The Crossbow

United States Senator and presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama, in an interview yesterday with ABC News political correspondent George Stephanopoulos, on his program This Week, lied about his registration for the Selective Service military draft.  This is only the latest in a series of falsehoods and outright lies by Senator Obama and his campaign.  But, knowing that his name means 'crooked', does this move actually surprise anyone?  And, could this latest lie be an attempt to mask something even more sinister in Obama's past ... or America's future?

The interview took place "from the campaign trail" in Terre Haute, Indiana.  Stephanopoulos asked a question from a woman viewer from Georgia.  The question was whether Senator Obama had ever considered military service; and, if not, why.

"You know, I actually did," the senator answered, with a tone indicating that he thought this revelation might shock people.  Calming down a bit (see for yourself in this ABC News video interview segment), Senator Obama continued, "I had to sign up for Selective Service when I graduated from high school."

There is only one problem.  In the Spring of 1979, there was no requirement for Selective Service registration.  That requirement had been curtailed in March of 1975 by President Gerald Ford as the military brought back troops from the Vietnam War.  (I was keenly aware of that presidential action.  As a senior in high school at that time, I had come of age expecting to serve in Vietnam.  The week before President Ford ended the requirement for draft registration, I had signed my "delayed enlistment" papers for the Air Force.  I missed a day of classes to go out of town for my military induction physical examination.)

Those of us that lived through the post-Vietnam "drawdown" of our military (that was the trendy name for what we now call "downsizing") remember that the late 1970s was a tough time to get into the military.  The administration of President Jimmy Carter was characterized by high rates of unemployment, "double-digit inflation", exhorbitant loan-interest rates, and military pay rates so low that large portions of our American enlisted troops became eligible for food stamps.  (I was not a parent at that time.  Had I been, then I would've been eligible ... as a Sergeant!)  That was the economic and cultural climate at the time that young "Barry" Obama -- who came from a family that could afford to live in Hawaii and send him to Harvard -- was purportedly considering military service.

But, wait, there's more.

Explaining his purported thought processes from that time, Sen. Barack Hussein Obama continued, "But, keep in mind, I graduated in 1979.  The Vietnam War had come to an end.  We weren't engaged in an active ... uh ... uh ... military conflict at that point.  So, it's not an option that I ever decided to persue."  (His very telling pauses are a signature trait that talk-radio hosts Michael DelGiorno and Gwen Freeman have nicknamed "the Obama comma".)  So, the candidate claims that he did not join the military because there was no war.  But, he simultaneously claims that, even though there was no war, there was a requirement to register for the draft.

Oh, really?

For starters, there was no mandatory military draft registration at the time that Obama graduated from high school.  In fact, during the late 1970s, there was some discussion about whether the Selecitve Service would be abolished altogether.  Why?  Well, for one, there was the new concept of the "all-volunteer military".  That was born out of frustration by military leaders in Vietnam, who sometimes got lackluster performance from draftees that claimed, "I never signed up for this."  Also, as those of us patriots from the Vietnam generation will vividly recall, President Jimmy Carter had already pardoned all the "draft dodgers" that fled from America to avoid military service.  With a legal precedent for a presidential pardon from any penalties for draft dodging, questions arose regarding whether there was any point to keeping the Selective Service alive without teeth.

But, then...

At approximately noon Eastern Time (here in America) on Sunday, the 4th of November 1979, hundreds of college-age radicals stormed the American Embassy in Tehran, Iran.  Using firearms and firebombs, the purported 'students' overwhelmed the Marine Corps embassy security detachment.  (There is reason to believe that the Marines had been under orders to not fire on civilians.  That policy likely enabled the Iranians to take over the embassy.  As I wrote in December of 2003, after the fact had been declassified, the Marines stationed as peacekeepers in Beirut, Lebanon, in October of 1983 had been prohibited by their field commander from having a magazine in their rifle while guarding the USMC compound.  The seconds required for a Marine sentry to pull the magazine from its belt pouch, load it into the rifle, jack a round into the chamber, take the selector lever off "Safe", and begin firing were the seconds that cost the lives of 283 Marines in their barracks.)

So, at the time when Barack Obama graduated from high school, the United States had been engaged in a long-running "Cold War" with several Communist countries.  In early February of 1979, right during the time when Obama would've been considering his post-graduation plans, the Islamic Revolution booted Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi from the Peacock Throne of Iran, and installed the Ayatollah Khomeini as leader of that country.  (I remember that day well.  It was the first day of my combat training.  And, because I spoke a little Farsi -- from having befriended members of the Royal Iranian Air Force -- there was reason to expect that I could be sent on a "forward" assignment to Iran.)  Although the embassy takeover did not occur until several months later, it was openly discussed from the beginning that the Iranian Revolution could lead to a confrontation between Iran and the United States.  Keep in mind that Ayatollah Khomeini was the man that coined the nickname "The Great Satan" for the United States.

A few years before Obama graduated from high school, there was an event that came to be known as "the second Cuban missile crisis".  American strategic B-52 bombers, using an innovative technique in order to double as reconnaissance aircraft, took aerial photographs of Soviet freighters carrying missiles into Cuba.  (The bomber that took the photo that became front-page news came from the base where I was stationed at that time.)  The situation was resolved diplomatically, but was yet another example of Cold War toe-to-toe stress with Communsit nations.  Also during the late 1970s, American troops clearing vegetation along the border between North Korea and South Korea were attacked and killed by North Korean troops.  (Not to mention several sparsely-reported Special Operations missions to close North Korean tunnels into South Korea.)  All of this was a part of Barack Obama's high school years.

President Jimmy Carter, during his last year in office, reinstituted the military draft in early 1980.  Why?  Because it became apparent that the Islamist threat was not going away.  Military and intelligence analysts saw that a full-scale war with Iran might become possible.  The embassy hostage crisis in Tehran spawned the ABC-TV news program Nightline, whose nightly reminders of the number of days of the crisis (444) were an ongoing embarassment to President Carter.

So, although there was no military draft when Barack Obama graduated high school, the draft was reinstated as Obama began his college years.  Did this purportedly patriotic young man put off his college to take up arms to defend against a possible Islamist terror threat?  Nope.  Why?

Keep in mind that, during his formative years, Barack Obama was influenced by "father figure" Frank Marshall Davis -- who was involved in anti-American activities by the Communist Party of the USA.  (This is heavily documented by journalist Cliff Kincaid.)  Part of those activites involved telegrams and meetings with college-age Communists from ... Iran.  (Using FOIA requests, Kincaid has amassed FBI surveillance documents that prove this point.)  Given that Barack Hussein Obama was born to a Muslim father, raised by a Socialist mother that converted to Islam at some point between bearing two children to two different fathers, was heavily influenced by a Muslim step-father while they lived in the Muslim country of Indonesia, and was influenced by a Communist activist (hand-picked by Barack's maternal grandfather to be a "father figure" for Barack), is it any wonder that Senator Barack Hussein Obama has never publicly renounced Islam or Communism?

And, if it is true that Obama registered for the draft, then where is the birth certificate that was used to perform such registration?  (During the high unemployment of the Jimmy Carter years, the military stopped accepting anyone without a high-school diploma, or any number of other questionable points in their background.  The lack of a birth certificate -- at least, one that was not forged -- would've become an instant barrier to Selective Service registration.)

So, why did Barack Obama claim to have "had to" register for the military draft if it was not true?  And, why didn't Barack Obama join the military -- especially if he knew that it would "look good on a resume" for any future political ambitions?  And, why hasn't he publicly renounced Islam?  (Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes has already shown that Obama lied to cover up his childhood association with Islam.)  Speaking of childhood associations, did young Barack ever accompany Frank Davis to any Communist meetings with Iranian college radicals?  (And, if so, did he ever befriend Mahmoud Ahmedi-Nejad at those meetings?)  Obama's associations -- with Islam, with Communism, and with anti-American activities; and, his ongoing attempts to cover up those associations -- cause one to wonder what plans Barack Obama has when he claims a desire to "change" America.  (For details on the meaning of Obama's "plans for a 58th" state, see my new book, Tribulation:  2008.)