October 20, 2014--Operation Hesitation

I am pleased to report that I will now be able to sleep through the night because our current military operation in Iraq-Syria at last has an official name--Operation Inherent Resolve. 

Since Desert Shield (our war with Iraq to expel Saddam's army from Kuwait), Desert Storm (George H.W. Bush's war with Iraq), and Iraqi Freedom (George the Son's preemptive invasion of Iraq to finish the job he felt Daddy left unresolved)--I've been curious why our wars need names.

What's wrong with World War I, World War II, or the Korean War? Did our war in Vietnam have or need a name other than the Vietnam War? These seem descriptive enough.

Yes, various operations in wars since at least WW II had names--Overlord is perhaps best known. It was the code name for the allied invasion of Normandy, culminating on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

In truth the invasion didn't need a code name. Everyone who cared knew forces for a massive invasion were gathering in England. And no one was fooled by wondering what this Overlord was about. The Nazis knew the allies were coming. The most important thing they didn't know was where the cross-Channel invasion would occur, and having a code name didn't do anything to help hide the specifics of the plan. For some reason Eisenhower must have liked the feudal sound of Overlord. Perhaps that's how he regarded himself.

Come to think of it, why was June 6th called D-Day? Wiki says all invasion have d-days with the "d" standing for day or date. Get it? Nothing special.

But in regard to Operation Inherent Resolve, according to the New York Times, for three months the Pentagon has been hassled by the press to come up with a name for the bombings and drone attacks we have been inflicting on the Islamic State (or ISIS or ISIL).

Secrecy is not an issue otherwise the Pentagon wouldn't have shared the eventual code name with the waiting world--

The name Inherent Resolve is intended to reflect the unwavering resolve and deep commitment of the U.S. and partner nations in the region and around the globe to eliminate the terrorist group ISIL and the threat they pose to Iraq, the region and the wider international community.

There was no concurrent mention of the fact that one key "partner nation," Turkey, geographically in the middle of the fighting, has thus far not only refused to become involved but has impeded our efforts, in effect holding us up for ransom--there will be no Turkish involvement, they say, until the U.S. agrees to directly support rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Under pressure from the press I can just imagine the high-level discussions that went on for three months in the Pentagon and White House Situation Room while struggling to come up with an appropriate name for the operation.

"How about Operation Isolation?" the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff offered, all puffed up.

"I like that sir," his adjunct chimed in. "It's clever. Even includes a pun. ISIL, isolation. If I may say so, sir, very clever."

"This is a nasty business. No place for puns," growled the Chief of Naval Operations. "My boys are flying dangerous missions and--"

"Sorry to interrupt Chief," the Army Chief of Staff interjected, "But that's boys and girls." He sat back in his leather chair, self-satisfied, smiling.

"Correction accepted," conceded the Chief of Naval Operations. "We do have some wonderful gals flying those planes. Lives at risk. Just like the boys. Times have changed"

"How about Operation Hesitation," chuckled the Commandant of the Marine Corps. His colleagues glared at him. "You know, the CIC [Commander in Chief] was hesitant to get involved with those ISIS-ISIL folks. It's another quagmire. We all know that. he got beat up in the press pretty bad for indecision. Had to have those fellas' heads cut off before he got his ass in gear." No one made eye contact.

"Not that I blame him. Been there, done that. So maybe for once we should come up with one of these names--why we even need them I'll never know--that tells it like it is. Operation Hesitation could be the first." He puffed on his unlit pipe.

"Yeah, and we should have called Iraqi Freedom Operation Slam-Dunk," said the Vice Chair, all agitated.

"Or," offered the Commandant of the Coast Guard, "Operation Preemption," getting in on the act.

"Let's get serious guys. That's not going to fly," the Chairman admonished his colleagues, "We have to come up with something he'll go for. That suits him. You know, something academic sounding. A name with class." He rolled his eyes, feeling he had more important things to do.

"I have it," exclaimed the Chief of the National Guard, "How about Operation Enduring Resolve?"

"Huh?"

"I'm liking this," the naval commandant said, "The resolve part especially. Very Marine. Like Sempre Fi, but in English. Like it. Licking it."

"Your boys aren't even involved," the Chief of Naval Operations pointed, "No boots on the ground this time around. At least that's what he said. Just Mark's flyboys and my guys. And by guys I mean guys and gals of course." He winked.

"But I'm not liking the enduring business," the Chairman said, "Feels ominous to me. If I take your meaning it sounds like we'll be at this forever. I mean, if it's enduring. I'm not sure we'll be able to sell that."

"Good point. So how about inherent?" the Chief asked, "We want to indicate we're taking this seriously, that it's not going to be a slam-dunk. Going to take some time."

They all seemed to like that.

"I'll pass it along," the Chairman said, "Let's run it up the flagpole and see if it flies."

The rest is history. Or will be history.

June 6, 2013--Barack Obama and the Khmer Rouge

I’m not much of a sleeper, so to distract myself from middle-of-the-night fretting, I listen to talk radio, thinking it’s so boring it will drive me back to sleep.

I usually listen to sports talk—which is as enervating as it gets--but last night I tuned in to Savage Nation, an eponymous right-wing program hosted by Michael Savage.

Born in the Bronx as Michael Weiner, he is a little unusual because unlike his ilk he has a really good education—a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley--and he has had considerable success in fields other than milking money from Tea Party crazies. Back in the day he even ran with Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Timothy Leary.

Knowing him as I do from other late night encounters, I anticipated lots of railing about the IRS, Benghazi, and Eric Holder. I wasn’t prepared for his tirade about the seven female senators on the Armed Services Committee and how they are attempting—with Obama’s open encouragement—to undermine our military by pressing to take the investigation and prosecution of soldiers who engage in sex crimes away from the normal, failed chain of command process.

He ranted about how these “harpies”—with Obama again—were like members of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge whose leader, the communist Pol Pot, to consolidate his power, during the 1970s and 80s, called for and oversaw the barbaric torture and extermination of at least two million of his fellow countrymen.

This was so over the top even for the likes of a Savage, Glenn Beck, or Rush Limbaugh that when I awoke I thought I must have been having a nightmare. So I did a little checking.

It appears that Weiner/Savage has been making these Khmer Rouge slanders for a number of years. It is one of his mantas when savaging Obama. (Pun intended.) As an example, here is a long except from WND, a raggy right-wing Website:

Any doubt Americans may have had that Barack Obama is a Marxist should be alleviated now after hearing his rhetoric in a speech in Virginia over the weekend, top talk-radio host Michael Savage told his listeners in July 2012. 

Asserting that it is governments and not individuals who create jobs, Obama told entrepreneurs Friday: “If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” 

 “You didn’t get there on your own,” the president said. “I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart.” 

After playing the audio of Obama’s remarks, Savage offered a blunt assessment.“So there’s communism,” he said. “That’s Karl Marx Obama. That’s Hugo Chavez Obama. That’s Joseph Stalin Obama. This is a very dangerous man.” 

Savage, noting he has studied dictatorships, recalled that tyrannical regimes “begin with innocent remarks like this.”“This man is the most dangerous, most divisive, most evil – I’ll use the word evil – president in the history of America.” 

Savage acknowledged he was “stepping up” his own rhetoric, because the situation requires it, and no one else will. 

“Things don’t start the way they end,” he warned, drawing lessons from history. “They start with the most innocent remarks like this.” 

The elected Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler, whose rhetoric originated with 19th century French anti-Semites, did not start with death camps but with relatively benign racial purity laws, and no one stopped him, Savage pointed out. 

“The rhetoric Obama is expressing is not his own rhetoric,” Savage said. ‘This is what is deeply embedded in the man’s brain stem. He has been inculcated with hatred for the American way from the cradle.” 

The Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, Savage recalled, “was a mild mannered professor like Obama” who went to Paris, studied Marxism “and came back a flaming communist.” 

“It ended with a mountain of skulls,” Savage said, with some 2 million people slaughtered in Cambodia’s infamous “killing fields.” 

Pol Pot, instituting what he was taught at Paris universities, unleashed his Khmer Rouge on anyone with an education – the productive people of society. 

“What does this have to do with that nice man in the White House with such a nice wife and nice children?” Savage asked his “Savage Nation” audience. 

“It starts with rhetoric like this,” he said. “It unleashes the genie in the bottle. It justifies any acts of betrayal, any acts of hatred, any acts of sabotage against the successful.” 

He called Obama “the most hateful man who has ever plagued the White House.”

Thinking about Obama, the seven female senators, and the Khmer Rouge, I thought to see just who those seven senators are and what they had to say during the hearings with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Two of the seven are Republicans—Kelly Ayotte (NH) and Deb Fischer (NE)—and they were just as openly critical, even outraged as their Democratic colleagues.

What’s more, three of the male GOP senators—Roy Blunt (MO), Saxby Chambliss (GA), and John McCain (AZ)—were just as upset about the resistance of the Joint Chiefs to take the problem seriously that they spoke about about it just as forcefully as their female counterparts.

Here is what Khmer Rouge member McCain had to say—

He told an anecdote about a woman he encountered whose daughter was thinking about volunteering for the Army. She asked McCain, in the light of all the reports about sex crimes in the armed forces, if he could offer his “unqualified support for her daughter’s choice.

With a heavy heart, this former air force hero and prisoner of war said, “I could not.”

A final word--Michael Savage never served in the military. Like Dick Cheney, he secured a series of student deferments.