For a little reading to counteract the doom and gloom of the Punditocracy and MSM... (and some of us bloggers, too), try a little Victor Davis Hanson.
Platitudes follow: "We can't just leave now," followed by no real advice on how a fascist society can be jumpstarted into a modern liberal republic. After all, there is no government handbook entitled, "Operation 1A: How to remove a Middle East fascist regime in three weeks, reconstruct the countryside, and hold the first elections in the nation's history — all within two years." Almost all who supported the war now are bailing on the pretext that their version of the reconstruction was not followed: While a three-week war was their idea, a 20-month messy reconstruction was surely someone else's. Yesterday genius is today's fool — and who knows next month if the elections work? Witness Afghanistan where all those who recently said the victory was "lost" to warlords are now suddenly quiet.Heads You Lose, Tails We Win
Indeed, from the oscillating analyses of Iraq, the following impossible picture often emerges from our intelligentsia. It was a fatal error to disband the Iraqi army. That led to lawlessness and a loss of confidence in the American ability to restore immediate order after Saddam's fall. Yet it was also a fatal error to keep some Baathists in the newly constituted army. They were corrupt and wished reform to fail — witness the Fallujah Brigade that either betrayed us or aided the enemy. So we turned off the Sunnis by disbanding the army — and yet somehow turned off the Shiites by keeping some parts of it.
You can get all of it here.
Then there's the always fun to read Ralph Peters. Gee, if I had any talent, I could be him...
...From Islamic terrorists to The New York Times, the enemies of free elections in Iraq have a common goal: They desperately want the American experiment in bringing democracy to the Middle East to fail - the first for reasons of power, the latter to regain its lost prestige.The terrorists' alarm is understandable. Ditto for the Sunni Arab insurgents. They could never win an election in Iraq, and they know it. The terrorists believe in religious tyranny, while the insurgents believe in secular tyranny. Neither care in the least about the aspirations of the common people.
For its part, the Times believes in the tyranny of the intelligentsia. Blinded by its hatred for the Bush administration, it attempts to portray every development in Iraq as a disaster. Even marginally successful Iraqi elections would prove it wrong yet again...
Read Ralph's full bit here, at the NY Post. Gotta love access to the Early Bird!
Obviously, what they both have to say resonates with me.
On a completely unrelated note - SWWBO's Carnival of the Recipes is up, over at One Happy Dog's place.
To wrap it up, at least for now - another reason why I love American soldiers. We're generally a disciplined lot. But we do sometimes pose some passive-agressive challenges to authority asserting itself for authority's sake. And, unlike some of our senior leaders (this includes uniforms and suits) we keep our promises.
Warning - tissue alert for critter lovers.
I was inspired to do this because Bill The Rotorhead is promising his hard-hitting tell all comic book of his life after the Statute of Limitations on GO#1 expires. Aside from capital crimes, unless there's an existing Courts Martial Convening order outstanding, seven years about covers it. You should be good to go for the Vietnam book Bill, absent anything covered by non-disclosure agreements...
General Order #1 can be a real pain in the patootie.
Okay, okay. Kwitcherbitchin'! Ya wanna see an example General Order #1? Here.
If you need a little humor for your day... check out the extended post, in the Flash Traffic.
Why Math is Taught in School (Written By A Wise Man)
I was riding to work yesterday when I observed a female driver cut right in front of a pickup truck, causing him to have to drive on to the shoulder to avoid hitting her. This evidently angered the driver enough that he hung his arm out his window and "flipped" the woman off.
"Man, that guy is stupid," I thought to myself. I ALWAYS smile nicely and wave in a sheepish manner whenever a female does anything to me in traffic, and I drive 48 miles each way every day to work.
That's 96 miles each day.
Of these, 16 miles each way is bumper-to-bumper.
Most of the bumper-to-bumper is on an 8-lane highway.
There are 7 cars every 40 feet for 32 miles.
That works out to be 982 cars every mile, or 31,424 cars.
Even though the rest of the 32 miles is not bumper-to-bumper, I figure I pass at least another 4000 cars.
That brings the number to something like 36,000 cars that I pass every day.
Statistically, females drive half of these.
That's 18,000 women drivers!
In any given group of females, 1 in 28 has PMS.
That's 642.
According to Cosmopolitan, 70% describe their love life as dissatisfying or unrewarding.
That's 449.
According to the National Institute of Health, 22% of all females have seriously considered suicide or homicide.
That's 98.
And 34% describe men as their biggest problem.
That's 33.
According to the National Rifle Association, 5% of all females carry weapons, and this number is increasing.
That means that EVERY SINGLE DAY, I drive past at least one female that has a lousy love life, thinks men are her biggest problem, has seriously considered suicide or homicide, has PMS, and is armed.
Flip one off? ....... I think not.
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