Atlanta Auto Tinting

And a question for the Open Source staff: has there been any word about Mr. Moutlon and Mr. Campbell? I do hope they are still alive and well.

Sarcasm does not translate very well into email. Although, this show did reduce me to sarcasm too in my last post. (Yes, I was being sarcastic when I suggested tripling sales of potatoe chips was a fine example of national leadership). I mostly try to avoid it. It often does not come across and can leave the reader puzzled.

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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

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USA All The Way.

Can someone actually be that ignorant? In that few words? It’s as if teams of linguists and scientists sat down and tried to find a phrase that could be the most: socially, politically, geo-politically, and gramatically incorect in the fewest words.

It’s like some kind of idiot’s haiku.

So, RR whoever you are, either I need to congratulate you, or you need your medication adjusted.

War is gay.

Iraq is so tragically apart now, spilling more and more into the surrounding countries, that it will take decades and many lost lives, lost innocent lives, ours and many more of theirs for things to calm down if they can be calmed down. Last night one of the generals was on the Newshour, a show that is increasingly a vehicle for the administration it seems. He was already warning, asking for more time to see if this surge is working, more time than September the targeted month of reckoning which was supposed to be early this summer.

The very people Iraq will need to rebuild are leaving or have left for elsewhere. Hidden amongst them some are up to no good with cause. Iraqi’s who are running are not allowed asylum here, probably for those very reasons and maybe racism, but for very small numbers. They crowd festering sores added to festering sores in the camps of Syria and Jordan. The longer we stay the more strength and training and motive we give to “the enemy” that we create as Iraq gets cleaned out of it’s saner more normal productive people, people who are not up for the madness and long haul.

The job that the military has been given to me seems like trying to run up a down escalator. For these MBA’s what matters it seems is that the leg muscles are in shape. That their families are living in anxiety over their choices and fates takes second to ambition recast as service.

Can we as a country mature about what war or at least that shameful concept “optional war” accomplishes after the failures in Iraq are added to Viet Nam? Can we understand or even ask where real security comes from?

I can sooner understand a doctor’s decision to be on the battlefront.

I understand better those “regular folk” peggysue; they have no better path open to them, though I wish they too would stop enlisting for this “madness” ( Joshua Hendrickson)

It is rare that I have to walk away from an ROS show several times to cool down. Could these elite boys have been more full of self-engrandizement? They as much said they love the feel of holding the lives of others in their hands. What if those ethnic others never wished to entrust these raw enlightenment heroes with their lives? These big, expensive brains have spun it like cotton candy so it is all sweet and pretty in pink. So much for all the cavities left behind.

What I wanted to know was how they feel when they bust into an Iraqi house and terrorize a family with fear, and how they think the children of Iraq are living with their constant presence and the noise of war.

How can the one guy say the worst thing was the loss of one of his men? Are they not there to “protect” the Iraqi civilians? Isn’t that what we’ve been told? So why does it not pain him as much to see their injuries and loss of life? Are their lives of less value?

All that nice moralizing talk to try and normalize this abusive use of power was over the top, and I gained no insight into their thinking as they were so cautious and protective despite Chris’ efforts. I just can’t understand why ROS has to give these boys a platform when so many people struggling to help humanity can’t get their voices heard. This radio show can do better!

kristopher above says it. I found the show very disturbing and frightening. Frightening, for example, because the reasoning and rationale were enough to inspire others here. That’s a quality of leadership true, but it’s leading with blinders on and over the cliff. For the guests, the obligation is to their soldiers. If it is the wrong war or a failing war the rationale would have them supposedly with more effect over there than protesting here. Somehow their presence there is not supposed to contribute to the worsening of the situation only to make it better. That’s the same overblown idea on a personal level that this country’s leaders have about the US.

I left last night with scotthagerman’s post, upset. I wonder what it would take “to leave the place better than we found it”? Can we agree on what that means? or what winning means? Do we absolutely have to win? Is this for Iraqi’s ( and what do they want? who decides what is best for them? are they a cohesive country any more that can agree?) Is this really for our security either? Or, now for pride, the pride of this President’s administration and it’s followers?

Howard Zinn says: “All war is class war”

We know what side the Harvard Business School Marines are on.

Perhaps one source of misunderstanding, is that I wasn’t thinkging that the US military is the only player in the Iraq War. It isn’t about the military working within itself. They must rally with their opponents. And you can’t sustain that if you are iinjuring and killing one another. So, the best resolution is one where the players transform their understanding of a good game and work to better one another, not destroy one another. (I wasn’t actually thinking about this when I wrote my post. I was more generally thinking that I don’t like the war paradigm brought into civilian leadership.)

>whether, as a society, we find it attractive transfer military leadership styles into civil leadership positions.

Occasionally in my jobs there has been a former military leader in the magenement chain, and it doesn’t work so well…and now I am myself a manager of a team of very smart, talented, artistic and cynical people, and military leadership would be an absolute disaster. And those ex-Marines and such in management positions in the larger company aren’t usually all that respected as “leaders” for our organization…

Then again, we’re not always kind to Harvard-business-school types, either
(And I’m not at all anti-education, having a PhD and Ivy League undergrad)

The Iraq war is a pre-emptive strike. The Iraquis were not hurting us. The World Trade Center bombings were not carried out by Iraquis. Al Quaeda was not in Iraq. This is an immoral war. It is wrong. The moral reasoning of the two marines was reminiscent of that of Nazi doctors doing their duty for the honor of the homeland. These marines refuse to question the moral basis of this particular pre-emptive invasion, occupation of a sovereign nation.
Chris did not ask the right question.
Not war in general per se, but this particular pre-emptive war.
The criteria for the justice of pre-emptive war are higher than for the criteria for defensive war.

I think there are larger forces at work here, one of which is the way capitalism solves the crisis of accumulation by devaluing capital surpluses (sometimes by directly destroying supplies and overhead) and by geographical expansion. In a military economy, all those stockpiles of weapons have to be used up so that “productive” activities can take place again.

When I play tennis competitively, matches were never my favorite part. I loved having someone on the other side of the court with whom I could sustain rallies. I would rally for hours each day. In this framework, you are driven to improve your skills and produce the best possible work in order to raise the standard of play for all involved. It is to everyone’s benefit. No one has to lose. How grand it would be if we could all play life this way. We would have to have a huge cultural shift to embrace this. And it would not fit with a military model of engagement. I’m so tired of everything being couched in a war-like framework.