WHEN PENGUINS FLEW AND WATER BURNED This is the true memoir of one US Air Force navigator’s journey from the schoolhouses of Air Training Command to the nuclear alerts of the Cold War to combat in a 35-year-old anachronism called the B-52. It is a first-hand account of life during the last days of Strategic Air Command, the early days of Air Combat Command and the ensuing military drawdown of the 1990s. From peacetime training exercises across the globe to combat operations in Desert Storm, Jim Clonts takes the reader inside the cockpit where life and death are seconds apart. Often comical, sometimes heart-pounding, other times tragic, WHEN PENGUINS FLEW AND WATER BURNED takes you into the world of military aviation, a crucible where warriors learn the true nature of character, conscience and mortality.

Militant Islam and the Liberal Mindset
by Jim Clonts, 2006

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT MILITARY.COM, August 08, 2006

Understanding Islamic-Fascism is not difficult. It requires no mind-reading, interpolation or decryption. The militant Muslim factions, such as Hamas, Hezzbollah, Islamic Jihad and Al Queda, openly and honestly advertise their intentions, methods and goals. One has but to read the published charters of these terrorists organizations to understand what they want and how they believe they can achieve it. The funding of militant Islam is provided by nation states such as Iran and Syria. These nations can be as equally candid. The president of Iran has been open and honest regarding his nations efforts to produce a nuclear bomb and who is to perish under its fire, namely Israel and eventually the Infidel. It is unsettling to hear him optimistically speak of Islam surviving a nuclear exchange with the West which would leave hundreds of millions dead. Some in the West say this is just rhetoric. I take him at his word.

Understanding the American liberal mindset is far more difficult. Liberals speak of patriotism and love of country, but they actively undermine nearly everything our government has done in the war on terrorism. They seem to believe it is their duty to represent a counterview in American policy. Although they feel it is imperative to voice the minority opinion in matters of national policy, they go so far as voicing the foreign opinion, aligning themselves against the best interests of the United States.

Liberal newspapers are full of stories disclosing in excruciating detail how we are fighting the war on terror. They describe the methods we use to intercept terrorist phone calls, how we track terrorists financial transactions, how we are able to locate cell phone transmissions. They print this information under the guise of keeping the public informed and in the process destroy these tools of intelligence. Of course when we are attacked, they will be outraged by the ineptitude of our intelligence agencies.

Recently our liberal Supreme Court has gone so far as to give enemy combatants Constitutional rights, even though they are not citizens of the United States and were captured on the battlefield actively engaged in hostilities towards our nation.

Why does the modern liberal fail to recognize, or worse, discount the threat of Islamic-Fascism? My first instinct was to assume their words and actions were purely political, intended to weaken the Bush Administration. Bush-hating is an essential and popular element of modern liberalism, however, I’m beginning to believe it runs much deeper than this. When Senator Joe Lieberman, a very liberal Democrat, is ostracized by his party for his stand on the war in Iraq, I begin to sense it’s not just political. They do not recognize the threat militant Islam represents. Listening to a Democratic stump speech one would think the United States poses a far greater threat to world peace. Some Democratic members of Congress have gone so far as to voice this opinion. This is not partisan politics. They seem to really believe this.

Why do they believe this? Their view is a manifestation of their arrogance, which has been fostered from living in the most secure, wealthiest and powerful republic in the history of Man. It is easy to feel secure in America. We live in a very liberal society, one in which our system of government does not prevent or punish free expression. We do not worry about secret police whisking away a family member in the dark of night for comments critical of the government. When our military deploys our high-technology weapons against an enemy, the results are spectacularly disproportionate.

Americans have not had to worry about national survival since Grant squared off against Lee. Our vast military power and unbridled capitalist economy has created in the mind of the modern liberal the notion that we are an all-powerful bully, undeserving of our might, our wealth and our role in the world. They assume the power of our nation has given the militant Islamics justified reason to hate us. America is the oppressor and the terrorist a victim simply fighting back the only way he knows how. The victim-mentality of the liberal has been extended to those who wish destruction upon us.

We can no longer afford this brand of liberal arrogance, bestowing victim-status on those bent on our destruction. We are a great world power, free from tyranny, enjoying personal liberties others only dream of, with military and economic advantages created and cultivated by the American people for over two hundred years. The threat of militant Islam, however, has been growing for far longer, the roots of their belief-system run much deeper. Their interpretation of Islam calls for our destruction and they are men of faith. We can no longer assume they are simply poor, victimized citizens of the Third World. Soon they will be armed with nuclear weapons and the chosen delivery vehicle may very well be a cargo ship in New York Harbor or a Volkswagen van driven across the border from Canada. Unfortunately, I fear it will take a catastrophe of this magnitude to wake up the American people to the threat of militant Islam and the liberal mindset.

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