncounted trillions more in off-the-books liabilities will give anyone pause. Rising powers are also challenging the international order even as our key Cold War allies sink deeper into decline.

But what is unique about the United States is not our problems. Every major country in the world today faces extraordinary challenges—and the 21st century will throw more at us. Yet looking toward the tumultuous century ahead, no country is better positioned to take advantage of the opportunities or manage the dangers than the United States.

And HERE's one incredible reason why I find Don's blog worthy . . .


STORMBRINGER SENDS


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HEADS UP

Blog STORMBRINGER is about many things - military themes, history, national security, philosophy & Old Testament prophecy; ordinarily this is not a political blog. Part of the reason is because there are so many political sites out there and I want to stand out in the crowd, and part of the reason is that politics generates Dark Energy within me. You are about to find out what this means.

BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT:

America is the Greatest Country in the World, bar none. America is the Greatest Country in the entire HISTORY of the World; there has never been anything like her.


This country is the "Shining City on the Hill" - we are the hope & salvation to the world, and we have liberated more countries than I can keep track of.

But our President Barack Obama does not see it this way; instead he has stood before the European Parliament and offered apologies for the Bush era, declaring that America had “shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive” towards its allies.

Let me tell you something: there NOTHING to apologize for or about George W. Bush. He liberated MILLIONS, at a time when it suited the Europeans to look the other way and cut business deals with Saddam Hussein under the table.

To portray America as 'arrogant' in front of a bunch of Europeans is the ultimate irony: we liberated Europe three times in the 20th century - the most recent occasion we had to wade in and stop strong Europeans from ganging up and butchering weaker Europeans was in the former Yugoslavia.


When I was in Bosnia, we had an American flag up on the wall of our team house in Mostar. The locals loved it - we'd get pictures of them standing in front of it, holding it, touching it. When a 500lb car bomb took down an apartment building across from the police station - nobody messed with us. They loved us.

Now I am treated to the image of the President of this beloved United States standing up in front of the UN Star Wars bar scene and apologizing to a bunch of 3d world tin horn dictators & Presidents-for-Life for who we are, for what we stand for:


"I have been in office for just nine months . . . I am well aware of the expectations that accompany my presidency around the world. These expectations are not about me . . .

"I took office at a time when many around the world had come to view America with skepticism and distrust. Part of this was due to misperceptions and misinformation about my country. Part of this was due to opposition to specific policies, and a belief that on certain critical issues, America has acted unilaterally, without regard for the interests of others."

This is a liberal political jargon for the liberation of Iraq. This is the current occupier of the Whitehouse badmouthing the USA to the world.

I say: TO HELL WITH THE AMERICA-HATERS OUT THERE AND WHAT THEY THINK! For every one of them, there are a million of the oppressed trying to get over here, because they know this land is the only hope they'll ever have of tasting Freedom and a better life for their children.

The motto of United States Army Special Forces is De Oppresso Liber - "Free the Oppressed"

Furthermore, we didn't act unilaterally on anything. We went in to Iraq after 19 separate votes on the subject in the UN - that last one the French vetoed out didn't count - and we went in with a multinational coalition. Last time I looked the list included Albania, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Portugal, Singapore, the Ukraine and the United Kingdom . . . so much for "unilateral", huh?

It begs credulousness that our President is truly naïve enough to believe what he is saying. No, my friends, the sad truth is that with Barack Obama: WHAT YOU SEE IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU GET. Like his pastor Jeremiah Wright; like his friends and associates (Van Jones the latest flavor-of-the-month); like his wife "for-the-first-time-in-my-life-I-am-proud-of-my-country" Michelle; Barack Obama hates America.

How can you be an American, look at the American flag, and NOT be proud of it?

Granted this sounds strident, but consider this: the reason he wants to change everything, is because he does not like it the way it is.

I love America. This is the land of unlimited opportunity. I came to this land with a suitcase in my hand at the age of 22, and I owe America for everything I have. I love this country.

Barack Obama owes America for everything he has going for him. America made Barack Obama; Barack Obama did not make America. If America isn't good enough for you, Mr. Obama, see how much you like being President of Kenya.

I am an American Soldier. I am prepared to give my life in her defense. This did not change when I went made the Retirement list. - Sean Linnane



Now you know what I mean when I say Dark Energy. And for those of you who will criticize & decry: "Oh, he is wrapping himself in the flag!" to this I say: DAMN STRAIGHT. This is not about me any more than it is about Barack Obama or anyone else. This is about AMERICA - if you don't like it, pack your shit and ship out.