-- President Obama was elected in no small part to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. To absolutely no one's surprise, he has spectacularly failed on both. Yesterday, the President signed a closely-negotiated agreement with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan that will commit American troops in serious numbers in that country for years, perhaps decades. In Iraq, our forces have been simply re-designated. And we now are fielding a mercenary security force there in excess of 10,000 men.
-- The President has also sent U.S. forces into Uganda. U.S. troops patrol Orthodox areas of the Muslim-ruled Kosovo. He attacked Libya. He is getting ready to attack Syria.
-- A very, very dumb Chinese activist took refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. The conservative press beat its chest for a few days, as it was said we were negotiating an asylum agreement for him. Today, this activist left the U.S. Embassy, and not to embark on asylum.
-- The U.S. Air Force has admitted that a portion of its figher pilots has officially notified that service that they will not accept orders to fly the new F-22.
-- Washington and New York watched the Space Shuttle being flown to museums, to sit with the mothballs. This was protrayed as some sort of achievement.
-- Adding to the beauty of the National Mall, most recently graced with a gigantic quasi-Maoist sculpture of Martin Luther King, Jr., will be a new monument to President Eisenhowser. Designed by avant-garde architect Frank Geary, it will feature a scupture of the famous general as a 12-year old Kansas farmboy, surrounded by oddly-shaped sheets of polished aluminum. Visitors will be invited to interpret their own meaning of Eisenhowser.
-- In a rare bit of good news, the two Federal policemen who act as crossing guards on George Mason Blvd. to help our U.S. Army officers and soldiers cross the street weren't at their post this morning. It was raining.
Throughout history, empires have died usually in one of two ways, either by destruction by a greater military power, or by decadence that weakened them to the point that formerly weaker powers could finish the destruction that they began them selves.
ReplyDeleteThe US has been a reluctant empire, actually putting more treasure in to our colonies than we've taken out (essentially the reverse of other empires over time).
That does not mean we are immune to decadence however, and almost everything you wrote of seems to show that decadence advancing rapidly, all while the administration, and their left-leaning backups do their best to weaken us militarily so the second part of that equation can be fulfilled.
One question I have however, is about the fighter pilots refusing the F-22. I've read or heard nothing about that. Have those who refused gicen reasons?
Damn, preview cuts off the last letters of each line.
ReplyDelete'gicen' is given, of course.
DWT - It's the same oxygen system issue. Officials are downplaying the numbers, but if they've had to publically acknowledge it, I'd say it's a serious problem.
ReplyDeleteBy W.J. Hennigan, Los Angeles Times
May 1, 2012, 6:51 p.m.
Some of the nation's top aviators are refusing to fly the radar-evading F-22 Raptor, a fighter jet with ongoing problems with the oxygen systems that have plagued the fleet for four years.
At the risk of significant reprimand — or even discharge from the Air Force — fighter pilots are turning down the opportunity to climb into the cockpit of the F-22, the world's most expensive fighter jet.
The Air Force did not reveal how many of its 200 F-22 pilots, who are stationed at seven military bases across the country, declined their assignment orders. But current and former Air Force officials say it's an extremely rare occurrence.
"It's shocking to me as a fighter pilot and former commander of Air Combat Command that a pilot would decline to get into that airplane," said retired four-star Gen. Richard E. Hawley, a former F-15 fighter pilot and air combat commander at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Va.
He said he couldn't remember one specific incident in his 35-year career in which a fighter pilot had declined his assignment.
Concern about the safety of the F-22 has grown in recent months as reports about problems with its oxygen systems have offered no clear explanations why pilots are reporting hypoxia-like symptoms in the air. Hypoxia is a condition that can bring on nausea, headaches, fatigue or blackouts when the body is deprived of oxygen.
The Air Force's handling of the investigation is being closely watched throughout the military and in Congress.
DWT - I agree on the decadence front. The thing is, I never thought it would happen this fast. I was gone for 2 years and, believe me, the change here at home is striking.
ReplyDeleteIt has been so long since I read of the oxygen problem that I forgot.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jourdan.
As to the decadence, I have not been gone, but have been watching the US spiral down at a dizzying rate.
We are in a perfect storm of crappy education, sleazy popular culture, and a terribly anti-American political situation.
When 47% pay nothing into the system, but have the same voice in running that system, when those with no moral compass are lionized as the 'best' of us, and when politicians do absolutely nothing to change the situation (except for the worse) then we as a nation are almost certainly in our final throes.
I think I can hear the Cheyne-stokes breathing from the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore.
I think there is time to take it back. And we will.
ReplyDeleteI dunno Jourdan - not sure that Chinese activist is so dumb.
ReplyDeleteLet's compare him to our sitting President: like Obama, Chen Guangcheng is a lawyer and a community activist. Unlike Obama, he actually has some success in those professions - sufficient success to endanger himself and his family.
Sufficiently advanced desperation is indistinguishable from stupidity. Maybe he was just stupid to trust that the US government could help him. Realistically it was never in any position to do so.
That said: the Chinese kinda owe us one here. When Bo Xilai's police chief defected to a US consolate, it was very much to the advantage of the Chinese leadership in Bejing - he had info on Bo which was pretty damning, apparently.
Maybe we can induce some idiot #occupy movement leader to flee to the Chinese embassy in Washington. Love to see how they handle that one...