Robert Gates: I Was “Disturbed” By Barack Obama’s “Absence of Passion, This Absence of Conviction [on Afghanistan] of the Importance of Success that Disturbed Me”

Barack Obama, Commander in Chief?

More from Gates-gate: Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates did his first TV interview with CBS this weekend  following the release of exerts from his soon to be released book, ‘Duty.’ Gates said was disturbed by Barack Obama’s lack of conviction on success in Afghanistan. Gates was also critical of Obama’s absence of passion when it came to his making the troops believe that Obama supported him. Gates went in to say that this was not the case when he was secretary of defense under George W. Bush. Gates is basically accusing Obama of just providing lip service to the troops. Gates defended his statements in his new book as the liberal MSM looks to discredit him. However, Gates is getting it from both sides of the aisle as some Republicans are criticizing the former Secretary of Defense for not disclosing his tactical disputes with the Obama administration during his tenure as secretary.

“It’s one thing to tell the troops that you support them. It’s another to work at making them believe that you believe as president that their sacrifice is worth it, that the cause is just, that what they are doing was important for the country, and that they must succeed,” said Gates. “President Bush did that with the troops when I was Secretary. I did not see President Obama do that. As I write in the book, it was this absence of passion, this absence of a conviction of the importance of success that disturbed me.”

One would think that it is a presidents job when you are the Commander in Chief and sending America’s sons and daughters, mothers and fathers into harms way and potentially make the ultimate sacrifice that a president have convictions for a mission. It is just too bad that Obama did not have the same passion and conviction toward the individuals that protect our freedoms than he does for Obamacare or campaigning.

CBS NEWS:

Gates praises Mr. Obama for facing down political opposition from his own party. Yet he also offers some tough criticism of the president, suggesting that at times he was skeptical of his own strategy in Afghanistan.

“You say about President Obama that as much as you admired him on so many levels, he never really had a passion for pursuing the war in Afghanistan, and that kind of bothered you,” said Braver.

“It’s one thing to tell the troops that you support them. It’s another to work at making them believe that you believe as president that their sacrifice is worth it, that the cause is just, that what they are doing was important for the country, and that they must succeed,” said Gates. “President Bush did that with the troops when I was Secretary. I did not see President Obama do that. As I write in the book, it was this absence of passion, this absence of a conviction of the importance of success that disturbed me.”

What’s more, he is harshly critical of some of the president’s staffers.

He called the national security staff under President Obama the most micromanaging and controlling since Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. Braver asked, “Did you ever tell the president about it directly?”

“No,” Gates said. “And I acknowledge that in the book.”

“Should you have, do you think?”

“Well, first of all, things don’t happen that way if the president doesn’t want them to happen that way.”

“Do you have a sense that’s changed? Or do you think they are still running things from the White House?”

“I actually think it’s gotten worse,” Gates laughed.

And then there were his disagreements with the Number 2 man in Washington.

“You are not very flattering to Vice President Biden in this book,” said Braver.

“Actually I think I am in some areas complimentary of him,” Gates responded, “but where I had a particular problem with the vice president was in his encouragement of suspicion of the military and the senior military with the president: ‘You can’t trust these guys. They’re gonna try and jam you. They’re gonna try and box you in,’ and so on. And that did disturb me a lot.”

The outcry over Gates’ criticism of Biden led to that White House solidarity photo op of the president and vice president this past week.

2013 Guns Sales Set New Record As Barack Obama and Democrats Attempts on Gun Grabs

Town Hall is reporting a record number of gun sales in 2013.

So much for Barack Obama and Democrats efforts to enact gun control and to diminish the Second Amendment. Democrats efforts for gun control have backfired because common sense Americans see what their agenda is all about and it is not safety or getting guns out of the hands of criminals, it’s gun control of law abiding citizens. When will Democrats understand that there is actually an Amendment that protects the right to bear Arms, not one for a right to bear Obamacare?

women are the fastest growing demographic of gun owners

The FBI has released new statistics on NICS background checks showing 2013 gun sales hit a new record. The total number of background checks conducted for gun sales last year add up to 21,093,273, beating the previous 2012 record of 19,592,303 by 1,500,970. Texas conducted the most background checks with 1,633,278. Kentucky came is second with 1,578,331 background checks conducted.

According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation and NBC news, women are the fastest growing demographic of gun owners.

Pearl Harbor Day 2013 … December 7th, 1941, A Date That Will Forever Live in Infamy

Pearl Harbor Day 2013 …  December 7th, 1941, a Date That Will forever Live in Infamy …

Today marks the 72nd anniversary of the day the United States was suddenly and deliberately attacked the Empire of Japan and the United States would never be the same. It was innocence lost and Americans would strike back against their foreign aggressors. We remember those brave men and women that died that fateful day. However, that reprehensible, treacherous act unified a country and in fact awoke a sleeping giant that provided the resolve to win a war against the evil Axis.

God Bless the heroism of Our Greatest Generation!

FDR’s Pearl Harbor speech:

Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with the government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleagues delivered to the Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. Very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya. Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island. This morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense.

Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces – with the unbounded determination of our people – we will gain the inevitable triumph – so help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December seventh, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.”

America Remembers John F. Kennedy 50 Years Later after that Fateful Day … “Anybody here seen my old friend John?”

November 22, 1963 … the day that shook America in Dallas, TX.

For those that were alive on that fateful day, yesterday most Americans remembered where they were the day that President John F. Kennedy was shot and assassinated while traveling in his presidential motorcade in Dallas, Texas. It was the day that shocked America, the world and forever changed the United States with innocence lost. In a time in which few can even conceive or remember when there were three news channels, no-24-7 news, no internet, no social media, no Twitter … the nation was rocked with the unthinkable, the death of a president as all watched in horror.

At 12:29 pm CST, as President Kennedy’s uncovered limousine entered Dealey Plaza, Nellie Connally, then the First Lady of Texas, turned around to President Kennedy, who was sitting behind her, and commented, “Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you,” which President Kennedy acknowledged. Then life changed, everything changed as we knew it. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 pm CST, Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas. JFK was taken to Parkland Hospital, Trauma Room 1 where he was treated for his mortal wounds to his head.

At 1:00 p.m., CST President John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead. As one doctor was reported to say, “We never had any hope of saving his life.” And sadly we were presented with another good man who died too young. 

Anybody here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people,
But it seems the good they die young.
I just looked around and he’s gone.

50 years later we remember President John F. Kennedy, a life taken far to soon and his vision for America that was cut short  that Day in Dealey Plaza by an assassins bullet. We remember the man who is frozen in time because of the tragic nature in how he was killed and we can only wonder how things, so many things would have been different in America had he lived. Too many focus on the “conspiracy” theories of how JFK died or his affair with Marilyn Monroe, but there was so much more to a president who captured the imagine of the country. I was not alive the day JFK died, but being a history major I had read much of his life. I have attended the Kennedy Library and been to grave, the “Eternal Flame,” at Arlington National Cemetery as well as grew up in New England so was surrounded by the lore of the Kennedy’s most of my life. JFK was a unique man, an inspirational individual who knew how to communicate with people, bring them together and make people feel good about themselves. But he was much more than that, he was a leader, a man who had big goals as seen by is efforts to get the US into space and he was the one who asked us,“ask not what your country can do for you can do for your country” (VIDEO). Where are those leaders today?

‘Abraham, Martin and John’ - Dion

U.S. President John F. Kennedy was remembered as a transcendent leader of a rising nation at a ceremony in Dallas on Friday, the 50th anniversary of his assassination, while bitterness remained for many who disbelieve the official story of how he died.

“Our collective hearts were broken,” Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings told a crowd of about 5,000 who came to a frigid Dealey Plaza, near where Kennedy was slain, for a commemoration marked with prayer, song and tears.

Remembered fondly for his youthful vigor and his glamorous wife, Kennedy remains one of Americans’ favorite presidents for his handling of the Cuban missile crisis, his call to public service with programs such as the Peace Corps and a promise – later fulfilled – to land an American on the moon before the end of the 1960s.

“A new era dawned and another waned a half century ago when hope and hatred collided right here in Dallas,” Rawlings said.

The assassination cut short “Camelot,” as the 1,000 days of the Kennedy presidency became known. He was 46 when he died

This is how I remember John F. Kennedy, as a leader, a unifier and a man with a vision of big ideas and one’s that made America better, not just a political party. Take a good listen to what a true leader sounds like. I hear an awful lot of “WE”, not me or I. JFK wanted the United States to be a leader in the world, number one, not a follower. Where has my old friend John gone, it is true that the good so die young.

“The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join it or not. And it is one of the greatest adventures of all times. And no nation which expects to be the leaders of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space”.

“We Choose to go to the moon, not because they are easy, because they are hard”

150th Anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg’s Address: “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln commemorated a Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by vowing that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS, is one if not the greatest speeches ever from one of the United States greatest presidents ever. The key word there is “UNITED”.  This is what leadership looks like and it is comical if not disrespectful to ever make comparisons to Lincoln and his accomplishments. Never has a US president ever resided over more troubling and divisive times in the United States, NEVER!

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that
nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to
dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who
here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether
fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate— we can not conse-
crate—we can not hallow— this ground. The brave men, living and
dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor
power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remem-
ber what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It
is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us— that from these honored dead we take increased devotion
to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in
vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of free-
dom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish from the earth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
November 19. 1863.

And a small and irrelevant President Barack Obama does not show for the anniversary even though he used references to Lincoln during elections. Obama announced his candidacy in 2007 near Lincoln’s law office in Springfield, IL abd tried to tie himself to Abe. In the end, Obama was a no show. Some how Barack Obama can play 150 rounds of golf, but not show up on such an important anniversary of a president he claims to respect. Hmm, think it is because it would make Obama look even smaller than he already is? Did Obama really not go to this event because of the Healthcare.gov debacle?

But Obama, unlike his predecessors, stuck to his decision not to go to such an anniversary commemoration. His decision is doubly surprising because he has so often tied himself to his fellow Illinoisan Lincoln. Obama announced his candidacy in 2007 near Lincoln’s law office in Springfield, Ill. Both in 2009 and 2013, he took the oath of office with his hand on Lincoln’s Bible. And in 2009, he replicated Lincoln’s 1861 route from Philadelphia to Washington for the Inauguration.

“It didn’t work schedule-wise,” was the explanation tweeted Tuesday morning by Dan Pfeiffer, the president’s senior adviser. The schedule released by the White House showed the president at 10 a.m. in the Oval Office receiving his regular daily briefing. Then, at 10:45, he welcomed to the White House a group of senators to brief them on the latest developments in Iran. That briefing was not scheduled until Monday, well after the White House declined the Gettysburg invitation. Later in the day — after he would have been back from the planned ceremony at Gettysburg — he goes to the Four Seasons Hotel to address The Wall Street Journal CEO Council’s annual meeting and talk about the economy.