Time will tell, maybe

I was lost in thought about the current reigning world-wide champion nut-job, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This loony bird has stated that the holocaust never occurred, openly called for the total destruction of the state of Israel, placed his country on a nuclear collision course with the entire free world, totally ticked off Iran's best friend, Russia, brought United Nations sanctions on his own people and taken British troops captive. This has been one busy megalomaniac!

I really cannot say why, but for some strange reason I began associating Ahmadinejad with another of histories supreme madmen, Idi Amin Dada.

Once upon a time, the world had another madman who ruled. Uganda was a very small country, when compared to others and he had a very big ego. His real name was Idi Amin Dada, but he alone knew his greatness, he alone understood his place in the world, he alone bestowed the mother of all titles upon himself, "His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa".

He alone had no idea he was totally insane.

Idi Amin was one true, certifiable, sick excuse for a human being. He had a penchant for murder; organizations have placed the estimates at 80,000 deaths during his rule of terror. Idi Amin often bragged of his frequent personal visits from God and loved to talk about his collection of human heads, it was said to be large enough to require its own deep-freeze. It would have been very prudent and wise to say that this was one of the most deranged human beings ever born into the world.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the same type of sick, demented, murderous individual as Idi Amin was, just pointing out that history is comprised of many sick individuals. However, it would be a safe assumption if Ahmadinejad continues steering Iran on its present misguided, out of control, nuclear course, he just might make it to the list of the madmen of history.

The problem is, if any of the reports filtering into news desks have any validity to them, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may not get the chance to show the world if he is a total nut-case.

The religious leadership of Iran has a history of not caring what anyone in the free world says or thinks, but they do care what their supporters think, Russia, for example. When they become unhappy, the leadership begins to take notice.

According to the major news services, that is exactly what is going on right now. Russia has stated they may not continue construction on power plants, as well as demanding payment for work preformed unless Iran stands down on the nuclear issues.

It has also become evident that the Iranian military executed a well rehearsed take down of the British troops with the goal of taking them captive. Reports are also filtering into the news services, that the religious leadership of Iran, still reeling from the United Nations sanctions, are even less happy with Ahmadinejad over his latest moves.

As I mentioned in a previous post, if this dissatisfaction continues they just might do the world a favor and take care of the problem themselves. Iran is governed by the religious leadership, not the executive branch. Then again, the free world has learned a few small things about Iran, like not believing a thing they say, less of what they do, and ignore anything we see or hear. For all we know, the entire leadership could be behind everything that has transpired and could care less what Russia says or thinks.

I think of all of this and for some reason keep flashing back to Idi Amin, I only hope these are nightmares and not a possibility of things that may come to pass. The world has enough things that go bump in the night, live in our nightmares, scare our children and try to destroy the world; we really don't need anything else right now.

He gets no respect

The Iranian, UK captive situation just keeps flowing faster and faster out of control. Today, the new services is reporting that the Iranian ambassador to Russia renewed a threat Iranian officials made earlier this week, saying 15 British sailors held by Iran could be tried for violating international law.

Iran's state news agency IRNA reported Saturday, that Iran had launched a legal investigation of the British sailors. "They will be tried if there is enough evidence of guilt," Gholam-Reza Ansari was quoted as saying.

By now, the entire world has realized these captives were trapped intentionally, well, all except Iran, they simply changed their territorial boundaries to affect the capture in the first place. Of course, they were allowed to do this simply by saying they do not recognize the boundaries that had been set. Must be nice, we should do that too.

This entire debacle was put into motion as a tool for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to get a little respect within his country. This throw-back to the Stone Age knew he had to do something, the religious leaders were mad, the people were really mad, so, refuse to acknowledge the territorial boundaries and grab some British military, sit back, makes threats and wait.

This statement turns out to be one of the very rare thoughts that I throw out from time to time that can actually be verified by their latest demands. Iran's stance that the British government could resolve the crisis by admitting the sailors entered Iranian waters.

I amaze myself; I should be a foreign policy expert, yes, that would work, except for one small thing. I would be filmed by the news services standing in front of the White House every morning, middle fingers in the air, doing my, screw the world dance. I figure, they hate us, so let's just put all the money and effort in our country, let them fight it out and we will simply pick up the pieces.

Basically, here is the picture; the world is on the precipice of war because Ahmadinejad is a spoiled brat, not getting enough attention from abroad, and too little respect from his country. One thing is certain, the more he ticks off the Iranian people and the religious governing body, the shorter his life expectancy may be.

Black Ops. a needed force

I was reading an article by, William M. Arkin, titled, Fighting the "War" Against Terrorists the American Way. In this, Mr. Arkin is discussing a blog he had written on American Super-Secret black ops units on hunter and killer missions.

In the article he commented that he received a vast amount of email asking a really basic question: Is an effort associated so centrally with killing and assassination "American" -- and should it be the assumed future for counter-terrorism?

In a direct quote from the article,

“Yesterday, I wrote that U.S. "black" special operations forces in Iraq - Other Coalition Forces - Iraq (OCF-I) under Task Force 88 -- have conducted as many as 300 "takedown" operations, an activity that retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey calls "simply magic."

I conceded that McCaffrey has every reason to be impressed with the top secret special operations effort (remember now, this is the clandestine effort, not the "white" world of Green Berets and civil affairs)”

To the writer’s credit he admits his willingness to accept this action if it means the difference between a hot war and a black one.

As an old warrior myself I can tell you that dismantling the enemy’s infrastructure with a hunter killer squad accomplishes more mental devastation against the enemy then standard military action. They simply do not know from one day to the next what is going to happen. They are constantly looking over their shoulder and spend more time staying out of harms way then sending their minions to fight for them.

Of course, the author is posing the question if this is worth it, or actually makes a difference. In my opinion, yes, it is well worth it, for the exact comment I previously made. Yes, black operations is a technique onto itself and as he correctly states, it falls between the cracks of who is authorizing the operations.

One fact remains, to fight and enemy you must fight them from within, very roughly quoted from Sun Tzu, The Art of War,

I do commend the writer for his agreements to black ops, however misguided they may be, they are a required activity in today’s warfare, just as they were thousands of years ago. The military not operating within this covert field will be the losing side.

SNAFU

The Senate has passed a military funding bill which calls for all of the troops to be out of Iraq by March of 2008. Is it just me or does anyone else feel that Congress has totally lost their minds?

There is nothing like a demonstration of this form of inept, idiotic and political bovine excrement to keep the insurgents entertained. I can just imagine a few of them sitting around their dirt floor, kicking the kids out to play with a few of the explosives lying around and going over the latest laughs from America. Oh what a comedy of events this must seem to a people who have been raised on war and keep AK47's around for protection.

Here are a few of them, laughing and enjoying their newspapers and then they see the punch line, Bush will veto the bill! They must be near passing out from laughter at this point with visions of our military pointing empty rifles at them and hollering "BANG-BANG". It is nice to know that we are providing so much entertainment to these sick bastards who think of nothing but killing our brave men and women trying to give these creeps a real country.

Close to 4000 American's in uniform have given their lives in this place that most of them call hell. For what reason, please, someone tell me something other then providing a democracy for the country of Iraq. That is one the thing we are not doing right now, all that we are doing is going through the motions and throwing away the lives of our men and women, our youth, our tomorrow, the future of America.

Because, my good friends, if we install a published timetable for total withdrawal of all military personnel that is exactly what we have done – AGAIN!

Perhaps this is our new foreign policy. Sending in our military to build democracies and pulling them out, leaving the country torn apart by civil war and invasions by neighboring countries. All the while we have lost the lives of our men and women who fought to try and make a difference in the first place. It must be, because we sure have become pretty adept in this form of senseless loss our military.

It could be that those who voted for the bill needs to be reminded what will happen setting a timetable. On second thought, they already know, they were around during Viet Nam, they had to recall the enemy tanks pulling into Saigon, our choppers being pushed off the decks of ships to make room and the reports of the tens of thousands of deaths when we left. They can't be so hard headed not to at least recall some of that history.

Do they want reality; think back to 9/11 when aircraft flew into our buildings. Think back to the men, women and children who lost their lives. Now, look today to Iraq, our men and women are fighting a war that we sent them to, for Pete's sake, send them better message then election time political games!

The insanity of this crap is driving me nuts, the only rational reasoning behind the nonsense is the fact they are controlling Congress and want to make President Bush tow the line, nothing more.

Come on Congress, if you wan to set timetables, do it behind closed doors and classify the meeting with the highest security and learn something from our history.

This whole thing makes me physically ill.

A Thinking Award

Imagine my surprise when I receive an email from Yankeemom telling me that she has proudly awarded a Thinking Award. I really liked this concept for an award; this one is actually commending the blogger for their thoughts, not just the overall concept of the blog.

It was suggested that the rules be posted so that others may accept their awards and nominate more to keep out thought process going. Here is the quote from Yankeemom that will explain it a lot better than I can.

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. I thought it would be appropriate to include them with the meme.

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

One of the conditions of receiving the award is listing five blogs which make me think. This will be a difficult task as I visit many blogs with each one making me think in different manners and directions. Another thought to this is I would have liked to list Yankeemom, but that has already been done. As long as she knows I would have picked her, that is what counts.

It is difficult; as you find yourself not wanting to let those out that you visit often. Taking it down to five is not easy, but here they are.

I would have to begin with Redneck Central, Wild Bill’s outlook, comments and discussions of his life are wonderful.

Fear And Loathing - The Gonzo Papers, thoughtful and at time can really make you say, “”I never thought of it that way

A Soldier's Perspective, where would any of us be without the insight of CJ, Cpl M and others. Cpl M is now back in the sandbox with his Marine unit and should be in our prayers as with all of the men and women serving.

How could I ever start my mornings without, Redneck's Revenge? Stop by the boys from Texas and get a dose of the truth, Texas style.

Last, but not least is, A Soldier’s Mind, I always find the writing real, informative and thoughtful.

I simply cannot allow this to pass without two honorable mentions; both are non-profits and serve vital roles in today’s world.

One is New Parents Network, though it is not a blog, but a site with a wealth of information for new parents the world over. This site has always been near and dear to my heart and I highly recommend it to anyone who discovered that children do not come with owners manuals. Well, now they do at New Parents Network.

The other is just as near and dear to me, Honor the Fallen, and their opening explains it better than I can. “a nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to honoring the memory of American service men and women and government employees who have died while supporting the war on terrorism.”

Act of war no matter what they call it

Briton has made public evidence showing their military was not in Iranian waters, of course Iran’s response; they simply changed their international boundaries by one inch. The insanity and idiotic actions of their Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran just keeps getting worse.

This idiotic creep has done more to place his country in catastrophic economic problems then their religious leaders have evere managed to do. Reports are filtering into the news services that Ahmadinejad is taking heat from the Iranian people and from the religious governing body itself.

Thanks to this poor excuse for a human being, his country is suffering and now he has placed them on a direct path of confrontation with Briton.

Today Iran, in their usual stupidity totally disregarded any rules of captured military by releasing video footage and the usual contrived letter from one the captives saying that she and her group were wrong. At least Iran did no stage mock executions against the captives, as they have done in the past, blindfolding them and shooting over their heads, such nice friendly people to visit.

So, what should the world call this latest act of insanity by Iran? An outright act of war against England that is what is should be called and something most individuals are avoiding. While the politicians are avoiding words like war, the British people are not. They are outraged, incensed and calling for immediate military action, at least that is what the news services are saying.

Ahmadinejad appears to be trying to wag the dog in an effort to regain respect within the Iranian government, whether it works or not will be another story. It is now evident that this boarding and capture was a calculated, predetermined event and Ahmadinejad had selected British military to avoid a head-on collision with President Bush.

One of the reporters on Fox News commented that this action by Iran is reminiscent of a two years old screaming for attention.

Whatever the motive may have been, this is still an act of war, no matter what spin is placed on it.

The Middle East Redux

It has become very evident that Iran intentionally seized the 15 British troops in hopes of escalating tensions within the Middle East and as an added bonus, hostile actions against the British would command respect for Iran from the Muslim world as well. This can be the only logical explanation for their insane actions. If that was not a contradiction of terms, then I do not know what is.

Iran purposefully watched and waited for the chance to board a ship with the sole intention of taking captives. My outlook on this situation is they purposefully selected a British ship, bypassing any possible act of war against the United States. Under any other circumstance, this would be a laughable scenario, Iran would have attacked our ship in a heartbeat; however, their intelligence would have shown that Congress would not back any military action against Iran, except in this specific case, American’s being taken captive. Their taking and holding American citizen’s hostage in 1979 is still a sore topic with far too many American’s; Congress would have not only permitted military action, but bowing to pressure from their constituents, demanded it.

After the 1979 Iran hostage fiasco, we should have responded with a decisive and lethal military response, punishing Iran for taking Americans hostage, showing them it is not wise to do again in the future. This is a common mistake we have made after many attacks against the sovereignty of America and the lives of our citizens; it is one we have paid dearly for. We must insure this never happens again.

Iran knew they needed an act of defiance to place them in a better position of respect among the Muslim world. They have been playing their present defiance card to the limit with the United Nations, now major players, including Russia are beginning to put pressure on them. They needed to play their trump card, the Iranians fared well in 1979, but as I mentioned, did not want to push President Bush too far and the British were going to be their hostages this time. The target had to be one of the big boys, yet, one weary of war, tired of the losses and financial aspect and ready to begin to withdraw. Iran did not want just any port in a storm. They needed face, respect and they had to demonstrate to Iraq and Syria they were not afraid.

If my thoughts on this are correct, then their whole warped logic may backfire. On the other hand, I could be totally wrong; they may have intentionally boarded the British ship in hopes of provoking a direct military confrontation, bringing Syria into the picture and the entire Middle East erupting into a nuclear volcano.

If Iran’s intention is to provoke a full-on war in the Middle East, then we can safely assume the United Nations and everyone else are correct, they do possess WMD. We must also remember that the President of Iran has openly called for the destruction of the state of Israel, with that in mind we can safely assume where their initial launch would be aimed. Of course, we have patriot missile batteries in place to protect Israel, but there have been so many conflicting stories on their success ratio that I would not want to bet the farm on them to protect me. One thing in this whole warped scenario is certain, if a WMD is launched at Israel, they will respond in kind, and have every right to do so.

We can also expect world-wide terrorist activities, open attacks and possible dirty bombs and/or chemical weapons. This would not be the traditional military engagements, it would be dirty and it would be globally devastating.

One last possibility we cannot discount, they could be just plain clueless, no idea of what they were doing, no thoughts on the possibility of repercussions, no one was targeted, keystone cops running around with guns and the British lost the coin toss.

We can only hope sanity prevails and Iran comes to their senses, but if we have learned one thing from the Middle East, always expect the unexpected.

Now the detective work should begin

The cause of death for Anna Nichole was released; accidental overdose was the official ruling, death from a lethal combination of medications.

If there is one important factor that has come forward, it is that it is very apparent when it comes to celebrities, regulations governing controlled substances simply do not apply. This overprescribing and overall lack of concern by some of the medical profession should be immediately investigated by the DEA and medical oversight boards, punishing those responsible to insure a message is sent, this is not the proper practice.

I recently read a list of the controlled substances found in her possession during the course of the investigation, I believe it was from a link on the celebrity site, TMZ, but I may be mistaken. In any event, as an old police officer, there were a few things which caught my attention. The possession of multiple prescriptions for controlled substances from a number of different physicians should never have occurred. Had this come to light while Anna Nichole was alive and well, she could have been charged under a law known as Doctor shopping.

For those unfamiliar, here is the Wikipedia definition of Doctor shopping,

Wikipedia – Doctor Shopping:

The concept of doctor shopping relates to a patient's addiction or reliance on a certain prescription drug or other medical treatment. Usually a patient will be treated by their normal physician and be prescribed a drug that is necessary for the legitimate treatment of their current medical condition. Once that condition has been successfully treated however, most conscientious physicians will not continue to provide their patients with the medications that they were taking. These patients will now actively seek out other physicians to obtain more of the same medication, often by faking or exaggerating the extent of their true condition, in order to feed their addiction to that drug. Some patients have been known to go so far as to break or chip teeth and visit emergency rooms complaining of toothaches to receive prescription painkillers.

Another thing that should be questioned was the various names, fictitious and otherwise, the prescriptions were filled under. Granted, due to her celebrity status the use of aliases may be a common practice, but the fact remains this is a violation of laws pertaining to prescribing and filling controlled substances.

Let’s not forget the fact of physicians prescribing controlled substances without the patient being under their care. All in all, there were so many federal control laws broken and outright ignored that they should be looking into how this happened in the first place, instead of the circus atmosphere around her death. Has any federal authority even questioned how or why this happened? Perhaps this woman would still be alive had someone said, no this is against the law and you need long-term help to stop this practice.

It is very apparent that all of the federal regulation governing prescription medication simply does not apply to some individuals. The end result is the very reason the laws were put into effect in the first place, death.

Federal authorities should be investigating everyone concerned in this travesty, including Howard K. himself. Here was an individual with direct daily contact with Anna Nichole, filming the now famous clown video and someone even commented seeing Howard K. brining large bags of narcotics into the house and saying that she needed them to survive. TMZ reported that Anna Nichole’s bodyguard, Big Moe, the person who along with his wife had tried to resuscitate Anna Nichole told the Seminole police department that in the months leading to her death, he had seen Howard K. giving Anna some type of drugs. The report did not elaborate on what the medication was, but Big Moe reportedly stated that “Anna was in a cloud”. Of course, this proves nothing, the medication could have been aspirin, however, the questions should be, “what was he giving her?”

Rush Limbaugh, the radio talk show personality was charged with the very Doctor Shopping law I was discussing. How is it that he can be investigated, yet Anna Nichole flagrantly violated much more and after her death, nothing is being done to insure the prescribing physicians do not continue the practice?

Howard K. Stern should be investigated, as well as every physician who prescribed and pharmacy that filled any and all medications. This should not be ignored, it should be well investigated and anyone found guilty should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

The Middle East again

The other day I had posed a scenario of the Middle East and the possibilities of what could happen if the status quo changed.

The scenario should have been posed as more of a “what if”, it would have been more eventful and understandable. What began as a small story discussing Israel’s restraint turned more into something I did not intend. With that in mind, I wanted to write a bit today on this subject.

The Israeli IDF was and still is a force to be respected by all and feared by their enemies. They took a bit of heat over the last war with Lebanon for human rights violations with their bombing of cities; however, the Hezbollah instigated every response from Israel that was possible, even launching rockets from between occupied structures, so IDF pilots would respond and look bad in the public’s eye.

I actually watched a live feed via Fox news on that exact setting. The Hezbollah launching between two houses, yet after the war I have never seen that video again. The Hezbollah worked the media machine like homemade taffy; pulling where it wanted so they could bring every bit of public support to their side as possible and portraying Israeli IDF as inept and carless in human rights, the media should have been ashamed of themselves.

Granted, as I had written in the past, a few of their Special Forces returning from harsh and prolonged combat made comments to the media that made them look as if they were all in shock and loosing the war. These professional soldiers had just returned from a trap laid for them, fighting their way out of the center of a killing field, they were in shock and had lost many friends. Yes, as reports stated, they were elite, highly trained Special Forces, some of the best the IDF had, but even the best bleeds and dies, even the best can be caught in a trap, but on the other hand, only the best can walk away from that alive.

The media was elated, what a story to tell the world. The IDF was not invincible; they were not the demigods of the Middle East, Achilles and Hercules, marching into battle. The media wanted to do all that it could to dispel the visions of an indestructible Israeli military. They did not understand what an ambush or kill zone was, they only saw soldiers in shock, bloodied from war, returning for a well deserved rest.

These brave individuals should never have been interviewed, let alone quoted by a manipulative media fueled by previous, spoon-fed visions of an indestructible Israeli military. The fact remains that they were quoted and the reporters involved in this deception should not only hang their heads in shame, they should find other means of employment.

The state of Israel often takes a lot of heat for their actions. Their now famous response to the Munich massacre is the stuff of legends and movies. What was not brought out was the fact that they were caught, tried and convicted on their final assassination, however, had they not reacted from poor intelligence fed from a double agent they would have never killed the wrong man and they would have never been caught. Their history is packed with legends, the raid on Entebbe, the destruction of a nuclear reactor in Iraq. Israel does all that it can to not only survive, but exist, in a world bent on their total destruction.

They have had the ample opportunities to launch their WMD during wars where they faced insurmountable odds and on multiple fronts, their restraint and better leadership on the battlefield
prevailed.

We can only hope that Iran does not begin a nuclear holocaust with their WMD, but should they try, the world can be thankful that the state of Israel will be what stands in their way.

My personal Hero

I want to step off my normal path today and discuss the fortitude and bravery of someone I often refer to as my telephone wife. I normally do not dwell on a personal side to my life, but the courage of this woman is an inspiration to me. She is a very special person in my life; I felt she may inspire others who are having medical problems.

She is many things to me, but above and beyond everything, she is my closest friend in the world, a part of my soul; we have shared a beautiful friendship for close to seventeen years and I have never held any other person in such high regard as I do her. The love and the bond that we share is of the purest form, I cherish her very existence.

She is a businesswoman who prides herself in her professionalism. A vast amount of her work involves communicating with people, in person or on the telephone. Her communication skills are second to none, she is pleasant, sweet and professional all in one, constantly insuring everyone she talks with are treated in the same professional and caring manner as she would like to be.

She has the most beautiful heart I have ever encountered and her love of life is amazing, she is happiest when she awakens to the sound of her wind chimes, the morning sun lighting her room and her small dog happily telling her good morning. She will take her morning coffee in her yard, enjoying the hummingbirds hovering around the feeder, her flowers and watching her dog as he investigates the morning with her.

She absolutely loves rainy days; the sound of raindrops on her skylight will bring her out of a sound sleep with a smile on her face and happiness in her heart for the life she is blessed with.

She is inquisitive, very intelligent and possesses a genuine thirst to learn that which peaks her interests or is new to her. Over the past seventeen years her learning curve has constantly amazed me, she will become well versed in a new area within a very short period of time. She will research, read and discuss things with me until is so well versed it is second nature.

She owns a very large part of my heart, whenever my life has been struck with a devastating event, of a personal nature or health, she will be found at my side, guiding me through my dark moments with her love, advice and concern. She is my best friend, my confidant and lately, my personal hero.

Approximately a year ago she was diagnosed with a neuromuscular condition, which at first was diagnosed as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, (ALS). Lou Gehrig's disease, since then they have vacillated between various diagnoses, today it is classified as unknown, but nothing is being ruled out.

There are times she has problems walking, or keeping her balance. It is neuromuscular, due to that it can affect many aspects of her life. There have been times when she stood at the precipice of sadness the tables were reversed, me at her side. Through it all she has remained, strong, focused and determined to continue working.

What began as a friendship that the ancient God of Greece would have envied has remained, even grown, but now, she has crossed into the realm of my personal heroes. Her determination to succeed and her courage to overcome is an inspiration to me and always will be.

It just keep geting worse

The only possible explanation I can come up with for Iran boarding a British ship and taking Marines and Naval personnel captive is, they truly want to force a confrontation with the rest of the world, either that or their President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been out in the sun on a camel far too long.

Let’s think about this for one moment. Okay, let’s assume, just for something to do, that Iran just may have something going on with nuclear weapons, you know, the WMD thing? They have been acting like a four year old, throwing tantrums with the UN and anyone else telling them that in today’s society, where everyone is happy, food on every table and all the people of the world are holding hands, merrily skipping through the countryside doing good deeds for everyone, that blowing the world to Kingdom come is a bad thing. Okay, that was a lie, but still, blowing up the world is not good.

While Iran and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are being chased around the UN table by nurses holding large bags of Ritalin in an attempt to turn their thoughts into something lucid, the rest of the free world has been saying they are bad people for wanting to blow everyone up. While this is going on, Congress is trying to send President Bush into a timeout for even thinking of a war with Iran, never mind that whole wanting to blow us up thing, Congress wants to send him to a time out and they will do what they want now that Democrats are in charge.

Iran is basically off the hook, President Bush is grounded, not allowed to play with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Briton was really not interested in another war. With public opinion about another war about the same as everyone wanting shove beans up their nose, Iran is just about off the hook. They can walk into the sunset, a smile on their face and play with their plutonium to their hearts content.

One would assume that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would be a happy camper, playing with his radioactive junk until he was glowing in the dark, why not, he basically got his way.

So, what does Iran do? They board a British Naval ship and take the crew and marines captive. Wow, that was really a smart thing to do. He just gave Britton a get out of jail free card, they can attack till their heart is content and no one will say anything.

Congress may even let President Bush out of his corner now, the UN will start calling them bad names, people will stop skipping through the countryside and all hell will break loose.

Their leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has about as much common sense as a turnip in allowing the British to be taken captive. Then again there is one other possible situation going on here, Iran is attempting to instigate a full-on confrontation on the battlefields. They may have the misguided thoughts they will prevail in the court of public opinion, either that or they truly want a nuclear war.

Even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can not be that misguided, insane and just plain stupid, or can he?

Life can be funny

Sometimes life really cracks me up, just the thought of some of the silly things about it will get me going. This morning I received email from my telephone wife, she was saying how she had been up since 12:00 when the rain awoke her. I laughed, I sleep next to a big picture window and was not even aware it had rained.

Yet here is the strange part, if I hear so much as a movement at the door during the night, or the doorknob turning, I am up, wide awake, waiting to protect if needed. Yet, thunder, lightening, trees flying through the night air, I sleep like a baby.

Approximately five years ago I was still in the badge and weapon state of my life. I was living in a single unit ground floor apartment. I was sound asleep, well deserved night off when about 0300 in the morning I hear a woman in the courtyard screaming “Help, they are going to kill me!” I was up, armed, badge, flashlight and cuffs on the belt, on the phone with communications requesting backup and out the door in a matter of seconds.

As I entered the courtyard a woman literally wrapped her arms around my neck screaming for me to help her. Directly behind her were four, very large men and they were still in motion. I am six foot tall, at the time about 185, no fat; I always try and stay in shape. They towered over me and appeared to be the defensive lineup for the Denver Broncos, they were huge and they were madder than hell.

The only chance I had was toss the woman aside and draw down on them, forcing them all face down in the dirt, all the while looking for an escape route,

I knew it was a matter of seconds before they would realize I could not actually use deadly force against them, unless to protect my life or the woman’s. To my knowledge at the time, they were unarmed, I could not risk patting them down alone and I had no visions of going hand to hand with these guys, none at all. I knew my backup was in route, I could hear them, not sirens, but fast moving vehicles, so I stayed in cop mode, hollering for them to remain still and the bluff worked as my backup pulled on scene.

To make a long story short, it was not what I had expected, but the obvious these days, a drug deal gone wrong, this little woman hard burned the four giants and they were going to take revenge. One of the males was armed; it could have turned into a very bad situation. I gave my report they all went to lockup, I went back to my apartment.

One would assume the adrenalin rush would keep me up, not these days. I undressed, in bed, my dog snuggled at my feet and asleep within moments.

Now, here is the funny part. I had heard this women’s call for help and reacted from a sound sleep, yet two weeks later, I awake to walk my dog, opened the door and stood in awe. During my slumber, the devastation and full force of a desert storm had struck the apartment complex, changing the landscape into something from a Terminator movie. All around my apartment was devastation, trees down everywhere; the roof from the office was in shambles with parts in front of my door. People in hard hats were scurrying here and there like busy ants, trying to put things normal enough for tenant’s vehicles to move.

It was a mess, yet I slept soundly through the whole thing without any knowledge it had occurred. I looked down at my dog and the way she looked at me had me laughing till it hurt. She tilted her head and gave me a look as if to say, “Dumb humans, I tried telling you.”

I guess it is conditioned response and knowing a non-threatening sound from one of help. In any case, I had no idea the landscape had changed during my slumber.

Anyone seen my magic eight ball.?

Like everyone else, I am keenly aware of the history of Iran, Persia, the various kings and religious leaders through the course of their history. It is impressive, but in my opinion, history is interesting, actually a hobby of mine, but that was then, the question remains, what is the now.

We can take all of the points being made into consideration, one fact remains, are we the keeper of the Middle East? Is it our responsibility to insure every country is democratic in nature, a mirror of our own standard of government?

This is where I begin to raise questions that I have yet to find answers for. I do not subscribe to the dogma that democracy is the only method in which to govern across the globe, specifically within the various religious factions of the volatile Middle East. The concept of the legislative, judicial and executive form of government is not going to work unless a religious branch is tightly interwoven into the overall democratic fabric.

My thoughts on the escalating tensions with Iran are just that, thoughts. They will not accomplish a thing, however, I feel going to war with Iran would serve no purpose. What would be next? Syria, Lebanon, ad nauseam. Of course, as we attacked Iran, Syria would begin banging their war drums, sending their invisible insurgent army against us. This would lead to Israel attacking Lebanon, why not, we are going for broke, so they will figure they can as well.

The current state of the Middle East is and always has been best described as a few million or so humans standing on a single strand of black widow silk. If one human moves a fraction of an inch the strand is broken, the spider consuming everyone in its path. We do not need to add a few pounds to this strand, not even an once.

Has anyone even contemplated the fact that the state of Israel has weapons of mass destruction and will use them in a preemptive manner to safeguard their existence, not giving it even a second thought? Yet, we wish to be the guardians of the Middle East and look at the track record we have.

Time alone will tell what is going happen, if not now, but in the future, the present leader of the country or the future leaders. We can only hope that history will show we made the right decisions, or better yet, we can always ask the magic eight ball.

The fall of Rome

I am tired of reading how badly the war has been mismanaged, how wrong George W. is and just about every other Republican in the world who ever supported him. It simply amazes me, no boggles my mind, that every time a Democratic controlled anything comes to pass they in turn tear apart anything that has passed before them.

If we all can take our minds back to one fateful day in American history, 9/11, how we as American’s felt, cried, mourned and the thousands that died. Then to that point in history a few days later, Fireman were at work while the President stood next to them saying how we, as a country would get even with the people responsible for the attack. How we all felt, the pride, the patriotism, the wish to get even.

The entire country knew, right then and there that someone, somewhere had to die for the attacks upon our shore. It was a simple as that, we wanted blood, revenge. We did not care who, bomb them all back to the Stone Age, someone wrote. Reminiscent of an ancient Roman Emperor, George W. Bush was loved, adored by the crowds and they wanted him to send his legions to kill those responsible for the attack upon the heart of Rome.

That was then.

Four years later we have protestors in the streets, some throwing bags of human waste into recruiting offices, lying in the streets to show the dead, a lot has changed.

Along with the change is the loss of the love for their Roman emperor, people are warning, beware the Ides of March to their Julius Cesar as he marches to the Senate. The world has changed and along with it everyone hates American’s. We are the Typhoid Mary of the new age, hated and protested against, our flag burned. Yes, we have made so much progress in the last four years, so much indeed.

Gone are the people banded together for a common goal. Gone is our nation’s political elite standing before Congress, holding hands, Republican and Democrat alike and singing, God Bless America.

The legacy of our President will no doubt be scrutinized, torn apart and looked at with media magnifying glasses for the next fifty years that is if we all are still here to see that.

Yes that is a distinct possibility too, a very distinct one. How can we, in all of our unpatriotic uncaring and lack of concern for our military think for one single moment that bringing our troops home will stop the hatred, the violence, the attacks and the will to destroy our nation?

For once I am thankful that I am older, my health is waning and my vision going. I am thankful that I will not be around to see what our nation’s lack of concern and stupidity will bring forth to haunt us un the future, to destroy our way of life. Yes, I am quite thankful.

The USS Cole

The terrorists attack upon the USS. Cole was the work of cowardly people whose only intent was to kill American’s. Today, I read that Wallid bin Attash, a captured al- Qaeda operative, confessed to a U.S. military tribunal that he was the mastermind of the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 that resulted in the deaths of 17 sailors and wounded 39.

In a direct quote from bin Attash taken from the transcript of his March 12 confession to the tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, “I participated in the buying or purchasing of the explosives. I put together the plan for the operation for a year and half prior to the operation,''

Bin Attash also confessed that he assisted in planning the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998 that killed 213.

This testimony, coupled with that of confessed mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed makes me sick, but I am happy they are captured and made to stand trail for their actions. However, this too angers me, our country will do everything it can to insure these two sick bastard’s rights are not tampered with, we will place them in a prison for the remaining years of their life and treat them in a descent manner. Yet, in the eyes of the world, we are the barbarians, the bad guys.

This whole situation sickens me, just as it should every other American, but there will be those who will not believe these statements. They will say we tortured, coerced, threatened, or worse to make these men admit to something. When this occurs, as it always does, it makes me wonder just whose side these individuals are on.

There are many trains of thoughts on our present course of actions in this war on terror. We have some saying that to combat terror effectively we must address the problems causing it, working from that basis forward. We have others saying to shoot first and ask questions later. Terrorism is a difficult problem to overcome, we are not facing a standing army, but individuals bent on a single purpose.

There are no set guidelines, published material, advice from others who have succeeded, nothing. It is a battle with the books being written as it progresses. Of course, mistakes will be made, they always are, but one fact remains, we should learn from our mistakes, study them and go forth from there, not repeating them as we often do.

Whatever the case, in my opinion, the individuals who are responsible for acts of terror against our country should be dealt with in a quick and deadly manner.

Global warming?

I am sure that most of the time the concept of global warming is just about the furthest thing from our minds. I am a desert dweller; we have three basic seasons, hot, hotter than hell and cold. There was a time, not that many years ago when winters were colder and longer. They were a sight to behold. The mountains were snow capped; the air was crisp, all in all very photogenic.

That was then, this is now and the winter coldness consists of a few days here and there and the snowcapped mountains, not for a few years now.

So, with all of that unscientific knowledge do we think this is attributed to global warming?

I have friends that say yes and others say no. personally, I have two trains of thought, either the planet does this once every few million years or so, heals itself and back to business, or buy some winter clothes, the ice age is a coming.

It is a little difficult to fathom the desert turned into another Alaska, but according to some scientists, depending who you read, that is what will happen.

Living here and witnessing the change every year does cause a bit of thought on the matter. This winter had a few very cold days and bitter nights, we even had a snow fall one evening, but it was short, very short. The last few days the temperature has been in the high 90 degree area that speaks for itself.

I do not feel the Al Gore’s of the world do the global warming theories any good when scientist begin to tear apart their documentaries, as is the case in Gore’s movie. The sad comment to that is he just may be right on the money, but apparently some of his findings made a few scientists laugh and the insults were on.

I do know from first hand experience that the summers in the desert are hotter and longer every year. Is this one of the indications of global warming, or is it simply a process that has been going on since the dawn of time.

Somehow I don’t think it will change within my lifetime, so in the meantime I will suffer the heat, complain about desert life and stay in my air conditioned home.

Movie Critics just don't get it

I have always had a rule of thumb when it comes to watching a good movie. The more the movie critics hate the picture, the better it will be.

Critics are always looking for the art, the historic value and the subtle meanings of the director. When in the public’s eye, the truth is so far removed that it is even funny. The majority of movie goers could care less about the art; the mood the director was trying to show, the value, we only want to see a good movie. It is called entertainment for a very good reason; critics simply do not grasp this concept and never will.

Take a look at a Mike Myers film, or Jim Carey when he made funny movies. Austin Powers, The Pet Detective, the critics saw disgust, we saw a funny, entertaining movie and it made millions.

All of this came to mind when reading a critic’s review of The 300 on Slate. From a historic vantage, the battle of Thermopylae has always held a significant place in history. The battle itself actually happened, a few men stood against an invading army of hundreds of thousands and held them back until they were overran and marched into the pages of history.

The article, written by, Dana Stevens, titled, A movie only a Spartan could love can be read in its entirety here. I am going to directly quote a paragraph that was not only uncalled for, but totally offended me as it should any other movie goers.

“The comic fanboys who make up 300's primary audience demographic aren't likely to get hung up on the movie's historical content, much less any parallels with present-day politics. But what's maddening about 300 (besides the paralyzing monotony of watching chiseled white guys make shish kebabs from swarthy Persians for 116 indistinguishable minutes) is that no one involved—not Miller, not Snyder, not one of the army of screenwriters, art directors, and tech wizards who mounted this empty, gorgeous spectacle—seems to have noticed that we're in the middle of an actual war. With actual Persians (or at least denizens of that vast swath of land once occupied by the Persian empire).”

Perhaps Dana needs to go to the local library and read a book once in awhile. The Persians were not nice people; in fact they burned Athens to the ground in retribution for their defeat at the battle of Marathon, when they first invaded Greece. In fact, they had their way with whatever country they wished until a young man named, Alexander the Great told them different.

These 300 men were not merely individuals united to fight an invading army, they were Spartans, bred from birth to be a warrior, to protect Greece, that was their only commerce, all that they lived for. They stood their ground and took the best the invading army threw at them and they killed over twenty thousand of them in brutal hand-to-hand combat before they lost their lives. This is the stuff of legends, but in fact, this is history.

The critic on Slate, as all critics, simply does not get it. We watch movies because we want to be entertained, period. The critic felt it was in poor taste to show a war with the Persian Empire, when in fact we are presently at war with what used to be that empire. Dana Stevens was downright insulting to the actors, the film makers and the public going to see it.

Yes, I often disagree with critics, but seldom am I actually offended by what they write and this time I was.

It will only get worse.

I have spent many years on the planet we call Earth and I must confess I have lived a rather fulfilling, active and at times exciting life. I have left our beautiful country as a young impressionable man, full of hope and patriotism crossing one ocean and a few years later return to the shores of the other ocean, a different person, filled with anger and rebellion that time eventually healed.

I have battled the enemy abroad and at home, when like many of my brothers I traded one uniform for the sudo-military comfort of the other. I have been witness to heartbreaks of history as well as advancements for humanity. All in all, I have often felt I have seen just about all that I could during my years on Earth.

Taking all of that into consideration, I have reached a point in my life where nothing much in the news scares me or actually turns my blood cold. That is until recently when reading of the insurgent’s constant use of Chlorine Gas.

The latest headlines of 350 Iraqi’s poisoned by Chlorine Gas created a sense of the foreboding headlines which will no doubt appear in the future. Today they are using Chlorine and trucks to disperse; tomorrow it could very well be anthrax or VX gas released into crowded cities.

The amazing aspect is the protestors and every politician seeing votes instead of men and women venting their frustration are creating this apocalyptic picture of doom by sending the wrong message to the enemy.

This enemy is far different from past wars, their vision is not to win, but to kill Americans and to wipe out our way of life, our financial, industrial, whatever ticks them off. They could care less how many of their own die in the process for they will go to paradise as a martyr. They do not take prisoners or hostages, they only wish to kill and destroy that which disagrees with them and their twisted outlook on the future.

Yet, the protestors and politicians feel if the troops are brought home, the hostilities will end, when the truth is far worse than they can imagine. Someone once said that American’s have a short memory, that we forget why we are at war when casualties begin to mount; we forget why we were forced to react in the first place.

Yes, this scares the hell out of me and I feel it will only become more frightening as time goes by.

The clouds are getting darker all of the time.

I am sure that anyone that has read anything I have ever written realizes that I am totally pro military. I am an Army vet and support these man and woman with the very fiber of me being. I have a few friends I have made in my personal life who are presently serving and I have many in my cyberspace life doing the same. One could say that I live and breathe supporting what they do.

I must confess, that contrary to the news reports I have not heard anyone saying they would refuse to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan, even if it is their second, or third tour. Yes, I have heard many complaints, about as normal as mine were during my war. Now, refusing to serve and being totally ticked off having to go again, that is another story, in that we are burning our men and women out faster than the Pentagon ever thought.

My major concern to this burn out concept is the continuous buildup we are all witnessing. The troops have to come from somewhere, many are rotating back faster than they had anticipated, with the knowledge that once there they are extended and unable to depart the service at their normal designated time of contract. The military is calling it a stop-loss policy, some of the men and woman are calling it involuntary servitude, yes, they are starting to get ticked off and who would not in their shoes.

This is the side effect of an all volunteer military, not enough troop power; we burn them out at a faster rate. Yes, people enlist all of the time, but there is a training process for each and every one of them and that takes time, a lot of time. The military cannot just hand someone a weapon and tell them to fight, it is not that easy.

The current build-up in troop strength is another concern of mine, very reminiscent of the Viet Nam war. We incurred a massive build-up in strength with the goal of not containing, but actively hunting down and killing the enemy, nice concept at the time and suddenly the Gulf of Tonkin incident popped up from out of nowhere and the war was on and going to remain that way for awhile.

I am not going to get into a discussion if the incident occurred or not, yes, it was hard to imagine a few gun boats firing on our naval war ships, sort of like a fishing boat tossing a rock at the same, let’s just say it led to the war.

Now that Iran is quietly entering the picture, the Middle East is quickly turning into a smoldering powder keg with the major players all beginning to take sides. What began as a push to free the Iraqi people from the grasp of an evil dictator is quickly turning into another direction that concerns me greatly.

It is evident that Iran and Syria want Iraq and the only thing standing in their way is us. We are constantly saying we are not going to war with Iran, but think about that for a moment. All it would take is another Gulf of Tonkin and we are in a full scale war. Yes, this concerns me, the safety of the troops concerns me and it is concerning me more and more everyday.

Too much Trump, Thank you

Somebody, please tell Donald Trump the world is tired of his hopeless cries for media attention. What is the matter, are his ratings that far down in the dumps that he has to create attention? We see The Donald in everything from commercials, contrived WWE matches, who will cut their hair, oh God I am going to barf.

If there is justice in the universe, then please, oh please have Trump at least get a haircut. One would assume with all of the money he says that he has, the guy could afford a descent haircut. See, I did not even say anything about a hairpiece. Hey, it may be all there, we just don’t know.

Now, TMZ.Com is reporting that Trump was on a CNN show hollering Liar for just about everything Bush has ever said. Come On Donald; how do you know what books he reads? Oh, I know, you and the Pres are buds from the old days, or you have an apprentice in the White House, have to run out of jobs for them sooner or later. Where is my barf bag?

The story ends by saying that at least The Donald and Rosie have something in common – Bush. I am not even going to touch that one, I am a professional. Oh God, I really want to write on that, but I refuse.

Rosies View

My beautiful telephone wife called me last night to ask me if I had heard Rosie’s comment she made on The View about the evil scum, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who has admitted to so many American deaths and her comment on his torturing on a daily basis to make him say it.

I think Rosie needs to find a corner to sit in and cool down for awhile. Perhaps inversion therapy is doing her wonders, but it is clear that something is going on within her that borders on severe anger issues. It very well could be the on-going feud with “The Donald”, if so, then you go girl, take him on, I feel he is self centered and will do or say anything for the sheer publicity factor. Look at his latest fiasco with the WWE, come on Donald, you are better then this.

Rosie has admitted to suffering from depression issues, God Bless, my prayers are with her, but Rosie, come on, cool down for awhile and get back to basics.

So, no, I did not hear what she had to say and further, I could care less what she has to say about anything to do with current affairs, military, America, whatever.

My personal feelings on KSM have already been stated in my blog, I will confess that when first reading the laundry list of terrorist actions he confessed to, it was simply too many to believe. My initial reaction was he was attempting to take credit within the Muslim world for every action except Hurricanes and acts of God, maybe those as well.

One thing struck me, he did kill Daniel Pearl, supposedly photos are on the net, should we wish to search and I did not. After thinking on this for awhile, I still feel he is the face of evil, I feel he has directly or indirectly contributed to the deaths of thousands of Americans, he needs to be brought to justice, or justice brought to him.

Was he tortured? I could care less, this is war, American’s are loosing their lives, the fact of him standing on a box for while, or whatever, means nothing to me, only that he is dealt with for his actions. This is war and the sooner the entertainment industry understands this, the better it will be.

We are facing an enemy that does not take prisoners, they murder them and if our people are captured, they are tortured, then beheaded. As I often say, our political correct crap does not permit our military to treat the enemy in any manner except respect. Respect for people wishing to destroy our way of life, to behead every one of us, if it were possible. Respect? This sickens me, I am through with respect, I want justice.

Here is my response, tell the families of the thousands of lives lost on 9/11 that he may, just maybe, might have been tortured. Better yet, listen to the wind; you might hear the souls asking for justice.

Update on me.

Howdy friends,

I wanted to update on the old eye situation. I had incorrectly assumed that the surgery I had in December would bring my vision back to its former status, I was wrong. Besides a bit more for a small cataract, that is not much that can be done.

The Doctor attempted to correct the problem with glasses, that was a joke, no matter what strength he used, I was still unable to see even the large “E” on the chart.

I have to give credit to where it is due in my life and that is to the most beautiful woman in my life, my telephone wife, she has been my support, my shoulder and there when I was down. She has brought me through some bad times, loosing vision is not pleasant and she has given me my strength and a place to turn. My life would have been very lonely without her and I love her.

I did experience a time of not writing, not because of the inability to see well, although in retrospect, it may have been on my mind, more of being fed up with the entire situation.

As all can see, that is in the past, there is far too much going on no to say something.

The eye problem will not get any better than it is, in fact, it will get worse, I will deal with that as it progresses.

That is about it for now, of anything changes, I will of course let you know.

I have decided to drop the graphics before the post, it is too much with the new setup on the blog, besides, more space this way.

Thanks, Ranter

Far from over

The last Israeli war against the Hezbollah in Lebanon left so much collateral damage that people in Lebanon are still displaced from their homes. Israeli forces assumed it was going to be a typical engagement against the Hezbollah, they were soon proved wrong.

The Hezbollah had no qualms of instigating Israeli reprisals within Lebanon by launching rockets within cities, sometimes between occupied structures. The Israeli forces would respond in-kind, killing the innocents and of course causing a maelstrom of public outpouring. It was a no-win situation and the media was going to make sure it was.

The one thing I recall was a reporter talking with returning Special Operations Forces of Israel, normally, the cream of the military, they were in shock, saying they did not expect the intense fighting they had encountered. Of course, further communications with IDF was banned and no more comments came from the front.

This war showed the IDF they needed to hone their tactics to a different direction, gone are the days of the invincible picture of the IDF, but they are still are force to be reckoned with. This is a standing military that takes its vows of service beneath Masada, where the Jewish forces fighting Rome took their own lives, over 900, instead of being taken slaves by the Roman Empire. The IDF may need to change their tactics, but they can never be counted out, not with what they are fighting for, their very right to exist.

Now comes forth an article pertaining to statements made by, Maj. Gen. William Terpeluk, published in the Jewish Exponent, here is a direct quote of the text:

“A veteran U.S. Army general told a local audience this week that the Al Qaeda terrorist network has set itself a 20-year goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate throughout the Middle East, Northern Africa and Southeast Asia; having a direct confrontation with Western nations; and making Israel one of its very first targets.

"I think that the mere fact that Israel exists is their motivation," said Maj. Gen. William Terpeluk in his presentation this past Sunday, noting that terrorists actually think they have a chance to destroy the Jewish state.

"I can say that I think we're going to see more attacks against Israel, just to get the base fired up," and thereby rally support among Islamic extremists.”

Just because our Congress feels the war will be over by bringing troops home does not make for it to be true. It is time they began to look around them and see what is going on, then perhaps they can see the trees instead of a forest.

al-Maliki speaks and Europe does not care for it.

Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki has spoken out against the terrorist society that is festering within his Iraq and it appears the European council does not like it. That is one of the main reasons they are downplaying the significance of his words in every paper.

I feel it is best to allow his words to speak for themselves; here is the direct quote from The Daily Standard.

London

IRAQI PRIME MINISTER NOURI AL-MALIKI, speaking at last week's international conference in Baghdad, reminded many who needed reminding exactly what is at stake in the war in Iraq. Unfortunately, few people in Europe seem to have heard the message.

The great enemy, Maliki warned, is the ideology of terrorism, which threatens not only Iraq but every decent and peace-loving nation on the planet. "The terrorism that today is trying to kill Iraqis in Baghdad, Hilla, Mosul, and Anbar," he said, "is the same as the terror that intimidated the population of Saudi Arabia, targeted the people of Egypt, attacked the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and hit underground trains in Madrid and London."

In other words, whatever one thinks of the decision to topple Saddam Hussein, Iraq has become another front in the war on radical Islam. This faith-based ideology assumes various shapes--Sunni suicide bombers, al Qaeda operatives--yet all pursue the same overriding objective: to turn Iraq into a haven for international terrorism, guided by a militant and murderous vision of Islam.

The following quote from the same publication puts al-Maliki’s words into the proper perspective: “This is, of course, exactly the argument made by President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair--which probably explains why media outlets such as the BBC downplayed Maliki's blunt assessment.”

You have got the love the press, if they do not like what someone says, the downplay it, if they agree, it is all over the front page.

Where is the justice?

I have to say that at my age, I thought I have just about seen everything there was to see, combat, police work, big city life, you name it, I saw it. That is until this morning when I saw the face of evil, the devil in all his glory. As I looked at the photo I could not help notice the absence of horns or crimson skin. There were no glistening teeth, barred back in a perpetual threatening pose.

There was none of that, only a man in need of a shave, hair uncombed and wearing a t-shirt. His name was not Satin, or Beelzebub, but Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and he is truly evil.

He has willingly admitted to the deaths of so many people that one wonders if he is even serious, is it true that he can kill with so little remorse or regret? In a direct quote from the article, he stated, "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan," Mohammed is quoted as saying in a transcript of a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, released by the Pentagon.

I actually felt sick to my stomach reading those words, the thought that he could do that with no remorse to an innocent man was sickening. He confessed to masterminding and involvement in so many deaths of Americans and he still lives, breaths and apparently feels nothing.

We are living within a society of political correctness that does not permit our people to mistreat him in any manner. In fact, our religious beliefs welcome his right to practice his faith in any way he sees fit. Yet, his beliefs only desire the complete and total destruction of our way of life. Where is the justice in that equation?

I can well imagine the families of the thousands killed by his command or thoughts looking at his photo and asking the same questions as I am. Where is the justice, the yin for the yang, the cosmic end for the means he has placed into motion? The souls of thousands of people are calling in the wind for justice and our political correct way of life allows this scum to still inhale the same air as we do.

Where is the justice?

Patton opening speech

I was thinking that now would be a good time to post the opening speech from the movie Patton. It is timeless, just as General Patton was.

Ruffles and Flourishes’ …………. Be seated.

Now, I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. Men, all this stuff you’ve heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse dung. Americans traditionally love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, the big league ball player, the toughest boxer. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost and will never lose a war. Because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans.

Now, an Army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of crap. The bilious bastards who wrote that stuff about individuality for the Saturday Evening Post don’t know anything more about real battle than they do about fornicating.

We have the finest food and equipment, the best spirit and the best men in the world. You know, by God I actually pity those poor bastards we’re going up against. By God, I do. We’re not just going to shoot the bastards, we’re going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We’re going to murder those lousy Hun bastards by the bushel.

Now, some of you boys, I know, are wondering whether or not you'll chicken out under fire. Don't worry about it. I can assure you that you will all do your duty. The Nazis are the enemy. Wade into them. Spill their blood. Shoot them in the belly. When you put your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do.

Now there’s another thing I want you to remember. I don’t want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position. We’re not holding anything. Let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly and we’re not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy. We're going to hold onto him by the nose and we're going to kick him in the ass. We're going to kick the hell out of him all the time and we're gonna go through him like crap through a goose.

There’s one thing that you men will be able to say when you get back home. And you may thank God for it. Thirty years from now when you’re sitting around your fireside with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what did you do in the great World War II, you won’t have to say, "Well, I shoveled shit in Louisiana."

Alright now, you sons-of-bitches, you know how I feel. Oh, and I will be proud to lead you wonderful guys into battle – anytime, anywhere.

That’s all.

The end of an era

WWI, the Great War and the one that was supposed to end all wars and as usual, they were wrong. War really never stops, it just packs up, moves to another place, sort of like a road show. This war was supposed to be different; it was fought in trenches mixed between attacks with gas and machine gun fire.

We had a lot of songs then, patriotic songs that made people feel good inside as they would watch American troops smartly parade to their individual and unit meetings with glory. At least that is what everyone thought back then, glory.

The truth was harder to accept; it was easier and made one feel better to assume this was simply a walk in the park. The songs all said so, it had to be true. The truth was war is hell, it brings out the warrior that lives within everyone and every person who served then, just as they do now, deserves the respect and gratitude of a nation.

On March 2^nd, the last combat veteran of WWI was laid to rest in Portland Oregon. As the echoes of a 21 gun salute and a bugler playing Taps, Retired Army Cpl. Howard V. Ramsey, passed away exactly one month before reaching his 109th birthday.

Military.com reported there are seven known WWI veterans still living, none were shipped overseas, making Ramsey the last known combat veteran of "The Great War.

Rest in peace Cpl. Ramsey.

They get what they deserve

The daily news feeds are inundated with news of politics, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and of course, we cannot forget all of the Democrats saying all of the Republicans are not only wrong, but totally wrong. Let’s be honest here, the news is the same thing over and over.

With that I mind when I come upon a piece of news that is completely out of the normal mainstream of gobbledygook we call politics, I read every word with tender loving care. I enjoy the article even more when it includes a person getting exactly what they deserve, not through hard work and investigation of the police, but through the individuals pure stupidity.

Such is the case of an Oklahoma woman who was using her son’s cell phone to try and score drugs for herself. I am sure that she figured, hey, he has all of the contacts and I need drugs, what better place to look. I am sure this person was dumb enough to use her friendly yellow pages first, “hmm, what would drug dealer under, drugs or dealer?”

When that course of action failed, she turned to her son’s cell phone. She immediately recalled her son telling her about a guy’s name, “Mom, if you ever need anything, call this guy, he can always help you”. She found the number, called and the man anserwed. She was elated, happy as a lark as she told the guy what she wanted. She was even happier when the man on the other end of the phone told her where to meet him to make the deal.

She had a friend accompany her to the meeting place and within a few minutes she met the guy on the cell phone, a Mike Woodruff. The only problem, he was not a drug dealer, in fact had she looked she paid more attention to what her son had told her she would have known that the guy’s complete name was, Lt. Mike Woodruff, of the local police department, who had just placed her and her friend under arrest.

This is another case of a person getting exactly what they deserved.

FSB equals KGB

The letters may be different, but their methods are still the same. Russian dissidents, all openly discussing their unhappiness with the Putin administration, are dying from “accidental” poisonings, falling out of windows, who know what else. Remember, we are only aware of the high profile deaths and people walking into hospitals saying they were dosed with radiation.

A few days ago I was reading an article on the death of another Russian citizen, an outspoken critic of the present Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin administration in Russia.

I experienced a strong feeling of Déjà vu midway through the article. Somehow I was already aware of every suspicious circumstance surrounding this person’s death, but due to a few complications with my vision I had not been on the computer in the past forty eight hours, leaving the probability of my reading it earlier, impossible.

Then the answer struck me, the circumstances surrounding this person’s death as well as their public disagreement with the Putin administration were similar in nature to all of the recent questionable deaths of Russians in the media.

Investigators are trained to enter a case without preconceived suspects, notions or anything deemed prejudicial to the case. From the moment they are dispatched, they enter the case with a fresh mind, open to a wide variety of possibilities. However, the cases now before the various investigators involve a number of locations and countries, there can only be a few possible suspects.

If we remove the down-right crazy and absurdly unusual suspects that I have actually seen headlined in a few of the trash magazines at the grocery checkouts, everything from alien murders resulting from anal probes gone wrong, to suicide by radiation with the sole purpose of drawing Russia into a world war, then the question of who is responsible for the current rash of murders can only be intelligently answered by one of these distinct possibilities.

Serial Killer, a deranged individual is running around the world targeting only Russians with the same public display of disagreement of the present Russian government.

Revenge killing, a disgraced previous member of Russia’s FSB or its forerunner, the KGB, blames these individuals for his disgrace and loss of employment and has vowed to kill every last one of them.

Terrorists Assassination, the ever-changing global political climate we experience today guarantees this type of killing is always a distinct possibility and must be considered in every case of this nature.

Alien Anal Probe leading to death. This statement is about as absurd as the lame denials Putin made. If Russia expects us to believe they had nothing to do with anything, then an Alien did it. (I refuse to name the trash rag, but it’s the one that always has aliens on the cover standing next to Bigfoot.)

Sanctioned Termination, either the Russian government or someone within it sanctioned the termination of its citizens who are speaking out publically against the administration in an attempt to silence the growing disagreement of the policies of the Putin administration.

In my opinion, Serial Killer, Revenge Killings and Terrorists Assassination, when applied to these cases, border on the absurdly unusual, however, in the course of an international investigation, they must be taken into serious consideration. Investigations and forensics have ruled those three out of the equation and good-old common sense dictates that Alien Anal Probe leading to death is simply non-existent fantasies made up to sell trash rags.

This leaves us with a method of murder that should send cold chills of real déjà vu up the backs of every Russian citizen. When Russia last practiced those old ways, a citizen’s life expectancy was a lot shorter than it is now and by the looks of the events taking place, they are about to get a whole lot worse.

Al-Maliki is a traitor and needs to go

I had just sat down with my first cup of morning ambition, also known as coffee, brought up the news feeds, clicked on Fox News and immediately came across this headline and subsequent news report:

Al-Maliki Outraged
Iraq PM vows to punish allies for Basra raid

The article dealt with a Sunday raid conducted by British forces at the National Iraqi Intelligence Agency building, located in Basra. Inside of the building, British forces found 30 prisoners that appeared to have been tortured. The prisoners included one woman and two children, but there is no additional information on their status.

Maj. David Gell, a British military spokesman, reported they had captured an alleged death squad leader along with four other probable militiamen suspected of serious criminal activity, including kidnap, torture, murder and involvement in roadside bomb attacks on multinational forces and civilians. Unfortunately, the British military reported the four suspects escaped soon after the operation.

All in all, it appears the British ran a fairly successful operation. They captured an alleged death squad leader; one would assume that any leader of a country, as Al-Maliki is supposed to be, would tire of militiamen constantly murdering innocent men, women and children. Well, unless they were all his fellow militiamen, the very same militia ran by a cold blooded murderer that he constantly protects, then he would be ticked off that someone actually had big enough ones to pull the mission off.

Not only would he become sickened by the constant slaughter of the innocent, but Al-Maliki should be doing the dance of joy with his cabinet members.

One would assume that anytime 30 innocent men, women and children are pulled from a certain death; he would want to hold press conferences, praising the British troops involved in the operation, saying things like dedication and bravery, maybe even award medals to the soldiers who put their life on the line to save these people, his people, his fellow countrymen.

Yes, that is what one would assume in any normal country comprised of reasonably sound and prudent leadership who had dedicated themselves to ending hostilities and the constant torture and murder of his people. Al-Maliki is far from being reasonably sound and prudent. So far, that he works harder to protect and warn them when a raid is being planned and that is the sole reason he is ticked, he was unable to warn the militiamen. The only thing he wants to understand is why he was not notified.

Al-Maliki should just ask the 30 innocent civilians why this occurred, they could explain it to him, I’ll bet they would even draw him a picture with bright new crayons, just to make his small mind understand. They could use colors that are near and dear to Al-Maliki's heart and two comes to mind, either the colors his friends in the militia wear, or red, for all of the innocent blood spilled during his watch.

Al-Maliki sickens me, the moment he became infuriated because his precious militia was arrested, instead of celebrating the innocent lives the British saved, that was the moment he became a traitor to the Iraqi people, a liability to the Iraqi government as well as the coalition forces placing their lives in harm’s way to insure their success.

That was the moment the Iraqi government should have immediately removed this disgusting piece of slime dredged from the filth of hell from office, either by a vote of no confidence, impeachment or by any means necessary.

Another scandal, as if we don't have enough.

Scandals, where would the human race be without them? The truth to the matter is simple, boring people make boring news. Allow me to paint an example in your mind of a scandal. If we were to place one hundred boring men on television, film them all standing in a straight line, each wearing the same boring clothes and boring shoes for exactly ten minutes, one week later, not one would be remembered.

Now, let’s change that scene just a tad, by having one of the men pull the zipper to their trousers down, insure he’s in the same spot doing the same boring thing as the remaining ninety nine boring individuals and reshoot the scene. One week later everyone would still be talking about the guy’s zipper being down.

Some people would find it hilarious; others may find it disgusting that a grown man could not insure his package was properly locked up behind tight security. This example would fall under the primary definition of a scandal, i.e. a disgraceful or discreditable action, circumstance, etc.

On any given day, the term, scandal is used on any number of reports published regarding the current administration. The latest Walter Reed controversy is a prime example of a scandal as well as a public display of the time honored, ancient political craft of “Cover Your Ass”, also known as CYA in Washington.

CYA can best be described as one or more politicians implementing an investigation into any scandal uncovered through investigative reporting, with one of its hidden agendas to immediately find as many sacrificial lambs as possible. After all, someone must take the heat for all of this, if not, well, they really don’t want to think about that.

Once identified, shorn of their wool, they are marched naked to their public slaughter, their names leaked to the media by members of somebody’s staff, somewhere, but no one really ever knows who. As if Houdini himself was involved, the lamb’s personnel files find their way to some reporter’s desk. At that point, get out the mint jelly Martha, the media is serving us all lamb tonight.

You can bet your bippy, (Rowan and Martin Laugh-in show days) that the unemployment lines in Washington increase exponentially in direct proportion to how big the present scandal is.

Walter Reed and the rest of the military’s hospitals are well respected institutions, providing high caliber health care to our nation’s war veterans as well as making many inroads into the treatment of trauma. Just ask any politician, that’s their stock reply they have been spoon-feeding the public after every war and it is also a total load of crap. Ask surviving veteran of any of America’s wars or undeclared police actions, they will all tell you many horror stories or tales of being forgotten, left to tending to their own dressings and early discharges that send them home while still facing recovery that would normally require confinement to an after-care medical center.

I must address the inroads in trauma care before continuing. This is a true statement and the military physician’s and scientists should be commended for all the work they have done in this specialized field of medicine. The field of initial treatment and follow up surgeries were and still are where military physician’s shine. The medial treatment per se, has never been much of an issue. It was the after care that was and is problematic; this is also the field of medicine where civilians traditionally augment the ever increasing burden of military health care.

After the war in Viet Nam, the complaints emanating from our wounded veteran’s over their medical care were not as high as those pertaining to any subsequent post-operative, or rehabilitative follow up. The overwhelming complaints they were receiving, prompted Congressional investigations then as well. This eventually led to many changes to military medical and after care which reflected the new doctrine and resulted in better care for our nation’s wounded veterans.

The problem in military health care, especially post-operative follow up and long term convalescence has always been one of their major problem areas. There has never been adequate Congressional funding in military health care during war time and that statement itself could be a contradiction in terms. I did attempt to reduce that statement to two words; I wanted to show another military oxymoron, but was not able to do so. I will just state that the term, inadequate medical funding during wartime is a paradox and forget about it.

Politicians have followed the exact path every time they have been faced with these allegations, by the media, founded or unfounded, pertaining to taking care of their wounded veterans. They implement their typical committees to investigate the charges and fire as many officers and non commissioned men and women as possible. Then they publish their committee findings consisting of several thousand pages of absolute nothingness, contradictions and empty promises of how it will be fixed in the future, stop by the club for a few drinks to congratulate themselves for a job well done and go back to work searching for that ever elusive bill to attach their pet projects to.

In the mean time our nation’s wounded men and women live in the same run-down, after-care over-crowded and cramped quarters, receive the same sub-standard post operative follow-up and question why this is happening to them. They ask themselves why is it they put their lives on the line for their country, paid a price and are now caught up in so many catch 22’s that the book’s author, Joseph Heller would even scratch his head in amazement before advising all of the veterans to tell the media what exactly is going on.

Of course, the politician’s have all discussed this serious breech of soldier conduct and in doing so arrived with a solution to the entire problem. No more will their constituents pick up their morning paper and read articles condemning the military’s medical care. In fact, they handled it quicker then Andrew Jackson sent the British packing at the battle of New Orleans, they ordered all of the military to shut the hell up.