militaryhistory

Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen Israel actively assault Hamas militants in Gaza. There are very mixed reactions to Israels actions in Gaza. Though if one lived in southern Israel, I think the answer to their reaction would be much clearer. Imagine you live in the far north suburbs of Chicago, and a militant faction in Wisconsin was launcing rockets into your hometown. It s highly probable that one would expect the Ilinois National Guard, if not the US Military to stop the activity. In the case of the present situation in Gaza, Israel has in fact been a target of extremists groups since its inception.

Ideally, the ultimate resoluton should be a diplomatic one. All hostilities should cease, all warfare stopped and all weapons silenced, however, diplomatic solutions have been tried repeatedly and failed in violence and bloodshed. And it seems that somewhere out there a program exists with an agenda to destroy Israel and to destroy western interests worldwide, and no one knows for sure what would replace democracy, should the west fall.

So it is with this in mind, that one must examine history for an answer. But what is the question? The question is “how can we finally stop the violence in the mideast”? Considering that organizations such as Hamas and Hezbolah have continued to utilize violence as the means to the ends, when in fact, the end result has now been more violence on a grand scale. Yes, Violence committed by a “standing army”, being the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces). An action that many people of come to dread and fear. There is probably nothing more freightening that being invaded by an organized and well armed miltary force. This however has been a fact for many throughout history, war is war, and in the words of General W.T. Sherman, “war is all hell”.

So now the question is “how do we define victory”? A study of military history provides an easy and definitive answer. Victory is the result of surrender, or “capitualtion or inihaltion of a military opponent.  So the answer becomes that Hamas must surrender, for the good Gaza, for the good of its own people, for the rebuilding of its state and the safety of its children, Hamas must surrender. Like the Japanese in world war two, Hamas has the chance to be honorable, to show the world that it cares about all of our childen, to show that they desire real peace, that they desire to be a good neighbor to Israel, that they desire to see their young people live and not to be used as walking time bombs. Surrender is an option.

Israel is once again moving troops in its own defense. An increase in rockets attacks against Israel as prompted the Israeli military to conduct pre-assault air strikes against key Hamas targets softening the underbelly of another terrorist organization. The IDF(Israeli Defense Forces) has activated approximately two brigades and put 6500 reservists on alert.

Hamas and the Palastinian cause has failed to recognize the favorable position that they were in, after the Gaza was turned over to them by the Israeli government. Hamas fails to realize that it is in violation of the laws of common sense. The civilized world militaries follow rules of engagement and laws of war under the various world agreements and only egage enemies when given the authority to do so. Hamas follows no rules and fails to create constructive dialouge that could be the foundation for real peace in their region.

The main philosophy of extremists in the region, including Hamas and Iran are based on a doctrine of the destruction and removal of Israel from the region. Hamas is the key of the Iranian influence in the Gaza, a fact which is widely understood by Israel and the United States. The  doctrine of destruction is nothing short of unreasonable and unrealistic. Israel is a democratic entity in the middle east and a will be supported by the United States in the most tenuous of situations. Hamas must realize this and stop the bloodshed, display the white flag and meet on the field of honor like men to negotiate a true peace. There is no dishonor in peace, there is no dishonor in saving the lives of your children and there is no dishonor in breaking bread with your enemies for a greater good.

The news  from the middle east is once again bleak, as several sources were reporting that Pakistan was in the process of a troop build up on the Indian border. As reported earlier on this blog, Pakistan is also in the process of purchasing newer up-dated military hardware in the way of attack submarines. Considering Pakistans actions and the recent attacks in Mumbai, it seems that the situation in that region is reaching a boiling point.

Relations between both countries have been poor since both countries were founded. Ironically both countries are also armed with nuclear weapons, a fact which makes both countries extremely dangerous to the region. Pakistan has also pulled troops from the border of Afghanistan where it has alledgedly been seeking out pockets of Al Queda and fighting terrorism, but consdering the events of the last few weeks, one must wonder if Pakistan is truely concerned with fighting fellow Muslims who are against Western interests.

In todays news, it was reported that Israel has begun strikes on Hamas positions after suffering multiple large scale rocket attacks.  The strikes have killed over two hundred. Israel has displayed great restraint in these matters. She has turned over lands in Gaza in an effort to apease extremists in that region, and in doing so, put Israel in a dangerous tactical position. The airstrikes are more than likely a precursor to a larger assault.

I was sad to see yet another story of suicide in the army. It was reported that at least four army recruiters from the same brigade had committed suicide over a four year period. All were Veterans of Iraq. According to the story, the recruiting command was pushing unrealistic quotas and a work agenda that may have added to the stress.  But one thing that stood out in their pattern of stress, was the alledged abuse from people that they encountered, particularly the over protective parents of young perspective recruits.

The young widow of one soldier/recruiter had reported that her husband had experienced open hostility from parents, and that she felt that this most definetly added to what he was already feeling. The end result was that he went to his garage where he hung himself with a dog leash. Not a fitting end for a soldier, veteran and servant to our country.

The present world situation is very tragic in many ways. In my opinion, the most tragic part is the fact that the government failed to actively involve the American Citizen in the war on terrorism,  a war which is not over by any stretch of the imagination. When the Commander-in-Chiefs response to the disaster of 9/11 was to “go shopping”, all was lost to the terrorists. But perhaps Bush knew more about Americans than I realized. Perhaps going shopping is all the average citizen knows how to do, or wants to do.

After all, we hand off all of our problems to someone else, bury ourselves in instant gratification and find ways to increase our already overweight obese bodies. We have become a nation of enablers, a band of excuses, a sad example of humans, not a band of brothers. We expect to be coddled for our mistakes, set free when we commit crimes and take no real personal responsibility when we screw up.

A large majority of Americans have never served their country or their community. Many Americans do not even want to pay their fair share of taxes, and yet then they criticize those who have more courage than they do. They put down those who have paid the price so they can walk free and arrogant on the streets of the United States. We hide in our homes and try to ignor everyone elses problems. We think that just because a war is thousands of miles a way, that it should not involve us. Men like Adolf Hitler would have a field day with present day America.

So go ahead,  continue to hand off your problems to someone else. Go to McDonalds, get a Big Mac and enjoy your holiday. Thats what we brave ones want you to do. We want to see you happy and content, warm and safe in your houses and most of all we want you to go shopping. After all, we brave ones also love to go to Walmart, so your not alone there. But do me a favor, give a soldier or a recruiter a break. If you don’t want your family to go to war, have a discussion with your own. Don’t blame the soldier or the recruiter. He does’nt want to go to a war zone either, he just hopes that some of you will decide to take some responsibility and help out.

If you see a soldier or recruiter, thank him or her. Tell them that you appreciate what they do. Tell them that you pray for them and their families. Tell them that you pray every day for peace. This way, we can all get to Walmart and put some gifts under the tree.

By the way, I am in the Army National Guard, and my daughter is in the Regular Army. I am very proud of my family, you should be too.

Lemonade Nominee

I’m flattered that my blog has been nominated for the lemonade award. I have worked very hard on the blog, though I’m also very pleased to be writing. For many years, I desired to write and have that writing in the public eye. The internet has provided a medium for me to work in. The internet an avenue which has made it possible for me to learn and become a better Writer.

Thanks for the nomination

Gene

My Nominee’s are;

http://inquiringminds.today.com/

http://welcome2myworld.today.com/

http://creatinglife.today.com/

http://libertarianvegan.today.com/

http://conservativepolitics.today.com/

http://spinningfacts.today.com/

http://charslifeandtimes.today.com/

http://coolingstar9.today.com/

http://politicalanimal.today.com/

http://freelanceralph.today.com/

As anticipated, the top U.S. military officer says that up to 30,000 new American troops could be on the ground in  Afghanistan by this time next year. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said on a visit to Kabul that between 20,000 and 30,000 additional U.S. troops could be sent to Afghanistan by the summer 0f 2009.

U.S. commanders are there requesting an additional 20,000 troops to bolster the 31,000 (as previously reported on this blog) U.S. forces already in the country. But other estimates indicated 30,000 additional forces is the largest number any top U.S. military official has said publicly. Mullen says that after those troops are increased, only improvements in Afghanistan’s governance and economic situation will affect the strength of the insurgency.

President Elect Obama has already signaled his approval for staying the course in Afghanistan, recognizing the need to take the fight to Muslim Extremists in the country. Adding to this is the recent attacks in Mumbai, increased threats against US interests worldwide and direct (and unusual)  threats against Obama by Al Queda leadership.

On a solemn day in April of 1865, an older gray distinguished man mounted his horse and rode out to a small house owned by a man named Wilmer McClean. The house was at a place called Appomattox Virginian. Waiting for his were a group of Union Officers. One of which was Ulysess S Grant. The older man was Robert E Lee, the Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.

This was one of two days which would forever become the foundation for the southern cause. The first was July 4th, 1863 at Gettysburg Pennsylvania. It was on that day that Lee had sent approximately one third of the Army of Northern Virginia to its death as part of “Picketts Charge”. This event would later be refered to as the Confedrerate high water mark, and in the famous  words of Edwin Bearss aNational Parks Civil War Historian, “And the Confederate tide, rolled back”.

But out of the surrender and defeat rose the “Confederate Cause”. The cause would live on for generations in the hearts and minds of southerners. An idea that in many ways still permeates southern culture today through symbolism, thought and learning, that has been passed on by word of mouth from generation to generation. In the north, the southern cause is an abstract idea, read about in history books, hashed out on the silver screen and made up of men in white sheets and burning crosses. But in reality, the southern cause evolved into something more complicated and viceral to the southerner and emotional to those who are touched by it.

In  a novel by William Faulkner “Intruder in the Dust”, Faulkner states;

For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it’s still not yet two o’clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it’s all in the balance, it hasn’t happened yet, it hasn’t even begun yet, it not only hasn’t begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it’s going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn’t need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose and all this much to gain…… In this eloquent paragraph, Faulkner sums up what is in the heart of a southerner, in the heart of a young south, so ready to stand on her own. And yet that moment in history does take place on that long and open killing ground.

Out of the ashes of Gettysburg, also rose a central figure to the cause. A man who isthe most beloved in the southern experience, a name that still hangs on the tounges of both southerner and northerner alike. The man, was non other than Robert E. Lee.

Lee, was later refered to as the marble man. This is because he had been firmly placed on a pedestal by southerners and and greatly admired by many northerners as well. When it comes to Lee it is indeed very difficult to seperate the man from his myth. Even now, as I write this paragragh, I myself feel a great connection To Robert E. Lee.

As a young man in eigth grade I visited Washington DC with my class prior to graduation. I visited Arlington National Cemetary, I saw the overwhelming multitude of graves, I saw from a distance Lee’s Mansion. It was a white gleeming ediface of beauty to my eyes. But at the time I had no idea that it was a focal point of anger during the civil war, and that Lee had sacraficed his home, his commission in the Union Army and his entire life for what he believed.

Many years later as an adult, I visited Washington Lee University where Lee’s tomb is located. As I stood at his tomb, I remember being completed and utterly overwhelmed by the power of being in Lees presence. It mattered not that he had already been deceased for generations. As an adult I knew what sacrafice meant. I had been in the military, saw my commrades die in the execution of their duties, I had made my own sacrafices and clearly understood what most people never come to understand, that duty and service commands all in the life of those that choose a military career, and it did with Lee, and so many that had served under in him in the “cause”.

Several news sources reported that thirty six National Guard and Military reserve facilities recieved suspicious packages. The packages contained anti-war material and an inert powder substance. Approximately fifty one packages were mailed from a Tennessee. Some packages were also mailed to forty governors offices around the nation.These items were mailed from Texas. The FBI was investigating these incidents.

This is a reminder that terrorism is still very real and that threats are not to be taken litely. Americans should be especially watchful when in the work place, particularly if part of their job is handling incoming mail.

Private security needs to increase training and improve working conditions by providing better guidelines and equipment to frontline security personnel. Security personnel should also be trained in emergency response and be trained on how to interface with other emergency services, including local police, fire departments and FEMA.

After 9/11 occurred, when asked what Americans should do, he replied “Go shopping” This was a profoundly ignorant statement to make. Americans need to stop being complacent and start preparing as if disaster was at their doorstep now. This includes having an action plan, storing extra food, buying emergency equipment and being mentally prepared for the worst.  At the very least, every US home should have on hand, two weeks of non perisahble food, flashlights, extra batteries, an emergency radio, a first aid kit, a heating source and some means of personal defense (A Firearm).

In the event of a real disaster, public safety services will be strapped and unable to provide basic services to those who will need it. The walking wounded and the able bodied will need to fend for themselves. Minor medical attention will need to be delivered as it did on the American frontier in the 1800s.

During world war two nearly every home in the United States had a “Victory Garden” as logistics, food and medical supplies were being sent to troops in the field. The reinstatement of the Victory Garden should be on everyones agenda for this spring, and encouraged by the government. Too much land is wasted as yard space when it could be producing food for hard times. Harvested crops from these gardens can be canned and stored for long periods and make each family a self sustaining unit. Each home should also consider storing its own water or considering a well, (depending upon their location).

Dick Cheny is not the first Vice President to shoot someone while in office, the honor of being the first in this category goes to Aaron Burr, who was Thomas Jefferson’s VP. He shot Alexander Hamilton to death in a duel, and was severly criticized for being such a fool. Speaking of fools,  I’m damn near positive, that George W. Bush is the first US President to have a pair of shoes thrown at him, unless we count those Bill Clinton days when Monica flung off her high heels while being stimulated with a cigar. 

I was at work when another employee walked up to me and mentioned that GW had been assualted by a hostile Iraqi citizen with a pair of shoes, and he asked, “so whats with the shoes? When they first invaded Iraq, there was the video footage of Iraqis hitting Saddam Huseins statute on the ground with their shoes. Are the shoes some part of a daily ritual”?

I replied, well……mmmm, I guess it must be a cultural thing, Something akin to kicking a fool in the ass without going through the trouble of even raising your foot off the ground. Consider an attacking enemy who gets the whole foot, shoe and all, in the gut, right before the bayonet is driven into his chest. A fool just gets the shoe and nothing more. Or perhaps another interpretation might be, “hit the road jack, heres a pair of shoes to help you leave”.  I have personally experienced the later interpretation in arguments with my wife, and if I was telling an asshole to leave, I just might use the same technique.

But whatever the methodology used for the communication, the interpretation or the size and style of shoes used in the execution of the operation, the message is still the same. And one lone person, just some no account Iraqi Citizen, communicated in a more concise manner, in a few short seconds, than George Bush has in the last eight years. And that small fact is a very  sad thing to say about our Commander-in-Chief. But unfortunately, its time to leave, so lets all get on those shoes or those sand colored boots and get our troops home, or redeploy them to where they can be more effective against terrorsim. But either way, its time to let Iraq deal with her own problems. By the way, when I woke up this morning, the first thing I saw was a news story that indicated that several suspicious packages had been sent to Guard and Reserve Offices, some of which contained inert substances. We obviously have some homegrown issues to consider at this time.

It may be Christmas time, but  that’s not whats causing gun and ammunition dealers across United States to run out of stock and see sales doubling.Gun owners accross the nation are afraid that their rights of gun ownership will be threatned. Limits were placed on high-capacity clips and hand-guns, not to mention semiautomatic assault weapons under the presidency of Bill Clinton. The assault weapons ban became law in 1994. When it expired in 2004, President  Bush did not reinstate it.

The FBI is reporting that criminal background checks required to purchase a gun were up Forty One percent for  compared with the same period last year, and up forty nine percent the week that Obama was elected.The rise in firearm purchases since the election prompted the president-elect to reassure gun owners during a press conference a week ago that he won’t take away their weapons.

“I believe in common-sense gun safety laws and I believe in the Second Amendment,” Obama said. “And so lawful gun owners have nothing to fear. I said that throughout the campaign. I haven’t indicated anything different during the transition. I think people can take me at my word.”

But more than that, people do not feel safe at this time. They fear both the government itself and those who would seek to exploit others weaknesses, as the economy ceases to function correctly, jobs are lost and less food is available to those in need, crime rates wil surely soar.

The government has repeatedly lied to the people of the nation and now it appears to being seizing control of the financial systems, which has all the makings of a failed system. Words such as socialism and communism are flowing on talk radio and in social circles, as people are beginning to realize that the United States may not survive as we know it.

Rumors have been circulating for two or three years now, of the possibility of a one world government, backed by one currency and/or a hybrid north American currency, thus dragging down the United States as a national entity and stripping the country of status.

Adding to this, has been unchecked immigration and the minimalization of workforce pay and benefits, as many states adopt an “employee at will” doctrine, which essentially strips employees of any type of rights or due process when they speak out against injustice in the workplace, and face termination for the smallest of infractions. The end result being the destruction of the middle class and the inihaltion of a free market economy.