Thursday, October 04, 2007
"Reagans Star Wars legacy..."!
Today I have read one more of former President Reagan legacy, one more of his dreams coming true, in the form of the current, now operational National Missile Defense System, or "son of Start Wars":
http://www.dailytech.com/US+Missile+Defense+Shield+Functional+Working/article9146.htm
At the time he envisioned his proposal he was called all kinds of names, but today, in the end, the one laughing is him...!
The News:
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Science
U.S. Missile Defense Shield Functional, Working
Michael Asher - October 3, 2007 4:02 PM
The architecture of the U.S. missile defense program
A hit-to-kill sequence of an EKV colliding with a ballistic missile. (Source: Raytheon)Capable of protecting parts of North America from surprise attack, the U.S. finally realizes "Star Wars"
It took nearly 25 years, but President Reagan's vision of a ballistic missile defense to safeguard the U.S. has finally come to fruition. After a final successful test last week, the system's tracking radars and interceptor rockets are now ready for use and capable of responding to an unannounced attack on North America.
General Victor Renuart Jr., senior commander for defense of United States territory, said that while the system is still being upgraded with additional radars and interceptors, it can already guard the U.S. West Coast against a limited attack from Asia.
As more components come online in California and Alaska, the system will be able to protect larger areas from more complex attacks.
When first proposed, critics originally called the system "Star Wars" and derided "Ronnie Raygun's" scheme as scientifically impossible. Despite repeated criticism, research development that began shortly after Reagan's 1983 speech continued.
Early work focused on exotic beam weapons to knock out incoming missiles. But the development of ultra-high-speed electronics soon enabled the approach used today- - the EKV, or Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle. The EKV collides directly with incoming missiles, using its own kinetic energy to destroy the target, an approach described as "hitting a bullet with another bullet."
Renuart claims the system, while operational, still has not received the military's claim of "fully operational." He claims in July 2006 parts of the system were tested as North Korea staged missile testing around that time.
Raytheon reported successful test interceptions on five separate occasions since October 1999.
The most recent test was held last Friday. A target missile was launched from Kodiak Island, Alaska, and tracked by radar at Beale Air Force Base, outside of Sacramento. The interceptor was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, near Santa Barbara, California, and scored a direct hit.
Shortly after the testing, Lieutenant General Henry Obering III, director of the Missile Defense Agency, said, "Does the system work? The answer is yes to that."
Plans for European expansion of the system call for missile interceptors in Poland and a tracking radar in the Czech Republic to defend against the threat of Middle Eastern ballistic missiles.
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Suggestion for the ex-submariner that misses "the good old days on the boat".
1. Sleep on the shelf in your closet. Replace the closet door with a curtain. Two to three hours after you fall asleep, have your wife whip open the curtain, shine a flashlight in your eyes, and mumble "Sorry, wrong rack".
2. Repeat back everything anyone says to you.
3. Spend as much time as possible indoors and avoid sunlight. Only view the world through the peephole on your front door.
4. Renovate your bathroom. Build a wall across the middle of your bathtub and move the showerhead down to chest level. Shower once a week. Use no more than 2 gallons of water per shower.
5. Buy a trash compactor and use it once a week. Store garbage in the other side of your bathtub.
6. Sit in your car for six hours a day with your hands on the wheel and the motor running, but don't go anywhere. Install 200 extra oil temperature gauges. Take logs on all gages and indicators every 30 minutes.
7. Put lube oil in your humidifier instead of water and set it to "High".
8. Watch only unknown movies with no major stars on TV and then, only at night. Have your family vote on which movie to watch, and then watch a different one.
9. Don't do your wash at home. Pick the most crowded Laundromat you can find.
10. (Optional for Nukes and A-Div): Leave lawnmower running in your living room six hours a day for proper noise level.
11. Have the paperboy give you a haircut.
12. Take hourly readings on your electric and water meters.
14. Invite guests, but don't have enough food for them.
15. Buy a broken exercise bicycle and strap it down to the floor in your kitchen.
16. Eat only food that you get out of a can or have to add water to.
17. Wake up every night at midnight and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on stale bread. (Optional: cold beans and weenies, canned ravioli or soup).
18. Make up your family menu a week ahead of time without looking in your food cabinets or refrigerator.
19. Set your alarm clock to go off at random times during the night. When it goes off, jump out of bed and get dressed as fast as you can, then run to your kitchen with the garden hose while wearing a scuba mask.
20. Once a month take every major appliance completely apart and then put them back together. Ensure you have parts left over.
21. Use 18 scoops of coffee per pot and allow it to sit for 5 or 6 hours before drinking. Never wash any coffee cups.
22. Invite at least 85 people you don't really like to come and visit for a couple of months. Limit showers to weekly for all guests. (Unless they are interested in electronics.... force those guests to shower three times daily and wear cologne from a stale bottle of cologne following each bathing).
23. Store your eggs in your garage for two months and then scramble a dozen each morning.
24. Have a fluorescent lamp installed on the bottom of your coffee table and lie under it to read books.
25. Check your refrigerator compressor for "sound shorts".
26. Put a complicated lock on your basement door and wear the key on a lanyard around your neck.
27. Lockwire the lugnuts on your car.
28. When making cakes, prop up one side of the pan while it is baking. Then spread icing really thick on one side to level off the top.
29. Every so often, yell "Emergency Deep", run into the kitchen, and sweep all pots/pans/dishes off of the counter onto the floor. Then, yell at your wife for not having the place "stowed for sea".
30. Put on the headphones from your stereo (don't plug them in). Go and stand in front of your stove. Say (to nobody in particular) "Stove manned and ready". Stand there for 3 or 4 hours. Say (once again to nobody in particular) "Stove secured". Roll up the headphone cord and put them away.
31.Tag out the steering wheel, gas pedal, brake pedal, transmission and cigarette lighter when you change the oil in your car.
32. Use kool aid on all your breakfast cereals for 2 months.
33. Fill laundry tubs with oil. Lay in them, on your back, and change the washers on the water spigots.
34. While doing laundry, replace liquid fabric softener with diesel Fuel... savor the “aroma” of AMR2LL.
35. Install more commodes in your bathroom. Serve many greasy meals and ensure the entire family goes to the bathroom together.
36. Buy bunk beds (3 high type) and convert the narrowest hallway in your home into a bedroom.
37. Just for fun, rig 700-PSI air to the bottom of all toilets. Hold a lottery to determine who gets to control the air valves.
38. Knock a glass of water out of someone's hand and yell 'SPILL'. Shout at them the entire time they clean it up, tell them how worthless they are, then do it again.
39. Give your wife more free time. All the ironing goes under the mattress.
40. Ask for “Permission to Enter” whenever you go into the kitchen.
41. At night, replace all light bulbs in the living room with red bulbs.
42. Buy all food in cases and line the floor with them.
43. Replace all doorways with windows so that you have to step up AND duck to go through them.
44. Rope off a small area of your living room, turn off the AC, put on a suit made of garbage bags and mill around inside the roped off area for an hour with a zip lock bag tied securely around your head.
45. Whenever someone enters a room you're cleaning, shout "Up and Over" at them so they'll go through the attic to get to the kitchen.
46. Tell your kids to "go find me a can of relative bearing grease".
47. Whenever the mailman steps onto your porch, shout "Postmaster General - Arriving" so that everyone in the house can hear you.
48. Paint the windshield of your car black. Make your wife stand up through the sunroof and give you directions on where to drive. Drive through as many big puddles as possible.
49. Have your kids stand at attention every time you enter the room and make them state quite loudly, "Attention on Deck” or "Make a Hole".
50. Start every story with "This is no-shit".
51. Order a dozen foxtails and tell your family that there will be no liberty until every thing in the house passes the white glove test.
52. Tell your kids there will be a pressure test in the garage next Monday night. Kid who can take the most turns in the vise will get to stay out later Friday night.
53. Hookup your air compressor to the sewer line to the house and blow a shit geyser ten feet in the air. Come in side and tell you wife (calmly): “I forgot to shut the valve”.
54. Make her and the kids clean up the mess.
55. Install a Furnace and Air Conditioner that blows directly on you while you are sleeping. Have the controls so they will cycle to hot and cold in a matter of seconds. Also install a multi-channel entertainment system over your rack that doesn’t work.
56. Install the system above where it will cause a 6-inch vacuum in the bedroom.
57. Set an engine in the living room to run through all this. So when you secure from field day, run like a bat out of hell to shut down the engine.
58. Make you kids some Kool-Aid and add 5 times more sugar than normal and then set it out to get hot.
59. Raise hell with the old lady when she serves steak next time. When she says that the way it can from the store. You ask “BURNT?”.
60. Hire about 20 drunks to come into you house about 1 in the morning and start cooking.
61. Just have someone eat your ass over nothing, daily.
62. Go to the market and buy 100 quarts of milk. Pour them into a large white trash bag and secure. Put the bag into the refrigerator and rename it "The Cow." When it empties, yell, “The Cow is dead!” and have the wife replace it with another trash bag full of milk.
63. Remodel your house so as to rebuild your kitchen in the hall closet. Have your family meet there several times a day to walk around in the closet and bump into each other. Have someone shout: "Mill around in the after battery."
64. Post the Uniform Code of Military Justice on the wall across from your toilet. Highlight the parts that begin: "penetration however slight..."
65. Take the jack handle out of your trunk and install it in the ceiling over your stove. Several times a day, give it 112 turns and yell: "main induction secured."
66. Every Friday morning at 7:30, wake the whole house up and inform them someone is trying to steal the car, then make them clean the whole house for 3 hours, then serve them lunch with consists of 2 hamburgers that have enough grease in them to change the oil in the car for a year, buns that weigh more than a TDU weight, and French fries. Then run various drills in afternoon so that you have to burp into your scuba mask reliving the lunch.
67. Practice walking quickly with your back to the wall.
68. Rope off a small area of your living room, turn off the AC, put on a yellow suit and mill around inside the roped off area for an hour with a zip lock bag tied securely around your head. Insure the family critiques your actions afterwards.
69. Work at golf grouse maintenance so you can water golf cart batteries.
70. When your wife throws open the curtains in your closet make sure that the sewer vent is piped into your rack.
71. Cut a hole in the floor of your house and install some batteries. Go down there once a day and take specific gravities.
72. Cut a twin mattress in half and enclose three sides of your bed. Add a roof that prevents you from sitting up (about 10 inches is a good distance) then place it on a platform that is four feet off the floor. Place a small dead animal under the bed to simulate the smell of your bunkmate's sock.
73. Set your alarm to go off at 10 minute intervals for the first hour of sleep to simulate the various times the watch standers and night crew bump around and wake you up. Place your bed on a rocking table to ensure you are tossed around the remaining three hours. Make use of a custom clock that randomly simulates fire alarms, police sirens, helicopter crash alarms, and a new wave rock band.
74. Have week old fruit and vegetables delivered to your garage and wait two weeks before eating them.
75. Prepare all meals blindfolded using all the spices you can grope for, or none at all. Remove the blindfold and eat everything in three minutes.
76. Periodically, shut off all power at the main circuit breaker and run around shouting "FIRE, FIRE, FIRE…” and then restore power.
77. Remove all plants, pictures and decorations. Paint everything gray, white, or the shade of hospital smocks.
78. Buy 50 cases of toilet paper and lock up all but two rolls. Ensure one of these two rolls is wet at all times.
79. Smash your forehead or shins with a hammer every two days to simulate collision injuries sustained aboard Navy ships.
80. When making sandwiches, leave the bread out for six days, or until it is hard and stale.
81. Every 10 weeks, simulate a visit to another port. Go directly to the city slums wearing your best clothes. Find the worst looking place, and ask for the most expensive beer that they carry. Drink as many as you can in four hours. Take a cab home taking the longest possible route. Tip the cabby after he charges you double because you dress funny and don't speak right.
82. Use fresh milk for only two days after each port visit.
83. Keep the bedroom thermostat at 2 deg C and use only a thin blanket for warmth.
84. Ensure that the water heater is connected to a device that provides water at a flow rate that varies from a fast drip to a weak trickily, with the temperature alternating rapidly from 2 to 95 deg F.
85. Use only spoons, which hold a minimum of 1/2 cup at a time.
86. Make sure every water valve in your home has two backups in line, which must all be operated to obtain water.
87. Repaint the interior of your home every month, whether it needs it or not.
88. Every four hours, check all the fluid levels in your car and log the readings. Check the tire pressure and replace air lost from excessive pressure checks. Be sure to place red tags on ignition stating "DANGER: Do Not Operate" while you perform these checks. Inform your neighbor as to placement of the red tags, the results of the checks, and have him repeat the checks because he did not see you perform them.
89. Lock all friends and family outside. Your only means of communication should be with letters that your neighbors have held for at least three weeks, discarding two of five.
90. Surround yourself with 125 people that you don't really know or like: people, who smoke, snore like Mack trucks going uphill, and use foul language.
91. Unplug all radios and TVs to completely cut you off from the outside world. Have a neighbor bring you a Time, Newsweek, or Naval Proceedings from five years ago to keep you abreast of current events.
92. Monitor all home appliances hourly, recording on log sheets all vital information (i.e.: plugged in, lights come one when doors open, etc).
93. Do not flush the toilet for five days to simulate the smell of 40 people using the same commode.
94. Lock the bathrooms twice a day for a four-hour period.
95. Practice taking a shower with a quart of water.
96. Work in 18 hour cycles, sleeping only four hours at a time, to ensure that your body neither knows nor cares if it day or night.
97. Listen to your favorite CD 6 times/day for two weeks, then play music that causes acute nausea until you are glad to get back to your favorite CD.
98. Make your family’s menu a week ahead without looking in the cabinets, cupboards, freezer or refrigerator.
99. When making cakes, prop one side of the pan while it is baking, then spread icing really thick on the thin side to make it level.
100. Wash your laundry in a detergent that could be used as an insecticide or sheep dip. Make sure you lose at least one sock and one pair underwear every other week.
101. Run a tube from your car's exhaust pipe into your living room, yell "prepare to snorkel", and start the car. You must breathe the fumes for one hour.
102. Stand on your roof once every four days for six hours in the winter and don't let anyone in your house.
103. Spend 3 or 4 hours waxing your floors to perfection. Then, just before they dry, invite the whole neighborhood over to walk across them. Then do it again.
104. Vent your septic into the house and yell "Venting Sanitaries inboard".
105. Shut off all the breakers in the house and yell "reactor scram', sit in the dark for at least an hour.
106. If any light bulbs should inadvertently go out (i.e. reactor scram above), make sure you hang danger tags on the light switch, fuse or breaker box, lamp plug or cord, home master breaker panel and also notify the local utility company (maneuvering) of what you are doing and demand their approval. Make sure both you and the wife sign the tags. Next tie a rope to yourself and have someone who just as soon sees you dead hold the rope in case you get electrocuted while changing the bulb.
107. Ensure that no matter what kind of job you are working on, there is someone standing over your shoulder instructing you on how to do it better/faster even though they can't do it themselves.
108. Write a procedure in triplicate for every job you do around the house. Have a friend check your work and make a minimum of 5 changes. When finished and the new forms are ready, have your wife verify that the procedure is correct but make ten changes anyway.
109. Find out how long it will take to do a job. Give yourself half the time it should take, and then have someone scream at you for not working fast enough.
110. Ensure that every room in your house is drastically different in temperature. If no condensation appears when you open a door, the temperature difference is not great enough. Make sure your bedroom only has two temperatures (100F or 20F) and nothing between. Make sure of hourly cycles throughout the night.
111. Paint all windows black and never go or think about looking outside.
112. Make sure all your personal belongings will fit in a 2'X2' space that has lots of cables running through it.
113. Mount as many sharp-cornered lockers as you can in all the most traveled halls of your house. Leave almost room to squeeze by.
114. Drills:
a. Yell "Torpedo Evasion" and run through the house knocking over everything that isn't bolted down.
b. Yell "Man Overboard" and throw the cat in the pool.
c. Overflow the bathtub and yell "Flooding in the bathroom".
d. Put your stereo headphone on (don't plug them in), stand in front of the stove and yell "Battle Stations Missile".
e. Install a fireman's pole and a ladder in your living room so you can practice yelling "Dive-Dive", while the wife slides down the pole while you time her.
115. Once after falling asleep, have your wife shine a flashlight (which costs $200) in your eyes and say "sorry, wrong rack."
116. Build a wall across the middle of your bathtub and move the shower head down to chest level or lower. Buy a trash compactor (but don't use it) and store the trash in the other side of the bathtub.
117. Continuously pop your ears to simulate snorkeling.
118. Sit up from 1130 to 0530 in front of your stove to insure it doesn't turn on by accident.
My profile at "Miltary.com"
Hello,
Here is my Profile at "Military.com", I have been in the U.S. Navy Submarine Force service now for over 18 years and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel of retirement straight ahead...!
From The Cold War in the 80's and fresh out of High School and College, through the first Gulf War of 91, to repeat "trips" to the Gulf for Spec Ops in the late 90's, including the deployment to Iraq in 1998 and today's' conflict I have been there, in one way or another. But today I can look back with pride in the knowledge that as a true American, one made by the sacrifices made because of been in the service (one broken marriage and many health problems due to my service), I can say that have have earned the privilege to be called American, more so that many who only reason to be called that is just having been born on this land! Been a True American is earned by the sacrifices, the blood and tears given in the name of Freedom and Democracy, in the name of the defense of all the good things this country stands for. Today I am blessed to have found a new wife that shares my feelings on the subject, that been a True American is more than just saying the words, it is EARNED!
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Latest on Troop build up in Iraq
According to the article by DAVID RISING, of the Associated Press, article linked next, the troop build up is been successful in regaining control and pacifying Iraq, enabling for the political process to begin among the warring factions of Shiites and Sunnies:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070904/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_frontlines;_ylt=AhRiiPkTo19Vt98aW4QsgAWs0NUE
Like I said here some months ago, the answer (in my opinion) for the violence in Iraq has been primordially to gain control of the ground by having more troops in there, which in turn would allow for the next steps in the normalization of the country, such as political reconciliations and the formation of a stable society.
I only hope that the politial parties are paying close attention to these new changes on the ground there...
more on this on the following days...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070904/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_frontlines;_ylt=AhRiiPkTo19Vt98aW4QsgAWs0NUE
Like I said here some months ago, the answer (in my opinion) for the violence in Iraq has been primordially to gain control of the ground by having more troops in there, which in turn would allow for the next steps in the normalization of the country, such as political reconciliations and the formation of a stable society.
I only hope that the politial parties are paying close attention to these new changes on the ground there...
more on this on the following days...
Monday, September 03, 2007
The "Plan"
"The Plan"
In the beginning was the Plan.
And then came the Assumptions.
And the Assumptions were without form.
And the Plan was without substance.
And darkness was upon the face of the Workers.
And the Workers spoke among themselves, saying,
"This is a crock of shit, and it stinks."
And the Workers went unto their Supervisors and said,
"It is a pail of dung, and we can't live with the smell."
And the Supervisors went unto their Managers saying,
"It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none may abide by it."
And the Managers went unto their Directors, saying,
"It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength."
And the Directors spoke among themselves, saying to one another,
"It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong."
And the Directors went to the Vice Presidents, saying unto them,
"It promotes growth, and it is very powerful."
And the Vice Presidents went to the President, saying unto him,
"This new plan will actively promote the growth and vigor of the company with very powerful effects."
And the President looked upon the Plan and saw that it was good.
And the Plan became Policy.
And that is how Shit Happens.
In the beginning was the Plan.
And then came the Assumptions.
And the Assumptions were without form.
And the Plan was without substance.
And darkness was upon the face of the Workers.
And the Workers spoke among themselves, saying,
"This is a crock of shit, and it stinks."
And the Workers went unto their Supervisors and said,
"It is a pail of dung, and we can't live with the smell."
And the Supervisors went unto their Managers saying,
"It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none may abide by it."
And the Managers went unto their Directors, saying,
"It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength."
And the Directors spoke among themselves, saying to one another,
"It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong."
And the Directors went to the Vice Presidents, saying unto them,
"It promotes growth, and it is very powerful."
And the Vice Presidents went to the President, saying unto him,
"This new plan will actively promote the growth and vigor of the company with very powerful effects."
And the President looked upon the Plan and saw that it was good.
And the Plan became Policy.
And that is how Shit Happens.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Some History here as reminder to many that have "forgotten"...!
The Cold War and Reagan...
I had the honor of having started my military service during the Reagan years and I remember... I remember the Soviet submarines right off Long Island with their nuke missiles pointed at us, the Bear Soviet bombers doing "bombing runs" in the Atlantic, etc… but more on that later.
First let go back a little, let go back to the 1970’s. People need to be reminded that Reagan came to power due to the complete disillusion the American people had in ourselves at the end of the 1970’s, due in part to the loss in Viet Nam, the country generally in a decline mode, and more below; just watch the Movie “Miracle” to be reminder a bit on how things were…
http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?id=1808470438&d=hv&cf=info
For starters, Carter and the gas/oil crisis…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_energy_crisis
http://www.troopers.state.ny.us/Introduction/History/1970's/
then, the economy in recession/pieces…
...in addition to a “Hollow military”, a military with very low moral, equipped poorly with aging tanks and aircraft, cut too small for the dangers of the times and future dangers we were facing at that time, which coincidently is the same thing we did again at the end of the 1990’s…:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n36_v14/ai_21161637
Then, the USSR on the “march” from Afghanistan (an Afghan goverment coup, then a Soviet invasion)…
http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us//cur/Baker_00/2002-p4/baker_p4_12-01_mj_sz/
… to Africa, were the increasing influence/interventions of the soviets were even raised in the TV world about that Soviet/communist Cuba involvement in Africa…:
http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1977-3/1977-03-29-ABC-15.html
…and then even in Latin America, with the take over of a Communist dictatorship in Nicaragua and later their attempt at taking over Colombia and El Salvador, on which we have even admissions by some of the major communist players, even terrorist players allied to the Soviets that they were in there making the take over happen, examples:
June 19, 1981---German Social Democratic leader Hans- Jurgen Wischnewski states at a press conference in Bonn that Fidel Castro had admitted to him that Cuba had shipped weapons to the Salvadoran guerrillas.
March 18, 1982--The New York Times reports that the Salvadoran guerrillas now concede that Cuba supplied arms for the January 1981 "final offensive" through Nicaragua.
September, 28, 1981 and October 29, 1981--Cuban vice president, Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, confirms in interviews given to Der Spiegel and to El Diario of Caracas that Salvadoran guerrillas are trained in Cuba.
March 11, 1981--Sandinista defense minister, Humberto Ortega, in a speech in Hanoi gives thanks for the support given by the Vietnamese.
September 24, 1981-- William Shawcross says in New York Review of Books that Col. Bui Tin had acknowledged to him during a visit to Vietnam that American weapons left in Vietnam had been sent to El Salvador, saying, "We do our best to support revolutionary movements in the world."
January. 11, 1982--PLO chief Yasser Arafat confirms to a group of journalists in Beirut that "there are Palestinian pilots in Nicaragua, there are Palestinian revolutionaries with the revolutionaries in El Salvador." None of these reports were mentioned in the 90-minute CBS documentary.
And then, on top of all that, the American hostages fiasco in Iran in 1979, in which Carter looked incompetent, and the US looked weakly once again…
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/01/18/iran/main265244.shtml
Generally, the Cold War was in full swing and we were loosing!
Then Reagan came into the scene, and with his convictions and general idea of no retreat, but to push forward, to rebuild the military, and Reagan belief in victory through strength, the Cold War started to turn into our favor and ultimately won, more on it:
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1957.html
Reagan military build up paid off decisively even later on, during the first Gulf War, a victory mostly based on his weapons buildup, even News organizations like the Washington Post cognizes it:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2004/06/09/AR2005033113512.html
But the main effect of this buildup was to bring the economy of the then USSR down, by having them have to spent money in their military in a futile attempt to keep up, an attempt they could never have been able to keep up since their economy was a mess, due to their centralized, unopened communist system economy. He called them for what they were “An Evil Empire”, and also set in motion internal forces inside the Soviet/Eastern block for change and the destruction of the USSR and its satellites nations system, forces like "Solidarność"…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity
His alliance with Britain Margaret Thatcher..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Tatcher
...which was a strong allied against world communism, together with Reagan and the Pope, John Paul, who also put pressure in the Eastern Europe satelite countries with his message of free worship and freedom from oppression.
The Pope even endangered himself after joining this fight to the extend that his life was treatened by the KGB, who we now know tried to have him killed, a KGB plan acknowledged by Mikhail Gorbachev in an interview to the Italian magazine Il Tempo:
http://www.leftwatch.com/archives/years/2001/000010.html
All of this made a solid front against the Soviets, a front the Soviets had not gone against before, and that, coupled with some bad political moves by the Soviets and their puppet regimes, such as the one in East Germany near the end of allowing free move/travel across the "Wall" ultimately would bring their system down in 1989.
Reagan also brought the United States out of that self-pity of the late 70’s and into believing in ourselves again, with his vision of seen America as a "shining city on a hill", he also got the economy moving again, and the country moving towards the better, this point made clear by his re-election in the landslide of 1984, were the majority of American answered with a resounding "yes"! with his question of "Are you better off today than you were 4 years ago", a fact no one can deny! Even critics agree on this such as CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/reagan/
Reagan turned around the Cold War in our favor, and with the help of key allies in the world, both outside the Soviet block and inside the Soviet block won the Cold War, a war we were loosing until 1980!
Finally, here is Reagan in his own words:
http://www.ronaldreagan.com/ussr.html
I had the honor of having started my military service during the Reagan years and I remember... I remember the Soviet submarines right off Long Island with their nuke missiles pointed at us, the Bear Soviet bombers doing "bombing runs" in the Atlantic, etc… but more on that later.
First let go back a little, let go back to the 1970’s. People need to be reminded that Reagan came to power due to the complete disillusion the American people had in ourselves at the end of the 1970’s, due in part to the loss in Viet Nam, the country generally in a decline mode, and more below; just watch the Movie “Miracle” to be reminder a bit on how things were…
http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?id=1808470438&d=hv&cf=info
For starters, Carter and the gas/oil crisis…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_energy_crisis
http://www.troopers.state.ny.us/Introduction/History/1970's/
then, the economy in recession/pieces…
...in addition to a “Hollow military”, a military with very low moral, equipped poorly with aging tanks and aircraft, cut too small for the dangers of the times and future dangers we were facing at that time, which coincidently is the same thing we did again at the end of the 1990’s…:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n36_v14/ai_21161637
Then, the USSR on the “march” from Afghanistan (an Afghan goverment coup, then a Soviet invasion)…
http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us//cur/Baker_00/2002-p4/baker_p4_12-01_mj_sz/
… to Africa, were the increasing influence/interventions of the soviets were even raised in the TV world about that Soviet/communist Cuba involvement in Africa…:
http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1977-3/1977-03-29-ABC-15.html
…and then even in Latin America, with the take over of a Communist dictatorship in Nicaragua and later their attempt at taking over Colombia and El Salvador, on which we have even admissions by some of the major communist players, even terrorist players allied to the Soviets that they were in there making the take over happen, examples:
June 19, 1981---German Social Democratic leader Hans- Jurgen Wischnewski states at a press conference in Bonn that Fidel Castro had admitted to him that Cuba had shipped weapons to the Salvadoran guerrillas.
March 18, 1982--The New York Times reports that the Salvadoran guerrillas now concede that Cuba supplied arms for the January 1981 "final offensive" through Nicaragua.
September, 28, 1981 and October 29, 1981--Cuban vice president, Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, confirms in interviews given to Der Spiegel and to El Diario of Caracas that Salvadoran guerrillas are trained in Cuba.
March 11, 1981--Sandinista defense minister, Humberto Ortega, in a speech in Hanoi gives thanks for the support given by the Vietnamese.
September 24, 1981-- William Shawcross says in New York Review of Books that Col. Bui Tin had acknowledged to him during a visit to Vietnam that American weapons left in Vietnam had been sent to El Salvador, saying, "We do our best to support revolutionary movements in the world."
January. 11, 1982--PLO chief Yasser Arafat confirms to a group of journalists in Beirut that "there are Palestinian pilots in Nicaragua, there are Palestinian revolutionaries with the revolutionaries in El Salvador." None of these reports were mentioned in the 90-minute CBS documentary.
And then, on top of all that, the American hostages fiasco in Iran in 1979, in which Carter looked incompetent, and the US looked weakly once again…
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/01/18/iran/main265244.shtml
Generally, the Cold War was in full swing and we were loosing!
Then Reagan came into the scene, and with his convictions and general idea of no retreat, but to push forward, to rebuild the military, and Reagan belief in victory through strength, the Cold War started to turn into our favor and ultimately won, more on it:
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1957.html
Reagan military build up paid off decisively even later on, during the first Gulf War, a victory mostly based on his weapons buildup, even News organizations like the Washington Post cognizes it:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2004/06/09/AR2005033113512.html
But the main effect of this buildup was to bring the economy of the then USSR down, by having them have to spent money in their military in a futile attempt to keep up, an attempt they could never have been able to keep up since their economy was a mess, due to their centralized, unopened communist system economy. He called them for what they were “An Evil Empire”, and also set in motion internal forces inside the Soviet/Eastern block for change and the destruction of the USSR and its satellites nations system, forces like "Solidarność"…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity
His alliance with Britain Margaret Thatcher..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Tatcher
...which was a strong allied against world communism, together with Reagan and the Pope, John Paul, who also put pressure in the Eastern Europe satelite countries with his message of free worship and freedom from oppression.
The Pope even endangered himself after joining this fight to the extend that his life was treatened by the KGB, who we now know tried to have him killed, a KGB plan acknowledged by Mikhail Gorbachev in an interview to the Italian magazine Il Tempo:
http://www.leftwatch.com/archives/years/2001/000010.html
All of this made a solid front against the Soviets, a front the Soviets had not gone against before, and that, coupled with some bad political moves by the Soviets and their puppet regimes, such as the one in East Germany near the end of allowing free move/travel across the "Wall" ultimately would bring their system down in 1989.
Reagan also brought the United States out of that self-pity of the late 70’s and into believing in ourselves again, with his vision of seen America as a "shining city on a hill", he also got the economy moving again, and the country moving towards the better, this point made clear by his re-election in the landslide of 1984, were the majority of American answered with a resounding "yes"! with his question of "Are you better off today than you were 4 years ago", a fact no one can deny! Even critics agree on this such as CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/reagan/
Reagan turned around the Cold War in our favor, and with the help of key allies in the world, both outside the Soviet block and inside the Soviet block won the Cold War, a war we were loosing until 1980!
Finally, here is Reagan in his own words:
http://www.ronaldreagan.com/ussr.html
Monday, March 19, 2007
The Iraq mess dissected!
To bring Democracy even by force to countries whose population is in desperate need of it because of suffering under the boot of some tyrannical regime is never wrong, never! Some kind of Freedom and Democracy is the dream and hope of 99% of the world's peoples, except for those twisted and dark people out there that are controlled by hate and extremism.
The problem of Iraq and the invasion and subsequently the occupation (even from the beginning) has been that not enough troops were used and still are not been used. The invasion plan and execution was brilliant, a German style Blitzkrieg armored attack straight to the heart of the enemy military and its command structure in Baghdad, which achieved the collapse of the Iraqi regime quickly. But even from the beginning mayor problems arouse, including the failure of Turkey allowing the 4Th to come in from the north, which reduced considerably even the initial amount of forces in-country, a failure from which the whole Iraq invasion occupation has never recovered.
After that, the occupation phase ran into problems which unleashed or allowed forces the violence to flourished and which we see today. During the initial phases of the occupation, more critical mistakes were made, beginning with the lack of policing of the country, again due to not enough forces to maintain control. This gave a chance for the different anti-democracy interests in the region to begin to further destabilize the country with more and more violence, forces like the remains of the Saddam regimen, who did not surrendered but just disappeared into the population to fight another day. They were waiting for precisely these conditions to take advantage of, and start the violence that they have know all along would shake the confidence of the US. You must remember, these people also know the history of its enemy, us!, and know about our failure on Viet Nam and count on it to be repeated in their soil.
Other forces also working to get us out of there by fermenting violence are also well known, like Alqaeda, now in full blown operations in Iraq, and tyrannical forces like Syrian and Iranian, which backed extremists groups who do not want to see a democracy of any kind flourish in Iraq, because, well... how do you think the people of Iran and Syria would feel like if next door to them all of a sudden have an Islamic based democratic government which listens to its people flourished, while they are still under a tyrannical form of government? They would start think..."wait a minute? How come these guys next door in Iraq have Democracy and we don't?" "And why do we have to live under this crappy tyrant we have in charge here?" And the seeded of unrest would be planted....! The tyrants in Syria and Iran understand this, and that is why they are trying everything they can to maintain the violence going in Iraq. They have to for their survival, it is simple really.
But again the core problem allowing all this to happen has been not enough troops to control the occupation properly. There is even a formula in military circles used to occupation calculations, it says you need 1 soldier for every 40 occupied body in-country, there is an article in the Washington Post highlighting this point :
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A10161-2004May8?language=printer
And if we follow this formula clearly there has never and there are STILL not enough forces in Iraq to bring about stability in the country, Iraq has an estimated 26 million people, that is 26 with 6 zeroes behind it, so 150 thousand US troops is not enough occupation forces. In addition, remember even 150 thousand men does not mean they are all combat forces, more that half are support personnel, including cooks, supply clerks, etc. So clearly the occupations forces are not big enough.
Well how about the Iraqis themselves, why can they do it, you may ask? You must also remember that creating an Army is not done overnight, it takes years of training, and most importantly experience to be able to have an effective soldier that can hold its own and perform his duties, generally from recruit to effective unit it is about 4 years, and that is even in our American military world. Now in Iraq, through in the instability, the chaotic lives they are under, etc and it becomes clear that to expect a fully functioning Iraqi army to appear overnight is unrealistic, and that of course it has taken all these years for even to see some Iraqi units that can hold their own, of course. So that leaves you with us to make the stability happen, and since there have never been enough forces there to make it happen....whoa la! The Iraq mess..!
As for my solution, get every able soldiers we have and flood Iraq with them now! Have our presence felt in every corner of the country, to get hold of the situation there, and to let everyone know we are not going anywhere, and specially the bad guys that they are severely outnumbered and out of luck. An example of this is New York in the bad days of the gangs running wild, and then after the police force got more than doubled in size and more cops were put in the streets the gang violence, and crime in general decreased almost magically.
Iraq can be fixed, but again, like in Nam, we Americans are (again) more worried I think in fighting each other on "who is right", on what is going wrong and NOT in how to win the fight in Iraq!
And that is the sad really of today.
I hope you read this letter and reflect on the lessons here.
The problem of Iraq and the invasion and subsequently the occupation (even from the beginning) has been that not enough troops were used and still are not been used. The invasion plan and execution was brilliant, a German style Blitzkrieg armored attack straight to the heart of the enemy military and its command structure in Baghdad, which achieved the collapse of the Iraqi regime quickly. But even from the beginning mayor problems arouse, including the failure of Turkey allowing the 4Th to come in from the north, which reduced considerably even the initial amount of forces in-country, a failure from which the whole Iraq invasion occupation has never recovered.
After that, the occupation phase ran into problems which unleashed or allowed forces the violence to flourished and which we see today. During the initial phases of the occupation, more critical mistakes were made, beginning with the lack of policing of the country, again due to not enough forces to maintain control. This gave a chance for the different anti-democracy interests in the region to begin to further destabilize the country with more and more violence, forces like the remains of the Saddam regimen, who did not surrendered but just disappeared into the population to fight another day. They were waiting for precisely these conditions to take advantage of, and start the violence that they have know all along would shake the confidence of the US. You must remember, these people also know the history of its enemy, us!, and know about our failure on Viet Nam and count on it to be repeated in their soil.
Other forces also working to get us out of there by fermenting violence are also well known, like Alqaeda, now in full blown operations in Iraq, and tyrannical forces like Syrian and Iranian, which backed extremists groups who do not want to see a democracy of any kind flourish in Iraq, because, well... how do you think the people of Iran and Syria would feel like if next door to them all of a sudden have an Islamic based democratic government which listens to its people flourished, while they are still under a tyrannical form of government? They would start think..."wait a minute? How come these guys next door in Iraq have Democracy and we don't?" "And why do we have to live under this crappy tyrant we have in charge here?" And the seeded of unrest would be planted....! The tyrants in Syria and Iran understand this, and that is why they are trying everything they can to maintain the violence going in Iraq. They have to for their survival, it is simple really.
But again the core problem allowing all this to happen has been not enough troops to control the occupation properly. There is even a formula in military circles used to occupation calculations, it says you need 1 soldier for every 40 occupied body in-country, there is an article in the Washington Post highlighting this point :
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A10161-2004May8?language=printer
And if we follow this formula clearly there has never and there are STILL not enough forces in Iraq to bring about stability in the country, Iraq has an estimated 26 million people, that is 26 with 6 zeroes behind it, so 150 thousand US troops is not enough occupation forces. In addition, remember even 150 thousand men does not mean they are all combat forces, more that half are support personnel, including cooks, supply clerks, etc. So clearly the occupations forces are not big enough.
Well how about the Iraqis themselves, why can they do it, you may ask? You must also remember that creating an Army is not done overnight, it takes years of training, and most importantly experience to be able to have an effective soldier that can hold its own and perform his duties, generally from recruit to effective unit it is about 4 years, and that is even in our American military world. Now in Iraq, through in the instability, the chaotic lives they are under, etc and it becomes clear that to expect a fully functioning Iraqi army to appear overnight is unrealistic, and that of course it has taken all these years for even to see some Iraqi units that can hold their own, of course. So that leaves you with us to make the stability happen, and since there have never been enough forces there to make it happen....whoa la! The Iraq mess..!
As for my solution, get every able soldiers we have and flood Iraq with them now! Have our presence felt in every corner of the country, to get hold of the situation there, and to let everyone know we are not going anywhere, and specially the bad guys that they are severely outnumbered and out of luck. An example of this is New York in the bad days of the gangs running wild, and then after the police force got more than doubled in size and more cops were put in the streets the gang violence, and crime in general decreased almost magically.
Iraq can be fixed, but again, like in Nam, we Americans are (again) more worried I think in fighting each other on "who is right", on what is going wrong and NOT in how to win the fight in Iraq!
And that is the sad really of today.
I hope you read this letter and reflect on the lessons here.
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