George Will: IRS is 'off the rails' and 'corrupted'

George Will said Tuesday on "Special Report with Bret Baier" that new revelations in the investigation into the IRS targeting scandal show the agency is “off the rails” and “thoroughly corrupted."
The president of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch told Fox News Monday that Justice Department attorneys have said the "missing" emails of former IRS official Lois Lerner likely still exist in back-up computers. However, the attorneys told Judicial Watch that retrieving the emails would be “too onerous.”
Will, a syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor, called the revelation a "really interesting defense."
“I can just hardly wait until the IRS lawyers go into that courtroom and tell the judge it would be too onerous to stop obstructing justice in this case," he said.
Will added that it is clear that the Justice Department cannot be trusted to investigate the case fairly. 
"The IRS is the most intrusive and potentially punitive institution of the federal government, and it is a law enforcement and it is off the rails and it is now thoroughly corrupted," he said. "And people are saying, well the Justice Department can take care of this. There’s a reason why Jack Kennedy had his brother attorney general. There’s a reason why Richard Nixon has his campaign manager John Mitchell attorney general. It’s an inherently political office, and it can’t be trusted in cases like this."

The debt we owe to those who stand between us and our enemies

I was only 5-years-old, but I remember well the cold, dreary Sunday,  December 7 in 1941, when our family gathered around my Granddaddy’s big floor model radio to listen to the news that the Japanese Imperial Air Force had attacked the United States naval facilities in Pearl Harbor.
That's the day the world changed for me, never to be the same in my life. The Second World War become very real to those of us in coastal North Carolina, where ships leaving my seaport hometown of Wilmington were sunk by German U-boats just miles off our coast, prompting a very real fear that the Nazis would try to bring the war on shore.
I learned very early in my life that only two things protect our nation: the grace of Almighty God and the United States military. 

I learned very early in my life that only two things protect our nation: the grace of Almighty God and the United States military.

That’s the way it was then, the way it is now and the way it will always be, as long as America is a free and sovereign nation. And I feel we owe an unpayable debt of gratitude to those who stand between us and our enemies.
Being exposed to the horrors of war creates unique problems for those who experience it up close. The needs of our returning veterans are many and diverse – life-changing injuries, deep-seated mental difficulties, damaged marriages and a myriad of other challenges that few of us who have not been there can begin to understand.
One day young men and women are dodging bullets and IEDs in the desert, and a couple of days later they're walking through the airport in Dallas among a hurrying crowd of travelers who have no idea what it's like to live in constant danger or see a buddy die.
How alone they must feel, how insignificant our bustling around must seem to them, how shallow our priorities, how indifferent our attitudes.
Sometimes we make the mistaken assumption that the men and women who serve in our military have an extra gene or some internal mechanism that staves off loneliness and enables them to be away from their families for months on end without experiencing the pain of separation the rest of us feel.
The truth is that they miss their families and loved ones just as badly as any civilian – or, given the circumstances of the desolate places they serve in, even worse. It’s actually courage and devotion to duty that enable them to weather their long deployments.
When we think about the care and welfare of our veterans, we tend to believe government programs have it all covered. But government programs are just another name for bureaucracies, often operated by insensitive bean counters, tight-fisted administrators and, as we've seen recently, downright crooks.
In my opinion, it is the duty of us, the private American citizens, to take up the slack, fill in the blank spaces and make sure our returning vets have the medical care, education, counseling and opportunities they so desperately need to jump-start an interrupted life.
Many good and dedicated service organizations have come along in the last few years, and they do a wonderful job of helping our vets readjust and re-acclimate. They would appreciate any support caring Americans can provide.
Tonight when you go home, look at your family and know they can go to bed and sleep in safety and wake up tomorrow in the freest nation on the planet.
Thanks to the grace of Almighty God and the United States military.
God, please bless America.
Charlie Daniels is an American patriot. A musician, singer and songwriter during his 50+ year career, he has scored hits on the rock, country, pop and Christian charts, and is a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Visit Charlie’s “Soap Box” blog and follow him on Twitter@CharlieDaniels.

US reportedly recruiting allies to support expanded airstrikes, Syrian opposition

The Obama administration is pressing U.S. allies to increase their support for moderate rebel groups in Syria, as well as possible military operations, according to a published report. 
The New York Times reported late Tuesday that White House officials believe that Great Britain and Australia would be willing to join the United States in a campaign of airstrikes in Syria, while the administration hoped that Turkey would give it access to key military bases. 
The Times also reported that the U.S. has asked Turkish government to help seal that country's border with Syria, which has proven to be an easy crossing point for foreign militants looking to join up with the Islamic State, the militant group formerly known as ISIS, in northern Syria. The paper reported that the White House is also seeking intelligence help from Jordan, as well as financial support for groups like the moderate Free Syrian Army from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. 
The political calculus of such maneuvering among America's Western allies is unclear. Last year, British Prime Minister David Cameron experienced one of the most humiliating defeats of his premiership when a motion to join potential airstrikes against Bashar al-Assad's government was rejected by Parliament. However, the atrocities committed by ISIS since its overrunning of broad swathes of Syria and Iraq, have seemingly galvanized Cameron to press for action. In a recent opinion piece in the Sunday Telegraph, Cameron said that Britain was "in the middle of a generational struggle against a poisonous and extremist ideology."
Late Monday, the Pentagon began sending surveillance drones on flights over Syria to gather intelligence on ISIS positions after Obama approved their use over the weekend. The Times cited a report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that “non-Syrian spy planes” on Monday carried out surveillance of ISIS positions in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.
The Assad government in Damascus has warned the U.S. not to strike ISIS positions on Syrian territory without asking permission. However, on Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki emphatically rejected that condition, telling reporters "We're not going to ask permission from the Syrian regime." However, Psaki also noted that Obama had not made a final decision on whether to approve airstrikes in Syria. 
The Times also reported that the White House was also close to a decision to authorize airstrikes and aid drops around the town of Amerli in northern Iraq, home to a community of ethnic Turkmens, which has been besieged by ISIS for more than two months. The Turkmens, as Shiite Muslims, are thought of as infidels by the Sunni members of ISIS. 
Over the weekend, the United Nations' special representative to Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, said the situation in Amerli was "desperate, and called for "immediate action to prevent the possible massacre of its citizens." The BBC reported Saturday that the town had no electricity or drinking water, and is running out of food and medical supplies.