Sound the Call

"The only sin greater than waging war,
is waging it ineffectively." Or so my Grandfather, a veteran of two world wars, used to say. Pragmatism. For his generation, the one in between the Gilded and the Greatest, for them pragmatism was all the rage. This in between generation, the ones fighting in WWI and leading in WWII, they weren't idealistic, anything but.

The lessons they learned at the knees of their grandparents, if they had them, were strong and stern. And they would yet learn them again, first-hand. Waging war is horrible, and it comes to no good. The only thing more horrible, is waging war for a long time, with poor equipment, for no reason. If you're forced to go. Go and win. If you can't win, leave. This is the wisdom of those that carried the flag in the Great War and the Last. It is the wisdom, transformed, of those who fought our Civil War. It is wisdom bought and paid for with the blood of brothers and patriots alike.

These simple lessons, hard and bitter to learn, but infused into the fabric of our country by experience, are now more important than ever to recall.

Because we have pride, and because pride remembers, we remember the past in terms of slights, wrongs, and feelings of ill-will. Those days where our pride was offended, they stand out forever. They leave a scar that itches and burns, smoldering, waiting for any reason, any mere breeze, to ignite. No matter if he's holding his first born, for the first time, a man whose pride has been challenged still has a fire burning deep within his soul.

But that fire, that feeling of rashness, that burning for retribution, does not and cannot ever change the simple lessons our forebears taught. War is universally a horror. Don't fight. If you're forced, then fight and win. If you can't win, leave.

Now my grandfather's grandchildern themselves have wandered upon a crossroads in this nation's history. We face a decision, a test. A test our countrymen take for us. Will we force them to yet again learn those hard and bitter lessons? Will we ask them to wage a war they are ill-equipped to win? Will we ask their families to suffer for our pride? Will we allow the inherited wisdom our forefathers left us to be traded away? Will we?

Or shall we have the courage to use reason, God's greatest gift? Shall we use reason to recall why our ancestors said what they said? Shall we remind our brothers to choose, instead of pride, the acumen of our shared experience? Shall we?

War is horrible. If you're forced, go and win. If you can't win, leave.

The time for us to call our troops back home is now.

Just in: Fingerpointing, Cross-pointing, Halts

At least for the holiday. The NewDonkey talks about Christ, what else?

The Incarnation is as radical, unsettling, and difficult an idea as ever, and Christians would do well to spend the season meditating on it, and respecting the Divine Image in everyone they meet. That approach is incompatible with a triumphalist demand that everyone they meet bend the knee to the questionable trappings of their holiday tradition, and even more incompatiable with the claim that Christians in a free country are being persecuted if they must suffer under the handicap of equality.

Preach.

Sierra Club Members

Lucas Doolin has something to say about the upcoming BOD election. Go here.

Calling all Tarheels

KYDem has some interesting news on your future leader.

Train Dispatch #3 - Beware the New Aristoi

I was on the train much longer than usual due to the inclement weather today. Luckily I found a seat, and it was next to one of my usual train interlocutors. Politics and economics are our usual topics of discussion, today was no different, and it was an especially good discussion given the extra length of the train ride.

This particular train buddy was a born millionaire, though he gave up living the trust fund route. So after college, rather than enter Harvard Business School (his birthright, just like W's) he entered today's bourgeois, or I should clarify, today's Northeastern, American, Fairfield County CT bourgeois. On the one hand, he's seen old money, and on the other hand he's seen new. Today we were discussing social classes in America and he gave a discourse, seriously, it was like listening to Socrates for a little while.

"Listen up," he said, "a lot of people just don't get this, but there are really just three classes in America. Investors, Speculators, and the Poor." He described the Poor as people with no money to play with, everyone from the homeless to the working families living paycheck by paycheck. Those in this group are overwhelmingly the largest in number of the three.

"The speculators," he said, "they got some money to burn." In his view, the speculator class is made up by everyone from the near retirement Union worker, the personal tax adviser with a million book value, and even the corporate law partner bringing in seven figures a year. This is also a rather large class. And they are the "largest class of Americans who vote, for sure." What separates this group from the other two is they have some spare cash, and are "always looking for a way to get rich." However, don't assume the class is just about everyone because: "a 401K alone doesn't get you here, you need that plus something more, something you feel like gambling with."

"Then there are the investors," he smiled. Most investors aren't even people, they are giant corporations, insurance companies, multi-national banks, or extremely wealthy families. Investors have so much to play with, they need to hire people to not play with it. This class has few numbers of actual votes, but what they lack there, they more than make up for in campaign finance. They aren't looking to get rich quick, or even get rich quicker, they are simply looking to preserve their fortunes throughout all time. "Investors, above all else, seek immortality."

His analysis of both Bush elections was that it was a grasp of power by the investor class. "Look you gotta realize" he said "these investor types see this as a zero sum game. The more millionaires there are, the less wealth they have." Another line of his I found telling: "investors see rising economic tides as competition. They don't believe in value creation, they think thats a new name for theft."

His view is that Clinton's wonder-economy royally pissed off the investor class because "pothead college students with a powerpoint presentation and a laptop could get enough angel money to last two years." Not only that, he relayed second-hand convesations where Clinton and his ilk would actually claim their goal was to create "a new aristocracy." Well, for the old aristocracy, that meant war. Martha Stewart is a prime example of what the old aristoi mean when they say beware of the new aristoi. Remember, he urged, "investors see the world as a binary proposition. If someone has more, they necessarily have less."

At one point, while discussing the Charles River Bridge Case, he correctly anticipated that the original bridge-building company would claim that the right to build meant that no others could build, that is, that the state had granted them a monopoly. "Monopoly is not the goal of investors, it is their means" he said.

Near the end of our ride, I asked him if he thought this sounded an awful lot like a conspiracy theory. "Look, I know what you're saying. But a conspiracy this isn't." However, he did mention that since investors generally all want the same thing, and since they really don't want more, they just don't want others to gain, many of their interests translate into near-term goals which are surprisingly similar. He also mentioned, "in comparison to other classes, there really aren't that many investors" therefore he figured some sort of coordination was not out of the realm of plausibility, but again, "a conspiracy this isn't. A homogeniety of interests, this is."

Shockingly Awful Incompetence

When I first heard about the "shock and awe" strategy, I knew we were in trouble. The strategy seemed to be: "if we blow shit up rale hi', they all just runnd away." Thats a bad sign, regardless of whether Gomer is the one saying it, or Richard Perle. Of course, on reflection it seems that was a hail mary. The truth is, as Mark Shields points out in Saturday's Post, the facts on the ground in Iraq are simply absurd.

In the three years immediately after Pearl Harbor, the United States, a nation of 132 million people with a gross domestic product of less than $100 billion, produced the following to win World War II:

296,429 aircraft
102,351 tanks
87,620 warships
372,431 artillery pieces
2,455,694 trucks

Compare those heroic achievements with the current dismal supply record as the U.S. war in Iraq is fast approaching its third year and the United States, now a nation of nearly 300 million with defense spending in excess of half a trillion dollars:

Only 5,910 of the 19,584 Humvees that U.S. troops in Iraq depend on are protected with factory-installed armor.

More than 8,000 of the 9,128 medium and heavyweight trucks transporting soldiers and supplies in that war zone are without armor.

Because of the incompetence or indifference of this nation's civilian leadership of the war, Americans in Iraq are living with an increased risk of death. ...

Wow! You know, I saw Mark Shields once on 11th street in DC, it was 1999. I'm almost 100% positive as he was chugging across the street (which was pretty empty at the time) I saw him pull a snort from a silver flask. I can't say I'm 100% positive, but I do know it was him, and it sure looked like a flask. Needless to say, that single instance is the only reason why I still have respect for the guy. Now I can add this column as another reason. Good job Mark. The Moose has more as well.

Top 10 Responses to Social Security Reform

Ah, mid-winter... The big inaugural prelude. The goal now is to make it look like Bush's second term was a mandate for social security reform. When someone asks you what you think about the president's plan, here are few ways to re-center the debate:

(10) Yep, I guess Bush has to get it up above 11,000 somehow.

(9) Why, no, I didn't... did they lower the terror alert too?

(8) I guess it don't matter who steals our retirement cause if the dollar keeps sliding, its gonna be worthless anyhow.

(7) Let me ask you something, you think Sgt. Irizarry, you know, that father of four from the Bronx who died a couple of weeks ago... you think he went over there to fight in the desert so George W. Bush could make Wall Street rich off your grandma's retirement money?

(6) No, I didn't hear that, I was too busy figuring out how to afford medical insurance.

(5) If you believe there is a social security crisis, then I got a bridge in Baghdad to sell you.

(4) Yeah, I heard about that. I bet my broker is licking his chops.

(3) Jesus Christ.... Hasn't Ken Lay stolen enough?

(2) I did. I still haven't heard: "Bin Laden Captured" though. Have you?

(1) Well how else they gonna pay for Christmas son?

Place your bets

We're making the call here at Amend. IX... last week 119.3M barrels. This week: 120M barrels.

What the H?

is W doing in that picture? And by the way, what the H are these guys doing gettin' medals?

Hey Mr. President... how many Purple Hearts you pinned today?

Rich kids.

This makes me laugh

The fucking Business Roundtable is against Bush's tax reform push. The Business Roundtable! Good lord, then who is for it? I've heard now, more than once, that a lot of big business people were for Bush not because they agreed with any single policy, but because they knew they could control him. Or at least, felt better about their chances of control over him, than say John Kerry. But the article in FT is just hilarious. Careful what you wish for Business Roundtable.

Quote of the Day

From today's Meet the Press... Joe Biden was quoted, describing a trip to Iraq, where a General (unnamed of course) came up and said:

Senator, anyone tells you we have enough troops, you tell them they're a G[od] D[amned] liar!

Gotta love it. Give 'em hell Joe!

Earth to Atrios

The "backing" by George Bush of Kofi Annan is more of the same insincerity that marked his first term. Without Kofi at the helm, someone else more "socially" acceptable would be the "face" of the UN. This would, of course, make discounting the relevance of the UN much more difficult since much of that criticism is founded on the exploitation of racial ideology. This isn't a change, as you imply, and Norm is not being told by anyone to "shut up". Quite the opposite. This is standard manipulation of the press corps, and now apparently, you too! Say it ain't so! To recap: no one is going to hear "Bush likes Kofi." What matters is what they see. Black and white my friend, black and white.

Scary Thought

I was talking to a doctor friend of mine. The conversation was philosophical in nature. I had mentioned, Aristotle defined the highest good as that which is for its own sake (Being-for-self as Hegel might say). He replied: "that's funny, that's what I call cancer." Originally I laughed at this. On reflection, I'm frightened by the wisdom of that statement. Cancer is for its own sake...
What else is?

More News from the Train

This is really a public service announcement... Pharma executives traveling on mass transit should remember that when they open up their 17 inch screen laptop with exceptionally sharp resolution and brightness, everyone on board can see what they see. We aren't being nosy. We are just looking at the brightest thing in the room. It stands to reason then that should you be a pharma executive, and you happend to be riding the train home from the city, you would not want to be editing a PowerPoint presentation which describes marketing techniques for psyho-therapeutic drugs to children under the age of 18. Especially a bad idea is editing a slide with the title: "Getting Around the Parents." Indeed, you might want to get rid of that slideshow altogether and be a little less direct in your language. Also, in an effort to be fair, I should mention to all those trial lawyers out there looking for a smoking gun, not a bad idea to commute with the upper crust now and again.

You May Not Here This...

But he did say it today, and it was good.

The question is not whether we move left or right. It's not about our direction. What we need to start focusing on... is the destination.

-Howard Dean, 12/08/2004

It will be interesting to see how much some of the hard left blogs take this to heart. Pragmatism, plain and simple.

I Just Don't Know If It's Worth It

I live in Westport, CT. A small, fairly ritzy half suburb of NYC and half New England coastal town. These days, it really is more like 70-30 suburb to coastal town, but thats progress I guess. There are two train stops in Westport. Westport/Saugutuck, the older section where I live and Greens Farms, the newer section full of big mansionettes, famous neighbors, and a view of the Sound.

I get on the train a little early and typically I take the inside of the three seat benches. Usually no one sits in the middle, unless its really crowded. Today though, it was packed. Two friendly guys crowd in and sit beside me. Probably in their later 30s early 40s, one is clearly a banker, the other I'm not sure of. When the conductor came around, we all pulled out our passes. I looked to see where their stop was and it turned out they were getting off at Greens Farms, the stop after mine, crowded all the way home.

As the train went chugging, I was reading about that 38 year old Sgt. Irizarry, most everyone was, it was front page in the Daily News. Sgt. Irizarry, from the Bronx, lived in Waterbury CT, died after only a month in Iraq leaving four kids and a wife. Sad story. His 5 year old son started sobbing when the officers in dress uniform came to speak with his mom. "He overheooaOrd what the men said and began to cry," said Jessica Irizarry."

As I was reading about Sgt. Irizarry's desire to be "brave, just like his dad" (who had fought in the Army during the Korean War), the guys beside me were getting a little louder so I couldn't help but overhear.

"No way." "Yep. Seriously. They installed it in a day. Now I have a putting green year round. It doesn't roll quite as true as the greens at the Club, but I can use it whenever I want, and I all have to do is blow it clear with a leaf blower and its ready to go." "How much did it cost?" "Only $5000" "Hmm, that's not bad."

Their talk continued, mostly about the differences between X-Box and SuperPlayStation. The verdict seemed to be X-Box was more fun, but SuperPlayStation was better. By the time my stop was close, they had moved on to bigger and better things.

42" Plasma Screen TVs. One fella had heard that the new LCD displays coming online were significantly cheaper, offered just about the same clarity as plasma screens, and took up less energy. The other guy said he thought the LCDs were still too dim. He was going to go plasma this year, the bigger the better. Plus his kids will be thrilled on Christmas day. As I was leaving, they were talking about how expensive a 42" screen was. I couldn't quite make it out, sounded like he said "$5000-$6000 depending on brand." To which his friend replied: "Yeah, that's not bad, I just don't know if its worth it."

I wonder what Sgt. Irizarry's family thinks about that? Do they think it was worth it?

Defeating Racists

I'd like to lump thinkers like this with the intolerance of Radical Islam. Luckily, he did it for me.

Breaking down the sexual barriers between the races is a major weapon of cultural destruction because it means the dissolution of the cultural boundaries that define breeding and the family and, ultimately, the transmission and survival of the culture itself.

Grand Imperial Wizard Samuel Francis is a member of the "Creator's Syndicate" which syndicates, among others, Pat Buchanan, Robert Novak, and Mark Shields. Gee, one of these things is not like the other...

Thanks to Atrios to bringing this out. Hopefully it will spark the same outrage that the anti-gay decisions of CBS et al in the liberal blogosphere, here's to hope!

How Much In Campaign Contributions

does this cost? More sickening results from the corporate buy-out of America. Apparently NYC's orphans are now Big Pharma's test patient population. Hey, you can't say they didn't pay for it. From the BBC:

We asked Dr David Rasnick, visiting scholar at the University of Berkeley, for his opinion on some of the experiments.

He said: "We're talking about serious, serious side-effects. These children are going to be absolutely miserable. They're going to have cramps, diarrhoea and their joints are going to swell up. They're going to roll around the ground and you can't touch them."

He went on to describe some of the drugs - supplied by major drug manufacturers including Glaxo SmithKline - as "lethal".

When approached by the BBC, Glaxo SmithKline said such trials must have stringent standards and be conducted strictly in accordance with local regulations.

That last part is the best. "Conducted strictly in accordance with local regulations" (they forgot this part though: "that we wrote and paid for!").

Defeating Terror

I'd just like to point out, over the past week or so, the Bull Moose has been seriously hitting the nail on the head. We at A9 strongly encourage our readers to visit the Moose and read him regularly. His latest post is on the "Terror Gap" and deals with Peter Beinart's recent article in TNR. The message is, Liberals, not Conservatives, are the ones to win this war. We agree, but we need to examine what that means. Here is a thought experiment to exercise our war winning minds and to provoke discussion. All facts are real, you can't argue them away (however unrealistic they may be).

Terrorist A is caught, there is no doubt as to his terrorist ties, and he has evidence on him inidicating an attack is coming. Terrorist Z, apprehended in London, is detained by British authorities. On him is a rather detailed plan describing a particular nuclear suitcase bomb known to have been stolen from Russia, that it will be handled by Terrorist A and others, and that it is set to go off in the next 24 hours. British authorities give this information over immediately to American authorities. All information is confirmed and authenticated by other intel agencies. Those US agents detaining Terrorist A read the information, and quickly realize what they are up against.

Millions of NYC dwellers are about to perish. Terrorist A is not budging in the interrogation, shows no signs of cooperating, and laughs at the questions. Finally, Agent O comes in. He pulls his gun out and shoots Terrorist A in the foot. Then tells him, next bullet goes into knee, then his leg, then his balls, then his stomach, then his head. Terrorist A still will not say where the nuclear bomb is located. Agent O now shoots him in the knee. Terrorist A, in extreme pain, finally gives up the location. Other agents are sent, they retrieve the device, indeed a nuclear bomb, and millions of lives are saved.

Remember, you can't argue the facts. The question liberals must answer is the following: What do you do with Agent O?

From the Mailbag

From reader TH...

Fed. X,

I have three children and a husband who does pretty well as an accountant. For those of us in this boat, we think this platform is precisely the type of common-sense legislation we've been waiting for. The problem isn't money. The problem IS time. I have recommended your post to a good friend of mine who works on the Hill. Hopefully she'll have the time to read it! Keep up the good work, and thanks for this idea.

Much obliged TH! Anyone else with notes they'd like to send please email us at: mailAmendmentNine@yahoo.com