Land of Oz

Afghanistan

"Members of the 82nd Airborne Division headquarters serving in Afghanistan have been told their tours will be extended by 52 days from 12 months to nearly 14 months."

Can we say "tar baby"? You'd think we'd have learned something from Kennedy's Vietnam and the Soviet's Afghanistan. We and they didn't win then, and I don't see us "winning" now. As if I even knew what result a "win" might be. I don't think there is a basis for a nation to be built there. Afghanistan is a mostly a collection of tribes run by tribal leaders, not from some central location. I imagine that most Afghanistanis you talk to would state they belong to such-and-such a tribe or village instead of the country of Afghanistan.

What I find amazing is that for ten years we supported Afghanistan in its fight to rid itself of foreign invaders, then twenty years we become the foreign invaders ourselves. The Soviets, who I'm sure were a little more heavy-handed than we are, fought there for ten years and roughly 1 - 2 million dead and accomplished absolutely nothing. Does anyone really think we can do any better? I'm afraid we're in a morass that we have no chance of ever "winning" -- whatever winning is supposed to be.

Labels: government, military

Vets

Just in case you've missed it, with the election and mortgages and gas prices, the casualties since the war began (3/19/03): 4197

Labels: government, military

Stupid & Lucky

I guess if you have to do stupid stuff, being lucky is a helpful survival trait. This weekend, while doing some home remodeling, I managed to shoot a nail through my finger with an air-powered brad nailer. That was the stupid part. I had just finished giving my wife a quick lesson in how to be careful using the gun, and had in fact let her shoot a couple of nails into some door molding we were putting up.

Later, I tried to brad a small piece of wood to another piece and didn't have them clamped down correctly. I think what happened was that the first brad kicked the wood out and then the gun fired a second brad that went through the finger that had been holding the wood block that was no longer there. I'm guessing that, because later when all was done and I looked at the block, a brad was half-way in it.

Let me tell you, watching a two-inch brad fly through your finger isn't the best of experiences. The lucky part was that the brad seemed to miss all the important bits in my finger. No blood vessels, no bone or tendon seemed to be hit - typing this entry sort of proves that. E's and R's would be difficutlt had that finger been seriously damaged. I did go to the emergency room - at the local Aleda E. Lutz VA Medical Center (which I might add gave me stellar service) to have it looked at. They didn't do much, just a booster tetnus shot.

On the way to the hospital, with my wife driving, I reflected on the idea that the emergency room could probably be better named the stupidity room. From what I've gathered from friends - this is only my second time visiting - the first being a severe case of gastrointestinal something or other. Many visits to the emergency room are the result of doing something stupid. Nailing your finger, breaking an arm falling from a ladder, getting hit in the head with a baseball, eating old potato salad on a warm summer evening - that sort of stuff. Stuff where you get hurt because you did something stupid. The only good about my stupidity, is that it'll make me treat the brad nailer with a little more respect - at least for awhile. Eventually, I'll need to do something stupid again to keep me from getting complacent. Hopefully, I'll be lucky again at the same time.

Labels: government, military, tools

4 - 4 / 5 - 5

Four dollars a gallon

Four thousand dead GIs

Five years of war

Five hundred billion dollars war cost
Ain't those numbers cool?

Labels: government, gripes, military

// posted by Jim-of-oz @ 3/27/2008 07:31:00 PM

So? 2

It is nice to know that all those kids and spouses who lost their mom or dad in Iraq can't hold a candle to the burden the president is lifting. For a guy who isn't even aware of the price of that gas that us peons are paying, I think that's might generous of him to take on that burden.

Cheney said in the interview, conducted in Turkey. "It places a special burden obviously on the families, and we recognize, I think — it's a reminder of the extent to which we are blessed with families who've sacrificed as they have."

"The president carries the biggest burden, obviously," Cheney said. "He's the one who has to make the decision to commit young Americans, but we are fortunate to have a group of men and women, the all-volunteer force, who voluntarily put on the uniform and go in harm's way for the rest of us."

I'm sure that Jenna and Barbara are happy that the president is carrying that burden instead of them. We all know how well our government's members kids are holding up their end of the democratic bargain. I'll bet there are at least three or four dozen kids from congressmen and senators that are spending their second or third tour in Iraq. Actually, I'd be surprised if it's three or four.

Labels: government, gripes, military

Berkeley

Money talks? Berkeley was once again in the news for threatening to boot out the military, specifically Marine, recruiters. While I disagree with that, I do support Berkeley's right to do so. And they can kick them out of their city if they decided to do that. However, it seems they've changed their mind about that. Now they have decided that the military recruiters aren't such a bad bunch of guys afterall.

I wonder why they changed their mind? Do you suppose it was because the government threatened to recall more than $2 million in federal funds as well as federal monies for the University of California-Berkeley? And that is action I also support. If you don't want to support your country's endevours in some places, don't expect your country to support yours. It's the same all over. Everything you do has repercusions. If you vote to cut back on city taxes, don't gripe about losing police and firefighters and bus service. If you buy a 300 horsepower 4X4 pickup truck to drive back and forth to 7/11 don't gripe when gas is $3.10 a gallon. And if you don't want some government services, don't gripe when all government services are gone.

Labels: freedom, government, gripes, military

3931

Just in Case You've Forgotten. There isn't really anything too special about the following name, just that the poor guy happens to be the 3931 death in Iraq. I picked him since he's the latest death when I looked at an Iraqi Casualties web site.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sgt. Michael R. Sturdivant, 20, of Conway, Ark., died Jan. 22 in Kirkuk, Iraq, of injuries sustained in a vehicle accident during convoy operations. He was assigned to the 431st Civil Affairs Battalion, U.S. Army Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Command (Airborne), Fort Bragg, N.C.

It'd be nice if there was someway to really aknowledge what he gave up. Dying in some anonymous attack thousands of miles from home isn't the best way to go. But you know what? People killing people happens anyplace anytime, all the time. Last month some 14 month old kid was killed in a driveby shooting in our less-than-fair city. The kids doing the shooting were driving a civilian Hummer. I suppose there's some kind of subtle irony there someplace. Stacy, the fourteen month old, was sitting in a child protection seat in his mom's car when 5 men (these animals shouldn't be dignified by the term men, by the way) fired ten shots into the car. On a related note, the police chief of the Tittabawassee Township police force just resigned because there wasn't enough crime happening in that township - he's going back to become a beat cop in the area where the 14 month old was murdered. Good luck to him. I hope he has a chance to stop another kid from getting shot.

Labels: government, military

My Missed Claim to Fame

I almost had my 15 minutes of fame. I often read BBC News online and last week they had an article about homeless veterans in the US. I added an online comment about my experiences as a vet. Basically, I mentioned that I'd worried a bit about that when retirement loomed near. I'd seen very many old vets just vegging out in coffee shops or sitting in the mall near the last base I was stationed at. I should add that it was Castle AFB in California, at one time a popular place to retire from, and now closed.

To make a long story short, I didn't end up like that and instead got my Bachelors (with Honors) and Masters degree, both with a 4.0 GPA four years after retiring. Over the twenty-two years of my career, the government did stick it to me a few times and did take some of what they said they'd give me away, but I figure that's par for the course.

Anyway, BBC called my home that day and sent an email asking if I'd be interested in participating in a discussion group on BBC World News. I told them I did and even mentioned it to several people about what and when I was doing. Naturally, the assigned time came and went with no contact from the BBC. So all my excitement was for naught. They did call back after the show and said I wasn't going to be on it - duh. I kinda figured that after the show was in progress sans yours truly.

From the slant of the show it seemed they wanted to emphasize the minority of vets who had problems rather the majority of vets who didn't and especially the minority who had mostly good stuff to say. If you went into the military expecting to be taken care of ever after, I really think you joined for the wrong reason. There are a lot of avenues out there for American vets to get help. I'm not saying the system is perfect - far from it - but I haven't run into a lot of problems with it. The system fed, clothed and housed me while I was in, helped me in the transition from GI to civilian, and continues to offer me help. My situation was probably better than some, but when life hands you some broken eggs, just scramble them with some cheese and make an omelet.

Labels: government, military

Peanuts

I was walking past a desk that had a bag of pistachios on it and it reminded me of one of the offices I worked in while in the USAF. While life for me was normally a square peg in a round hole, with one group in particular I just didn't come anywhere close to fitting. I actually loved the work, but just couldn't fit in with the folks there. Anyway...

I was trying to get out of the group and ended up working in the scheduling office with a MSgt who was real close to retirement - basically putting in his time. He fit the group about as well as I did so both of us took great pleasure in tweaking the noses of the "establishment."

One of those tweaks took place every Friday afternoon. One of our duties was to strip and wax the floor every Friday afternoon before quiting for the day. I was low man on the totem pole so usually did that. I must admit, however, that the "old" sergeant would always pitch in and help. He started bringing in a big bag of peanuts in the shell and after lunch on Fridays we'd open them up, eat peanuts and dump the shells on the floor. I'd also like to add that we were somewhat off the beaten path in the offices so we didn't get a lot of foot traffic. It sure pissed the officers off though - especially one in particular. The one who'd hold prayer meetings every lunch.

The same officer was in charge of harrassing the troops during the annual Consolidated Fund Campaign (CFC). I didn't really have any problems with the idea of a charity fund raising, but I had a real problem with the fact that it was pushed so hard - no actual threats mind you, but they were there. A unit would be rated as to its percent of participation. One of the things that was commonly done was to use funds from people who donated over the minumum to cover those who didn't donate at all. When the Captain (If I remember his rank correctly) asked me if I minded that, I said I did, which really ticked him off, and he barely listened to my whys (basically I don't like to be pushed or threatened into charity projects). He finally gave up after several minutes of veiled threats and illogical logic. What made my day, was when he asked the MSgt to donate and he said no. When asked why, the MSgt told the Captain, "he (referring to me) said it all."

That Captain and the rest of the unit would often try and get me to "volunteer" for some real crappy temporary duties after that. It actually got to the point where I would carry a copy of the regulation spelling out why I was expempt from being sent involuntarily. Thankfully I found a way out of that organization not very long afterwards. I still get a kick out of an office floor full of peanut shells though.

Labels: food, military

Dead

Being an ex-GI, I read with sorrow and outrage about how many of our troops are getting killed and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. You read online and on paper about the 3 - 4 and more GIs who are getting killed seemingly each day. Occasionally you'll see higher numbers - 14 in crash here, 8 in an attack there. It adds up. Something like 3600 dead as of now, and no one really wants to admit how many wounded - but I'm guessing 20,000 - 30,000 (based on a 1 in 7 survival rate). That's a lot of blood.

I think most people, at least those who don't still believe Saddam planned and executed 9/11, realize that we got into Iraq based on lies. We haven't found any so-called weapons of mass destruction and the terrorists are still running around blowing stuff up. However, gasoline is still cheap in the USofA, so I guess that reason has been fulfilled. The trouble is, like Brer Rabbit, we're stuck in that crappy mess. Getting out isn't going to help Iraq - it'll decline to even greater levels of violence and eventually the fundamentalists will take over and the country will be worse off than it is now. We can't stay either, since we're not going to fix thousands of years of sectarian violence with Big Macs, M-16s and Stryker APCs.

The real losers are in Iraq. We can leave and go home. The Iraqis are home. While we've had 30,000 dead and wounded, just how many do you think they've had. Nobody's been keeping an accurate body count - most people don't even care. The Iraqis are some faceless people who were under Saddam and are now free - free of food, free of water, free of electricity and free of freedom in general. However since every time we see 4 or 5 GIs blown in the news, that's usually followed by 40 - 50 Iraqis. That's ten to one - that means 300,000 - 400,000 dead and wounded?

That's what really sucks.

Labels: government, military

Klingons or Orkans?

I have a my.yahoo page set up to show various news headlines. Today, I noticed the following list under CNN:Unfortunately it was an editorial about allowing illegal terrestrial aliens into the military rather than the much more interesting prospect of illegal (or legal) extraterrestrials. I think Mork would probably fit into the USAF - probably at an upper staff level someplace, while the Marines might be more happy with Worf as a DI.

Labels: government, military

COs

Conscientious Objector, that's what CO stands for. Here's an article, pretty favourable, in the Christian Science Monitor about a convicted deserter. I'd like to make my thoughts plain on this subject. The debate over CO status seems to be becoming more common especially as the Iraq mess gets worse and worse.

I'm kind of a hardass on this subject. Many years ago when people were drafted against their wishes into the military, I could understand this. Even today, if a person makes this decision during their initial signup I can understand. If a person decides they don't want to shoot or blowup people yet still want to serve their country in some non-combatant way, more power to them.

What I don't like are those who enlist, go to war, then after getting shot at, decide whoops, I goofed - I don't like to be shot at or shoot at. Is it really that hard to see that being in the military, especially the army or marines, means shooting at or being shot at? Do people really go into the military with so little thought? The days of getting drunk and waking up in boot camp are long gone - gone the way of P-38s and C-rats. Are the young people of today so stupid as to have no idea of what the military is about? Don't they watch TV, browse the net, read (gasp) a magazine or newspaper?

Can they really be surprised to find out they have to shoot people - or inturn get shot at? Honestly, I know kids can be stupid, but just how stupid can kids be? And this guy in question is almost 30 with two kids and a wife. And as far as GIs talking lewdly about Iraqi females - they will talk lewdly about any female. I've been out of the service for over 10 years, but I don't see the basic human nature changing much. It's still a place for a certain amount of crudity and lack of culture. I was in the air force, and even there enlisted cultural standards weren't much and the army is far behind. This doesn't apply to everyone of course, but I really don't think I'd be amiss applying it to most of the enlisted ranks.

You volunteered and unless you're a certified mental midget, the dark side of war making shouldn't be that much of a surprise. The worst is worse than you can imagine, but you should be able to imagine - or at least notice - that the business of the military is to kill others before they kill you. Otherwise it'd be the cub scouts.

Labels: government, gripes, military

Libraries

Ah, home away from home. This article about the Vatican's Library reminded me again about how comfortable I feel in libraries.I have been a user - indeed almost an addict - of libraries for almost as long as I can remember. I'd go the New Buffalo Public Library back home when I was a kid and wander the shelves looking for a new adventure. I still occasionally have dreams that seem to take place in a landscape reminiscent of that place (now long since moved).

Throughout my 22 years in the USAF the base library was always a familiar place to spend time. At a few places I volunteered to work in them - notably Shemya AFS, Alaska and Osan AB, Korea. Even Khobar Towers in Saudi had a small loaning library where I went through a lot of paperbacks.

I even have a room in my house now that's dedicated to my own library.Most volumes have been bought used, some have been bought new and some just kind of showed up. There's only a couple that have never been read,and there are many that have been re-read - some numerous times. I guess in some ways I am addicted to books. There are books and magazines in literally every room of the house in just about every nook and cranny -thankfully I have a wife who doesn't get too upset about them.

There was one paragraph in the Vatican library story that really caught my eye:

I asked him why stacks of old card indexes still fill one of the reading rooms when the library catalogue has been transferred to a digital database.

"We shall never destroy them because scholars often prefer to use the old library cards, and they are a permanent record which we can always use to check possible mistakes in the database," he explained.

This is the part that really bugs me about libraries modernizing. Wandering through card catalogs let me discover many books I'd never have found otherwise. You riffled through the cards looking for swords and then find yourself getting sidetracked by sugar and swing bands and syndicates and if you were off by one drawer or another maybe ribs and rifles. The online stuff is so much more streamlined and clean and loses a lot of the chances for random discoveries.

Labels: military, oldies

Freedom of Speech

One of the recent news articles talked about a marine who is being disciplined because of his activities in protesting. I hope that everyone reading that article gets the whole story and not just part of the story. If you've read this blog before you've probably seen that I'm big on personal freedoms. However, I'm also big on personal responsibilities. In this case, the marine is wrong. Naturally, the antiwar side is making a big deal about a military protester being busted for protesting.

There is no problem with a military member taking part in political activities. Whether it's a war protest or burning books protest, the military member can take part. What they can't do is wear her uniform while doing so. This is what the marine is being busted for. As far as I'm concerned, whether he's active duty or Ready Reserve, he's still in the military, and as such shouldn't be wearing the uniform during a protest.

He's wrong not about protesting; I'm fine with that, but about protesting in uniform. And one other item that doesn't seem to be getting too much air time is that after an officer reminded him about that, the marine's response was, "He [the marine] replied to the e-mail and expressed his opinion that the military should have more important things to worry about and signed off with an expletive."

My guess is that with that email, that marine is pretty much "expletived" himself.

Labels: freedom, government, military

Harry and Army

From the BBC News: "But the Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, has confirmed the Prince will not go with his regiment, the Blues and Royals [to Iraq]."

I see a couple of problems with this. Number one, why was Prince Harry allowed to join (and go through all the expensive training) of the army if he isn't going to be allowed to perform army duties. The other problem is what the hundreds of British families who have lost folks in the war must be feeling. know RHIP, but either the Prince is in the army and plays army, or keep him out of the army.

Yes, he is royalty. But the only thing that really means is that his parents and his parents's parents were born of royalty. I guess being an American gives me a different look at royalty, but let's face it - he's still human. Why spend all the time (and money) training him when he won't be used. And is his birthright really that much better than the other poor blokes who've been shot or blown up in war?

This is really one of those things that really bugs me. Like all the hassle over Paris Hilton and her jail time for driving with a suspended sentence. Why is there such a stink over her jail time. Toss her in the clink and be done with it. It's not like she's the first person to ever get busted for driving drunk, then driving illegally, then doing it all over again. Like I'd get a second and third chance. And just to give you a little insight - I did spend 22 years in the military, and I'm not, unfortunately, royalty nor do I belong to rich parents.

Labels: celebs, military

Guess What?

Four years or one thousand, four hundred and sixty one days go, the President claimed "Mission Accomplished?" on the USS Abraham Lincoln. Guess what? I think that was at mildly optimistic. Did you know that there's been 3,212 casualties since that day? Of course, that's only counting the USofA GIs. And that's not counting other GIs who've been killed in other-than-combat operations. Guess what? We can't leave and we can't win. The President is correct in saying a timetable withdrawal would be a disaster, but unfortunately so is staying the course. What a damn mess.

Labels: military

Orders - Good and Bad

The military is between a rock and a hard spot in more than one way. Following orders is one of the tricky ones. Part, a big part after all, of the military is following orders. However these days, more and more questions about just what orders to follow are coming up. One thing that has changed is stop-loss. If you don't know what that is, it's a program that allows the military to keep people from getting out at their prearranged time. I've seen many comments where people said the GIs have agreed to be in, so they should just follow orders and suck it up.

But there's more and more GIs who are getting legally prosecuted for following orders under the caveat that they shouldn't blindly follow orders. The GI is going to have to get some training in legalese just so they can determine what orders they should really follow. Say they're ordered to call in fire on a map location. Do they immediately follow that order and take an enemy mortar team just packing up after an attack, or do they wonder that maybe those coordinates are actually those of a Seven-Eleven and their commander misread the coordinates. How far in questioning an enemy (if it's really an enemy) prisoner can you go before you've gone too far?

There's going to be GIs getting into firefights and having to pause just too long to think and they're going to get killed. I mean, I know you have to make sure of your target, but think about it. Once again, there's no uniforms for the bad guys here. There's no cowboys in white hats and Indians in feathers and breechclothes. There's no coal-scuttle helmets or quilted jackets to help tell the good guys from the bad guys. There's been car bombs with little kids in the back seat for camoflage and women wearing vest bombs walking into mess halls. Man, I'm glad I'm not in the military right now.

Labels: military