Airpower can turn things around

Example, Afghanistan before 9/11.  The Taliban was beating the Northern Alliance at every turn.  Their territory was squeezed down to a small patch on the northern border.  Immediately after 9/11 the Northern Alliance received American air support.  It was decisive.  The Alliance won every battle now that a radio call would bring a smart bomb down on any obstacle.  The Taliban was driven out of the country.
    This could work against ISIS.  The Kurds are tough fighters, willing to sign up with America.  Give them the kind of air support we gave the Northern Alliance and great things might be accomplished.  

NH Primary is coming. Sept 9

The long awaited state primary is almost here.  NH runs two primaries, the well known presidential primary, presidential years only, in January.  First in the nation, and we're gonna keep it that way.  January is way too early considering the election isn't until November, nearly a year in the future.  Then we have the real primary to select US Senate, US house, governor, state reps, and state senators coming up second week in September.  Way too late IMHO.  That only gives 7 weeks to patch up relations with the defeated candidate's supporters, raise some money, run some ads.  We would be better off holding the state primary in June. 
   Anyhow we have a real crop of candidates to choose from.  For US senate we have Scott Brown, front runner, Jim Reubin, and Bob Smith, and a couple of minor candidates so obscure I can' remember who they are.  Scott Brown is 15 points ahead of everyone, and the polls show him in a dead heat with the democratic incumbent, Jeanne Shaheen.   Scott seems to be overcoming the "carpetbagger" tag, and his opponents, although of purer NH lineage than Scott, have demonstrated some flaky views that ought to turn off voters.  It would be very nice to send a Republican senator to DC, and Scott looks like the best chance.  Polls show Jeanne Shaheen beating every republican EXCEPT Scott Brown.
   My house race, Annie Kuster (incumbent Dem) is less clear.  Gary Lambert is the leading Republican challenger, but the polls don't show him beating Kuster, yet.  The other house race is out of my territory and I know less about it. 
   For governor, the democratic incumbent Maggie Hassan will be hard to beat.  She is a nice person, not particularly competent, but likeable, and except for a desire to raise taxes and spend money, she is OK.  We have Walt Havenstein, an experienced business man, and Andrew Hemmingway, a real young guy with some entrepreneurial experience.  I think Walt can beat Andrew in the primary.  Maybe he can beat Maggie in the general. 

Presidential leadership

Or lack thereof.  The TV news is calling for "presidential leadership" on the matter of ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State. By which they mean Obama coming on TV and explaining to the voters why we need to kick some ass in ISIS.
    The newsies have a point.  The voters are anti war, and won't change their minds without the president  expressing a need and a reason for going back to Iraq.  Until he does, the electorate isn't going to go along. 
    And, I think it is safe to predict that Obama is never going to call for military action in Iraq.  Neither is the Congress.  The Republicans and Democrats in Congress are having so much fun trashing each other, they couldn't get behind a single resolution on Iraq or on anything else for that matter. 
   Even worse, there is some doubt in my mind that the voters would  follow Obama's leadership.  His standing in the polls is abysmal.  He has given so many speeches full of motherhood and apple pie, but totally lacking in substance, that few people bother to listen to him anymore.  His constant output of  Pablum is boring. 

Baby, it's cold up here

Mid August.  It's so cold my furnace has been cutting in late at night.  In August.  Helova lotta rain.  No burmuda shorts warm days.  It's so cold I am wearing a fleece inside the house.  Coldest August I can remember, and I can remember a long ways back.  Must be global warming. 

So what should we do about ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State?

Obama is talking about "containment".  He hasn't explained what he means by that, but he probably means doing as little as possible,  drop a few bombs on 'em when they take the offensive, otherwise do little or nothing. 
  ISIS  has made their plans clear.  Take over the entire Middle East, turn it into an Islamic caliphate, drive out or exterminate Jews, Christians, Shia, Yazidi, anyone who doesn't buy their particular flavor of Islam. 
  I don't think "containment" is gonna cut it.  I think we need to put an end to ISIS.  This could be expensive.   I did a combat tour with USAF in SouthEast Asia during the Viet Nam war.  Both my younger brothers did combat tours with the Marines in South Viet Nam.  My family knows how expensive and deadly a war against ISIS will be.   We don't look forward to doing it. 
  If we don't do ISIS now, they will do us as soon as they get their act together.  If we are gonna do a war with ISIS, druther do it in the Middle East than in Brooklyn.  I don't know just what they will do, the airplane trick probably won't work for 'em a second time, but they will think of something.  They might get nukes from the Iranians, or the Russkis, they might think of something brand new. 
    Right now, a couple of US divisions could wipe out ISIS.  That's nothing.  We raised 100 divisions to do WWII. 

Words of the Weasel Part 36

Degrade.  As is "we degraded the Taliban/ISIS/Al Quada/whoever".   It means we flew some air strikes, we saw the bombs detonate, we put on a good fireworks show.  But we didn't really hurt them. 

Samuel Elliot Morison

A remarkable historian.  He, and Henry Steele Commager wrote "Growth of the American Republic", the standard college textbook of American history.  Morison knew nearly everybody, from Wilson, to Roosevelt, Ernie King, Douglas McArthur, many more.  He was a reserve Navy officer.  During WWII he was aboard a carrier at Midway, aboard the Torch invasion fleet, and a lot of other places too.  After the war he single handedly wrote the US Navy official war history (in a dozen volumes).  The Navy was so pleased with the work that they promoted him to Rear Admiral, a very high rank for a reservist. He also wrote "The Oxford History of the American People, one volume of 1100 pages.  A copy turned up at a local yard sale, and I bought it. 
   It reads remarkably well.  It goes all the way, unlike the US history taught in public school which always quit right after the civil war. Morison takes it right up to 1963 (Kennedy's assassination) which was current events at the time he was writing (1965).  Morison knows and tells all the great stories, and there are a lot of 'em.  He also doesn't hesitate to editorialize.  You learn that he was a New Deal democrat, from his favorable treatment of the New Deal, and his fair, but somewhat disparaging treatment of the Eisenhower administration.  If you like history, anything by Morison is a good read.
  They don't make Harvard professors like that anymore.