How history and it's lessons keep repeating themselves!

Yesterday an MSNBC item I noticed featured on the MSN homepage proclaimed that the Mission Accomplished banner that hung from the superstructure of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln while George W. Bush praised the ship's crew for their months of diligent duty has come back to haunt him five months later.

It must have been a slow news day!

When this happened five years ago, it was one of a long series of 'wake-up calls' I had received indicating just how screwed up people have become.

That it was the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and the five thousand or so sailors and officers aboard her the sign was addressed to was so painfully obvious to me that I couldn't comprehend how anyone who graduated from high school and regularly acts in good faith could construe it to mean anything else. After a six month cruise, they were all headed back to port.

It was once again mentioned how our president declared that the end of major combat operations had arrived. People who should know better stubbornly refute that to this day. Of all the of possible parallels to our involvement in Viet Nam, the nature of Iraq should be the most relevent. No, it's not a war, despite what anyone tries to call it. It may look like a war, but there is one critical element that is lacking: a declaration of war by Congress against a state enemy. Theoretically, that could have been done. I don't know why it would be, though.

Historically, a war is typically vengeful in nature. The Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor, the next day Congress declared war on Japan. Because we did that, Germany declared war on us. Both of the Axis powers genuinely hopes we'd seek to negotiate a treaty ASAP that would bind us to keeping out of the way as they overran Asia and Europe. No such luck for them.

Iraq didn't do anything blatant to us that would be an act of war by any reasonable standard. Iraq had done all kinds of things to us, in the same way that the Soviet Union, France, Israel, China, Iran, and a number of other nations have done. All very sneaky, covert, under-the-table kinds of things that over 99% of the populace is completely unaware of. There's a reason it's done that way!

Had a war been declared, it would have officially ended with either the capture of Saddam Hussein, who for all practical purposes was the government of Iraq, or shortly thereafter when the 'token' structure of the Iraqi government disintegrated, at which point the nation would technically have ceased to exist.

Like Viet Nam, while there were in fact some very intense battles and some serious firepower unleashed, the vast majority of combat was, and is, tactical in nature: thousands and thousands of squad-on-squad firefights that end as quickly as they start. The major combat in Viet Nam escalated toward the end with campaigns such as Linebacker II as we nearly blasted Hanoi back to the stone age (not that tough to do, since they weren't that far removed from it in the first place!) in an effort to get North Vietnam back to the Paris peace talks. I don't know when the last time we deployed B-52's over Iraq was. I'm guessing it was several years ago when division sized troop formations were targeted with cluster bombs and other aviation ordnance. I know 155mm howitzers have been fired over there somewhat recently, since I've got an uncle who's an artillery officer and he's been over there something like 3 of the last 5 years. Still, I gather it's not quite the same as when we had 'fire bases' positioned throughout the jungles every few kilometers that flew into action whenever a platoon out in the field radioed in for artillery support. The real action was in 2003. Since then, combat in Iraq has been much more personal in nature with fairly limited air and artillery provided on an 'as needed only' basis, and not always even then.

When will people wake up and realize that despite outward appearances, Iraq and Afghanistan are operations, just as Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, the Baltic states, and even Viet Nam and even Korea were? Granted, they're very elaborate and costly operations, part of what is nicknamed GWOT, the 'Global War On Terror' that technically is no more a war than the 'War on Poverty', the 'War on Crime', and the 'War on Drugs' are or continue to be. All have those have lasted for decades with lots of shots fired and lots of people killed, and no end in sight for any of them. Has everyone completely missed that it's just a convenient figure of speech?

Wars are declared against governments that can either be party to a formal treaty to end said conflict or be conquered and dismantled. International criminal organizations usually do not run governments of nations, though they may certainly influence those who do run them. Conquering a nation and overthrowing its government will not, in all likelihood, oust the criminals who pull the strings. They'll just cool their heels awhile and start anew with the succeeding authority if they're afforded the opportunity. That's how criminals work. If they were open and honest about what they did, we wouldn't have them in our midst because they could all be rounded up and incarcerated. Evil loves to lurk in the dark where it can't be seen.

I was surprised no one mentioned the president's arrival aboard the ship this time. I still shake my head when I think about how one commentator described him alighting the plane he flew in on wearing a 'dashing flight suit'. Excuse me, sage green is 'dashing'? On top of that, I'll bet he was wearing an inflatable life jacket, too. Wouldn't one of those just be the fashion statement for you to make when you go out on the town on Saturday night? Who else remembers what Micheal J. Fox's character in the first Back to the Future movie was told when folks in 1955 saw him wearing the 1985 down filled vest? I imagine a large, dark rubber bib hanging around your neck would garner some very curious looks from everyone around you. Somehow I don't think 'dashing' is it. The flight suit, as well as the life vest, gloves, helmet, etc. are mandatory safety equipment that you or I would be required to put on if we were offered a flight on a military aircraft such as that. I don't recall what type of plane it was, but I'm fairly certain it would've been equipped with ejection seats. In the event that they would be needed, you don't want to be without that helmet, even if the sudden rush of the slipstream will likely rip it from your head. The important part is that it keeps your skull intact should that seat end up propelling you through the canopy, or even if some sudden hard turns whip your scalp against the inside of it. Fire aboard an aircraft isn't exactly unheard of and is one of the aviator's worst enemies. Hence the Nomex flight suit and gloves. They're anything but a fashion statement.

The one aspect of this that really struck me, though:

Our president was subjected to a bitter object lesson about how when the President of the United States talks, no matter who he or she is speaking to, the world listens. And I mean the whole world, or at least as much of it that matters. A sign that's now ubiquitous at Casey's General Stores here in Iowa sums it up nicely. Posted to each face of every gas pump is a square decal stating that all activities on the premises are under video surveillance and that no expectation of privacy is justified. Really makes you want to use the restrooms there, doesn't it?

A certain young presidential candidate recently had a similar experience, as most of us have heard by now. He was directing his commentary to a small group seated in front of him, catering his spoken word directly to them. Sure enough, more than one microphone was picking up the sound of his voice, and it wasn't long before he was heard much farther away than any person who ever lived could shout!

How much time has Senator Obama spent trying to cover those tracks? He's certainly learned that some things are better left unsaid, because once they're out, they can't be un-said!

Silence is golden,

the TiGor