Thoughts on the Responsible Thing to Do

The conundrum, at least as I see it, is that it's too late to stop fighting a war that never should have been fought in the first place... and this from a guy who really thinks that we never should have gone into Iraq in the first place.
Iraq isn't like VietNam which was, at its heart, a civil war to erase a political boundary. It isn't like Korea which, putting aside the communist ideology component, was also a civil war. Those wars presented opportunities for us to pack up our gear and let the indigenous populations work out their differences.
Iraq is an artificial construct... a political construct made up of at least three disparate populations with very little in common apart from religion, and differing even in their view of their religion. We pulled out the linchpin that had been holding the country together. However tempted we may be... and we are sorely tempted... to walk away from this trainwreck, we own this trainwreck.
Would it help to move Cabinet meetings from the White House to the Green Zone until it gets cleaned up? That idea kind of sings to me.

So I'm a little distracted...

This past weekend we ran out of coffee at home so I drove over to the very same Smart & Final where I stepped off the curb and broke my proximal femur four months ago tomorrow... two weeks before my scheduled surgery. Once again I am two weeks before my scheduled surgery. I walked very carefully from the car and back this time.
I don't want to dwell on the surgery. The cancer has now had eight months to develop since the biopsy, but there's nothing to be done about that now except to remove it. To tell the truth I'm more concerned about the surgeon reconnecting the plumbing correctly. Fortunately my surgeon was trained in the Navy down at the Naval Regional Medical Center in San Diego so it's more a function of my ability to heal correctly I suppose, but that's too much responsibility on me.
If any of you Intelligent Design fans have a plausible explanation for the prostate I'd be more than happy to hear it. From all that I've read, it seems to be right up there with the vermiform appendix as a part without a modern purpose other than as a site for pathology. If that's true then that's just mean.

Thoughts on the Space Program

This isn't a particulary mindful post, but the coverage of the current shuttle mission has been getting on my nerves.
There have been two shuttle disasters since the program began. If memory serves me, Challenger in 1986 should never have launched because it was cold and there was concern that seals might have shrunk or become brittle; and in 2003 everyone saw the debris strike Columbia, but no one wanted to use available technology to see if it had left a hole before reentry.
If the Administration is going to cancel the program then just do it. Don't make it about safety. We have no way of knowing whether or not those filler thingies have been poking out on every shuttle mission ever flown. We weren't looking before now. I would go so far as to say that you'd be safer in a space shuttle than in a humvee in Iraq, so what is served by the breathless announcements of another concern about the shuttle? I commented at Two Babes and a Brain that I'd clean the heads for a seat on a shuttle mission. Fly or don't fly; but stop being wusses about it.
We're Americans! We explore! Sometimes it ain't safe! It's either that, or we stay in our little cocoon and keep our fingers crossed.

Thanks, Winston!

Wartime Presidents

In fairness, Dubya is not the first President... or Texan... to morph himself into a wartime President in the apparent absence of a better idea.
On August 4, 1964, USS Turner Joy and USS Maddox reported that they had been attacked by N. Vietnamese PT boats in the Tonkin Gulf. On August 7, the Tonkin Gulf Resolution was passed and Lyndon Johnson became a wartime President.
There are stories about whether or not the destroyers were attacked or even engaged by the PT boats. There are questions about whether or not the ships were in international waters at the time. Whatever the facts of the incident were, the resulting Tonkin Gulf Resolution and escalation of the war in VietNam took a lot of the wind out of Senator Goldwater's anti-communist sails at the end of his bid to unseat Johnson.
So, what do you think? Is it a Texas thing? Is it an oil thing? What?

Thoughts on Religious Instruction as Science

I was going to take a pass on this topic. I've spoken to it before, and I don't want to give offense; but I am increasingly mindful of my mortality... today I do my autologous blood donation... and it begs reflection.
People are pushing... again... to include the teaching of so-called "intelligent design" in science classes as a contrast to evolutionary theory. I don't believe there's a scientific argument to be made for that.
There is a mystery of life. Any competent biologist can expain the soup of hydrocarbons and enzymes that constitute the forms of life, but there has been no scientific explanation of the instant of creation when life itself actually began. That's where religion lives... in that instant.
As I've said before, I grew up in a Baptist church in the rural midwest. Every good thing that happened was said to be a miracle... a blessing from God... while every bad thing was dismissed as beyond our understanding. Eventually that started to piss me off. I'm not a rocket scientist, but I'm not stupid either.
I've seen intelligent designs. I've never seen a car born with only three wheels. I've never seen a house sprout an extra room. I'm sorry, but if you're going to teach religion as science... that we were created by an omniscient and omnipotent being... you're going to have to explain genetic mutation. Why do we have a blind spot in our eye? Frogs don't. Explain cancer! It looks like trial and error and survival of the fittest to me!
I could reflect for days on life... where it comes from, what it means... if all life was created in the same instant then how can there be good life and bad life, or superior and inferior life?... if life is precious then how can some life not be precious? These are not scientific questions. There is no proof to be found... not in this lifetime anyway.

Little Horatio Meets the World

"Grandpa's going to post me on his blog!?! What in the hell is a blog?"

I'm not sure what my point was here, or if there even was one.

I've been giving some thought lately to what I'm doing here. Blogging has not been fulfilling its therapeutic role in my life. It's important that I not allow myself to simply rant, but that I reason things out. It's not productive for me to let out that I hope Jane Fonda's damn bus burns up with her in it. I need to find where within me that feeling comes from, and heal that place.
I found a piece over at DailyZen recently... I'll link to it if I can get the link to work today... that says, in part:

If you view things through your ego, then love and hatred arise uncontrollably, and you cannot avoid indulging feelings. When you indulge feelings, then you are being subjective. When you are subjective, you are ignorant. When you are ignorant, you are mixed up and confused; you are only aware of yourself, not of principle.

I think this is why when I simply ask whether or not Judge Roberts is one of the twenty best legal minds in the country I get a defensive response from our old friend, Anonymous. This is not a partisan blog.
There's nothing I can do about the fact that the neo-conservatives won the last two elections, and there's no cohesive strategy among Democrats to change that anytime real soon. The things that I feel are going wrong with America have been going wrong for at least twenty-five years or more. The people who are still defending the Watergate cover-up, the people responsible for Iran-Contra, the people responsible for setting up Noriega and Hussein and then knocking them down are all doing quite nicely, and will most likely continue to prosper for some time to come. Even when their people are out of office they can successfully tie up any significant changes for as long as it takes until they can find a marketable candidate.
The good news is that historically these things are cyclical, and this, too, shall eventually pass. The timing of that is up to the registered voters of the United States, and so long as they remain too frightened to take back responsibility for their lives I won't hold my breath.
What concerns me is what this is making of us as human beings. We're discussing acceptable methods of torture, and then going across the hall to debate the ethics of stem cell research. If you honestly believe that Karl Rove pointed Bob Novak toward Ambassador Wilson's wife not knowing exactly who she was or where she worked or what she did there then I guess I'm happy for you, but tell me... is this what you thought things would be like when you were growing up?

How to Win Friends and Influence People

So Mr. Bush made his anticipated recess appointment of John Bolton to the post of UN Ambassador... a man with no discernible capacity for diplomacy representing the United States to an organization for which he has absolutely no regard.
The word "hubris" comes to mind.

Keeping a Thought for the Fallen

Today I just want to put HM3 Travis Youngblood into your consciousness. He died of wounds from an IED last week. A married man with a young son and a daughter not yet born. Where have all the flowers gone...
I also want to mention this site... Legacy dot com. It's good sometimes to get an appreciation of who it is that we've lost... not just a name but a son, brother, husband, father, shipmate, buddy... and it's clear from the guestbook that Doc Youngblood will be missed... him and more than 1780 like him.
Semper Fi, Doc... and I'm sorry.

More Thoughts on Responsibility

A propos of my earlier post on accepting responsibility for the environment in which one finds oneself, I saw this from Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London:

“You’ve just had 80 years of Western intervention into predominantly Arab lands because of a Western need for oil. We’ve propped up unsavory governments, we’ve overthrown ones that we didn’t consider sympathetic,” Livingstone said.
“I think the particular problem we have at the moment is that in the 1980s ... the Americans recruited and trained Osama bin Laden, taught him how to kill, to make bombs, and set him off to kill the Russians to drive them out of Afghanistan.
“They didn’t give any thought to the fact that once he’d done that, he might turn on his creators,” he told BBC radio.

Yeah, okay then. Nobody wants to hear that.

Accepting the Predictable

It's pretty clear to me, at least, that I have trouble dealing with reality.
The President has just named John Roberts, Jr., to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The response so far in my office has been: "Who?"
I have always believed... although I never really thought much about it... that the Supreme Court of the United States was the venue of the nine best judicial minds in the country... if not in the world. Yeah, I also believed that the Presidential elections should be a choice from among two or three of the best and the brightest, and that hasn't been working out for me either. Hence we have George W. Bush to appoint John Roberts.
I'm fairly confident that Judge Roberts will be confirmed by the Senate. He only has two years of actual judicial experience to examine, and his prior work history as a conservative Republican hack probably can't be used as a basis for holding up his confirmation. Couldn't the President have nominated someone from outside the Beltway? Couldn't he have nominated someone with less obvious partisan roots? Is Judge Roberts blessed with one of the... twenty?... best judicial minds in the country? It doesn't matter. He's been nominated, and there's scant basis for denying his confirmation.
I guess this morning I'm just a little disappointed that I'm so disappointed. This is simply the way that it's going to go.

Thoughts on Responsibility

Two of the blogs I read regularly have had items that touch on accepting responsibility for our environment. Tamar wrote on Chaim Yavin's documentary dealing with Israelis and Palestinians and disengagement. Mary Beth cited J. Krishnamurti speaking to our sense of apartness as a breeding ground for violence. Before I leave for the rest of the week I wanted to talk about this a little.
Karl Rove and the people like him would have us accept that their representations are all true, that all others are necessarily false, and that to question that is unpatriotic. If it wasn't so serious, I'd say it was silly.
One can absolutely understand the visceral reaction following something like the attacks in New York, Madrid, and London. The problem is that the visceral reaction is wrong. The visceral reaction, of course, is to defend oneself by any means... fair or foul. As the adrenaline wears off we reflect that we cannot possibly kill everyone who hates us. Each death serves to create more enemies. It's frustrating, but in truth when you fight terrorists at their level they have "won"... they have brought us down to their level.
Osama bin Laden is a criminal who's in it for the power. The same can probably be said for Zarqawi. The troubling question is where does someone like Osama bin Laden find people who believe that the very best use of their lives is to wrap themselves in explosives and blow us up? What, if anything, have we ever done to make them feel this way toward us? This isn't about exonerating terrorists. This is about accepting the part that we have played in creating the world in which we live.
Where does the anger come from? Where does such hopelessness come from? What are its antecedents? Why them? Why us?
Karl Rove won't tell you the answers. The corporate media won't tell you the answers. The Halliburtons of the world are enjoying best years of their lives. The major oil companies are reporting record earnings every quarter. If they can keep us stuck in fear... maybe come up with an easy mnemonic like "Islamofascist" to emphasize the differences... they can continue to channel the violence to further their goals.
"...a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.--J. Krishnamurti"

Thoughts on the attack on London

I have to say this...
The attack on London this morning strikes me as being sad on a number of levels... not the least of which is a nagging feeling that it just might have been preventable. I wonder what if we had used a substantial portion of the resources we have committed to the Global War on Terror to a committed effort to identify and eliminate al-Quaeda. What if we had treated the mass murders committed on 9/11/2001 as the criminal acts of an organized international criminal network? We used to be pretty good at dealing with organized crime. What if we had focused on al-Quaeda?
Chasing cockroaches with a sledgehammer just seems like an odd strategy... although, to give the devil his due, we have attracted al-Quaeda to Iraq now where we can bring our troops to bear... and we don't seem to be much safer than we were four years ago.
I know that there's no sense crying over spilled milk. It's just painful to contemplate. Terrorism is such a loathesome, cruel and indiscriminate way to go about anything.
I'm keeping a good thought for the casualties in London, and for all those who love them.

On the Passing of a Hero

I need to mark the passing of Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale yesterday.
I gave up on heroes a long time ago, but Admiral Stockdale got to me. I actually got to meet him briefly in 1982. He came into my office at the Naval Hospital in San Diego to try to arrange an appointment for his son. Yes, I did bump his son's appointment up. For what Admiral Stockdale gave up for us, there isn't much that I wouldn't have done for him.
Already in 1982 most of my sailors had no idea who he was.
I don't know what made him accept the second spot on Ross Perot's 1992 campaign. I suspect that it was his lifelong commitment to service to his country. He wasn't nearly glib enough for a televised debate, but I damn sure wasn't going to vote against him.
If only there had been even a few more like him.
Rest in peace, Admiral.

The Dog

Max was offended that people were posting their cat pictures and he was getting no press at all. I promised to post this.
Don't mention the blue eye... it's why he's at my place instead of living la vida loca at a puppy farm.

I Need to Stop Relying on Labels

At first I thought I must be going blind or crazy. I had just found myself in agreement with a dissent written by Justice O'Connor with Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Scalia and Thomas.This had to be some sort of a trick.
It has come to me, though, that it should have been the conservative justices who voted for the Fifth Amendment and against allowing government to jack someone's property for the chance to make a buck on it. What doesn't make sense is for conservative politicians to be voting against the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments.
We get used to the labels being given to things. We start giving credence to those labels, and then we get confused because, after all, the labels are really meaningless. More and more it would seem to be the conservative politicians who are attempting to reinterpret the Constitution and the Bill of Rights while reviling their opponents as unpatriotic.
Today Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement and I find myself thinking... how bad would it be if we had another like Chief Justice Rehnquist on the court? How cool would it be to have another independent free-thinker like Justice O'Connor?
Today Crabby Old Lady writes about the... inevitable?... impact of Kelo v. City of New London on the elderly. In California where Proposition 13 was implemented almost thirty years ago, the longer one has owned their property the more at risk they are of having their property taken on any pretext. Hmmm... what demographic is most likely to have owned the same property since 1977?
I was surprised that the conservatives on the court dissented from the Kelo opinion. Forty years ago I would have expected nothing else. I need to stop relying on labels.

An Exhortation... or a rant, if you will

This is just my opinion... and I freely acknowledge that I do not have one of the great minds... nonetheless I want to throw this out here. I think we're losing, if we haven't already lost, to the terrorists of the world.
I don't believe... and I don't know of anyone who believes... that Osama bin Laden ever intended to conquer and occupy the Unitied States. I don't think that's what terrorists go for. I don't think that's what Timothy McVeigh was going for. I think they want to make an impact and change the status quo.
Forty five months after the suicide attacks on 9/11 I've just read a woman complaining that she is still able to take a train from her home to Washington, D.C., and back without security screening or a baggage search. Forty six months ago she'd have fought such an intrusion tooth and nail.
How many times did the President ring the 9/11 bell last night in a speech to boost a war we initiated in a country that had nothing to do with 9/11? Oh, sure, there are al-Quaeda forces active in Iraq now... because we took out the guy who'd have never let them in and dismantled his army. Sure, they're there now!
I'm not minimizing what happened on 9/11/2001. I'm saying that it's 6/30/2005, and we seriously need to get past this and get our country back in shape. Post-traumatic stress is perfectly understandable, but take a look at yourselves! Forty six months ago did you want to be living like this?
The people who are trying to keep us frightened and off-balance may not be deliberately working to advance the terrorists goals, but they are sure not representative of the America I knew on 9/10/2001. Every day we go on living in reaction to what they did is another good day for al-Quaeda.
The world didn't change on 9/11. We did. We need to get past it. For one thing, we need to get back to resenting intrusion.

Thoughts on Outmoded Concepts

I've been reflecting on the discussion going on at Two Babes and a Brain regarding What Victory Looks Like. It occurs to me that part of the problem may be that we're using an early 20th century vocabulary to discuss a 21st century conflict. Chris is asking the question. Lisa is offering examples of our numerous good deeds and accomplishments in the course of our occupation as though those were victories of a sort.
It occurs to me that, since the end of WW II, we've gotten away from the concept of "victory." Now it's more on the order of "That's close enough. We're outta here." In Korea, in VietNam, and now in OEF/OIF, victory has simply not been an achievable outcome.
Bear in mind that when I said "we" above I referred to the Executive Branch of the government and not to the military.
"War" used to mean a fight to win... or lose. When people with no concept of the meaning of war start to misuse the word, then we get into trouble. Declaring a war on poverty... declaring a war on drugs... these are meaningless declarations that desensitize people to the concept of a war.
A Global War on Terror... as if it was really possible to suit up and rehabilitate or kill every person on earth who hated us enough to kill us... and then they send the troops off in the wrong direction. Karl Rove, you son of a bitch, we knew within hours who was responsible for 9/11, and instead of taking them out you and your people took advantage.
People... people I respect... tell me that there really aren't many similarities between VietNam and OIF. Maybe not... but we abandoned Hamburger Hill... and we're still taking casualties out of Fallujah after how many months. You tell me... are we fighting to win? No, nor should we be. We shouldn't have been there at all. At some point we're looking at: "That's close enough. We're outta here."

The Trade-Offs Between Liberty and Security

As I was reading this piece I was trying to remember where I'd heard or read about a Department of Homeland Security before and it came to me. They combined the functions carried out by our CIA, FBI, and Secret Service... they called it the Committee for State Security or KGB in Russian.
I recalled when Ed Meese, President Reagan's Attorney General, returned from a visit to the Soviet Union that he had expressed a level of... envy?... at the depth and scope of their organization. Imagine my surprise at discovery of these remarks prepared by Ed Meese for the Heritage Foundation and published in October, 2001.
"First, policymakers must distinguish between constitutional liberties on the one hand, and mere privileges and conveniences on the other. Second, they must understand that liberty depends on security and that freedom in the long run depends on eliminating the threat of terrorism as soon as possible." He goes on to express that the threat of terrorism calls for warrantless searches, and denial of the right of the accused to confront witnesses against him.
Did anybody else see this piece on a Massachusetts woman carrying $47,000 in cash boarding a flight to Texas for plastic surgery (she says). A DEA agent told her she had a nice body and didn't need plastic surgery; and then pocketed the cash on the suspicion that it was drug money.
The thing that I don't understand is why some people say that I'm liberal when they are the ones who are circumventing the Constitution.
Ed Meese wrote: "While American troops may be asked to pay for liberty in blood, most Americans will be asked merely to give up a few privileges and conveniences. Surely, this is a sacrifice they can afford to make."
Ed, our brothers bled so that Americans wouldn't have to make that sacrifice. We swore an oath to defend the Constitution, not to get around it. You and Admiral Poindexter and Oliver North keep forgetting that.

Thoughts on the Futility of Intentions

I was reflecting on the death of HM2 Cesar Baez who died on June 15th from small arms fire in al-Anbar Province in Iraq. Doc Baez was already 37, but just starting his life.My last little stint with the Marines was in 1981 at the tender age of 34, and they damn near wore me out. Almost all of my time in the Navy was with the Navy, and we didn't typically do 25 milers. I left the Navy to go finish college at 38.
There is an odd mix of feelings. I miss it. I miss the life. I miss the sense of purpose. I miss the brotherhood.
I do not believe in Bush's wars. When a guy plots to fly planes into buildings you hunt him to the ends of the earth and you take him out... and if he has any friends then you take them out, too. He's a mass-murdering criminal. I guess that would define me as a liberal by Karl Rove's standards.
In past years the U.S. invested a lot in support of equipping and training Afghans in resistance to a puppet regime supported by the Soviets. Apparently Dubya missed all that because his first (mis)step in the "Global War on Terror" was to commit our forces to support of a puppet regime in Afghanistan. Somehow Osama bin Laden survived that, but the President said that didn't matter because bin Laden was pretty much out of action.
After that we allegedly needed to take out Saddam Hussein. He did or did not have Weapons of Mass Destruction (it turns out that it didn't matter if he did or not), and he did or did not support bin Laden and al Qaeda (it turns out that it didn't matter if he did or not), but he absolutely did some fairly terrible stuff to his own people during the time he was enjoying substantial U.S. support during our stand-off with the Ayatollahs in Iran. It wasn't that we cannot abide a dictator because obviously we can, but he wasn't our kind of dictator... not anymore anyway.
Guys talk about the good that's coming from our presence. I'll give them that. It doesn't justify the war, but the troops are giving it their all. Who wouldn't try to scrounge up some candy or a stuffed toy for a scruffy little street kid? Who wouldn't pitch in to help dig out a well or rebuild a school? It is practically a given that every man and woman over there is committed to the success of their mission. The problem isn't that the troops aren't doing their best. The problem is that we can't succeed.
It'll be a pretty good day for the Afghans and the Iraqis if they can get back to a peaceful night's sleep in their own beds without fear, but if that happens... and I pray that it does... it won't be because we were there. It will be because they overcame it. They are waiting for us to leave... in a year or ten years or a hundred years... and then everyone we installed into power will be in for a fight for their lives as the Kurds try to establish their Kurdish state and Afghans and Iraqis do whatever it is they will wind up doing with their countries after we're gone.
So how sick is it that I'd pick up and go tomorrow if they identified a billet for a 58-year old HMC with a gimpy leg and prostate cancer?

The Good News - There's a Surplus. The Bad News - There's a Plan.

I'm feeling a little angst here. I know that Crabby Old Lady at As Time Goes By has been out looking at property, but the Republicans are busy trying to sell us a new brand of snake oil to cure what ails Social Security.
Republicans now want to fund their "Private Accounts"... (Why do you suppose Wall Street financial managers are so eager to get this passed? Do they love us?)... with what they choose to call the Social Security Surplus. A Social Security Surplus? The President is spreading the alarm that within a few years the presesnt system will be bankrupt... but at the moment he has a surplus... and he wants to invest it for us? And how will this work in the coming years when there is no surplus?
If any Bush supporters read my blog... what is wrong with you?... and do you happen to know if Mr. Bush ever actually made any money for his investors in his business ventures before he took up a life of... politics?

Some Thoughts on the "Patriot Act"

Regarding the impending renewal/"enhancement" of the Patriot Act...
The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States says: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
The Sixth Amendment says: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence."
A few things come to mind as I reflect on this.
This was written and adopted by people who had suffered... first hand and often cruelly... the pains of war and depredation and who had taken the position that never again should anyone experience such violations of their rights.
As I read the entire Bill of Rights I did not find the word "citizen." The Constitution defines... and limits... the powers of the government, but nowhere do I find that it only defines and limits those powers with respect to its own citizens.
I could be a whacked-out liberal civil libertarian... or I could be a conservative strict-constructionist... but it occurs to me that many Americans today appear to be all too willing to give up the heart of who we were and what it used to mean to be an American because we got hurt and scared four years ago.
The Administration is saying that this is all going to be okay because they have never misused their authority so far. Even if you believe that, it doesn't matter! People... other than the President and Vice President... have committed their lives to preserving these rights. You don't risk losing it all just because you're having a panic attack. That's just... wrong. That would mean that I spent twenty years of my life defending... nothing?

Justice Delayed... Justice Denied?

The Question of the Day at MSNBC is: “should the U.S. go after Osama bin Laden no matter what.” This is the Question of the Day on June 20, 2005.
We’ve invaded and overthrown the government of Afghanistan. We’ve invaded and overthrown the government of Iraq which, to my knowledge, hadn’t done anything to the U.S. since putting a missile into USS Stark. In an interview to be published in next Monday's Time the Director of the CIA is going to say that, although he has an “excellent idea” where the man who directed the attacks of 9/11/2001 is to be found, the “United States’ respect for sovereign nations” makes his capture more difficult. Since when?
Forty five months after 9/11, and we’re being asked if the U.S. should take all necessary steps to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Yeah… and I kind of wish we’d been doing that all along. There would at least have been some point to it all.

Another Reality Check... and an Appreciation

I am mindful today of all of the men and women over the years who have given their lives in service to our country. It is not a matter of gratitude so much as an appreciation that each of the liberties we enjoy has come to us at a very high price paid by the blood of others.

I had intended to spend time this morning out at Riverside National Cemetery, but that didn't work out.
While I was in the hospital in April they were giving me injections to prevent blood clots, and at the time of my discharge it was anticipated that those would continue. My young surgeon, on the other hand, was under the impression that if one was going to develop a clot one would do so within five days. I didn't argue because, frankly, the idea of giving myself a shot in my abdomen twice a day didn't sing to me in the first place.
During my sixth post-op week my right lower leg became progressively more swollen as each day passed, and progressively more painful with each passing day. On Friday I was ready to admit the possibility that all was not as it should be. An ultrasound showed that the clot wasn't just below the back of my knee where the throbbing was worst... the clot just ended there. The tech couldn't see the top of the clot as the vein passed up into the torso.
My thinking is that it probably started to form some time ago, but that it didn't get my attention until the lower leg became blocked.
This past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday they gave me my injections in the hospital. Today I'm giving them to myself at home... and taking Coumadin... and the leg still throbs because it takes about six weeks to dissolve the clot.
By the way, last week I got the new date for removal of my cancerous prostate... July 12... six weeks from tomorrow... and I have to be off anti-coagulants for at least a week before surgery.
I’m wondering if I didn’t have another lesson in humility coming. I was all psyched about running through my recovery process as quickly as possible... I wanted to spend a whole day walking the Del Mar Fair in a few weeks. I pushed it, and reality pushed back. Still, there’s a difference between recognizing limitations and accepting them.

Further Thoughts on Lies & Liars

I hate it when I let myself get sidetracked.
As CopCar and others have pointed out, my issue with Newsweek getting - in my opinion - punked on the story about desecration of the Quran by detention facility personnel is arguably no big deal. It is an old story in any case; and, whether it's the Quran or Moby Dick, it's a book. I am reminded of the furor that arose when the Taliban blew up the Buddhist statues carved into the cliffs in Afghanistan... it was ancient and it was art but they weren't blowing up the Buddha.
What I missed was the pattern. I am reminded of Dan Rather getting sloppy in documenting that George Bush pretty much blew off a lot of his National Guard obligation. That Mr. Bush did so was pretty well established in the public record by then, but suddenly the focus was shifted from Mr. Bush's failures to the failures of 60 Minutes.
That detention facility personnel have used practices offensive to Muslims in order to provoke responses from detainees has also been fairly well established in the public record, but once again the focus has suddenly shifted from those practices to, this time, Newsweek. Now Muslims are rioting not because we have offended them at almost every turn, but because of Newsweek.
Never mind the message... blame the media.
One must admit it... it works for them.

Thoughts on Lies and Liars

More or less as an aside, I need to say this about the dust-up from the item regarding desecration of the Quran reported in Newsweek.
Mark Whitaker says that the piece was legitimate and vetted, but that now their anonymous source has wavered... is no longer sure he read what he said he'd read. Newsweek has retracted the story and apologized.
In my opinion, Newsweek has just been punked. You get a piece, you run the piece, the crap hits the fan in part because of the piece... and suddenly your anonymous inside source isn't sure anymore. Gotcha!
In a time when God knows how many are dead because of the lies of the Bush administration, they are using you as a pinata because of a blurb that was entirely plausible based on proven disregard for Muslim beliefs and institutions at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, and you have no defense because you can't name your source.
Now the White House is saying that an apology isn't enough and you must do more to make up for the real consequences of your "lie." They want you to help them tell their version of the truth. One might reasonably ask when the White House will begin to make up for their lies.
Newsweek got burned on a blurb in its Periscope section... probably, again in my opinion, by the White House. One would hope they will have the confidence and courage to work through this without becoming another conduit for administration propaganda and disinformation.

Reflections on a Past Perspective

It has occurred to me (it's up at the top of the page) that my political awareness began with Barry Goldwater's 1964 campaign. Barry Goldwater seemed, to me at the time, to represent how we did things in Iowa. In particular (because I already had a sense of where I'd be the following September), if we were going to engage the communists in Southeast Asia then let's commit to that and get 'er done.
I've been thinking back to those times, not so much in nostalgia but to try to regain the perspective I had at the time on issues that now separate America. What were you people who voted for Bush thinking? Did I used to think that way?
My great-uncle believed that internal combustion engines were bad for crops. He parked his Ford in a shed down next to the road, and he farmed with two Belgian horses. Seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, things had to be done.The cows had to be milked twice a day. The livestock had to be fed. You don't feel well? It's dark/cold/hailing? Well, tell that to the livestock, and if it's okay with them then it's okay to skip your chores. Bucket's too heavy? Don't fill it so full and make two trips.
When it came time for harvest, the nearby farmers would all work together to get everyone's crops in... but as time passed there were fewer and fewer neighbors who farmed with horses. If you got sick or hurt, your neighbors had your back... but if you weren't able to make it anymore then it was time to "move into town."
He and his wife went to church every Sunday, a little one-room church you could see from his farm, but their mantra was "The Lord helps those who help themselves."
His son was a different sort of farmer. He embraced mechanization and technology, and bought the latest equipment... on credit, of course. A gamble? Farming is a gamble. He'd rent out the equipment he wasn't using himself. He knew all of the programs there were for paying farmers not go grow surplus crops.
When I went to live with the foster family many of the same themes continued. They had a cow, a pony, and poultry; and they had a couple of large garden plots on the edge of town. We all had our chores, and the chores all had to be done every day by someone.
I learned about gleaning there. The farmers outside of town would harvest their corn, but there was always corn that the reaper didn't get. We'd all go out and walk the fields and pick up the "missed" corn for our livestock. It was actually a win-win because we got the corn, and the farmer didn't have to hire kids to come out the next year to cut corn out of his beans. I also learned about hunting for wild mushrooms and berries in season.
We went to church on Sunday, morning and evening, and on Wednesday nights; but we didn't go to the "revival" meetings. They only had about one a year come into town. They did watch Billy Graham on television.
I was aware of the second Eisenhower/Stevenson campaign, and I recall that it was generally accepted as a foregone conclusion that General Eisenhower would win.
I remember, of course, the Kennedy/Nixon campaign. Both had paid their dues, serving in the War. Nixon looked unshaven... unkempt... but Kennedy was... you know... Catholic.
I moved into town in the summer of '61, but still worked farms in the summer doing yardwork in town the other three seasons until I was sixteen.
At that point in my life I didn't understand welfare. You worked. If you couldn't work then you found something you could do, but you worked. I'd had a paid job since I was eleven.
At that point in my life I never thought about abortion. There's not a farm kid in the world who doesn't know that sex is for reproduction. If you had unprotected sex and got pregnant you simply started your family a little earlier than you planned. (One store, in a town where everyone knew everyone else and their business, sold condoms.)
It never occurred to me not to fulfill my military obligation. It scared me when I got my draft notice toward the end of my second week in boot camp and realized that I wouldn't be able to report. My Company Commander explained to a few of us who'd received them that we'd be okay, and that we were no longer subject to the draft. (We burned our draft cards!)
I mean to continue to reflect on this... if toward no other end than my own peace of mind. I still don't know where the anger between right and left... between red and blue comes from. I wonder how much of it is manufactured in order to emphasize our differences.
There are right answers upon which we should all be able to agree. My understanding is that Buddhists believe one knows the truth because it is always and invariably true. In that context, can one be "pro-life" if one kills under certain circumstances? Is it rational for someone who is "pro-choice" to oppose the death penalty under any circumstances?
I think we should stop shouting and discuss these things.
By the way, in any election prior to 1964 I don't think there's any way that George would've beat a combat veteran. I could be wrong... again.

Thoughts on Place

This could turn out to be an introductory post, but I don't know that yet... I never know what I'm going to write about next. Ronni Bennett over at Time Goes By has been forced into the realization that she has to change her venue from her beloved New York to... where?
Appalachian Intellectual posted regarding some of hatefulness that has been vented toward the people of East Waynesville, N.C. (It was the pastor at the Baptist Church and he's resigned!) There are conservative Republicans in California and there are liberal Democrats in North Carolina. We may need to work on our tolerance.
Finally, I have been thinking about posting on my reflections about some of differences between red states and blue states... an issue with me as my intention is to move from the ultimate blue state smack into the middle of a bunch of red states. It came to me that my roots are in red states and that with a little reflection I can still see where they're coming from... for the most part.
I had an epiphany of sorts early last year... that I was never going to be able to retire in California, that I was working full time at a job that I do not relish in order to be able to live in California, and that I really don't care to live in California. I've lived in California since 1970 when I got back to the States. My last fifteen years in the Navy were in and out of San Diego. My kids were born in San Diego and I went to college in San Diego and after college I finally found a job in Southern California... not in San Diego, of course! I was already 42!
I grew up in the rural midwest... central Illinois and Iowa... a million years ago but I have never had a desire to return to the bitter winters or the hot, humid summers there.
My father's family was from Henry County, Georgia, and my only memories of it were of the summer. I got a chance to go back there last May, but it's become so... metropolitan Atlanta that it's just not an option.
During my drive through America last May I looked around, stopped by coffee shops, smelled the air... Tennessee sang to me... the Smoky Mountains sang to me... when I met my wife she said the Smoky Mountains sang to her (but her preference is for the Georgia side of them... she's from Clayton County, Georgia and had vacationed up around Rabun Gap). Today I'll be dipped if the MSNBC Travel Section didn't have a piece on 25 Things to Love About Asheville.
I know guys who are making it on their military retirement... but not in California. Worse, California has never really sung to me. This is where I got off the ship in 1985 and I stayed here, but I'm not a Californian. It remains to be seen whether or not I'll become at home in the Smokies, but they are calling me... and it's time.
In eighteen months I'll be 59 and a half, and I promised my wife's family that I'd have her back home in time for her birthday in 2006. I just need to hold off on breaking stuff for awhile.

I want to mention HM3 Jeffery Wiener. Petty Officer Third Class Jeffery L. Wiener, 32, of Louisville, Ky., died May 7, in a combat related incident. Weiner was a Navy hospital corpsman assigned to II Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF). Here is the piece they wrote up on him in the Lexington, KY paper.

Thoughts on This and That

Today my ortho surgeon signed off on my return to work this coming Monday. I'm running the wheels off of my walker and am just a hair away from switching to a single crutch or a cane.
The urologist, on the other hand, has said he won't even think about doing surgery on me until I'm at least eight weeks post-op from the femoral rod. He says the risk of emboli is too great. Objectively, I can see his point. Subjectively, it occurs to me that six months (at least) will have passed since my biopsy. I've been racking my brain without success for a potential upside to leaving a cancer to do its work for six months.
Speaking of faith, I did see a couple of items in my reading today.
From WLOS in Asheville, N.C.: "East Waynesville Baptist asked nine members to leave. Now 40 more have left the church in protest. Former members say Pastor Chan Chandler gave them the ultimatum, saying if they didn't support George Bush, they should resign or repent. The minister declined an interview with News 13. But he did say "the actions were not politically motivated."
If you're okay with that tidbit, then you're going to love what they're doing in Kansas (and elsewhere). The Kansas State Board of Education wants to "alter the definition of science, not limiting it to theories based on natural explanations." Yes, it's another run at passing off creationism/"intelligent design" as science.
I'm not going to be hypercritical today. I suspect that defending the conceit that the entire universe was created for the pleasure and benefit of those humans of the Judeo-Christian faiths must be extremely hard work... although it has to be somewhat easier under the current Administration.

Thoughts on Values

I keep thinking that I'm going to get more disciplined in my writing. There are several things I mean to address, but then I get distracted as something catches my eye and then things seem to coalesce into another subject entirely... or perhaps not entirely.
I've been ruminating on Tamar's post the other day regarding the pervasive nature and global extent of politics. The next thing I'm reading is this piece in The Guardian about U.S.-Sudanese cooperation in the "Global War on Terror." Now today's MSN Quote of the Day is from Emmanuel Levinas: "Politics is opposed to morality, as philosophy to naïveté." It came to me that this could account for a lot.
I had intended to ask the six percent of voters who voted for GW six months ago but who now feel that he sucks in his job for an explanation. What changed? What was concealed from them in November that is apparent to them now? (Like they're all reading my blog!) It came to me that in run-up to November the talk was all about "values." The neocons just did a superb job of distracting people from their politics. Men who never served a minute in combat... who avoided service... were able to impugn the character of a decorated veteran by challenging his freedom of speech. They had better salesmen.
No WMD? Never mind because Saddam was a dictator and the U.S. doesn't do dictators... except throughout the 1980's when he was gassing Iranians, Shi'ites and Kurds somewhat indiscriminately. The U.S. is all about human rights and the principles of democracy... except in Saudi Arabia and China and Russia because business is business. In public we seek to condemn the Sudanese government in the U.N. for genocide while in the background we still do business with their intelligence apparatus.
Core values dictate that we must not take life, that we must not steal, that we must not bear false witness, etc. Politics dictate that "you have to go along to get along" and that the end justifies the means. You clean up Iraq as much as you can before you leave and you can write off the whole damn war as a humanitarian effort, and in a few years who will remember the lies?
Does it make any sense then for me to rant because politicians are amoral? Yeah, it does. It does because this is a republic, and these people do not in fact represent my values. From elementary school I've been told that we hold certain truths to be self evident, but there is little testament that our government values those truths. Our government is made up of politicians. Our government is made up of politicians because we are too damn lazy or distracted or otherwise engaged to think beyond buzzwords and sound bites.
Would it kill us to make the effort to identify and elect people to represent us who weren't so flagrantly for sale? I refuse to believe that George W. and Arnold Schwarzenegger represent our best and our brightest hopes for the future. Is it not possible to elect people you would allow to sit your kids?

I Have to Say Something

Okay, it's still a little uncomfortable to sit in this chair for any length of time, but enough is enough.
I saw this piece yesterday which speaks to a commitment by VietNam veterans to speak up and to keep it up on behalf of the men and women who are serving or have served their country in Afghanistan and Iraq. These men and women have committed their lives to act as an instrument of national policy. If you don't like the national policy, deal with that; but respect the sacrifices of the men and women who serve.
I want to make a brief mention of two Navy corpsmen:
"Hospitalman Aaron A. Kent, 28, of Portland, Oregon, died Apr. 23, from an improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations near Fallujah, Iraq. Kent was assigned to 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), Camp Lejeune, North Carolina."
The remains of Hospitalman Third Class Malcolm T. Miller, of H&S Company, 3rd Recon. Bn., 3rd MarDiv, FMFPac, and three of his Marines were recently recovered, identified, and returned to their families. They were listed as KIA/Body Not Recovered since May 10, 1967, when they were killed near Khe Sanh. Petty Officer Miller and two of his Marines will be laid to rest at Arlington on May 10.
Semper Fi

Thoughts on Life

I fell and broke my hip two Saturdays ago... just a simple step off the curb in a parking lot on an absolutely beautiful April morning. Suddenly one's life has changed... and in many ways no longer seems to be entirely one's own.
I've known since early January that my life was going to change... I was trying to keep things on my terms.
I had a week to get our taxes finished for 2004 and set up for 2005.
I had over two weeks to finish teaching my boss and co-workers how I've done my job... and often their's... for the past six years.
I had over two weeks to get my durable power of attorney signed and witnessed... to make sure my bride was fully empowered just in case. The surgery for my prostate cancer was scheduled for April 26th.
There was a point I reached the other night that I had not reached before... Everyone was trying to help me...Everyone was hurting me...Nothing was working...
I'm (finally) back home tonight. The prostatectomy will be rescheduled when I'm back on my feet from the hip pinning. Did I need to learn that I wasn't in control?
I'll bet that flight over the Smart & Final parking lot on the 9th would be a hoot to watch. I hope someone has seen it.

Thoughts on Filial Opportunity

I was going to write about the Patriot Act today, but then Ronni posted about her father and I saw this piece on caring for parents who didn't take care of you. My blog discipline will just have to wait for another day, and today I'll write about what speaks to me.
My mother moved back to her childhood hometown back in the early '80s. She'd led an interesting life, and was looking forward to enjoying time with family and old friends. In 1999 I found myself living alone and making increasingly frequent trips back for her hospitalizations. As the years had passed so had her siblings, her classmates from 1935, and all but one of her first cousins who did not drive. I packed her stuff into a Ryder truck, and drove it back after I flew her out to California.
There were times... times I was glad I'd done it... times when I wondered... darn sure there were times when she wondered! In the piece it talks about the guilt. Two of my sisters and I were placed in foster care... I'd just turned seven... and I didn't return home until my 14th birthday when she graduated from college. I worked and paid my keep from then until I joined the Navy. I asked myself "why me?" Well, it was because it needed to be done and I could, and my sisters couldn't; and one does feel like crap for asking the question.
To make a long story short, I believe it worked out to be a blessing. I don't know that I'd recommend it to everyone; but at the end of the day (we buried Mom in January, 2003) my sisters and I were closer, we'd all had a chance to come to terms with some childhood issues and make our peace together with our mother, and we were all there at her passing.
I guess if there's a point to this it might be that there may be an opportunity where one see's only duty. In the meantime, if there's a subject I haven't gone off on, please let me know or be patient and I'll get to it eventually.

Another Reason to be Ashamed of Myself

It's petty... it's judgemental... it has absolutely nothing whatever to do with me... but Prince Charles is representing the British royal family at the funeral for the Pope? Not that my credentials are any better than his, but... I'm not going!

Thoughts on Denial as a Preventive Health Plan

If you're reading this today your problem is that this is the only blog that I have, because I've got a thing about the forlorn hope that teaching "abstinence only" to children will make a dent in teen pregnancy and STDs.
I saw this piece on MSNBC on young people's sexual behavior and attitudes. I'll grant you that this can be confusing stuff... at least one President of the United States was similarly disposed. All the more reason why children... people... need better information and not less.
When I first started conducting STD prevention training in the Navy I was... strongly encouraged?... to emphasize abstinence as the only sure preventive method. That's actually true, of course, and I'm a pretty good instructor; but can you guess what happened right after we hit our first overseas liberty port? So I modified my lesson plans a bit; and I didn't change the world, but the overall rates dropped off a bit and the repeat cases fell off substantially. I'm not necessarily proud of myself, but I believe the people who were going to do what they were going to do, make the choices they were going to make, did so with better information to protect themselves and others from infections and unplanned pregnancies.
You just can't get by with telling people to not even think about sex and let it go at that. Any adult that can't grasp that has got to be either in denial about their own experience or is experiencing memory loss. Sexuality is older than religion, and has almost certainly undergone a lot fewer changes over the centuries. It isn't going to go away anytime soon... one hopes... so deal with it.

Comment-a-Thon

Today, April 1st, only several sponsors have agreed to donate to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for each comment left on this blog.
I am not going to try in any way to elaborate on Greg Hammond's pain on losing his wife to breast cancer. I can't begin to imagine finding that impossibly rare soul who completes your being only to watch her die far too soon. Just accept that he's recognizing the anniversary of her passing by taking a swipe at the disease that killed her, and help him out by posting a comment on his April 1st post.
That's at http://www.californiahammonds.com.

Trying to let bygones be bygones

Let me be clear... I don't believe that Jane Fonda owes me a thing. We'll all come to judgement in our time, but I'm pretty sure I won't get to be the judge. Having said that, I've been reading about this interview she gave to Leslie Stahl, and it just isn't working for me.
She, as so many others, seems to only regret that she was captured on film... in her case sitting on that anti-aircraft gun in Hanoi. She doesn't regret the trip to the enemy capital in 1972, and she doesn't regret the Hanoi radio spots, and she doesn't regret visiting the guards at the Hanoi Hilton (she damn sure didn't care about the prisoners)... she only regrets “The image of Jane Fonda, ‘Barbarella,’ Henry Fonda’s daughter ... sitting on an enemy aircraft gun."
You know there are things we do that cannot be undone. I was thinking about how I could find it in my heart to forgive Jane Fonda... for my soul, not hers... until I read this piece and found that she's actually unrepentant for the actual betrayal... she's only sorry for the image of her betrayal. I have this overwhelming urge to quote Dan Ackroyd from SNL here.

Thoughts on Duty

Am I a veteran against President Bush's war on Iraq? Absolutely.
What do I think about deserters applying for refugee status in Canada? If they ever set foot in my country again, lock 'em up and throw away the key.
Is this inconsistent with what I've said all along? I don't believe so. I have said all along that we serve our country and that our country picks the wars.
The Oath of Enlistment is a simple one and pretty straightforward: "I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice."
Once you commit to serve, lives depend on you. I understand that poor kids... disadvantaged kids... immigrant kids... looking for any kind of a decent break hear the siren song of the recruiter. Three hot meals and a cot... money for college... learn a trade or profession. Some of them... Pat Tillman... they buy into "saving the nation from international (name a threat)." I know that it sucks to be misled by recruiters or Presidents or whomever; but that doesn't matter once you take that oath. The bottom line is that once you take that oath you have an obligation... not the least of which is to the soldier who's counting on you to watch his back.
I came to terms with the guys who fled their country rather than facing conscription during VietNam... not everyone had the advantages of Dubya or of Dick Cheney. I could respect a guy laying down his weapon and doing his time in the brig. A deserter just needs to keep right on running.

A Nod to the Youngsters

Today I'd like for folks to read this post from Sgt. Sminklemeyer.
I've had DocInTheBox over on my sidebar almost since I started blogging. I didn't find out about his blog while he was in Iraq the first time, but he's sharp... and he's committed to his troops, and I like that. This post was written by a guy who's not just in it for base pay and allowances.
Through links on Sean's blog I found Sminklemeyer's blog. I don't necessarily agree with Smink's politics... I don't agree with anyone all of the time... but as I commented on his post: This isn't about politics... this is about keeping faith with people who are giving their lives for this country.
It isn't only men or nurses this time around. Blair... "Buffbabe"... did what I thought was some pretty good writing from Iraq. I remember this post caught my eye. "Sgt. Lizzie" wrote this when she got back to her unit from the hospital in Germany... *Gallows Humor Warning*... and technically she didn't "walk away" from the "accident."
There are others... Amber comes to mind... an officer.
You want it to be over... you want your life to go back to normal... but it will never ever be "normal" again.
We owe these people.
Semper Fi

Thoughts on Civil Rights

It occurs to me that the test of civil rights is how they are applied to our enemies. I mean it's just a thought, but any damn fool can be nice to his mother. Can he be nice to his mother-in-law, is another question altogether.
Zacarias Moussaoui is a challenge for us.
Moussaoui is a disciple of Osama bin Laden, and he admits his allegiance to Al Qaida. He was enrolled in a flight training program at the time he was taken into custody. It is reasonable to assume... and he might admit... that he intended to do us harm; however, he denies having anything whatever to do with 9/11. He was already in U.S. custody on 9/11/2001; but apparently we allege that he was involved in the planning of the attacks on 9/11. It appears that the Justice Department will seek the death penalty in his case.
Moussaoui's lawyer has pointed out that the government's evidence apparently comes out of unsworn statements taken in secrecy from unnamed alleged conspirators, and that Moussaoui is being denied the opportunity to confront his accusers. John Couey will be given the opportunity to challenge the evidence against him. Timothy McVeigh had the opportunity to challenge the evidence against him. The federal courts have ruled that Moussaoui's rights are served... and therefor that his life depends... on "government-prepared summaries of the captives' statements."
Man, if I was Zacarias Moussaoui and my life depended on the integrity of this administration I'd be sweating bullets.
I'd be okay with locking him up... he is what he is: an Al Qaida terrorist who was in training to do us harm... but killing him because he hates us and we hate him and he's the only live terrorist we have in custody? I wouldn't want to have to explain that to my grandson.

The Natural Injustice of War

I read this piece on MSNBC this morning, and felt moved to comment on it.
Regardless of how one feels about the particular war these kinds of things happen... and you have no idea how much I loathe using a euphemism like "these kinds of things." When... not if, but when... it happens this huge black hole of karma opens. There is no "wrong" other than the wrong of war but there is horrible injustice.
He's speeding home with his wife and six children fifteen minutes before curfew after which they're liable to be shot for being Iraqi out after dark... the troops are on foot as sundown draws nearer. He gets too close too soon in the fading light and the troops, justifiably, open up on him... and his wife... and those six children.
I think the piece speaks to the children... who believes justice has been served by giving $7500 to the family elder? Who blames the 14-year old for her consuming hatred?
The piece mentions the role of the Army in restoring the troops to combat... to compartmentalize the trauma of opening that car's doors and seeing what they've just done to an innocent family.

The unit's chaplain, Capt. Ed Willis, says there's no reason to feel guilty: "If
you kill someone on the battlefield, whether it's another soldier or collateral
damage, that doesn't fit under 'Thou shalt not kill'."

I can't begin to tell someone who hasn't lived with it how little that means to the men who are going to wake up from those dreams for the rest of their lives. Of course, this is something with which the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense and current Secretary of State would not be familiar.

Thoughts on the Loss of Faith and Confidence

This has been kind of a downer morning...
I saw this piece on Halliburton, then I read this post in a blog of an OIF returnee, and then I re-read Tamar's post from back in January. I didn't do all of this on purpose, of course, but I seem to be seeing more and more in this vein lately.
The legend is that our government is a "government of the people by the people for the people," and that the purpose of that government is "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." I believed in that for a lot of years. I wonder if I might not have had some development delay... I believed Eisenhower, Kennedy, Goldwater, Nixon, Ford, Carter... never Johnson nor anyone since.
I had been thinking about Halliburton last night as I drove home... how they seem to be doing business everywhere... in Iraq before the war, in Iraq during the war, in Iran, kind of like cockroaches... if anything survives Armageddon it will probably have a Halliburton logo on it.
We did business with Marcos... we did business with Noriega... we did business with Hussein... We didn't take him to task when he put that missile into USS Stark... We don't get principled until we're done using them. We... Who is we? Is this my government?
I've been working on a post on why I think we need to reinstate the draft... for a number of reasons... but would I let either of my kids go? Should I?
I'm retired military, and... to be honest... what I resent most of all at this point... is that their conduct has led me to ask these questions. I'm supposed to be able to follow them anywhere, and obey their orders without hesitation.

*Update* This is thought-provoking.

Observation on The Peter Principle

I learned this morning that Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, the senior Intelligence Officer in Iraq during the Abu Graib prison scandal, has been... rewarded?... with command of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center, the training center for Army interrogators, at Ft. Huachuca.
Presumably the Peter Principle no longer establishes the ceiling for professional development... unless, of course, she was just following orders in Iraq... you think?

The Exercise of Power

I don't get it... I know good people who voted for Republicans so I feel like I have to be missing some redemptive virtue.
Today they... the Republicans in the U.S. Senate... attached the authority to open the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration and exploitation to a budget bill... thereby protecting it from a filibuster... and passed it on a 51-49 vote. The people who have lied to us continuously since 2001 have assured us that there are billions of barrels of oil buried there and that it can be brought out without significant damage to the environment.
The oil companies did their part... running the price of gasoline right up to the record on the weekend before the vote... and the Senate Republicans did their part... giving the oil companies the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge... just like that.
I hate writing about politics... but I'm afraid to stop. I don't want to be bitching about the outcome from this in ten years and have someone ask me why I didn't say anything at the time.

The Consequences of ADHD

It came to me as I was driving home last night that you never hear about Afghanistan (Dubya's other "success" story) these days.
It turns out that they're having a pretty tough winter and are still experiencing a significant amount of civil unrest. As I looked at this piece it came to me that there may be legitimate reasons why people turn to organizations such as the Taliban and the Mafia for protection. For better or for worse, they do offer a level of stability.
As I was reading I noticed that except for limited special forces activities we've offloaded most of our responsibility for conditions in Afghanistan onto the UN and NATO... and then we send John Bolton to the UN? How decent of us...
Where is Osama bin Laden? Remember the guy who did attack the U.S.? Cold trail.

A Little Bit of Perspective

Seriously, I wasn't going to post about this... I really never meant for this to be a political blog, or a commentary on Dubya's War on Iraq... and I'm really happy that the people of Iraq are starting to get their legs under them... but the parliamentary session today is what it is... and no more.
The election at the end of January was a milestone in the development of a new Iraq, but democratic? To the extent that voting for the republican ticket in 1800 without knowing if you were going to get Thomas Jefferson or Aaron Burr for President would have been democratic I suppose it was democratic. Can you imagine voting Republican in 2004 thinking John McCain and getting Dubya?
What we have in Baghdad today is a parliament... an interim body that's more a constitutional convention than a legislative body... still without a President and without a Prime Minister. It's a step toward the eventual restoration of Iraqi sovereignty. We'll see how long it takes us to end our occupation.

Thoughts on Presence and Commitment

You know what's confusing?... When you click on DefenseLinkdotMil and read that the "Coalition" in Iraq is just peachy and getting peachier; and then on the same day you see an AP story like this one which could lead one to believe that our allies are pulling out of Iraq as quickly as it can be arranged (except for Tony Blair, of course) you just have to ask yourself who is to be believed. That isn't what bothered me though. What bothered me was that in the follow-up question: "Should Italy's decision to pull its troops from Iraq affect U.S. policy?" 35% of respondents said that "the U.S. should keep as many troops as necessary in Iraq for as long as is need to ensure a healthy democracy survives."
I know that these MSNBC news polls aren't scientific, but still... 35%?... for as long as it takes however long it takes until OUR desired outcome is achieved? Can you say "until hell freezes over?" You know why I support a reinstatement of the draft? Because I'd bet you that none of those in that 35% have kids at risk of serving there... or they're making a ton of money from our commitment there.
Mind you that I think the 22% who want to be out of there by this weekend are nuts, too; but an open-ended commitment? No, thank you. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

Joe Scarborough Can Eat My Shorts

I got a tip to read "Congressman" Joe Scarborough's blog post of March 8th in which he purports to offer his advice to Democrats while at the same time challenging their patriotism.

"...it has been clear that while most Democrats are not openly cheering for the
terrorists killing our troops, neither were they in America’s corner."

It occurs to me that Joe's not really a congressman anymore, is he? I mean, I'm a retired Navy Corpsman and Chief Petty Officer, but I don't go around calling myself "Doc" or "Chief" anymore. It isn't really that important to me what he calls himself. It's just that if someone who's never served a day in uniform... even President Bush wore his uniform occasionally... is going to challenge my patriotism I like to know where he's coming from. If he's some pathetic little hack "wannabe" in need of a real life that's still okay. I'll keep a good thought for him.

What I really need is for one of these neocons... because this should be easy for a strict constructionist... to tell me how we get from "...in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity..." to getting kids killed trying to transform the world into a Republican fiefdom. I'm un-American? (Retired Navy Chief Expletives Deleted)

Have you ever Googled this guy? Way to go, MSNBC!

Thoughts on Outsourcing Torture

Before I get sidetracked, I wanted to mention this. I had all but moved on when I was reminded this morning about this story.
Listen, I know why people want to torture. I understand it. Your life is on the line... or that of a buddy or loved one... you think this guy you're looking at has information about it... I understand. It's like when people ask if you wouldn't support the death penalty if your child was the victim... it's an ad hominum argument that has nothing to do with whether or not it's the right thing to do.
The problem is that you're not allowed to do that in America... or if you are an American... so you send them off to another country... even Syria which you've pretty much determined has one of the most loathsome governments in the world... and then you can testify in front of Congress with a straight face that you didn't torture or sanction torture and can you help it how other countries act?... but you go ahead and act on the information.
I swear you people are worse than my kids! Is there such a thing as a neoconservative ethicist? How do you people sleep? Do you recognize that at some point you may have to try to sell this bullshit to your Creator?

Thoughts on Inevitable Consequences

There are so many things that cry for attention... but several of them seem to me to dovetail into one thing... our unflinching confidence in our global supremacy. It is increasingly apparent... to me at least... that this administration pretty much seems to feel that the world is our oyster and that we are going to call all the shots from here on out.
The nomination of John Bolton to be our ambassador to the United Nations pretty much says it all. J in Armchair Generalist wrote about this on Monday. What better way to tell the world that we really and truly couldn't care less in one bold stroke?
I really don't believe that George W. Bush is the most evil human being on Earth today... I don't believe he's smart enough... but I really think someone in this administration needs to pause and reflect on the message for a bit.
Let's forget for the moment that we're a debtor nation incapable of feeding, clothing, housing or fueling ourselves... and let's even assume for the moment that we really aren't concerned about all those Chinese... or Russians... or Moslems... or any number of folks who might not think highly of being regarded as part of an American hegemony. Let's just think for a moment about the end of the Soviet Union... or the British Empire... or the Roman Empire... or any number of others.
How long can we keep all of those balls in the air? What happens when they start to fall? Who'll pick up the pieces? Do any of these people ever think ahead to how this ultimately has to end?
These people are like my kids! They want it all, they want it now, and hang the expense.

Hello? Earth is a planet! If we screw it up for them we screw it up for ourselves, too!

Thoughts on the Environment

The President has nominated Steve Johnson to head the EPA... a position he's been acting in for some time. This is supposed to be a big plus because he's a long-term EPA scientist and not a politician... Oh, really?
In his remarks, Mr. Johnson said, "it will be my distinct privilege... to continue to advance an environmental agenda while maintaining our nation's economic competitiveness." The piece goes on to quote his appreciation of the "great strides in environmental protection" during this Bush administration.
Mr. Johnson's area of expertise is supposed to be pesticides and toxic substances? If memory serves, was there not some shuffling done with the permissible level of arsenic in our water during the previous term?
Sen. Jim Jeffords, who used to have a little sense, pointed out that "the Bush administration has the worst environmental record in history," and still said "I am hopeful that he (Steve Johnson) can bring a fresh and new approach." This is like me being hopeful of waking up skinny, handsome and rich tomorrow.
Apparently the electricity utilities lobbyist likes the guy... That's not really reassuring.
The ANWR is so screwed.....

Did you see where James Baker is starting to talk about global warming?... to a roomful of oil company execs?

Thoughts on the Oil Business

I only have a few minutes, and had a couple of things irritating the heck out of me before I saw this piece on the forthcoming push to drill for oil in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge.
They're going to do what they're going to do, the Republicans, because they have a majority in both chambers and the White House, and because very few of you are really paying attention; but it ticks me off.
The oil industry is going to take maybe five years I believe it was to try to find less than ten years worth of oil and they're going to destroy the existing eco-system up there in the process. In return the American public is going to get bupkis.
For some reason people seem to buy into the bull that the oil industry is shoveling... and, bless their hearts, I suppose to some extent ignorance is bliss... but this has nothing to do with dependence on overseas oil. It's all about greed... a few million barrels of oil... not enough to make a difference really... and all it's going to cost is the environment. Drink up.
I live in California where they've jacked up gas prices because they had to change the formula of our gasoline which they've been doing twice a year every year for about... twenty years? Now I'm not an MBA but I'd bet that those oil companies have a five-year business plan that accounts for periodically switching fuel refinery standards, periodically doing maintenance and upgrades on their refineries, etc. If they're really and truly caught off guard twice a year every year by the reformulation I'd be really, really disappointed. Every time they tell me they had to raise prices because they had to take a pipe or refinery offline for maintenance I smell fertilizer.
Oil is $53 a barrel? So what? Do the oil companies not control the production, the refineries, most of the distribution system? Are they not charging themselves $53 a barrel and passing the bill on to us? I know they pay royalties out of that, but they're buying and selling oil to themselves.
Do you know what the oil companies are doing with the oil they're currently getting out of Alaska? They're selling it in Asia and still bringing in our oil from other countries! Do you know what they're going to do with the oil they get out of ANWR?
Listen... I'm not laboring under many illusions here. These people won the elections, and the ANWR is... in all likelihood... toast. If they're not going to hesitate at thousands... tens or hundreds of thousands... of human lives lost and countries in ruins, they aren't going to slow down for some wildlife and some scenery. I just think it's a damn shame is all. I generally hold that, while evil will come and go, the good will prevail over time. I just don't know what will be left when it goes this time.