SILVER STATE CONFIDENTIAL 09/18/2014

OBAMA’S VIETNAM: IT’S DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN

Consider this February 13, 1965 entry from the “This Day in History” files at History.com:

President Lyndon B. Johnson decides to undertake the sustained bombing of North Vietnam that he and his advisers have been contemplating for a year.

Earlier in the month, the president had ordered Operation Flaming Dart in response to communist attacks on U.S. installations in South Vietnam. These retaliatory raids did not have the desired effect of causing the North Vietnamese to cease support of Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam, and out of frustration, Johnson turned to a more extensive use of airpower.

Called Operation Rolling Thunder, the bombing campaign was designed to interdict North Vietnamese transportation routes in the southern part of North Vietnam and slow infiltration of personnel and supplies into South Vietnam. The first Rolling Thunder mission took place on March 2, 1965, when 100 U.S. Air Force and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) planes struck the Xom Bang ammunition dump 100 miles southeast of Hanoi.

In July 1966, Rolling Thunder was expanded to include North Vietnamese ammunition dumps and oil storage facilities, and in the spring of 1967, it was further expanded to include power plants, factories, and airfields in the Hanoi-Haiphong area.

Operation Rolling Thunder was closely controlled by the White House and at times targets were personally selected by President Johnson.  From 1965 to 1968, about 643,000 tons of bombs were dropped on North Vietnam. A total of nearly 900 U.S. aircraft were lost during Operation Rolling Thunder. The operation continued, with occasional suspensions, until President Johnson, under increasing domestic political pressure, halted it on October 31, 1968.

Now consider this item from today’s Wall Street Journal…

“The U.S. military campaign against Islamic militants in Syria is being designed to allow President Barack Obama to exert a high degree of personal control over the campaign, going so far as to require that the military obtain presidential sign-off for any strike in Syrian territory, U.S. officials said.”

What do they say about those who refuse to learn from history?

NEVADA DEMS UNDERMINING BILBRAY-KOHN'S CAMPAIGN

Poor Erin Bilbray-Kohn just can’t catch a break.

The titular head of her party, President Barack Obama, has announced his proposal for dealing with the ISIS head-chopper Muslims running amok all over Iraq and Syria.  It’s fair to assume that Bilbray-Kohn, the Democrat running for Nevada’s 3rd congressional district currently represented by Republican Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nevada), supports her fellow Democrat and commander-in-chief.

On September 17, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Obama’s military plan.  Bilbray-Kohn’s opponent - who happens to also be an Army doctor who has served two tours of duty in Iraq and recently was promoted to the rank of brigadier general – voted against it.

“The one thing I will not support is arming the so-called moderate opposition force, the Free Syrian army,” Heck said, characterizing them as “a rag tag collection of 100 disparate groups” that “has no cogent leadership, no organization, no command and control.”

Heck added that “without U.S. military advisers embedded with the forces that we train and send back into Syria we will have no visibility on their effectiveness, their defections and whether or not our weapons are falling into the hands of our enemies.”

Ah-hah!  A cutting campaign issue for Bilbray which she can use to attack Heck for not supporting the president in wartime.  Manna from heaven.

Except…

Except Nevada Democrat Rep. Dina Titus (D-Las Vegas) voted with Heck, not with Obama.

So now Bilbray-Kohn can’t criticize Brigadier General Heck on his vote without, by extension, also criticizing her political idol, ally and fellow Democrat in the district next door who also voted against the president.

Curse you Dina Titus!

Then again, maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe Bilbray-Kohn also thinks the president’s plan is ill-conceived and destined to failure.  But in that case, where’s her statement declaring that Heck and Titus are right and another fellow Nevada Democrat representing another adjoining congressional district, Rep. Steven Horsford – who voted in support of the president – is wrong?

Talk about darned if you do and darned if you don’t!

This situation is reminiscent of how Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, Bilbray-Kohn’s patron, snatched another issue off her campaign’s plate recently. 

You see, some immigration amnesty activists staged a bullhorn-wielding protest in Rep. Heck’s district office a few weeks ago.  The agitators told police what they were up to in advance and hoped to get some political mileage out of being arrested.  Indeed, Bilbray-Kohn’s supporters have been using that staged political stunt to criticize Heck for supposedly being cold-hearted and weak on immigration reform.

Alas, a couple weeks ago some other immigration amnesty activists were arrested outside Sen. Reid’s office in Washington.  So now Bilbray-Kohn can’t criticize Heck for having immigration activists arrested without, by association, criticizing Reid for the same thing.

Curse you Harry Reid!

MUTH’S TRUTHS

So the Clark County Commission has banned walking on Strip sidewalks while carrying a glass bottle of Coke.  Or a glass bottle of cough syrup.  Or a glass bottle of beer.  However, you will still be able to carry a PLASTIC bottle of Coke, cough syrup or beer.  So this is nothing short of container discrimination.

Seriously, this is yet another example of punishing the many for the actions of a few.  What should be unlawful is littering, not carry a glass container.  This *should* be about enforcing our existing littering ordinances, not creating yet another means for police officers to stop and harass individuals who have really done nothing wrong.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“Congressman Joe Heck acquired a new title on Wednesday — brigadier general in the U.S. Army Reserve. … He is a medical adviser to the chief of the Army Reserve and deputy commander of the Atlanta-based 3rd Medical Command.  Of the 12,098 individuals who have served in Congress since the first session in 1789, only a handful have achieved general’s rank, according to research by the Senate librarian.” – Las Vegas Review-Journal, 9/18/14