Camille Paglia…call your office.

Its refreshing to see a woman understand what makes a man tick:

When I meet a guy for the first time, I have no problem with his eyes wandering south for a second to check out my rack—that’s when I steal a glance at the little slip of landscape peeking out from the collar of his shirt. Is it heavily forested, gently grassy, or just a desert-like stretch of flesh, with nary a hair in sight to provide shade?

Better than looking for my six pack abs that went AWOL sometime ago.

And come to think of it-when I meet a girl I have thoughts about forestation too-just in a different hemisphere.

Pat Buchanan-no friend to union labor-makes a great point:

Be it BMW, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi or Hyundai, the South has become a sanctuary for foreign assembly plants, for which Southern states have been paying subsidies.

Fine.

But why this “Let-them-eat-cake!” coldness toward U.S. auto companies? General Motors employs more workers than all these foreign plants combined. And, unlike Mitsubishi, General Motors didn’t bomb Pearl Harbor.

Ouch!

Read the whole article here-pretty interesting read.

When I only had one goal in life and it was this:

Carrier Landing-Home Video – The best home videos are here

I actually got some time in the S-3, both at the ship and flying cross country from Jax to Whidbey.

Obama must be doing something right when he is able to piss off both his supporters and the die hard extremists who believe him to be the Anti-christ and a Muslim.

By picking Rick Warren to give the invocation, Obama sends a message-a good one if you ask me-that says this nation has to work together despite its differences. Besides, since when did it become a political foul to ask someone to pray for you? I want all my readers to pray for me-every chance they get. I need the help.

The gay activists have it all wrong. Plus, like it or not, there are about were 52 million Americans who did not want Obama to be President. Obama knows that. I’d like to think too that he’s learned from Clinton’s mistake and will not allow him to be sidetracked by an issue that is of tertiary importance to most Americans. Sorry guys-its just the way it is. When the economic and foreign policy house is burning down around you-gay marriage is not issue number 1.

The response from evangelicals is what is more puzzling. Then again, maybe not. A significant subset of those folks actually believed that Sarah Palin was qualified to be President. Again, Obama ignores that at his peril -and say what you want, the man is not stupid.

So I think this is a great thing for both the President and for the country. Besides, I’ll probably be leaving for lunch about that time and miss the invocation anyway.

Like I said-much ado about nothing.

The Russians that is-across the North Atlantic in the dead of winter.

Came across this pretty cool video of how the transit might be like. Admiral Kusnetsov and a Slava CG taking water over the bow. Check out the Sovremmeny Destroyer taking 45 degree rolls.

Admiral Kuznetsov Aircraft Carrier and CVBG in a Heavy Storm – The best free videos are right here

You get bonus points if you can name the radar and the forward missiles on the Slava.

And it finds the S.O. and I still together, on the wrong side of the planet, and wondering what the next year will hold for us. My father is coming here tomorrow for the Christmas holidays-so posting may be spotty. The last three years running the S.O. and I observed our ritual in a hotel in Tokyo. Not so close anymore-and the return route of flight is looking more circuitous than I thought it would be. However, ke sera and all that-it’s worth remembering how we got here in the first place (from two years ago I repeat this post):

Taking Stock.

It is 5 days till Christmas! Accordingly I hereby declare a ban on politics and the war for at least till after that. Beer and babes, however, will always be available. After all what goes better with Christmas than that?

Also, I’ll be out of touch for about 3 days. The S.O. and I are going away for a couple of days and celebrating an anniversary of sorts. Hotel, nice dinner, walking in the city, wine, and…….especially and………… (at least I hope so-if not I’m going to demand an 84,000 yen refund from Saikaya!). I’m not taking my laptop, so it will be the equivalent of going cold Turkey for a computer addict like me.

The S.O. and I have been together for over 4 years. Like all relationships we have had our ups and downs-to tell the truth I never expected to be here now, with her, when all this started. I still wonder each day whether next year will still find us together or not. Not for mean reasons, but more because of ambivalence on both our parts. Allow me to explain a little bit…………

When I met the S.O. I had been in Japan for just over a year. A year later we were living in the same place-with all of the attendant fal de rol. The year before we met had been a watershed for me in my life. Coming from the US and the hell that is a sexless marriage, it was astonishing to see that all turn around in just a few short weeks. That year I probably got laid more than I did the entire time I was married to the shrew. I had come to Tokyo and immediately knew that Asia was the place for me! Spike noted this some time ago and I blogged about it saying that I fully understood the sensation:

“As much of an outsider as I was, there was something there, I felt like I belonged there. I was an alien and at home at the same time. ”

It was awesome. I felt like I had gone to heaven. I’d been to Bangkok for a couple of manhood “reaffirmation” tours where I had literally gone nuts in Patpong and at the Eden Club. I’d traveled around Japan and the region to Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei. I had a Chinese girl on the string in Kyushu ( a doctor no less!), a couple up here in Tokyo and a Thai girl who worked as a make-up artist at the Navy exchange. ( She is the subject of a whole other post…..lets just say that memories of sex with her will be in my “old man ” memories!). The hard part was keeping them from finding out about each other. I was gearing up for a trip to Jakarta to see what they had to offer me down there.

So why, I’ve asked myself over and over again, would I go and complicate my life with a serious relationship with obligations (financial and otherwise) when things were just hunky-dory without one. I’ve yet to give myself a good answer. I had been down this path before and I knew it led no where good. Unlike many people, I have no problem with living by myself.

When I met the S.O. I had no other aspirations except to make her another notch on my bed post. She was beautiful to look at ( she still is!) and interesting to talk to. Then again, all women are when you first meet them. Its new, they smell nice, you are captivated by the way her skirt drapes over her thighs-or fascinated with the way her blouse comes to a point that shows her cleavage. It’s as you get to know them that the challenge of staying engaged kicks in.

Yet, there was something about her, something that was just more than a little different from the Shibuya Girls I had met and bed. For one thing she was my age (more or less…), she’d worked for all of her adult life, she had a good job and she had her own car, apartment and goals. She knew how to talk about many things, because she was just a very smart and witty lady. Unlike her American sisters though, she was not pushy about that fact. So suffice it to say I was curious. When she gave me her e-mail and phone number, I did what you should never do, and immediately e-mailed her when I got home and called her the very next day asking for a date.

And so it began. I was still traveling, but at the same time calling her and asking her out-a lot. She was in the process of moving to a new apartment. I rented a van and helped her move. The whole time I was thinking in terms of a clock ticking within my head. Soon I would have to move on-or she would-especially when she learned that if she wanted to take this to its ultimate extreme, there was no way I was ever going to have any children again. For sure that would tear it. If not that, then fact that I was chained down with economic slavery from my divorce would do the trick.

Except it didn’t. And to this day I am not sure why. I think deep down inside of her she wants a child. If so, she needs to seek a new man-I’m not equipped physically or emotionally to do that. I’ve been very up front about that-its in my walk out the door criteria-but to date she seems to deal with it ok.

I’m always afraid that means that she is just settling for me- out of fear of growing old alone. I talked to her about that more than a couple of times. I am who I am -and with my life experience I’m not going to change. I’m a party boy and proud of it. I’ll be one as long as I live.

She said she was a party girl. She may have been, but she is most definitely not one now. I always tease her that she is guilty of false advertising. We are so very different in so many ways. We are alike in one way though-we are both selfish.

Which is perhaps why we seem to be comfortable together. I know I am comfortable -to date. We’ll see what the out years hold; I’m not going to plan that far ahead. After having jumped off the cliff once, walking away holds none of the terrifying fear it used to.

But not yet. Truth be told, I just could not bring myself to do that. To her-or to myself. I must be an idiot or a useless romantic. Does not mean that may be out there in the future one day-but for today its not. I still believe that I am the only one responsible for my happiness. The idea that out there somewhere, is one special woman who will do that for you is sheer nonsense. Living with her has not changed my thinking on that subject. I might think differently if I did not like women and sex so much. ( as in I like it a LOT!).

If she senses my qualified regard for her, it is counterbalanced by what I know is her qualified regard for me. The stuff of sonnets, our relationship is not. We do say, “I love you” to each other. It seems the right thing and more romantic than the more accurate statement of our relationship with each other: “You’ll do.”

Still, my worst day with the S.O. has been far better than my best day with the ex, so that must be progress of a sort. Plus, she has brought a lot of structure to a very disorganized life. She has got me focused on some goals besides a girl’s ankles up in the air, and gotten me focused on saving money. She’s actually taught me a lot on that score. We do, however, maintain complete and separate finances though. I will never ever, ever, share money with a woman again!

So pop the champagne! I’ve got the silly cards, and I know I’m going to get dragged into the shop to buy her the jewelry of her choice tomorrow. What the future holds-hell, I have no idea-but for today and the next few days we will savor the present. Come to think of it that’s just about all anybody can do.

“Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same.” – Unknown”We all want to fall in love. Why? Because that experience makes us feel completely alive. Where every sense is heightened, every emotion is magnified, our everyday reality is shattered and we are flying into the heavens. It may only last a moment, and hour, an afternoon. But that doesn’t diminish its value. Because we are left with memories that we treasure for the rest of our lives.”
- Unknown

Skippy-san

Was out at Barnes and Noble today, getting some gift cards for my son. (Never shop early when you can put it off to the last minute!). I came across the Christmas gift for me:

Yes , I am ashamed to admit it, but I am a secret fan of Mad Magazine. Have been since I was 9 and my mother would go ballistic if she found them in the house.

Silly? Yes.
Stupid jokes? Yes.
Funny as all get out? You dern’ed betcha.

Gotta buy it!

And here you thought I had high brow tastes when it came to literature…………………………..

One of the things I have always marveled about, when it comes to the hymn Silent Night, is how many languages it has been translated into. In the spirit of Christmas Eve, here is a cure little anime of the song translated into Nihongo:

And of course the fact that Christmas Eve is coming tomorrow-also means that Santa Claus is coming. To bring presents to some real sweet hearts. Santa Babes:

Just for Mark-here are some of your Nihonjin friends wishing you a Merry Christmas.
( And no I cannot verify that the anime characters are over 18!):

Merry Christmas to all and to all an Omedetou Kurisumasu!

I miss Japan!

Ai Iijima, who was an AIDS activist and former television personality was found dead in her condo in Shibuya yesterday.

The body of the 36-year-old, who retired in March last year from a lucrative career as a television personality, was found lying in the lounge of her condominium in downtown Shibuya by a friend.

‘There were few signs of foul play. We will conduct a post mortem tomorrow to determine if the cause of her death was an illness, suicide or something of a criminal nature,’ a police spokesman said.

Ms Iijima, who was also known in the rest of Asia, gained popularity at home as a straight-talking character since her debut on television variety shows in the 1990s.

I’ve just finished wrapping the last little presents I could hide from the S.O. She already has the big one-a pearl and diamond ring that is sort of a Christmas / Anniversary of Being Together present. She knows about the earrings under the tree-she picked them out. I used to be able to surprise her. Now I just buy what she wants…………

Anyway……

This Christmas Eve, I thought long and hard about what to write about. And it occurred to me that in spite of all our good will, come the new year we will go back to our hatreds.  Peace on Earth is an illusion at times-nor have we as a people fostered it very well. Despite our own self delusion that we do.

However the desire is still there, and maybe that is the best we can hope for. Which brings me to a subject I have always wanted to explore-which typifies what I am talking about- The Christmas truce of World War One. From the War to End All Wars web site. The lesson is simple,  that in “our age of uncertainty, it comforting to believe, regardless of the real reasoning and motives, that soldiers and officers told to hate, loathe and kill, could still lower their guns and extend the hand of goodwill, peace, love and Christmas cheer“.

Merry Christmas!

(more…)

About getting screwed over by the ex-wife. However, from LA comes a case of a REALLY BITTER ex husband:

COVINA, Calif. (AP) – Stinging from an acrimonious divorce, a man plotting revenge against his ex-wife dressed up like Santa, went to his former in-laws’ Christmas Eve party and slaughtered at least six people before killing himself hours later.

Three people were listed as missing after Bruce Pardo’s rampage – his ex-wife and her parents – and it was feared their remains were among the ashes of the home, which Pardo set ablaze using a bizarre homemade device that sprayed flammable liquid.

Pardo, 45, had no criminal record and no history of violence, according to police, but he was angry following last week’s settlement of his divorce after a marriage that lasted barely a year.

“It was not an amicable divorce,” police Lt. Pat Buchanan said.

What the hell was he thinking?

And in the process scare the stuffing out of me and the S.O.-as well as my sister and my father.

Yesterday started well enough. We had decided that it might be a good idea to get out of the house. The S.O. wanted to get deals on Christmas decorations and I had suggested we go to see the NASA museum-anything but sit around the house all day. In hindsight we probably should have followed the latter course.

So off we set, six cylinders of Ford propulsion powering us around the string of malls that populate Shopping Mall USA.  Stopped at Home Depot and the S.O. joined the fray of picking up whatever Christmas decorations were still there and on 75% discount. My dad and I discussed the merits of various gas grills while she took forever to make up here mind. ( It is especially funny because if I have my way-we won’t be living anywhere we can hang the decorations next year!).

Finished we moved on to the NASA museum. Now it is an interesting place, if a but pricey if you ask me. We looked at the Saturn Five, both the model standing outside and the real one horizontally mounted in the big building.  From there we went over to the other building and to the Von Braun and other sections of the museum. I should have realized how much walking it was-but Dad was in good spirits and he said this was interesting.

After ab0ut 35 minutes of looking around, Dad said he was hungry. “Great” , I say, ” I am too, I’ll go get the car and we can go right away.” Not 10 seconds after I said that, then my Dad stumbled and looked like he was going to fall. My sister and I caught him and steered him over to a seat. I raced to find someone to get help. All I could find was a tour guide and I interrupted her tour , exclaiming “Can you help me-may father has passed out. We need medical assistance now!”  To her credit, she immediately dashed behind me and she called security on her walky talky phone thing.

My sister had my father sitting up and he was talking, but he did not look well.  They asked us if we wanted an ambulance. “You think?” Of course we want an ambulance-unbelievable. They did have a nurse on site-however to tell you the truth, I was not impressed with her approach to analyzing the problem. Neither was my sister-and she IS a trauma nurse. We knew the ambulance needed to be there ASAP. In about 10 minutes it showed up and the EMT’s were good. They got my Dad up, on the gurney and to the ambulance post haste. I raced to get to the car so I could follow.

30 minutes later found us at the hospital-in a waiting room thronged with people. Seriously it was standing room only. That was surprising to me-but then again perhaps I should not have been surprised. The hospital here is the medical center for the whole county. Dad having arrived by ambulance was given preferred customer status and gotten right to a bed / triage place. By now he was back in better spirits, his color was coming back,  and so was his temper. I took that as a good sign.

And so the rest of the day was spent in the waiting room shuffle. The doctors could find nothing wrong-save for a probable drop in his blood pressure and the fact that my father had probably over exerted himself. We took him back to the house about 9.  He wanted to eat, he said. The S.O. fed him whatever he wanted.

So today we are home. Dad slept fine last night he says and feels good today-but on consultation on all of us, we are going to watch DVD’s at home today.

Important lessons learned for me:

1) Have a plan in your own mind and be ready to know where you are going to go if you have to go to hospital.

2) Don’t always assume that a facility is ready to handle an emergency.

3) A person may be 88 and pretty healthy-but he is still 88. Don’t under estimate your father’s stubbornness at not saying what he needs.

Scary, although my father is still pretty upset that we made a fuss. I’ll take that as another good sign.

Is many times, actually correct.

Phib had a post a couple of days ago, taking Newsweek to task for supposedly promoting defeat:

I’m angry. Why angry? Because the media like Newsweek did everything it could to undermine our victory during the most difficult times mid-decade. They took every chance to push the bad – yet are well over a year late with the good. Too angry to blog on a subject? Yes, too angry.

Angry? Yes, because most who paid attention called victory back in NOV …. NOV ’08.

Umm……that’s not exactly correct.  In November of 2008 17 Americans died-that same month over 325 Iraqis were killed. This was in spite of a surge that was supposed to buy time for the Iraqis to come up with a political solution.  And while it was true that casulties were down from the previous year ( In November of 2007 40 Americans lost their lives in Iraq)-the Iraqis were no closer to solving any of their problems.

Now fast forward to 2010-the Iraqis have had an election-and they still can’t tell who is in charge. That’s hardly a big suprise-its par for the course for the Iraqis.

As Foreign Policy magazine pointed out in its lastest edition, the conventional wisdom-and reporting-on Iraq may have been actually correct all along:

While few are shedding tears for Saddam Hussein, there’s not much evidence to suggest that his removal made the world safer — or that ousting him in this manner was worth the exorbitant cost in blood and treasure. The other two charter members of the axis of evil — Iran and North Korea — are still ruled by anti-American autocrats with fast-developing nuclear programs, and Iran, if anything, has been strengthened by the replacement of its archenemy with a reasonably friendly Shiite-dominated government.

The war has not exactly created a tidal wave of democracy either. Democracy has actually declined around over the last three years, according to U.S. NGO Freedom House. Early hopeful developments in the Middle East have not panned out either. Following the much-vaunted Cedar Revolution, Lebanon’s government has returned to its normal state of dysfunction. After some overtures, Libya’s Muammar al-Qaddafi has resumed his provocations. And the bloodshed continues in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The bottom line is that thousands of American lives and trillions of dollarswere spent to turn one admittedly barbaric dictatorship into a semidemocracy addled by sectarianism and extremist violence. Doesn’t seem worth it.

Herman Wouk once wrote, that victory only has meaning if its effect produces the desired result for the future.  Using a cost vs benefit metric-focusing solely on benefit for the United States-proves that the naysayers actually had a point. Furthermore-when precious American lives were at stake-it can be argued that news media and other outlets had a moral duty to speak out.

The simple truth of the matter was that the war-created its own story. Poorly begun is poorly done and if it were so important to have gone into Iraq, then it was worth doing full bore from the start. E.G. declaring war on the nation of Iraq, using the number of troops called for by the original war plan, and dispensing with the notion that there were good Iraqis and bad Iraqis-all Iraqis were our enemy until such point as they unconditionally surrendered.

The people who wrote about-simply reported the picture as they saw it.

However if you judge it by the standard of -did it do any good for the US? Well, then victory is not a word that comes to mind. As for did it do good for the Iraqis-well the jury is going to be out on that one for a long time to come.  Given the track record of Arabs as a whole-I’m not optimistic.

But the cost-the real cost in lives, money, and national interest squandered-was never, ever, worth it.

And in that regard, the conventional wisdom was right all along. So Phib may be angry Newsweek never put lipstick on the pig until now. I’m angry that so many people let themselves be deluded into lifting a finger to put the pig in the pen in the first place.

My anger makes more sense.

My, my, my-how quickly the worm turns.

For years loads of military bloggers have been fawning over Michael Yon, supposedly the only honest reporter covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Now it would seem,  he no longer enjoys the adoration of the masses.

I mean after all-God forbid you would call Uncle Dumbo the insensitive writer that he is.

I never had that much fascination with Michael Yon and still don’t. For me he was always a cheerleader for the war in Iraq-when it did not need one. I had an e-mail alteraction with him myself a few years ago when I had the termerity to e-mail him and tell him that he was wrong. He did respond-which is actually nice, but he never could make any sense. Going back tonight and re-reading it, he still doesn’t.

 Now that he has burned his own bridges, he’s not as happy as he once was. A lot of that is his own fault. A lot of it is the thin skin of the milblogsphere which fails to put any value at all on honest discussion and disagreement. Especially if you do not parrot the right wing party line.

And when you don’t value intellectual honesty-this is what you get. On both sides of the argument.

Still its fun to watch.

The last of America’s combat forces are out of Iraq. So there are usual suspects lining up to congratulate the United States on its “victory” in Iraq.

There is only one problem with that line of thinking-the only winners in the Iraq war were China and Iran. China-because it got finance the whole undertaking by loaning money to the US, and by having a free hand to raise its diplomatic and economic profile in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia while it’s biggest competitor was distracted for seven plus years.

Iran because most of its current intransigence on the world stage can be directly traced to unintended consequences of the invasion and occupation-which created most of the pre-conditions for the rise to power of Ahmedwhathisname.

Don’t get me wrong-no one is happier than me to see us finally correcting this seven year old mistake and drawing down to 50,000 troops in that God forsaken country is a good start-but it is only a start. There will not be anything to celebrate for the US until the last America soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine is gone from that place.

Plus until then-its not the end of “combat operations”, the troops left behind still have fighting to do. To say they are not in a combatant role is a huge fiction, just the same as the “Mission Accomplished” fiction of 2003. Does anyone not think that the likelihood of continued combat operations is a reality? When casualties are taken by these “non-combat forces” will those casualties be characterized as “non-combat” as well? Does the public not understand that the secondary mission of our remaining forces is to be prepared to conduct combat operations either to defend themselves or to support Iraqi forces if requested?

We need to be honest with ourselves. The withdrawal is a long overdue development-but it is not the end for the US in Iraq.

Second, we need to be clear that the Iraqis themselves are still pretty screwed up, economically, politically and in about every other way too. Millions are still displaced in other countries or in Iraq. Do they even have a government yet-no. And since the stated purpose of the surge was to buy time for the Iraqis to effect political reconcilation, you can’t even put the “Surge Worked” stamp on the paper, cause it did not accomplish what it was supposed to do.

There is no agreement on how to share oil revenue, no resolution of the basic relationship between the country’s three major groups, and no decision on whether Iraq will have a strong central government or be a loose confederation.

And Iran is still a major thorn in both ours and Iraq’s sides. That hardly constitutes “victory”.

About the day that has taken almost 9 years to achieve-the withdrawal of all troops from Iraq.

Now, for me, this is a welcome development. I’ve been wishing for this day since March of 2003. If you are a long time reader, you know I am know Johnny come lately to being opposed to our little Mesopotamian excursion. I have been opposed to the idea, since I was briefed on the logistics plans for supporting 5 carriers in the Gulf in 2002. ( I along with a lot of others asked the very pertinent question of :”Why? Why does this require 5 carriers-especially against a nation with no more real air threat”.)  Why not have 2 or 3 carriers and put the other aircraft ashore? And why, in particular, do you make a carrier that will already have been on cruise for seven months-extend for another 4, just to get the Super Hornet into the fray. Transpac them from Australia and  send the already tired carrier home.

But common sense approaches were not applied then-and common sense seems not to be prevailing in the opposition today. The popular meme now is that Obama somehow “bungled” the negotiations. And that it now allows Iran to exert undue influence in Iraq. Both are ludicrous propositions. Invading Iraq gave Iran undue influence in the region-our leaving or staying was never going to change that.

And its not a surprise the Iraqis wanted us out of the place-they have been saying it consistently since 2008. That’s why they held their ground on not allowing judicial immunity for American troops. If anyone bungled-it was those neocon advisers who somehow felt we could change their minds and get them to cave on an issue that is a rallying point for a lot of Iraqis.

I voted for Obama because I was opposed to “war without end amen”. And while it took him way too long to get this accomplished-at least it is being accomplished. Its time for the Iraqis to accept the burden of being screwed up on their own and stop looking to us to shield them from their own stupidity. Besides-there are no numbers of Arabs that are worth the life of a single American. I felt that way in 2003, I still feel that way now.

Of course the job really won’t be done, till we drawdown in Kuwait, and reduce numbers at Ft Apache too. (Bahrain). And regardless of political persuasion-a heck of a lot of Americans have not learned that when it comes to the Middle East, less is more.

So I am looking forward to something to celebrate this December-finally getting US troops out of Iraq.

Now if we could just get them out of that other hell-hole in Central Asia…………..

The last forces are leaving Iraq. about 9 years too late-but they are leaving, thanks be to God.

Now if you peruse my archives, you will find that I have not been a fan of the adventure since day 1. And now-I still believe, that for whatever tactical successes we had, the war was a strategic mistake for the United States. Like Britain’s ill advised adventure in Suez in 1956, the corrosive affects of the war on the US military, the US economy, and the psyche of America will continue for at least a generation.

And what do we have to show for it?

Not very much. Sure Saddam is gone, but what have got in its place? A shaky and corrupt Iraqi government, and a resurgent Iran.  A real enemy that we ignored, except when we were borrowing money from him-China-labored under no such burdens and is expanding militarily.

But we have the rise of democracy in the Middle East you say. I’m not so sure-Egypt is having elections and the wrong guys are winning. Iraq is certainly not an ally for us-she can’t be she has too many closer folks who don’t like us to worry about. Syria and Libya? Don’t ask. Do we know how either of those countries will turn out?

In the end, I think history will judge the Bush Administration harshly for both the run-up to the Iraq War and its initial execution. In the wake of the September 11th attacks, which had no connection at all to the regime of Saddam Hussein, they exploited the nation’s fear of terror from the Middle East to ramp up war fever against a nation that we had gone to war against ten years before, and whom we’d been staring at, and striking, across a no-fly zone ever since. Saddam was developing a secret chemical and biological weapons program, we were told, even though the United Nations weapons inspectors never found any evidence of the same. There were whispers about a secret nuclear weapons program, which turned out to be entirely unfounded. Yes, it was true that every major intelligence service in the world believed that Saddam had a WMD program, but what nobody seemed to realize was that the intelligence was based on unreliable witnesses and, apparently, an effort by Saddam himself to make the world think he had them. Because his real enemy was not the US but Iran.

We must remember this misadventure-and above all remember the Soldiers Sailors Airman and Marines who died or were wounded. George W. Bush certainly did them no favors by the reckless rush to war and its aftermath. They must be remembered-for their sacrifices. And we must vow to learn for their hard work and sacrifice and not make such sacrifices again.

““No words, no ceremony can provide full tribute to the sacrifices which have brought this day to pass,” the defense secretary said. “I’m reminded of what President Lincoln said in Gettysburg, about a different war, in a different time. His words echo through the years as we pay tribute to the fallen in this war: ‘The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.’ ”

Thank God its over.

That's the win, loss, tie record of the US in its wars. More if you count the Indian Wars and the other smaller skirmishes over the two centuries of the country's existence.

Stephen Walt has a great article up point out  again-how the US will ultimately end up the loser in Iraq, My only question is when we stop blaming ourselves and put much of the blame on the Iraqis-being Arabs after all and therefore worthless-instead of ourselves. Our problem was that we failed to recognize how worthless they really were.

But some people tried to tell us.

The tragedy of wasted lives and continuing damage to the land of my birth will live on for years to come.

Thanks George and Don-thanks a lot! Losing is still losing.

Ok, I admit it-I snapped. When I followed the Memorandum link to Mr. Jacobson's  blaming of Obama for "losing" the Middle East, I lost my temper. And with good reason too-I expect better logic and a better perspective on the history of the region-and an understanding of the peoples that lie within.

Sadly, Mr Jacobson showed neither. And probably with good reason. His post had nothing to do with the reality on the ground in the Middle East-but everything to do with finding yet something else to blame Obama for.

Should Obama celebrate the raid on Bin Laden a year after the fact? Probably not-but then again its also quite a stretch to say that he is "losing" the Middle East.

The current situation in the region has a lot of fathers-most of them reside in Arab countries, not in the White House. If one follows the entire history-our current lack of influence can be traced all the way back to 1945-or at the least to 1956 when we refused to support the British and the French during the Suez War. The only President who has displayed any common sense about the region is George H.W. Bush-especially when he made the decision to declare victory and go home at the end of Desert Storm.

Certainly, however though-a great deal of the blame for our current position in Afghanistan and Iraq lies at the feet of George W. Bush. His decisions to go to war in Iraq in 2003, and in order to do so sideline Afghanistan and allow our window of opportunity in that country to close.

It is really a loss of one's senses though,  to believe that we could have done anything concrete to stop the path of action in Egypt, Bahrain or any other place that the Arab Spring has touched.  That's quite simply giving us too much credit-and not recognizing that the multi-polar world is rising and US influence is on the wane. You wanted democracy in the region? Well now you have it-and guess what? Arabs can vote stupidly just as their American counterparts can ( and did in 2010).

There are 4 major trouble spots in the Middle East. About Israel I have written a lot-and pointed out well the flaws of the American point of view towards that country.

Iran-which is doing what it perceives to be in its best interest to counter the United States, and btw-thanks to our invasion of Iraq, ended up stronger than it would have been without that event.

Egypt and Syria-about which little can be done, save for feeling sorry for the almost 11,000 Syrians that have died. That said -there is no concrete case to be made for intervention-anymore than there was in Libya. 

And finally the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq-which are going through their own troubles. Iraq is due to our misguided adventure there and their own stupid tribalism, the Arabian Peninsula because of the inability of Saudi Arabia to stop the forces of progress. ( They may be able to slow them down for one more generation-but no longer. When the King dies-it will be interesting to see what happens).

If you want to blame someone for the failure of America's wars-how about blaming the Iraqis and Afghans themselves? They both deserve the lion's share of the blame-for being the screwed up societies they are. Where the US failed-and I believe it was a disaster to go to war in Iraq-was not recognize that up front. Arabs can be counted on to screw up any good deal given them. Its in their DNA. ( Spend a few weeks negotiating with them and you will see what I mean).

I strongly believe that most of the United States problems currently can be laid at the feet of two decisions made by George Bush. The invasion of Iraq and the failure to recant the tax cuts to pay for it.

Which brings me back to the group of blogs that Legal Insurrection is a part of. His blog is part of the "group" that one can see any day on Memeorandum: Legal Insurrection, Gateway Pundit, the really abominable John Hinderaker with Power Line, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Weasel Zippers……..the list is long and not distinguished. Here at Far East Cynic HQ-we monitor them and mock them as needed. ( As do some much bigger blogs than mine).

On any given day-their theme is always the same. If Obama says the sky is blue-they will say its not. It is a tiresome rant-and as I stated earlier, becomes a dangerous one,  when you consider the size of their readership.  Together,  they continue to pour gas on the blazing fire that is American politics these days-and do their level best to prevent any accommodation and progress towards fixing these problems. Obama is not the best President we have ever had-but he's certainly a heck of lot better than the gray hair-and comments like Obama lost the Middle East do nothing to help the situation. It was wrong then-it is still wrong now.

The United States did not lose the Middle East. The world has changed-and we have yet to recognize that fact.

When it comes to the Middle East, less is definitely more. We need to scale back-turn our attention to our own needs, and watch the drama play out.

Well, things have slowly returned to normal after dispatching our Israeli guests back to the land of milk and honey-in order to allow them to celebrate Pesach. 

You know it as Passover.

And Holy Week.

Nonetheless it was a productive week if at the same time a very frustrating one. Israelis can be very difficult especially when you have to tell them no-several times.

Like spoiled children, however, you still have to love them-even if you don't always like them.

We got a lot done-and now I am in the middle of "meeting cleanup"-producing notes, sending out PPT's and wishing I was on a plane to Israel. ( Or anywhere else for that matter). Damn you sequester!

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While I was out, Britain passed a new press law. This, in reaction to the clear cut crossing of the line that the Rupert Murdoch controlled print media accomplished through the phone hacking scandal. One of the most interesting phenomena was the complete over-reaction to the news by uber conservatives and their designated propaganda outlets.Particularly telling was the depth of the over reaction by those who are the worst offenders when it comes to media responsibility and their supporters in the blogosphere. To say that kind of reaction is overwrought, is slightly something of an understatement..

For starters, there are limits beyond which a responsible media should not go. The principle enforcers of that are supposed to be libel laws that demand irresponsible media players ( such as Murdoch and his clone Fox News) pay a pecuniary price for their irresponsibility. That is what Britain is trying to accomplish- with a media that is far less constrained than American media ( although the Americans are doing their best to be just like their British counterparts). The paranoid amongst us-decided to maintain that it was threat to freedom of the press and freedom of speech. In reality neither was the case -and British media coverage ( which I get through my satellite coverage) was much less hysterical. When it was pointed out that there was a large number of folks in the UK who had decided that enough was enough-and that it was time to put a halt to London's being the libel capitol of the world-the responses in general represented the basic level of American stupidity. The "Oh yea! What about MSNBC?" line of thinking gets really tiresome and old. And validates for me, again, the basic stupidity of a large segment of the US population.

For one thing-it ignores the fundamental illogic of Phibians argument. When someone tries to defend the British government and point out that something, somewhere has to be done about the increasing inability of the news media to police themselves-the contrarian arguments come out. "What about Dan Rather?" " What about Andrea Mitchell?" "MSNBC is liberal"…and so on and so forth. "Its impinging on free speech". They completely miss the point. Which is, that they are in effect arguing in favor of those shameful media practices-for the sole purpose of avoiding detailed scrutiny of equally egregious conduct by their darlings: Fox News and the right wing blogosphere.  That's crazy.

There is no impingement of free speech. There is a recognition however, when you just tell out right lies, or publish recklessly-there is a price to be paid. I have been following most of the British coverage of the debate leading up to this law-and the previous 18 months that led up to it. The simple truth is that the Murdoch organizations crossed a line-going into an area they had no business going into, and ruined a lot of good people in the process. There is a difference between printing a dissenting opinion, and publishing an blatant lie with malice aforethought. All they are trying to do is put teeth into their libel laws-something that used to be present in the United States. If we enforced our libel laws it would put slime like Hinderaker and Malkin out of business. Besides, it may not survive a court challenge in the UK, something that "fair and balanced" news outlets in the US neglected to report.

It is always interesting the things our Galtian overlords get bent out of shape about. They are perfectly OK with strangling rights to live one's life in peace, have access to decent health care, the right to have sex as much as they want-and not be told what to do with their own bodies vis a vis reproduction. But take away the non existent right of the Breitbart children or Michelle Malkin or Hindrocket to lie with impunity? That gets their panties in a bunch.

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And finally I think its important to recognize the anniversary that occurred this week, the 10 th anniversary of the worst foreign policy decision made by the United States in the last 40 years. No Phib, on this issue you are completely wrong again. You can cling to your flawed beliefs and be a surgeaholic-but the war was not worth it, it created more problems for the United States than it solved and most importantly-needlessly sacrificed thousands of American lives.

Lets turn it over to some more objective observers shall we?

This, obviously, was all a fever dream. There were no biological or nuclear weapons; there may have been a few rusty chemical shells lying around, just as there had been for decades. Iraq was not an important sponsor of Islamicist terrorism. Islamicist terrorism was fueled not by fascist dictatorships such as Iraq, but by non-state actors in failed states such as Afghanistan and Somalia; and our invasion of Iraq promptly turned it into precisely the sort of failed-state sectarian war zone that does fuel terrorism. Thousands of American soldiers died in a war in Iraq that only exacerbated the danger of anti-American terrorism. Thousands of Iraqi soldiers died as well, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians died in the resulting civil war, most killed by the Iraqi militias who emerged in the power vacuum the US invasion created, but many killed by US armed forces themselves. In the name of pre-empting a non-existent threat, America killed tens of thousands of people and turned Iraq into a breeding ground for terrorism. And we spent a trillion dollars to do it.

How did America's policymaking community ever commit itself to such a catastrophic delusion? I don't truly understand it now, and I didn't understand it then.  ( SS note-emphasis added).  I found the developing consensus for an unprovoked attack on Iraq in late 2002 absurd. But I had an advantage: I wasn't living in America at the time. Viewed from the defamiliarising distance of West Africa, the American polity's effort to talk itself into invading a country that hadn't attacked it was baffling and disturbing. That reaction was widely shared in the country where I was living among locals and expats, Americans included.

My opposition to the war began the day I was shown plans for the deployment of five carriers to the Gulf in 2002. Among many others we asked two specific questions: "Why do we need 5 CV's especially since it will force you to keep 2 of them on cruise for over 9 months?" ( The Lincoln was kept on Cruise for 11 months-all to ensure the F-18 E's and F's she carried did not miss the conflict). That was an irresponsible decision then-and I remain so convinced today. And the second question was, "Why now?" Why not finish one war before starting a second one?" That too,  is still a pertinent question to ask.

Being still in the Navy at the time-I got a first hand view of the cascading effects of that one mistake over and over again. I have written about my disdain for the war, and the American military's pursuit of it a lot since I started this blog in 2005. It was NOT "the right war, fought imperfectly through three of four phases. No one can see alternative presents, but my bet is that both we and Iraq are better because of it. ". No-it was a colossal mistake, a huge waste of time , resources and lives and it was built on a foundation of lies and deception.. To paraphrase Herman Wouk, victory only has meaning in its effects on the politics that occur after the war-and more importantly should be waged with an eye towards what is solely in the national interest. US interests-not those of Arabs living in Iraq.  

There is a new book out, by Toby Dodge called "Iraq: From War to a New Authoritarianism".  

Iraq was Chinatown, an unknowable entity where it was unwise to linger. As a result, contemporary Iraq, a very different creation from what America’s occupation had intended, has been poorly chronicled. The best recent books in English have been military histories, aimed at showing how America’s generals performed. Few have explained what happened to Iraq itself.

Toby Dodge, who teaches at the London School of Economics, does much to fill that gap in his new book, published under the auspices of the nearby International Institute for Strategic Studies. It is a short academic work and makes no effort to present the human side of a generally bleak picture. But Mr Dodge is clear, concise and unsparing about the country’s ongoing agony. For anyone who wants to know how Iraq arrived at its current state, and wonders what might happen next, this is an excellent place to begin.

Mr.  Dodge helps set to rest this myth that neo-conservatives continue to believe that we "won the war"-and all it took was new leadership. The facts simply do not support that assertion-and the surge in both foresight and hindsight was as much of a mistake as starting the war was. By its own benchmarks the surge failed-because whatever time it bought the Iraqis to solve its political differences, the Iraqis simply screwed away.

When people say it was worth it, they have to force themselves to dance around some annoying facts. There will of course, be some inconvenient truths that will need to be danced around:

Annoying fact #1: The Iraqi government is still worthless.

Annoying fact #2: Violence in all of Iraq is not reduced as it is supposed to be. 

What is clear to any objective observer is that the only winners were the Chinese and the Iranians. By any objective standard-from the standpoint of advancing US interests in the world-Iraq was a complete and total failure.

Just about all of the current economic troubles-particularly the size of the deficit can be laid at the feet of the war. The inability of the US to influence events in other lands-e.g., get Europeans to pay more for their own defense-due to the war. The rise of the Chinese in Africa-due to the war. Higher energy prices-due to the war.

It was all a colossal waste.