Not only won't we retaliate for a nuclear attack on this country…

The U.S. military has canceled a major field exercise that tests its response to a nuclear attack, angering some officials who say that what is now planned for this month will be a waste of time.

U.S. Northern Command in Colorado withdrew from major participation in this month’s National Level Exercise (NLE), a large-scale drill that tests whether the military and the Department of Homeland Security can work with local governments to respond to an attack or natural disaster.

The exercise was canceled recently after the planned site for a post-nuclear-attack response — Las Vegas — pulled out in November, fearing a negative impact on its struggling business environment.

A government official involved in NLE planning said a new site could not be found. The official also said the Northern Command’s exercise plans for “cooping” — continuity of operations, during which commanders go to off-site locations — also had been scratched.

“All I know is it’s been turned into garbage,” said the official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the information. “It’s a nonevent.”

The NLE, which is supposed to be a series of hands-on exercises to test the system in the event terrorists use a nuclear device, has become instead a “tabletop exercise at best,” the official said.

Maj. Michael Humphreys, a Northern Command spokesman, said the military officials decided to delink the Ardent Sentry exercise from the National Level Exercise, but he stressed that the command conducts other exercises and “cooping” at other times.

“This exercise enabled both the [Defense Department] and other agencies to review their processes and procedures, and focus future training efforts on closing gaps and additional areas identified during the exercise,” Maj. Humphreys said. “This year, Ardent Sentry will not be linked with the NLE.”

Created after the Sept. 11 attacks, the NLE is the country’s largest exercise of its kind — combining activities among the military, Department of Homeland Security and local governments to test their joint, emergency response capabilities. “NLE 2010 provides an important opportunity to exercise and assess emergency response and recovery capabilities in the face of a major disaster or a terrorist attack against the United States,” Mr. Stevens said.

The field exercise in Las Vegas was to simulate terrorists detonating an improvised nuclear device assembled with smuggled weapons-grade uranium.

The 2009 NLE focused on intelligence sharing between the federal government and local law enforcement after a terrorist attack abroad. WASHINGTON TIMES

Letter from a 95-year-old retired World War II Veteran that attacks Barack Obama has been confirmed as authentic.

We have learned that Harold Estes is a real person and a well-known figure in Hawaii who has a long record of service to his community after having served in the Navy onboard the USS Missouri and other posts during World War II.

This venerable and much honored WW II vet is well known in Hawaii for his seventy-plus years of service to patriotic organizations and causes all over the country. A humble man without a political bone in his body, he has never spoken out before about a government official, until now. He dictated this letter to a friend, signed it and mailed it to the president.

Here is the letter. Also SEE VIDEO HERE

Dear President Obama,

My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don’t believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.

I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos’n Mate. Now I live in a “rest home” located on the western end of Pearl Harbor, allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.

One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man.

So here goes.

I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.

I can’t figure out what country you are the president of.

You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:

” We’re no longer a Christian nation”

” America is arrogant” – (Your wife even announced to the world,”America is mean-spirited. ” Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.)

I’d say shame on the both of you, but I don’t think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.

After 9/11 you said,” America hasn’t lived up to her ideals.”

Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British? Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War? I hope you didn’t mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.

I don’t think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.

Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.

Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don’t, I’ll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue. You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.

And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don’t want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts, who was putting up a fight? You don’t mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don’t want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.

One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you’re the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you’re not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you’re thinking of.

You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president.

You’re not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That’s not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now.

And I sure as hell don’t want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle.

Sincerely,

Harold B. Estes

I e-mailed the editor of Fore and Aft Magazine and received, in part, this reply:

I have known Harold for many many years, and I can personally vouch for the letter, and that Harold B. Estes did indeed author and mail the letter you reference to the president and also to about 50 or so VIPs on his mailing list. He told me personally what he was up to before it went in the mail, and some of those on his list who’ve received a hard copy of same have even shown me theirs!

Please give his correspondence the widest possible circulation you can and encourage others to perform the same.

Sincerely,
Rick Terwilliger
Publisher
Fore ‘n Aft Magazine
www.ForenAftMagazine.com
FNAMagazine@hawaii.rr.com

The letter from Chief Boatswain’s Mate Estes is real and sent by a real person. LINK