Let’s ponder the Washington Post’s views on the world today

What a day for tragedy and contemplation today is! First up we have a blast in Baghdad that has killed 100 people outright, left at least another 500 maimed or wounded and put into serious question whether or not President Maliki of Iraq can satisfactorily govern or provide security for the Iraqi people. The story is here.

Was this money and life, blood and treasure, well spent? What do you think? As an American veteran, do you want this to continue in the name of America’s "national defense"? Is this something you want the young people in your neighborhood to sign up to support? Are you willing to kill them or maim them for life over this vicious struggle among Muslims for theological dominance of one strain of theology over another within worldwide Islam?

In another example of incredible arrogance and hubris among our Western Asian Muslim allies in leadership, President Karzi of Afghanistan has ruled out any possibility of power sharing with his opponent in the upcoming election. powerballThe battle of the Allied Noncompliant is on. The chances of a fraud free runoff election appear to be close to zero. The story is here.

So tell me, after eight years of death and destruction in that sterile mountainous desert wasteland known as Afghanistan attempting to secure the USA from "attack by the Taliban" what do you think of it all?

This is necessary according to our admirals and generals at the Pentagon.  And both the Bushites and the Obamites who have held the reins of government all through this period of proft margin debacle for the sake of the captains of our war industries and American self-delusion on the level of "national defense" seem to at least tacitly agree.

Yes, we are told that these backward, bronze age super-fundamentalist Islamic reformists have allied themselves with Al Qaeda and present a great threat to us as a nation. They will destroy us we are told. Do you believe that?

Let me ask you a simple question or three. Will these wars make us safer or place us deeper in danger? What do you think? Does "victory" in this cultural backwater right smack dab in the middle of "God’s own nowhere" mean anything to the families of the dead Americans who have died in an effort to attain this "victory" whatever that might be?

In fact what does "victory" mean when we have deliberately thrown ourselves directly into the middle of a worldwide Muslim cat fight for theological dominance of one school over another for the sake of profit gains for our weapon’s industries and energy cartels?

How do you feel about the American treasury and working class American bloodlines being bled dry so that perhaps twenty thousand American nobles from the war industry dynasties can make millions over their dead bodies, amputated limbs and shattered minds? What do you think?

I am just asking. It makes me curious to know how you feel about this.

In an absolutely insightful and informative comparison of all military involvements in the world from Viet Nam until today, Jackson Diehl writes an incredibly concise, clear and appropriate article on the waste of American blood and treasure since 1964 on overseas adventures that are hard to reconcile with American national defense interests. This is a must read for any veteran. The article is here.

In an article related to the above in which the spectre of Viet Nam is also raised and the ability to "think it over again" would undoubtedly give us other results, Robert MacNamara’s public expressions of doubt over Defense Department decisions at that time are aired. That story is here.

In another odd article, Europe’s angst over Obama’s seemingly slow decision-making on Afghanistan policy is reviewed. I just don’t get what Europe is finding so difficult to understand about the wasting of American blood and treasure in useless west Asian wars. What’s to not understand? The story is here.

Here is a beauty of an article! A 22 year old Saudi journalist, a female, helped produce a radio show in Saudi Arabia recently where a Saudi man talked about sex in Saudi Arabia on the air. She was tried in court for something like public indecency and found guilty. She has been handed down a sentence of sixty lashes. SIXTY LASHES.

These are our friends, our allies, our partners in securing peace in the Middle East? Can you believe this ? This is barbaric. The story is here.

One last personal note.

This morning at about 7:15 a.m. I left my condo in Alexandria, Virginia and drove over to D.C. to buy my Powerball Lottery Tickets for this Wednesday. The lottery is pretty much my personal religion.  It is one of the few things left that I can believe in.

Today is the Marine Corps Marathon in D.C. and Northern Virginia and I-395 is all closed off for the runners on many ramps of the interstate. There are cops everywhere and cop cars blocking ramps all throughout the interstate system in D.C. and Arlington.

As I was navigating the cop car blockade all over the interstate on my way to New York Avenue in D.C. to buy my tickets from the old Arab guy that runs a gas station/convenience store just prior to entering the Baltimore Washington Parkway, something happened. Two Marine Corps Osprey helicopter-assualt plane hybrids flew directly over my car and directly down I-395 at very low altitude on their way back to Quantico.

It was an obvious PR stunt for all of us early morning drivers that were up and on the highway at that time in the morning. Today is the Marine Corps’ major day in the spotlight around here and they always play it up to the hilt. 

All I could think of as I saw the two ill-fated and hard luck Marine Corps assualt aircraft fly over my head was, "Please do not crash on top of me! You seem to be very good at that!"

It just seemed to encapsulate my feelings about our armed forces’ leadership of late.  The people running the show for the American armed forces, epitomized by Admiral Mullen and General MacChrystal just always seem to be a day late and a dollar short these past twenty years or so. 

I just wish that they would see their duty to our people more clearly and get a clue, come down out of that rarified atmosphere that they are breathing, and bring our people home from this useless and deadly debacle. We need them to be less and less the general or admiral and more and more the American citizen.

I hope that they read this.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)