Prime's Worm Hole : The morning after

Thursday, June 24, 2010

The morning after

It's the morning after the president's big military shake up and dismissal of General Stanley McChrystal. So what has changed? I watched as many Americans did yesterday, as the president outlined his reasons for accepting Gen. McChrystal's resignation. And if anyone believes that was a resignation, then they probably also believe that Barack Obama is doing everything that he possibly can to stop the oil spill in the gulf.

General McChrystal didn't resign, he was fired. Just like his predecessor Gen. McKiernan was fired a year ago to make room for McChrystal. And the evidence of that reality was literally dripping from Obama's speech about the change in command yesterday if anyone was listening.

Yes, the president gave the dying warrior his due on the alter of public announcement, but Obama also made it implicitly clear that he doesn't intend to tolerate anymore back biting and infighting in his regime from here on out. Which leads me to wonder if he won't at some point re-institute firing squads. That may be a closer reality than many people are willing to admit right now.

Obama wasn't humiliated by the general's remarks, but he was angered by the fact that once again McChrystal had stepped outside of the little box he was being kept in. And in doing so, he revealed the cracks in the foundation of this administration that are leading to a crumbling end to the war in Afghanistan and a loss.

Stanley McChrystal wasn't sent to Afghanistan to win a war, he was sent there to be a caretaker while this president lost it. And now the general has lost his career as a result of his own foolish decision to ever take the command.

Stanley McChrystal would have been far better served to simply refuse the command last year. Certainly that would have eliminated all hopes of his ever attaining his fourth star and the rank of general, but there are far worse things in life than not being a four star general. And as of this morning, I believe Gen. McChrystal is beginning to see those things for what they truly are.

Setting aside the platitudes that the president offered concerning Gen. McChrystal as he fired him, the reality this morning is quite different from the landscape painted by the president yesterday.

General McChrystal was ordered to Washington 'immediately' He apparently had little time to do much more than pack an overnight bag and hop a military airlift command jet back to Washington. And his staff apparently fared no better. They were summoned along with him, probably to be given their separate lashing at the hands of Pentagon brass, while the president ordered McChrystal to walk the plank.

And the news reports this morning are, that neither the general or his staff will be allowed to return to Afghanistan. Not even to pack up their personal effects. Those are already being packed for shipment as the sun rose this morning over the Potomac.

So I would imagine, there is at least a brigadier and a colonel or two and a few majors, who are looking for a safe landing somewhere in the army this morning. They will try and recoup what is left of their careers as far as their pensions are concerned, but Gen. McChrystal is finished. There will be no change of command ceremony, no striking the colors or a parade to honor his thirty four years of service in uniform.

As another once great general one lamented, after having himself been unceremoniously hoisted on is own petard......"old soldiers never die....they simply fade away."

And Stanley McChrystal will now fade away.

But the problems in Afghanistan and the problems that this nation faces will not simply fade away. And the new general in charge will fair no better. Many have attempted to make the comparison between Obama and Lincoln. I myself have never been fooled by the attempts at metaphorical comparison of the two, but I now see an irony coming into focus.

President Lincoln spent the first three years of his presidency trying to find a general who would fight and take the war to the enemy. I believe that president Obama is well on his way to investing an equal amount of time trying to find a general willing to lose the war in Afghanistan.

Therefore, that is the main reason why I don't believe Gen. McChrystal's successor will fair any better. As I don't believe that Gen. Petraeus is that general either.

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Prime's Worm hole

This is a place for me to muse about the issues that affect our world. My world and my country and my life in particular. I can say what I want to here and those who may stumble across my musings, are welcome to comment,or not. America is under siege. Everything this nation has ever represented, is now being torn asunder and crushed by the onslaught of egalitarian socialism. All morals and social values have been devolved into the belief that systemic racism, is the only underlying cause or reason for any societal ills in America. And that representation, is nothing but a Trojan Horse argument. A means of getting the egalitarian camel's nose into the tent. And now that it has been inserted? There is mayhem and anarchy and burning and looting all across America. And the only questions that remains to be asked and answered? Are these. When is enough enough and when will the American people call full stop and take the law into their own hands, to repel this socialist based attack on the Constitution and our personal freedoms.

Thinking

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then -- just to loosen up and be a part of the crowd.
Inevitably, though, one thought led to another and soon I was more than just a social thinker.

I began to think alone -- "to relax", I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true.
Thinking became more and more important to me and finally I was thinking all the time.

I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't help myself.

I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau, Muir, Confucius and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"

One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."

"Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..."

"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!" "But Honey, surely it's not that serious." "It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver.

"You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make that much money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"
She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama.

"I'm going to the library," I snarled
I headed for the library, in the mood for some John Locke. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors.

They didn't open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.

Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Emerson, a poster caught my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.

This is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker.

I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.

I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.

Today I took the final step...I joined the Democratic Party

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If you are able,
save them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.
And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.

Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam

Captain Michael O'Donnell was lost in Cambodia on March 24 1970, while flying a UH1 rescue helicopter, trying to rescue an eight man LRRP team under attack in Cambodia. He was listed as MIA along with the eight he had attempted to rescue after his UH1 Huey was shot down by enemy fire. The official military report listed the eight as shot down 'non survivable' and 'non recoverable.'

Michael O'Donnell was submitted for the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions that day. He was awarded the Distinguished flying cross, the Bronze Star, The Air Medal and The Purple Heart and he was promoted to the rank of Major (posthumously).

In 1978 he was officially listed as KIA by the Department of Defense.

A little about the philosophy of the author

The Borg Conspiracy is one man's purely pedestrian thoughts, independent musings and frequently cheeky commentaries...Mixed with an abundance of patriotism, love of God, and love of country.

My thoughts?

In my opinion........in another generation, all that will remain of our once great republic, may be little more than what is left to weather the passage of time in the form of a few obscure and forgotten monuments to the great American experiment.

If America should fail....let it be written as her epitaph.....died by her own hand. The greatest experiment in freedom ever undertaken, lost in the end to the pursuit of the illusion that egalitarian tolerance was more valuable than individual freedom.

Let us be warned.
Franklin, Payne, Jefferson. They all knew the consequences of the lack of vigilance and they tried to warn us. They gave us a document as our guide post. We were to guard it and revere it and use it to guide and govern our future and our posterity.

No one listened.