Conservatives Defending Liberty

After Obama’s big speech on Iraq I was left wondering about a couple things, not really because I pretty well decided Obama was simply hiding the facts from the public which is nothing new. Obama’s rhetoric about the war and his withdrawing troops just doesn’t measure up when compared to history. Obama is actually deceiving his own base I think more than he is the rest of the world. Honestly after his Iraq speech I actually hope he is lying, if not we are in real trouble in the Middle East.

Here’s what I mean. Obama gave the impression that in a short time we will have absolutely no troops in Iraq at all, none. That’s the problem, he is either a complete irresponsible fool or he is lying. History has shown that America has a history of keeping a stabilizing force in place all over the world, well after the wars are over. Now granted these troops are not in combat any more but they are still there. Look at these examples, Germany and most of Western Europe is a good place to start. In the beginning right after World War 2 we were an occupying force and then it changed into a stabilizing force and then a protective force from the Soviet Union, we are still there by the way. In Japan, the only country to ever have an atomic weapon used on them, we still have troops in place. Again first as an occupation force and then into a stabilization mode and then to a protective force. South Korea is another example, about 40,000 troops still remain as a trip wire against Northern aggression. Bosnia, Kosovo remember them? The former Yugoslavia ring a bell?

The issue is that we are either really going to completely pullout which is extremely irresponsible and risks a major war and in the Middle East due to our lack of a plan to neuter Iran or we will stay and provide a form of stabilization for years to come. Do you really think behind closed doors that the Saudis really want us to just walk away from the region, what about Kuwait or the UAE? We can not risk a completely destabilized Iraq falling into the hands of Syria on one side and Iran on the other.I think most people would concede, like it or not, we can not let the Iranians overrun the region which they are able to do unless we stop them.

You choose which it is, I don’t know but I’m inclined to think he is lying, in this case I actually hope he is.

I wanted to take a minute to cover something many people are involved in, buying military surplus rifles and using them as a survival firearm. Please understand there is nothing wrong with this but people need to take a few precautions before jumping in the surplus market and spending their money and time and possibly risking injury.

Surplus military rifles are from all around the world. The ever popular British 303′s, the abundant Russian 7.62x54r rifles and even German Mauser’s in a variety of calibers. There is nothing wrong with any of them assuming you know what you are buying and understand what should be done before you toss the rifle into service. Regardless of what country they come from take the time to have the weapon completely checked over by a gunsmith you trust to ensure first and foremost the weapon is safe to use. Please understand that when you are buying a weapon that may be over 50 or 75 years old things develop issue regardless of how well they were made in the beginning. Most of the rifles have been used at a minimum in training some in a reserve capacity and some made it to combat. Rifles like the multitude of Mauser style weapons come in so many different calibers you need to ensure you are using the right ammunition just for your rifle. 7mm, 8mm and 9mm all come in a Mauser rifle, not to mention some that have been re-barreled in 308, some in 30-06 and who knows what.

This brings me to the next point when buying a surplus rifle, can you get a steady diet of ammunition for it? Don’t laugh, if you follow how these things tend to develop weapons show up at about the same time the ammo does, trust me its not just by chance. The Makarov and Tokarev pistols are a good example, ammo was everywhere and then it was gone. Yes some is still around but not in the quantities it was a few years ago. The infamous 7.62x54r comes in by the boat load and then it dries up and then it shows up again. My point is make sure you can get ammo to keep your rifle running, many of these calibers are now made by American ammunition companies so take a look around before you buy. Keep an eye out for spare parts availability as well, things do and will break for everybody, you included.

Also keep in mind when you buy a surplus rifle that is sold as “unissued” there is no such thing. Get the rifle checked. This is not the same as buying a semi automatic version of the AK-47 and so on. While these rifles may be using a barrel from God only knows when, they are new assemblies that have been converted to meet import criteria. When people were buying unissued SKS’s that was not the case and several problems developed from it and people got hurt. The SKS was a semi auto rifle from the start, they simply emptied out the depots and shipped them. The bolt action rifles are no different in many cases. Surplus weapons can be fun, they can provide durable inexpensive weapons for survivalists or other shooters who just like that type of weapon. The down side is they can be a complete waste of money as well. If you think this out you can have a survival arsenal ready to go for less than the cost of one AR-15 many times and that is the reason they are so popular to begin with.

Obama’s speech last night was truly the speech that went everywhere and yet went nowhere at the same time. So how is this possible you might say? Obama’s speech was to be about the U.S. troops leaving Iraq but ended up trying to blame high unemployment rates on the fact that we spent money to fight the war.

As only Obama can do, he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. What started out saying he was fulfilling a campaign promise to develop a plan to leave Iraq and now he was carrying out that promise, which is an outright fabrication because he simply followed the plans signed and laid out by George Bush on troop draw downs which no one even the most ardent Obama supporters deny,  went onto somehow link the economic mess we are in to funding the Iraq war. Obama claims that we borrowed money to finance the war, OK. The facts just don’t support the Obama insinuation. Yes we spent close to a trillion dollars over seven plus years on the Iraq war, the problem for Obama is that he spent the same amount of money on a wasted stimulus bill in less than a year and a half. All of which was borrowed or printed money by the way. Obama went on to say that he more or less can’t borrow any more money because we borrowed it for the war effort. Somehow the middle class was destroyed by the war and nothing was ever done right because of the war. Nothing got done for eight years according to Obama because of the war.

This speech was to tell the world we are leaving Iraq after having taken huge steps toward building the only true Islamic republic in the Middle East. Something which he and Joe Biden both said would never happen by the way. Instead what the world got was a rambling self serving lecture on how the world is better because we have him. The truth is what most people know, Obama was against the war, did not support the war and was wrong about the surge that ended the war and brought us to this point. That is how you have a speech that went everywhere and yet nowhere at the same time, as Obama is fond of saying, it was a teachable moment on what not to do.