The Fog of Aghanistan

"The Fog of War" is a common enough term...particularly when describing the US military misadventures in the Middle East.  But stories like this one just amaze me. 

Why is there any surprise at all that Afghanistan is an even bigger mess than when we got there?

After all, Afghanistan is the scene of two of the biggest defeats the mighty British Army ever suffered; and the Soviet Union (which doesn't have to worry about budgets or elections) after ten ignominious years there finally gave up. 

Just why did we ever think the US was going to fare any differently?  Because Reagan praised the opposition in Afghanistan against the Soviets as "Freedom Fighters"?  (A good many of those Freedom Fighters are rotting in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere awaiting trial on terrorism charges - today's catchy phrase is tomorrow's goat, or something like that). 

Because we sent in the most expensive military force in the world (by several factors), who were perfectly trained for a 1960s Cold War battlefield?  

Its not like the intelligence world and the thinkers of the world haven't known for a very long time that Pakistan and Afghanistan are two greasy sides of the same slippery coin and not worth our time, trust, or blood. 

Tanks - Of Course. Cyber-defenses - What is That?

Only a true Independent would dare to pen such an inflammatory piece. 

Any Congressperson or Senator beholding to a political party (and therefore a boatload of lobbyists) would much rather keep pouring money onto M-1 tanks that the (unauditable) Pentagon wants to stop making; or the F-35 fighter, a largely Cold War carryover which no one really seems to want to own up to because its costs are completely out of control, or the F-22, which no one even seems very eager to fly.

TED

I just realized that I quoted a TED video in the last post, and I have not really properly introduced TED here to the thinkers that I hope will read this blog. 

TED is one of my favorite spots on the web, full of the world's best thinkers and displaying a remarkable diversity of viewpoints.  You can read more about TED on the site, but it is one of my refuges when I want to stimulate my brain...or just to restore my faith that there are people out there thinking and doing great work, despite what the 'traditional' news sources are reporting.  

If you have never been there - here is a sample.  This is one of my favorite talks that I have listened to and watched multiple times.   The talk (from 2006) by Sir Ken Robinson is full of humor and wry observations, but also has some very pithy and pointed comments about how our modern public school system attempts to 'educate out' the very creativitiy and individualism we so desperately need to be cultivating.  Its only about 20 minutes long, but well worth watching - I know his two most recent books are on my "to-read" list.

Climate Change Reality Sinks In

Climate change has now begun the move from the political arena (where it never belonged in the first place) to reality in the public mindset.  The weather patterns we have seen recently are unprecedented, and scientists with the education or background to have an intelligent opinion on the subject now all agree that it is real, but they also agree that it is probably too late to do anything about reversing it...we are in for a rough ride.

In case you were wondering if climate change is real, here is at least one part of the world where it is all too real. The Marshall Islands are now expected sometime this century to vanish from the face of the earth, the first country to be claimed in its entirety by the effects of climate change, in this case rising seas. The UN has formed a committee (of course) to figure out what the response should be to an entire country disappearing due to climate change.

In fact, the first Pacific island has already disappeared back in 2006.

Here is a talk given at TED about the need to prepare locally, everywhere for the effects of a new climate.




What can you do?  Start by calling any idiot politician on the carpet who trots out the old 'jobs' argument to claim that there is nothing we should be doing.  The next time an idiot Republican Senator from Oklahoma gets up in the Senate and waves a list of English PhDs and TV weather "forecasters" as "proof" there is no global warming -- let him know you aren't buying it.  

And finally...use energy intelligently, and support the development of renewable, non-destructive energy sources.  What would you rather look at, a few more windmills or a continual firestorm from unrelenting, day-and-night heat burning down our cities and homes in a hopelessly dry climate?  Of course, food production will probably come to a complete halt long before that point!   

Homeland (In)security

Of all the hundreds (probably thousands in reality) of stupid moves the Bush administration made...the hurried, haphazard, pointless, and inefficient creation of the Department of Homeland Security has to rank right up there just behind all the random wars they started.

The DHS is right behind the Defense Department in terms of government inefficiency, needless bloat, and just....running around in circles.  I mean, other than making the color orange funny again (at least since Clockwork Orange), what has DHS accomplished?  It is a mishmash of agencies each of whom had their own well-defined responsibilities before they had this inefficient mass of bureaucracy layered on top of them. 

And now, it turns out one of the items that early DHS administrators liked to make bold promises for (and of course demand endless tax funds for) is the "fusion center" concept.  This is a direct outgrowth of the post-9/11 charges that the intelligence was faulty and that the responsible agencies were not talking to each other.  (Aside...so throwing them together to compete for prestige and dollars was supposed to fix this?).  

Recently we have found out that the intelligence was known and available and even shared - some of it as far back as the Clinton administration but politicians largely chose to ignore it or put it aside, hoping it would spontaneously 'go away'.  So, one of the major purposes for DHS fusion centers went "poof".

Now we find out that the fusion centers are worse than unneeded - they are actually worthless and may be detrimental to the overall effort of protecting the US (as well as an impressive sinkhole for tax dollars). 

I wonder if there breathes a politician with the foresight, courage, and love of country to actually propose that the ridiculous caricature that is DHS be disbanded?  

Nahhh...never happen - the name alone is too "feel good" if nothing else.....

What ARE we doing in Afghanistan?

First, George Bush invaded Afghanistan in an ill-thought out fit of pique against the Saudi Arabian terrorists that had committed the atrocities of 9/11/2001.  Not to mention that the stated purpose of 'getting bin Laden' turned out to be a joke, not only because bin Laden was evacuating Afghanistan permanently as US troops were arriving, but it also completely ignored the Russian 10-year bad experience there.  (According to many sources, the Pentagon did not even have a battle plan for invading Afghanistan when George ordered them to go).

I mention this only because I have been befuddled by Obama's entire approach to this country (and Pakistan for that matter).  I heard an unattributed quote on NPRs Talk of the Nation today (a great program for thinkers by the way) that really summed up for me the realistic effect of our presence there:

...a good friend of mine used to say somewhat tongue-in-cheek that what we've done in Afghanistan has taken arguably the best irregular fighters in the world and turned them into the worst regular army outside of Africa. 
 

I am afraid that this has a lot of truth.  One of the Pentagon's many shortcomings is that it continually prepares and re-prepares (and spends untold tax dollars on) preparing for the perfect war....of the 1960s.

The F-35 Disaster Continues

This is a large part of why the Pentagon, and not Social Security or Medicare is the single biggest drain on the country's resources.  Twenty-two years of design and development, and this plane is one of the most universally mistrusted and disliked (but very expensive) pieces of overpriced junk that the military-industrial complex keeps spewing out as long as there is an endless stream of tax dollars (or future tax dollars) coming in.

Remember, a few years ago the Pentagon threw up their hands collectively and admitted that they were not auditable by any financial standard, and wouldn't be until something like 2017.