Posted on 08/25/2005 1:58:22 PM PDT by prairiebreeze
The federal government is doing something right now that is exactly the opposite of what it should be doing. It is forgetting to think dark. It is forgetting to imagine the unimaginable.
Governments deal in data. People in government see a collection of data as something to be used, manipulated or ignored, but whatever they do with it, it's real. It's numbers on a page. You can point to them.
To think dark, on the other hand, takes imagination--and something more.
As adults living in the world, we know some things. As Murphy taught us, if it can go wrong, it will go wrong. As the journalist Harrison Salisbury said, in summing up what he'd learned in a lifetime observing history, "Expect the unexpected." As JFK taught us, "There's always some poor son of a bitch who doesn't get the word"--someone in the field who doesn't know what's going on and does exactly the wrong thing. As Ronald Reagan once said in conversation, man has never invented a weapon he didn't ultimately use. And as life has taught us since 9/11, we live in a dangerous age and the dangers aren't over, if they will ever be.
When you think dark, you're often and inescapably thinking with your gut, a vulgar way of referring to a certainty that lives somewhere between your spirit, soul and intellect. Your gut knows things your brain can't assert as fact because they're not facts, not yet. It can take guts to listen to your gut.
Right now the federal government is considering closing or consolidating hundreds of military bases throughout the U.S. A government commission is meeting this week to vote on specific base-closing proposals in the Pentagon's plan.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
ping
Eventually we will be forced to use nukes to protect ourselves.
Conventional war is too costly in men, materials and morale.
Some unstable president in the near future will make that decision.
And Americans will ask......
"why did we wait so long?"
Clinton pardoned all those people in his last hours as President, Maybe President Bush will drop a few well deserved bombs.
I've thought the exact same thing lately. The base closings make me nervous.
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Yes, and if anything, we should be building our military strength back up, not only to where it was before Carter and Clinton destroyed it, but beyond given the actions of China, just for openers.
Each day, I become more concerned about the wisdom that resides in Washington ---
One disadvantage the current administration has is that some of the strategerie behind this needs to remain secret and they are very good at keeping secrets. Other administrations might be tempted to leak the reasons rather than accepting the heat but soldering on. That might be rose-colored glasses optimism but I have to think that Rumsfeld knows what he is doing.
There isn't much worry of that anyway, and the "stand-up time" isn't particularly long anyway.
The truly worrisome part for me is declining numbers of long-lead weapons systems: ships, planes, and the like. Given the likely pace of a major war, if we ever get into a serious mess, our lack of hardware may well bite us badly.
Peggy, you're a great writer and we love ya...but I don't think you could possibly have the information that the pentagon has with regard to base closings shifting of our troops here and world wide.
I'm sure there is a lot of redundancy that may actually put at greater risk as we are spread too thin...
All the troops in the world won't save ya if ya don't have the will to use them. Case in point: Fallujah, summer 2004.
I do think that we take the war on terror too lightly. Things can get bad very quickly.
Your point would be much more meaningful had we not kicked the crap out of Fallujah.
Case in point: Fallujah, summer 2004.
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Yes, very true, and Bush One NEVER should have stopped Stormin' Norman from going into Bahgdad and cleaning it out. Mistake after mistake...politics over purpose.
Yes, indeed. However, Peggy's strategic analysis on that matter is seriously flawed. A widespread domestic war on terror isn't going to be materially affected by BRAC -- you can stand up ground-troop bases in a big hurry, and we have the means to rapidly transport troops where they need to go, anywhere in the country, and we have local NG units everywhere.
I do trust Rumsfeld too, and I realize that changes in the structure of the military are needed with lighter more quick-action forces, for instance.
My dad used to talk about the various military bases around the country. It just bothers me to know we're closing them and down-sizing our military even further.
bttt for later read.
Well, yeah, eventually we did.
Oh great, now I can worry about not having enough of the right kinds of weapons, LOL.
;^)
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