WHAT WAR IS WORST

Probably, those3 who serve think their war is the worst. It surely is when they are in it. Some chaplains recently weighed in at my request. The Question:

Compare the Army now and when we were in during the late sixties and early seventies.

It was worse in the sixties and seventies. I stopped taking my family to movies on post because of vulgar and racial stuff, not to mention violence. I looked out my office window one Sunday afternoon and watched about 30 blacks with clubs wade into a group of whites. Our Bn Cdr issued cheap cameras to soldiers throughout the Bn and said just take photos and I will sort it out. He did, too, calling soldiers out of formations, showing the photos, then sending them to the brig. I first wore a clerical collar then, thinking that with it I might obtain a bit more respect and safety. The priority of assignments was Vietnam and a lot of what Germany got was bad stuff. Also, I met an NCO that had made E-6 in a bit over 12 months, promoting to fill slots with what was available. He was pretty sharp, but definitely not sufficiently experienced to be an E-6. Ch (Col) LH, USA. Ret

GOD BLESS THE TROOPS

The first time I saw Victoria I'll never forget. Her big yellow Cadillac was perched at the top of the hill by the Post Chapel at the Presidio of San Francisco. A big American flag streamed from it announcing two remarkable women. Over the years, I'd often see that flag flying in the breeze, always with the same authority. That day, Victoria merged from the car along with her Mom. She walked slowly, a pretty severe case of osteoporosis. Her Mom held to her as they made their way to the chapel, under the canopy and into it. They sat about two thirds back. I would see them every Sunday.

Presidio was what us paratroopers called a "leg" post. Most military types thought getting assigned to the PSF (Presidio of San Francisco) was a dream assignment. Not me. I had arrived dragging my feet. My original assignment was to 7th Special Forces at Fort Bragg. I actually was leaving my all time favorite assignment, the 82d Airborne Division to take the Special Forces. It was a natural progression for a macho, egotistical military officer. I don't know how it happened that I was now at PSF. My good friend and boss at the Presidio, a Priest, says he didn't engineer it but I was skeptical. I was one of the few SF trained chaplains in the Army. It seemed in my own mind, I had sacrificed and taken lots of risks to get Special Forces qualified. It involved a gruelling training regiment, culminating in a jump into the the very unknown Uharrie Forest with an m60 machine gun strapped on my back. I was going to Vietnam to a Green Beret unit but when I got to Vietnam, I got siphoned off to the 101st Airborne. it turned out to be a great assignment not to mention a great ministry. This should have taught me a lesson. The only reason this has any relavance is my gloomy mood thinking that Victoria and her Mom, Esther, were now my parisherners. Quite a change from the paratroopers of the 82d Airborne. I was so stupid. Every Sunday when I came out of the Chapel, her Mother greeted me with, "could do that thing you do." I smiled and gave her a big HooAhhhhhhhhhh, the paratrooper yell. She roared with laughter and it pleased Victoria so.

I didn't know it much then but came to realize later on--these two were the epitome of patriotism. Red, white and blue coursed through their veins. Victoria was always dressed to the "nines" with three pins on her blouse or jacket: an American flag, her WAC (WOman's Army Corp.) one and another in the shape of a flag with the words, "I pledge Allegiance."

The Post Chapel was the second oldest building on the Presidio, a dynamic historical chapel with these gorgeous flags of units that served at the Presidio hanging from high cathedral ceilings. Plagues adorned the walls as memorials to the decorated and famous military and the not so famous. It was almost like Victoria and her mother were born for that chapel. Victoria loved one story of the memorial plagues I told her and she repeated it often to almost anybody who would listen. A former Chief of Chaplains (Major General) came to the Chapel and replaced his former wife's name on the Memorial with the name of his present one.

Victoria's family was military through and through. Her Dad was a military man, retired with the rank of Major. They were stationed in Hawaii, Utah, Fort Benning, and other "postings" as she called them. He was in WW l. They lived for a long time in Seattle and put down roots and somehow made their way to San Francisco where Victoria became a 4th grade public school teacher. They lived in this really nice apartment on Nob Hill and she and her mother spent their time riding around the Bay Area and hanging out on the Presidio.

The Presideo was a big part of Victoria and her Mom 's life. They were a familiar site at almost every single event that went on: the chapel, the club, ceremonies, change of command. Someone said to me one day, "Who is that lady with the other older lady?" People remembered them because Victoria was beginning to suffer a little more from the osteoporosis and walked slower but always with her Mom on her arm. Must be somebody important. "Of course, I allowed."

For the vast majority of their lives, Presidio of San Francisco was a hard charging military Post with active duty soldiers and a first rate teaching military hospital. Victoria took it personal when anybody had the audacity to call the Presideo a base as opposed to a Post. And, when the "powers that be" decided to close the Presideo, Victoria again took it very personal and never forgave them, whoever "them" might be.

The love of Victoria's life was her brother Fred. Fred was pretty remarkable I think. He was in flight training in Southern California, preparing to be one of the Army Air Corps's finest. Victoria was herself a WAC (Woman's Army Corp) stationed in Virginia. She was a clerk and waiting her turn to go overseas. It was WW ll. Her Dad was an Artilleryman and was somewhere in the Southwest. All were "ready" to ship over to the big war.

Victoria never figured what might possibly happen. She got the call in the middle of the night and could describe it in intricate details--how the "Charge of Quarters" came to get her. She fell to the floor. Fred had crashed and been killed. It was a training accident. He was on his final check-out flight before he got his wings. Later on he posthumously got them. Fred was dead. Victoria could not believe it.

The funeral, the time of grief, all ran together with life. A war raged on in Europe and Japan had attacked us. Fred was dead. Here's where the story of Fred takes a turn, especially in Victoria's mind. There was an incident when her mother went to get Fred's personal items. Someone whispered to her, Victoria thinks maybe the Red Cross; "Fred is the 4th one to die in a similar act. We think maybe sabotage. A German sympathizer is suspected of sabotaging Fred's plane and the crash was the direct result of his actions." It was a blow to Victoria. The details and follow up to such a heinous act disappeared in the mist of war.

Years later Victoria wanted to clear it up. She travelled to LeMoore Field where the "act" occurred and talked to people. She joined the Aces Organization which kept her on the edge of those who had been fellow students of Fred. Had he lived, to her, no doubt he would have been an Ace (pilot that shoots down at least 5 enemy planes). She actually located some who had flown with Fred. Over the course of years, Victoria steeped herself in the history of these contemporaries of Fred. Along the way, the sabotage story faded and for Victoria, a kind of nostalgia set in. She could cry and did often when she talked of Fred. Her apartment had pictures of him everywhere--the correspondence concerning his death was stacked in numerous piles.

After Victoria's Mom's death, the actual beginning of our personal involvement with her began. She kind of fell apart, as there was literally no one to help. My wife, stepped in and took her under her wing (Jackie is an angel) so to speak. I got the commander to authorize her continued access to the Presidio and especially the Officer's Club where they hung out and were fixtures.

Victoria moved into the Sequoias, a retirement center. She continued to be a ubiquitous presence in the Bay Area, developing a cadre of good friends and driving that big old car around. Flag flying. She and Jackie made trips to Europe, numerous ones to Washington, visiting Arlington Cemetery and the graves of her Mom, Dad, and Fred.

A few weeks ago, Victoria had a heart attack. After her attack and subsequent hospital stay, she returned to the next level down at the retirement center. In the Health Center, Victoria had a small room as she would hope to gain strength and return to her apartment. The room had a nice TV but Victoria decided it was a place for the pictures of her family and mostly of her beloved brother.

Victoria died recently. The pictures of her family are still up. God bless Victoria on her journey. HooAhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

IS A SINGLE AMERICAN LIFE WORTH IT?

Ruth, I love to hear from you. In fact, I read an article today that
reminded me lots of you. It was about Peg Mullen whose son was killed
by friendly fire in Vietnam. In fact, she died this year and the NY
Times profiled her along with many others who died last year. I found
it really a little strange those they did profile. And, here is
something equally as interesting: the first time I ever heard about
her, I was a student at the Command and General Staff College at Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas. I was hiding out in the library and picked up
the NY Times Magazine and read this story about her. Her son was
killed in Vietnam and she had been turned into a peace activist. She
wrote letters to politicians, the president who was Nixon--at that
time, there were only 5000 or so Americans dead. Four years later, it
was like 50,000.

Part of her belief or somebody's was that the government started
classifying many deaths as friendly fire as they did not have to be in
the total of all killed. I did not know this. She actually took her
son's last calculated paycheck, bought an ad in the paper and used the
background in the paper as all the soldiers killed in Vietnam from
Iowa with a white cross representing each soldier.

It was sad to read of her death and her grief. One thing resonated
with me especially. She lamented the fact that she didn't do more to
keep her son from going to Vietnam. What are your thoughts on this?


I am not sure war is worth even one life when you have to live with the pain of losing a loved one. That pain does not get any easier as time goes by, when they talk about "time heals all wounds" it is not true...at least not in this case. The parents of all those men are at the age where they are all passing away now and I hope they can find some peace where ever the next deminsion is. My heart aches for those who had to live with their loved ones as MIA. Could there be anything worse in not knowing or the dying of hope as you sit around and wait for years and years. I still believe those who are so call "running" this governent should have to have their children be number one to draft into war and then lets see how willing they are to get into wars we have no right being in. Iraq is another joke. They have been fighting for 100s of years and we are suppose to go over there and settle their problems with our soldiers. It reminds me of this friend I have and she was tellling me how her son was going to join the Army and I told her she should talk him out of it. She told me that the Army promised her he would not go to Iraq. I told her don't trust your government. And guess where he was sent.....Iraq. And she worried endlessly for a whole year and told me how awful it was. I just don't understand how anyone can kill our presidents but we cant find one guy named Bin Laden. Couples can make it into the White House through security and we still cant find Bin Laden. Our so called "security" at the airport still lets a bomber get through. We have a president that is half white and half black and yet we say he is a black president. He gets a Noble Peace Prize for doing his job when that little old lady who saved so many children and had both legs and arms broken because of that doesnt get one. The pilot who brought the plane down safely and landed in the river was not a hero at that point, he was a very kind person who had been a hero to everyone all his life but it took something like landing in the river to show all what a kind person he is.....he is a person of my country not my government, you can tell he has always been a kind person.
Gee.....I guess I have done a lot of venting in my last two emails...LOL I am not bitter as my emails sound just expressing how I feel sometimes.
Ruth


On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 11:23 PM, wrote:

Ruth, see you got the article. Interesting inasmuch as I wondered if your own view has changed. As we look back on Vietnam in terms of history, was it worth one soldier's life? I don't think so. It is a dilemma as soldiers (and I see this with the guys in Iraq and Afghanistan), have to believe what they are doing is right and worthwhile. We can't fault them for that but we have to fault our leaders for putting them in harm's way.

www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/magazine/27mullen-t.htm

WHAT'S IN A BOOK TITLE ANYWAY

I forgot to tell you that Alan Nack was in the hospital in SF for chemo infusion to help him in his fight against pancratic cancer. Carole (his wife) said that while she was waiting to checked out their books and she started reading your book, "Pistol Packin Chaplain." You will remember them from the church, their kids Christopher and Jonathon. The boy's father used to come to church with Jonathon.

HOW WE DIE

A great article in the NY Times: Hard Choice for a Comfortable Death: Drug-Induced Sleep. If you have hung out much in nursing homes with relatives or friends, watching them struggle in their last weeks, days, hours, waiting for death, you want to read this long and informative piece. It talks about something I'm very familiar with--we use to do "help people die" all the time when I was a hospital chaplain at Letterman Army Medical Center on the Presidio when Letterman was a full scale teaching hospital. If you understand hospice, they essentially do relatively the same, which I think is great. They simply increase the morphine and the terminally ill, who at this stage are not with us, other than still breathing, slip into the terminal sleep. According to the article, it is called terminal sedation, a treatment that is already widely used and as the article says, "vexes family and a profession whose paramount rule is to do no harm."

What is different about this article is that for the first time, at least as I've seen, the medical community admits that they do this and even talk about cases and drugs they use. Two popular related drugs are ativan and roxanol (to calm the patient). These two medications often lower blood pressures which may be more a product of the dying process than the drugs.

The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine has endorsed "palliative sedation to unconsciousness." The fact that we are talking about it is pretty remarkable. Is this euthanasia? I don't think so. How about helping the natural processes of life take over, which include dying. Politics and zealots have unfortunately entered the fray, not much to do about it. What irritates me is that most of the zealots have no "skin" in the game. Only the families do. So, us paratroopers would say to the zealots, f... 'em.

We all die and so to figure out how to do it as easy as possible is no small thing. Recently, I read about a doc, A Stone Freedberg, who is an example for us all. He made it to 101, quite surprising to him. His genetics weren't good: father died at 75and Mom at 60. And, get this, in 1939, the year I was born, Dr. Freedberg discovered a remarkable truth: ulcers were not caused by stress which was widely believed. At the time, he was forced to move on by his boss as the finding was more or less a theory. 70 years later, two doctors won the Nobel Prize for discovering the same thing. The good doc might have wallowed around in self pity. Not so. He went on to have a remarkable career and life. When he was closing in on his final days, he even catalogued his organ shutdowns for a friend. And, when death was at the door, Doctor Freedman said, "It is time to draw the curtain."

We simply don't do a good job of helping people die. There comes a time when someone is not going to get better, they are not going to recover so why not make the end the very best we possibly can. What is fascinating to me is how reticent people, even professionals, are to talk about the end of life. Why? is always confusing to me as we all die and yet is understandable.

Seeing folks at the end is so sad, most in their 90s and beyond. You would think that these "front burner types" who've lived long and rich lives would simply be "ready" beyond any doubt to hit the trail so to speak. Not so as the denial of the process is a big factor. A doctor friend of mine told me about his mother, 92, well educated, had lived a beautiful life according to him. He was convinced that when it came "time" she would opt for the, "no extraordinary means." Shaking his head still in disbelief, she allowed exactly the opposite, "do everything you can," she said. "I want nothing spared to keep me alive."

Presently, my wife and I are doing all we can to prepare a loved one to die because it is what she wants. After a debilitating heart attack, the now 89 year old's once vibrant life has been reduced to being almost helpless with wearing diapers which, for her, is the height of indignities. If anything happens, "no extraordinary means or anything else to keep her alive," are her wishes which she repeats constantly. God bless her and more power to her. I'm going to sign off with a HooAhhhh for her Mom who use to love this when I did it for her at the chapel and pleases Victoria no end. HooAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

RAMBLINGS on the day after Xmas

I am refusing to say Happy Holidays. I think we have gone overboard in the PC category. Christmas has become a cultural holiday, I think: for whatever it's worth, fine with me. And, to try to avoid saying Christmas is uncool, at least to me. So, I hope you had a Merry Christmas.

Some asshole in San Fran objected to a star on the top of a Xmas tree. The guy looked like he needed a decent meal or maybe had too many and naturally the media gave him lots of coverage. Oh, I just thought, Happy Boxer Day for us Brits Actually I'm Irish, does that count? Somebody is probably somewhere objecting to that.

Now somebody might object to me using Xmas but the X is the Greek symbol for Christianity. Speaking of Greek, that great leather jacket, Andy, went to the Church candlelight service the other night. People were constantly telling me, "that is a great jacket."

OK, I know you are hanging on every word, so here's the last subject, As I was messing with one of my blogs this morning, I had this thought. "It is nice to have the fantasy of possibly one of the GFs actually reading what I have to say." The fact that it is an illusion, still I am "playing like" as we say im NC, one of the buds might be. One advantage to this personal jabber is that nobody interrupts. Who knows that anybody ever reads anything. I did quiz Larry and he actually read Brothers. I was astonished.

According to the Airborne Press counter, about a hundred people a week click on the link to "breakfastwithmygirlfriends." And, what I put on the blog is not some of the good stuff like considering whether being called a "low life moron" is more civil than MF. I am sure what the "guru" meant to say is that he occasionally thinks there are moronic views, not that the person is a moron. I personally like MF better. It has a kind of melodious Buddhist chant feel to it. (I think I've said this before).

What I try to put on the blog is more useful stuff/opinions (I hope) like the 16th chapter of Revelations which sounds like the predicting of global warming. Just kidding but it does. If I was a fundamentalist and could write a book about the 16th chapter of Revelations, all the fundamentalists would feel guilty unless they bought the book; they would then flock in "Sarah Palin numbers" to the Christian bookstores who had been given huge discounts by the publishers to stock the book; the fundentalists would buy one or several copies. The fundamentalist preachers would start teaching the book in their churches, requiring all members to buy one or more copies less the Holy Spirit strike them down, thus increasing sales. And, I could get super rich, maybe get a megachurch and make all of the GFs deacons with a nice salary. I'm going to think about that. If I got a megachurch, some of you might want to run the church restaurant or other businesses of the church that God has directly appointed to be successful We could actually have a theatrical production and one of the GFs could play the role of Jesus driving the money changers out of the temple. Of course, there is only one GF fitting for that role, Malnekoff, as in Michael. God would make us such legends in our own minds that we could buy "The Raintree" and have our own restaurant with the little pudgy Hispanic waittress. We would have to get a Greek to be in charge of the menu with some "eyetalians" handling foot traffic.

Comment

Your frustration over whether the troops are brainwashed ("they have access to the same information that we do") is understandable but these are volunteers who have signed up out of economic distress or other motivations and expect to be put in harms way....so, as a coping mechanism, they have to throw in completely to the mission's "rightness"....the only way that this lemming outcome could be checked is to initiate the draft again.....then , those non volunteers i.e. draftees, would definetly question the "rightness" of the wars, of course, within the bounds of military law....there would also be mass demonstrations like there were against the Nam War... until the whole society has a direct stake in the wars, there will be no such questioning of the "rightness" of the wars....Freedom is not free but a great majority of our society is not being asked to share directly in the sacrifices necessary to maintain that freedom....it's like Rome asking mercenaries to fight its wars as the Roman masses became lazy and undisciplined which was a basic reason that the Roman Republic came to an end.....there has to be a sacrifice sharing expectation in our society to maintain the necessary vigilence over our Republic and our freedoms.....until the time that this comes to pass, we are in the same danger as the Roman Republic was before its fall..........It's Wake Up Time In America ! ! ! !
Sam D.

An Alternate Universe

Based on our discussion yesterday when a few actually appeared to be listening, here's another thought with you hanging on every word, naturally. One thing that bothers me no end are the things like I related that I saw on TV, a soldier being interviewed in Afghanistan, talking about missing his daughters, sadness, the wife and her sacrifices (ignore the fact that both were overweight--I'm slapping myself for even mentioning). Anyway, he goes on to say, "we are doing such good over here. These people need us and depend on us." And, here we are, out here in the hinterlands reading, watching the news and thinking, "what and who is he talking about." I feel bad that I am thinking this way as I know from having been at war, you have to believe in what you are doing, it is your job. For Ray, not to put words in his mouth but his view was that he was focused on his little niche, that which was right in front of him. The right/wrong strategy if it didn't affect his men had little impact on him I think for Larry, going on patrol, making it back in one piece, left little time for cogitating your navel. For Hank, dropping his ordnance and firing up a few black pajama types and getting back to his Filipino servant left little time for world events. All that aside, have our soldiers been brainwashed? Is it the type of soldier we have enlisted? What? They have assess to the same media we do. Dang, this really bothers me.

BROTHERS

For those who haven't seen Brothers, here is my review. Some
plagerized from Karl. Brothers is one of those movies that I
expected to have trouble sitting through. However, it really wasn't. I
think that mainly I had read so much and talked to those who
had seen it that I was not the least bit surprised. The brothers, one
the epitome of the good son and the other a perpetual "F..." up.
However, they loved each other. The theme of the movie had already
been done in The Valley of Elah. War simply plays hell with the
warriors. Tommy, the n'the well younger brother shapes himself up when
his brother Sam is killed in Afghanistan or they think he's dead. All
the while he is being tortured and eventually forced to kill one of
his own. I'm not giving away too much because even this had been done
before.

The toll on families is a given. Natalie Portman, playing the wife is
very good. Jake Guillenhau(sp) and Toby McGuire are also very good but
one of the small daughters stole the show. Her facial expressions and
attendant actions overall are simply precious. A good movie which
should, along with many war themed movies, have more impact but not
so. In Brothers, the movie never really hit on any opposition or even
asking any sort of the basic question of "why are we there" The one
brother did mention IT briefly but moved on. Being a good Marine was more
the philosophical tone. There are so many more themes that are lightly
touched which could have been fleshed out but not in 2 hours I guess.
For instance, Sam Shepard, playing the straight arrow retired Marine
father, Vietnam vet, tries but wrestles with his own demons and mostly
fails.

A last view. Why are these movies not box office successes? My view:
the 50% of the American population that "thinks" is in bigtime denial
that we are in two unwinnable, untenable wars which are draining us in
every single way. Thirty five percent of our fellow Americans don't
think at all: they support a position such as war and having their
minds made up, also prefer denial. The other fifteen or twenty
percent are simply "out to lunch." They don't care one way or another
and take little or no interest beyond their own narrow limits. And,
they don't go to movies, not war movies anyway.

HE'S BACK, HE'S BACK

Yes, Ted is back as in Ted Haggard, the former pastor of the Colorado mega church. Think, you will remember him? He was the voice of family values and the darling to right wing fundamentalists until he was caught frequenting a gay masseuse. The preacher went from a host of microphones, TV, and so many attendees on Sunday morning, they had to go in shifts to disgrace.

Haggard in his return, has closed in on a space close to his old stomping grounds. The Lord probably spoke to him to locate close to his former flock. On his first appearance, so many came that they had to move to a barn. He's back and like Jim Bakker(minus Tammy), probably a TV show is to follow. With Bakker, I actually watched a little of his show one night: same old stuff, selling a dream. Send in your money. And, they are. Redemption is a big issue with people of faith, along with forgiveness. But, it seems to me that the "faith" might be better served if these guys would keep a lower profile. Forget it! Once they have tasted the limelight, with egos as big as all outdoors, they can't give it up, even with the shame. And, what about those who flock back to them--people are pretty forgiving. And, then again, in my view, let's try stupid.

Report On Thanksgiving from pilot/soldier

All is well here for Thanksgiving and I ate to a point of discomfort... Twice. I had to leave way earlier than normal that day and was out taking people here and there and they went out of their way to take us to eat with them. As it turned out, our meal was far better than the one served here at the base. The Turkey I had was strange, but delicious. Said turkey appeared to have been canned, whole... I looked at it sitting in the mermite can and said aloud, "Looks like that poor bastard got shot out of a cannon." The guy standing next to me (who was already taste testing it) replied, "Yeah, a gourmet cannon." It was truly tasty. They finally opened the new Dining Facility (DFAC) here that they've been working on since the first time I was here. The Third Country Nationals (TCNs) did a fantastic job with the decorations...
Getting into the double digits which is nice, but means that we're getting into that time of the deployment where people get hurt due to preventable, complacency related incidents. We are all ready to get home.
Hope all is well there.

CW4 MWR

Mel, thanks so much for the sitrep and for the account of the "hat." Maybe next year you'll be ready to go with us. What a trip we had this year. Needless to say, the pheasants of North Dakota had little to fear from me. A great time and your Dad, I can truly say, made the best shot: two went down in succession and almost with one shot. But, don't know if you know the story that made our trip. The one about the woman crawling in bed with your Dad. It was one of those stories where you almost had to be there but with some embellishment, it made the trip.

With the military, it sounds very much to me like: the more things change, the more they remain the same. I remember writing an article, mainly for my own consumption, about getting too comfortable in Iraq. Some general seemed to be proud of the fact that he had found a whole bunch of ice making machines for the PXes; my take was that it was a common problem with us. Although we want soldiers to have as many comforts as possible, the idea that we are settling down for a long stay in Iraq was a problem. This was in the early days of the war. Now, of course, we have settled down for who knows how long. In fact, I am still very doubtful that we'll be out with any real timetable. And, Afghanistan, with an overlay on our lives that looks surprisingly like your Dad and my war (Vietnam). Oh well, don't want to get started here.

Be careful and don't take chances. As my personal gift to you for what you are doing for the country, I want to spring for your expenses on our next hunting trip. File the dates away: 21-24 Oct 2010. Great bonding time. God bless. Be well and safe. {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Jerry}}}}}}}}}}}

I don't think it is just Republicans who are "locked in." As a Democrat, let us be objective: everybody that I talk too of all kinds of political persuasions, appear to get it about Afghanistan, we simply can't do anything. They are a tribal people, still live in the Middle Ages, a President who is a joke; adinfinitum and yet we continue to pour in millions as though as though we have a McChrystal ball. Nothing seems to make any real difference: we have a demo Prez, that I've supported bigtime, Demo congress: no difference. So, it really baffles me.

I'm sticking with my view: 30% of Americans are downright stupid. I don't mean dumb, they just don't think, they appear to be mostly Republicans from where I stand but by no means, the only ones. We have 300 million plus in the country, 25% are out to lunch, they don't participate in anything: operate on a philosophy of "Of all my fathers children, I love myself the best. If the Lord provides for me, the devil take the rest." And, what I'm hoping is that there is at least 50% of Americans, of all persuasions who at least possibly, maybe are still participating and want to rescue the country.

America is a great country, still experimenting, I believe. We may be ungovernable, like CA, not sure. Still, we have lots of opportunity, can criticize the government, and be about as nutso as we want to be.

TELLING LIKE IT IS

Recently, a story crossed my path of a couple of Chaplains being asked by the media if their troops were having any problems. It is obvious to me that the chaplains are trying to be honest: many (soldiers) feel they are risking their lives. Their soldier buddies have died. And for what? A futile mission with an Afghan population mired in the Middle Ages. The chaplains said that the many soldiers who come to them have a sense of futility and anger about what they are being asked to do. They feel they are risking their lives for progress that's hard to figure. They are tired, strained, confused and just want to get through it. The Chaplains said they were speaking out because the men could not. Here's what amazes me: you have soldiers saying how they feel, the chaplains trying to be honest and then a commander coming in and discounting all they say.

The Battalion commander says his men aren't demoralized and his spin is that they have accomplished lots thus far. The good Colonel argues that counter-insurgency will win over in the long haul, maybe 10-12 years (my numbers but I'm sure it is what he meant as we know what a counter insurgency operation entails).

In a media driven war, no one is more suspicious than me: reporters in a war situation are out for a story and not necessarily the truth but this is simply fact, verified by any source except Fox News, of course. What idiot could not say that Afghanistan is a place with no ending, no clear mission: now a stupid strategy of protecting the people, don't kill the enemy even if some of the people are the enemy. You have got to be kidding me! Young Marines who have been taught to kill the enemy and to grieve for their fallen comrades are now told, "let the perpetrators who plant the rosdside bombs escape if there is any chance civilians might get hurt." Now, this is the way to fight a war!

At the hightest levels, the word is, this war is winnable, more troops, etc. On Sixty Minutes, some general answers as though he is a robot: "can do," troops understand why they are in Afghanistan, etc. They love it. Troops understand it? Bullshit. I don't understand it. McChrystal is on TV more than some pop icon. I would fire his ass in a minute if I were the commander-in-chief. His job is soldiering, not trying to convince Americans of "more troops." Generals always want more troops. The counter insurgency strategy might work but it will take ten or fifteen more years to work and anybody who believes Americans will put up with that raise your hand. McChrystal says anybody who doesn't go along is shortsighted. Tell that to families whose loved ones are going to die for that strategy.

Afghanistan is an overlay on Vietnam. How many of us heard troops say in Vietnam, "What are we doing here?" Most of us realized after we had been in Nam a few months, this is crazy and for what. Afghanistan is ten times worse. There is no solution. Politics of the country and even the history aside; more troops is not the answer. VP Biden's plan is better; keep older Special Forces troops around {what many Americans don't realize since so few have served in the military, we have an an extremely well trained segment of our military that loves war, fighting, and will keep at it. The Green Berets or snake eaters as they are often called are somewhat crazy and just the type of soldiers we need in Afghanistan. We need to them in sufficient numbers, to rotate in and out, simply let them stay and work the counter insurgency strategy. With them, ten years might be OK}, They will get out of the Star Wars uniforms and simply fight the Taliban to a standoff. The third course is maybe just a gradual withdrawal. Create a very liberal immigration policy for women. But, I hope and pray that as a supporter, bigtime, Mr. President, you will not let Afghanistan become your Vietnam. God bless you.

Letter to the President

I am a strong supporter of the President and fear that Afghanistan is a quagmire that will drag him/us down. I am a retired military chaplain (COL). I have worked for several generals personally, have been in hundreds of staff meetings and I can tell the President one thing beyond a shadow of any doubt: generals always want more troops. I have enormous respect for General Petraeus and fighting a counter insurgency is a good strategy. However, we are talking years for it to work.

I am not going to get into those areas about Afghanistan that you know far better than me. But, it is a "tar baby" that cannot be won. More troops only means more American lives lost. Mr. President, I think your "out" is NATO. It is a NATO mission. Already we have the most troops in there and Nato needs to "pony" up. They're not going to do it. Next case. But, no more troops. My idea: Give it to the Taliban, establish a very liberal immigration policy, especially for women. And, then we can become the "insurgency." But, please Mr. President, no more troops. God bless you.

CHAPLAINS WEIGH IN ON AFGHANISTAN

Have you guys been reading the Doonesbury comic strip each day? The writer is drawing some pretty tight comparisons between Afghanistan and our sojourn in Vietnam. (getting involved in a civil war, propping up a questionable government, no desire among the populous for us to be there, lack of support from surrounding nations, etc.) What think ye? Don

I would not give us the chance of a snowball in hell in Afghanistan. When we have 50% of our force there being contractors, When we must oppose the nation’s only real cash crop. When we don’t have the guts as a nation and administration and media to fight a war, Even if our military had the highest morale, how do we win without a win mentality? What do we win? If we won it what would we do with it? Clyde

Wish I could see a better solution. I don’t have a family member or friend to donate to this venture, and anyway, I think we probably have already done all that we can reasonably do. We won. Let’s go home. Lamar

Good reasoning, Claude. Here is the contradiction I see for the US in Afghanistan: only a very aggressive (read bloody, with heavy civilian casualties) military effort would bring anything approaching a “win;” this administration, with increasing pressure from the political left, will find such efforts increasingly untenable. This is to not even mention growing American casualties, and our “allies” bailing out as the casualties mount. Lamar

I, too, am very concerned, but my conclusions are mixed. On the one hand, I'm convinced we should not fight except to win, though winning in Afghanistan might require killing most of the occupants of that land and surrounding countries; which we can't and should not do, not as Americans nor as NATO forces. Probably we should not fight to impose representative democracy on a people that don't have the basic values necessary for it to take root and grow, especially when we seem to be rapidly losing those essential values, ourselves.Perhaps, we should provide a buffer, is such is possible, for a specified period of time to allow the Afghans to take responsibility for their own, with the clear understanding that the will be on their own. But what do I know?

Clyde,I'm weary too, and some days I'm attempted to quit, to turn it off, so I can focus on things I feel I have some control over.But thenI think I'd be playing into the hands of some elements that intend to win by attrition as we opt out until they have full sway in all government branches and can more their designs forward to quickly and far that they can't be reversed short of heavy domestic bloodshed--and perhaps not even then, which they are sure we'd have no stomach for--and perhaps not even then. So I'm going to keep trying, like those young men/grunts did so long ago when their service for their country was repaid with demeaning comments and actions. I never could really understand at the feeling level what kept the grunts going in the face of imminent death there and in light of certain disrespect back home.
Lamar, I am with you. I would add one caveat: create an extremely liberal immigration policy for Afghan women. Let's at least give them a chance. I keep hearing that Pakistan is key. Agree but they need to figure that out. Claude

Claude, good comments but any way you cut it, it is muddled and symbolically, Vietnam, revisited, mainly in terms of how long we would need to be there. What we seem to intentionally ignore is the fact that we are dealing with a tribal people, mostly Muslim, mired in the Middle Ages. Why is this so hard for us to grasp? What I think is happening is the same thing as Vietnam: the generals leading the president down the primrose path of more troops, a military victory. It can't happen.
Jerry

WOLFMAN IS ON THE MOVE

wolfman is moving at a steady clip, today is his first night outside of yosemite park. it took him 7 days of steady hiking, what a dude.
later,
immo

SITREP ON TRIP TO NORTH CAROLINA

I know this is not required but in order to avoid an article 32 investigation, I am doing a prelim report. The peaches are picked, Frances Leigh, the Granddaughter and I made our way to SC. I heard a couple of great jokes about the Guv who would not resign but I can't remember them. A couple of family things and now I am standing in the door waiting for the greenlight and on the way back to CA. I get back late Thursday night and may see you guys at Whole Foods on Friday. I truest that you have held it together since I have been out of the AO. Larry, have a great trip, we'll be following your progress and you can count on me keeping it on the front burner, along with the absence of trashing of the guru.

When I come to the South, Rachael, my youngest daughter says, "Dad, your IQ drops and your vocie slows down." OK! I do have some observations, however. First of all, I have always thought that the South would come to a point where integration would have been a transitioning point. Meaning that not only were blacks in the market place but integrating into all aspects of society. It ain't going to happen in the South, especially the deep South. There is lots of integration in the workplace. You can go into any bank or store and African Americans are fully integrated into the work force but there is absolutely no social intergration: churches are segregated, etc. And, I use to think it was going to change but not so.

I would say that I talked to hundreds about politics, etc., I was the only Democrat, other than my brother in the entire state. I think that the Prez must have stuffed the ballot boxes. It was amazing. And, the vast majority of the views, at least those I talked to, are the "Fox" news types, same old right wing stuff that we hear in CA. In fact, if it was health care, whatever the same type of arguments. Keep in mind now, we are talking this is truly rural NC. If I could and will from my iPhone send you a tobacco plant. In fact, I just finished reading what is his name, oh, Howard Dean's book on Health Care Reform. It is right on. These people don't read any of this stuff; of course, then again, in CA, the right wing doesn't read them either. In fact, this was an interesting story: some congressman had scheduled a town hall meeting to answer questions about the Health Care bill. The right wing crowded in and shouted down everything and didn't want to listen to anything but there own agenda. And, this, of course, is their tactic. This guy on NPR called them the brown boots.

And, Andy, you'll love this: there is a church on every corner in theSouth. I am always amazed at this honestly. In fact, my grand daughter and I were travelling during church time and I was amazed at how many people went to Church. To give you an idea, in San Fran., it is estimated that at best 15% of the people attend Church. In Spartanburn, SC, probably 90% go to church. Many of the times, I am wrestling with this. trying to figure it out.

And, in the midst, fighting the shingles. You guys better get the shot, I'm telling you. When I get back to CA, I am going to really fight this thing. What is going on now is not working, lots of pain. Dang. But, I am an ex paratrooper, so, let's suck it up.

THE WOLFMAN

OK, are we tracking the Larry man. I like the name Immo has given him, Wolfman. This is no small thing. I can see a book out of it. Way to go Larry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Larry, one of the "girlfriends" is on a 250 mile hike. Hehas been relentless in preparing for the trip. It is one, according to him, of discovery. Mainly, self discovery. Here is a notefrom Immo, who dropped him off to begin the "journey." God bless him.

I dropped Larry and his 60 pound backpack (about 20 pounds of which consisted of his weapons and ammunition) in Yosemite last friday. He was in good spirits and excited about his journey. He is the toughest of us all, by miles!!--attached are some pics of him I took Friday (August 7). Also, if you click on the url below you can see where he is presently on the trail.best. Immo

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=38.011,-119.4896&ll=38.011,-119.4896&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

The Generals

**I can understand why you don't have any use for those generals. A colonel at Pope was taken off the job, when according to the folks he worked with, he was one of the best officers they had ever worked with. Apparently the general got mad or for some other crazy reason and decided he would get him out of the way. The only explanation the general gave for his action was that the colonel wasn't effective. Some body is lying and I don't believe it is the people who worked with the colonel. My love to you.

MY OLDER BROTHER AND COUSINS

**A note from my older brother who will take up a "cause" in a minute. One of the reasons that this is very interesting to me is that the "girlfriends" and I were recently discussing the issue and I was telling them that the thing that worried me about our president was that he seemed to be listening to the Generals too much. One of the GFs expressed what many felt: who else can the President rely on for military type stuff? My comments to my brother...

Brother, you are in the ballpark on the generals and it is going to get worst. Rumsfelt's gift to the country was to reorganize the Army in his own image. Naturally, Bush let him do it and so he closed really good military posts and moved them to places like Fort Bragg, which will eventually have 28 generals which is ridiculous. 28 generals on one Post will be a nightmare. Each of them thinking they are somewhere in the Trinity--God, Jesus, Generals and not always in that order. They wouldn't be where they are if they had not been political. Once a general gets pasts one star, it is as political as any politician anywhere. He has to have sponsors, somebody at the higher level looking after him. I can assure you of this, the best leaders in the Army are not the generals. Most of the really good leaders never make it. They size up what is ahead and mostly leave the Service. We are the bigger losers. It isn't that the leadership is bad, just they are not the best. The Generals surround themselves with people who tell them just what they want to hear. They get to believing it and consequently, things happen to the Colonel you're talking about.

If I live long enough, I'm going to write about this sort of stuff: it is terrible. I can't tell you the number of times that I have gone to generals with what I considered ethical and real problems and they gave me the "nobody is home look." Rocking the boat is not a pastime of a general officers, trust me.

It is the one thing that I worry about our president, listening complete;u to the generals. The generals always want more troops and I'm still not convinced we will easily get out of Iraq. What I tell people all the time is that Westmoreland said to Johnson in 68, send me more troops and we'll be home by Christmas. LBJ ramped up the numbers of troops and we did get home by Christmas, unfortunately, it was ten years later. I think the President is smart enough to keep his own counsel. I hope and pray so.