Iraq and Iran were among the key issues on the table when Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with top officials in Saudi Arabia.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Abu Dhabi on Thursday for talks with political and military leaders.

Women Airforce Service Pilots were awarded Congressional Gold Medals Wednesday for their service during WWII. WASPs were the first women to fly U.S. military aircraft.

Lawmakers are questioning the cost and the delays in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.

Below is the most recent posting from Navy Admiral Michael Mullen’s blog:

I just returned from a trip to the Middle East where I visited with civilian and military leaders in Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. It was a trip I wanted to make for some time now, given the scope of our security commitments in the region and the mutual challenges we all still face. At each stop and in each meeting, I was encouraged to find, though perspectives certainly vary, the desire for stability and security is as common as it is vigorous.

I was also struck by two other overarching themes.

First, where the United States has military relationships in the region, they are strong and getting stronger. Our partners want to engage, exercise, and operate with us. They also want to pursue new and innovative ways to tackle common challenges there and around the world.

The Egyptians were proud of their participation in this year’s Bright Star exercise, and want to make it even more vibrant in the future. The Israeli’s, of course, remain a vital ally and a cornerstone of our regional security commitments. I was delighted to meet with more than 100 Israeli doctors and nurses who deployed to Haiti to help with international relief efforts. To a person they were proud of the impact they made and of the speed with which they made it.

In similar fashion, the Jordanians, long a key contributor to UN peacekeeping missions, walked me through the medical support they continue to provide in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also showed me a Special Operations Training Center that has tremendous potential for how modern militaries can best prepare for counter-terrorism operations in a harsh environment.

The Saudi’s shared with me valuable lessons they learned working with the Yemeni government to deal with the Houthi issue and in the UAE I was very impressed to see an air coordination and advanced training center that not only provides virtually unimpeded training opportunities to regional air forces, but also improves real-world tactical air coordination issues.

The second overarching theme was, of course, Iran.

If there is one great concern shared by all the nations I visited, it is over the direction they believe Iran is going and what that means for them and for their citizens. I maintain my conviction that Iran remains on a path to achieve nuclear weapons, and that even this very pursuit further destabilizes the region. Like us, it isn’t just a nuclear-capable Iranian military our friends worry about; it’s an Iran with hegemonic ambitions and a desire to dominate its neighbors. This outcome drives many of the national security decisions our partners are making, and I believe we must be mindful of that as we look to the future post-Iraq and post-Afghanistan.

Let me be clear: we owe the Secretary and the President a range of options for this threat. We owe the American people our readiness. But as I have said many times, I worry a lot about the unintended consequences of any sort of military action. For now, the diplomatic and economic levers of international power ought to be the levers first pulled. Indeed, I would hope they are always and consistently pulled.

No strike, however effective, will be in and of itself decisive.

Jim sent this in:

Five would-be terrorists, ages 19 to 25, who lived in the northern Virginia area, were captured last week in Pakistan on their way to a terrorist training camp. Pakistani police in the city of Sargodha have charged the American Jihadists with violating Pakistan’s laws regarding foreigners and the use of computers as part of a criminal enterprise.

According to the FBI and Pakistani security officials, the five suspects attended a madrasa, or radical Islamic school, and proclaimed that they wished to join the jihad, or Muslim holy war, against the US and its allies. Unfortunately, this was just one of several cases of US citizens becoming radicalized and seeking to wage war against their own country. 

US government and other terrorism experts continue to report that Islamic extremism is on the rise and that the spread of Islamic extremism is the preeminent threat facing the United States. In addition, various sources alleged that Saudi Arabia has supported and funded the spread of Islamic extremism globally, including here in the United States. 

The intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, the State Department, and the US Agency for International Development are implementing various efforts to identify, monitor, and counter the support and funding of the global propagation of Islamic extremism. The intelligence agencies and DOD are carrying out identification and monitoring efforts, primarily in counterintelligence and force protection.

According to reports, the State Department and USAID are carrying out efforts to counter the global propagation of Islamic extremism, with State’s efforts focused primarily on traditional diplomacy, counterterrorism, and public diplomacy and USAID’s efforts focused on development programs to diminish underlying conditions of extremism.

According to the General Accountability Office, they are preparing a classified report to be subsequently released with a more complete description of US efforts to address the global spread of Islamic extremism. A number of sources have reported that Saudi private entities and individuals, as well as sources from other countries, are allegedly financing or supporting Islamic extremism.

For example, a Treasury official testified before Congress that Saudi Arabia-based and -funded organizations remain a key source for the promotion of ideologies used by terrorists and violent extremists around the world to justify their agenda. However, according to the 9/11 Commission Report, the Commission found no persuasive evidence that the Saudi government knowingly supported al Qaeda.

The government agencies also told GAO staff that Islamic extremism is being propagated by sources in countries other than Saudi Arabia, such as Iran, Kuwait, and Syria. The agencies are still examining Saudi Arabia’s relationship, and that of other sources in other countries, to Islamic extremism.

The Saudi government has announced and, in some cases, undertaken some reform efforts to address Islamic extremism. For example, the government is undertaking educational and religious reforms, including revising textbooks and conducting a 3-year enlightenment program, to purge extremism and intolerance from religious education. However, US agencies do not know the extent of the Saudi government’s efforts to limit the activities of Saudi sources that have allegedly propagated Islamic extremism outside of Saudi Arabia.

Officials with the European Union Naval Forces are confirming Somali pirates have hijacked a tanker carrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the United States.

Military leaders believe that Afghanistan’s Logar Province, which is south of Kabul, is a critical region in the country.

The 57th annual Christmas parade outside of Boston, Massachusetts had a military theme this year as the town of Quincy said goodbye to troops heading overseas.

For once, the Israelis have an ally in their corner in reference to the very likely possibility of the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities.  Whether this ally is a surprise may depend on your point of view; who is this ally, you’re wondering?  None other than Saudi Arabia.

At least this is according to the head of Mossad (the top Israel spy agency); Meir Dagan, head of Mossad, has already held secret talks with Saudi officials.  And the Saudi kingdom has apparently agreed to turn a blind eye to any future bombing of Iran by Israel should the Israelis fly into Saudi air space.

All of this makes perfect sense since both Israel and Saudi Arabia share common interests which could be jeopardized with the advent of the Iranian nuclear program, hence the tacit approval by the Saudis.  So essentially, the approval that the Israelis tried to get from the U.S. – namely the Obama administration – they got elsewhere.  And I have said several times here before that Israel would wind up eventually doing this Iran bombing excursion alone – the only difference being that someone other than the U.S. has the Israelis’ back.

All of these happenings prove once and for all that the Obama administration is clueless insofar as foreign policy is concerned.  All because they want Israel to not build some settlements despite “natural growth”.  If I didn’t know any better, I would have to say that both Obama and probably Hillary Clinton are both pro-Palestine.

President Obama’s meeting with the Saudi king and pressuring Israel took over the Wednesday morning talk show circuit.

Boy, I’ll tell you what: this president of ours seems to not either understand or simply disregards the “separation of church of state” issue these days.  I guess you can call it another case of political correctness coming from Obama.

In any case, we all know that Obama is in Saudi Arabia right now, no doubt trying to get the Muslims over there and worldwide to like  the United States once again.  Wanna bet that Barry uses “Hussein” during his time in Riyadh?  Again, this goes back to political correctness.  Depending on the event and venue of record, Obama may or may not utilize his middle name – that much is well-known.

Probably the issue that many folks are wondering is whether Obama is truly a Muslim or not.  Perhaps some examples are in order here:

• Two months ago in Strasbourg, France (lots of Muslims live in France), Obama used his entire name.
• Days later in Ankara, Turkey (a secular nation but Muslims aplenty live there, as well), Obama used his entire name again.
• Bear in mind that Obama spent a good amount of time in Indonesia – a decidedly Muslim nation.  So you know that Obama received some Muslim indoctrination while there. 
• He bowed to a Saudi king not long ago.  And as we all know, Saudi Arabia is the home of the Muslim cult religion.

Obama did our country no favors when he conducted an interview with Canal Plus.  They’re a division of French TV outlet I-Television (Socialist entertainment?)  Suffice it to say, his interview lends itself to making us look like one of the largest Muslim nation on this Earth.  For example, Obama told Canal Plus he wanted to:

“create a better dialogue so that the Muslim world understands more effectively how the United States but also how the West thinks about many of these difficult issues like terrorism, like democracy, to discuss the framework for what’s happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and our outreach to Iran, and also how we view the prospects for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians”.

Then he added:

“Now, the flip side is I think that the United States and the West generally, we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. 

“And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.  And so there’s got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples.”

Those statements become contradictory to what he said in Turkey when he told the people there that the U.S. “does not consider themselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation”.  But then again, you have to consider that this is Barack Hussein Obama saying this – again in the name of political expediency – or perhaps worse.  Who knows.

Back to the claim by Obama that the U.S. is one of the largest Muslim nations, numerically, in the world.  Based on that claim, here are some numbers for you.  The United States has between 5 and 8 million Muslims – which is less than 3% of our total population.  Folks, I am here to tell you this.  There are at least 50 countries that have a greater percentage of their population that are Muslim than us.  And there more than likely are more; but at least 50 nations have a higher percentage than us.

But then again, no one does any fact checking when Obama makes outlandish claims like this.  Certainly not the New York Obama Times.  But then again, the Times (and countless other media outlets) are still in love with the POTUS.  But suffice it to say, I am about 99.5% certain that Obama is Muslim.  Unless someone can bring to me through this website or on The Republican Temple radio program some credible evidence that proves that Obama isn’t Muslim.  I dare you.