tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post7730715052702317344..comments2024-03-28T12:29:39.157-07:00Comments on Graphic Firing Table: InfamyFDChiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-50304835779813498902011-12-13T22:15:59.881-07:002011-12-13T22:15:59.881-07:00There seem to be very few people willing to do the...<i>There seem to be very few people willing to do the hard graft needed to suss out the actual capabilities of these Islamic neocons and what the U.S. might be able to do to thwart them without impoverishing ourselves...</i><br /><br />This is something we have witnessed in our lifetime: The comedown in desire or ability of the average citizen to analyze a situation, and the extreme polarization defined by a willingness to see the country fail just for the pleasure of tongue-lashing the other side of the aisle. Most perverse.<br /><br />It is an odd mish-mash of fear, insularity, insecurity, xenophobia and some odd kind of magical-thinking invincibility, all at once. Since it's hard to hold six incompatible thoughts at once, It seems people hitch their wagon to the brashest demagogue and close their eyes.<br /><br />Maybe man is destined to live as a metronome, incapable of making realistic threat assessments, alternately over- or under-reacting, ultimately satisfied by a dull stasis.Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08839236994990699117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-4019333332092665062011-12-12T17:05:42.921-07:002011-12-12T17:05:42.921-07:00Lisa: But we seem to be having a very difficult ti...Lisa: But we seem to be having a very difficult time getting a grip on what foe we DO have...<br /><br />Our guy seydlitz likes to go on about this, but I'm not so sure that we've ever been <i>that</i> great at it. We sorta stumbled into the War of 1812, and nobody really had a clue what the Mexicans would bring to the party in 1845. And all the pre-war predictions of early victory in 1861 - on both sides - were as wrong as they could be. We were just lucky that our imperial ambitions reformed our Navy prior to 1898 (our Army was still sort of a mess - taking on Spanish troops armed with Mauser 98's with nasty ol' Krag-Jørgensen's isn't a testimonial to your prescience as a fighting force...) and we weren't really ready for WW1 until 1918...so I'm not shocked that we don't seem to be all that hep on figuring out what we need overseas.<br /><br />And the period right before Pearl was one of massive innovation in the Japanese <i>Kito Budai</i>, their carrier air arm (see the post right above this one) so we might get a pass on not seeing the Threat for what it was.<br /><br />But today we seem to have the situation perfectly backwards. In 1941 we had the Japanese intentions pretty well pegged but underestimated their capabilities. Today we have a similar take on the jihadi's intentions (they want to take on our part of the world to get a bigger "place in the sun")...but seem to vastly OVERestimate their capabilities.<br /><br />And I'd argue that today, rather, the immense bulk of the public is clueless and likes it that way. Unlike my old man, who took a hard look at the news and decided that there was no real danger, the public circa 2011 is either in a swivet based on groundless fantasy or complacent based on...nothing at all. There seem to be very few people willing to do the hard graft needed to suss out the actual capabilities of these Islamic neocons and what the U.S. might be able to do to thwart them without impoverishing ourselves...FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-74335070061435384162011-12-10T20:33:32.814-07:002011-12-10T20:33:32.814-07:00It IS hard to grasp how the "tattered bunch o...It IS hard to grasp how the "tattered bunch of wanna-be Saladins get our panties in such a twist" when thinking of actual foes with actual military machines.<br /><br />I guess you go to war with the foe you have (thanks, Mr. Rumsfeld.)<br /><br />Also interesting is the difference in perception of that day between East- and West-Coasters. I suspect it's very similar to today: Mos people are informed and engaged according to their proximity to and investment in the repercussions of the wars.Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08839236994990699117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-74796455340329890482011-12-09T07:11:38.408-07:002011-12-09T07:11:38.408-07:00basil; Good point - "fortunate" is proba...basil; Good point - "fortunate" is probably the better word. I've always thought that those of us who were too young for WW2 don't really "get" the notion of what it was like to have to fight these huge, scary fascist enemies. Digby pointed out in that post you linked to about how with the Soviets we had the constant presence of MAD; we knew that we might all go up in nuclear smoke, but the idea of being conquered, of having the Gestapo of the Kempeitai haul you away to a secret prison?<br /><br />Now THAT's scary.<br /><br />So I guess dunno how we managed to come to this place where a tattered bunch of wanna-be Saladins get our panties in such a twist. But it seems a long, sad way from our parents doing their bit to beat Hitler and Tojo...FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-20423900301179210652011-12-09T00:43:52.115-07:002011-12-09T00:43:52.115-07:00http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeo_Yoshikawa
http...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeo_Yoshikawa<br /><br />http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/pearl-harbor-day.html<br /><br /><br />bbAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-86734498335975132352011-12-08T15:47:02.987-07:002011-12-08T15:47:02.987-07:00I don't think the Cold War has anything to do ...I don't think the Cold War has anything to do with it.<br /><br />After all, that Cold got very Hot in Vietnam. Same stinkin shit back then, only then it was the godless heathen commies seeking to undermine our way of life and take our freedoms away.<br /><br />Dominoes falling against our Virgin Shores.<br /><br />Also, don't mean to quibble so much, but I think "fortunate" is a better fit than "lucky" in your sentence, in the truest sense of the word.<br /><br />As your fortune takes you down one path or the other.<br /><br />Another Portland reference.<br /><br />In the Trivia bits before the movie I mentioned at MilPub . . . <br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Martini<br /><br /><b>Pink Martini is a 13-member "little orchestra"[1] from Portland, Oregon, formed in 1994 by pianist Thomas M. Lauderdale. They draw inspiration from music from all over the world – crossing genres of classical, jazz and old-fashioned pop.</b><br /><br />bbAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-33446336724239112302011-12-08T15:29:24.412-07:002011-12-08T15:29:24.412-07:00Weird to think that getting malaria was "luck...Weird to think that getting malaria was "lucky", but when you think that a hell of a lot of the guys who were in the Army in 1941 who DID go west never made it back; the divisions that fought on Guadalcanal, New Britain and New Guinea in 1942, like the units that went ashore in North Africa, were pretty well cut up by 1944.<br /><br />And I think that part of our problem is that we don't HAVE a Cold War to keep our heads in the bigger geopolitical game. So these crappy little guerrillas become Big Scary Evil threats and we run around playing whack-a-muj because the cost doesn't come home to Joe and Mary.FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-77135008170137640712011-12-08T14:56:37.709-07:002011-12-08T14:56:37.709-07:00I need to edit my remark about my FIL on FB.
I wa...I need to edit my remark about my FIL on FB.<br /><br />I was coming to the end of your piece here and the wife came up and we started talking about her dad and what he had been doing 70 years ago.<br /><br />FIL was in hospital at Pearl on that day. He enlisted in the Army in '39 underage at 17, and they knew that b/c they had called his dad, as the wife is now saying, but he got in just the same. The Navy rejected him because of malocclusion of his teeth, but the Army welcomed him with open arms. The malady was not lung-related, but malaria.<br /><br />So his ass was saved b/c of his bad teeth. He would very likely have been on board the ships when the blitz hit if it weren't for that physical liability.<br /><br />He spent the war state-side, as did his dad during WW 1. My maternal GF was refected for WW 1 service for flat feet, IYWTK.<br /><br />He wrote a note home after the attack, that he still has somewhere, with ~90% blacked out.<br /><br />For some reason, the old propaganda against us back in the days of the Cold War "Paper Tiger" keeps coming back to mind.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com