By Gerard P. Keenan, USN Retired
August 5, 2022
Let’s start at the beginning – 1865. A Confederate general and Democrat, Nathan Bedford Forest, founded the Ku Klux Klan. From its beginning this racist, anti-Christian, anti-Semetic organization terrorized and murdered not only blacks in the South, but Catholics, other Christians, and Jews.
Fast forward to 07 December, 1941. The US President was Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Japan had attacked the US at Pearl harbor and left thousands dead. This was certainly a black day for America, but it was soon to become blacker. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 establishing the Japanese-American internment camps under the Secretary of War.
On December 8, 1941, the US declared war on Japan which prompted Germany to declare war on the US, followed by the US declaring war on Germany on 11 December. Yet only Japanese-Americans were interned during the war. No German-Americans were ever interned. In fact, German-Americans were inducted into the armed forces to fight against both Japan and Germany – but the only Japanese brought into the armed forces were those known as the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and they were sent to Europe to fight the Germans. The government, under Roosevelt, felt these Japanese-American soldiers might turn against the Americans. Yet the 442nd proved to be one of the most highly decorated combat units of the entire war. This raises the question – why is it that no German-Americans were interned? Is it because they were white, while the Japanese-Americans were obviously different?
Roosevelt died in April, 1945, just weeks before Germany surrendered. After hi death another Democrat, Harry S. Truman, took over as president. It was he who authorized the dropping of the only two atomic/nuclear bombs ever used – to date.
So here we have blatant racism under Roosevelt, and cowardice under Truman who ordered the bombs dropped even though he could have thrown the entire might of the US military against Japan which could not have withstood the onslaught because the troops previously engaged in Europe were now free to be thrown into the Pacific fray. But he chose the bomb.
Then along came Korea, another war under Democrat president Harry Truman. Gen. Douglas MacArthur was the commander of UN forces in Korea but, because of his alleged ‘insubordination,’ Truman relieved MacArthur of his command on 11 April, 1951.
Truman considered MacArthur ‘insubordinate’ mainly because he was opposed to a limited war and wanted to cross the 38th parallel into North Korea. Would we have the problems with North Korea that we have today if he had done so? That question will probably never be answered. But because Truman was too cautious MacArthur was bound to hold at the 38th parallel.
In 1944, 1948 and 1952 the GOP tried to get MacArthur to accept the party’s nomination for president. He turned it down every time because he had no interest in politics after his experiences with Truman.
In July, 1953, hostilities ended in an armistice; a truce, not a peace treaty. This means that today we are still technically at war with North Korea. But even this truce was made possible by Dwight D. Eisenhower – a Republican.
During the 1952 presidential campaign Eisenhower constantly criticized Truman’s inability to end the conflict. When challenged by Truman, Ike responded that if elected he would personally visit Korea to try to bring about an end to the war and shortly after being elected he made good on his pledge and actually visited Korea to assess the situation himself. On 27 July, 1953, China and North Korea signed the armistice ending the shooting war.
Vietnam saw a rapid escalation following JFK’s assassination and throughout Lyndon Johnson’s presidency with the resulting loss of over 58,000 American lives.
Throughout the Johnson and Nixon administrations the war raged. The election of 1974 saw Gerald Ford, Republican, take office in 1975. During his administration he managed to bring the war to an end.
Then came Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, in 1977. In 1979 the US Embassy in Tehran was attacked by Iranian “students” and they took many embassy personnel hostage. Thirteen hostages were soon released but the Ayatollah Khomeini held 52 hostages.
Before Reagan took office in 1981, Carter authorized Operation Eagle Claw in a failed attempt to rescue the hostages. Part of the operation was launched from the carrier USS Nimitz CVN-68. The day she got her sailing orders for the Gulf was the same day I transferred off Nimitz. The rescue mission was a disaster and failed miserably with the loss of five USAF personnel and three Marines killed, three of the eight helicopters were destroyed, and a C-130 exploded following a collision with one of the helos. The mission had to be abandoned leaving behind all eight dead servicemen, the three helicopters and the remains of the C-130 and nearly all of their equipment and the disbursement of the hostages to various locations throughout Iran to prevent a second rescue attempt.
Ronald Reagan was inaugurated on 20 January, 1981 and within minutes the hostages were released.
During Republican George H. W. Bush’s presidency Iraq invaded Kuwait sparking the Gulf War. This war was, arguably, the first success by the American military since 1945.
Then came President Bill Clinton. Another Democrat with no military experience or knowledge (and, in fact, a draft dodger during the Vietnam War). He got us involved in Somalia where Somali forces shot down two of our Black Hawk helicopters with several American casualties. Following this battle (Mogadishu) Clinton decided to turn tail and run and pulled our forces out of Somalia deserting our allies (sound familiar?). Just after this battle the Somalis dragged the bodies of dead American soldiers through the streets and filmed it. Shortly thereafter the film was shown on American TV. It was pure fear that Clinton unceremoniously pulled out of Somalia – setting the precedent for Biden’s cowardly run from Afghanistan.
My wife was serving in the Active Navy Reserve at this time and when told she was up for a selection board for a potential promotion she didn’t even think about it but turned it down saying she refused to serve another day under President Clinton and submitted her retirement papers.
Following Clinton came George W. Bush, another Republican. On his watch we had 9/11 and he responded, in my opinion, correctly. Unfortunately the war in Afghanistan dragged on for years.
In December 2009, with less than one year in office, Obama authorized a troop “surge” of more than 30,000 troops, ostensibly due to the escalation in sectarian violence. This continued throughout his presidency with short, random periods of calm.
When Trump took office in 2017 he worked out a plan and began the orderly withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan leaving approximately 2,500 troops. When he left office there had been no military deaths for his last 18 months in office.
Then along came Joe Biden and his crime family. I won’t waste time on the events leading up to Biden’s cowardly retreat from Afghanistan resulting in the deaths of 13 US service men and women and the loss of unknown numbers of American and Afghan Visa holders that were left behind at the mercy of the Taliban, many of whom were subsequently executed. Not to mention the billions of dollars of military equipment left behind in Biden’s cowardly retreat. Much of that equipment contained highly classified technology.
One thing is certain, however, and has been made very clear by Biden and his crime family, they have been true to the very core of the Democrat Party – warmongering, cowardice and racism.
[BIO: Gerard P. Keenan is a native of Paterson, NJ, graduating from St. Bonaventure’s R.C. High School in that city. He also received an Associate of Arts degree from the Univ. of Maryland with a three-year major in Behavioral Science. He is a retired 20-year USN Navy veteran (Telecommunications Specialist) who served in numerous capacities; primarily overseas and aboard forward-deployed staffs (Commander US Sixth Fleet aboard the guided missile cruiser USS Little Rock, home ported in Gaeta, Italy and on the staff of Commander Battle Force Sixth Fleet aboard the aircraft carriers USS Saratoga, Forestall, Independence, John F. Kennedy, Nimitz and Dwight D. Eisenhower home ported in Naples, Italy).
After living in Europe for approximately 23 years and working throughout Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and occasional trips to the Caribbean and several states, he returned to the US and provided military and terrorism research to private investigators, security firms, government agencies, film companies and radio/TV news to private investigators, security firms and attorneys across the US, Canada, Italy and the United Kingdom and taught Private Investigation for 11 years at three locations on Long Island; concurrently.]
© 2022 Gerard P. Keenan – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Gerard P. Keenan: gpkeen@outlook.com
