9 responses to “Ruminations – 28jun13”

1. 

   Joe Koyote

   28 June 2013

   I don’t recall Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, Patton, MacArthur, … putting forth such demands before committing troops”–They were in a state of declared war. I think Gen. Dempsey is speaking more in reference to invading countries without cause, reason, or a plan; like Iraq. Let’s face it… generals don’t start wars, politicians do and I think the good general fully understands that and he is just trying prevent a needless loss of lives for no apparent reason… like Iraq. His job is to protect the lives of his troops as well as accomplish the mission. He wants to make sure the mission is worth the devastation of war.

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2. 

   Gregory

   28 June 2013

   “The good general said that “I’d like to understand the plan to make peace before starting a war.” As a GI I wasn’t aware that my understanding of the aftermath of battle was a prerequisite for me to follow lawful orders to get in there and fight as I was trained to do.”
   George, the good general said he’d “like” (i.e. a preference, not a “prerequisite”) to understand the plan to get out before starting a “war”. War, not “battle”.
   Sounds reasonable to me. Only sounds bad if you put words in his mouth that he didn’t say. Or did I miss something?

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3. 

   George Rebane

   28 June 2013

   Gregory 412pm – You may have. In previous generations of soldiering, including mine, military officers did not offer such sentiments publicly. And regarding JoeK’s 1215pm, the general’s job is to accomplish the mission at the lowest cost to life and limb – a different but important ordering.

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4. 

   Bill Tozer

   28 June 2013

   “McDermott (D-WA) wants the State Dept issued posters to be taken down because they may “encourage religious and racial profiling”. And that pretty much underlines the progressive priorities when it comes to America’s security.”
   Encourage religious profiling? Like Janet declaring Christians, Protestants, Catholics, Evangelicals and probably Holy Rollers be put on the terrorist watch list and label them as potential home grown terrorists. Now, we can’t call an Islamic extremist an Islamic extremist cause that might lend to racial and religious profiling. Those splendid chaps on the posters are simply misunderstood, most born to wealth and opportunity.
   What did the Administration call that wing nut shrink who was e-mailing radical Ragheads and then went to the military base shouting God is Great in Arabic as he opened fire on unarmed young people. Hmmmm. I remember now. They called that a “workplace incident”. Mustn’t rock the boat and call a spade a spade.
   Progressives believe its all America’s fault first and foremost. They don’t want to offend anybody at all costs, with the exception of horrid folks like the Tea Party Patriots and fiscal conservatives. Them gun totting Neanderthals are the real threat to security, not people that blow up senior citizens hangouts and pay 14 year olds to strap on suicide vests. Them right wing extremists are the real enemy.
   Those of the progressive persuasion keep putting rattlesnakes down their pants hoping if you be nice to Mr. Slither with the big fangs, the snake won’t bite you this time. It will be different this time so forget the last 200 times. Their idea of security is making a deal with the devil. The history of appeasement has historically failed.
   We must be nicer to those who hate us cause we are worse than those that target civilians indiscriminately. We ARE the world’s bullies, the Evil Empire, the Dark Side. We must atone for our sins.
   To make us secure we certainly should take down the bus posters and put our heads deep, deep in the sand. Ignorance is bliss I suppose.

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5. 

   Gregory

   02 July 2013

   It’s clear to me that I didn’t miss anything this time. He’s not just a general, he’s the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. They NEED to have an endgame plan, it’s their job to have a clue how it is to end, to plan for it and give all options to the civilian leadership where the buck stops.
   In those old days, the plan for peace was to decimate the state which initiated a war against us and execute their leaders guilty of the worst of the war crimes and crimes against humanity. In short, a fair trial followed by a first class hanging. These aren’t the good ol’ days.

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6. 

   Gregory

   02 July 2013

   “Half a league, half a league,
   Half a league onward,
   All in the valley of Death
   Rode the six hundred.
   “Forward the Light Brigade!
   Charge for the guns!” he said.
   Into the valley of Death
   Rode the six hundred.
   Forward, the Light Brigade!”
   Was there a man dismay’d?
   Not tho’ the soldier knew
   Some one had blunder’d.
   Theirs not to make reply,
   Theirs not to reason why,
   Theirs but to do and die.
   Into the valley of Death
   Rode the six hundred.”
   That’s old school.
   A historic Edison recording was made in 1890, a surviving field trumpeter playing the charge he had played a half century earlier for the ill fated charge of the Light Brigade, on the very same bugle.
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qke-zjjYssM
   BTW There’s an old joke in math education circles, regarding division by fractions, that borrows from the Tennyson:
   “Yours is not to reason why,
   Just invert and multiply.”

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7. 

   Russ Steele

   02 July 2013

   All,
   I just got a call from George and he is offline fighting a connection battle with AT&T. His DSL is down and he has spent all day so far with AT&T Tech Support. Having been their and done that many times myself, it is never a positive experience. Stay tuned for his return to blogging.

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8. 

   George Rebane

   03 July 2013

   Thanks Russ. I’m back after one and a half days of putting Humpty Dumpty together again. ATT really did a job on my side of the wall plug before they admitted that the outage was on their side. Modern times.

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9. 

   Michael Anderson

   04 July 2013

   Got Uverse? AT&T criminals. If this were Egypt, the AT&T execs would be in tight cells, getting the bejesus clobbered out of them. I’m not saying this would be the right approach, but absent our current justice system working the problem correctly, those crooks best think twice about how sweet they have things.

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