Real Patriots and Police States
Real Patriots love their country. Real Patriots have the courage of their convictions. When a Real Patriot sees his country being destroyed by corrupt, criminal or even just irresponsible leadership, a Real Patriot takes to the streets. He protests, he rebels, he dissents. Because it's important. Right now, we are seeing two nations going in opposite directions. In Ukraine, the people saw the criminal thugs attempt to steal the democratic reforms they have worked for and strived for for nearly two decades. They didn't hesitate, they didn't wait for a newspaper or a movie actor to tell them to act. They took to the barricades, they went out on the streets and made their voices heard. And, although it required courage, they were not afraid. They knew that no corrupt government can stay in power if the people do not want them in power. We've seen it before, in the Phillipines, in eastern Europe. The people wanted an honest government and the rule of law, and no matter how hard the criminal incumbents worked to deprive them of their very birthright, they would not relent.
I watch the demonstrations in Kiev on the news and my eyes fill with tears. MY GOD, I want to yell, what has happened to us? These criminals in Washington are destroying our country--our economy, our freedom and liberty, the very notion of what it is to be an American--and we are complicit in the crime. We might as well be one of the plotters. Because we have not raised our voices in protest. We quietly sit, day after night, and moan "Oh poor us, won't someone help us?" The "someone" we need to help us is US!! We must stop waiting for an honest leader, a figurehead, a movie actor or author or television celebrity, and ACT. Whether or not they tampered with the election last month, they are wrecking all that we hold dear. We could stop them anytime we wanted to, but no one raises their voice, no one builds a barricade, no one stands up and says NO MORE!!
While Ukraine courageously stands up to fight for democracy, liberty and the rule of law, America slides faster and faster towards becoming a police state. And the American people, far from digging in their heels and fighting, seem resigned to the outcome, as if it were ordained. Wake UP, People! When they finish tearing up the constitution, it will be too late. LISTEN!! They are already arresting people and holding them indefinately without charges or access to legal representation. What does that sound like to you?
I know, you're comfortable with your job and your house and your TV. As Americans, we really only want to be left alone. To pursue our life, raise our families, make our place here. LOOK EAST!! Find the courage in your heart to stand up to the criminals. Those people in Ukraine? They KNOW what life in a police state is like, any of them in their twenties or older lived under the old Soviet system. They will simply not allow a few greedy, venal men to force them back there. We need to take our inspiration from their courage and dedication. We need to follow their example, and, in so doing, we can regain our place in the world and force the criminals out before it's too late.
Today, we are ALL Ukrainians....
Do you Feel a Draft?
In my travels recently, I have come across a surprising (at least to me) number of people who are convinced that the US Government will reinstitute the draft in some fashion, and they believe it will be soon. Now I'm no fan of the Bush administration, and would consider almost no ideological excess beyond their ethical limits, but I'm going to have to offer a pretty strong opinion on this one. There is not going to be a draft. Not in the foreseeable future. How can I be so certain? Hey, it ain't ethics or political restraint I'm counting on. In this case, it's simple practicality.
There are three reasons why it's pretty clear there won't be a reinstatement of the draft. Think of them as Cost/Benefit, Time to Market and Value. The political cost would be HUGE. Sure, you say, this cabal of thugs we call our leadership is so extreme, so ideologically driven, that they simply don't care about political cost. Well, maybe. But there's a cost you are willing to absorb, and then, no matter how driven by ideology you are, there are still costs you simply are not willing to pay. Plus, the Republican party, plus the legislature, would have an awfully lot to say about the cost of a new draft. Bush is out at the end of this term--many others would rather not be. The political cost of a draft would fall directly on the shoulders of republican politicians in Washington and throughout the country. They would be forced to put their jobs, even their careers at risk to support the draft, or they would have to break with their president and side with the minority party. Either way would be disastrous for them.
Which brings us to the "Time to Market" issue. Selective Service is a HUGE bureaucracy, and just getting it cranked up would take the better part of a year. At the same time, there would be massive debate in congress about fixing the known flaws in the system, and finding ways to make it fairer. They would argue birth dates, lotteries, deferments, and a whole host of other approaches and questions that would tie up the legislation for months. So finally, the first draftees show up at boot camp in a year or so, maybe longer. But to what end?
The US military, no matter how you may feel about the way it has been used recently, is, qualitatively, the best fighting force in the world, and by several orders of magnitude. There has been much discussion of the technological superiority of the US armed forces, but it is a whole lot more than that. The difference between a conscript army and a volunteer army, in capabilities, morale, spirit and courage are like night and day. An easy way to look at this is to look at the relative performance of the army infantry and Special Forces in Vietnam. Infantry was, for the most part, poor conscripts, while Special Forces, notably the "Green Berets", were all volunteers. In a nutshell, the infantry performed poorly, while the Special Forces excelled. When these draftees start to be deployed into volunteer units, no field commander is going to want them. They would be an infection, a negative value relative to esprit de corps, morale and desire. No, our military is structured the way it is, as a literally unbeatable fighting force, in a large part due to its all-volunteer nature.
And while no one expected the leadership to so grossly misallocate and overuse our forces, to attempt to supplement those forces with a conscript army would only make matters worse. I can give you a much more likely scenario. When the decision to invade Iraq was made, a lot of combat power was required. But the problem was, America was already involved in a war in Afghanistan. So, what did we do? We pulled the vast majority of our combat power out of Afghanistan to use in the invasion of Iraq. Sure, as a result we lost the countryside, we left chaos behind, we don't own any part of Afghanistan but some of the capital and whatever piece of ground we are standing on at the time, but hey, we took Iraq. So I ask you: If the Bush Administration wants to start a war with Syria or Iran, where are they going to get the troops? Just look at history. After the January elections in Iraq, fraudulent and disastrous though they might be, we can turn that country over to it's weak, illegitimate "elected" government, declare victory and use those troops for the next war to secure our oil empire. No draft required, just a little more deceit and dishonesty. Now that's a prediction that's SURE to come true...
Kill 'em all--Let Allah Sort 'em Out
Combat is tough. Ugly. You break things, and you hurt people. You try to survive. You fight for your friends and to survive, you don't cut the enemy any slack, you don't give them a break. It's about killing. You don't risk your life, or your buddy's life, to make sure you protect the rights of the enemy. That makes sense. That's just the rules. But. There have GOT to be limits. After days and nights of combat, nerves are stretched, anger runs hot, you haven't slept, eaten, showered. Firefights and explosions punctuate your days. And yet, you still have an obligation. Your obligation to your squad mates is well known. But what about your obligation to humanity? There, in the worst that humans can do, in the horror and brutality of close up urban combat, this is where you MUST do what you can to preserve your own humanity. Maybe killing is easy, easier than not killing sometimes. But maybe, just maybe heros can be guys who hold back, who find a small piece of humanity in all the hell. I don't know what happened in that mosque in Falluja. I look at the video, and it looks wrong. It smells. I think we have a kid, here, who lost his humanity. Who took the easy route. Who chose to kill rather than to have some restraint. Even if it turns out his decision wasn't wrong, it still wasn't right. A better man would have left those people as they found them. Better men would have gotten them some aid the day before. Better men come home with fewer scars. Not the visible kind, the kind that never heal. They come home in better shape because they know they did the right thing. They fought hard, and never let their fellow soldiers down. But they went through all that inflicting the minimum damage, taking the minimum lives, that they could. They survived, but they didn't become animals in order to survive. And when they get old, and they try to talk to their grandchildren about war, they can feel pride in what they did.
Sex, Lies and Insurgency
Ok, I'm sorry the leadership of my country is a bunch of lying criminals. I wish it wasn't so, but it turns out that the American people, by a couple of percentage points, prefer a thug who doesn't tell them the truth but hates people who are not like him. Sad. But true. But some of the dishonest claptrap that comes out of Bush's mouth is so egregious that I simply have to address it. The topic today is the Iraqi Occupation in general and the action in Falluja in specific.
First, both the civilian and military leadership insist upon calling the people who are fighting us "terrorists". Let's be simple, and clear. They are NOT terrorists. Depending upon your outlook, you might call them insurgents, rebels, freedom fighters or just guerrillas. But in spite of the fact that they use some of the classic asymmetrical warfare methods, they in no way meet any reasonable definition of terrorists. What we're actually seeing here is the unfortunate end result of a trend that started on September Eleventh. The archetypical boogieman got a new name: Terrorist. From that point on, anybody that a government or law enforcement agency doesn't like is now a terrorist. It's such an awful thing to be, like "child molester", that it completely dehumanizes your enemy. You can now capture, hold, torture and murder the terrorist because, well, who's going to complain about that? They are, after all, terrorists. But wait. Not so fast. Because the very governments who want to kill these people call them terrorists, that simply doesn't make it so. But it IS convenient--The Chinese want to oppress the people of Myanmar? Call them terrorists and throw them in prison. The Russians want to bounce the rubble in Grozny? They're killing terrorists, can't you see that? And we want to run incredibly violent military operations in a city of 300,000 souls? No civilians left in Falluja, just terrorists.
Which leads us to the next stupid, specious Bush-ism. I heard him say it again as late as yesterday. Jeez, you'd think his handlers might give him a new line, maybe even one that makes a modicum of sense. Once again, he referred to the terrorists and foreign fighters (Americans aren't foreign?) as people who "hate freedom" and who want to "stop democracy". We've been hearing this utter nonsense for well over a year now. First of all, I've never spoken to an Iraqi insurgent, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't hate freedom. That's about the dumbest line I've ever heard. Everybody loves freedom. But there are a couple points that Bush and his cronies can't seem to grasp. One is that their vision of freedom and his vision just might not coincide. They want to be free to do what THEY want and he wants them to be free to do what HE wants. And I really think he doesn't get that. But the second point is even bigger. They are not fighting us because they hate freedom, or don't want a representative democracy in Iraq, or even because they are terrorists. They are fighting us because we invaded and occupied their country. They are fighting us because we are trying to force our will upon them by military means. You know, I can't think of a country in the world more in need of regime change than America, but by god if somebody comes in and tries to change the regime by force of arms, I'd fight them too. So would you. We are trashing their country's infrastructure, flattening entire city blocks and hurting and killing thousands of their citizens. And this idiot in Washington would have you believe that these "terrorists" are fighting us because they hate freedom? And if we just kill enough of them the rest of Iraq's citizenry will curl up in our laps and purr? Think, people, think!!
While we're on the topic of Falluja, it sure looks to me like th insurgency is really starting to get it's act together. They appear to have an over arching strategic plan and the coordination to execute it countrywide. They take a mid size city, like Sammara, or Falluja, or Ramadi, and hold it for all to see. Finally the Americans and their Iraqi puppets feel they need to re-take the city. In the big buildup, most of the fighters slip away. A few hundred men, in urban terrain, can pin down thousands of troops. Eventually, the Americans prevail. The city is destroyed, many civilians are hurt and killed, and more Iraqis hate us and the occupation, and they will now do what they can to help the insurgents. But now the insurgents just need to repeat the process in another city. Each time, the Americans become more hated and more of them are tied down holding these rebel strongholds. At some point, the Americans turn these cities over to the Iraqi troops, who won't fight against the Iraqis. So the rebels take the city back without firing a shot, and the Americans have to come back in. But now it's not a city--It's a pile of rubble. There is no finer environment to reduce the effectiveness of a modern combined arms force. The Russians have flattened Grozny, but they still can't occupy it.
Eventually, there's only 2 possible outcomes. In the first, The American people get fed up with the cost in dollars and lives and demand their government bring the troops home. At some point, just as with Vietnam, it becomes too politically costly to resist the will of the majority, and the president will acquiesce. In the other, oil goes past $75.00 a barrel while American troops are still in Iraq in large numbers. The American economy begins to fail. Unemployment approaches 10%. The people demand their political leadership do something, and now. And like an ancient conquering empire, we lock down the borders, brutally oppress the civilian population and confiscate 100% of the Iraqi oil production. For America. For no dollars except the cost of shipping it across the ocean. You may be saying, "No, no way, Americans would never behave like that". Uh huh. You want to see an entire population lose their kindness, compassion and civility? Take away their economic comfort zone.
All in all, this assault on Falluja is a huge mistake. I can only shake my head. Didn't any of these people in Washington ever read history? When was an insurgency or guerilla resistance movement EVER put down by force? With the exception of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, both of which were far more brutal than we could ever tolerate, the insurgents need only keep fighting in order to ultimately win. If the American leadership is not willing to use that level of brutality (and I for one would hope they are not), then actions like Falluja are actually counterproductive. They strengthen the insurgency while weakening the position of the occupying force both politically at home and among the population on the ground. When we stop killing these people and start talking to them, helping them make their lives better, and allow them to control their own destiny, the insurgency will simply fade out, for it will have become unnecessary.
When doing the right thing is the wrong thing to do
I have very deep concerns about this Scott Petersen trial. The jury is currently deliberating his guilt or innocence. See, here's the problem. Of course he's guilty. We KNOW he's guilty. We don't know it from anything the prosecution said or did, we know it because, well, its obvious. But here's the problem. There is NO EVIDENCE. None. No one can even say with certainty that Laci was murdered. There's no cause of death, no time of death, no murder weapon, no blood, no fibers, no DNA. There's nothing the CSI type guys can do. So the prosecution builds a case based on "who else could have done it?”
So what do you do if you're on the jury? You KNOW the guy's guilty. But the system requires that the prosecution PROVE to you that he did it. And they couldn't even PROVE a murder took place. So you don't want the bastard just to walk. But what does it do to the system if we start sending people to prison, or worse yet killing them, based on gut feelings and "hey, who else could it have been"?
Nope, this is a rare, but intractable problem. The only good answer is to decide that if someone commits a "perfect crime", one where they leave no evidence behind, no matter how clearly it MUST be them, you have to acquit. Because if you don't, you have created a situation where the threshold of proof is simply too low. And then someday you may find yourself facing a jury that believes you to be guilty, and even though you're not, they're going to send you to prison.
Nope. The system cannot survive if juries are to use intuition instead of evidence.
It's All Over, We Lost
Well, it's over, and the hillbillies won. I thought this election was going to be about big things, ideas, issues. You know, Foreign Policy, this unnecessary war in Iraq, the economy, jobs, education, health care coverage and costs--Things that the federal government is supposed to be about improving. Boy was I wrong. None of that mattered one whit to the good people of the heartland. Nope. This was about god, gays and guns. What they like to euphemistically call "cultural issues". Or some people have the nerve to call "moral values". Here's the news: There’s more of them then there are of us, so get used to it. America is well on her way to becoming a Theocratic Dictatorship where basic civil and human rights are superseded by the leadership's interpretation of the bible. Not only can we not win in this environment, we can't even compete. Because it's about abortion and marriage and the separation of church and state. We can't adopt their views, or even "move towards the center". I look forward, not just to the next four years, but as far as I care to look, and the landscape I see is pretty bleak. Women will lose their right to have a safe, legal abortion. Prayer in schools. Fewer civil liberties. Longer prison sentences. More death penalty. An increasingly stubborn, ideological foreign policy. More wars. Fewer allies. A trashed economy. A draft.
Today is the day they figured it out, too. The "conservatives". The right wing. The Politicians favored by all those middle Americans. They now know that as long as they stay on the right side of the god, gays and guns issues they can do ANYTHING and continue to be re elected. They have us outnumbered. As long as they continue to work to overturn Roe v. Wade, they can invade countries, start wars, trash the economy. As long as they continue to push for prayer in schools, they can steal from social security, provide huge profits for the corporate pals and drive more and more Americans into poverty. They're laughing today, because they know the game is over. They won. There's just no way to get it back.
The people who re elected this administration don't care how much they suffer. Hell, they EXPECT to suffer--The bible told them to expect it. Their government will give them what they want. Systematic discrimination against women and gays. More power and money to Christian organizations. Our own jihad against "unbelievers". My god, change the name of the deity and the book and we've become the taliban!
It's sad to watch the great American experiment end this way. I'm too old and too tired to change my views to fall into line, so I suppose I'll spend my final years either a political prisoner, held without due process, or in a concentration camp somewhere. But at least I'll remember a free, democratic America.
