The last American combat troops have purportedly left Iraq. There are 50,000 or so American servicemen still there. It's a weird paradox of American politics that the president who sends troops to war sees his popularity skyrocket while the president who brings them home sees his popularity decline. The war's launch was greeted with delusions of making over the Middle East in America's image. The war's conclusion is generally recognized as a prelude to something bad up ahead for Iraq. Our hopes for Iraq blinded us to the dangers for America in going. Our fears for Iraq blind us to the benefits for America in leaving.

The best approach for American national security is as follows:

1.)Withdraw ALL troops from Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea, and elsewhere in the world IMMEDIATELY. This should be done as soon as our transport vehicles can get them out. This means ALL of them even so called "advisors."

2.)Those troops should be redeployed to America's borders. Every other country secures its borders. We should too.

3.)Our immigration system is a mess. We should place a ten year moratorium on all immigration and an indefinite moratorium on immigration from Middle Eastern countries. The 10 year moratorium on immigration will give us some breathing space to address the problems with our immigration system. The moratorium on immigration from Middle Eastern countries should be indefinite given how much they despise us. It makes little sense to invite people into your house who don't like you.

4.)Develop ALL of our own oil and gas reserves and build more refineries. In addition, we should utilize "coal to oil" technologies to produce even more oil. The primary focus of drilling should probably be on land and in shallow water given the issues that have emerged from deep water drilling of late, nevertheless, a complete ban on this type of drilling is inadvisable. By using "coal to oil" technologies, builidng more refineries, and expanded drilling for oil and natural gas on our own territory, in time, we should be able to produce enough oil and natural gas domestically to meet our needs and will likely have production left over. This has the added benefit of giving us leverage when negotiating with members of OPEC and other countries.

5.)Upgrade and expand the nuclear arsenal, as well as the means to deliver it. Since the so called end of the Cold War, it appears we have allowe our nuclear arsenal and the means to deliver it to degrade. this may leave us vunerable to attack. The greatest foreign threat to us is from Russia. The military should be configured in such a way as to be capable of meeting this challenge.

If we do the 5 things that I mention here, this will give us greater utility for our national security interests than any thing we are currently doing.

I pray to God that our so-called leaders will finally come to terms with the fact that Muslims do NOT share our beliefs and values. We should stop fighting for their freedom. Rather we should defeat them and contain them. We should develop our own energy resources and cut off travel, education, and any other benefits that we currently give them. LISTEN to those who grew up in Islam and have rejected this violent, backwards ideology!

Did anyone believe Iraq would become the USA? Maybe Detroit? Did anyone believe Germany or Japan would become like the USA following WWII?

The delusion is that democracy can work everywhere. It cannot work in the Islamic culture.

Obama's unpopularity is because an army of sheep lead by a lion is to be preferred to a sheep leading an army of lions.