Thank You
Christmas is about observing the birth of Jesus Christ, some 2019 years ago. But it’s far more than that to most of us. It’s about thinking of the things and the people that matter to us. Some of those people have died, and others remain. As important as money is to our lives, it comes and goes and hearses don’t have luggage racks.
So amid the worship, the family gatherings, the nice meals and the bright decorations, I want to take a moment to thank those few of you who follow this blog. Some of you, such as Lone Star Parson, Juliette, Old NFO, DRJIM, Odie, etc. I have met in person over the years as a result of this blog and the people who visit the blog. Others, such as John D. from Norway, I’ve worked with or continue to work with from time to time. Most of you are known to me either from your own blogs or from the messages you leave here. This blog exists because of you.
I use this as a sounding board, and to share thoughts from time to time and the extent to which you participate (or don’t) shapes what you read here. Most of you don’t share all the same politics, the same backgrounds or the same personal histories, but your opinions are welcomed and appreciated here. Disagreement (though how could you in all good conscience disagree with my slurred words?) is useful. It’s constructive. It helps us to lens what’s going on around us through the eyes of others, and I find that input valuable as I try to make sense of things.
So at this Christmas time, this family time, I thank you for being a part of me and a part of my family. Thank you for being people who matter to me. And thank you for sharing interesting times. Now, I’m going to go on a rant and beat a few familiar themes once again, like an old dog chewing on a shoe…because you’ve grown to expect it.
Interesting Times
I find the times we live in to be fascinating. Just read this summary of disgraced, former FBI Director Jim (Big Jim) Comey’s testimony before Congress. I’ve never held the FBI in particularly high regard, but this testimony (in a nutshell) explains a level of incompetence, most, including me, find shocking.
Retrospective Review
On December 11, 2009, when this blog was still new, I wrote this:
Robert Kaplan wrote a very interesting book titled, Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos. In that book, Robert Kaplan argues that the bedrock of sound foreign policy should be “comprehensive pragmatism” rather than “utopian hopes.” Kaplan calls for a reestablishment of American realpolitik, one distanced from Judeo-Christian (or private) virtue and closer to a “pagan” (public) one. He aligns himself with America’s Founding Fathers, who, he says, believed good government emerged only from a “sly understanding of men’s passions.”
I’ll let that comment stand as this blog enters its tenth year.
On Syrian Policy
I’ve heard a lot about President Trump’s mistake in pulling US Troops from Syria. These complaints are hogwash, and I don’t care who is doing the complaining, what their titles are, etc. It is time to let the locals go back to killing each with the same exuberance they’ve shown since the Ottoman yoke was lifted a hundred years ago.
If the cynics are right and we’re still only there to protect the global oil market, then all the more reason to excise ourselves. The Turks, the Syrians, the Kurds, Iraqis, and Iranians – and the Saudis and UAE filling the vacuum left by the USA have more than enough manpower and weaponry on the ground to finish the fight. No reason for Americans to die there or to go into combat next to people who would just as soon kill Americans soldiers as their hated neighbors. It is not a question of “ultimate victory”, but of who should bear the cost in blood. It’s their fight; let them fight it.
Small Wars Rationale
There is a vocal group of Beltway insiders who pay people like Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) a lot of money to beat a drum. The current jibe is that if we don’t stay in Afghanistan with at least a division of soldiers supported by USAF fixed wing assets, that we’re inviting the “next 9/11”. What they forget is that no Afghans participated in the attack on 9/11. They were mostly Saudis with a few Packs. Yes, bin Laden showed up there to build roads and later to meet with other bad guys. But the bad guys could have been trained anywhere including Pakistan (an American ally). You will recall that Pakistan was home to Osama bin Laden who lived down the road from the Pakistan military academy and near police headquarters when we eventually caught up with him. The claim you hear is a red herring. The military industrial complex will be denied billions of dollars we we pull out of Afghanistan. (war is a racket)
I've been reading your blog about a year now and find it informative and sometimes entertaining. I believe it was NFO that led me here. I look forward to more in the what appears to be interesting future. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Always a pleasure to stop by this wolf of a blog. Viz. Kaplan, the Gospel admonition to be "wise as…" comes to mind.
Comey needs a new assignment, at Gitmo. And Trump deserves Otards fraudulent peace prize.
Come to think of it, O can go to Gitmo too and fight over the power tools with all the other criminal dinosaurs.
Cheers.
Merry Christmas my friend. It's time we enjoy those Grandkids and be that influence we know is so important.
Thanks, Jim. Lots of interesting stuff to BS over next year.
Imagine Comey, spending five years in a small cell, with Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton in the same cell. Cruel and unusual, or what's coming to him?
Thanks Odie – grandkids make the world go round.
"As important as money is to our lives, it comes and goes and hearses don't have luggage racks. "
It's not the size of your wallet that determines your happiness., it's the size of your heart.
On the FBI, I don't believe it's incompetence, I believe it is criminal behavior.
The Plot to Seize the White House.
Speaking of General Butler:
I wonder if we owe the Kurds a certain amount of protection. Other than that, I had a caller Saturday who mentioned Syria and I asked if he had heard of Smedley Butler and he said no, and then he said that "war is a racket". We shared a laugh over that.
Merry Christmas to you, your family and all who frequent here.
or them….
Wishing you & yours a Very Merry and Blessed Christmas.
What a fanfic account of this version of Three's Company be like (cue dream (nightmare) sequence harp music)?
Pip, you should be a screen writer/movie director. Yes, it would be a high drama pay-per-view. Maybe we'd get a shower shot of Michelle and then the world would know for sure.
There would be Comey's incessant moralizing, Hillary's shrill retorts and Michelle making everything about race. High drama for sure.
Yes, it's a plot to seize the White House, but if they'd have been HALF WAY competent, they'd have pulled it off.
Now that there is a Democrat controlled Congress due to all of those votes that were "found", there will be a second phase in the attempt to steal the White House. And they really don't want another term of Trump playing whack-a-mole with the deep state.
Thank you, Brig. I hope that your travels, your family and your life bring you happiness.
Your scribbling's are appreciated much more than your appreciating us reading them. I look forward to your comments and philosophizing every day. Best of everything in the coming year and hope you get to move into the WM sometime during that year.
I'm headed up to the White Wolf Mine later this week. I'll report back on that to y'all. Merry Christmas, John.
It’s their fight; let them fight it.
Exactly.
When I was hopping around the Middle East back in the late 1970's I could see unbridled hate for Americans.
Being young and naive, I didn't understand all the implications…..
I always appreciate clear observations from those who have seen the elephant.
The Deep State doesn't want to understand President Trump. He is a businessman. The Deep Staters haven't worked in the private sector where everyday is root hog or die. The sooner they accept they must adapt to him, that he won't adapt to them, the sooner the national angst level will drop.
Regarding Comey and the FBI (and most federal agencies)…..it has been an old saying to never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity. But it has become glaringly obvious that in regards to the "deep state" and it's organs of oppression the correct attitude is to never attribute to incompetence that which can be explained by being evil.
They always hated me. And all I did was send their friends to collect their 70 virgins. I did the bastards a favor.
You can be evil, which the deep state and its minions clearly are, and incompetent all at the same time.
The deep state fears the public. Like any cockroach, it fears the light. Sure, they have CNN, MSNBC and the propaganda machine. They have foundations and associations that drop a few million here and a few million there to propel fraudulent investigations, to obfuscate and to deal with small roadblocks. Cash is the universal lubricant.
There are armies of willing dupes who carry the message of the deep state, like a virus. It's not about communists or CHICOM tariffs. It's about control and power. "If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever." (1984)
Of course, the State can only do that after you've been disarmed.
A TV program once put together statements from all Presidents from Kennedy to Bush and they said it was a goal to make the US independent of foreign energy supply. Now the US finally seem to have enough energy resources to cover domestic demand within secure borders. Why should the US taxpayer continue to pay the expenses for a politic based on a situation that was valid in the past? Europe has EU and they can afford to spend their fair share of the military expenses to secure their own strategic interests. The European politicians have been speculative in their willingness to downsize the military of the expense of the US. Now it is time to wake up and pay the bill and fulfill article 3 in the NATO treaty.
Article 3
In order more effectively to achieve the objectives of this Treaty, the Parties, separately and jointly, by means of continuous and effective self-help and mutual aid, will maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack.
The US could spend the money to modernize the US military, secure the borders, build the wall, invest in infrastructure and build superior universities education engineers that will solve the big issues. make the US become interesting for those who want to pay taxes and also add value to the communities. The US has all it takes to prosper. Let the other parts of the world grow up and solve their own problems not waste US taxpayers money or US soldiers lives.
Merry Christmas
The corrupt, smug, sly, lying, elite mainstream media can take a bow for the major misdirection and misinterpretation of events that they feed the public. Academia too does its fair share of damage. You're right on the money, John. The US needs to solve its own internal problems, provide for its own security and allow Europe to be Europe. If the Germans want to import a million shiftless, military age, single, Muslim males, that is a German problem. If the French want to tax their people for the weather and send the money to other nations, that's a French problem. If the Muslims want Africa, they'll have to fight the Chinese for it.
Really not our problem.
Except for Greece. You and I may be working in Greece for part of the time next year? We don't want Greece to fold while we're there.
Thank you Mr. Street!
All the FBI stuff is just depressing.
Have a safe trip to the hovel and enjoy your family in the meantime.
Merry Christmas and God bless!
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