In order for hundreds or even a few living American servicemen to have been knowingly left behind in Vietnam after 1975 by the US government hundreds, if not thousands, of US military personnel and government employees would have had to have been complicit in the cover up. That's how many people had access to the most sensitive classified information on POWs and MIAs. At the Direction of President George H.W. Bush, all information dealing with the Vietnam POWs and MIAs was declassified. Despite claims to the contrary, no credible evidence exists to prove any living American remained in captivity after the war.

Reading George Will’s back-to-back op-eds last week, “Time to Get Out of Afghanistan” and “One Way or Another, Leaving Iraq” reminds me of Walter Cronkite telling the American people in 1968 that the Vietnam War was unwinnable. Will’s observations about Iraq and Afghanistan, like Cronkite’s about Vietnam, make sense--if you ignore the consequences.

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President Barak Obama has had a very bad August. Opposition to Democratic healthcare reform proposals erupted at townhall meetings across the country. A broad spectrum of Americans revealed their fear of and anger at government attempts to nationalize healthcare, out-of-control spending, and the state of the US economy.

The "green jobs czar" Van Jones controversy drew attention to the dozens of "czars" Obama has appointed and how they were vetted; and it revealed a level of radical activism in the White House staff that reminded Americans of Obama's associations with Jeremiah Wright and William Ayres.

Obama's personal approval rating has dropped to below 50 percent faster than any modern president except Gerald Ford.

President Obama has an opportunity this week to turn things around and demonstrate whether he has what it takes to be a great president. He can resist the pull of the left wing of the Democratic Party, reject their efforts to radically transform America in ways the overwhelming majority of American people don't want it transformed, and work with moderates and conservatives to achieve a national consensus. Or, he can continue along the path he's on.

Many of Obama's opponents would like him to keep doing what he's been doing in the hope that he'll only further alienate moderates and Independents. But it's still a along way to the 2012 election, and America has many great challenges before then. We can't afford a political civil war, which is what is likely to occur if the Democratic majority attempts to impose its will. Far too much is at stake. I'm skeptical, but prepared for him to surprise me

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Amidst the heated ongoing national debate over healthcare reform, the Obama administration last week took aim at the CIA and pulled the trigger. Attorney General Eric Holder appointed a special prosecutor to review cases involving CIA contractors; and President Obama relieved the CIA of responsibility for high-value detainee interrogations and gave it to a multi-agency task force reporting to the National Security Council (NSC). In doing so, they seriously wounded the Agency and reenergized the national debate over how it interrogated high-value terrorists after 9/11. If this is about America’s moral compass, as the president has often phrased it, is he and are we reading it correctly?

People who oppose using enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs) on terrorist detainees regularly cite two arguments against using them. The first is that they don't work. The second, which contradicts the first, is that we don't know that we couldn't obtain the same inform by other means.

The CIA Inspector General's 2004 "Review of Counterterrorism and Detention Activities" belies the argument that EITs did't work. It's un-provable that other interrogation techniques might have allowed interrogators to obtain the same information. Even if that were true, would that information have been obtained in time to thwart the attacks that were prevented?

On moral grounds, people argue that the ends do not justify the means--or do they. If you shoot someone in the back because you want to steal their money, it's murder. If you shoot someone in the back because they are about to murder your children, it's justifiable homicide. You don't know if you could have prevented them from doing that by other means, but you didn't want to risk taking the time to find out. Under the laws of church and state, taking someone's life is justified to save your own life or those of others.

My point here is that morality depends much on intent and the gravity of the situation. In a society so loathe to judge the behavior of people who behave badly, we must be careful how we label our leaders when they make difficult moral choices to defend the lives of the American people. Live is full of moral dilemmas. Judges and courts decide when government officials violate the law. Only God and our own conscience know when we have been immoral.

The Democrat’s second attempt to nationalize healthcare in the United States is on life support. The patient’s vital signs are weak, and the death panel is about to pull the plug.

Lockerbie is a word that history will always associate with one of the worst terrorist attacks in modern history--the December 21, 1988, murder of 259 people aboard Pan Am Flight 103 and 11 people in on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland.

The release on August 20 of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi--the Libyan intelligence officer convicted of mass murder and sentenced to life imprisonment for that crime--by the Scottish government is outrageous. It's an insult to the families of the people al Megrahi killed, and it sends the wrong message to terrorists everywhere.

Scottish officials have rejected a scathing and appropriate rebuke by FBI Director Robert Mueller, saying that "compassionate release might not be part of the US justice system, but it is part of Scotland's." Al Megrahi's release, claims by Colonel Gaddafi's son Seif al Islam that British oil and gas contracts played a role in his release, and the hero's welcome he received upon his return to Libya, however, leave a foul odor in the air.

Actions have consequences. Consequences for the Scottish government should be more than just a rebuke by Director Mueller. Until al Megrahi is incarcerated in Libya, we should not reward Libya and Gaddafi, who seek improved relations with the United States, by showing them favor. Scheduled visits by US diplomats and DoD officials to Libya should be indefinitely postponed. Their counterparts should not be welcome in the United States. When Gaddafi comes to the United Nations in September US diplomats should give him the cold shoulder.

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It’s been 48 years since May 25, 1961, when President John F. Kennedy, speaking before a joint session of Congress said, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” It’s been nearly 38 years since Apollo 17, the last Moon landing. The US has accomplished a great deal in space since then. Nevertheless, many of us who watched live broadcasts of President Kennedy’s speech and Americans walking on the Moon, and were excited and inspired by those events, are disappointed that we haven’t gone further, much less back to the Moon. Are we 'lost in space,' perpetually going around in circles in orbit above the Earth?

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There is a simple reason for the enormous popularity of 'Star Trek' since the original television series debuted 43 years ago. Gene Rodenberry's vision of our future is one Americans in particular have found compelling and believable--yes, believable. Not only have we been entertained by great characters, stories, and special effects, but we have been seduced by the portrayal of life in an age of intergalactic space travel that we want to believe one day will be a reality.

Strip away the Klingons, the Borg, "beam me up, Scotty," and other purely science-fiction aspects of Star Trek and think about the basics--a social and political system based on the principals found in the US Constitution that has kept pace with advanced technology and that works well. Wars, prejudice, and the lust for power have not gone away; human beings and other intelligent species cope with them in a more enlightened manner. While Star Wars is largely a saga about a social and political system that's failed, Star Trek is about one that's succeeded.

It's no coincidence that Star Trek came on the scene in the middle of the Apollo Moon program. Manned space flights captured people's imaginations and Star Trek took advantage of that. Although the original series was cancelled after the third season, it has gone on to become one of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time. It would be a shame if we allow Star Trek and other science fiction about our future to be a substitute for pursuit of the real thing.

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As a forward observer in Vietnam I watched a US Air Force pilot I was talking with on the radio fly his F100 fighter/bomber into the target he was attacking. From the way he talked I concluded that he had 'target fixation.' That’s when the brain is so intently focused on the target that a person becomes oblivious to danger, forgets to take action, and crashes into it. If radical healthcare reformers aren’t careful, their fixation will result in a collision with their target--the American people.

It is increasingly obvious that a majority of Americans do not want to reform the entire US healthcare system. They especially do not want the government to micromanage healthcare or a 'public option' that inevitably will lead to a 'single-payer' system.

Despite all the outrage at townhall meetings this month liberal reformers have branded their critics as an unruly mob and are ignoring their legitimate concerns. From the way they talk, it's apparent that they are fixated on their target and are determined to ram through radical healthcare legislation this year, oblivious to the dangers. They still have time to pull back on the stick, however, level out, and go around. When they come back again they need to focus on carefully selected targets that won't inflict massive collateral damage on the country and themselves.

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Imagine, a few of America’s founding fathers and mothers--pick your favorites--suddenly come back to life in the middle of a Democratic townhall meeting. Finding themselves in the midst of a heated discussion, it would appear to them that nothing much had changed in America in nearly two-and-a-half centuries. After listening to what people were arguing about, however, they’d have to wonder if they were even in America.

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I have to wonder how many people have reported my columns critical of Democratic healthcare proposals to the White House. If you think this week's, last week's, or my July 20 columns contain "fishy" information about healthcare reform, you may be one of them.

On August 3, former ABC and CBS reporter Linda Douglass appeared in a video on the White House website asking anyone who came across "fishy" information about Democratic healthcare proposals on the web or in an email to send that information to flag@whitehouse.gov. Many people have questioned this tactic, some say it's illegal and a violation of the 1974 Freedom of Information Act.

Whether or not this is a violation of the law, I don't know. You would think that the White House general counsel's office reviewed all this before the video was posted on the web. Whether this tactic has a chilling effect on criticism of the government in this day and age, also is questionable. What's certain is that the person responsible for this initiative needs a vacation and a refresher course on common sense. While such tactics may be appropriate for the Democratic National Committee, they are unseemly for the White House. In the United States of America, the government doesn't ask Americans to inform on their fellow citizens.

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As I indicated in Monday's column we should expect an all out effort by liberals in entertainment and the media to ridicule voices of opposition to what Democrats in Congress are doing; and they have been. This week House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined them.

Speaking to San Francisco's KTUV News, Pelosi, referring to angry people at Democrat's town-hall meetings, said "This [tea party] initiative is funded by the high end--we call call it Astroturf, it’s not really a grassroots movement. It’s astroturf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class." (link)

Far-left liberals like Speaker Pelosi refuse to recognize that Americans, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, are genuinely concerned and angry. The Democratic Congress is mortgaging the country's future for programs (the stimulus package) that haven't worked and reforms in energy and healthcare that won't affect climate change or improve American's quality of life. They feel like they're getting the bums rush.

Anti-war protests during the Bush administration and pro-healthcare-reform rallies organized by the Obama administration are described as grassroots expressions. Those the left disagrees with are 'Astroturf.' What's new?

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We can only speculate for the moment what behind-the-scenes deal was struck between the United States and North Korea for Kim Jong-Il to release Americans Euna Lee and Laura Lin from incarceration. I doubt, however, that Kim was satisfied with just a picture of himself and former President Bill Clinton.

While all Americans should be happy to see these two women journalists released from the national gulag we call North Korea, we have to question what price the Obama administration paid for them. Kim, as inept as he is at running his country, has been a master at manipulating the United States. From the moment Lee and Lin were arrested they were a bargaining chip for Kim to play at the most opportune moment. While Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has stated that the release of the two women and North Korea's nuclear program should remain separate, it's difficult to imagine that the nuclear issue did not come up during Clinton's discussions with Kim.

Also, the reason the US Government does not pay ransom to terrorists or make concessions to rogue states is because by doing so it puts a price, monetary or political, on the head of every American. Three Americans were recently arrested in Iran. What price must we now pay for their release? As soon as Lee and Lin are safely back on American soil the Obama administration should fully disclose to the American people the substance of all agreements made with North Korea for Lee and Lin's release.

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Things haven’t been going well for President Obama lately. Conservative columnists, talk-show hosts, and bloggers are having a field day chronicling the president's fall from the clouds above Mount Olympus. His poll numbers, if not his ambition, have returned to Earth as he has failed to effectively sell his healthcare plan, insinuated a cop was a racist before he had the facts, and delegated too much responsibility to fragmented Democrats in Congress. With Obama's presidency and the Democratic agenda on the line, members of Congress return home in August to meet with their constituents. They'll encounter groups of voters who aren't happy with what Democrats have been doing. It’s America’s growing discontent that’s the real news story this summer. Expect an all out effort by liberals in the media and entertainment to ridicule the voices of opposition.