A gapping wound is beginning to tear

"To disagree, one doesn't have to be disagreeable."
~Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater

The other day I got an email from an old friend from college. He’s in the Air National Guard. I thought I’d share some of what we said to each other with you.

Hey Ted,

Say, I've enjoyed some of your forwards as of late and I wanted to say thanks. They've been quite thought provoking. I was wondering if I could share some in site with you regarding some things I've seen/heard regarding the Iraq War.

I've had some doubts recently with us being "over there", but I struggle with these feelings due to information that I have concerning the rationale for going to war with Iraq.

In Feb. of 2003, I sat in an intelligence briefing with members of my Guard unit in NE. We were shown satellite photos of vehicle activity around suspected WMD sites that indicated movement which lead experts to believe that Saddam was hiding something. This was quite a moment for me considering that I'm really seeing this…We had information about carrier battle groups and ground units and their time tables for deployment. Wow! It was cool, yet scary. So the war came and went...and lingered. I held out that there would be WMD discovered in a matter time. I figured that I would be one of those guys out there in my chem suit and detection equipment dabbing at mysterious liquids. Heck! That's what I've been training for!

I was waiting for it too. So were we all. Secretary of State Collin Powell is someone I'd always respected and trusted, certainly more than Bush, Cheney, or Rumsfeld. So, I tended to believe his presentations of WDM intelligence to the U.N. before the war. But I still had a hang up with a pre-emptive strike. Through all of history only aggressor nations struck first. Now finally the 1,500 page Duelfer Report tells Congress that there were no WMDs. Could those satellite images the Defense department showed my friend’s Guard unit have just been of the vans and trucks of electricians, plumbers, even lunch caterers?

In Sept. of 2003 a friend emailed me a Powerpoint presentation of photos taken in Iraq. The presentation was entitled "Dig Deeper, Watson." In these photos are seen USAF personnel excavating a Russian-built fighter plane. The wings were removed, but the rest of the fuselage was intact. I thought if somebody could bury a monster like a fighter jet, it would be nothing to hide some chemical munitions.

I remember that slide show that he sent me that slide show of the Russian jet in the sand. It was amazing. That had raised a lot of questions and fears in my mind at the time. It's easy to see how anyone could "flip-flop" on these things.

In May of 2004, a story broke in the news that US Army demolition experts found an IED in Iraq that was a chemical mortar round. They were treated for mild Sarin exposure. The IED (improvised explosive device) was set to explode without being launched from a mortar tube. Had this round been launched and detonated, it would have taken out an area the size of at least 3 football fields. I don't want to even think of what that would have looked like.

Yes, many feel that Bush isn't handling this war very well, and that it was foolish to go in without more allies. I can't help wondering, however, that stockpiles of WMD may exist.

Naturally that’s the kind of things that makes you shiver. But no matter how vicious Hussein had been toward his own people, that didn’t mean he had the capability to attack the U.S. Before we invaded, it was less likely that his weapons could land in the hands of Al Queida Terrorists. Especially when a radical Wahhabist-Muslim like Bin Laden and a Secular-socialist totalitarian dictator who's nominally a Sunni-Muslim like Hussein hated each other. Hussein didn’t want Al Quieda in his country and Bin Laden had no respect whatsoever for Hussein. I hate how Vice President Cheney insists that the invasion of Iraq is part of the War-on-Terror. I still think that we should’ve concentrated far more force on Afghanistan and left Iraq to continue withering away like it had been for a decade. Sure the world is better off without Hussein, but Bin Laden is still out there.

On a different vane, I grow weary of people claiming one cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat. I've been biting my tongue these last couple of days. There's a teacher here who gets really excited about stuff like this. I have to argue that things aren't quite so simple. The article you've sent illustrates a point that many of us in the Guard have quietly mulled over. We can't keep on like this. Our military is stretched dangerously thin. Democrats can be Christians too, however. My good friend Ted Mallory is a fine Christian man. I immediately thought of you when this guy made his comment. I like the guy, but he talks a bit too much.

That’s something that sounds like something that many Vietnam veterans complained about- even if they think that the war is just, they were frustrated by the government’s mishandling of it.

Granted, it may be because we're friends, so I'm prone to listen to him and automatically give legitimacy to his input- but his letter reminded me that both sides of the war issue have reasonable, authentic, well-meaning cause to believe what they believe. So I want the “hawks” to know that I see your point, but please try to be open to the opinions of us “doves” as well. So close to the election, things are too charged, too polarized.

I suppose any war is polarizing. As a Civil War historian, my friend knows that too well. I fear that even if in no other way, this war resembles Vietnam insofar as the longer it goes on, the more divided the population will become.

I agree about the Vietnamization of the Iraq situation. I think you could even draw comparisons to the Philippine Insurection of 1900. Our foes are utilizing low tech means to attack a technologically superior force and yet our generals continue to insist that we can beat them with "just another 20,000 troops."

Thank goodness that Aguinaldo didn't have CNN. (Of course, W.R. Hearst could be just as bad I suppose.)
I will go and do my duty when I'm called. I am prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice if necessary, but when/if they hand that triangular flag to my wife, It would be nice to know that my death was worth it.

“How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?....We are here in Washington to say that the problem of this war is not just a question of war and diplomacy. It is part and parcel of everything that we are trying as human beings to communicate to people in this country - the question of racism which is rampant in the military, and so many other questions such as the use of weapons; the hypocrisy in our taking umbrage at the Geneva Conventions and using that as justification for a continuation of this war when we are more guilty than any other body of violations of those Geneva Conventions; in the use of free fire zones, harassment interdiction fire, search and destroy missions, the bombings, the torture of prisoners, all accepted policy by many units in South Vietnam. That is what we are trying to say. It is part and parcel of everything.” ~Lieutenant John Kerry made before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 23, 1971.

It frightens me to imagine either my friend from college, or any of my students as the last to die in Iraq.

I really consider myself a moderate centrist. I consider myself an American before and above being a Democrat and a Christian before and above being an American. I believe that our Nation's motto "E pluribus unum" -"Out of many, one" is more than a motto, it should be a mission, a principle which we should strive for. But it seems like people won’t let you be “for the troops, but against the war.” If you suspect the Bush Administration of favoring the rich and corporations, especially oil companies at the expense of the working class, or of botching the real War on Terror and the War on Iraq, somehow you’re a traitor.

Whether the next President is bush or Kerry, not only will they have to clean-up our mess in Iraq and continue to protect us from Terror, they will need to do an awful lot to heal the gapping wound in our unity that the war in Iraq is just beginning to tear.

White lines and white lies

I tried to lay off politics as long as I could, but as Popeye would say, “I tooks all I kin takes, an’ I can’t takes no more!” You’re more than welcome to disagree with me- in fact I encourage you to submit your opinions to the NEWSpaper, that’s what democracy is all about, Charlie Brown! What follows are not necessarily the opinions of the NEWSpaper’s publishers or their staff, or of my own wife and family for that matter.

London's Daily Mirror reported last week that writer Kitty Kelley claims that President Bush began using cocaine at Yale in her book The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty. Former sister-in-law Sharon Bush is quoted in Kelley’s book as saying that "Bush did coke at Camp David when his father was President, and not just once either."

Other Bush acquaintances say in her book that he "liked to sneak out back for a joint or into the bathroom for a line of cocaine" while he was a member of the National Guard. How ironic that former President Bill Clinton was scrutinized so severely by Bush’s father’s campaign in 1992 for having admitted to having tried marijuana once in college and for protesting against the Vietnam War.

The White House maintains that W. Bush has not used illegal drugs for 25 years. That would be 1979, but if Kelley’s revelations are true, Bush Sr. was in office from 1988-92, just ten years ago. After weeks of pro-Bush ads accusing Sen. John Kerry of embellishing his combat record in Vietnam, one of the most respected news institutions reported that the Bushes pulled strings so that George W. wouldn’t have to serve in Vietnam.

Former Texas House Speaker and Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes told “60 Minutes” that he helped keep Bush from getting drafted when Bush had just graduated from college. Barnes revealed that he had a meeting with the late oilman Sid Adger, a friend to both Barnes and then-Congressman George Bush.

"It's been a long time ago, but he said basically would I help young George Bush get in the Air National Guard," said Barnes.

Bush abruptly stopped flying and moved from Texas to Alabama to work on a political campaign. Bush's squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, ordered Bush "to be suspended from flight status for failure to perform" to U.S. Air Force and National Guard standards and failure to take his annual physical "as ordered." According to a Guard memo.

National Guard documents already released by the White House and the Pentagon show that Bush was suspended from flight status for "failure to accomplish annual medical examination.” Do you think that perhaps he wanted to avoid a physical because his drug problem would be discovered?

In a 1973 memo, Killian complained that he was under pressure from his boss, Col. Walter B. "Buck" Staudt, to "sugar coat" Bush's officer evaluations.

Bush has admitted to having had an alcohol problem when he was young. I have no qualms about a recovering addict being in the White House, but it’s a pretty high pressure job. It’s got to be hard to stay sober. It’s also a pretty high powered job witch can easily be abused for personal gratification- as we saw so unfortunately with President Clinton’s indulgence.

Surely transparency and complete disclosure would relieve some of that pressure as well as provide accountability and even moral support for a statesman in recover. Fallible, vulnerable, human leaders can still lead, hypocrites forfeit their authority once they’re found out.

Sociologists think that just like the Civil War did, the specter and divisiveness of Vietnam may plague America until every last member of the generation who fought in it or against it has passed away.

As a member of the generation that followed, I don’t know if my perspective would be regarded as objective, or as uninformed, but I’ll tell you anyway. McCain served, admirable. Kerry served, then opposed, admirable. Clinton didn’t serve, opposed, perhaps unadmirable or perhaps admirable depending, I suppose on your opinion of Johnson and Nixon’s policies.

Bush used privilege to avoid service, misrepresented Iraq as being part of the wider ‘War on Terror,’ and continues to do so. Is that admirable?

Before the Presidential Primaries, I’d talked to dozens of Republicans who were dismayed by the war in Iraq. But now more than ever this administration is trying to associate Saddam Hussein and Iraq with September 11 and al Qaeda. Now, I know that Iraq is not the only issue. I know that Vietnam and both candidate’s military service was over three decades ago. And I know that what mistakes a person made in their youth are just that, mistakes of youth. So, okay, all that aside, do you really feel safer than you did four years ago? Are you better off than you were four years ago? If the Economy is really coming around, why do so many people keep losing their jobs?

Did you know that the National Debt is over $7,000,000,000,000? Last year Government spent $318 billion of our money on interest payments for the National Debt alone- just interest payments! The Deficit this year (which contributes to the debt) is estimated at an all time high of $445 billion. This is the third straight year of deficits, after four years under Clinton of surpluses. How much of that 445 billion went to the tax cut for the richest 2% of Americans? Kiss Social Security, Medicare, any reasonable and helpful government programs good bye.

The Catsup Conspiracy

In Washington, at the September 11th Commission hearings they’re talking about establishing yet another layer of bureaucracy. They want to make sure that the various agencies with access to information about terrorism speak to each other. You’d think that the DEA, ATF, FBI and various branches of Military Intelligence would already report to the Central Intelligence Agency- thus the useful adjective “Central,” as in “it should all come through one central office.”

Post 9-11, you’d think that they’d all report to the department of Homeland Security. Really, since the National Security Council operates out of the White House basement, shouldn’t they all report there?

But no, in their infinite wisdom, Washington wonks want to set up another agency which all other agency will report to. I’m all for all of these agencies sharing what they know about terrorism with each other, but I’m beginning to lose faith in government bureaucracy.

Don’t get me wrong, in my view, we are all our government, and it is a practical tool, not some great evil to be eliminated like some way-right wingers seem to think (the militia men back in the woods of Idaho.) but just because I lean toward FDR, rather than Ronald Reagan, doesn’t mean I don’t get fed up too. Democracy is a human institution and forgive me for not being as much of a die hard optimist as Reagan was, but my Lutheran upbringing tells me that human nature is selfish and short sighted to say the least.

It is because of our sinful human nature that the cost of liberty is eternal vigilance. We must not only be vigil against terrorists, but against pork barrel special interest as well. But I’m not here to rant about Haliburton’s profiteering, or gross abuses of Pentagon contracts. You’d think as a Democrat, I’d call an end to pharmaceutical advertising on television and in magazines because that little bit of deregulation has resulted in skyrocketing health care and insurance costs. No, I’m ticked off at… well to be honest I’m not sure who to be ticked off at. It’s either the FDA or the President’s Physical Fitness Challenge people whoever they are.

Here’s why I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to diet anymore…

French fries are officially considered vegetables. Did you hear this? What’s more, FROZEN French fries are as of a week ago, officially recognized by the U.S. government as FRESH vegetables. What the heck?!

It’s amazing that such a decision was made, first of all “French” fries are unpatriotic because France opposed a pre-emptive war in Iraq. What’s more, French fries definitely off the Atkins diet. They’re practically 100% carbs.

This Atkins thing is out of control. I won’t be surprised if the FDA doesn’t change the nutrition pyramid by removing the entire breads, pastas, and cereals tier. Doctor Atkins will no doubt be awarded a medal of freedom posthumously or named honorary surgeon general.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for weight loss- God knows I’ve tried. I’m all for French fries too, maybe that’s why I’m so worked up about this- you can’t be pro-weight loss and pro-French fries, it just doesn’t work- even on Atkins, and that’s pretty much the fat, lazy, self-indulgent, man’s diet (excuse me, lifestyle change.) Believe me, I’m a fat, lazy, self-indulgent guy, this is one reason I’m not keen on Atkins, it would deny me my French fries.

I’ve thought about Slim-Fast, talk about not working with the whole self-indulgent thing. My biggest problem is that whole liquid diet scare back in the 1970’s where people died of kidney failure. Slim-fast is definitely not a BALANCED diet, nor a balanced lifestyle.

I’ve thought about pills like Metabalife or Cortislim, but there was that whole scare in the 90’s with the aphedra thing where people were dying of heart failure. If I wanted to pop pills I’d just go all the way and start taking “speed” or some other form of meth or amphedamines like Rush Limbaugh- mind you, it worked for him, he lost a ton of weight, but I’d end up dead or in jail, not back on the air and in the President and House Speaker’s offices like Rush.

I’ve tried the low fat diet, where you don’t buy anything with more than 9 grams of fat on the ingredients, but you know what, that just let me be overindulgent with the pasta. Years ago I tried a sort of precursor to Atkins called Sugar Busters- it worked great, must have lost 25 pounds or more. Basically you didn’t buy anything if sugar or high fructose corn syrup was in the first four ingredients. Of course I was exercising every day too. There was a pool at our condominium complex.

It wasn’t easy, this was before every beer maker, grocery store and fast food restaurant was bending over backwards to cater to low carb dieters. Even in Southern California it was difficult. A small chain of grease spots called “Fat Burger” had best French fries. Mmmmm. Fortunately, we lived around the corner from a health food store. I really began to enjoy tofu and salmon.

I’ve seen lots of people have phenomenal weight loss with Atkins, anywhere from 10 to 120 pounds. But lets face it, the proof of the pudding is under the crust (mmmm, pudding). My point is that it hasn’t been on the seen to see the long term effects. Can people ever gradually go from hard core carbophobics back to balance without gaining all their weight back? Will it clog up the arteries and cause heart damage and high cholesterol?

The only real way to lose weight is to eat less and to exercise more. The only way to keep the weight off is to KEEP eating less than everybody else and exercising more than you would if you didn’t deliberately discipline yourself to do so- for the rest of your life. These are all things that I hate to admit, but I have a real aversion too.

But here’s where I get both the Republicans and the Democrats mad. It’s all part of some elaborate plot for the “powers-that-be” to control the world and keep us all preoccupied with our waist lines so we won’t notice what they’re trying to do. Follow the connections…

Reagan has Catsup declared a vegetable back in the 1980’s. His successor’s son, Bush Jr. declares French fries and frozen French fries vegetables, then he’s replaced by Kerry- who was in the same fraternity at Yale with Bush Jr. Kerry’s wife, HAPPENS to be heiress to the Heintz Catsup dynasty. All just a coincidence? I don’t THINK so!!!

Presidential race narrowing

Here’s what I see happening. Quote me or mark my words or whatever you want to do- the very fact that I’m going on record with this will probably jinx it so it won’t happen anyway:

Mass. Sen. John Kerry sews up the Democratic nomination long before the convention and chooses N.C. Sen. John Edwards as his running mate. Since Edward’s is young and handsome, like Dan Quayle and a Protestant and a Southerner like LBJ, he wins over the young, the South, and the Christian non-conservatives (Black) swing voters that a Catholic from Boston like Kerry needs to defeat President Bush and Vice President Dick “Halaberton/Heart trouble” Cheney in November.

A couple of weeks ago, on February 2, Kerry won 5 of the 7 state primaries, solidifying his lead in a rapidly dwindling field of Democratic candidates. It is important to point out that at the time I write this column, he only has 244 delegates at the convention so far. He needs at least 2,161 to guarantee the nomination. 1,917 is still a long way to go.
Most of us have written of Vermont Gov. Howard Dean since he screamed after the Iowa Caucuses, but he’s got 121 delegates and Edwards has 102. General Wesley Clark only has 79.

If any of these guys can hang in there till spring, maybe they can bring enough leverage to make sure that their voice is at least hear at the convention. That’s what Rev. Al Sharpton claims to be trying to do, although most analysts don’t expect he’ll have much influence. Right now he has a whole five delegates, and that’s after coming in third in South Carolina- his big “double digits win.” That means he got 10 %.

Personally, I’d like to see Dean be able to do that. He successfully activated the party’s progressive base without flying as far to left field as Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich. For whatever else anyone thinks of Dean, he is a thinker. He wrote a pamphlet called “Common Sense for the 21st Century,” an homage to Thomas Paine’s Revolutionary War propaganda, that lays out pretty clearly and simply his ideas about who America is, where we came from, and how to get back to fundamental ideas of justice, fairness, progress, world leadership, self-government, and community.

Okay, okay, I’ll give up, I know he’s out. A Time/CNN poll has Bush beating Dean 52% to 45%. I just wish that fixing foreign policy, helping education and a balanced budget were as important to other Democrats as “electability.” Are you happy? I’ll stop betting on a dead horse. But my point is, I think Dean got Kerry and Edwards to talk about the war and the deficit and that’s important.

I predict that Dean will end up hosting his own talk show somewhere and General Clark will be offered either Secretary of State or Defense. Sharpton will go back to neighborhood radical race politics in New York City or obscurity.

Dean’s pinning a lot of hopes on Michigan and Wisconsin this week and next, but the real test will be March 2, when 10 more states hold their primary on what used to be called “Super Tuesday,” including California, Georgia, New York, and Kerry’s home state of Massachusetts. By the time American Samoa has their primary on March 8, I think it will be all over.

That same Time/CNN poll has Kerry beating Bush 53% to 46% or Edwards beating Bush 49% to 48%- of course if that would happen, there’d be all this trouble over ballots somewhere like Florida, where Bush’s brother is governor and it would get decided in the Supreme court by justices appointed by Bush’s father who go duck hunting with Cheney on the weekends.

Of course, if the Army gets a hold of Osama Bin Laden in the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan this spring or summer like the CIA thinks they might, all bets are off. Bush will be every body’s hero again and people will be talking about Kerry the way they talk about Dean now.

Mind you, I hope they get him tomorrow, but the massive debt and deficits that Bush has been running may do more harm than terrorism over the next fifty years. When did “conservatives” give up on fiscal responsibility? When I grew up I thought that’s what it meant to be a Republican, but since Reagan and Bush Sr. it seems like all they like to do is tax-and spend.

They accuse Democrats of being tax-and-spend liberals, but it’s who you tax and what you spend it on. I see Bush taxing working people and spending it on Halaberton and Enron.

Kerry and Bush both went to Yale, and both pledged to the infamous, secretive and Masonic “Skull and Bones” fraternity, but I’ll take the old fashioned Boston noblesse oblige over a "blind man in a roomful of deaf people" any day. (Yes I know Dean went to Yale too, what are ya gonna do?)

Disclaimer: These views were my own and do not necessarily represent those of other Democrats, this NEWSpaper, or Lyon Publishing- just thought I'd throw that at ya to cover my tushie.