A Case For Reinstating The Draft.

With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan we have just seen what a small "high tech" military is able to accomplish on the battlefield, the point was also brought home for the need to have a sizable lower tech military, so to speak, that is capable of carrying out and completing the entire mission without over stressing our forces to the point where they will lose their overall effectiveness and ability to carry on a sustained or multi front conflict. Even though, in the eyes of many the Iraq mess could have been avoided and at the very least fought differently to avoid the losses our forces have incurred a larger military ground force would have lessened future issues that are almost inevitable.

The government and military both admit that our military in it's current form is to small. This is primarily the fault of the government and in particular the administrations starting with Bush I to the present Bush. For the uninformed, Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Cheney were the principle architects of the small Hi Tech Military along with several so called civilian visionaries that was supposed to, in their non military minds, replace the large standing armies of the past, they were only half right. They had convinced themselves that a hi-tech military was all that was needed because of the almost instant havoc the hi-tech military would be capable of launching on it's enemies. Well, they were only partly right again, yes there is instant, well directed havoc but they underestimated or completely overlooked the fact that unless you totally vanquish your enemy they will come back you in another form, specifically as an insurgent force. Had they talked to General Petraeus when they were conceiving their hi-tech military he would have informed these geniuses' about insurgent movements as he is the most current on the subject in the U.S. military. They also, could have looked in any history book from WWII through Vietnam and they would have been able to peruse mountains of material on the subject, I guess they were just to smart for that.

There are several other reasons why we are in need of a draft and they are Russia and our "friends" the Chinese. The Russians have shown that their new oil wealth as well as the fact that the old guard has finally taken control back of the entire country, that they are ready to become an imperial power all over again. And please don't even attempt to refute that one as even the most dimwitted liberal thinking pundit agrees they are all of the above. The next in line are the Chinese, they have a ten million man military, their Navy will eclipse ours in the very near future, they have a space "program" which is more than likely a cover for the development of long range very accurate missile systems, ultimately on launch platforms in outer space. Once again, this is a hard one to write off to national defense or internal security, who wants to attack China anyway, they have nothing to offer any of the powers powerful enough to fight them.

Most of the civilized nations around the globe have a draft of some sort, it makes good sense for several reasons. First it ensures a ready, trained, albeit a very basically trained but trained anyway, army. In the event of large scale national disaster this group is available to be called upon, I realize we have a national guard, but they have barely been able to cover in the past. We may also, need this "draft element" if we have any terrorist activity in the future to help secure the borders, which should have been done when the last attack (it was not an event, an event is something that takes place at a race track or a department store, or a strip club) took place. The biggest problem with reinstating the draft is our gutless, nutless politicians. This subject is like the old game where the person who blinks first loses, they are dead wrong. In fact by not having a draft that covers all Americans we continue to put ourselves a grave risk. One of the principle advantages of a draft, where all are eligible with no deferments is that our politicians would think twice before deploying American troops and would be forced to negotiate in advance to avoid conflicts where Americans would be in harms way, especially when one or more of their sons or daughters could be involved.

As a former Army kind of officer, I was a Warrant Officer, and a front line combat helicopter pilot I will state unequivocally that I do not like war, would do just about anything to avoid it, however, if pushed to the point where there is no alternative I believe in total annihilation of ones enemy, that means taking no prisoners. For those of you who missed annihilation in the spelling bee it means "The condition of having been annihilated, utter destruction". This is also, one of the key areas that was missed when the dynamic duo, Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Cheney and the rest of their civilian "military" brain trust were working out the details of how war in the 21st century should be fought. Wars are won by vanquishing one's enemies, not letting them go after they have promised not to seek retribution when you can see they have their fingers crossed, the world is not that civilized yet and from what I have seen in the last few years we have a very, very long way to go, my best guess is after the next one or two evolutionary changes mankind takes over the next several thousand years or so.

I know the draft is never a good subject, I have a 21 year old son and a 23 year old daughter, but, it's going to have to happen and sooner than later. Have you ever wondered why Israel hasn't been attacked, they have a draft and in an emergency have a trained military/security force that would be difficult at best to overwhelm. The benefit to us will be an overall deterrent to those who would like to engage us at every turn as they will know we are prepared for once. So call me what you like, but I believe our security as a nation is of the utmost importance and a draft is one of the main components.

What's He Done? He's Done A Lot. Well, What Exactly Has He Done? He's Done A Lot. What Specifically Has He Done? He's Done A Lot. Like What? A Lot.

One of the few memorable highlights of a political convention are the interviews with the various advisers and advisor wannabes that want their faces on camera to help further the cause of the candidate they are backing or in the case of the Democrats, Barack Obama. However, I have yet to listen to one interviewee that can list one single major accomplishment for this guy. They ultimately all drift back to his days as a community organizer in Chicago, forgetting the fact that was an awfully long time ago and even then can't come up with anything extraordinary that he did while in that position. His day's in the Illinois house were basically lackluster and was basically chosen to run for the U.S. Senate by Illinois state Senator Emil Jones, more than likely because he didn't have any baggage that would catch up to him during the election process and if elected would owe his lofty position to the Illinois legislature and as such would shower them with favors, such is politics and especially Illinois politics. Also, he ran against the now infamous, in Illinois, Jack Ryan. A well bred, well educated investment banker turned high school teacher from one of Chicago's "North Shore" suburbs with a closet stuffed full of skeletons, so many that there was no way he could hide them from even the most inept media organization. As you can guess, Mr. Ryan, to keep the family secrets, secret, dropped out of the race and went into obscurity, where he should have been from the beginning and never allowed to enter a public race for office, but that's a whole nother blog for a whole nuther day. Then to fill the void the geniuses' in the Illinois Republican Party decided they needed a person of color to run against this young upstart so they brought in the veteran, but very unelectable, Alan Keys, who wasn't even from Illinois, who had no local appeal, who was viewed as basically a nut and was subsequently crushed in the election.

Mr. Obama then went to the U.S. Senate and in the last two years has done about the same as he did as a community organizer and in the Illinois Senate, nothing of any significance. Which brings me to the interview process and what Mr. Obama and company have accomplished and what his qualifications actually are. Now I know he is well educated, Columbia University, and managed to garner a Harvard law degree along the way and appears to have a nice family, which in this day and age is actually an accomplishment he should be blowing his horn about, although his fringe constituency might not like that. But what is the most distressing is that not one person interviewed can come up with one major accomplishment for this guy while in office. The best being the interview the other night with Sean Hanady interviewing Michael Dukakis, the Democratic candidate for the Presidency in 1988, who by the way was beaten handily by Bush I, which proves he was basically a dufus. And when asked directly by Mr. Hanady,what his guy had accomplished he kept repeating "He's done a lot".

Now I'm not the brightest guy in the world but even I don't buy the term "He's done a lot". Personally, I would like Mr. Dukakis and all of Mr. Obama's advisers, hangers on, friends, family, pastors, wife, kids, admirers, handlers, running mate, Illinois legislators and anyone else who wants to be part of this gravy train to give some specific accomplishments, authored legislation or anything else that shows this guy has done anything other than having been in the right place at the right time. It's starting to look like we have a real life Chance the gardener on our hands (reference the movie Being There, 1979 starring Peter Sellers).

Ah Yes, Another Government Sponsored, I Mean Think Tank Sponsored Dinner, Where Texas Bull S _ _ T Is The Blue Plate Special!

Since I am going to be out of town for a couple of days and I wanted to knock out a couple of blogs in case my time runs short and I can't bring anyone to literary justice. So I was quickly pouring over the Internet news when I came across this little tid-bit. The Progress and Freedom Foundation, you know the think tank that studies the digital revolution and it's implications for public policy, held a closed to the press dinner in Aspen, that's Colorado, where the keynote speaker was the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher and his speech was on how the demand for oil in the developing countries of China and India was going to have long term implications to the price of oil. I hope the US Government didn't pay for this dinner or this speaker, but I think that's wishful thinking.

They discussed the oil consumption per capita of developed countries like Japan and the US and then made some assumptions about China and India and then made some ballpark assumptions as to how much oil these countries might use in the future and how it would affect cost to us here in the US and our little friends in Europe. Needless to say they didn't let on as to how much a gallon of gas may be in the near future, but then again they are a think tank and the speaker is a rich guy so they really don't care and were only there for the scenery and the dinner.

Then the good stuff was thrown out to the crowd. The stuff about the motivation of China with regards to the US. Now he didn't come out and say they are our friends like his friend(and I'm sure he is)the current President and fellow Texan, who by the way can dish out a major helping of Texas Bull S _ _T without any trouble, who said about the Russians and in particular Mr. Putin "when I look into his eye's I see a friend", tell that to the Georgians. Then to add insult to injury we were given a verbal bitch slapping by the Russians, who with all of their new found oil money could care less about what we have to say coupled with the fact that our military has been stretched so thin we couldn't mount an offensive or a good defensive anywhere.

So what do you think China has in store for us? They own most of out debt, have most of our factories on their soil, have a ten million man military, are growing their navy and will eclipse us in the near future, have the most sophisticated computer and Internet hacking operation in the world, have one point five billion people, kicked our Navy out of Hong Kong this past spring to flex their muscles and sent the fleet elsewhere for R&R and are cheating in the officiating of the Olympics to beat our butts, yes our butts, the good old USA's in the number of Gold Medals in an attempt to show the world they are good guy's, yea, good guy's like the Russians were at the time of World War II and are becoming again.

Like I said, there's nothing like a Blue Plate Special when it's good old Texas Bull S _ _ t. I hope the government made them at least pay for their own desert.

My Lord, How Similar Phrases Have Such Different Meanings-Hey, Little Oscar, Is That Your Weiner Wagon? Hey, John Edwards, Is That Your Weiner Waggin?

The latest Politician to bite the dust, I am talking about the perfectly coiffed Senator John Edwards, is great news for several reasons. First, the public will not have to endure any more of this guy's sappy socialist rhetoric. He made his millions and had he made it into high office would have tried to make it impossible for anyone else to get to the position he managed to ascend to. Second, he showed what a schmuck he really is, his wife is dying of cancer and he couldn't wait for for her untimely passing (and God I pray that she has a miracle recovery and out lives him by a long, long time) before he went out and got laid. The only class act in his household is his wife, and in reality, she probably had a better chance of getting elected than he ever did. This guy is a lawyer and as such understands what a contract is and how binding they are, but for some strange reason he wasn't capable of keeping a simple marriage contract. Maybe his vows left out the parts about love, honor and cherish, till death do us part, in sickness and in health etc...etc... The pundits claim his political career is over, and I hope they are right for once, although he had a former adviser to Jesse Jackson coming to his aid this past week, but I don't know how they are going to get him off on the Jesse Jackson "This is a black thing and you white people don't understand" excuse, this guy's as white as they get. Then there is the money trail and the woman refusing to get a DNA test and the fact that everyone who sees the kid says it looks just like Mr. Edwards, Hmmmm sumpin fishy's goin on here!

If I was John Edwards I would have gotten Bill Clinton on the phone as soon as I was found out and asked him for his advise. I am sure Mr. Clinton would have told him to come clean as Mr. Clinton will forever be remembered as the President who lied to all of the American public on national television,when he denied getting a Blo_ Jo_ from Monica Lewinsky in the oval office, when in fact he got that and much more. And most of any good he did while President will go unnoticed, and be of little interest to the public as a result of his indiscretions, breach of his marriage vows and subsequent lie that brought everything right into the world spotlight. With all of the lying politicians that have been caught in the recent past I can't understand why Mr. Edwards chose this path, he's a bright guy. Look at Senator Larry Craig, caught with his hand in a men's room stall at the Minneapolis Airport trying to arrange a date for sex with a man taking a sh _t, Congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham caught with his hand in the national defense contractor's bribery and buy my office, cookie jar, Congressman Wilbur Mills caught with his hand in Fanny Fox's cookie jar in a Washington fountain, Senator Bob Packwood caught trying to get his greasy hands into as many women's cookie jars as possible and finally being forced to resign and the list goes on and on and on. Well, good bye to Mr. Edwards and good riddance, he can now join the ranks of the other political slime balls who have sullied their offices, positions and reputations with their own scandalous behavior and lies, he won't even make a good footnote in history and deservedly so.

Look Before You Leap You Idiot's - Or, Don't Join The Military Services Just To Pay For That New Car!

This little bit of information pops up in the news every once in a while and when it does deserves mention by this blogger. Currently there is a young man holed up in our neighbor to the north, the great sovereign nation of Canada, by the name of Jeremy Hinzman. You see Jeremy is a deserter from the US Army and is fighting, which seems quite odd since that is exactly what he ran away to avoid, to remain in Canada. Jeremy deserted the Army when he received orders to go to Iraq back in 2004 and like many deserters before him took up refuge in the great white north when he was asked to fulfill the commitment he had made to his country to serve and protect his nation (now please don't confuse serve and protect with the behavior of police department's across this great country). Jeremy it seems is one of those young men who thought going into the military was a good idea until someone explained that his primary job is that of a combat soldier. Now mind you, I am not aware of this young man's MOS (military occupational status), maybe it was infantry soldier and then again maybe it was clerk or jerk or cook or some other rear echelon job I really don't know and really don't care. If Jeremy is that stupid that he didn't understand what could happen to him if he joined the Army then he should not have been accepted because he more than likely does not meet the minimum intelligence requirement for placement in the good old US Army.

On the other hand, if he joined to pay for that new car or some other expense and thought of military service as an easy way to make ends meet, than once again we are dealing with a young man of diminished capacity. Service in the military of one's country, to the best of my knowledge, involves a certain amount of risk as the primary purpose of a military is to protect one's nation and it's interest's abroad. Now I know there is much debate to be had over the current mess in Iraq and there will be for decades to come. There are as many reason why we shouldn't be in that part of the world as reasons why we should, but that still does not excuse desertion. By the way Jeremy isn't going to be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan if he comes back, he's going to Federal prison for a few years for breaching his contract with Uncle Sam, get an undesirable or dishonorable discharge and will get on with his life. What's wrong with that, he will only be getting what a douche bag like him deserves, I am not wishing that he gets made a man the hard way in prison, just some time to think about what he has done.

So here's my point, if you know some young person who is contemplating military service, do them a great favor and explain what may or may not be in their future and even go as far as explaining the potential risks, that is, possible maiming and or death. Let them make informed decisions and then if they decide they still want to serve, encourage them to do so as service in the military is of the highest order of honor. I have served in the military and did so as a draftee way back when there was a draft, and in fact ended up enlisting to get a better job. I served because I was called to serve and did so honorably, OK, in between the times I was shaming all of mankind with my bad behavior, but I didn't run away from or shirk my responsibilities I agreed to in the contractual agreement I signed with the US Government. So how bout the liberal media giving up on this goof, let his deportation take place and stop trying to make him poster boy for the militarily abused.

A Story Of An Enduring Friendship,

I have had the good fortune to actually make friends with a relatively small group of people over the years and what makes these friendships so special is that they have all endured the test of time. The idea that I would have even one friend let alone eight or ten is amazing in itself, but it's the truth. My wife and I just finished spending several days with two of these friends while I was recuperating from a small surgery that is related to a small infection I have written about before, that I contracted while traveling on business in an Asian country whose name I won't mention but will give several hints, so here goes, see if you can guess. Holding a large international athletic competition, bad human rights record, their food tastes great but is usually loaded with MSG and makes women retain water and their rings don't fit, paint children's toys with lead paint, produced coats with collars made of dog fur (Lassie, Lassie where are you?) and last but not least, they, well you should have gotten it by now.

The main reason I am writing about these two friends is that we have not seen them for over twenty years and I thought it would be interesting to start at the beginning of something that started over twenty five years ago, this has no bearing on other friends we have as we feel we have applied the same principles to those friendships and are quite confident the results would be the same. Since friendships usually start out with certain personality traits appealing to one and other and relationships developing from there, a rather complex social and biological phenomenon that takes place almost exclusively between humans and sometimes Canadian Geese.

And since I am calling this a story I thought I would give my two friends fictitious names. So, my wife and I met Irwin & Rowena twenty five plus years ago at a meeting of a fraternal organization the has nothing to do with horned mammals or birds of prey and membership is not determined by one's pedigree but usually how badly one behaved and their desire to be and stay, a member in good standing of said organization. OK, I'll give a small hint, the second word in the fraternal organization's name rhymes with Eponymous, I am unaware of the definition, it just rhymes. Anyway things worked like this. We all met at a meeting one night and for some strange reason we all hit it off from the start, not that we had so much in common or that our backgrounds were the same, in fact we were all quite different. Irwin worked in a large factory and appeared at first glance to be as blue collar as they came, a union man through and through and let you know it. Next was Rowena, a legal secretary for a very high powered PI attorney and as in your face as her husband to be. There was my wife , a usually quiet girl, but with definite ideas of how she wanted to navigate the world and at the time my partner in a small business Then there was me, a kind soft spoken, a never insult anyone kind of guy, OK so that's a small lie, I'm essentially a fairly base person in most aspects of my life that has been working on a clean language program for as long as I can remember. Besides that we were all influenced by the different socioeconomic areas we hailed from, as in urban, suburban and country, so enough for the demographics, I'm only trying to setup this story and show that making friends is a randomly occurring event that I am not even remotely qualified to expound on, if you have a good friend who is a brilliant biologist/anthropologist and has studied human behavior as well as other higher mammals for his or her entire work life, have them tell you their theories on the subject. I only know I am the fortunate recipient of whatever this phenomenon is and as far as I'm concerned, that's good enough.

I would talk to Irwin from time to time about the intricacies of how one kept his good standing in the fraternal organization mentioned above. He would respond to those comments and I for my part would would blow my top, you see Irwin is something of a contrarian (Rowena gave that term and it's perfect)and that means he will take the opposite view of any topic just to get the best of whoever he is dealing with, and he does so more often than not. Sometimes this was annoying and others I would just let it roll off my back, maybe, sometimes, not very often. Anyway, we all lived in a large mid western city that has a long shoreline on a lake that begins with the letter "M". We would get together at least once a week for meetings at the said fraternal organization and would go out socially on a regular basis. We became such good friends that we asked Rowena to be our son Rollo's Godmother when he was baptised, she accepted, it was a good deal. There is an old saying that states "all good things must come to an end" and it's mostly true except the friendship part. You see we moved to the suburbs, our business grew and took more of our time as well as the time with our two kid's, Rochelle & Rollo. We were able to keep active in the fraternal organization in the new town we moved to as there were plenty of meeting places since an awful lot of people who had behaved badly and not only qualified for membership but actively sought it out, but sadly it was difficult to get into the big city because of distance, family and business. Then we had some minor business problems and moved to California, me to work as a hatchet man for a company and my wife Gladys to stay at home with our young children, we then basically dropped off the face of the earth. During that time Rowena was in an accident and Irwin's company decided to preempt, by several years, screwing labor and closed the factory Irwin worked for. Irwin took the opportunity to go to college and graduated. To make a long story short, Rowena decided she was going back to school herself and earned a PHD in Medieval Studies (I think that's what it is and if not I can guarantee she will call, email and possibly mail to correct me at which time I will go immediately to the web and edit this blog and attach an apology). During the time Rowena was working on her PHD she and Irwin had the opportunity to travel throughout the United States and Europe, in that time we had only sporadic contact. In the last couple of years we would occasionally talk and Irwin and Rowena would invite Gladys and myself to visit at their new home on a mountaintop in the southern part of a western state that has a baseball team that rhymes with cockies.

So, one opportunity came and went when Gladys and I toured the state on our motorcycle a couple of years ago since we were unable to cancel hotel reservations from an online service and also, time constraints. This time, no reservations we couldn't cancel because we booked direct and no time issues to deal with so after the small surgery was over Gladys and I headed south from the town in the state that is the home of the baseball team that rhymes with cockies. Irwin met us at the gate as we needed to be passed in and would have gotten lost as they live is a vast nature sanctuary. It was over twenty years since we had seen Irwin, but since I had been aging so gracefully over that time I had an idea what he would look like, I was close, he looked like the late great Congressman from the state of Illinois, Henry Hyde, with two small hitches, his sense of timing and ability to take opposing views hadn't dulled with time and unlike Henry Hyde, Irwin is very much alive. When we finally pulled up to the house we hurried in to see the other half of our host's for the weekend. Rowena looked as I thought she would, nature had been kind to her, not that nature had some dislike for Irwin, his wife as does mine seems to be holding up better than we are.

Anyway, to make a long story shorter, since I have been working on this for over a week, this is what happened. I spent time with Irwin, more than I ever have in the years we have known each other and in the end was saddened to leave my old friend and move on. I wished I had had the opportunity to spend this kind of time with him years earlier. As for Rowena, well, she's as wonderful today as she was when we last saw her, we were equally saddened when we left. I guess there is some lesson here somewhere and maybe this is one. Try to make some friends in your life and if you are lucky enough to do so, follow the advice from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure "Be excellent to your friends" real friends are not easy to come by so value those relationships.

Olympic Promotion?=Propaganda?=The World Has Decided Not To Buy Into Your Bull S _ _t!

The Chinese government is having a bad time of it with the Olympics getting ready to start. They have had one protest after another and one black eye after another. They have been under the misled notion that it's the wrapper that makes the pie, I am unaware of any way to make s _ _t pie taste good! There have been ambitious building projects to showcase China as a country that has entered the 21st century. That they should be welcomed into the world community as a nation that will be one of the great world leaders and great societies only they have missed a few minor, well maybe not so minor points. They have had a series of protests over their consistant violation of human rights that have sullied their already sullied reputation. I guess they thought if they told the world they were good guy's everyone would believe them and dash to their side, wrong again. The Chinese have a reprehensible record when it comes to human rights, Mao, remember him, killed so many of his own countrymen the current government won't even field a wild guess, not even a ball park number. As recently as this past year they put down Muslim riots in Mongolia, now I'm not a fan of Islam at all, but, their method is maximum force, so much for the rule of law. But then again they make their own laws as they go along so, maybe what they did was actually OK. Well, maybe OK for them as is quoted by one Wu Jiaxiang a former government (which means we should believe everything that slides out of his mouth)and blogger who say's "We care less about human rights than other countries and more about sovereignty" nice direct quote which basically means - WE WILL DO WHATEVER WE WANT AND COULD CARE LESS WHAT THE WORLD THINKS, F_ _K O_F.

There is an awful lot of sour grapes coming from Chinese the world over and I really can't understand why. This is an interesting quote from Xu Guoqi, a Chinese born historian at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, "tried (The Chinese) hard to impress the world and to prove the country deserves respect and appreciation" good one Xu. But wait there's more "But the west used the Olympic torch relay and the coming games to shame the country and frequently remind the Chinese they were not good enough", I'm surprised this guy didn't resort to the we're not worthy line from Wayne's World. Give it all a rest Xu, you only get what you have coming when you deal with the free world. And if you don't like it here there's always the great and powerful China to call home again.

Human rights isn't the only problem the Chinese have. They have pollution on a monumental scale, I can attest to that one personally. Remember the lead paint on the toys, that one by itself will get you an awful lot of fans. The Chinese have a gargantuan military and I dare anyone top tell me it is for internal security only. The Chinese government is a principle backer of the Sudanese government, who, if you may have forgotten, is waging genocide in Darfur, but they are good guy's, really, I'm serious. Even Steven Spielberg, one of the most liberal guy's in Hollywood backed out of an advisory deal when the Tibet protests took off.

The best way to close this is with another quote from another Chinese luminary, Luo Qing, a media expert in Beijing specializing in China's national image (Masters degree in propaganda and a good old bull s _ _t artist) "We hoped that the Olympics would help people understand our country's achievements, that this ancient civilization has started a new chapter". " But from the torch relay, we suddenly realized that we were preparing to open the nations front door to welcome people who do not wish us well". Behave like civilized people, respect human rights, be ethical businessmen, stop the phony sincerity. The world isn't buying into this one, not one bit.