NOTES ON A SHABBY CUFF #5, Last
week...
Last week we paid our respects to veterans of our armed
forces. For one, of several days, the
country becomes aware of our armed forces...but for the rest of the year, if VA
facilities are any yardstick, we treat them like crap. That makes me mad and, before you ask, yes,
I would do something about it. My plan
is very simple...the top five people in every VA facility around the country
would be asked to resign. If they
resign, they get no benefits. If they
refuse to resign, they will face a trial and they will NOT be on paid
administrative leave. If they are found
guilty of the charges they face, they will be sent to prison.
Other things were going on last week, but if you watched
the mainstream media you might have missed some of it. For starters, did you see that our president
was not in the center of the group picture?
It was Putin, of Russia ,
who had that spot and that indicated that China thinks that he has replaced our
president as the more powerful of the two.
Speaking of China ,
some business people on TV have reported that their economy has toppled ours as
the #1 in the world. That's not good
news, especially when it's tied in with the thinking that some other currency,
other than the US dollar should be the "universal" currency. Economics is not my strong suit, but I can
tell you that the stuff I buy at the supermarket seems to be inching up in
price week by week.
Last week we learned the identity of the man who killed
Usama bin Laden. Details, as much as was
revealed, told us that the mission was considered very likely to be a one-way
mission. With any person who dares to be
different, possibly in a menacing way, they come to realize that because of
what they’ve done they, and their family, have become targets. Of course, anyone that puts on the uniform of
the United States
will be, at some point perhaps, a target for the enemy…and more and more that
enemy will be unknown. Even the last
Gulf War was able to be classified as a “standard” war where both sides wore
uniforms and you knew the enemy.
Americans, and other “westerners” now face an enemy that doesn’t wear a
uniform and, in some cases, could look like anybody else. This new type of warfare is going to take a
new type of response and, personally, I like the military adage “the best
defense is a good offense” and that saying goes back to Machiavelli and others.
What would be a good offense? Surely we cannot duplicate the internment of
Americans of Japanese ancestry, as we did in World War Two…can we? We can do surveillance on places we consider
to be breeding grounds for radical insurgents, potential jihadists, can’t
we? In most places, yes we could, but
not in New York City
apparently. Back in August 2013, it was
the policy of the NY Police Department to conduct surveillance on mosques since
that seemed to be the logical places for jihadists to be radicalized. In April of this year the unit that was
watching the mosques was dismantled and the surveillance was ended. Personally, I think that was a dumb move…but
then, I think the Mayor of New York, Bill DeBlasio is an idiot. Like the president, he’s done enough dumb things
that pages could be written about them, but he’s not going to change because of
anything that’s said here.
Last week saw two more names placed on my Navy-buddy Taps
list. One I knew personally, having been
with him on two cruises, and the other I knew only through e-mails. Face-to-face or e-mails, it doesn’t make a
difference, when they’re gone they’re gone and the loss is just as bad. With that in mind, when my wife died, it
struck me that there was a way now, to keep a presence even though you’re
gone. Technology being what it is,
recordings into a computer can be preserved indefinitely, so I started to
record stories and poems and just notes, like a journal but not on a daily
basis. Perhaps it will come to pass that
they(my children) will put down their phones, pads, tablets, etc. and sit still
long enough to listen to me. Oh well,
that might be a pie-in-the-sky wish.
Albert Einstein once said “It has become appallingly obvious that our
technology has exceeded our humanity.”
Alas and alack.
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