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Down The Middle - May 31, 2004 - Printable Version
- "Wanted: Dead Or Alive" and "Will Bush Give Us The Lottery Again?"
by Down The Middle and To The Left
Welcome to our new column expressing the social and political viewpoints of two Americans, one from the Left, and the other from the Middle. To keep it fair and balanced, we should have engaged a voice from the right...but then, you've probably already heard enough of that "Stay the Course - I have a vision" blather.
We hope our commentaries will provide some insight into where America currently is and in which direction she must go, if we are to survive as a people and a nation.
So, come along with us now. It's just down the Middle and to the Left.
Firmly entrenched in my command seat (the overstuffed chair in front of the TV), I gripped the satellite remote with my best shootin' hand.
Bin Laden was holed up in the caves of Tora Bora, like the bastard rat he was, and the Northern Alliance, with a handful of American Special Forces, were at his doorstep.
Like all Americans, I wanted to see this mass murderer brought to justice (as our President had promised) and was anxiously awaiting the moment when Osama was going to eat the big one. The "big one" being that 2,000lb. laser guided bomb the U.S. Air Force was about to donate to the cause of his martyrdom.
With my itchy trigger finger, I shot from network to network, soon happening upon a news crew approaching two of our forward controllers (Special Forces who designate targets for our bombers). I leaned forward in my chair and pumped up the volume.
"We had him." one of the controllers told the reporter. "We knew exactly which cave he was in, painted 'em with the laser and called for the air strike."
I sprang to my feet, anticipating the confirmation of Osama's demise, and if I'm really lucky, maybe some footage of Tora Bora limestone and bin Laden body parts flying through the air...but before I could yell "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out!", I heard the soldier speak again.
"We waited four hours and the strike never came." he said, with a less than satisfied expression on his face.
"WHAAAAT!!!", I screamed in disbelief, raising my remote to the heavens.
"He's gone now." the young Sergeant continued. "They slipped away."
Having dabbled some in military history and battlefield tactics, I had been skeptical of our Afghanistan strategy from the beginning. There was no doubt, using the tribesmen of the Northern Alliance for the infantry component of our assault had saved countless American soldiers' lives...but I still had a problem being allied with a people whose word for "enemy" is the same word they use for "cousin".
Still, throughout the truces with their "enemy" and the slipping away of their "cousins", we had rolled across Afghanistan, winning every battle until we had bin Laden trapped...well, like a rat. Or at least we thought we did.
We had pounded the hammer but had no anvil. I couldn't understand why we hadn't saturated the mountains with all the American troops we could muster, possibly preventing Al Qaeda's escape into Pakistan.
Bobby Lee would have certainly sent Stonewall to flank 'em and cut 'em off. Georgie Patton and Stormin' Norman would have done the same.
Knowing the likelihood of their retreat across the border, why were we not prepared to interdict or pursue them? (Remember the President's promise to "Go anywhere, against anyone.")
It seems, while all of America was busy praising the Administration's brilliant military campaign, we had let bin Laden slip right through our fingers.
Who the hell called off the air strike!!! And why???
Where were the American "boots on the ground" we so badly needed to capture or kill the terrorists and why were we not willing to commit those combat divisions to avenge the brutal murder of our 3,000 countrymen?
It wasn't long before I would know the answer. Those troops were being saved for another assignment - the invasion of Iraq.
Down The Middle
Lookie here: http://www.boreme.com/bm/MAY04/a/f_osama_bin_lotto/fr.htm
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary"
H L Mencken
I picked up this quote somewhere while browsing the web in the past and have had it posted over my desk for some time. I have watched the Bush Administration on the news channels intensely every since they "stole" the election. Since then, I've seen the American population suffer both domestically and on the World front. The most dangerous situation, in my opinion, is our "unilateral war" in Iraq. Where are our replacement forces going to come from for the military needs of the near future?
I'm an old "leftover hippie" from the sixties who was right in the middle of the Viet Nam "Conflict". I didn't go to Viet Nam but I had many friends that went and some of them didn't come back. I was on my local campus demonstrating against the war when the opportunity arose. In those days, the draft was in effect and when you graduated from High School, you got married, went to college, or were drafted into the military. They also used the military as an alternative to some of those that got in trouble with the law. We didn't have demonstrations as big as some of the larger universities in other parts of the nation but we all felt the same. Just why were we there?
The Viet Nam war was our first "war without heroes". My old friends would come back to the states without any fanfare. It was strange, it was just like they were owed nothing in return. Since, I've seen several of these veteran friends die from extensive alcoholism and drug abuse.
One of my friends, Kenneth, was the known bad ass of the town for years. He quit High School in his junior year and joined the Army. He was an infantry soldier with a dog that usually walked "point" so his dog could sense trouble. This was in 1968, so it was bad and getting worse. The first week he was in 'Nam, a friendly artillery round landed short right in the middle of his platoon. He was saved by the soldier standing beside him, who caught the shrapnel and died.
When Kenneth finished his tour, he came back home with stitches and a bandage on his forehead. I asked him what happened and he said "Right before I finished my tour, while I was still in the bush, I walked into a hutch and a Viet Cong, hanging in the rafters, jumped down and hit me with the butt of his rifle. It took all I had to keep from passing out, but I killed him!" Now isn't that a hell of a thing for a 19 year-old to have to do?
Kenneth opened up a bar and continued to booze it up for years. Although we grew apart throughout the years, I would occasionally see him in town. Later on, I heard from some friends that his health was to the point that he had to quit drinking. I happened to run into him one day and asked him how it was going. He said he had all kinds of problems with nightmares about Viet Nam experiences. I said, 'Well Kenneth, it's been over 25 years since Nam, why now?" Doctors had told him that the drinking always controlled his fearful memories, but now he had no control. Kenneth was always such a strong, tough guy, that I felt like could take care of anything. Now I was just looking at a shell of a man, compared to the past. A few months later, Kenneth, in his forties, died. I have never been to the gravesite, since it's a distance away, but a friend told me that the epitaph on his tombstone says, "The Nightmares are over". That's just one story.
A couple of years ago, the small version of the Viet Nam Memorial Wall with the list of casualties came to my hometown. It was a sad experience to look down to see familiar names of friends of mine from the past. All that is left of them are those names and their memories. These were young men, average age of 19, that didn't have a chance like I have had.
It seems that we have a war about every twenty-five to thirty years. Just about the time that the old leaders are out of the picture. I was one of the "children of the sixties". In school, because of the Cold War, we were made to watch films on what to do in case of a nuclear attack and how to build a bomb shelter. The Cuban Crisis came down and at age 13, it scared the pee out of me!
Soon after that, the Viet Nam conflict began to boil. I was saved from the draft when they came up with the lottery system for draftees. The lottery drawing consisted of drawing numbers for every day of the year with birthdays as draftee priorities. I feel like every young man in the nation was watching TV that night. My lottery number was # 347. I was relatively safe.
I never could really understand why we were there. I was told that we were fighting communism, but really didn't feel like it was any of our business. Today, history tells us that it was a great mistake. The young people were right all the time but it made a lot of money for the wartime investors!
Well, here we go again! People should always look back in history for today's strategies. HOW EASILY WE FORGET! Our military is stretched too thin over the world. The National Guard and Reserves, who were not expecting combat, with growing families, are killed and maimed every day. Our military, consisting of many minorities and low income people, most of whom are struggling to make a better life for themselves in the future, are killed and maimed every day. Even if they make it home safely, like Kenneth, they must deal with the horrors they have experienced for the rest of their lives. Now we have females going through this too. How destructive this must be to these soldiers!
I'm sure that the enlistment quota for the Guard and Reserves, as well as the regular forces has drastically dropped in the last year. When the military first sent these soldiers over there, it would only be a six-month tour. Then it went to a one-year tour. Now I have friends that have children that have been over there well over a year. What is the U.S. military going to do to replace these people? Buddy, I believe they'll re-institute the draft on us again! Are they going to draft females also?
I have four boys that, if this isn't settled soon, may end up being prime candidates. I love my boys and would never want them to go through what Kenneth did.
Don't get me wrong; I'm as much a patriot as the next person. If this country were truly threatened, I would be one of the first to put my life on the line. If we were to be occupied by a foreign country, I would do all I could to disrupt the occupation to fight for our freedom and rights. Sound Familiar?
To The Left
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