Monday, May 26, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Veterans Memorial Day and the race for Oregon Senate District 23
Portland, Oregon—
I’m going to cut right to the chase: The fact is that the American people largely accept the war casualty rates in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They shrug it off, complain a little, but at the end of the day have something else on their minds; like, for example, ethanol, and they shrug it off.
These wars are happening to Other People, Elsewhere, On TV.
Some offer Moments of Silence now and then; but the People are already silent, I say, and moments of silence are nothing more than that, opportunities to be silent together and reinforce our devotion to silence.
The nation’s college campuses are hotbeds of inaction and rest, if not outright privilege. You’d never know there was a war on, hanging out on campus.
This is how wars drag on for ten or thirty years or more, even in democratic societies. It starts with an acceptable casualty rate, which is related to the nation’s sense of who is, well, expendable.
If the nation is settled on losing only the expendable, then business and politics can proceed as usual, like in the recent Oregon primary races.
Here we are on Memorial Day, a holiday marked by many with profligate displays of high-octane fuel-burning, by many others holiday travel, even to the last bogus environmentalist, jetting off to New Zealand or elsewhere to mark the holiday.
Many complain about the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel; can’t seem to connect the price spike with the fact that if you invade an oil-producing nation on the other side of the world, you should expect the price to go up.
Throughout the entire primary period, there was no public discussion of veterans issues or the costs of the wars. I brought the subject up twice in the Williamette Week interview, also in the Oregonian and Matt Davis (Portland Mercury) interviews.
The Skanner didn’t even have interviews, figure that one out. Too busy putting out a newspaper once a week, lots of cutting and pasting from the AP wire involved.
None of the local Portland races ever got out of the bubble, the war nonexistent even in its impact on local budgets and resources, apparently.
The candidates for federal offices alone recognized the wars exist, offering challenges and counterchallenges on what to do about the wars.
No one pointed out that whatever direction the troops move in, the move will result in loss of life. Whatever you do, people will die—our people, our loved ones.
There is no way that someone standing here in Oregon can know how to make that happen.
Every path from Iraq leads through death and destruction, which is why it is so important not to launch an invasion in the first place, and so vital for the People and their elected officials to stop being so damned silent.
Our injured will come home to a long-overwhelmed VA system and politicians with ethanol on their minds.
In a truly democratic society, every single elected official who had a piece of moving our military and their families into endless hell ought to have been tossed out of office more than four years ago. None merit re-appointment or re-election.
Those who were in office and let it happen on their watch ought to have been put on probation at minimum, some already cashiered by now.
Senate District 23 and House Districts 45 and 46, on this day, are much like the rest of the nation: The wars are happening to Other People, Elsewhere, On TV.
The Ethanol Mafia is celebrating the Senate District 23 primary victory of my opponent, a little too early in my book.
My guess is that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will still be ruining the lives of our loved ones in November, and for we military families, alone bearing the burden, veterans issues will trump any other interest.
I am calling for the appointment of a new, permanent Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and I will—with your help--serve there, starting in January, 2009.
This Senate committee will work in a nonpartisan way, alongside the overburdened House Veterans Affairs Committee and the Governor’s Office, to address the critical needs of our troops, our veterans and their families.
No more will there be a day in the Oregon Senate when the flags are at half staff outside of the Capitol and yet there is no honoring of the fallen in either House or Senate chamber, and that’s just for starters.
We have more than five months to muster, to organize a write-in campaign, and deliver a historic victory in the November general election.
This change will be immediate, C.O.D.
--Sean Cruz, May 25, 2008
=======================
The Oregonian Editorial Board on Senate District 23:
“Cruz…knows the issues well…”
“Sean Cruz, who has served as (Senator) Gordly's legislative aide and chief of staff for the past five years…is qualified for the job. He knows the issues that are important in the district, and he certainly knows how things get done in the Legislature. Most notably, he persuaded Gordly to push legislation, called ‘Aaron's Law,’ that gives families tools to punish parents for the crime of child abduction. “
===========================
I’m going to cut right to the chase: The fact is that the American people largely accept the war casualty rates in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They shrug it off, complain a little, but at the end of the day have something else on their minds; like, for example, ethanol, and they shrug it off.
These wars are happening to Other People, Elsewhere, On TV.
Some offer Moments of Silence now and then; but the People are already silent, I say, and moments of silence are nothing more than that, opportunities to be silent together and reinforce our devotion to silence.
The nation’s college campuses are hotbeds of inaction and rest, if not outright privilege. You’d never know there was a war on, hanging out on campus.
This is how wars drag on for ten or thirty years or more, even in democratic societies. It starts with an acceptable casualty rate, which is related to the nation’s sense of who is, well, expendable.
If the nation is settled on losing only the expendable, then business and politics can proceed as usual, like in the recent Oregon primary races.
Here we are on Memorial Day, a holiday marked by many with profligate displays of high-octane fuel-burning, by many others holiday travel, even to the last bogus environmentalist, jetting off to New Zealand or elsewhere to mark the holiday.
Many complain about the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel; can’t seem to connect the price spike with the fact that if you invade an oil-producing nation on the other side of the world, you should expect the price to go up.
Throughout the entire primary period, there was no public discussion of veterans issues or the costs of the wars. I brought the subject up twice in the Williamette Week interview, also in the Oregonian and Matt Davis (Portland Mercury) interviews.
The Skanner didn’t even have interviews, figure that one out. Too busy putting out a newspaper once a week, lots of cutting and pasting from the AP wire involved.
None of the local Portland races ever got out of the bubble, the war nonexistent even in its impact on local budgets and resources, apparently.
The candidates for federal offices alone recognized the wars exist, offering challenges and counterchallenges on what to do about the wars.
No one pointed out that whatever direction the troops move in, the move will result in loss of life. Whatever you do, people will die—our people, our loved ones.
There is no way that someone standing here in Oregon can know how to make that happen.
Every path from Iraq leads through death and destruction, which is why it is so important not to launch an invasion in the first place, and so vital for the People and their elected officials to stop being so damned silent.
Our injured will come home to a long-overwhelmed VA system and politicians with ethanol on their minds.
In a truly democratic society, every single elected official who had a piece of moving our military and their families into endless hell ought to have been tossed out of office more than four years ago. None merit re-appointment or re-election.
Those who were in office and let it happen on their watch ought to have been put on probation at minimum, some already cashiered by now.
Senate District 23 and House Districts 45 and 46, on this day, are much like the rest of the nation: The wars are happening to Other People, Elsewhere, On TV.
The Ethanol Mafia is celebrating the Senate District 23 primary victory of my opponent, a little too early in my book.
My guess is that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will still be ruining the lives of our loved ones in November, and for we military families, alone bearing the burden, veterans issues will trump any other interest.
I am calling for the appointment of a new, permanent Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and I will—with your help--serve there, starting in January, 2009.
This Senate committee will work in a nonpartisan way, alongside the overburdened House Veterans Affairs Committee and the Governor’s Office, to address the critical needs of our troops, our veterans and their families.
No more will there be a day in the Oregon Senate when the flags are at half staff outside of the Capitol and yet there is no honoring of the fallen in either House or Senate chamber, and that’s just for starters.
We have more than five months to muster, to organize a write-in campaign, and deliver a historic victory in the November general election.
This change will be immediate, C.O.D.
--Sean Cruz, May 25, 2008
=======================
The Oregonian Editorial Board on Senate District 23:
“Cruz…knows the issues well…”
“Sean Cruz, who has served as (Senator) Gordly's legislative aide and chief of staff for the past five years…is qualified for the job. He knows the issues that are important in the district, and he certainly knows how things get done in the Legislature. Most notably, he persuaded Gordly to push legislation, called ‘Aaron's Law,’ that gives families tools to punish parents for the crime of child abduction. “
===========================
Friday, May 9, 2008
In Memory of Aaron Cruz (March 21, 1982 to April 25, 2005)
My son Aaron died in Utah of medical neglect while under Army orders.
He received no medical care for his seizure disorder after he left our home in Portland, under deployment orders for Iraq, to report to his Utah Army National Guard unit.
Here in our home in Portland in 2003, he was starting a treatment regimen at Providence Hospital paid for by the Oregon Health Plan.
He was sick enough to qualify for OHP coverage, but George W. Bush needed him on the other side of the world.
They held him in Utah under medical review (which included NO MEDICAL CARE OR TREATMENT OF ANY KIND), where he was homeless and too ill to support himself. I went broke that year, trying to keep my son alive in Utah.
After Aaron died, the Army threw a real nice ceremony for him. Too bad he wasn't alive to enjoy it.
Here in Oregon, most people don't believe that Aaron's death was a consequence of the occupation of Iraq, wonder what I'm so worked up and "bitter" about.
I know that my son would have gone to Iraq and given his life gladly for his brother, his unit and his nation. It would have ended his pain, the pain that began with his kidnapping in 1996, and he would have died feeling good about himself, the first time he felt that way since his kidnappers took him away and stuck him in the desert of Mormon Utah.
Aaron had a warrior's heart, a tiger's heart. He got it from me, and I from my father before me.
Here in our home in Portland in 2003, he was starting a treatment regimen at Providence Hospital paid for by the Oregon Health Plan.
He was sick enough to qualify for OHP coverage, but George W. Bush needed him on the other side of the world.
They held him in Utah under medical review (which included NO MEDICAL CARE OR TREATMENT OF ANY KIND), where he was homeless and too ill to support himself. I went broke that year, trying to keep my son alive in Utah.
After Aaron died, the Army threw a real nice ceremony for him. Too bad he wasn't alive to enjoy it.
Here in Oregon, most people don't believe that Aaron's death was a consequence of the occupation of Iraq, wonder what I'm so worked up and "bitter" about.
I know that my son would have gone to Iraq and given his life gladly for his brother, his unit and his nation. It would have ended his pain, the pain that began with his kidnapping in 1996, and he would have died feeling good about himself, the first time he felt that way since his kidnappers took him away and stuck him in the desert of Mormon Utah.
Aaron had a warrior's heart, a tiger's heart. He got it from me, and I from my father before me.
THREE YEARS after his death, the Department of Defense has still not complied with my request for my son's medical records, citing a "large backlog of requests."
my testimony on 2007 Oregon Senate Iraq Memorials
Salem, Oregon April 23, 2007
Senate Rules Committee
Senator Kate Brown, Chair
Senator Ted Ferrioli, Vice-Chair
Senator Betsy Johnson
Senator Laurie Monnes Anderson
Senator David Nelson
Testimony on SM1, SJM6, SJM9, HJM9, related to the Iraq War
by Sean Cruz
April 23, 2007
Exhibits:
Photograph of Spc Tyler Cruz, unarmored humvee, 2004
Photograph of Spc Tyler Cruz, humvee with welded armor, 2004
Photograph of Spc Aaron Cruz, 2001
Certificate of recognition for Aaron Cruz, 2005
Letter from US Dept. of Veterans Affairs re Aaron’s medical records, 2005
Madame Chair, members of the Committee, for the record my name is Sean Cruz.
I do not intend to read all of my written testimony, which I have provided to the Committee. I would like to provide some foundational information and then stand aside for others to speak.
Mrs. Michele DeFord, a Gold Star Mother, whose son David Johnson was killed in Iraq , could not be here for this hearing, and has requested that I read her testimony into the record on her behalf.
I will do so at the Chair’s convenience, and otherwise will remain available to answer any questions the Committee may have about the legislation before you.
I appear before you today as the father of two Army National Guard soldiers, and as a member of the Northwest chapter of Military Families Speak Out ( MFSO ).
There are several MFSO members present to testify today, and we all speak equally for ourselves and as some of the faces of Military Families Speak Out.
I have been a resident of NE Portland for the past dozen years. For the past five of those years, my boys have been subject to combat deployment to the war in Iraq .
My sons are: Specialist Aaron Cruz, who died in 2005 at the age of 23, largely from medical neglect while he was under military orders, and Specialist Tyler Cruz, who has at this time—at the age of 21—so far—served two year-long deployments in combat in Iraq as a .50 caliber machine gunner on a humvee.
Sgt. David Johnson was killed doing the same job my son Tyler has done through two deployments in combat in Iraq .
I want to note for the record that my sons’ Army National Guard unit was first placed on alert in the Spring of 2002, ordered to pack for deployment to Iraq on 24 hours’ notice, and this April marks my family’s fifth year of continued, open-ended, actual participation in the catastrophe in Iraq .
I have provided five exhibits to the Committee to illustrate several points regarding the Iraq-related legislation before you.
These exhibits are:
(1) This early 2004 photograph of Tyler at the age of 19 shows him manning his .50 on a humvee with no armor or protection whatsoever. He is completely unprotected by even a windscreen.
(2) Later 2004 photographs such as this one showed that his unit, an engineering battalion, welded scrap steel plate for protection as best they could and, during that first deployment, he escorted convoys all over central Iraq and provided security for his unit under those conditions.
Tyler called me from the Baghdad area in 2004 and asked me if I’d heard of the “Highway to Hell.” Of course, I had.
“We paved it,” he told me, with a lot of pride in his voice. That’s my boy.
(3) This is a photograph of my son Aaron at the age of 18.
(4) This is the certificate, signed with George W. Bush, President of the United States ’ very own autopen, which reads:
“The United States of America honors the memory of Aaron A. Cruz. This certificate is awarded by a grateful nation in recognition of devoted and selfless consecration to the service of our country in the Armed Forces of the United States .”
(5) The last exhibit is a copy of the letter from the US Department of Veterans Affairs, dated November 2005, in response to my request for access to Aaron’s medical records. It reads:
“Mr. Cruz’s request will be forwarded to our privacy act officer for processing of his request. He should be advised that we have a large backlog of requests for copies of records and that it may take up to a year before his request is processed. This report of contact will be faxed and serve as a final response to this inquiry.”
For the record, I have heard nothing regarding my son since receiving this letter.
It is common knowledge that the medical system is overburdened and chaotic, and there is little expectation that it will receive either the funding or the commitment it needs in order to properly care for the injured coming back from the war.
I want also to note for the record that from April 21 until April 25, 2005 , I was absent from my job as Senator Avel Gordly ’s Legislative Aide during the 2005 legislative session.
For those five days, I was at my son Aaron’s bedside as he lay comatose in Utah . He was pronounced dead at 4:50 p.m. on April 25, 2005 .
His Utah Army National Guard unit’s entire officer and NCO staff turned out in full dress for Aaron’s memorial service and they presented his mother with a flag in his honor.
They spoke of his commitment to the unit and his despair at being left behind, due to his medical condition, which continued to deteriorate until he died.
His First Sergeant said that of the 200 soldiers he was taking to Iraq , most probably didn’t want to go, but here was one soldier who absolutely did want to go, and he couldn’t.
We buried Aaron on May 3, and 8 hours later, my son Tyler was on his way back to camp in Southern California to prepare for his second deployment to Iraq .
This is how we treat our soldiers and honor their service and their sacrifice in the real world we military families are living in.
Tyler served his second deployment in Ramadi, in Al Anbar province.
During that year, of the 4,000 soldiers and Marines fighting in Ramadi, 75 were killed and more than 1,000 were serious casualties, including many cases of Traumatic Brain Injury, or TBI, the signature injury of this war.
What has been said about the living conditions for those troops is that they lived in squalor, under fire every day and every night.
During that year, no day and no night passed without my being aware that my son—the one son I have left—could be killed or severely injured at any moment.
Aaron did not die as a result of combat in Iraq , as he would have much preferred.
He died from a life-threatening seizure disorder for which he was receiving treatment while he was living with me in our home in Portland , prior to his 2003 Iraq deployment orders.
A few days after Aaron left, a letter from one of his Portland doctors arrived in the mail, warning him that he could suffer a seizure that could put him in a coma from which he would not recover, and that is in fact what happened to my son.
He concealed his medical conditions from his unit as best he could, and he called me to tell me that he had passed the Army medical exam and was going to Fort Carson , Colorado .
But Aaron was held back for at least one of the several serious medical conditions he was suffering from. As near as I can tell, he received no continuing medical treatment after he left my home and reported to his unit.
Two years later, I have no information from anyone about what happened to him medically between leaving my home and suffering the fatal seizure.
Senate Memorial 1, in line 17 page 1, refers to the deaths of 83 military personnel “from Oregon” in connection with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I want to note for the record that this number does not include my son, Aaron Cruz, although he was an Oregon resident at the time he reported for deployment.
The way this war is compartmentalized, if your soldier doesn’t die from gunfire or in an explosion, he or she isn’t a real casualty of the war, and if the soldier is from another state’s National Guard, no one pays much attention to the loss.
Now the President has announced that troops are being rotated back into Iraq again, for deployments extended to 15 months.
We military families are seeing our loved ones exposed to chlorine gas bombs now, and to shaped-charge IEDs that cut right through armor. We are seeing our troops ordered into neighborhoods, as Representative Brian Boquist described, where the streets are too narrow for the tanks and combat support vehicles they need.
The lifetime medical costs to care for some of the brain-injured soldiers returning from battle can run to $ 8 to $ 14 million dollars. Where is that money going to come from?
Will this legislature back its message to Congress with a commitment to provide the funding level that our troops, our veterans and their families need as a consequence of being a “Nation at War.?”
Is—for example—a nickel per gallon gas tax too much to ask of the Nation to help pay for the war, to finance veterans’ services for the small fraction of Americans who are actually fighting it?
I am not here to advocate for any of these Memorials as the one to support.
I believe that they each contain important concepts that merit consideration and debate by the full Senate, and I hope this Committee will decide to move them all to the floor, including HJM9, so that they can have that debate, and then bring them back to this Committee for further action.
Regarding Senate Memorial 1, I would ask the Committee to remove the platitudes from the bill.
For example, on page 1, lines 13 and 14, which read: “Whereas the Oregon Senate and the residents of the State of Oregon recognize, appreciate and are forever thankful for the sacrifices that all of our Oregon and other American troops and their families have made, especially the troops who have given their lives or been wounded to protect our freedoms.”
This expression of gratitude rings especially hollow on a day in which flags are at half-staff to mark the loss of life of another Oregon soldier, but which received no acknowledgement, no remonstrance, on the Senate floor.
A second example is found on page 2, lines 16 and 17, which read: “The Oregon Senate and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces and the Oregon National Guard….”
I have no idea what that means, neither when that support and protection is going to begin, nor what level of commitment the bill refers to.
With that statement, Madame Chair and Members of the Committee, I will stand aside so that others may speak.
A bill that would have prevented the invasion of Iraq
Under Senator Avel Gordly's sponsorship, I drafted this bill for the 2007 legislative session.
74th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2007 Regular Session
Senate Joint Memorial 6
Sponsored by Senator Avel GORDLY
(at the request of Sean Cruz)
SUMMARY
Urges Congress to pass legislation requiring declaration of National Energy Emergency prior to deployment of National Guard troops in foreign war.
JOINT MEMORIAL
To the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled:
We, your memorialists, the Seventy-fourth Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent as follows:
Whereas the United States has recently developed a policy of extensively using the National Guard to fight foreign wars; and
Whereas this policy has burdened a small number of American citizens who are members of the National Guard and their families with extraordinary, open-ended sacrifice, while the vast majority of American citizens make no sacrifice whatsoever; and
Whereas this policy is unfair and morally repugnant to the ideals under which this nation was founded; and
Whereas the cost of energy is integral to the cost of war, and the nation's dependency on foreign sources of energy is a continuing, contributing cause to the onset and prosecution of foreign wars; and
Whereas should this nation go to war in a foreign land, it should do so with a policy of shared sacrifice and a policy of energy conservation designed to reduce dependency on foreign sources of energy; and
Whereas this nation has often failed to provide adequately for the postwar needs of its veterans and their families, contributing greatly to the insecurity and suffering of those deployed to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and
Whereas a National Energy Emergency imposing a surtax on foreign sources of energy, wherein said revenues would fund the long-term medical, housing, educational and employment needs of members of the National Guard and their families who are subject to deployment orders, would reduce the insecurity and suffering of said members and their families; and
Whereas a National Energy Emergency imposing a surtax on foreign sources of energy, wherein said revenues would fund the long-term medical, housing, educational and employment needs of members of the National Guard and their families who are subject to deployment orders, while the nation is in the crisis of a foreign war, would reduce the nation's consumption of and dependency on foreign sources of energy and thus would contribute positively to the nation's war effort; and
Whereas the disruption to the normal lives of National Guard members and their families by the extraordinary, open-ended sacrifice demanded of them by the President's policies requires an extraordinary commitment in kind by the nation; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:
That we, the Seventy-fourth Legislative Assembly, on behalf of the citizens of Oregon, respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to immediately enact legislation declaring a National Energy Emergency, recognizing that many members of the National Guard are already deployed in a foreign war; and be it further
Resolved, That no future deployments of National Guard members to a foreign war should occur without the threshold step of the declaration of a National Energy Emergency and the imposition of a national energy surtax; and be it further
Resolved, That the long-term medical needs of National Guard members and their families will be met regardless of the physical, mental or emotional nature of their conditions; and be it further
Resolved, That a copy of this memorial shall be sent to the Senate Majority Leader, to the Speaker and the Clerk of the House of Representatives and to each member of the Oregon Congressional Delegation.
74th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2007 Regular Session
Senate Joint Memorial 6
Sponsored by Senator Avel GORDLY
(at the request of Sean Cruz)
SUMMARY
Urges Congress to pass legislation requiring declaration of National Energy Emergency prior to deployment of National Guard troops in foreign war.
JOINT MEMORIAL
To the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled:
We, your memorialists, the Seventy-fourth Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent as follows:
Whereas the United States has recently developed a policy of extensively using the National Guard to fight foreign wars; and
Whereas this policy has burdened a small number of American citizens who are members of the National Guard and their families with extraordinary, open-ended sacrifice, while the vast majority of American citizens make no sacrifice whatsoever; and
Whereas this policy is unfair and morally repugnant to the ideals under which this nation was founded; and
Whereas the cost of energy is integral to the cost of war, and the nation's dependency on foreign sources of energy is a continuing, contributing cause to the onset and prosecution of foreign wars; and
Whereas should this nation go to war in a foreign land, it should do so with a policy of shared sacrifice and a policy of energy conservation designed to reduce dependency on foreign sources of energy; and
Whereas this nation has often failed to provide adequately for the postwar needs of its veterans and their families, contributing greatly to the insecurity and suffering of those deployed to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and
Whereas a National Energy Emergency imposing a surtax on foreign sources of energy, wherein said revenues would fund the long-term medical, housing, educational and employment needs of members of the National Guard and their families who are subject to deployment orders, would reduce the insecurity and suffering of said members and their families; and
Whereas a National Energy Emergency imposing a surtax on foreign sources of energy, wherein said revenues would fund the long-term medical, housing, educational and employment needs of members of the National Guard and their families who are subject to deployment orders, while the nation is in the crisis of a foreign war, would reduce the nation's consumption of and dependency on foreign sources of energy and thus would contribute positively to the nation's war effort; and
Whereas the disruption to the normal lives of National Guard members and their families by the extraordinary, open-ended sacrifice demanded of them by the President's policies requires an extraordinary commitment in kind by the nation; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:
That we, the Seventy-fourth Legislative Assembly, on behalf of the citizens of Oregon, respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to immediately enact legislation declaring a National Energy Emergency, recognizing that many members of the National Guard are already deployed in a foreign war; and be it further
Resolved, That no future deployments of National Guard members to a foreign war should occur without the threshold step of the declaration of a National Energy Emergency and the imposition of a national energy surtax; and be it further
Resolved, That the long-term medical needs of National Guard members and their families will be met regardless of the physical, mental or emotional nature of their conditions; and be it further
Resolved, That a copy of this memorial shall be sent to the Senate Majority Leader, to the Speaker and the Clerk of the House of Representatives and to each member of the Oregon Congressional Delegation.
New "End the War" in Iraq Sign (originally posted Jan 2007)
I just finished painting the new sign. I'm calling 2008 the Year of the Draft. It may or may not make any difference whether we pull out of Iraq or not as to whether there will be a military draft. That's how monumentally disastrous the Bush Administration may well prove to be. It is too early to tell, but we could already be well down the road to a broader regional conflict in the Middle East. If so, we'll be entering that melee with an army near the breaking point, far from home and on the enemy's choice of ground, all a recipe for massive failure. More on this later
President Bush--Iraq--Oregon (originally posted Jan 2007)
It took President Bush a whole month to write THAT speech? And that’s the plan?
He spoke like we just walked into the room, and he wants to tell us the story from the beginning one more time for twenty minutes like we’re simple-minded, like we don’t remember that this part was a lie and that part was just routine incompetence although on a massive scale, and this other part was proven to be false by your own Presidential Commission, without getting to the part about how he and Cheney really fucked up things so bad for all of us, the two most miserable fucks to every occupy the chairs they’re sitting in, the ones that will eventually be hounded out of the country, that we’ve got to send in another 20,000 troops, like this is about numbers.
Like this is about numbers.
We military families waited a month—right through the joyous holidays—for him to read off a teleprompter THAT speech? And THAT’S the plan? Didn’t he read any new books over the holidays?
The Sunnis and the Shia have been at it for a 1000 years. How could anybody miss that? It’s been going on for a THOUSAND YEARS!!! I know they were teaching this information at the college level in the ‘70’s…I took the class. “A” student in Politics of the Middle East.
The sentiment I am attempting to express here is that the information was available. I don’t know how they could have missed that part.
In any case, the Bush Administration missed it. And they missed on the WMDs and all the rest. And they didn’t notice the part about how wars lasting thirty years get started in increments, or the part about how rarely wars turn out in a way that makes any of the parties feel it was worth the cost, or the part about how Iraq itself remains one of the consequences of, a continuation of, the damage resulting from European nations’ prior aggression in and colonization of the region, and it is above all, a problem we cannot solve, not even in our uniquely particular American conceit, we cannot do it, and my essential point here is that we knew this years ago.
Pichot-Sykes. French and British. This is still their mess.
“A” student.
…As opposed to this “C” student who can neither speak nor read the English language in a way that does not bring shame raining down upon us among the civilized peoples of the world, both among nations where English is spoken as a primary language as well as where it is among the top three in common use.
George W. Bush is sitting where he is because he and his political machine, with a little help from the Supreme Court, was good at getting into office, if not exactly elected. There it is.
He’s going to make his name in the history books as the President who took the whole Middle Eastern oil system off line. This is as likely to occur in our lifetimes as is a hurricane flooding New Orleans, and that has already happened, and this is what is really at stake.
That was a really, really important part to miss, and the Bush Administration missed it.
One of my sons has already done two years in Iraq, Army National Guard, a first-rate forest fire fighter back in the US, but now firing a .50 caliber machine gun from the top of a humvee, security for convoys, divorced during the first tour, on the perimeter repulsing multiple daily attacks in Ramadi for a year, going out on missions day after day.
My dream for Tyler was Stanford University, baseball scholarship, leading the team to the College World Series, star pitcher US OlympicTeam, maybe a law degree, maybe just being who is….looks, charm, personality, smart, athletic to the genius level, magician with a baseball glove, game-winning hitter, unhittable pitcher, natural star and leader….I could see it all from the time he was four years old, and that was my dream. I could see it then and I think of it often now.
Just before his second tour in Iraq, Tyler took emergency leave from training to be by his brother’s side in an emergency room in Utah and then to bury Aaron in California and hours later the same day start driving in the dark to report back to camp about 300 long dark miles away in the dark.
That’s the way we treat these men and women.
Bury your brother, off to Ramadi, here’s your machine gun back, now we’re waiting for THAT speech? And if not with this rotation the next? Army National Guard. He was fighting forest fires in his real job before he was deployed more than three long years ago, when he was young. He’s 21 now, but who knows?
He sent me photos of his RumVee with the jury-rigged armor, my son up there in the turret with his .50, as good with the .50 as he had been with a baseball with the game on the line either on the mound or at the plate. Place hitter at the age of seven! Sheer glove magic! A fastball beyond the skills of most hitters and above that, “The Heater,” a pitch I taught him that was perhaps the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen on an athletic field, a pitch I had once taken right between the eyes, playing catch with my son, it was so beautiful to watch coming in, from the catcher’s point of view, it mesmerized me, and I didn’t move my glove up to stop it, the ball striking me exactly between the eyes, knocked me right on my back, but I had to laugh at the time, because it was such a marvel, Tyler was a genius with a baseball. That was one beautiful pitch. I watched it all the way in. I’m so glad it wasn’t the heater, the ball would still be bouncing.
Last winter, I saw a picture of my son, published in the 22nd Infantry Division online newsletter, up there in the turret. The caption read that he was on his way out to pull another shift at an outpost in Ramadi. Tyler Cruz, the caption said, was on his way back out. Again.
The Iraqis were hitting them every single day, multiple attacks every single day the entire year he was in Ramadi, let’s call them what they are, they’re Iraqis and after we are gone they are going to be after each other again for the next thousand years.
We military families have waited for President Bush to write a speech for a month, to announce his big new Texas-sized plan, so that I personally can know, for instance, in terms of my own family, whether he will require my son’s service in Iraq yet again.
President Bush wants to tell us the story once again all over again, as his administration begins to fall in around his ears, and soon he will start looking sweaty on camera, right now he almost looks like he’s talking to himself, and the public discussion will soon turn to comparisons of George W. Bush with other world leaders who throughout the vast length of recorded civilization went a foreign invasion too far and as a consequence sent their entire civilizations into decline.
The boy is here. What’s new is television.
As the world’s thirst for oil places more demands on production and delivery, as the world’s supply of oil declines, as the costs go up as you know they will, as the systems of production and delivery become absolutely vital beyond anything we can currently understand, the blood cost of Middle Eastern war will soar, and right now we are facing the fact that the Bush Administration has set us all firmly on that path.
If only we could simply fire these people…. Two more years with a man, a decider for crying out loud, a “C” student who just spent the last month cramming in vain, a man whose Presidentialism Factor registers at nil.
He’s decided that he’s sending the loved ones of military families straight into modern urban guerilla warfare, said it on the news nationwide in a special broadcast, which only the President can do, which fact in itself should have attracted widespread notice, but which did not, which brings me to another important point, one which has completely escaped the notice of the uninvested, including the President himself, and that is, historically speaking, in the history of insurgencies, one of the unique characteristics of insurgencies is that they endure shortages of weapons, ammunition, explosives and other critical gear.
Iraq is the exception. The Bush Administration didn’t send in enough troops to secure the weaponry and munitions even weeks after they had cleared the armories of Iraqi defenders.
Then they allowed the Iraqis to take all of that stuff and hide it, and thus this President’s team furnished the conflict with enough ammo to blow the region to hell for the next decade or more.
We military families remember that part, too.
In any other walk of life, other line of work, these people would have been fired. Escorted out the door.
Today I saw on the network news the White House ceremony, the President awarding the Congressional Medal of Honor to the parents of a young Marine who threw himself on a grenade to sacrifice his own life to save the lives of his buddies, that’s the kind of people we have in the fight, but the problem is that not everyone on the other side(s!) is a terrorist, there are brave people all over the world, and some of them are fighting armies occupying unwelcoming neighborhoods, and wherever there is an unwelcome army there is also an insurgency, unless there is a strongman in power, controlling a “police” force ruthless enough and for which the main job is keeping the locals quiet in those neighborhoods where the unwelcome armies are operating.
Just like it was when Saddam Hussein was in control. There will be someone or something else just as absolute, just as flawed, let’s be real….
And those grieving parents, and all those who grieve with them, including those Marines whose lives their son saved, and their families too, for as long as generations remember, those grieving parents, as brave as their son, the nation largely yawns….
On the floor of the Oregon Senate today, largely a routine administrative session for the first reading of bills, the morning after the President of the United States of America announced he was committing more troops to the battle we generally all agree is—to a credible degree—highly likely to fail, but absolutely for sure and certainly using the same troops, using the same military families over and over again, committing our people our families again like we don’t know who they are, and yes once again we’re sending your son your daughter your husband your wife your mom your dad your grandpa your GRANDMA, for Christ’s sake, into a bitter conflict that has raged for a thousand years, and we’re going to send them into the most dangerous combat environment on the planet—urban guerilla war.
I’ll tell you something about military families, something that will illustrate the vast endless chasm that separates the vested from the non-vested people in this war, the vested from the non-vested in the actual blood cost in this country, here’s the insight: Prior to the invasion of Iraq, it was common knowledge that the military regarded modern urban guerilla war as the world’s worst most dangerous combat environment among possible environments short of thermonuclear war, this modern urban guerilla war, but the Bush Administration also assured we military families at the very same time that absolutely for sure certainly our generals were too smart—way too smart—to get caught up in something as awful as that, modern urban guerilla warfare. And we’re going to stay away from civil wars too, and that assurance came before we even knew about without even counting the IEDs and the willingness of people to die for their beliefs, which actually has been going on since the beginning of humanity if you give it a second thought, how could they miss that part too, and besides, our very President Bush described his war in Iraq as “hard work” multiple times, “hard work”, and that descriptor and the way the President said it made it seem like ok, we can do this, and we are fine with “hard work”, particularly the way the President said “hard work” like, “Damn, this is hard work!.”
We military families are always down with hard work and sacrifice. That’s what makes military families tick, that’s who we are. And proud, too, but I digress….
Speaking about the difference between the vested and the uninvested families in this war, which is indeed a vast chasm, the military families were paying attention to the briefings about the dangers of modern urban guerilla warfare more than three years ago, and we remembered that part, so when the President said last night he was sending the loved ones of many thousands of military families straight into modern urban guerilla warfare, even though now we absolutely do know about the IEDs and the deep well of resources in the Middle East if you are looking for people willing to sacrifice their lives NOW for their beliefs, the uninvested are unsure about whether 20,000 is a big number or a small number….
The President wants to talk about numbers and the nation slumbers.
All I want to say about the Oregon Senate Chamber today is that you would have never known we are a nation at war if you were in that room today. I don’t know if they remembered about the war in the Oregon House today, someone who was there will have to tell me…I don’t know how they could miss it over there, because Representative Brian Boquist was either in the room or in the war—again.
The President said last night that 20,000 American families—some number of them Oregonians—are nightmare-bound for the foreseeable future and there wasn’t a ripple in the chamber.
I rest my case: the difference between the vested and the uninvested is a chasm.
Following the broadcast of the Marine receiving the Medal of Honor was another story, a story about a soldier whose leg was blown off in Iraq, and how he has no complaint about the loss or the medical treatment, but he and his marriage have been under a whole lot of unnecessary stress because the VA has been underpaying his benefits for the past eight months because they haven’t processed his paperwork yet, and do they doubt that he lost his leg, can’t they figure it out, and we military families know that this is typical, and we who heard the President speak last night doubt that the 20,000 troops the Nation is sending into modern urban guerilla will receive any better treatment than that, because the non-military families aren’t even paying for this fucking war with their taxes or with higher gas prices, imagine the ruckus if gas prices go up a nickel, we all know that the money cost will be borne by our grandchildren….
I think I’ve said my piece for the moment. I want to conclude this post with these words from Sun Tzu in The Art of War more than 2,000 years ago:
“The worst policy is to attack cities. Attack cities only when there is no alternative.”
“If the general is unable to control his impatience and orders his troops to swarm up the wall like ants, one-third of them will be killed without taking the city. Such is the calamity of these attacks.”
“Thus, those skilled in war subdue the enemy’s army without battle. They capture his cities without assaulting them and overthrow his state without protracted operations.”
“Your aim must be to take All-under-Heaven intact. Thus your troops are not worn out and your gains will be complete. This is the art of offensive strategy.”
Pearls before swine.
He spoke like we just walked into the room, and he wants to tell us the story from the beginning one more time for twenty minutes like we’re simple-minded, like we don’t remember that this part was a lie and that part was just routine incompetence although on a massive scale, and this other part was proven to be false by your own Presidential Commission, without getting to the part about how he and Cheney really fucked up things so bad for all of us, the two most miserable fucks to every occupy the chairs they’re sitting in, the ones that will eventually be hounded out of the country, that we’ve got to send in another 20,000 troops, like this is about numbers.
Like this is about numbers.
We military families waited a month—right through the joyous holidays—for him to read off a teleprompter THAT speech? And THAT’S the plan? Didn’t he read any new books over the holidays?
The Sunnis and the Shia have been at it for a 1000 years. How could anybody miss that? It’s been going on for a THOUSAND YEARS!!! I know they were teaching this information at the college level in the ‘70’s…I took the class. “A” student in Politics of the Middle East.
The sentiment I am attempting to express here is that the information was available. I don’t know how they could have missed that part.
In any case, the Bush Administration missed it. And they missed on the WMDs and all the rest. And they didn’t notice the part about how wars lasting thirty years get started in increments, or the part about how rarely wars turn out in a way that makes any of the parties feel it was worth the cost, or the part about how Iraq itself remains one of the consequences of, a continuation of, the damage resulting from European nations’ prior aggression in and colonization of the region, and it is above all, a problem we cannot solve, not even in our uniquely particular American conceit, we cannot do it, and my essential point here is that we knew this years ago.
Pichot-Sykes. French and British. This is still their mess.
“A” student.
…As opposed to this “C” student who can neither speak nor read the English language in a way that does not bring shame raining down upon us among the civilized peoples of the world, both among nations where English is spoken as a primary language as well as where it is among the top three in common use.
George W. Bush is sitting where he is because he and his political machine, with a little help from the Supreme Court, was good at getting into office, if not exactly elected. There it is.
He’s going to make his name in the history books as the President who took the whole Middle Eastern oil system off line. This is as likely to occur in our lifetimes as is a hurricane flooding New Orleans, and that has already happened, and this is what is really at stake.
That was a really, really important part to miss, and the Bush Administration missed it.
One of my sons has already done two years in Iraq, Army National Guard, a first-rate forest fire fighter back in the US, but now firing a .50 caliber machine gun from the top of a humvee, security for convoys, divorced during the first tour, on the perimeter repulsing multiple daily attacks in Ramadi for a year, going out on missions day after day.
My dream for Tyler was Stanford University, baseball scholarship, leading the team to the College World Series, star pitcher US OlympicTeam, maybe a law degree, maybe just being who is….looks, charm, personality, smart, athletic to the genius level, magician with a baseball glove, game-winning hitter, unhittable pitcher, natural star and leader….I could see it all from the time he was four years old, and that was my dream. I could see it then and I think of it often now.
Just before his second tour in Iraq, Tyler took emergency leave from training to be by his brother’s side in an emergency room in Utah and then to bury Aaron in California and hours later the same day start driving in the dark to report back to camp about 300 long dark miles away in the dark.
That’s the way we treat these men and women.
Bury your brother, off to Ramadi, here’s your machine gun back, now we’re waiting for THAT speech? And if not with this rotation the next? Army National Guard. He was fighting forest fires in his real job before he was deployed more than three long years ago, when he was young. He’s 21 now, but who knows?
He sent me photos of his RumVee with the jury-rigged armor, my son up there in the turret with his .50, as good with the .50 as he had been with a baseball with the game on the line either on the mound or at the plate. Place hitter at the age of seven! Sheer glove magic! A fastball beyond the skills of most hitters and above that, “The Heater,” a pitch I taught him that was perhaps the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen on an athletic field, a pitch I had once taken right between the eyes, playing catch with my son, it was so beautiful to watch coming in, from the catcher’s point of view, it mesmerized me, and I didn’t move my glove up to stop it, the ball striking me exactly between the eyes, knocked me right on my back, but I had to laugh at the time, because it was such a marvel, Tyler was a genius with a baseball. That was one beautiful pitch. I watched it all the way in. I’m so glad it wasn’t the heater, the ball would still be bouncing.
Last winter, I saw a picture of my son, published in the 22nd Infantry Division online newsletter, up there in the turret. The caption read that he was on his way out to pull another shift at an outpost in Ramadi. Tyler Cruz, the caption said, was on his way back out. Again.
The Iraqis were hitting them every single day, multiple attacks every single day the entire year he was in Ramadi, let’s call them what they are, they’re Iraqis and after we are gone they are going to be after each other again for the next thousand years.
We military families have waited for President Bush to write a speech for a month, to announce his big new Texas-sized plan, so that I personally can know, for instance, in terms of my own family, whether he will require my son’s service in Iraq yet again.
President Bush wants to tell us the story once again all over again, as his administration begins to fall in around his ears, and soon he will start looking sweaty on camera, right now he almost looks like he’s talking to himself, and the public discussion will soon turn to comparisons of George W. Bush with other world leaders who throughout the vast length of recorded civilization went a foreign invasion too far and as a consequence sent their entire civilizations into decline.
The boy is here. What’s new is television.
As the world’s thirst for oil places more demands on production and delivery, as the world’s supply of oil declines, as the costs go up as you know they will, as the systems of production and delivery become absolutely vital beyond anything we can currently understand, the blood cost of Middle Eastern war will soar, and right now we are facing the fact that the Bush Administration has set us all firmly on that path.
If only we could simply fire these people…. Two more years with a man, a decider for crying out loud, a “C” student who just spent the last month cramming in vain, a man whose Presidentialism Factor registers at nil.
He’s decided that he’s sending the loved ones of military families straight into modern urban guerilla warfare, said it on the news nationwide in a special broadcast, which only the President can do, which fact in itself should have attracted widespread notice, but which did not, which brings me to another important point, one which has completely escaped the notice of the uninvested, including the President himself, and that is, historically speaking, in the history of insurgencies, one of the unique characteristics of insurgencies is that they endure shortages of weapons, ammunition, explosives and other critical gear.
Iraq is the exception. The Bush Administration didn’t send in enough troops to secure the weaponry and munitions even weeks after they had cleared the armories of Iraqi defenders.
Then they allowed the Iraqis to take all of that stuff and hide it, and thus this President’s team furnished the conflict with enough ammo to blow the region to hell for the next decade or more.
We military families remember that part, too.
In any other walk of life, other line of work, these people would have been fired. Escorted out the door.
Today I saw on the network news the White House ceremony, the President awarding the Congressional Medal of Honor to the parents of a young Marine who threw himself on a grenade to sacrifice his own life to save the lives of his buddies, that’s the kind of people we have in the fight, but the problem is that not everyone on the other side(s!) is a terrorist, there are brave people all over the world, and some of them are fighting armies occupying unwelcoming neighborhoods, and wherever there is an unwelcome army there is also an insurgency, unless there is a strongman in power, controlling a “police” force ruthless enough and for which the main job is keeping the locals quiet in those neighborhoods where the unwelcome armies are operating.
Just like it was when Saddam Hussein was in control. There will be someone or something else just as absolute, just as flawed, let’s be real….
And those grieving parents, and all those who grieve with them, including those Marines whose lives their son saved, and their families too, for as long as generations remember, those grieving parents, as brave as their son, the nation largely yawns….
On the floor of the Oregon Senate today, largely a routine administrative session for the first reading of bills, the morning after the President of the United States of America announced he was committing more troops to the battle we generally all agree is—to a credible degree—highly likely to fail, but absolutely for sure and certainly using the same troops, using the same military families over and over again, committing our people our families again like we don’t know who they are, and yes once again we’re sending your son your daughter your husband your wife your mom your dad your grandpa your GRANDMA, for Christ’s sake, into a bitter conflict that has raged for a thousand years, and we’re going to send them into the most dangerous combat environment on the planet—urban guerilla war.
I’ll tell you something about military families, something that will illustrate the vast endless chasm that separates the vested from the non-vested people in this war, the vested from the non-vested in the actual blood cost in this country, here’s the insight: Prior to the invasion of Iraq, it was common knowledge that the military regarded modern urban guerilla war as the world’s worst most dangerous combat environment among possible environments short of thermonuclear war, this modern urban guerilla war, but the Bush Administration also assured we military families at the very same time that absolutely for sure certainly our generals were too smart—way too smart—to get caught up in something as awful as that, modern urban guerilla warfare. And we’re going to stay away from civil wars too, and that assurance came before we even knew about without even counting the IEDs and the willingness of people to die for their beliefs, which actually has been going on since the beginning of humanity if you give it a second thought, how could they miss that part too, and besides, our very President Bush described his war in Iraq as “hard work” multiple times, “hard work”, and that descriptor and the way the President said it made it seem like ok, we can do this, and we are fine with “hard work”, particularly the way the President said “hard work” like, “Damn, this is hard work!.”
We military families are always down with hard work and sacrifice. That’s what makes military families tick, that’s who we are. And proud, too, but I digress….
Speaking about the difference between the vested and the uninvested families in this war, which is indeed a vast chasm, the military families were paying attention to the briefings about the dangers of modern urban guerilla warfare more than three years ago, and we remembered that part, so when the President said last night he was sending the loved ones of many thousands of military families straight into modern urban guerilla warfare, even though now we absolutely do know about the IEDs and the deep well of resources in the Middle East if you are looking for people willing to sacrifice their lives NOW for their beliefs, the uninvested are unsure about whether 20,000 is a big number or a small number….
The President wants to talk about numbers and the nation slumbers.
All I want to say about the Oregon Senate Chamber today is that you would have never known we are a nation at war if you were in that room today. I don’t know if they remembered about the war in the Oregon House today, someone who was there will have to tell me…I don’t know how they could miss it over there, because Representative Brian Boquist was either in the room or in the war—again.
The President said last night that 20,000 American families—some number of them Oregonians—are nightmare-bound for the foreseeable future and there wasn’t a ripple in the chamber.
I rest my case: the difference between the vested and the uninvested is a chasm.
Following the broadcast of the Marine receiving the Medal of Honor was another story, a story about a soldier whose leg was blown off in Iraq, and how he has no complaint about the loss or the medical treatment, but he and his marriage have been under a whole lot of unnecessary stress because the VA has been underpaying his benefits for the past eight months because they haven’t processed his paperwork yet, and do they doubt that he lost his leg, can’t they figure it out, and we military families know that this is typical, and we who heard the President speak last night doubt that the 20,000 troops the Nation is sending into modern urban guerilla will receive any better treatment than that, because the non-military families aren’t even paying for this fucking war with their taxes or with higher gas prices, imagine the ruckus if gas prices go up a nickel, we all know that the money cost will be borne by our grandchildren….
I think I’ve said my piece for the moment. I want to conclude this post with these words from Sun Tzu in The Art of War more than 2,000 years ago:
“The worst policy is to attack cities. Attack cities only when there is no alternative.”
“If the general is unable to control his impatience and orders his troops to swarm up the wall like ants, one-third of them will be killed without taking the city. Such is the calamity of these attacks.”
“Thus, those skilled in war subdue the enemy’s army without battle. They capture his cities without assaulting them and overthrow his state without protracted operations.”
“Your aim must be to take All-under-Heaven intact. Thus your troops are not worn out and your gains will be complete. This is the art of offensive strategy.”
Pearls before swine.
Waiting for the Lame Duck President (originally posted Dec 2006)
While we are waiting for President Bush to finish skimming the Iraq Study Group Report, the interlude offers the opportunity to reflect on the context of this moment in the history of our nation:
We, the nation and beyond, are poised, mid-war, waiting for the President of the United States to catch up on his required reading.
It is a measure of the President’s lost stature that he was unable to secure an advance copy of the ISG report, but had to wait in line like everyone else. Now we all have to wait for him to get through the material. He is, after all, “The Decider.”
Lives have been lost, more are at stake, the result dependent upon the intellect and steely jaw of the self-proclaimed War President.
It has come down to a crisis moment. All else hinges on an intellectually lazy person’s ability to navigate the big stack of books and reports on his desk, more information in one go than he mastered in umpteen years at university.
The White House indicates this activity could take several weeks, as it involves reading, thinking and possibly the taking of notes.
To complicate matters further, according to President Bush’s biological clock, he should be on vacation right now. He is, in fact, at the time of this writing, months behind his normal vacation schedule.
This fact alone will make him testy and he will bark.
On top of that, the nation expects him to read books, a big stack of them. He is aware that this Iraq Study Group Report is a book, no matter what they want to call it.
He is living the C-student nightmare: the Mother of all Tests on the morrow, administered and graded by all the ghost professors of Christmases past, open-book, can’t be skipped this time, oral boards and all…the odds against triumph are long, escape with tattered dignity a godsend.
The lame duck simmers in the sauce.
We, the nation and beyond, are poised, mid-war, waiting for the President of the United States to catch up on his required reading.
It is a measure of the President’s lost stature that he was unable to secure an advance copy of the ISG report, but had to wait in line like everyone else. Now we all have to wait for him to get through the material. He is, after all, “The Decider.”
Lives have been lost, more are at stake, the result dependent upon the intellect and steely jaw of the self-proclaimed War President.
It has come down to a crisis moment. All else hinges on an intellectually lazy person’s ability to navigate the big stack of books and reports on his desk, more information in one go than he mastered in umpteen years at university.
The White House indicates this activity could take several weeks, as it involves reading, thinking and possibly the taking of notes.
To complicate matters further, according to President Bush’s biological clock, he should be on vacation right now. He is, in fact, at the time of this writing, months behind his normal vacation schedule.
This fact alone will make him testy and he will bark.
On top of that, the nation expects him to read books, a big stack of them. He is aware that this Iraq Study Group Report is a book, no matter what they want to call it.
He is living the C-student nightmare: the Mother of all Tests on the morrow, administered and graded by all the ghost professors of Christmases past, open-book, can’t be skipped this time, oral boards and all…the odds against triumph are long, escape with tattered dignity a godsend.
The lame duck simmers in the sauce.
Time to re-paint my End the War sign (originally posted nov 2006)
The sign has seen a lot of weather during the three years it has been up. I'm spending Thanksgiving Day in my basement, making room for more numbers.
---------
Sun Tzu said circa 400 BC:
“Thus, while we have heard of blundering swiftness in war, we have not yet seen a clever operation that was prolonged…For there has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.”
“The worst policy is to attack cities. Attack cities only when there is no alternative.”
“If the general is unable to control his impatience and orders his troops to swarm up the wall like ants, one-third of them will be killed without taking the city. Such is the calamity of these attacks.”
“Thus, those skilled in war subdue the enemy’s army without battle. They capture his cities without assaulting them and overthrow his state without protracted operations.”
“Your aim must be to take All-under-Heaven intact. Thus your troops are not worn out and your gains will be complete. This is the art of offensive strategy.”
“If the general is unable to control his impatience and orders his troops to swarm up the wall like ants, one-third of them will be killed without taking the city. Such is the calamity of these attacks.”
“Thus, those skilled in war subdue the enemy’s army without battle. They capture his cities without assaulting them and overthrow his state without protracted operations.”
“Your aim must be to take All-under-Heaven intact. Thus your troops are not worn out and your gains will be complete. This is the art of offensive strategy.”
“Those skilled in war cultivate the Tao and preserve the laws and are therefore able to formulate victorious policies…The Tao is the way of humanity and justice; ‘laws’ are regulations and institutions. Those who excel in war first cultivate their own humanity and justice and maintain their laws and institutions. By these means they make their governments invincible.”
---Sun Tzu "The Art of War"
Some insight on how history will judge the Bush Administration
(Ancient Wisdom for the War in Iraq)
Sun Tzu said:
“War is a matter of vital importance to the State; the province of life or death; the road to survival or ruin. It is mandatory that it be thoroughly studied….War is a grave matter; one is apprehensive lest men embark upon it without due reflection.”
Sun Tzu on Waging War:
“When your weapons are dulled and ardor damped, your strength exhausted and treasure spent, neighboring rulers will take advantage of your distress to act. And even though you have wise counselors, none will be able to lay good plans for the future.”
“Thus, while we have heard of blundering swiftness in war, we have not yet seen a clever operation that was prolonged…For there has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.”
“Thus those unable to understand the dangers inherent in employing troops are equally unable to understand the advantageous ways of doing so.”
“Those adept in waging war do not require a second levy of conscripts nor more than one provisioning.”
“When a country is impoverished by military operations it is due to distant transportation; carriage of supplies for great distances renders the people destitute.”
“If war drags on without cessation men and women will resent not being able to marry, and will be distressed by the burdens of transportation.”
“As to government expenditures, those due to broken-down chariots, worn-out horses, armor and helmets, arrows and crossbows, lances, hand and body shields, draft animals and supply wagons will amount to 60 per cent of the total (cost).”
“In transporting provisions for a distance of one thousand li, twenty bushels will be consumed in delivering one to the army…If difficult terrain must be crossed even more is required.”
….
“Treat the captives well, and care for them....This is called ‘winning a battle and becoming stronger.’”
“Hence what is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations.”
“The difficulties in the appointment of a commander are the same today as they were in ancient times (written circa 400 B.C.).”
Sun Tzu on Offensive Strategy:
“Generally in war the best policy is to take a state intact; to ruin it is inferior to this….for to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”
“He who excels at resolving difficulties does so before they arise. He who excels in conquering his enemies triumphs before threats materialize.”
“The worst policy is to attack cities. Attack cities only when there is no alternative.”
“If the general is unable to control his impatience and orders his troops to swarm up the wall like ants, one-third of them will be killed without taking the city. Such is the calamity of these attacks.”
“Thus, those skilled in war subdue the enemy’s army without battle. They capture his cities without assaulting them and overthrow his state without protracted operations.”
“Your aim must be to take All-under-Heaven intact. Thus your troops are not worn out and your gains will be complete. This is the art of offensive strategy.”
Sun Tzu on how “a ruler can bring misfortune upon his army.”
“Now there are three ways in which a ruler can bring misfortune upon his army:
(1) When ignorant that the army should not advance, to order an advance or ignorant that it should not retire, to order a retirement. This is described as ‘hobbling the army.’ (2) When ignorant of military affairs, to participate in their administration. This causes the officers to be perplexed. (3) When ignorant of command problems to share in the exercise of responsibilities. This engenders doubts in the minds of the officers.”
“If one ignorant of military matters is sent to participate in the administration of the army, then in every movement there will be disagreement and mutual frustration and the entire army will be hamstrung.”
“The wrong person cannot be appointed to command…Lin Hsiang-ju, the Prime Minister of Chao, said: ‘Chao Kua is merely able to read his father’s books, and is as yet ignorant of correlating changing circumstances. Now Your Majesty, on account of his name, makes him the commander-in-chief. This is like glueing the pegs of a lute and then trying to tune it.’”
“He whose generals are able and not interfered with by the sovereign will be victorious.”
“Now in war there may be one hundred changes in each step. When one sees he can, he advances; when he sees that things are difficult, he retires. To say that a general must await commands of the sovereign in such circumstances is like informing a superior that you wish to put out a fire. Before the order to do so arrives the ashes are cold. And it is said one must consult the Army Supervisor in these matters! This is as if in building a house beside the road one took advice from those who pass by. Of course the work would never be completed!”
“If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.”
“A victorious army wins its victories before seeking battle; an army destined to defeat fights in the hope of winning.”
“Those skilled in war cultivate the Tao and preserve the laws and are therefore able to formulate victorious policies…The Tao is the way of humanity and justice; ‘laws’ are regulations and institutions. Those who excel in war first cultivate their own humanity and justice and maintain their laws and institutions. By these means they make their governments invincible.”
===========
Sun Tzu’s Art of War was written about 2,400 years ago.
The Bush administration disregarded every principle in Sun Tzu’s time-honored work. There is no need to list the comparisons here; the reader is challenged to make the connections and draw his/her own conclusions.
The comparisons apply equally to the Bush Administration’s incompetence in the use of the Armed Forces and to its ignorance of Iraqi political and social realities.
Prior to the accession of Rumsfeld, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had direct access to the President. Rumsfeld closed off that access between the highest ranking man in uniform and the Commander in Chief.
The blame does not, of course, rest entirely with Rumsfeld. The buck really does stop with the President, who went along with the move, and Cheney, who was strengthened by it.
Sun Tzu’s book has influenced countless military and political leaders over a span of 2,400 years.
But George W. Bush celebrates his ignorance of books and deep disdain for the work that learning demands. That’s the Commander-in-Chief we have, certainly not the one we wish we had or the one we hope to have at a later date.
More on this later.
Sun Tzu said:
“War is a matter of vital importance to the State; the province of life or death; the road to survival or ruin. It is mandatory that it be thoroughly studied….War is a grave matter; one is apprehensive lest men embark upon it without due reflection.”
Sun Tzu on Waging War:
“When your weapons are dulled and ardor damped, your strength exhausted and treasure spent, neighboring rulers will take advantage of your distress to act. And even though you have wise counselors, none will be able to lay good plans for the future.”
“Thus, while we have heard of blundering swiftness in war, we have not yet seen a clever operation that was prolonged…For there has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.”
“Thus those unable to understand the dangers inherent in employing troops are equally unable to understand the advantageous ways of doing so.”
“Those adept in waging war do not require a second levy of conscripts nor more than one provisioning.”
“When a country is impoverished by military operations it is due to distant transportation; carriage of supplies for great distances renders the people destitute.”
“If war drags on without cessation men and women will resent not being able to marry, and will be distressed by the burdens of transportation.”
“As to government expenditures, those due to broken-down chariots, worn-out horses, armor and helmets, arrows and crossbows, lances, hand and body shields, draft animals and supply wagons will amount to 60 per cent of the total (cost).”
“In transporting provisions for a distance of one thousand li, twenty bushels will be consumed in delivering one to the army…If difficult terrain must be crossed even more is required.”
….
“Treat the captives well, and care for them....This is called ‘winning a battle and becoming stronger.’”
“Hence what is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations.”
“The difficulties in the appointment of a commander are the same today as they were in ancient times (written circa 400 B.C.).”
Sun Tzu on Offensive Strategy:
“Generally in war the best policy is to take a state intact; to ruin it is inferior to this….for to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”
“He who excels at resolving difficulties does so before they arise. He who excels in conquering his enemies triumphs before threats materialize.”
“The worst policy is to attack cities. Attack cities only when there is no alternative.”
“If the general is unable to control his impatience and orders his troops to swarm up the wall like ants, one-third of them will be killed without taking the city. Such is the calamity of these attacks.”
“Thus, those skilled in war subdue the enemy’s army without battle. They capture his cities without assaulting them and overthrow his state without protracted operations.”
“Your aim must be to take All-under-Heaven intact. Thus your troops are not worn out and your gains will be complete. This is the art of offensive strategy.”
Sun Tzu on how “a ruler can bring misfortune upon his army.”
“Now there are three ways in which a ruler can bring misfortune upon his army:
(1) When ignorant that the army should not advance, to order an advance or ignorant that it should not retire, to order a retirement. This is described as ‘hobbling the army.’ (2) When ignorant of military affairs, to participate in their administration. This causes the officers to be perplexed. (3) When ignorant of command problems to share in the exercise of responsibilities. This engenders doubts in the minds of the officers.”
“If one ignorant of military matters is sent to participate in the administration of the army, then in every movement there will be disagreement and mutual frustration and the entire army will be hamstrung.”
“The wrong person cannot be appointed to command…Lin Hsiang-ju, the Prime Minister of Chao, said: ‘Chao Kua is merely able to read his father’s books, and is as yet ignorant of correlating changing circumstances. Now Your Majesty, on account of his name, makes him the commander-in-chief. This is like glueing the pegs of a lute and then trying to tune it.’”
“He whose generals are able and not interfered with by the sovereign will be victorious.”
“Now in war there may be one hundred changes in each step. When one sees he can, he advances; when he sees that things are difficult, he retires. To say that a general must await commands of the sovereign in such circumstances is like informing a superior that you wish to put out a fire. Before the order to do so arrives the ashes are cold. And it is said one must consult the Army Supervisor in these matters! This is as if in building a house beside the road one took advice from those who pass by. Of course the work would never be completed!”
“If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.”
“A victorious army wins its victories before seeking battle; an army destined to defeat fights in the hope of winning.”
“Those skilled in war cultivate the Tao and preserve the laws and are therefore able to formulate victorious policies…The Tao is the way of humanity and justice; ‘laws’ are regulations and institutions. Those who excel in war first cultivate their own humanity and justice and maintain their laws and institutions. By these means they make their governments invincible.”
===========
Sun Tzu’s Art of War was written about 2,400 years ago.
The Bush administration disregarded every principle in Sun Tzu’s time-honored work. There is no need to list the comparisons here; the reader is challenged to make the connections and draw his/her own conclusions.
The comparisons apply equally to the Bush Administration’s incompetence in the use of the Armed Forces and to its ignorance of Iraqi political and social realities.
Prior to the accession of Rumsfeld, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had direct access to the President. Rumsfeld closed off that access between the highest ranking man in uniform and the Commander in Chief.
The blame does not, of course, rest entirely with Rumsfeld. The buck really does stop with the President, who went along with the move, and Cheney, who was strengthened by it.
Sun Tzu’s book has influenced countless military and political leaders over a span of 2,400 years.
But George W. Bush celebrates his ignorance of books and deep disdain for the work that learning demands. That’s the Commander-in-Chief we have, certainly not the one we wish we had or the one we hope to have at a later date.
Governor Ted Kulongoski is a hero to me
Oregon Governor Sets Example for the Nation.
As the father of two Army National Guard soldiers, one who has served two tours in combat in Iraq as a .50 caliber machine gunner, and one who died in April 2005, I urge you to vote for Governor Ted Kulongoski.
Of all the candidates for Governor, Ted Kulongoski is the only one who cares about our troops and their families, the only one who stands with the families when they bury their loved ones.
Ted Kulongoski is the only candidate who understands the sacrifice our troops and their families have made, are making, and will make in the future, and he feels this in his heart.
Ted Kulongoski recognizes that governors have no voice in shaping U.S. foreign policy, no role in conducting war, but that has not kept him from seeing every deployed Oregonian off and seeing every deployed Oregonian return. The other candidates excuse themselves away with their narrow agendas. Ron Saxton wants to save me ten bucks on my taxes.
It takes a giant heart and a very special sort of courage to face those grieving families, and Ted Kulongoski is the only governor in the nation who has these qualities.
For this, Governor Ted Kulongoski is a hero to me.
The number one issue for those of us who are making the sacrifices in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for those of us who are making these sacrifices again and again, is the war itself. Of all the issues the candidates want to talk about, the only issue for us is the war, the most important question is—when will our loved ones come home?
The typical Guardsman comes from a small town or rural area. The death notices often name a town that few city people have ever visited or even heard of. The names and places are quickly forgotten in the city, as quickly forgotten as the sacrifice itself.
But Governor Kulongoski has made our soldiers and their families a priority from the very beginning of the war. He understands the mission and the needs of our troops, and he will never forget the names of those small towns, the faces of the families, and the stories that flesh out the human beings we have lost in faraway places.
He does this for all of us, for every single one of us. For you, and for me.
The only candidate in this race with his heart in the right place is Ted Kulongoski. I urge you to vote to re-elect Governor Ted Kulongoski.
And send a message to George W. Bush while you're at it.
Sean Cruz
As the father of two Army National Guard soldiers, one who has served two tours in combat in Iraq as a .50 caliber machine gunner, and one who died in April 2005, I urge you to vote for Governor Ted Kulongoski.
Of all the candidates for Governor, Ted Kulongoski is the only one who cares about our troops and their families, the only one who stands with the families when they bury their loved ones.
Ted Kulongoski is the only candidate who understands the sacrifice our troops and their families have made, are making, and will make in the future, and he feels this in his heart.
Ted Kulongoski recognizes that governors have no voice in shaping U.S. foreign policy, no role in conducting war, but that has not kept him from seeing every deployed Oregonian off and seeing every deployed Oregonian return. The other candidates excuse themselves away with their narrow agendas. Ron Saxton wants to save me ten bucks on my taxes.
It takes a giant heart and a very special sort of courage to face those grieving families, and Ted Kulongoski is the only governor in the nation who has these qualities.
For this, Governor Ted Kulongoski is a hero to me.
The number one issue for those of us who are making the sacrifices in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for those of us who are making these sacrifices again and again, is the war itself. Of all the issues the candidates want to talk about, the only issue for us is the war, the most important question is—when will our loved ones come home?
The typical Guardsman comes from a small town or rural area. The death notices often name a town that few city people have ever visited or even heard of. The names and places are quickly forgotten in the city, as quickly forgotten as the sacrifice itself.
But Governor Kulongoski has made our soldiers and their families a priority from the very beginning of the war. He understands the mission and the needs of our troops, and he will never forget the names of those small towns, the faces of the families, and the stories that flesh out the human beings we have lost in faraway places.
He does this for all of us, for every single one of us. For you, and for me.
The only candidate in this race with his heart in the right place is Ted Kulongoski. I urge you to vote to re-elect Governor Ted Kulongoski.
And send a message to George W. Bush while you're at it.
Sean Cruz
Blogolitical Sean endorsed Governor Ted Kulongoski, here's why:
As the father of two Army National Guard soldiers, one who has served two tours in combat in Iraq as a .50 caliber machine gunner, and one who died in April 2005, I urge you to vote for Governor Ted Kulongoski.
Of all the candidates for Governor, Ted Kulongoski is the only one who cares about our troops and their families, the only one who stands with the families when they bury their loved ones.
Ted Kulongoski is the only candidate who understands the sacrifice our troops and their families have made, are making, and will make in the future, and he feels this in his heart.
Ted Kulongoski recognizes that governors have no voice in shaping U.S. foreign policy, no role in conducting war, but that has not kept him from seeing every deployed Oregonian off and seeing every deployed Oregonian return. The other candidates excuse themselves away with their narrow agendas. Ron Saxton wants to save me ten bucks on my taxes.
It takes a giant heart and a very special sort of courage to face those grieving families, and Ted Kulongoski is the only governor in the nation who has these qualities.
For this, Governor Ted Kulongoski is a hero to me.
The number one issue for those of us who are making the sacrifices in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for those of us who are making these sacrifices again and again, is the war itself. Of all the issues the candidates want to talk about, the only issue for us is the war, the most important question is—when will our loved ones come home?
The typical Guardsman comes from a small town or rural area. The death notices often name a town that few city people have ever visited or even heard of. The names and places are quickly forgotten in the city, as quickly forgotten as the sacrifice itself.
But Governor Kulongoski has made our soldiers and their families a priority from the very beginning of the war. He understands the mission and the needs of our troops, and he will never forget the names of those small towns, the faces of the families, and the stories that flesh out the human beings we have lost in faraway places.
He does this for all of us, for every single one of us. For you, and for me.
The only candidate with his heart in the right place is Ted Kulongoski.
I urge you to vote to re-elect Governor Ted Kulongoski.
Sean Cruz
Of all the candidates for Governor, Ted Kulongoski is the only one who cares about our troops and their families, the only one who stands with the families when they bury their loved ones.
Ted Kulongoski is the only candidate who understands the sacrifice our troops and their families have made, are making, and will make in the future, and he feels this in his heart.
Ted Kulongoski recognizes that governors have no voice in shaping U.S. foreign policy, no role in conducting war, but that has not kept him from seeing every deployed Oregonian off and seeing every deployed Oregonian return. The other candidates excuse themselves away with their narrow agendas. Ron Saxton wants to save me ten bucks on my taxes.
It takes a giant heart and a very special sort of courage to face those grieving families, and Ted Kulongoski is the only governor in the nation who has these qualities.
For this, Governor Ted Kulongoski is a hero to me.
The number one issue for those of us who are making the sacrifices in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for those of us who are making these sacrifices again and again, is the war itself. Of all the issues the candidates want to talk about, the only issue for us is the war, the most important question is—when will our loved ones come home?
The typical Guardsman comes from a small town or rural area. The death notices often name a town that few city people have ever visited or even heard of. The names and places are quickly forgotten in the city, as quickly forgotten as the sacrifice itself.
But Governor Kulongoski has made our soldiers and their families a priority from the very beginning of the war. He understands the mission and the needs of our troops, and he will never forget the names of those small towns, the faces of the families, and the stories that flesh out the human beings we have lost in faraway places.
He does this for all of us, for every single one of us. For you, and for me.
The only candidate with his heart in the right place is Ted Kulongoski.
I urge you to vote to re-elect Governor Ted Kulongoski.
Sean Cruz
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