If I were President I would restore the role of the Federal Government to it's original roles:

1. Defend the Country
2. Protect and Regulate the Borders
3. Regulate and mediate interstate commerce.

The jettisoning of massive amounts of welfare and special interest spending would be used to:

1. Eliminate deficit spending
2. Pay off the national debt
3. Restore the Social Security Funds spent by congress
4. Rebuild Nationally owned infrastructure
5. Reduce and simplify taxes
6. Encourage extremely rich Americans to contribute as much additional tax as they choose
7. Secure the borders

As a part of the National Defense I would

1. Reduce and eventually eliminate stationing of US Troops in Japan, Europe and Korea.
2. Correspondingly Increase troop strengths in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait (other Middle East Countries as needed).
3. Make a major push in Iraq to seize upon the strengths of the surge with the goal of leaving by fall of 2012.
4. In January 2013 begin the phased removal American Troops from the Middle East
5. Pass the "Assured Destruction" initiative. This would let belligerent States like Iran know that if the US is attacked and it is tracked back to them, we will level their 3 largest cities and destroy their infrastructure from the air.

To make keeping troops in the middle east past 2012 unnecessary I would engage in a National Energy independence initiative with he goal of being energy independent by 2050.

1. Immediately Fund a new "Manhattan Project" to discover/invent a new fuel for cars, trucks and power plants
A. Offer the technology to the car companies for free to incorporate it into their products
B. Seed the buildout of privately owned National distribution so consumers can get fuel for the new vehicles
2. Incentivize consumers and industry to continue to upgrade to green technologies and make energy conservation a National Priority.
3. Continue to use foreign oil and keep our own as a reserve until a suitable replacement is found.

Just a start.

The bombing of the al-Askari Mosque by Al Queda in Iraq touched off violence and retribution between Sunni and Shiite Muslims that neary escalated into a full blown civil war.

That action in unstable Iraq seriously jeapordized America's ability to contain violence, which has only now shown a measurable drop since the Surge has shown success.

A new threat has emerged that has the potential to set the clock back once again. This time it is being perpetrated by non other than the Speaker Of the House of Representatives of the United States Government, Nancy Pelosi, Democrat.

Speaker Pelosi is planning to bring a resolution branding the killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks as "genocide" to a vote in the House. Turkey reportedly killed up to 1.5 million Armenians in the period around World War One.

At issue is not the validity of the resolution, but the timing. Turkey currently facilitates transit of much of the US military's logistic support of the war effort in Iraq, and that hospitality could be in jeopardy in the wake of an affirmitive vote on the resolution. Also at issue is Turkey's desire to invade northern Iraq to counter Kurdish rebels.

Like the bombing of the al-Askari Mosque touched of a cycle of violence, the consideration of this ill-timed resolution may cause the same. The US House of Representatives and Nancy Pelosi do not exist in a vacuum and if they vote and pass this resolution, they will be responsible for the results.

From the Jerusalem Post:

Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the proliferation and development of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in Jane's Defence Weekly, which reported that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria.

According to the report, cited by Channel 10, the joint Syrian-Iranian team was attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a Scud missile when the explosion occurred, spreading lethal chemical agents, including sarin nerve gas.

Read the rest here.