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Listen to your local leftie

January 16, 2006 10 comments

It looks like the US Senate is positioning for another unconstitutional handover of war-powers to the president.*  It’s Iran: they’re getting ready to build nukes.  Of course they say their nuke plant is just for electricity, which is like saying you only want a shotgun to use it as a can opener.

Iran has good reason to want nukes; a foreign power has invaded, and now occupies two countries that border on their country.  Under the same conditions we’d be scrambling to build nukes.  But the bigger problem is that Iran’s president has been spouting off all kinds of imflammatory rhetoric.

In our country we have some experience with a trash-talkin’ president, so take my advice, Iran; this guy is bad news.  No matter how much fun it is to express your hatred of Americans, you need somebody more moderate at the helm.  Hatred needs no care or feeding; it takes quite good care of itself.  Find a president who will emphasize your better selves.

What’s bothering me is that this is all so unnecessary.  For decades, us radical wierdos have been telling the US not to support monstrous dictators and thugs.  The Shah of Iran comes to mind, since his disregard of human rights radicalized the very people who now run Iran.  Think also of Saddam Hussein, Somoza, Marcos, Noriega, and Osama Bin Laden as examples – every one of them came back later to bite us in the ass.  And every single one of them was on a human-rights watch list.

So next time you get ready to brand your neighborhood leftist whacko as un-American, consider:  we are looking out for future threats as well as present ones.  One sure way of spotting a leader we shouldn’t support is if they are corrupt, dismiss human rights as antithetical to security, or especially if they practice or endorse torture.  A quick check with Amnesty International now could save a lot of trouble down the road.

Notes:

  • This would be a really good time for our military not to be tied up occupying a country that wasn’t really a threat to us in the first place.  But we were all branded un-American for saying so back then.

  • This would also be a really good time not to have burned a lot of international bridges by ‘with-us-or-against-us’ rhetoric.  Trash-talking feels soooo good, doesn’t it?
  • Seems us leftist whackos have also been saying we needed to conserve oil and develop alternative energy sources, with the eventual goal of telling the Middle East what to do with their oil (luckily oil is slippery).
  • One place where many leftist whackos got it all wrong was in opposing nuclear power at home.  We need nuclear power, and lots more of it, for the reason mentioned above.  Hmm… who knows how to build really good nuclear power plants?  Oh, right… the French.  I’ll just munch on some ‘Freedom Fries’ while I try to figure out how to rebuild our once-strong friendship with that country…
  • I’m using the term ‘leftist’ ironically here, unless you believe that everything to the left of the Radical Right is Leftist.  I’d make a poor hippie.
  • * Found the link on Socialist Swine, who observes that the Democrats are doing a lousy job as a supposed ‘opposition party’.

 

Categories: defense, Politics

A peacenik looks at Veterans Day

November 11, 2005 Comments off

When you’re generally anti-war, you meet a lot of anti-war people who are also anti-military. This is (pun intended) an indefensible position; soldiers, even generals, do not decide when to go to war and once they are sent, their decisions are often micromanaged by people who seem to have little regard for their chances of safely doing the job they were ordered to do and then coming home intact.

I know little about my grandfathers’ Navy service; I gather one was quite a hero and the other served well.  My father was a Seabee, who drove a truck through WWII and said he later regretted not learning more from the tremendously capable machinists and construction specialists he knew then.  My brother was in the Navy in the ‘70’s and my sister recently finished 20 in the Marines.

I have visited the Vietnam memorial; it is mercifully free now of the anti-soldier plague that complicated the effort to bring that conflict to a halt.  I could only stand quietly and look at the wall, then ascend the hill to the sculpture of three weary soldiers.  Made of bronze, they seem lifelike in looking dead on their feet.

When one conceives of a war as misguided, and opposing the war as a patriotic duty, an invisible line is laid out which must nevertheless be walked as carefully as possible.  Our politicians need to be held accountable for how easily they (in perfect safety) could puff up their chests, talk tough, and ‘let slip the dogs of war’.

Diplomatic and economic solutions require the patience of a Zen master, the wisdom of a sage, and tremendous salesmanship to a voting public that prefers easy answers.  As elections loom, politicians crave the appearance of ‘man of action’ even if it is the wrong action.  Has anyone noticed that it us usually the politician who was never in battle who is quickest to open the cage?  It is they, and not the soldier, who deserve hard questions, and occasionally ridicule or even contempt.

The question of loyal opposition to a war belongs entirely in a different post.  Here, I only want to say to those who wear the uniform, or who ever wore it, an unqualified “Thank you.”

Categories: defense, Politics

Guns on the ground

November 10, 2005 1 comment

Our soldiers over in Iraq use a staggering array of hardware, and some of it works better than others.  You could certainly write a really interesting book about the creative and political process that resulted in each one, from initial concept through design and manufacture, to trained soldier trying to use the thing on the battlefield.  And here is a sample of one of our soldiers writing about those weapons in Iraq:

“5) The M240 Machine Gun: 7.62 Nato (.308) cal. belt fed machine gun, developed to replace the old M-60 (what a beautiful weapon that was!!). Thumbs up. Accurate, reliable, and the 7.62 round puts ‘em down. Originally developed as a vehicle mounted weapon, more and more are being dismounted and taken into the field by infantry. The 7.62 round chews up the structure over there…”
Mostly Cajun: A Marine’s Iraq observations

Can’t you just imagine carrying a weapon designed for vehicle mount?  Creative repurposing is something designers learn to expect, but which is impossible to predict.

Leave for another essay the question of whether we should even be in Iraq in the first place: the fact is we are there and our solders should be well-equipped.  I hope someone at the Pentagon is tasked with reading informal assessments like this piece.  For the rest of us, it is a reminder that when senator Lardbottom stands up and pitches for funding a weapon system (that happens to be made in his home state) there are real consequences for our soldiers.

Another interesting, and troubling, aspect of the essay is the sophistication of the enemy weapons and tactics being supplied by Iran.  Go read!

Categories: defense, Politics

Bush wants to use military if bird flu strikes

October 5, 2005 2 comments

Bush wants to use the military to quarantine areas of Asian bird flu pandemic, should an expected outbreak occur. 

Bush has faced a storm of criticism that imposing martial law in the US would violate the Possee Comitatus act, which basically says that the military isn’t for law enforcement.  But the president (appearing to grasp the enormity of what a bird flu epidemic would mean) has faced the possibility of making such a grim decision and is asking Congress for the authority.

That has an eeriely familiar sound.  I hope the president has consulted epidemiologists at the CDC while also asking for competent legal opinion from a broad spectrum of authorities before contemplating such action.

Ha!  Who are we talking about here?  He didn’t do any of that.  But I agree with the president that the spectre of bird flu is a massive threat.  Al-Qaeda couldn’t kill that many Americans on their best (worst) day.

If it did become necessary, it would be a better job for the National Guard (even though they are also under Possee Comitatus restriction).  Sure wish they were all here, guarding the nation.

One other, little nagging thought:  Bush in control of martial law.  Hmmm…

Categories: defense, Politics

Thinking like a terrorist or criminal

August 31, 2005 Comments off

I hope someone at Homeland Defense has thought of this…

You’re a terrorist operative in the States.  When is the highest-leverage time you could possibly strike?

Exactly – just after a staggering natural disaster.

Thieves and grifters

A sad story in the hands of a con-artist is like Snap-On tools in the hands of a mechanic; exactly what they need to get the job done.  With the total evacuation, every surviving con in New Orleans is about to be dumped on the rest of the country with a ready-made sad story.  And con-artists from the rest of the world will exploit the tragedy, too.  Look for your email inbox to fill up with urgent requests for help… some may be legitimate but the signal-to-noise ratio will be very bad.

Just sayin’

Categories: defense, Politics

Would you like some depleted uranium armor-piercing rounds with your pizza?

August 22, 2005 2 comments

I had lunch at Chuck E Cheese’s today – there’s a week’s worth of different-topic blogging posts if I wanted.  But I was most fascinated by the video system feed.

CEC had a video system that featured feeds of cartoons, nature scenes, animals, skydiving, scenery and so forth.  It was really cool: kids could walk into a play TV studio blue-screen and they would appear in the video feed for everyone to see.  The kids loved it.

There was a long segment of footage from Iraq.  There were American soldiers in an Iraqi classroom, on a street in Iraq handing out candy to children, one soldier talking to a beaming child who was looking back in admiration.  There was majestic footage of bombers and fighters soaring through the sky.  There was a part with a huge American flag while patriotic music played.

Kids were playing in the Iraq scenes, and during the flag-background + music scenes, stood straight and saluted, a couple hand-on-heart, and recited the pledge.

There weren’t any scenes like this, or this, however.

At the end of that segment, credits rolled which said something like; “We would like to thank the Department Of Defense for the footage you have just seen.”

On the way back to the office, I felt very sick.  I think it was the salad.

Categories: defense, Politics

Thanks a lot, Ronnie

June 5, 2005 1 comment

Remember “Star Wars?”  Our lovable president Ronald Reagan, said; “If we can send a man to the moon, why can’t we defend America against nuclear missiles?”  Or words to that effect.  He proposed a technological shield to fend off nuclear attack.

(Now there’s real childlike faith.  Even when the experts said it wouldn’t work, Ronnie looked resolute and forged ahead, armed with the expertise of all his training as an actor.)

Scientists said it would not work for any of a hundred reasons.  Stopping missiles is a very different problem from sending a man to the moon, for starters.  But no matter: we began spending billions of precious dollars of borrowed money to develop a system that could not work in a real attack.

Strategists said, even if it worked, it would be an expensive irrelevancy.  There are lots of ways to deliver nukes.  Ryder trucks, for one.  Trains, planes, and automobiles, or a trailer towed behind a Harley motorcycle.  Or our enemies could develop entirely new delivery vectors…

But no matter: development went on.  Money that could have been spent on schools, on veteran’s health care, or simply not borrowed in the first place, circled that drain.  At last we had a “system” that, despite failing to pass tests without a lot of handholding, was “ready” to deploy.  And what happens?

(This is kind of creepy, fascinating, and a little terrifying…)

BrahMos happens.  It’s a joint development venture between Russia and India to produce a supersonic cruise missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.  It’s stealthy (forget tracking it on radar) and they are also developing a larger version able to drop from space and fly in an erratic (unstoppable) pattern to ground as well.

The scientists predicted that missile defense systems would not work, and they have not.  Strategists predicted dropping out of the ABM treaty would trigger a new arms race, and it has.

What we’ve spent on Star Wars so far amounts to a little more than a hundred dollars for every man, woman, and child in America.  How many people are there in your family?  Do you appreciate that many hundred dollar bills of your money being ripped up for no reason?  It’s money down a rathole that leaves us worse off than we were before.

You know how borrowed money works.  By the time it gets paid back, it’ll be several hundred dollars per American.  But the talking heads I saw on Fox today were climbing all over each other to plead for more money to be thrown at a problem which can’t be addressed by money.  Our continued safety from nuclear war is a diplomatic and cultural problem, not a technological one.

Categories: defense, Politics

Welcome basket for North Korea

February 11, 2005 8 comments

This is an old post from February of 2005 but I thought I’d stick it to the wall for a day or so in light of recent events.  We could use a bit of humor.
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North Korea announced yesterday that they really do have nuclear weapons.  No one is surprised by the revelation, but doesn’t it seem that they’ve sort of moved into a new neighborhood?  Specifically, our neighborhood.  I think we should send them a welcome basket and a nice card.

“Dear North Korea,
Welcome to the nuclear neighborhood.  We’ve been expecting you for a long time, since the house next door had a “sold” sign on it and the moving trucks arrived with Kim Jong Il’s stuff.  It’s really not a bad neighborhood because everyone who lives here is careful to “respect” everyone else.  Oh, we argue a lot but no one invades anyone else’s yard.  The consequences are just too horrible to think about.

And yet, we encourage you to think about them.  You might start by reading John Hersey’s Hiroshima for a good description of a nuclear war.  It’s a factual description, from the only actual nuclear war ever fought.  Please remember, it was fought by us, against another country that made us very, very angry.

Please keep in mind that if one of your nukes ever goes off on our soil or where it harms people we’re protecting, we’ll know.  It won’t matter if you deliver it by missile, shipping container, or Federal Express marked “diesel engine,” we’ll know it came from you.  And while you have – what, four or five nukes?  A dozen? – we have enough to turn your whole country into the glassy mirror for a really big telescope and not even miss them.  We don’t want to do that but it would be healthy for you to remember that we can.

(Eventually you’ll come to realize those super weapons are as much an albatross around your neck as a protective barrier.  They certainly are to the rest of us in the neighborhood.)

We pretend to be very upset by your nukes, but the truth is we’re actually a little relieved.  Your having nukes means we won’t be invading you, and contrary to what you’ve been told, Americans don’t really want to go around invading other countries.  We don’t like all the coffins with our children in them, or the shell-shocked veterans waking up screaming or drifting off into drugs and suicide.

You see, we know that sooner or later, Kim Jong Il – can we call you “Kim?”  Or do you prefer “Il?” – you’ll die.  Eventually people in your country will get tired of living in a tyrannized toilet and start wanting a Western lifestyle.  Without firing a shot, we know that North Korea will someday become a capitalist democracy.  McDonalds, Wal-Mart, and the internet will do it.  (You don’t think you can hold off the internet forever, do you?)

Of course, there’s no necessity for your people to wait until you die of natural causes.  If one of your imperial guards wanted to do the whole world a favor, he could just suddenly put a bullet through your misshapen head.  We’d be fine with that.  But here’s something we’d like even better:

Why don’t you start democratizing your country?  You don’t have to have real elections right away – we suspect you don’t even know how.  But start with literacy.  Make sure everyone in your country can read.  Your own language, yes, but English too.  Because the next step may surprise you.

Why not trade with us?  Lighten up on your people a bit, and make something useful in your factories.  If you can make guns, you can make other stuff too, and you could sell that stuff.  Why, next thing you know, you might be selling stuff to us. You’ve got pretty good missiles…  how about launching communication satellites? The quality of life in that cold dark hole you call a country might improve.  You could even take credit for it! 

History doesn’t have any examples of a paranoid tyrant returning to sanity and guiding his people to a better life.  Why don’t you try to be the first?  Despite all our nasty talk, we promise we’ll be rooting for you if you try.

If you play your cards right, you could win an actual, fair election.  Against opposing candidates, even!  There’s a first time for everything.”

Sincerely, the people of the United States of America

CC: Iran

Hell, it could be worth a try.

 

Categories: defense, Politics