The Command T.O.C.

Winter is Here!

I LOVE the winter! Here it comes:

Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar

Drought Continues and Expands

The severe drought in the South-west is now expanding. Fresh water is the big topic moving forward. I urge you to watch this closely. While I believe human beings contribute to this the real position is that it does not matter. Our Earth is heating up, fresh water is disappearing and we are in a severe drought. The "head in hot sand" approach will no longer work.

CNN reports here.
National Drought mitigation web site is here.

The Military Used as a Neo Con Pawn - Part One

I am reading a fascinating account of the War in Iraq and the lead up to this war called fiasco, written by Thomas Ricks. At the same time, I am re-reading The New American Militarism by Andrew Bacevich. I am doing this in a desperate attempt to try to figure out how the Country got into the mess it is in and how the military became such an incompetent organization (Specifically the Army) just 15 short years since it's crowing achievement in Desert Storm.

A consistent theme is the complacency with which the military (Again, more specifically the Army) has allowed themselves to be used as pawns in a bigger political battle between the Neo Conservatives (led by Wolfowitz and Richard Perle) and the conservative / progressive groups. The Neo Cons have always held a "black and white" belief of the world; There are good guys and bad guys. Further, they have always believed that the "good guys" needed to go on the offensive and kill as many bad guys as they can so to eradicate the world of this danger. No risk was too great to stop the good guys from doing this.

However, in a very interesting alliance of the progressives and the conservatives ( the Patrick Buchanan type), the thought that had prevailed for a long time was that yes, there may be bad guys, but tactics such as containment and engagement were far less risky from a geo-political standpoint than just going to war to remove them. The military had supported this as well coming out of Vietnam. Using the "Powell Doctrine", as supported by Reagan and Weinberger, we would never go to war unless three specific conditions were met: 1) We used overwhelming force. 2) We had a clearly defined mission which had the backing of the American people 3) We had an exit strategy. We could clearly define what the "end game was" and then get out.

Creighton Abrams, who created the total force (the concept of the reserves and the active forces fighting as one) created it so that the Country would be forced to call up reserves in case of a massive war. By doing this, this action would force the politician's hands to get public support.

However, the neocons have done an end around on this entire thought process and used the American military as pawns in their dangerous game. This end around was conducted in three phases:

1. In the lead up to the war, they highlighted the most alarming evidence to the American people and they ignored the huge list of analysts, generals and other people who questioned the idea that Iraq was a clear and present danger. When confronted with the opposing view, the neocons would use the tactic so often used by Cheney which was to just say they were privy to evidence others had not seen. The Country trusted this comment and moved on. - End around one is complete by getting the Country scared about things that "only the Government knew" and abusing the trust people had put in the Government.

 

2. They got the military to support the war by firing anyone who thought it was going to be a long drawn out war and keeping only those who subscribed to the notion that we would prance into Baghdad and in less than 6 months we would be turning the Country back over to the good guys and getting out. Shinseki said it would take over 200,000 soldiers and the original CENTCOM plans called for approximately 350,000 soldiers. - End around number 2: Get rid of the military planners who might enforce the Powell doctrine and stop the march to war.

 

3. Get the troops into the war fast and this will "force" Americans to support the war. After all, once the troops are in the fight, it is your American duty to "support the troops". This is where the troops as pawns come in. The neocons knew that once troops started dying for their perverted view of the world, America, with the memory of how the troops were treated in Vietnam, would come to their support. No one would dare not support the troops as they died on the battlefield. - End around number three: Start getting troops killed so that you effectively cut off dissent. They even had the evil New York Times supporting the war as everyone was deathly afraid of even remotely looking like they did not support the troops in the field.

That was the strategy of the neocons to get us where we are at today. What they, and the yes men military leaders did not anticipate was that after a while the yellow ribbons and the "I support the troops" would wear off. Once that wore off and Americans started to really dig deep into just what happened, they realized that they had been taken for fools by a small group of very influential and evil men (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Pearle) and the rout was on. This led to the "throw the bastards out" election of 2006.

More to follow tomorrow but as one looks back on this you have to ask yourself, if the Command T.O.C. could see this over 2 years ago, why didn't the rest of the world see it? Then you realize a lot of people did but their voices were drowned out by lies and yellow ribbons.

Wilma Hits as a Category 3

Willlllllmmmmmmaaaaaaaa....... As Fred Flinstone would say, hit Florida with more anger than most expected. It hit 22 miles South of Naples and is moving fast. Some say that West Coast Floridians will see the sun set this evening. That is a good thing.

Katrina is Bearing Down

August 28, 2005 2:00CST Update;

Katrina is getting ready to execute a brutal punch on New Orleans. I have never heard such a warning but the national weather service is talking about people needing to expect to be away from their homes for weeks. This is scary... I hope all get out.