11/30/2009
OBAMA'S LADDER
Surely, as predicted, President Obama tomorrow will commit more troops to the so called war that is no longer called the "war on terrorism". And thus will contribute to the destabilization of a much more populous country of Pakistan, that is our co called ally in the so called war on terrorism thus increasing the danger of a major escalation of terrorism in Pakistan and abroad.
There are severe problems, Taliban is no longer a serious power in Afghanistan if we just leave the country alone, they will probably help control the corruption in the country and may even moderate their stance if the Arabs will quit financing them and try to make them heel. Al Qaeda on the other hand has no center, it is all over the place, ( I have been saying this for years).
Also as we talk about controlling corruption, then we must start at home, how do we, HOW DO WE!, want to stop monetary corruption when our whole system is based on profiteering and high pay, most of our contract mangers in Afghanistan are making a quarter million or more per year, these are the ones dealing daily with Afghan leadership, surely our counter parts are tempted, it would be naive of us to believe other wise. Lastly as it is becoming the culture here now, in the third world countries, rank and authority is a way to make money, from a lowly cop to the janitor at the city hall on up you expect people to pay you for your services if not out right protection money. After all our involvements in the Middle East, doing business with the Saudi's and the Pakistanis and Egyptians, et all, we cannot pretend to be ignorant, or claim that we ourselves are not corrupting their officials with bribes and presents. It is now only an excuse to stay on there, we just want to make some money for our contractors and politicians.
Our budget deficits are high now and going higher, they were already over a trillion a year under Bush , if we had, as I said, counted the war expenses and the social security offsets. But if we were to stop these wars now, the industrial production will drop (we call making war materials, rockets, humvees, jet engines etc industrial production) and unemployment will increase. Thus both the Dems and the Republicans want to continue the war.
However, as we spend the money for war, our trade deficits increase, as people have money again to buy Chinese made goods, as well as Korean and Japanese made goods and Arab oil, and the country ends up more in debt. Some days are just not worth getting out of bed for.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Monday, November 30, 2009
A CALL TO ARMS
11/30/2009
A CALL TO ARMS
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Friday, November 27, 2009
IN AN INTERCONNECTED WORLD
11/27/2009
IN AN INTERCONNECTED WORLD
So what is common between the upside down world of Dubai and the world of Tareq Salahi. Much more than you think.
If you have never heard of a show called, "the Real Housewives of----" count your blessings. It is a show about foul mouthed ghetto-trailer trash( you may wish to reverse the order here) overly made up and overtly stupid newly rich morons who don't mind making an ass of themselves on national television. Tareq and Michaele Salahi apparently and perfectly fit the bill.
So does Dubai, and in a perfect irony, as the Salahi' crashed a White House party, in the manner of the all newly rich, Dubai defaulted on her debts, Salahi's are bankrupt too.
Prostitution is a time honored profession for those who have fallen on hard times. So as Mr. Salahi and spouse tried to sell their services to a production company, so did Dubai, become a brothel for the rich of the gulf and other countries, and just as hooker does not ask where your money came from, neither did Dubai. If you had money, no questions were asked. The middle east new money rich found an air and a cover of respectability, apparently no one talked about the flesh trade and the flaunting of Islamic code, from his name Tareq Salahi could also be a Muslim himself, what could Al-Queda say, does terrorism it self not increase prostitution, yes, it does, indirectly, but it does so. I am not talking here figuratively, in Dubai there are prostitutes from four corners of the world and the local fare also, from Lebanon, Russia, England, Korea and the Philippines, and your desire be for Halal Islamic flesh then from Pakistan, Bosnia, Iran, Iraq, and surely Saudi.
Just as Salahi and spouse risked going to jail for fame, Dubai risked being exposed for the farce it had been all along, a whore house for the rich. Out of oil money and broke Dubai sold a dream to those seeking high rewards for little efforts, the thieving bankers and the Arab potentates who were about to become rich when the oil hit three hundred dollars a barrel, and when the banking failed and the oil fell, Dubai went under water. At least their ancestors once knew, (it was only sixty years ago) how to find pearls in the scum of the seas.
In two thousand five I proposed to Mr. Bush about legalizing prostitution. I was ahead of my time again. It is not so bad after all, Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swaggart , Elliot Spitzer to name a few were consumers, Spitzer paid eight thousand an hour for his girl, then we have compensated dating (Korea), Japanese teen dating (Enjo Kosai) are considered respectable, heck British research scientist , "Belle Du Jour" even blogged and then bragged about it, so did the Muslim teen genius Sufiah Yusof.
There are pitfalls though, as in the case of the 71 year old in Dothan trying to trade his broken washer for sex, and the thirteen year old in Mobile getting busted for solicitation, and the classic case of the two seventeen year olds who went to the police because they got paid with a rubber check.
And before we laugh too hard at the fool sin Dubai about their financial mess, we must remember the condition our own condition is in.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
IN AN INTERCONNECTED WORLD
So what is common between the upside down world of Dubai and the world of Tareq Salahi. Much more than you think.
If you have never heard of a show called, "the Real Housewives of----" count your blessings. It is a show about foul mouthed ghetto-trailer trash( you may wish to reverse the order here) overly made up and overtly stupid newly rich morons who don't mind making an ass of themselves on national television. Tareq and Michaele Salahi apparently and perfectly fit the bill.
So does Dubai, and in a perfect irony, as the Salahi' crashed a White House party, in the manner of the all newly rich, Dubai defaulted on her debts, Salahi's are bankrupt too.
Prostitution is a time honored profession for those who have fallen on hard times. So as Mr. Salahi and spouse tried to sell their services to a production company, so did Dubai, become a brothel for the rich of the gulf and other countries, and just as hooker does not ask where your money came from, neither did Dubai. If you had money, no questions were asked. The middle east new money rich found an air and a cover of respectability, apparently no one talked about the flesh trade and the flaunting of Islamic code, from his name Tareq Salahi could also be a Muslim himself, what could Al-Queda say, does terrorism it self not increase prostitution, yes, it does, indirectly, but it does so. I am not talking here figuratively, in Dubai there are prostitutes from four corners of the world and the local fare also, from Lebanon, Russia, England, Korea and the Philippines, and your desire be for Halal Islamic flesh then from Pakistan, Bosnia, Iran, Iraq, and surely Saudi.
Just as Salahi and spouse risked going to jail for fame, Dubai risked being exposed for the farce it had been all along, a whore house for the rich. Out of oil money and broke Dubai sold a dream to those seeking high rewards for little efforts, the thieving bankers and the Arab potentates who were about to become rich when the oil hit three hundred dollars a barrel, and when the banking failed and the oil fell, Dubai went under water. At least their ancestors once knew, (it was only sixty years ago) how to find pearls in the scum of the seas.
In two thousand five I proposed to Mr. Bush about legalizing prostitution. I was ahead of my time again. It is not so bad after all, Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swaggart , Elliot Spitzer to name a few were consumers, Spitzer paid eight thousand an hour for his girl, then we have compensated dating (Korea), Japanese teen dating (Enjo Kosai) are considered respectable, heck British research scientist , "Belle Du Jour" even blogged and then bragged about it, so did the Muslim teen genius Sufiah Yusof.
There are pitfalls though, as in the case of the 71 year old in Dothan trying to trade his broken washer for sex, and the thirteen year old in Mobile getting busted for solicitation, and the classic case of the two seventeen year olds who went to the police because they got paid with a rubber check.
And before we laugh too hard at the fool sin Dubai about their financial mess, we must remember the condition our own condition is in.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Thursday, November 26, 2009
THE HOLE STORY part II
11/26/2009
THE HOLE STORY part II
So then, was I wrong in 2003 to say that there are no weapons of mass destruction no matter what our government said, or that Colin Powell had lied, we needed a war to support a struggling economy and to make money for Cheney and his buddies in the military industrial complex.
Remember what i had said about the war in 2003, on salon .com
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
THE HOLE STORY part II
So then, was I wrong in 2003 to say that there are no weapons of mass destruction no matter what our government said, or that Colin Powell had lied, we needed a war to support a struggling economy and to make money for Cheney and his buddies in the military industrial complex.
Remember what i had said about the war in 2003, on salon .com
FABRICATION
So you are upset that Mr.Bush would lie about the nuclear deal in his state of the union message.
Upset that we were fooled about the weapons of mass destruction. But the biggest fabrication was not the documents about the nuclear deal in Niger.
Go back and listen to the Collin Powell presentation to the UN. How could Mr Powell, a General in the United States military, and thus familiar with the intelligence operations, could have presented, with a straight face, the so called intercept of the cell phone conversation between two Iraqi Unit commanders as genuine and true.
I objected to the conversation's presentation at that time, as it was an obvious farce. The whole thing did not make any sense. It did not follow any established military procedure. And as we now know. for a fact, that the Iraqi units were never given any "weapons of mass destruction" ( and what do you call a 20,000 lbs bomb any way?).
May be General Powell' s conscience will soon bother him enough, about his lying to the world, that he would resign. But then again what is conscience, when you have sold your soul.
(M.N.R.)*
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
THE HOLE STORY
11/25/2009
THE HOLE STORY
The problem is this, I think if you are lying to me then you must think that I am stupid and will fall for your falsehood, and that makes me only indignant.
This how I felt when I took my twelve year old son to see the movie, "2012", he loves science and was really into it , but from the very start I was disgusted. What kind of a fool do they think we are, of course if we had massive sun flares the electrical grid will fry, the satellites will be put out of commission, if not burn up. If the earth crust were to crack up suddenly, then the downdraft of the air rushing in to fill the void will make it impossible for an aircraft to fly out.
But that is Hollywood, and we expect to be lied to, but what if the liar is over government and the media is in bed with them to keep us stupid? That is where you get the hole story. Like that in a doughnut hole, you know you are only getting ten percent of the whole and expected to be satiated with it. The media and the government do not wish to provide you with the whole doughnut, they just give the hole.
I had already told you that Obama will commit more troops to Afghanistan if for no other reason then to save the defense jobs, the contractors, and the civilians who make millions of the racket, who know for a billion a year or less we could buy the whole country Taliban and all, but this will help our economy, keep the joblessness from rising, but!
The there was the news this morning that consumer spending increased last moth, are you even buying this crap? Can you tell me where the money came from? There were 400, 000 more unemployed, the wages are stagnant if not declining, house values are going down, no more lines of equity, so on and so forth, the question remains, where did the money come from? who was spending? is that a state secret?
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
THE HOLE STORY
The problem is this, I think if you are lying to me then you must think that I am stupid and will fall for your falsehood, and that makes me only indignant.
This how I felt when I took my twelve year old son to see the movie, "2012", he loves science and was really into it , but from the very start I was disgusted. What kind of a fool do they think we are, of course if we had massive sun flares the electrical grid will fry, the satellites will be put out of commission, if not burn up. If the earth crust were to crack up suddenly, then the downdraft of the air rushing in to fill the void will make it impossible for an aircraft to fly out.
But that is Hollywood, and we expect to be lied to, but what if the liar is over government and the media is in bed with them to keep us stupid? That is where you get the hole story. Like that in a doughnut hole, you know you are only getting ten percent of the whole and expected to be satiated with it. The media and the government do not wish to provide you with the whole doughnut, they just give the hole.
I had already told you that Obama will commit more troops to Afghanistan if for no other reason then to save the defense jobs, the contractors, and the civilians who make millions of the racket, who know for a billion a year or less we could buy the whole country Taliban and all, but this will help our economy, keep the joblessness from rising, but!
The there was the news this morning that consumer spending increased last moth, are you even buying this crap? Can you tell me where the money came from? There were 400, 000 more unemployed, the wages are stagnant if not declining, house values are going down, no more lines of equity, so on and so forth, the question remains, where did the money come from? who was spending? is that a state secret?
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Thursday, November 19, 2009
A DEAD POET
11/19/2009
A DEAD POET
You may think that I am slow, that I do not write often enough, but if you are new, I invite you to browse through the archives, there is plenty here that is as valid today as it was when I wrote it.
This is not a novel that I write or the mere meanderings through my daily life, what I note here is the past and the future how they are intertwined, our past is leading us into this abyss.
Tombstones note the demise of one, sometimes they tell us what the person was, how he lived, and sometimes even how he died.
In Democracy in America, published in 1835, Tocqueville wrote of the New World and its burgeoning democratic order. Observing from the perspective of a detached social scientist, Tocqueville wrote of his travels through America in the early 19th Century when the market revolution, Western expansion, and Jacksonian democracy were radically transforming the fabric of American life. He saw democracy as an equation that balanced liberty and equality, concern for the individual as well as the community.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
A DEAD POET
You may think that I am slow, that I do not write often enough, but if you are new, I invite you to browse through the archives, there is plenty here that is as valid today as it was when I wrote it.
This is not a novel that I write or the mere meanderings through my daily life, what I note here is the past and the future how they are intertwined, our past is leading us into this abyss.
Tombstones note the demise of one, sometimes they tell us what the person was, how he lived, and sometimes even how he died.
In Democracy in America, published in 1835, Tocqueville wrote of the New World and its burgeoning democratic order. Observing from the perspective of a detached social scientist, Tocqueville wrote of his travels through America in the early 19th Century when the market revolution, Western expansion, and Jacksonian democracy were radically transforming the fabric of American life. He saw democracy as an equation that balanced liberty and equality, concern for the individual as well as the community.
Tocqueville wrote of the Americans, "Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom." [2]
As critic of individualism, Tocqueville thought that through associating, the coming together of people for mutual purpose, both in public and private, Americans are able to overcome selfish desires, thus making both a self-conscious and active political society and a vibrant civil society functioning independently from the state. The main purpose of Tocqueville was analysis of functioning of political society and various forms of political associations, although he brought some reflections on civil society too (and relations between political and civil society). For Tocqueville as for Hegel and Marx, civil society was a sphere of private entrepreneurship and civilian affairs regulated by civil code [3].
Many today quote Tocqueville. or like to misquote the gentleman, he was so right about America, looking with the eyes of "detached social scientist". He was right about the United States as he saw it and as it existed way back then. Yes, as it existed way back then, today the United States as Tocqueville saw it does not exist, actually if he were to return he will see how wrong he had been. Or disappointed that his dream America had ceased to exist. We will come back to this discussion in a minute.
In the 1989 movie, " Dead Poet Society " John Keating (Robin Williams) tells his students to climb up on their desks and look at their world from different angle, to forgo the conventional wisdom. In my discussion below, "American Enigma" I discussed how the Average American has become just the average and the same in search of individuality.
I do have a screwed up point of view, if you will allow me, but it is different, as different as that of a Dead Poet of Mr. Keating' Dead Poets, as different as that of an outsider such as Mr. Tocqueville. I AM not a Mr. Tocqueville, I am just a Dead Poet who views the world differently.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Sunday, November 08, 2009
MAKING SENSE PART TWO
11/08/2009
MAKING SENSE PART TWO
I know I will be called a racist, not for the first time, for saying the too many people in this country who have no business having kids are producing off spring,and that includes whites, black and Mexicans all. These people have no interest in raising properly what they bring in to this world. Add this mixture the fuel of what we call the media, kids are growing up watching reality shows where anything goes, and movies and TV shows where rape and murder is common and gets higher box office. Shows such as CSI, SCU and movies such as SAW series, Hotel, and Friday the thirteen make abuse of females fun, and that is before the Rap and the new rock make female abuse Hip. Where do these children learn about self control and respect of females where they watch their own moms and sisters having sex with all comers, get real folks, it will take either a christ or an anti christ to fix this shi p.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8347589.stm
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
MAKING SENSE PART TWO
I know I will be called a racist, not for the first time, for saying the too many people in this country who have no business having kids are producing off spring,and that includes whites, black and Mexicans all. These people have no interest in raising properly what they bring in to this world. Add this mixture the fuel of what we call the media, kids are growing up watching reality shows where anything goes, and movies and TV shows where rape and murder is common and gets higher box office. Shows such as CSI, SCU and movies such as SAW series, Hotel, and Friday the thirteen make abuse of females fun, and that is before the Rap and the new rock make female abuse Hip. Where do these children learn about self control and respect of females where they watch their own moms and sisters having sex with all comers, get real folks, it will take either a christ or an anti christ to fix this shi p.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8347589.stm
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
MAKING SENSE
11/08/2009
MAKING SENSE
My first intention had been to write about the rape of the young girl in California and then the murders at Fort Hood took over the news, so here I am trying to make sense of something else that does not make sense.
In these times of the twenty four hour news cycle, by the time the news of the massacre at hit the headlines, surely most people instantly forgot about the rape of a fifteen year old and moved on. That is not to say that the murders in Cleveland were not important even though most of the victims were all probably black .
Two friends came in, joking, talking about me now, one says, you know he is a psychologist, ( I have a master's in counseling) yeah and the other says and he is in the military, ( I am retired), and we know he has weapons, they agree, and I laugh. You have to have a thick skin to be the one that I am.
Back in 1979, I was teaching Air Traffic Control in the Army, I was called a "camel jockey", a "sand nigger" and a "rag head", at the same time I was also investigated by the Army , twice that I know of, for would you believe, Racism. Not to be left behind, Tim Motley, God bless him, stuck a gun in my face after the hostage crisis, at the Coffee Kettle in town, threatening to show me what how he wanted to deal with those Iranians, I am not an Iranian.
I left my family and I came to the United States to escape fundamentalism, I was always against it and abhor it even today. And yes I was against our war in Iraq. My letter against the war was published in the Dothan Eagle back then and I called the evidence presented to the UN a fabrication. I spoke out against Islamic fundamentalism forty years ago, I call them as I see them today in these United States. I have talked about our stupid economic and social policies, and the decline of the US for years, many of you have seen my letters and blogs postings, I am not shy.
On the morning of the 9.11, 2001, June was watching TV and she came told me when the first aircraft hit the first trade center building, I thought may be it is is foggy in New York and some civilian had hit the tower, but when she came back and told me of the second hit, "where the "F" is the FBI' came of my lips, I had no doubt what had happened.
Yet we have experts, all over the place, on TV and on the talk radio, who never see anything coming, but they are always there to tell you what has just happened, after the fact only.
We live in the time of half hour sitcoms and one hour shows where all the problems of the world are solved, we want instant answers so we can move on, have closure!
I do not have an instant answer, but take time please and try to understand. Before we invaded Iraq, I had said don't go, "I said there was a reason for us to go to Afghanistan but Iraq, no. I said, that there are one point two billion people ion this world that have nothing in common, not language not culture, but they call themselves Muslim, and if we manage to make one tenth of one percent of this population angry at us, and we do not know who they are where they are and what they are capable of we will have problems. I said that if we go to Iraq, they will not receive us liberators but call us occupiers and come after us and try to kill us, and then we will say they are bad, they try to kill us, I said stay out."
Yes I said it, and wrote it in a letter to then Commander in Chief, and had my letter published in "the Dothan Eagle". That makes me unpatriotic in the eyes of many, but then why am I here. If I am an American do I not have a right to an opinion? Do I not have the freedom of speech? Do I not have the right to criticize the government policies? Well I think that I do, and I use my right, even as I have told you it has cost me friendship of many, and also otherwise.
Can we even imagine how many soldiers have comeback hating Muslims and Arabs because they were injured overseas or lost their friends to the enemy, or lost their wives and kids due the divorce or separation caused by deployments? Can we imagine them opening up to an Arab with these sentiments? I have been at the receiving end of these feelings even though most of (an incredibly vast majority of my comrades have been totally respectful, but there have been a few exceptions also)
For many, religion is an escape, a sanctuary from day to day problems, this where we find someone to dump our problems on. So it is not question that the Fort Hood killer turned to his god, misguided about the religion by who ever he was talking to. It is the tragedy that parts of Islam have become like a doomsday cult, like what David Koresh was saying or James Jones or even Charles Manson.
No one can justify or excuse the senseless murders of the innocent. But is there is any crime , ever that is sensible? Any cold blooded murder that can be justified? And then a cold blooded murder in the name of a god? But any way, the gun sales in this country have been up for months, and stores shelves are void of bullets.
The day after Fort Hood, Danny Pierce called me from Dyer, Corrine Fuller was listening in on my end of conversation. You can understand Danny was upset, why? why a Muslim, and I went into the mode of trying to explain, trying to make sense of things. As we were watching a Muslim go on a killing spree at Fort hood, we were also watching the case of an ex marine who had killed eleven women and burried them around his house, John Allen Mohammad was waiting to be put to death and the case of a public rape of fifteen year old was unfolding, did any of it make sense, does anything make sense.
Danny was reminding me of our times together in the army thirty years ago, and how we loved each other and took care of each other and stood by each other. What had happened and how could this fratricide be committed by a Muslim a Major in the Army no less. What I told him was that it had nothing to do with Islam per se, It was a loser, a loner, and one who should have been caught longtime ago and exposed. How did he ever make it to a Major in the Army and a psychiatrist without having had any personality tests and counseling? By rights, all psychology majors take a personality test once or twice or more during their education, all officers and higher enlisted have to have background checks and clearances, obviously some one had dropped the ball.
Then again it is not the first time some one has dropped the ball in this nation of ours, from immigration to drug trafficking to 9/11 we keep dropping the balls. After 9/11 I had asked for the resignation of both Robert Muller and George Tenant, Tenant received the Congressional medal of freedom instead, as a nation, we worship our failures. Do we not know that in the ranks of our military there are gangs, criminals, White Supremacists, Skin Heads, Black Supremacists and others, we know that. May be that's why the Major's behavior was over looked also.
I am not, once again, making excuses, I am examining the facts as I see them, all the facts, just the facts.
Why was a practicing Muslim even assigned to hear the stories of the war? Why he was not pulled back after he apparently became radicalized? Was his radicalization associated with and due to what he was learning about the war at his job? What is the role of his leadership there in, what is THEIR responsibility?
In the end a conviction may hinge on the finding of whether PTSD is real? Is it? If it is then the major was under a lot of stress, listening to the stories of the war veterans, some of whom may have related to him about unnecessary or accidental killings and abuse of the local populace that we are trying to help and bring democracy to. Over a period of time it caused him to become radical and pushed him over the edge. If it was not PTSD in this case, then PTSD does not exist and the veterans are malingering as some in the military hierarchy have already proposed. Is the military ready to deny him a PTSD defense? Is the US?
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
MAKING SENSE
My first intention had been to write about the rape of the young girl in California and then the murders at Fort Hood took over the news, so here I am trying to make sense of something else that does not make sense.
In these times of the twenty four hour news cycle, by the time the news of the massacre at hit the headlines, surely most people instantly forgot about the rape of a fifteen year old and moved on. That is not to say that the murders in Cleveland were not important even though most of the victims were all probably black .
Two friends came in, joking, talking about me now, one says, you know he is a psychologist, ( I have a master's in counseling) yeah and the other says and he is in the military, ( I am retired), and we know he has weapons, they agree, and I laugh. You have to have a thick skin to be the one that I am.
Back in 1979, I was teaching Air Traffic Control in the Army, I was called a "camel jockey", a "sand nigger" and a "rag head", at the same time I was also investigated by the Army , twice that I know of, for would you believe, Racism. Not to be left behind, Tim Motley, God bless him, stuck a gun in my face after the hostage crisis, at the Coffee Kettle in town, threatening to show me what how he wanted to deal with those Iranians, I am not an Iranian.
I left my family and I came to the United States to escape fundamentalism, I was always against it and abhor it even today. And yes I was against our war in Iraq. My letter against the war was published in the Dothan Eagle back then and I called the evidence presented to the UN a fabrication. I spoke out against Islamic fundamentalism forty years ago, I call them as I see them today in these United States. I have talked about our stupid economic and social policies, and the decline of the US for years, many of you have seen my letters and blogs postings, I am not shy.
On the morning of the 9.11, 2001, June was watching TV and she came told me when the first aircraft hit the first trade center building, I thought may be it is is foggy in New York and some civilian had hit the tower, but when she came back and told me of the second hit, "where the "F" is the FBI' came of my lips, I had no doubt what had happened.
Yet we have experts, all over the place, on TV and on the talk radio, who never see anything coming, but they are always there to tell you what has just happened, after the fact only.
We live in the time of half hour sitcoms and one hour shows where all the problems of the world are solved, we want instant answers so we can move on, have closure!
I do not have an instant answer, but take time please and try to understand. Before we invaded Iraq, I had said don't go, "I said there was a reason for us to go to Afghanistan but Iraq, no. I said, that there are one point two billion people ion this world that have nothing in common, not language not culture, but they call themselves Muslim, and if we manage to make one tenth of one percent of this population angry at us, and we do not know who they are where they are and what they are capable of we will have problems. I said that if we go to Iraq, they will not receive us liberators but call us occupiers and come after us and try to kill us, and then we will say they are bad, they try to kill us, I said stay out."
Yes I said it, and wrote it in a letter to then Commander in Chief, and had my letter published in "the Dothan Eagle". That makes me unpatriotic in the eyes of many, but then why am I here. If I am an American do I not have a right to an opinion? Do I not have the freedom of speech? Do I not have the right to criticize the government policies? Well I think that I do, and I use my right, even as I have told you it has cost me friendship of many, and also otherwise.
Can we even imagine how many soldiers have comeback hating Muslims and Arabs because they were injured overseas or lost their friends to the enemy, or lost their wives and kids due the divorce or separation caused by deployments? Can we imagine them opening up to an Arab with these sentiments? I have been at the receiving end of these feelings even though most of (an incredibly vast majority of my comrades have been totally respectful, but there have been a few exceptions also)
For many, religion is an escape, a sanctuary from day to day problems, this where we find someone to dump our problems on. So it is not question that the Fort Hood killer turned to his god, misguided about the religion by who ever he was talking to. It is the tragedy that parts of Islam have become like a doomsday cult, like what David Koresh was saying or James Jones or even Charles Manson.
No one can justify or excuse the senseless murders of the innocent. But is there is any crime , ever that is sensible? Any cold blooded murder that can be justified? And then a cold blooded murder in the name of a god? But any way, the gun sales in this country have been up for months, and stores shelves are void of bullets.
The day after Fort Hood, Danny Pierce called me from Dyer, Corrine Fuller was listening in on my end of conversation. You can understand Danny was upset, why? why a Muslim, and I went into the mode of trying to explain, trying to make sense of things. As we were watching a Muslim go on a killing spree at Fort hood, we were also watching the case of an ex marine who had killed eleven women and burried them around his house, John Allen Mohammad was waiting to be put to death and the case of a public rape of fifteen year old was unfolding, did any of it make sense, does anything make sense.
Danny was reminding me of our times together in the army thirty years ago, and how we loved each other and took care of each other and stood by each other. What had happened and how could this fratricide be committed by a Muslim a Major in the Army no less. What I told him was that it had nothing to do with Islam per se, It was a loser, a loner, and one who should have been caught longtime ago and exposed. How did he ever make it to a Major in the Army and a psychiatrist without having had any personality tests and counseling? By rights, all psychology majors take a personality test once or twice or more during their education, all officers and higher enlisted have to have background checks and clearances, obviously some one had dropped the ball.
Then again it is not the first time some one has dropped the ball in this nation of ours, from immigration to drug trafficking to 9/11 we keep dropping the balls. After 9/11 I had asked for the resignation of both Robert Muller and George Tenant, Tenant received the Congressional medal of freedom instead, as a nation, we worship our failures. Do we not know that in the ranks of our military there are gangs, criminals, White Supremacists, Skin Heads, Black Supremacists and others, we know that. May be that's why the Major's behavior was over looked also.
I am not, once again, making excuses, I am examining the facts as I see them, all the facts, just the facts.
Why was a practicing Muslim even assigned to hear the stories of the war? Why he was not pulled back after he apparently became radicalized? Was his radicalization associated with and due to what he was learning about the war at his job? What is the role of his leadership there in, what is THEIR responsibility?
In the end a conviction may hinge on the finding of whether PTSD is real? Is it? If it is then the major was under a lot of stress, listening to the stories of the war veterans, some of whom may have related to him about unnecessary or accidental killings and abuse of the local populace that we are trying to help and bring democracy to. Over a period of time it caused him to become radical and pushed him over the edge. If it was not PTSD in this case, then PTSD does not exist and the veterans are malingering as some in the military hierarchy have already proposed. Is the military ready to deny him a PTSD defense? Is the US?
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
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