:: Just trying to make sense of it all..... ::

:: Sunday, March 30, 2003 ::

The world sure is looking messed up. Don't think they are going to straighten this one out in my lifetime. However, I think we are suffering from our incurable disease to solve problems. All situations are problems, and must be "solved." I remember being accused of wanting to do this at various times in my life. I am a "problem solver," which is apparently a bad thing to be in some people's minds. It must be my Western culture, or my upbringing. I see the world in terms of problems that arise and must be solved. Why do these things have to be solved?" I guess because we seem to thing that there are endpoints in all these games, or life situations. The West, specifically the Americans see terrorism as a problem which must be solved. I pretty much see it this way as well. I do believe it will pass some day, although it looks like certainly not in my lifetime. It seems like the terrorism problem is going to get worse now, at least on a localized level. America will probably have her very own Palestine, unless the situation starts looking better over there.
But maybe having our very own Palestine is a better result than having our country terrorized by the Al Qaeda and similar thugs. Maybe we will succeed in localizing the problem to Iraq and the Middle East. Pretty disgusting outcome in general. We may not solve the problem, but we have become embroiled in it. The Israelis must secretely be very grateful, because the Americans look like they may be in exactly the same boat over here that they are! It has to look like a brighter future to them ......somehow. The locals can now vilify the Americans and the British the same way they vilify the Israelis. It gives them a target for their scorn which it looks like will be local instead of remote. Now they can send all their suicide bombers to Iraq instead of America. Much easier target, but much safer for America in general, at least in the short term. Maybe we should be grateful? I don't know. I just don't know. The solution to this "problem" sure isn't evident just yet.
It is important to fight the battle and confront the evil. I definitely think this is the case. I certainly thought we would come out of this better. Nobody thinks we are weenies at least. That is an important outcome, if not the one we wanted. The French certainly don't have this "problem." They are weenies by all accounts, and could be called appeasers and capitulators. I continue to believe that this would have had a much better outcome and the world would have been in a better place if the French and the Germans and the Russians had stood up to the test and backed up their assertions instead of wiggling out of them. Maybe they had better foresight about the outcomes of this, but the status quo was still worse. The question for the ages is ....WIll the Americans and Brits look better for standing up to this evil, and maybe not "solving" the problem, or will the French and their cronies look better for capitulating?
And maybe we shouldn't give up the goat just yet [now there is an interesting idiom. It must be a biblical reference, where the Jews were required to sacrifice a goat at certain times of the year] . The Generals and the coalition people still think they are going to come out on top. ......Just wait until the areas are secured and the people feel free to come out - kind of thing. Saddam and his thugs still do have a stranglehold on the people. I will give hm credit, he seems to have been one of the most successful thugs in history. Notice I said "been" - I still think he will be gone somehow. Let's just help get a democracy in South Iraq, form a separate country. Or let Kuwait annex it. Hey, we can play this game too. Let them try to throw us out of South Iraq! Playing dirty seems to be the name of the game. So much for the liberal world order. Thanks for teaching us how bankrupt that seems to have become.
I wonder if our leaders can adopt to this "new" result emerging. Maybe there is an opening for the democrats in there! We certainly do live in interesting times. And I haven't given up the goat just yet. But I can sure see some changes on the world stage. I really think the fact that we have confronted this evil will do us good in the long term. I just certainly don't know how this will come out. I guess that is why we have to "play" it out.

:: John Sunday, March 30, 2003 [+] ::
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Take a look at this tribute. In case you forgot what we are up against. This is not the work of evil? Very nice. It comes with music...
http://www.politicsandprotest.org/
<- Try clicking the link at the left

:: John Friday, March 28, 2003 [+] ::
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Another week almost gone. Tennis last night. Can't believe how much fun that game is. All it takes is a few good shots to make the night worthwhile. Much better than golf. You get as many chances in one game to get a good shot as you do for an entire golf round. Of course I played golfand not tennis when I was young. The result of living next to a golf course mostly. If you can call it a golf course..... It had sand greens - most people have never heard of sand greens, but that is what we had out there in the middle of Kansas when I was growing up.
My wife is going to France for an entire month starting next week. She is a little apprehensive about how the natives are going to treat her, but I am sure it will be OK - just stay away from all the students demonstrating and defacing the local statue of liberty. I am going to join her at the end of April for a week. Luckily I don't speak French, or I would probably get in some arguments with the natives. Just seems hard to believe that people are willing to live with a future that looks filled with people who think like the terrorists. Of course their country didn't get attacked. I wonder how they would have felt if the terrorists had knocked over the Arc de Triompheor the Eiffel Tower. And killed 3000 people while they were at it. I know, I know.... there is no connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam. They may not be brothers, but they are certainly cousins. Only a matter of time. I do understand why the French and others are a little apprehensive about this "pre-emptive" strike philosophy we have adopted. But I think it is appropriate for evil. The lack of a pre-emptive philosophy really opens youto a devastating attack in this era of WMD. We are such an open society that the success and devastation of such an attack could be crippling. Especially if they got thru to the "right" targets, not just "symbolic" targets like the WTC. Just think of how close that 4th plane came to plowing into the Capitol bilding in D.C. That would have been even more effective than taking down the WTC. The French and the rest of the world just ....don't... believe that such an attack is possible I guess. So they would rather wait for it to happen, and ....then... respond to it. I guess that is the difference between being recently attacked, and NOT being recently attacked. I now see some info that suggests the Al Qaeda is in Iraq and supporting the terrorists. I also see Iraq is claiming we will use WMD. We are really losing the propoganda game. Doesn't make any difference what Iraq and the terrorists are doing, if we kill just one civilian, we are deep doodoo. Doesn't seem to be any way clear thru this. We just need to perservere now and take this thru to its conclusion, whatever it may be. And hope there are enough reasonable people left in Iraq who will feel like reclaiming their country. Like I said before, I really fear that there will be enough terrorists left that they will turn it into hell on earth.
Now I see NBC and the news organizations harping on our thin supply line. Thanks a lot, NBC for broadcasting this stuff to the world. It really wasn't necessary to point that out. The embedded journalists are a pretty good idea, since they can give you a good feel for what the actual troops in the field are encountering. Not so much what the media thinks is happening, like responding to the enemy propoganda day and night.
God help us... Oh, sorry, the Muslims are begging for God's help here too. I wonder what side he (she? it?) will pick... I am getting pretty cynical these days. OH well.

:: John Friday, March 28, 2003 [+] ::
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Wednesday,
Week is half over. They go by a million miles an hour. I can remember in high school thinking that I WOULD NEVER GET OUT OF HERE! Time crawls when you are young. It flies when you get older. I have seen and remember Vietnam and the trouble our country went through. I was in the Army, but I had lucky duty. I didn't have to slog thru the jungles. It would probably have ruined me for life. These are life changing experiences. I was color blind, or I would have signed up for communications school - and probably spent a year in Nam fixing walkie talkies in the jungle. At the time I thought it was preferable to being a lowly draftee, and probably being stuffed in the infantry. I did have a B.S degree at the time, so that probably saved me. The draft was in effect back then, not like now. I certainly would not have volunteered. The military was not looked upon very favorably in the 60's and 70's, as a result of the Vietnam experience and its legacy. Thank goodness, that has changed! I remember the day it changed...... I think it happened when the movie "Top Gun" came out in 1986. Really great feeling about our young military men and the duties they undertake.
There may be a (nother) lesson from Vietnam in there. If this war turns out less than favorable, we can always look to Vietnam and remember that we did really come out of that war OK after a few years of anguish. And there was a ....lot.... of anguish. And remember that was at the height of the cold war. Oh, I'm sorry, there are probably some of you reading this that don't even know what the cold war was. A story for another day. So the outcome of Vietnam was OK because our system allows for "regime change" and to shift gears pretty easily, unlike some others around the world that we know about. The "regime" even changed itself pretty much. I remember Lyndon Johnson's "I will not seek nor will I accept nomination" speech. That was essentially the regime change right there! And then came Nixon. Somehow we even got through his regime, didn't we? These are powerful arguments for the democracies. Other regimes that don't allow for regime change wind up being outlaws with the incorrect person in charge. They deserve to be taken out when they become outlaws among nations. I hope North Korea is watching closely. Couldn't be a better example of an outlaw regime. A single tyrant has turned his country into a support system for his military aims. Starving them all the while. Seems like a great time for China to step up to the plate, doesn't it! It could define their greatness for the next century if they confronted and solved that problem. Unfortunately it looks like they want ....us... to solve it.
America, or ....somebody... just has to do these things or the world is just going to be a wasteland. It has been down this road many times before. You have to confront evil. Somebody has to confront it. Sometimes it doesn't go down very easily.
On to tomorrow....it is another and brighter day. If only I didn't age a day each and every day. I often tell my son I am jealous, very jealous of what he will know in 50 years when I am gone. And what this country and the strong democracies can be. Can you imagine? Just imagine.....

:: John Wednesday, March 26, 2003 [+] ::
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Well,
I only feel a little better today. I really hope there is an uprising in Basra. I want to believe all the positive spins I keep hearing. It sure is not as good news as we were lead to believe going into this thing. OTOH Saddam's thugs sure are good at prosecuting this campaign of terror against their own people, our people, and everybody in general. Everybody keeps complaining that they are not fighting according to the rules. This is an outlaw regime. All terrorists fight this way. There have been many campaigns of terror and atrocity, but nothing like this? Many of our troops must really be going thru hell on earth. My heart goes out to them. This is apparently what the Islam religion has spawned somehow. I just don't see how the moderate Muslims can keep quiet in the face of so much evil. The tyrants and the despotic regimes have just co-opted the religion, and there is no easy way to get them out of power and for the Muslims to reclaim their religion. There is no election there of course in general. Maybe I am naive, but I don't believe the world has ever witnessed the use of innocent women and children as sheilds to defend your country. As much as I dread them, I kinda hope that Saddam does use chemical or biological weapons. If this were big enough, maybe, just maybe, this might get the attention of the people around the world. ......But I doubt it. If he is really smart, he doesn't use them, and he wins another pyrrhic victory, even if he loses his life and his grip on power. The terrorists can then setup camp in the country under our noses for the next few generation or so and wreak havoc, send children into the police stations with bombs strapped around their waist, that sort of thing. Turn it into another Palestine, like I said yesterday.
Do you suppose the rest of the world's press has reported the discovery (with video footage) of the thousands of chem/bio masks and the atropine? I suppose they will claim that the US has planted this stuff.... There is no hope here I feel sometimes. Just get rid of his regime and get those WMD out of there. Hopefully with his regime gone, enough people will come forth to detail their location. I had a dream the other night tho. What if Saddam has just murdered all the people who produced the WMD, and only his generals know where they are, or anything about them. Sort of like the Egyptian pharaohs taking all the slaves with them when they finished building the pyramids [not too sure how true that is, but it is the same idea].
Oh well, tomorrow is another day. There is no snow on the ground, and the temperature should be in the 70's!

:: John Tuesday, March 25, 2003 [+] ::
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Ok, I think I know what the future looks like. Iraq becomes our very own Palestine. Not funny, right? Certainly not. But I can see it coming. There is a distinct controlling minority in Iraq who would rather kill Americans for a living than get a job and go to work every day. Doesn't make any difference how good our intentions are, or how hard we try. The terrorists will simply do a Palestine on us. They don't care that they are crippling their country, killing any hope for a future for their people. The only future they see is killing Americans. Sounds like Palestine to me. I don't see any way out of this. Let's just make sure we get all the WMD out of there before we get chased out.

Is this what Islam has brought to our world? How do you suppose the world would be if the Germans from the first and second world war, or the Japanese from the second wound up like this. Or consider this - how about the Confederate south after the civil war! Do they really think we are the ones who have done this to them?? How did they get to be such outlaw nations? Where did all the hate come from? Are they still feeling the effects of the Crusades? As I remember it, they got in some pretty good licks as well. Islamic civilization was magnificent back when - that is who preserved all the ancient knowledge of the Greek world.

I am feeling pretty despondent right now. Somebody help me out of this, please.

:: John Monday, March 24, 2003 [+] ::
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This is a test of posting to my web log.......

:: John Monday, March 24, 2003 [+] ::
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This is a test of posting to my web log......

:: John Monday, March 24, 2003 [+] ::
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