American Blood and Chinese Profit

     Here's a perfect example of the lack of vision, strategic thinking, and attention to detail of our "professional" political class. Lest anyone forget, at least 4,357 U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war, and the country has spent billions--if not trillions (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/ AR2008030702846.html)--in Iraq. While the historical parallel is certainly not perfect, can anyone imagine the United States allowing a similar economic initiative by the Soviet Union in West Germany in 1951?

     Our elected officials and bureaucrats dishonor our fallen and do a disservice to our future generations. One of the most basic functions of a national government is to plan and implement a foreign policy that adequately represents a country's interests in international politics. Foreign policy is not charity. If our representatives and government professionals can not tie each any every expenditure--qualitatively or quantitatively--to the protection or advancement of American national interests, it is a wasted effort and/or the pursuit of a personal or bureaucratic agenda. The American public deserves better. Until we demand better, however, expect more of the same.

Iraq signs mega oil deal with BP and CNPC

BAGHDAD, November 3, 2009 (AFP) - Iraq on Tuesday formally signed a deal
worth 14 to 20 billion dollars with Britain's BP and China's CNPC to
almost triple production at a giant southern oilfield, an AFP
correspondent reported.

The venture is expected to boost production at the southern Rumaila
field from the current one million barrels per day to around 2.8 million
bpd over its 20-year duration.

Rumaila is already integral to Iraq's oil output, contributing almost
half of the nation's current production of around 2.5 million bpd, and
is estimated to have further reserves of 17.7 billion barrels.

BP and CNPC are projected to invest 14 to 20 billion dollars between
them and the companies have agreed to accept payment of two dollars per
additional barrel produced at Rumaila.

The Iraqi cabinet approved the contract two weeks ago.

Once an Eagle--a must read for all

Recently, I had the opportunity to re-read one of my favorite books--Anton Myrer's Once an Eagle. For those not familar with the book, it "is the story of one special man, a soldier named Sam Damon, and his adversary over a lifetime, fellow officer Courtney Massengale. Damon is a professional who puts duty, honor, and the men he commands above self interest. Massengale, however, brilliantly advances by making the right connections behind the lines and in Washington's corridors of power....A study in character and values, courage, nobility, honesty, and selflessness, here is an unforgettable story about a man who embodies the best of our nation--and in us all." (from the bookcover)

You need not be associated with the military to appreciate either the story or the underlying themes. In that vein, I've included some of my favorite quotations from Myrer's incredible work:

"Because once the eminent heads of state in all their infinite wisdom decide that it [war] must be done, once the drums begin to beat--there is nothing ahead but fear and waste and misery and desolation. Nothing else. Once the engine has started it must shudder and rumble to the very end of its hellish course, come what may. And you and I and a few million others are the ones who must cling to the machine as it grinds along. (pg 299)

"Sam, do you honestly believe people are going to stop being greedy and resentful and full of pride and prejudice? Do you think they will quit hating and fearing--do you think the lordly heads of government are going to abandon their methods of seizing and holding power, of gaining advantages over their neighbors? Why should they change? What should cause them to abhor the only rules to the game they know? And even if they were to do so, do you believe for one minute their own citizens would let them get away with it?" (pg 335)

"It seems to be our [American] history: we are indifferent, unprepared--then all of a sudden we're shocked, roaring with righteous wrath, ready to rush off into battle with our pants down..." (pg 337)

"War: war was not an oriflamme-adventure filled with noble deeds and tilts with destiny, as he had believed, but a vast, uncaring universe of butchery and attrition, in which the imaginative, the sensitive were crippled and corrupted, the vulgar and tough-fibered were augmented--and the lucky were lucky and survived, and they alone." (pg 344)

"The businessman goes for his profits and most of the time he doesn't see where it's leading; and things go from bad to worse, you remember how it was, and he pulls the country along with him, the politicians and the churches and the newspapers and everyone else, and finally somebody says the word, the terrible word there's no going back from--and the businessmen go right on piling up their profits, and the politicians rant on and on about that last full measure of devotion...but it's the little guy--the clerk and the farm boy and the carpenter--who's left hanging on the wire with his guts all over his knees." (pg 439)

"I've been detailed for this, honey. That's what it is. Like a soldier who's drawn outpost duty beyond the front lines. He's just drawn the detail, that's all. He didn't ask for it, it was laid on him--maybe because his platoon leader thought he was more alert or competent or careful than the others, or maybe the sergeant had it in for him and stuck him with it, or maybe it was just the luck of the draw. But that doesn't matter--there he is: he's drawn the obligation, he's out there, and what he does during those hours will mean the lives of all the rest. And so he's got to do everything in his power to prepare himself for that moment." (pg 513)

"That's what they know--that some must lead and others must follow, but that leadership is an obligation and not a mark of caste." (pg 644)

"There they lay, far from the fields of home, two crossed sticks and a dogtag, killed in a moment of heroism or cowardice or ignorance or ignominy, but all of them killed in the fragile splendor of their young manhood; and to some heart ten thousand miles away their present moldering was a source of immeasurable grief. And to others--even to many standing here in the still, heavy air--it was nothing at all." (pg 819)

"There, in that outpost, on that three-square-feet of ground, was where the real war was being fought, no matter who denied it; and how that private did tonight--whether he had the hardihood and the craft to resist exhaustion and debility and slumber and kill the weary, sick, resourceful enemy who sought his life--would decide who would win this war, and nothing else." (pg 931)

"If you could bottle it [the smell of the battlefield], Beaupre thought savagely, swallowing, fighting the hot clutch of nausea with all his might, trying not to breathe, trying to look without seeing. This smell. If you could bottle it, store it in some tanks just outside Washington or New York City or Chicago; and then when the drums began to beat, when the eminent statesmen rose in all their righteous choler and the news rags and radio networks started their impassioned chant, if you could release a few dozen carboys on the senate floor, the executive offices of DuPont de Nemours, Boeing and Ford and Firestone, the trading posts on Wall Street; and seal off the exits. Repeat every three hours as needed. Rx. By God, that would take some of the fun out of it" (pg 1074)

"A man was only one man, one meager entity, but he was so many divergent things to other men." (pg 1161)

"No. I don't know. That's not the problem. It's us. Here. It's got to come to a head. Between those who want us to be a democracy--a real one, not a show-window one--and those who want us to be a Great Power. In caps and with all the trimmings." (pg 1172)

"But that's how it goes. People are going to go on being scared and vindictive and greedy and forgetful and everything else they happen to be. And all you can do is keep on going yourself, do what you can, and hope for the best." (pg 1173)

"But I can respect the patriotism of men from other lands--who are every bit as loyal and self-sacrificing and earnest as we are ourselves. They do not happen to believe what we believe; but have we given them irrefutable proof that our way is the only way for all the rest of the world? --a world that is not as much in awe of us as we'd like to think." (pg 1244)

"...the only thing I've learned in sixty-five years, only one: the romantic, spendthrift moral act is ultimately the practical one--the practical, expedient, cozy-dog move is the one that comes to grief. Yes. Remember that. Joey, if it comes to a choice between being a good soldier and a good human being--try to be a good human being..." (pg 1288)

Read the book. It is more than worth the time and effort.

Today A Good Man Died

Today a Good Man Died

Today, June 26^th, 2009, a good man died. He was dedicated to his family, to his God, and to his country. His loss leaves a gaping hole in the hearts of the lives he touched. For those who knew him, his passing was a crushing blow. It will take all of the survivors’ self-discipline and their every resource to remember him while carrying-on with what they need to do. In many ways, he was better than us all, because he was willing to tread where others dared not tread, to undertake hardships from which others shied, and to sacrifice himself for the protection of all. Unfortunately, you’ll never know about this man—a soldier in the United States Army—because his name wasn’t Michael Jackson.

Based on every available media resource, one might think that time stopped on June 26^th. That the United States was no longer engaged in two wars. That the country no longer faced its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. That Iranians no longer met their oppressors defiantly in the streets of Tehran. That hundreds of Africans no longer died from hunger, disease, and conflict, all because of the passing of one celebrity—a man prolific in song and troubled in spirit; a known child abuser (how else can one characterize a father who hangs his infant over the side of a balcony?) and poor manager of his finances. A man who was, above all else, concerned with himself.

These words are not meant to be a metaphorical dance on Mr. Jackson’s troubled grave, but, instead, to serve as an alarm to a dangerously misguided American public ill-served by its media and its leaders. Memorialize those who deserve your thanks and praise. Disdain the trivial. Focus on the meaningful. Demonstrate that you are worthy of that soldier’s ultimate sacrifice—that his death, and the deaths of thousands of other service-members sent to prosecute wars for your protection, are not in vain. Most of all, demonstrate that you are worthy of the title “citizen” by leaving succeeding generations a better country than this hollow shell I presently serve.

-A United States Army Officer