Electing a Commander-in-Chief

January 13, 2012 3:32 PM

With all the fooferaw and folderol about which Republican poses more of a threat to capitalism, Romney or Gingrich, the press and talk show pundits are missing a very big point: who will be the next Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces? Why do I ask this question? I ask it because we are already in a covert war with Iran, and within the first term of our next POTUS, in my opinion, the chances of that war breaking out into the open are quite high.

Right off the bat I would like to disqualify two likely candidates for the Presidency because they are inadequate for the job: Barack Hussein Obama and Ron Paul. Whereas I detest the Bush-Obama idiocy with which the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been conducted, I cannot imagine for a minute that any kind of pacifist flummery, leftist or "libertarian," will help us deflect the clearly announced aggressive and destructive intentions of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the ayatollahs who rule its hapless people. I can easily make that point in two words: Neville Chamberlain.

So, what then about Romney or Gingrich as Commander-in-Chief? Gingrich is a loose cannon (imagine him with the nuclear football), whereas Romney is a parade ground cannon, firing blanks as the flag is lowered. Neither one thinks like a wartime commander. Neither one, in my opinion, has the capacity to think like a wartime commander, or to discriminate between military strategy and party political strategy as dictated by a general staff.

Does this imply that we actually need an ex-general for our next President, à la Eisenhower or Grant? Not if the nominees are either Petraeus or Colin Powell, both of whom are politicians who happen to be wearing a uniform, politicians who bought in too easily to the limited, politically correct, ultimately lost war template.

So, who's left? Santorum and Perry. Santorum has foreign policy experience, and Perry is a Texan. I strongly suspect that Perry remembers the Alamo. Am I being naive about that? Maybe. After all, Lyndon Baines Johnson was a Texan, and he sent me to Vietnam. In case you forgot, we lost that politically correct "hearts and minds" war.

Yes, yes, I am only too aware that we will probably end up after the 2012 election with Obama, Romney, or Gingrich as Commander-in-Chief. I am not happy about that, but perhaps it is the will of Allah (with some help from the mainstream media and the Republican Establishment.) Certainly if one of those three bozos is elected, the rulers of Iran will think it was the will of Allah, and they will be happy. Very happy.