Pilot's Log

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PIECE OF CAKE

Original premise: based on the WW2 novel by Derek Robinson, about a Royal Air Force fighter squadron from the first day of the War through the Battle of Britain, by which time most of the cast, well...

Reimagined: Hornet Squadron is a Royal Army gunship unit, operating Lynx and Apache helicopters in the War On TerrorTM. Instead of all the original cast being pilots, a good number of them in the new version are Gunners/Weapons System Operators. The first season is about their deployment to Iraq for Operation Enduring Freedom/Shock & Awe.

...The President will suffer a very violent death of his own before this month is over, and probably not alone when it happens.

And to throw a Rasputinesque twist to this prediction: if a foreign terrorist kills him the United States will last forever; if an American murders him the United States will die with him.

Comparing current events in the War On Terror_TM against the Vietnam model for How America Loses Wars_TM:

* Tet Offensive √
* Linebacker II √
* "Peace Is At Hand" √ (Thank you Mr. Karzai!)

We have now gone past the point of even a stalemate to outright defeat. All that's left is to rename Kabul as Osama Bin Laden City and let the Taliban kill a few million infidel citizens.

Hey, which American city will suddenly spawn a new neighborhood called "Little Kabul"?

PS: I see that Little Kabul is in Fremont, California.

The other day, I sorta repeated my mistake on Facebook. I said "it looked like Kyrgyzstan was one Ayatollah from joining the War Against America" and was promptly rewarded with...offers to become FatwaPilot. People with names I couldn't pronounce with links to pages written in Arabic wanted to Friend me all of a sudden. Which means I have to backtrack, again.

I said what I said because I remember how it seemed to happen in Iran, and how what happened in Iran in 1978~'79 seemed to parallel what is going on right now in Kyrgyzstan. The Iranian Revolution, by accounts of the time, started mainly by students wanting modern liberties and societal improvements for their nation...and their voices where shoved aside by Khomeini's Mullahs and their true believers. I think all it would take for Kyrgyzstan to go the same way is a leader with the same charisma and force of personality. And then woe betide all those Americans at Manas AB--they'll be POWs for a year and a half.

On Bill Moyers' show tonight, there was a guest on who said that the American military officer corps had abandoned the idea that military victories are in our national interest, which of course, is a suspect thing when we are fighting 3.5 wars and doing it without much popular support.

America hasn't been more than 50% good to me over the course of my life. It's been pretty horrible to me, especially of late. But I'm not going to go around blowing up buildings, shooting people, taking hostages, and so on. Been there, done that. Terrorism is ultimately boring and painful to the participants. I realize, though, that the Enemy of "My" Enemy is still My Enemy...because I don't know if America can be on MY side. I'm not sure I know who America is anymore.

Re: Austin...

After all the troubles I'd had with the IRS these last several years--especially at the AUSTIN office, what happened there today only surprises me by degrees.

And to complete my post on "(Don't Fear) The Reaper"...until I read the lyrics that came with the video I'd posted the other day, I thought the song ended with a woman jilting her lover by committing suicide.

Sometimes You Don't Have TOTAL Control.

And this story also underscores the fact that the insurgencies being fought in Iraq and Afganistan are often proxies for Iran.

...But I think I should get this off my chest.

I don't necessarily see how "peace" can make things better in Afganistan.

First, I doubt anybody on our side really knows what the Afgans who are against us our fighting for. We know what Al-Qaida is about. We know what the Taliban is about. But we don't know what the populace at large is about. Without that, we can't have a basis for negotiation.

Second, there is nothing positive about the prospect of the Taliban being given international recognition as a legitimate state. That would have to happen for an armistice to be possible. We would doom thousands, if not millions, of people to a fate of existance in a nation where they would not be allowed even basic human rights and civil liberties. Besides, would the Taliban even hold up their end of a bargain made with "infidels"? They've broken truces before.

Third, I'm sure that even if the United States and NATO withdrew all forces on their own, some situation of conflict would continue there. And we'd have to go back in.

I agree that Afganistan as it stands is a no-win situation. But I don't see any alternative that is a no-lose option.

A few days ago, when another LJ'er was commenting on the politics of the time, I said:

I'm just waiting for the next Ruby Ridge, Waco or Oklahoma City incident. I don't trust things to stay civil and non-violent for long now.

And guess what?--Politically-motivated violence, if you believe the advertising. Is your bomb shelter stocked up? You may need it before it's all over.

FP

$85.

The price you can pay a teenage boy to strap on an explosive vest and blow himself up in Bagdad.

It's probably CHEAPER in Afganistan.

*Hears about a teenage boy being killed by a Knoxville resident during an attempted home-invasion over the radio news*

Life is cheap.

PS: Later today I heard the sports anchorman on the local news report on the massive salaries of the Manning brothers (star players for two of the top football teams in America) and I thought to myself "These guys could hire all the potential suicide bombers in the Middle East between them. And then we'd have no War On Terror." It's always been Rich Man's War, Poor Boys' Fight!