Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category
Leadership 101: Unlocking our Spirituality
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
Spirituality – the fifth element we must master if we are to achieve the whole-man (whole-woman) foundation in our quest for true leadership – may well-be the most challenging of the “five mountains” to climb (The other four mountains being the body, the mind, emotion, and intuition; which we’ve discussed here, here, and here).
Challenging to master to be sure; spirituality is also the most challenging to teach. It’s even more challenging to convince leadership students and fledgling leaders why it is so important. Yet it is perhaps the key foundational underpinning of any true leader.
GREAT CAPTAINS AND KINGS
History’s great captains have always known and appreciated the value of spirituality. The Bible, for instance, is full of these extraordinary leaders. And for the past 2,000 years, the world’s most celebrated battlefield commanders and most revered heads-of-state have not only embraced spirituality in their own lives, but they have openly and unapologetically acknowledged the critical necessity of the presence of God in their armies and nations.
“A good Christian will never make a bad soldier,” said Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus in the 17th century.
Our own George Washington, regularly appealed to God for strength and guidance, demanded – when he was commanding-general of the Continental Army – that his troops follow the teachings of the Bible, and he frequently wrote about the importance of it; as did Pres. Abraham Lincoln and most of our nation’s other chief executives.
Pres. Ronald Reagan referred to prayer and the power of God as “the greatest tool that we have.”
In: Articles · Tagged with: Leadership 101, W. Thomas Smith Jr.
Leadership 101: Intuition and Service
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
The first two articles in our Leadership 101 series (here and here) briefly address three of the “five mountains” of the whole-man (whole-woman) foundation we must master if we are truly committed to personal leadership development. The first three are the body, the mind (brain), and emotion. These will be examined in greater detail going forward.
Today, let’s look at the fourth mountain: Intuition.
INTUITION
This is an important mountain though often difficult to climb, because far too many leaders either deny the existence of intuition, or they recognize and quash it, believing it to be nothing more than baseless energy and preternatural thought-processes produced by overactive imaginations.
Nothing is further from the truth.
Intuition, which some cavalierly refer to as a “hunch,” is defined as “the power of attaining direct knowledge without evident rational thought and inference.” It is indeed a real sense which pulls data from a variety of sources including past experience, observation, intelligence, instinct, reasoning ability, awareness of surroundings, and faith (faith is part of the spirit, the fifth mountain, which we’ll cover in-depth in a forthcoming piece).
Intuition is not always accurate. But, if developed and managed properly, intuition can give us a greater understanding of the dynamics of a given environment and what to expect going forward in that environment in ways that are more effective than – and go beyond – simply drawing on the cognitive analysis of the brain.
MY OWN INTUITION
I believe all people are gifted to a degree with intuitive abilities. Some of us, myself included, have been able to tap into extraordinarily rich reservoirs of intuition all of our lives. I don’t say this to boast, but because it is real, and I didn’t always embrace it.
In: Articles · Tagged with: Leadership 101, W. Thomas Smith Jr.
Leadership 101: Emotion and the Three M’s
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
The first article in our series – Leadership 101 – describes the series going forward, then touches on the five elements of the foundation upon which we build the leader from the ground-up (before getting into the fundamentals of leadership). If you’ve not read Leadership 101: Body, Mind, and Soul Required, I urge you to do so now at http://www.victoryinstitute.net/blogs/utb/2012/01/leadership-101-body-mind-and-soul-required/.
Today we continue building the foundation. But we will also include some red-meat, right-now leadership tools because (despite our building) many of us are already leaders, and – as I learned years ago in U.S. Marine Corps boot camp – all of us may be thrust into leadership positions on a moments notice.
Let’s flash-review the five elements of the whole man (whole woman) that we must master as our basic building-blocks of sound leadership. My good friend, Mark Divine, a U.S. Navy SEAL Res. commander, refers to these five whole-man elements – (1) the physical body, (2) the mind or brain, (3) emotional awareness and control, (4) intuition, and (5) soul or spirit – as “the five mountains.”
(ref. SEALFIT Unbeatable Mind Academy http://www.unbeatablemind.com)
A lot has been said and written about the body-mind connection, so we won’t spend a great deal of time on the body or the mind right now except to say that a physically sound body and a physically sound mind (or brain) are critical to one’s quality of life.
This is straight out of my old Boy Scout handbook. We cannot take either the body or the mind for granted, though we all have at times in our lives. We have to eat right, exercise daily, and sleep for the body. And we must condition the mind through a mix of reading, instruction (which you are receiving right now), and problem solving. And we have to learn to embrace the connection between the body and the mind. More on this further in the series.
Today, let’s look more closely at the third element (or mountain) – emotional awareness and control.
In: Articles · Tagged with: Leadership 101, W. Thomas Smith Jr.
Leadership 101: Body, Mind, and Soul Required
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
Welcome to Leadership 101, a new feature here at Unto the Breach. I call it Leadership 101, because basic leadership is exactly what we are going to address – tackling the fundamentals of good leadership – but from a unique perspective. We’ll do it in such a way as to give you the tools needed to both ramp up your leadership skills (yes, seeing results immediately) and develop your leadership capabilities for the long haul. And we will do so no matter what your leadership experience and skill level may be.
This unique version of Leadership 101 is based on my own perspective, gleaned from other leaders (many of the world’s great masters of the art of leadership) as well as my own training and experience leading people. It is a perspective based on years of serving as a military (primarily small-unit infantry) leader and yes, a follower; learning from the best military leaders and counterterrorism experts in peace and in war; being a business, committee, and team leader; and – like most of us – having been thrust into unexpected (sometimes unwanted), immediate, temporary, varied positions of leadership at various evolutions throughout my life to this point.
As I told a group of cadets and midshipmen from West Point, Annapolis, and the Air Force Academy back in 2010; “Leadership – that sometimes vague, somewhat ambiguous magic of getting people to do what needs to be done – has been discussed, written about, and mused-over since armies first marched and navies first sailed, and every leader has tried to convince others that he or she has the perfect formula for that particular kind of magic.”
But far too often we are so focused on the so-called fast-track formulas and all the great soundbites associated with those formulas that we neglect or completely ignore the pure fundamentals necessary to good leadership, whether we are talking about military leadership or business leadership (both of which are related yet different, and we’ll discuss how in a future piece).
I’m not going to waste your time (or mine) with a bunch of feel-good nonsense about leadership. Nor will I attempt – like so many so-called experts – to wax philosophic about what leadership really is by talking over readers’ heads with clinical terms and jargony formulas.
This, you will discover, is red-meat, right-now leadership.
Let’s jump into it; first with the foundation (before we get to the fundamentals) because if we don’t have a foundation upon which to build the leader, the end result – no matter how good that result might look on paper or in person – might fail at the front, in the trenches, where the leader finds himself or herself struggling to make decisions in those terrible, unforgiving, high-stakes moments when direction is critically needed.
I will refer to this all-important foundation as simply the development of the whole man or whole woman. The idea being, you will never be a good leader if your own physical body and brain (including your intellectual capability and capacity), emotional state, intuition, and soul (spirit) are not first in order, and with each of the five living components working in concert with one another. And they will never be what they need to be – for you as a leader – if you neglect any one of them by wrongly convincing yourself that you are a good person with integrity.
You have to work at it, and it has to become a daily lifestyle thing.
In: Articles · Tagged with: Leadership 101, W. Thomas Smith Jr.
What is Agenda 21?
The UN plan referenced by Newt Gingrich is a real threat to private property and US sovereignty.
“Agenda 21 proposes an array of actions which are intended to be implemented by every person on Earth…it calls for specific changes in the activities of all people… Effective execution of Agenda 21 will require a profound reorientation of all humans, unlike anything the world has ever experienced… ” – Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet (Earthpress, 1993)
Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich stated during a recent campaign event that the United Nations was seeking to create an “extraconstitutional control” over the US with programs like Agenda 21. Gingrich’s remarks are featured in a YouTube video. But what is Agenda 21, and why has it taken nearly 20 years before this subject got national recognition?
Agenda 21 seeks to control populations through zoning and seizure of private property, strip national sovereignty, reduce the world population, even control our consumption of meat and air conditioning … all in the name of the environment. And who can be against the environment, right?
Many Americans cringe at the mention of “global government” or “conspiracy.” And often, conspiracy theories have little basis in fact. But we must recognize that it is a basic element of human nature to seek the acquisition of wealth and power, and that people throughout human history have conspired together to do so. Not all conspiracies are real, but they do exist. And Agenda 21 is a perfect example.
From the report produced by the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, which was a predecessor to Agenda 21: “Land…cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principal instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth and therefore contributes to social injustice…. Public control of land use is therefore indispensable….”
Our Constitution explicitly protects… [Excerpt - read the full article at The US Report]
Our counterterrorism blind spot: Stopping American terrorists
The FBI is investigating whether a man from Minnesota was the suicide bomber behind an attack in Somalia. If so, it would be the third known Minnesota native to do so. I addressed the US’ terror export dilemma recently in the International Analyst Network (excerpt):
This week the Department of Justice announced that our intelligence community foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. While our counterterrorism strategy is successful at preventing terrorist plots from foreign sources, it fails to stop the flow of American citizens committing terrorist attacks abroad.
Since 9/11 the United States has prevented or disrupted 39 known terrorist plots – 40 counting the foiled Iranian plot. We have also curtailed the transfer of material support to foreign terrorist groups.
But the flow of potential U.S. terrorists is much harder to monitor and regulate. Increased airport security, increased law enforcement, intelligence liaisons abroad, and heightened citizen awareness of suspicious behaviors have been unsuccessful at stopping U.S. citizens from engaging in terrorist acts abroad.
On Oct. 29, 2008, 26-year-old Shirwa Ahmed drove his Toyota Land Cruiser through the streets of Hargesa, Somalia. Arriving at his target, Ahmed detonated his suicide truck bomb, killing 29. The naturalized U.S. citizen from Minneapolis became America’s first known suicide bomber.
Ahmed’s attack is far from an isolated incident.
In Sept. 2009, another Somali-American detonated another suicide truck bomb in Somalia, killing 21 UN peacekeepers and civilians.
Abdullahi Ahmed became the third Somali-American suicide bomber when he killed two soldiers manning an African Union checkpoint in June…
Read the rest at the International Analyst Network
Quoted in Deutsche Welle
Being rather busy over the last few weeks, I neglected to post that I was quoted in the German daily Deutsche Welle regarding a possible reaction to the alleged Iranian assassination plot against a Saudi ambassador on U.S. soil:
Despite the clamor in some quarters for an attack, some analysts believe that the most likely response will not involve military action given the current volatility of the Middle East region and the US administration’s policy of enagagement.
“War with Iran is highly unlikely with the current administration,” Chris Carter, a regional director with the US Counterterrorism Advisory Team, told Deutsche Welle. “Even if evidence leads all the way to the Quds Force’s commander, anything beyond sanctions would undermine the current administration’s doctrine of diplomatically engaging enemies like Iran.”
Does Obama’s jobs bill actually defy the Constitution?
The Eleventh Amendment
As discussed yesterday at The US Report, President Obama is peddling a jobs bill that contains elements that may actually be unconstitutional. But there appears to be more to the story.
The American Jobs Act states on page 133 (Section 176) that “A State’s receipt or use of Federal financial assistance for any program or activity of a State shall constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity, under the 11th Amendment to the Constitution…”
This strips state sovereignty and increases dependence upon the Federal government. And if it were to pass, this legislation would open the door for trial lawyers to sue the states in Federal court. Just follow the money.
Here’s what the Eleventh Amendment says:
The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.
Basically, this amendment prevents the Federal government from hearing cases brought against a state by a citizen of another state or country. But Congress – and the states themselves if they so choose – can abrogate this Eleventh Amendment protection according to the Heritage Guide to the Constitution (pg. 376):
Congress can, for example, require the states to waive their immunities as a condition for receipt of federal grants under the Spending Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 1).
Why would the Federal government need to suspend the Constitution in order to save jobs? And when did the United States become so dependent on the government for jobs in the first place?
President Obama’s proposed abrogation of the Constitution may not actually violate the Constitution, since…
[Except - read more at The US Report]
In: Articles, Politics · Tagged with: Barack Obama, Constitution
Did Democrats risk your life to obtain power?
Firefighters know what it is like to risk their lives in order to accomplish something. As a fire chief, you risk the lives of your men in order to rescue the child who is trapped upstairs. The firefighters are willing to run into a burning building because they know how important that child’s life is. All parties involved accept this arrangement, especially the child.
This is not acceptable, however, when others may risk not only your life, but also that of your family in order to accomplish something that you do not find justifiable.
Liberals in government and media are so power hungry that they used our counter-terrorism strategies and tactics as an opportunity to destroy their political opponents.
During the George W. Bush years, liberals undermined our counter-terrorism strategy – during a war against terrorists – in order to weaken the administration. It would be one thing if they reversed Bush’s wartime strategy when the Obama administration took over in 2009. However, after fighting Bush nearly every step of the way, not much actually changed when they took control.
In fact, they actually doubled down on some of the very tactics that they castigated Bush for.
[Read the rest at The US Report]
In: Articles · Tagged with: 9/11, Democrats
Sacked: Another Muslim homeland security official with shady connections
On Monday, National Public Radio featured a story about a Muslim homeland security official who was fired after being featured as a terrorism suspect in an anti-terrorism seminar.
Omar Alomari, a 60-year-old Jordanian-American, served as a multicultural relations officer for the Ohio Department of Public Safety until the state fired him following a seminar for local law enforcement officers on political Islam and terrorism. Alomari was singled out as a suspect, and shortly after the presentation, he was fired.
The NPR article implies that Alomari lost his job due to the seminar, but it turns out that he actually was dismissed for not fully disclosing his employment history when filing his background check and then lying to investigators. Alomari left out his tenure as a college professor where he was fired due to an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student and also failed to disclose that he had previously worked for the Jordanian Minister of Labor.
The website The Jawa Report conducted an investigation into Alomari, which can be found here.
Apart from appearing as a witness for a 2010 Congress subcomittee hearing, Alomari is most notable work is two pamphlets on Islam he wrote as a member of Ohio Homeland Security.
In his guide to Islamic and Arabic culture, Alomari defined jihad as “The utmost effort one should exert to achieve excellence” and states that “Jihad does not mean holy war, as many people are led to believe.”
Zuhdi Jasser, fellow Muslim and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, calls Alomari’s pamphlets “classic Islamist propaganda” and says they are “full of factual inaccuracies.”
The other pamphlet, “Agents of Radicalization,” was actually destroyed before it could be distributed. Under “organizations we are working with,” Alomari listed the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America, Islamic Society of North America, Muslim Alliance of North America, Muslim American Society, Muslim Public Affairs Council, and the Muslim Student Association.
All of these groups are connected to Islamic terrorism.
There are far too many inaccuracies in Alomari’s pamphlets to properly address within this article. But having seen his soft-soaped definition of jihad, it is worth correcting.
Dr. Andrew G. Bostom, the author of The Legacy of Jihad and The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, defines jihad using the Koran rather than perpetuating a false narrative.
“Jahada, the root of the word jihad, appears 40 times in the Koran.” said Bostom in an interview with Liberty and Security Journal. “With four exceptions, all the other 36 usages in the Koran as understood by both the greatest jurists and scholars of classical Islam […] and ordinary Muslims – meant and mean, ‘he fought, warred or waged war against unbelievers and the like.’”
John Brennan, the top counterterrorism official in the nation, shares Omari’s ahistorical interpretation, saying jihad is “to purify oneself or one’s community.” This would be funny if Brennan wasn’t responsible our national security.
Many Americans saw firsthand what al Qaeda’s interpretation of jihad is, though, and theirs apparently stems from one of the 36 violent mentions in the Koran. In fact, with over 17,000 terrorist attacks committed by Islamic terrorists since 9/11, it appears that Alomari and Brennan’s interpretation isn’t widely accepted.
“It is common knowledge in our office that Omar is definitely not on our team,” a former co-worker of Alomari told The Jawa Report. “He hangs out with these same terror-linked groups and even brings them into meetings he arranges to give them legitimacy.”
“It is no secret to anyone who knows him that Omar Alomari IS a radical, but he is great at playing the “moderate” when he needs to be.”
Is Alomari a terrorist? It is impossible to tell without seeing the seminar organizers’ intelligence. But Americans must understand that terrorist groups like al Qaeda and political Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood actually share the same goals, such as subjugating the U.S. under sharia law. Whether this is accomplished via suicide bombers or by political advocacy makes little difference.
But neither al Qaeda nor the Muslim Brotherhood would be successful without apologists like Alomari paving the way for Islamic supremacism.
In: Articles, National Security · Tagged with: Islam
