To Protect and Defend

To Protect and Defend

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

April 7, 2010

Article II, Section I of the Constitution of the United States of America requires the President swear an oath of office that includes the words to “protect and defend” that very document.

Upon the administration of said oath, that president becomes Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. United States military officers in turn swear an oath that includes the words, “I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

This administration, under the auspices of Barack Obama is about to enter into an unholy alliance with the world, with few exceptions, declaring the United States will not take up and use nuclear weapons against any nation that does not already posses them. Apparently Iran and North Korea are the exceptions to this insidious decision.

How obtuse can this so-called leader be? This is not a game of HORSE Obama is playing on the White House basketball court where he can “spot” his opponent the “H” and “O” simply because he is an inferior player. War is war and is designed to annihilate ones enemies in an effort to permanently end their enmity or prevent them from being able to destroy our way of life.

Obama’s pronouncement is disgraceful and there is no doubt that former President Harry Truman is spinning in his grave like a dreidel at Chanukah. G-d bless the memory of Harry Truman, a Democrat, who had to make two of the most difficult decisions in American History by dropping not one, but two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II in victory against Japan. Japan initially attacked the United States with the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, officially drawing this nation into the war.

Conventional and historical wisdom denotes that had the United States not used the most stringent of its armaments – the atomic bomb – in order to vanquish our enemy, the potential loss of American life could have reached a devastating and unthinkable one million combat personnel. Should atomic weaponry not have been employed simply because Japan had not yet procured the equalizing technology? Should LeBron James sit out against the hapless Washington Wizards in an effort for the Cleveland Cavaliers to level the playing field?

That extremely faulty logic is not just insipid, but dangerous, and this kind of handcuffing of the United States military could be deemed an act of treason perpetrated by the Commander in Chief for not being prepared to advance the course of a conflict with the maximum capabilities available. Should the most damaging and deleterious of our military capabilities not be used should the United States come under an attack by a non-nuclear nation who instead opts for chemical or biological weapons?

Obama has demonstrated his inability to lead having given free passes to both North Korea and Iran by his lack of sanctions against those rogue nations. Concurrently, Obama has taken to berating and chastising Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East, simply for building houses for their own citizenry.

As Commander in Chief, Obama has the obligation to enter into a potential war with as much fervent zealousness as can be delivered. To do otherwise or consider doing otherwise would put the national security of the United States in a vulnerable position, weaken our defenses, and could be characterized as treason, or at the very least, impeachable.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and political consultant living in Alexandria, VA.