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Ricochet Forum: Submit Your Questions for Allen West
In the next iteration of our ongoing Ricochet Forum series, we invite you to submit your questions for Allen West — former Representative of Florida’s 22nd congressional district, retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, and one of the leading lights of the Tea Party movement. Whether you want to ask about American politics, national security, or those persistent presidential campaign rumors, the floor is yours.
Simply ask your questions in the comments section of this post. Next week, former Congressman West will stop by Ricochet with his answers to the best inquiries. And remember — you must be a Ricochet member to participate. We’ll see you in the comments.
Published in General
No Question, just a suggestion … Run Allen Run
Colonel West,
I hold that a military officer has a duty to understand (at least to consider and discuss) what a domestic enemy of the Constitution would be. How would one know? What triggers or indicators should be kept in mind? These questions should be fair game for anybody subject to 5 USC 3331.
An officer’s duty is not to the military, the government, the President or the office of the presidency, not even the country or the citizenry, but the Constitution itself. Some combinations of intent, opportunity, and likelihood must constitute a credible threat sufficient to discuss as a matter of duty. In no other arena is there a presumption that a duty must be shrouded in ignorance.
There must be more sophisticated analysis than this available. My purpose (in a separate project) is to surface this issue and get this conversation started. If reasonable people cannot speak about this now, the unreasonable people will shoot about it later. Are you aware of resources, forums, legal advice for folks who might be able to take advantage of it? Also, I presume that you have thought deeply on this, and would consider your own contributions first among those resources.
Thank you in advance.
Matthew 5:17
Colonel West,
We have armed to the teeth purported allies such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Kuwait, and Turkey.
Why then do we have to expend any US/NATO ordnance, let alone lives, fighting ISIS?
If our allies will not use their own arms to settle ISIS, what are those arms for?
You vs. Putin in the Octagon in an epic Cold Warrior throwdown. Who wins?
Rules of Engagement – as a commander, how did those come to you? Did you or staff officers/NCO’s have a hand in crafting those? How did they restrict operations? Could they be changed based upon input from the field?
I have this understanding that those ROE really hampered our guys and their success and continue to do so.
Thanks so very much for what you’ve done in and out of uniform.
Hi, Colonel West. It’s wonderful that you are finally on Ricochet. We are, if the information I am gathering from various sources including but not limited to personal acquaintances and long-time friends in the military and defense establishment, approaching a nadir of military readiness not seen since the ‘Hollow Army’ years after Viet Nam. First of all, would you aver that impression is correct from your certainly more informed position, or would you dispute it? If this impression is correct, what would you recommend to remedy the decline in our military preparedness? Specifically, what would you recommend for each of the five branches of the service?
And a suggestion: Move to Austin and oust the execrable Lloyd Doggett from Congress. Please. Hey, I can dream can’t I?
A thousand thanks for your service to our country.
What might we infer from the re-election of President Obama? What do you make of claims that this is still a center-Right country?
What is to be done with a GOP establishment( the big boys who wholly own and operate the party) which attacks and consistently denigrates the so-called Tea Party and sabotages grassroots candidates who are running as Republicans? Why should someone like myself, who was a life long registered Republican, support them at the polling place when they have such disdain for me? My question, I guess, is do you ever address the party leadership on this issue, and what is your message to them ? Thanks ! And if you run you have my vote !!!!
What’s your favorite reader response to your book Guardian of the Republic: An American Ronin’s Journey to Faith, Family, and Freedom?
One of the lessons of 2012 is that you don’t beat something with nothing. Mitt Romney seemed content to hammer on the economy, in the belief that voters dissatisfied with the other guy would push him over the line. What issue or cause would you like to see candidates embrace? Can you run on something more concrete than “home, mother and apple pie” without alienating half your party?
Unrelated question: Who would you like to see run in 2016?
Are there one or more people, yourself included, that can take this president to the woodshed, or should I say caddyshack, and read him the riot act on national security?
What is your assessment of Paul Ryan, including his efforts to reach out to minorities through his work with Robert Woodson? Did you ever work with Ryan?
I met you at Lexington Battle Green on a hot summer day two or three years ago. It was brief, but severely aggravated my case of congressman envy.
Two Parter:
From 1989 to 1992, I lived in Baltimore, in Overlea on Harford Road and worked for the State of Maryland, over on West Preston Street Street, on the same level of the State Office Building where the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene stored medical supplies in a garage. They had to lock up the rubbing alcohol in cages behind locked and alarmed doors because winos had a habit of trying to steal and drink the wood alcohol, even though it is poisonous. I worked with a young woman whose sister had an out-of-wedlock child with a drug dealer who was in and out of prison and whose 4 year old son had a restraining order on him because he tried to take out another girls eye at kindergarten with a pencil. Diane, who started out as a temp and as far as I could tell was well on her way to working her way out over the county line with her long-term boyfriend (who was also a hard worker and had a white BMW with gold hubcaps and kept getting stopped by the police because of this) talked about the ladies who always threw their hats at church and the families who paid ghastly amounts for funerals for their young sons who had gotten killed in gunfights over street corners (and at least one of whom would have to be stopped from throwing themselves onto the coffin as it was being lowered into the grave).
In what ways do you feel yourself to have been lucky to be able to get as far as you have? In what ways do you feel that men and women of your generation were lucky to have opportunities to get ahead in this world that are not always there today?
What would you say to African-Americans who today, as young as you were when you joined the military, would probably not be even accepted into the armed forces because they are simply not qualified? Or worse, already have criminal records.
And I did supervise a young woman as a temp whose husband came out of the army not much more qualified to get ahead in the world than he was going in. She was not much better off, so I asked my supervisor when I was asked to provide a recommendation if he could write up something more encouraging than “She tried hard.”
What hope can you, the Republican Party, and Conservatives offer adult African-Americans who have been hobbled by Liberal policies that life can be better for them.
Hoping this does not come off as Rascist and is not too long, thank you for coming to Ricochet to meet with us on line and answer our questions.
Looking forward to your answers on all the above. Would love to see you as head of our armed services.
Col. West,
Will you have a sitdown with Mitt Romney and pitch him on Romney’s throwing all his support – rhetorical, financial, organizational – behind you?
Millions of people standing in lines at polling places with Ebola picking up speed.
If Obama issues an executive order to postpone elections indefinitely as a matter of public safety, how do you convince people that this is a bad idea without sounding like a conspiracy theorist?
Assuming Republicans hold the House and gain a majority in the Senate, what’s the best thing they can do until 2016?
Cut off all funding for obama’s prize projects and czars, and give obama nothing to sign or to veto.
Prior to your victory in Florida’s 22nd Congressional District in 2010, you lost a bid for the same seat in 2008. What lessons from that first race informed your victory the second time and what tips from that experience would you share with other Republicans who are making their first congressional bids?
Assuming that you have maintained ties with some of your military friends and acquaintances, what about sequestration aren’t we seeing?
Colonel West, what is your take on President Obama’s decision last month to deploy US troops to West Africa and the latest news that some National Guard and Reserve elements will be called into service to build treatment centers and otherwise work to contain the Ebola epidemic in the region?
What motivates you to be active in public discourse? Do you consider yourself to be a man of integrity as defined by Stephen Carter in his book “Integrity”(best I can remember):
Have you taken the time to do your homework and think through an issue?
Do you make your position known and take actions that support your decision?
Do you risk losing something for that position?
Is it legal?
If you have answered yes, as I think you should, what is the hardest thing or loss you have experienced for your stand on issues?
How would you answer people who say that America shouldn’t be the world’s policeman?
This serves as a narrowing of my previous question. A survey of headlines at Drudge:
… paints an ugly picture. Our border is a mess, our government is on the wrong side, and the president is preparing to take advantage of it. A de facto state of war would exist with Mexico over sovereignty, except for the fact that we are not fighting back. So it is a position of surrender, which is of course unacceptable. With the executive action that the President is preparing, whether it is a feint or not, how can we stand idly by?
If the executive amnesty goes through, there is not a single testicle in all of Washington DC in favor of stripping that status from illegals even if the executive act itself is swiftly condemned and overruled. Neither house of Congress and certainly no Supreme Court ruling will touch those whom the act will create as citizens (effectively if not by definition). Most of the GOP and effectively all of the Democrats support amnesty.
I hold that it is not unreasonable to view this as the end of the Republic. We are staring at the blow that will break us loose from our Constitutional form of government once and for all, and we may be certain that there will be no remedy.
If that assessment is reasonable, then is the President a domestic enemy? I hasten to add that if reasonable people cannot discuss this now, then unreasonable people will shoot about it later. This conversation is a step toward a civil resolution, because the other is on the way if nobody steps up to stop this trend.
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EDIT just for clarity. I am not speaking about any unpleasantness with elected officials. I think the most likely flashpoint is of course the southern border.