"Ya' Got Trouble. Right here in River City!"

"Ya got trouble,
Right here in River city!
With a capital "T"
And that rhymes with "P"
And that stands for Pool."

Then of course, there is the story of three young American mall-walkers who were on "vacation" in Iraq and strayed across the border into Iran and got themselves arrested. They then got themselves imprisoned and charged with spying.

Now let me ask you something my fellow Americans.  Does the Iraq/Iran border seem like a good place for three young, college educated, middle class American mall-walking, ipod-listening, clueless ‘twenty-somethings’ to take a "vacation"? What have these young idiots been smoking? The story is here.

This story could not get any nuttier unless these three morons were attempting to enlist in the Saudi Royal Household Guard via email from Iraq on a drunken bet from three midget Romanian sailors who promised to buy them drinks if they snuck into Iran first. You cannot make this stuff up.

To paraphrase my long dead father, "what were they thinking?"

Here is a story concerning an update on Major Hasan’s medical condition. He is talking to medical personnel and he is conscious most of the time now. What a mess this is for everyone.

If it turns out that upon investigation that we discover that this native born American was seeking solace in this difficult time in his life by finding "G*d" in a tenth century super-fundamentalist, Faith-by-the-sword and hyper militant reading of pre-medieval Islam let us take a lesson from this.

This is very serious and applies to all of us. When you find ‘solace’ in mythological figures spoken of in ancient writings based on Bronze Age pre-Canaanite visions of a desert god or gods watered down to some modern version of "The Holy One" and decide to take human life in order to serve his divine will, you are insane.

Period.

If you have such a vision of a G*d in your head, don’t act on it. See a shrink today! This is not holiness. This is psychosis.

This is why super-fundamentalist religions are so &^%$-ing dangerous to all of us. They give easy answers to crushingly difficult life questions. And the answers are always wrong!

Word to the wise. We have the same problem among so called "Christians" here. There are other religionists also who suffer from this. This oversimplification of the moral code must end. Do you see what it brings?

Super-fundamentalist visions of a Deity are just one more example of the pressures of the modern age driving human psychology back into a more primitive state to find solace amidst cultural confusion brought on by the evolving pressures of a globalizing civilization.

This is not G*d for a Muslim or a Christian or a Jew to act upon. This is craziness. This is self-induced psychosis.

G*d is in what you do. G*d is not in what fantasies you have in a religiously muddled pea-brained scheme to serve "Him" by acting on psychotic schemes.

Islamist/Wahabbist tainted Muslims are not the only people that act like this in our world. You have plenty of them in your hometown. Think about it.

Here is a powerful quote from Cynthia Thomas who is an Army wife who runs a private assistance center for soldiers in Killeen, Tex., called Under the Hood Café. The quote is here and is the Quote of the Day in the New York Times today.

"Whether it’s self-medicating, anger or violence, these are the consequences of war, and you have to think about all the people affected by soldiers coming home, the parents, spouses, children, brothers, sisters, aunts and cousins."

And in an odd and compelling article posted on Truthout blog entitled "Preparing Undeployables for the Afghan Front" we read about men and women who the Army has picked up for desertion and AWOL.

They are being offered amnesty from prosecution under the UCMJ if they will accept immediate deployment to a combat zone. Many are sick, mentally broken or just down and out exhausted. The Army does not seem to care. That article is here.

Now, be aware of something. This is exactly what the War of 1812 between us and Great Britain was about in its initial stages.  That is, forced deployment of Americans into combat.

The British Government was sending warships to the North American coast and impressing American seamen and fishermen into British naval service against the French. In short, Americans were not really considered anything but rebels yet by the British, even though we had signed a treaty with them previously and the War of the Revolution between us had ended years before.

The British still saw us as citizens in rebellion and saw it as their right to impress Americans into the British Navy. This was a costly and bitter war between us and the economic ramifications were not small for either country.

This is essentially what we are doing to these broken soldiers if in fact they have been driven crazy by repeated deployments. We are impressing them into service for combat against an ethical code that is apparent if in fact they have been driven nuts by previous combat deployments. 

Psychologists can determine that, not command sergeant majors who need bodies to fill seats on the next plane out to the combat zones. This is wrong and is a shocking look into how broken these people truly are.

We have no legal or moral right to send broken people back into combat because there is no one else to send.

This is an indication of how little support this war has among the general population. This is not a small thing. We are breaking the already broken to wage a war that Americans do not support because there is no one else to send. Think about this.

We are creating a criminal underclass of combat broken sociopaths who will plague us back here at home for the next fifty years with crime, brutal violence and sociopathic behavior unless we stop this insanity immediately. 

The needs of the energy cartels and the war industry giants dictate that these people be placed back into combat over and over again.  Less than 1% of the population is now engaged in continual combat.  This is unethical, unG*dly and unnecessary.  It is also incredibly dangerous. We will have massive social unrest in years to come if this is not stopped immediately.

In an Op Ed article by David Brooks, who I normally do not appreciate or even like,  there is a line of reasoning about the evil intent within the actions of Major Hasan that we must take into account. It may not be that he was nuts. It may just be that he is just evil. The story is here.

In another Op Ed piece, Bob Herbert has an article posted today that concedes that health care reform is important but not as important as getting Americans back to work and ending the war in Afghanistan. That piece is here.

In a stunning Op Ed piece by Roger Cohen we learn that the magnates on Wall Street and the taxpayers on Main Street are growing further apart even in this so-called ‘economic recovery’ that is now happening. The Great Recession has ended technically but over 8 million workers have lost their jobs and the jobs are not returning. Here is a searing excerpt from his article:

"Nine months into his administration, President Obama has had a hard time delivering. Washington politics are still ugly. The taxpayer-funded economic recovery, such as it is, has accentuated rather than eased inequalities. Wall Street and Main Street are more estranged than ever. Guys with families and no jobs (most of the 8 million job losses have been male) see bankers back on the fat-bonus gravy train.

David Hale, a Chicago-based economist, told me that U.S. employment had declined at a much faster rate than national output (6 percent versus 3.8 percent) since the Great Recession began, whereas in Germany and Japan the job losses have been just a fraction of the falls in output.

Hale called the resultant rise in American productivity "stunning." U.S. businesses are more competitive than ever, which could eventually bring jobs. But for now, the newly jobless ask, "What recovery? What justice?"

"If managements are raising profits by cutting jobs, and that gives them a stock market gain of 55 percent, in the end you’re magnifying inequality," Hale said. Yep, you can’t oblige businesses to use their profits to hire. That’s the American way."

Do you understand now why I never bought into the "wave the flag, my country right or wrong" philosophy?

The American worker is routinely being sold down the river for the sake of the wealthy and powerful stockholders. The American stakeholder, the worker, is sacrificed over and over on the Altars of Mamon so that money can be made. 

But that money is made by the wealthy and stays with the wealthy.  There is no ‘trickle down’ effect.  Reagan lied or else he was deluded. So tell me, how do you feel about that?  You know what I think?

"We’ve got trouble, right here in River City".

Get informed and stay informed. An informed veteran is a comfort to his friends and a danger to his adversaries.

Celebrate this Veterans Day with an email to your congressman. Say whatever you want to say. But say something. Do it on behalf of all the veterans you knew and know today. Participate in your government.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)