How did we get here?

This a great piece sent to me by my fiend Dr O. He's a brilliantly diabolical fellow who like me is secretly working to bring the whole place down from the inside. But all kidding aside, we were discussing terrorism and tactics and somehow got to this. It shifted the discussion to cognitive dissonance something I discuss a bit int TO&S and so worth highlighting here.

HANSON: A nation of promiscuous prudes - Washington Times

HT Hanson and Dr O.

Toddlers of War

I once took a position that it was too early to tell about the future of the nations we’ve recently invaded, Iraq and Afghanistan. In challenging a Marine Officer's assessment that Iraq was a win I said we’ll see what path the next generation takes the kids we gave candy to all those years - I said let’s wait and see their choices as political creatures over the next ten or fifteen years. And so here we are looking at Afghanistan on April Fools 2013 where it’s being reported a young man of 16 has stabbed an American SGT to death while he played with local children. They can’t verify the age of the attacker who escaped but if they’re speculating then this kid is probably someone known to other personnel on scene.

 So maybe we don’t have to wait that long to see where this has taken us.

Yes this is only one incident and I don’t offer it up as the final piece of evidence Afghan and Iraq actions have been for naught, there is ample evidence to back that hypothesis and little to show otherwise. No, this one incident is significant because if it’s true, the attacker is between 15 or 18 yoa. That means when we arrived there this attacker was barely a toddler between the ages of 3 and 5.

New meaning to the word 'infantry' (literally child or youngest soldiers).

Our benign empire has made a foe of a baby despite our best efforts to win hearts and minds, using our special forces to terrorize and abduct locals we knew (76% of the time or so) were terrorist ring leaders and describing dead relatives of this kid as collateral damage without facing scrutiny or justice is what brought us here. A guy from Kentucky barely old enough to realize the folly of our adventure is lost and in his place we have a new, young enemy and probably many others waiting to stab the rest of us in the neck.

There isn’t anyone to blame except ourselves, no one in government is individually responsible for the inept strategic planning or lack thereof, there is a lot of blame to go around as far as most American’s are concerned the war is over and has been for some time, we’re just waiting for one or two guys to come back since the president declared our exit date in 2009. Keep the 68,000 US service personnel in Afghan in your thoughts while you enjoy attacking the self-esteem of colleagues today with office pranks.  

Madness Abounds

Speaking with those I know and reading what can be seen from here everything in the arena of public affairs seems quite insurmountable, overwhelming and inexplicably maddening for its complexity and cognitive dissonance. Folks I know are just throwing up their hands and turning to various diversions – March Madness, speculation about what the Yankees and Red Sox will achieve this year compared to the Rangers or Tigers or if RGIII will be able to start week 1 and if so, how healthy will he be?

Trying to make a dent in the stupid that surrounds us is slow hard and tedious, we seem to be legislated into paralysis and it may be deliberate. In a discussion this morning about what should be a simple improvement I found bureaucratic inertia would not allow a seemingly simple improvement. Oddly I noted this same colleague clamoring vociferously for change when asked to participate in making it happen, beyond complaining – angrily declined the opportunity. So fifteen minutes of warming the air later, I too could use a distraction. I fired up Al Gore’s magnificent machine and find myself drawn into the daily drumbeat of Papal reporting.

I’m not Catholic, one of my grandmothers was and so I’m just a tad bit curious about it. I like this fellow, as he seems to embody a very simple and straightforward approach to life and leadership. He might even be a link to a more magical world, a more spiritual world a less complex, nuanced, litigious and murderous world. He offers the intoxicating distraction of a vibrant breathing mythology perhaps able to compete even with the NFL. We’ll see in the fall that’s for sure. But this allure of his might be his undoing; the attention he’s garnered, the popularity might it become a worldly celebrity or fame?

His past is not without controversy either with regards to rebels and mass murders in Argentina or his take on same sex marriage. Marriage and the state, the current SCOTUS docket is perhaps the finest recent example, next to sequestration - of the wheels coming off the bus as we approach a hairpin turn. I personally don’t care if you marry a lampshade, a kangaroo or a dinosaur fossil unless this costs money from the public treasury or reduces my own legitimate sensible families’ ability to compete for resources and to thrive.  You can call a duck a chicken but it’s a duck, that’s my take – also the gov’t is too deeply involved in our daily lives if this has become an issue of national importance of any priority.

Meanwhile North Korea is perhaps running out of threats and may be forced, by inertia of its own distracting mythology surrounding their leadership cult into a nuclear exchange and oblivion. Looking at defense related media it seems all are in agreement a reheated war with NK would be a quick and easy win for the US. I however remain unimpressed and skeptical – I remember how many wars have been sold to us this way, including Iraq. The first NK intervention of 1950, a mere 5 years after the 2nd war to end all wars comes to mind.

As a semi-retired soldier I had to think would I prefer to serve in this theatre or another? It seems there are so many opportunities for pointless gruesome death or murder around the globe in the name of some obscure objective on a classified memo. We got our bluff called in Syria but seem hell bent to attack Iran where we don’t have to go. NK is something that might happen to us more than us asking for it like we are in Uganda, Jordan or Iran. I don’t want to fight in the sand so if given a choice in the event of a recall I’m going to ask for the pacific theatre – NK mud and smaller opponents for melee combat vs. the larger specimens of the Barbary Coast, Fertile Crescent or the Holy Land.

If that’s the holy land, it belongs to a cult of death, one that justifies murder and war for personal gain and revenge, not in self-defense.

That brings me back to the Papal topic. I think part of the interest in the Pope is that if I understand his statements he equates murder with war and doesn’t yield to the nation state entity the power to bless or legitimize it. There is a public voice I can agree with- simple, reasoned and sane.

I hope. Not because I’m lining up to convert, only because I know he is capturing the imagination of and can mobilize a growing young church with great influence in the economic south.

So I offer a statement of support, a plea or a prayer if you will for this fellow who might break the lawyer's, profiteer's, bankster's and madmen's grip on the world – their rule is driving us to a new madness.

This new madness is a place where teenagers are threatening mothers and executing babies in strollers, lawyers argue that an unconscious girl consented to rape, and her peers film it while daring each other to urinate on her unconscious form and her mother offers her up to this cohort of stupid savages who haven’t the common decency to apologize to the girl or the country as a whole for having to be sickened by their misdeeds. I wonder about their religious affiliation, what denomination do they belong to?

So marry a kangaroo I don’t care – in fact I don’t want to know about it, do it in your basement without the government having to sanctify it or pay for it. I’ll slog on trying to keep my kids safe until they’re ready to wade into this society and its debates, hoping I prepare them better than the boys of a certain big red football program for a life among the mad.

Oh and GO Skins! Pope if you read this – put a good word in with God for RGIII wouldja?

Promised Update

The new year - a snake year brings us many wonderful new opportunities and challenges. North Korea is more nuclear than it was, some seem to be quite worried about it. File that one under "challenges". There is a job opening coming soon at the Vatican, polish those resumes up if you're from the 3rd world. Internet rumors have it that the church, not to be outdone by the US is leaning towards a black or third world Pope for a change. If you're from the third world I think you've got more pressing concerns that race quotas in hiring but I want to wish all the candidates in the economic south well in seeking the post - good luck fellas, I'm quite sure you can't see this from there. Internet rumor quality what it is, the smart money is on a Polish or Japanese Pope instead. File under "opportunity".

I have another opportunity for consideration, a savings opportunity for the country. There is a lot of hand wringing and posturing about budget issues; Admirals cutting ship maintenance and telling the administration publicly it can't meet commitments and JOs over at the USNI blog suggesting senior leaders resign in protest, coincidentally opening up promotion opportunities for themselves. No need for the high drama, there are many simple cost-savings measures and if you recall, this blog believes sequestration is only a good start.

One reason I believe the sequester is a good start is the US Navy Reserves. As you know I've been in a simmering feud with them for some years regarding my final retirement status. Recently the 3 star in charge there has decided to appoint an ethnic employment champion for Hispanics whatever that means. Apparently, if you are from the Iberian peninsula, and blond you are not Hispanic. So they can do away with that six-figure salary person first, and this admiral who clearly has misplaced priorities. I think he's angling for a position on the Hon. Sen.  Rubio's presidential campaign staff for a 2016 or 2020 presidential run. Another reason is the DoD has long resisted common sense money saving ideas that other agencies had instituted long ago. Here at the DoC, for instance, we've altered printing habits and reduced printers inventory.

Originally I criticized the idea as too small to make much difference, and possibly counter-productive as printing volume will not decrease proportionally with the printing capability resulting in higher wear and tear on equipment, lost production time and reprints as documents are lost in shared printer schemes where office partners don't get along well. I thought it was a piece of low hanging fruit; shaving the hair off the elephant to reduce its weight when there was still a charging elephant to deal with. It might weigh a wee bit less without its hair but it might also be more aerodynamic and it's going to hit you with approximately the same force it would with the added weight of its hair. Still, the idea is a potential money saver (the jury remains out) despite the cost in man-hours to plan the excess, ship and strip equipment, re-network offices, increased wear and tear and the loss of sunk costs related to discarding equipment not yet halfway through its service life. In some cases, older printers were retained for special abilities newer (cheaper to operate) printers did not have.

Despite the idea having little proven merit, the printer reduction idea is one good example of an attempt however half-witted it might be, that the DoD resisted until just a few weeks ago when it issued a directive to reduce printing. The DoD directive was less extensive than the DoC one, in that it did not require draft quality printing of images and prohibit color but it is so late to the party as to be useless in realizing any immediate savings. Toner, paper, and maintenance contracts for existing soon to be discarded printers in inventory are sunk costs already misspent.

Okay so this sounds like a lot of complaining for nothing. Where is my big idea? In 2009 I put together a small paper and submitted it to the White House as a savings idea when they solicited ideas from government employees. My little idea might have helped then and still might help. In the beginning it would have saved over $75 million dollars, now I don't know what it might realize but I'm putting it back out there again here for reference.

Eagle and the Owl.