2010-05-14

Sun Tzu’s Art of War and it’s application to America

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.  If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.  If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.                                                                    Sun Tzu – Art of War

The above is a quotation from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, an Chinese Military Treatise dealing with military tactics and the application there of.  Written in the  6th century, it is often heralded as the definitive source of proper and concise guide of military application.

So what does the above mean to us?  To me, it holds an amazing insight into the problems we now face with regards to our national security.  To me, it explains both our failures and our inability to prevent attacks against our citizens.

With each day, it becomes clearer to me, that we neither understand ourselves, nor do we understand our enemy, therefore, it’s only a matter of time before our enemy deals us a deadly strike.  Since Sept 11th, we’ve had approximately 30 attempts upon the lives of American citizens by an enemy that we do not understand and, as of recently, refuse to name.  Likewise, the latest round of attacks have been halted only by the overwhelming ineptness of those that waged said attacks, thus showing me that we, as a nation, do not understand ourselves well enough to prevent them.

We begin with the Underwear Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted to ignite a bomb sewn into the lining of his underwear on Northwest Flight 253 in route from Amsterdam to Detroit.  It was only by sheer luck and the brave actions passengers, that his homemade bomb failed to ignite, thus saving the lives of ~300 passengers.  Despite being on a federal watch list, warnings from his father that he was dangerous and possibly wishing to do America harm, the man was allowed on the flight, yet Janet Napolitano claimed “the system work”.  More recently, Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized citizen from Pakistan failed to ignite a car bomb in NY Times Square, which threatened the lives of an untold number of our citizens.  Despite numerous red flags, travels to and from Pakistan, being on a watch list, returning from Pakistan with large amounts of money, this man was able to not only set and ignite the bomb, but was also allowed to board a plane after the fact and almost escape, yet media outlets declared the plot foiled.  Again, it was only by sheer luck and the amateurish attempt at bomb making that prevented disaster.  Lastly, let us not forget Nidal Hasan, a radical Muslim within our military who shot up Ft. Hood, killing 12 of our brave soldiers and wounding 31 others.  Ignoring the warning signs of his contact with overseas terror units, statements pledging allegiance to Islam, and known radical views, this man was allowed to continue to serve.

Our current administration is failing to acknowledge, name, and confront our enemy.  They have dictated that we will no longer be active in a “war on terror, but instead involved in an “overseas contingency operations”.  No longer are there “terrorist acts” but only “man-made disasters”.  When AG Eric Holder and Secretary of DHS Janet Napolitano are questioned by congress, they refuse to use the word terror or terrorists in relation to any of these acts.  After an attack occurs, the administration is slow to acknowledge any relation to terrorists, but instead, are more concerned with “possible backlash against Muslims” rather than the act itself.  While they refuse to associate these acts to our enemies, they are quick to release statements that our returning soldiers pose a risk of right wing extremism. 

This policy of non-admittance is a dangerous one for our country.  How can we possibly counter and defend ourselves against an enemy that we refuse to acknowledge?  How many attempts must be made within our borders before we finally admit that there is a clear and present danger to our citizenship? 

Our enemy has been resolute in their actions against us.  We can go make for decades and show the attacks, the loss of lives, but we refuse to admit, much less go on the offensive, to confront our enemy.   We’ve been lucky up to this point.  Thankfully, the latest attacks, save the Ft. Hood massacre, has been attempted by people poorly or inadequately trained, but that will not last.  These attempts will serve only to embolden those wishing to do us harm by showing that we are ill-prepared to defend ourselves against them.  It’s only a matter of time before a trained enemy comes to our borders and finds us unaware.  We cannot sit on our laurels while another 9/11 is planned and enacted.  Our governments inaction and complete lack of ability or competence only serves to make us appear weak. 

Priority shifts are needed.  What good while universal health care do for our country should a massive attack take place?  What good will “environmental reform” be when our citizens are murdered?  You have shown that we are unable, even unwilling, to protect our borders.  You have shown that we lack the foresight to prevent the crudest of attacks even when provided with multitudes of signs and warnings.  Your cowardice to name, and stand up, to our enemy will cost us lives.

He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.                                                                       Sun Tzu – Art of War

By the quote above, it appears that the radical Islamists are following the policies of Sun Tzu. My question to our government, a government who is solely charged with the protection of our country by our constitution,is when will you learn and apply the same?    My fear is not until that government is replaced by one with the fortitude to call out and confront those who wish us harm. 

2010-05-04

Another side effect of not reading the Health Care Bill

Health care has passed and now law.  As business start researching thru the bill, we keep finding more and more "unintended consequences" that are going to cost American businesses, and taxpayers, billions of dollars not previously disclosed.

The latest is a mandate that will require all businesses to issue a IRS 1099 Form for any purchases over $600.  According to the CATO institute, some wording changes to the tax code's section 6041 will force businesses to issue millions, if not billions, of additional IRS 1099 forms, which would be a costly, anti-business nightmare.

In a change to the current law, which only requires 1099's to be sent for specific circumstances and exempts corporations, businesses will now be required to send these forms to any business with which they have any exchange in excess of $600 and will include this burden on corporations.  Think about that for a second.  $600 is not a huge cost when it comes to business expense.  Should a business buy office supplies in bulk, be it copier paper, pens, etc, and the bill is $601, then the company will have to issue a 1099 form.  Even if a business was to treat a client to a business-related meal, this condition could possibly kick in, requiring the business to file a form 1099 to the restaurant.  Should they have a contract for coffee service, janitorial service, well hell, basically anything, they will be required to send these IRS forms.  Due to this mandate, for virtually any business expense, the company will be required to gather information from their vendor, TIN (tax identification number), etc, fill out the form, then the IRS will need to match these forms to accounting records.  No wonder the IRS is wanting to hire an additional 16,000 people.  Considering the billions of additional forms that they will receiving each year, 16,000 may be short of the required resources.

Not only is the paper work going to be monumental and an administrative nightmare, but think of the expense that the business must now take on just to maintain compliance, else risk penalization from our federal collections agency tax system.  Now, instead of using money to hire new workers, this money will have to be set aside to ensure compliance with this new law.  Each company will have to have a person, or more, strictly dedicated just to issuing 1099 forms.  Suppliers, vendors, services, will all be subjected to this. 

I've said it once and I will continue to say it until people start listening, the federal government destroys everything it touches.  It's starting to seem that the rule of "unintended consequences" is the norm for every bit of legislation that comes out of our capital.  This law does not provide health care to all, but instead requires that people purchase insurance, regardless of their ability.  What the bill is going to be successful at thou, is destroying American business and entrpenurial spirit.  As more and more hidden taxes, suffocating mandates, and penalties come to light after the fact, we are seeing our government single handedly destroying private enterprise.  Be aware, more types of these mandates will be found.  The Fed needs to milk as many funds as possible to feed it's incredible growth,  and the only way to do this is to confiscate from the American businesses and taxpayer.  However, they fail to see, if they continue to use this as their personal piggy bank for the expansion of welfare entitlements, that there will soon be no more providers to fund their ill-conceived projects.  As the statement goes, you can only squeeze so much blood for a turnip, but it appears that our government looks to challenge that statement.