Taking a trip

I'll be leaving for Idaho on 19 March. While I haven't been keeping up with this recently. I'm hoping that I won't be too tired after a long day's drive to blog impressions of where we go. It's going to be an interesting trip, going by way of San Antonio and returning by way of Santa Fe. We shall see what happens to my creative urge when I'm moving around.

Security? For whom?

I recently bought a CD for $5. It took me about 15 minutes to work my way through the wrappings and protective tape that I suppose kept the darned thing from being taken from its jewel case and stolen in the store. That started me wondering. Does anyone trust other people? How much security must we go through before we say, "ENOUGH!"

We're kept standing in long lines at airports for security checks. These checks are spotty and usually inefficient. One airport will make me take my shoes off; another will make me step aside for wanding after I pass their magnetic detector, but say nothing about shoes. The last time I went through JFK, there was an hour wait for security. As I was being passed, I noticed the screen of one of the X-rays. It must have been an electrician's tool kit. There were screw drivers and razor knives. The man was passed and his case was not checked. We're paying for this.

Have you noticed? TSA employees don't wear name tags. That means if one does something way out of line, like a man hand searching a woman passenger, he can't be reported. The rules are inconsistent. My flight home from New York allowed me to lock my check on after it was inspected. When it arrived at home, the locks had been broken off and a TSA tag said that it had been searched. Several jewelry presents for my wife were missing. I've sent e-mails and letters, none of which have been answered. Come to think on it, why should they bother?

The inconsistency goes beyond CDs and the TSA. Just look around at the security arrangements in your nearest store. Marvelous.

For want of a better...

Calloo, Callay, oh frajous day.

Spring has taken over here in Little Rock. Daffodils and crocus are blooming. The Bradford pear buds burst into flower today. And the temperature was a delirious 77 degrees (I can't figure out how to insert special characters like accents or degrees into this thing.) F with bright sun all day. Additionally, not one bill came in the mail.

I really thought that I had an essay ready for this day. But it's gone.

Comparing Iraq and Vietnam

As promised last month, I have been thinking about the similarities and differences between the war we fought 40 years ago and the one we are fighting today.

To begin, both were started as the result of faulty intelligence and theories that just didn't pan out. Both were divisive for Americans since there were strong anti-war groups protesting our involvement. Both have stretched much longer than the administration starting them calculated. It is a point for debate if either was necessary for the security of the United States. Neither war attracted the hoped for allies. Finally, neither could be won on the terms that the administration of the time wanted.

Some gross differences were, the draft. Although many of the soldiers serving in Vietnam were volunteers like me. There was conscription at the time. Quite a few men of draftable age agonized over whether they would have to go and fight. Some even fled to other countries to avoid this. Iraq/Afghanistan is strictly volunteer. Every troop fighting there volunteered for duty in the armed services, even if they did not think, at the time, that they would have to go to war. The attitude of the anti-war movement was distinctly different. Most returning from the present conflict have been welcomed whether people agreed with the war or not. Vietnam returnees were greeted with hostility, even violence against them. The wounds caused by that reception have not yet healed for many.

In Vietnam, the US was supporting a government, a corrupt, inefficient government to be sure, but a government. While elections have been held in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the elected governments there are powerless beyond the security of their capitols. Without an effective central government, both countries will either continue in violence or the power will be ceded to local leaders.

Forty years ago, our troops were fighting just two opponents, the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong. In Iraq/Afghanistan, there more factions than I can count fighting each other and the US. It is this high number of combatant groups, with mostly different objectives that makes the job in the mid east very difficult.

The United States is faced with what is called "non-centric" warfare. That is, instead of a capitol like Hanoi or fixed bases, the mid eastern opponents are dispersed through the population. Command and control are accomplished in many cases, without the individual fighters having to actually meet with their commanders. Unfortunately, that makes the common problem that sometimes a soldier doesn't know which of those people out there are friends and which want to kill him/her.

While in both conflicts, the enemy was flexible and could retake areas left by the Army, there is a difference in Iraq. Soldiers and police are being trained to keep the peace in their neighborhoods, Iraqi soldiers and police who can hold their areas and prevent terrorists from returning... for the present.

The major difference is (I think) that it is possible to achieve peace and stability in Iraq where in Vietnam, it could only happen if we had been prepared to completely conquer North Vietnam and protect both the north and south from their neighbors for at least 30 years. The kind of government that develops in the middle east won't be the type President Bush was thinking of when he pushed for elections. Hopefully, it will be something new that fits the region and religion.

There is more. But I'm going to have to ponder some to be able to write it.

pre-introduction to the wars

Rosalie Lepowski, an old friend has asked me to talk about the Vietnam War and its similarity to the present war in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's going to take some time to think out.

There are certain things that are familiar. Both wars were started from faulty intelligence and bad interpretation of it. In both, by entering, we upset the balance of power and made sure that if we left too soon, there would be very undesirable results.

But there are also some non-congruencies too. In Vietnam, we were supporting a strong, but corrupt government. We paid little attention to establishing real democracy there. Our troops were despised when they came home. In Iraq and Afghanistan, non of these are true. We have tried to establish working democracies in both countries. Each government is weak, not having even enough power to control their capitals, much less the rest of the country. And our soldiers are greeted as heros when they return. Sadly, their return is all too short with many of them starting their third tour in less than five years.

I'm going to think and write more about this.

Changes

As we come into a new year, change should be on everyone's mind. While some change is good and beneficial, other is not. The change that I noticed is in the country, not the United States, but the rural lands that support agriculture.

35 years ago, when I first drove on back roads, everyone I waved to waved back. Some even waved without a start from me. One pathetic specimen saw my beard and gave me the finger. I was on those same roads last week. Not one in five folk responded to my waves, neither the drivers nor the folks on the side of the road. What's happening?

Rural communities are losing their young people. There aren't enough jobs or possibilities to hold them. They leave to seek life elsewhere and seldom return. Even farmers are affected by the current trends... especially that of demanding instant gratification of wishes. Farming just doesn't give a person instant gratification.

There has been a trend toward the idea that a business that doesn't grow dies. That's just not true. Small stores and restaurants have stayed in business for years without needing to grow. They keep their customers by giving them quality products and good service. People come back to them time after time; and their children do it too. The drive to constant growth is mostly driven by the stock market and those who invest in it. It is that drive that has changed business' outlook from the long haul to the next quarter's bottom line. That kind of short sightedness can only hurt, eventually.

None of this is new. An ancient Roman once moaned, "Ah tempore, ah mores." Our mistakes haven't changed much in two thousand years. But then, neither have we.

Happy New Year, 2008

From Christmas to the first of this year, we were in New Mexico with our daughter and grandchildren. We did drive to Phoenix as a family to watch our grandson play hockey as a New Mexico Peewee state teammate. While there, we did some shopping in Scottsdale and went to a Coyote's game to see professional hockey. The Peewees are very good in comparison to the pros. They skate fast and have begun to learn teamwork. It was plenty of fun to see.

Driving home, we did a leisurely, two day trip. The first day was pretty slow since we shopped in the trading and Nambe' stores of Pojoaque. We left New Mexico poorer in wallet, but richer in art.

Since we came back to Little Rock, we have been busy sorting and answering mail. I am almost caught up on the bills which arrived while we were out of town. I have also trimmed my phone messages down to just three for action. I suppose that I should be grateful that people want to talk to me. Alas, so many of them want to propose ways of transferring money from my bank account to theirs.

Little Kitty has been most solicitous since my return. In fact, he has tried to stay near me or on me since I rescued him from durance vile (the kennel). You can see from the picture that he is a handsome fellow. He also has long, soft fur. When I go to bed, he lies on the pillow with my head. When I sit, he bounces into my lap. He likes to drink from the faucet in the bathroom, but doesn't bother with the kitchen tap. Right now, he's purring in my lap, with his chin resting on my right arm as I type.

Our garden survived the brief spell of very cold weather quite well. One Indian blanket flower is still blooming. I thought that they were strictly summer flowers. Alas, our camelia blossoms were frost burned. This is the third year that they have been damaged before we got a chance to see them. The evergreens, like rosemary are still green, but most of the blooms are waiting for warmer weather to show.

In the hopes that you, gentle reader, had a delightful holiday season, please accept my best wishes for the new year.