Obama's battle plan: step carefully amidst craters

Rolling the dancing dice:
only the strong will stay on the floor

Now let us brighten up the thought
with some "constants" from Chinese culture





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And now let us return to Obama --
knowing full well, "this, too, shall pass"

Scarlett Tide

Well I recall his parting words
Must I accept his fate
Or take myself far from this place
I thought I heard a black bell toll
A little bird did sing
Man has no choice
When he wants every thing

We'll rise above the scarlet tide
That trickles down through the mountain
And separates the widow from the bride

Man goes beyond his own decision
Gets caught up in the mechanism
Of swindlers who act like kings

And brokers who break everything
The dark of night was swiftly fading
Close to the dawn of day
Why would I want him just to lose him again

We'll rise above the scarlet tide
That trickles down through the mountain
And separates the widow from the bride




"When the Crater Meets Afghanistan"
Obama's War: to Lift the Fog or Tap the Passions
The way Ahead: Does Obama Need a Bit of Clint Eastwood

We Are All Soldiers: Honoring the Miracle of Survival
Obama's Sophie's Choice: a Blind Media
"Tipping Point:" guns or doctors? China watches
What Will We See When the "Fog of War" Clears?
Obama's New Policy: Senator Kerry's Speech
Obama's Great Grim Gamble: He Holds a Weak Hand
A Digital View of Afghanistan: Obama and a Hybrid Strategy
Rudyard Kipling Warns President Obama
Will Obama Follow Lord Roberts Advice: Get in Fast, Withdraw
Pick off an Occupying Army: Updating an Old Story
Following Alexander the Great to Afghanistan
Should Prez Obama Take Advice From a Russian
Left, Right, Join In: Ring the Bell on "Obama's War"
US in Afghanistan: Bearing Gifts to Other Nations
America and China: Circling the Afghan Carcass with a Bamboo Curtain Dead
"The Kiterunner" as a Guide to Afghanistan

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"Obama's war:" to lift the fog - or tap the passions?

I've looked at life from both sides now,
From win and lose, and still somehow
It's life's illusions i recall.
I really don't know life at all.

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"Both Sides Now."

Yes, 1970, oh were there clouds back then...

Does anyone remember Vietnam? How deep a shadow it cast over our world.

Today a similar but far less painful kind of cloud, a "fog of war," hangs over the entire country.

President Obama has chosen to increase U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan. To finish out this war.

Will that help lift the fog?

Or simply blanket Aghanistan in a new generation of rhetoric?

Will the President's cool and distant style help mobilize Americans for more war, more sacrifice of lives and money?

What kind of rhetoric will he summon up?

What combination of "high minded internationalism" and basic "take down our enemies" nationalism?

Will he need to tap America's more fundamentalist, vengeful streak in order to gather widespread popular support?

Will he need to learn a bit from from the fundamentalist, tough justice, apocalyptic strains of Clint Eastwood?

If he does not, will Americans still support him?

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Each generation must face the reality of war's "fog."

To move forward into the shadows of the entrappment in war's Crater -- or to skirt the edges, to climb free and upward into the light.

We may be reaching a "tipping point" where overextended military occupations drain the country's resources and diminish the nation's power, safety, and standard of living.

With true love there must be no illusions...

Now the President has made his Sophie's Choice:

The hard decisions on Afghanistan which will shape who lives, who dies....

Time to pay the price.

Time to lift the "fog of war."
And rewrite the lyrics:

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"I've looked at life from both sides now,
From win and lose, and still somehow
It's life's illusions I have lost
I know there is a price to pay"

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Bows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere, i've looked at clouds that way.
But now they only block the sun, they rain and snow on everyone.
So many things i would have done but clouds got in my way...

I've looked at clouds from both sides now,
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions i recall.
I really don't know clouds at all...

Moons and junes and ferris wheels, the dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real; i've looked at love that way.
But now it's just another show. you leave 'em laughing when you go
And if you care, don't let them know, don't give yourself away...

I've looked at life from both sides now,
From win and lose, and still somehow
It's life's illusions i recall.
I really don't know life at all.

******

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The way ahead: does Obama need a bit of Clint?

"The Outlaw Josey Wales:"
Revenge and Judgement Day

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Strange bedfellows: feminist abolitionist
fundamentalist Julia Ward Howe pushes forward
in one of America's first great human rights
campaigns. Meet Clint's early prototype,
abolitionist sword wielder John Brown.


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"The Preacher...
and Hell followed with him"

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As we move forward into a new stage of Afghanistan, we can see that Obama seeks to tone down the Clint Eastwood rhetoric, so famously used by President George Bush.

Still the Eastwood strain, deeply rooted in American history and religious culture, is an important part of mobilizing for war when much blood and treasure is at stake.

It is difficult to mobilize for sacrifice without demonizing your enemy.

This may be a challenge for the cool, cerebral Obama -- if substantial casualties continue.

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So when making war, it's nice to have a bit of Christian fundamentalism on one's side.

Tired of those Islamic folks having a monopoly on apocalyptic visions, symbolism and zealous religious calls to arms?

Let's see what WE have.


The strict moral codes of the Old Testament combined with the apocalyptic visions of persecution, prophecy, judgement, death and resurrection.

All found in symbolic form within the New Testament Book of Revelations.

Click here for the Chapter Six account of the Lamb opening the first six of the Seven Seals.

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A book trickling down to the American frontier, the Indian fighter, the Bible toting preacher.

Trickling up to America's concept of itself as bearer of the sword of justice -- with its armies overthrowing tyrannies, enforcing upon the world God's work.

Howe: turn of the century

Listen to the tune and read the lyrics of Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

The lyrics were rewritten to go with the original tune of "John Brown's Body."

Julia Ward Howe, that glorious heroine of American military theological nationalism.

From this feminist New England Unitarian, a biographer of Margaret Fuller, came the Bible rich verses justifying blood on the battlefield.

Justifying the use of military power to free the slaves, as abolitionists steeped in fundamentalism pushed forward one of the first American "human rights campaigns."

A song designed to mobilize and encourage Union soldiers in their righteous combat against a slaveholding Confederacy. To do "God's work" on the battlefield.

A world of spiritual and military warfare where good and evil reign supreme.

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That's where Clint - with his terrible swift sword of avenging justice - comes in.

Clint, perhaps a modern day version of the martyred, fervently Christian fundamentalist John Brown.

John Brown, the lifelong failure who in crazed fury chopped up his victims with swords during a vicious revenge massacre in Kansas while fighting for slavery's abolition.

His 1859 hanging after seizing the Harper's Ferry Armory in Virginia coupled the immortality of a martyr to the infamy of a butcher.

The Clint of his day.



Julia, John Brown, and Clint -- strange bedfellows, but bedfellows just the same.

Yesterday's feminist becomes today's fundamentalist.

Fundamentalism with veangeful justice around individual grievances -- or fundamentalism with violent fervour around grandiose social causes?

They are not all the same, but they tend to sleep in the same bed.

Howe: circa 1861

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When dealing with scenes of the Christian Apocalypse, it is always nice to have Wikipedia to fall back upon.

And a bit of Clint Eastwood, the master himself.

Some of you may enjoy this ecclesiastical portrayal below of the End Times.

Careful, you may have to shoot a pale horse.

When you see that pale horse coming,

that's death itself: open fire with
.45 cal. cap and ball horse killers!
But wait, what if it's a white horse?
That could be evil, the anti-Christ --
or it could be Christ himself.
Careful you don't shoot
the wrong horse.

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Check your Wikipedia to see just
how hard it is to tell.


"The Outlaw Josey Wales:"
a time for righteous revenge

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Behold, below, a pale horse of death bears a rider, "the stranger," seeking revenge in "High Plains Drifter:"

Always one more thing to do on life's battlefield...

General Hal Moore's Philosopy
of Life and Leadership

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A General's Spiritual Journey


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From: We Are All Soldiers:
Honor the Miracle of Survival

The wisdom of General Hal Moore, commander of the 1st Batallion, Seventh Cavalry
at the battle of the Ia Drang Valley,Vietnam, November 1965.

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"Trust your instincts...if your gut tells you one thing
and your heart another, go with your gut"

Ia Drang Valley: Prologue and Aftermath

From "Freedom Fries" to statesmanlike skepticism

Meet Congressman Walter B. Jones

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East Carolina's conservative representative who has migrated from pushing "victory fries" for America's campaign in Iraq to skepticism on any stepped up American military force in Afghanistan.

A Republican (check his official website), he currently represents North Carolina's 3rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives.

The district encompasses the Outer Banks and areas near the Pamlico Sound.

The political voyage of this conservative Republican tells something about the nuances of war and peace politics in this conservative pro military region home to the Marines' Camp Lejeune.

Indeed the Congressman's concerns dovetail with those of a number of veterans: that one great danger is that the American military will again be put in an impossible position: unreachable goals with limited resources.

As one veteran puts it, "to be set up agains for defeat as we were in Vietnam because no sitting President wants to be seen as losing."

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With memories of Vietnam: Hal Moore
who commanded at Ia Drang

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Here is how a Wikipedia entry describes the Congressman:

"Jones was initially a strong supporter of the conflict in Iraq, but then became one of the leading Republicans opposed to continued involvement in Iraq...

"Jones became well-known for leading the effort, along with GOP Rep. Bob Ney, to have french fries renamed "Freedom Fries" in House cafeteria menus as a protest against French opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq...

"He said of his previous position on the fries, 'I wish it had never happened...'

"In July 2006, the names were quietly changed back...

"He contends that the United States went to war 'with no justification...'

"On the subject, he said, 'I just feel that the reason of going in for weapons of mass destruction, the ability of the Iraqis to make a nuclear weapon, that's all been proven that it was never there.'

"He added that his change of opinion came about from attending the funeral of a sergeant killed in Iraq, when his last letter to his family was being read out...

"In an annual survey by Washingtonian magazine, Congressional staffers voted Jones the 'kindest member' of the House."

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Dear Rep. Jones,

I think your position is eminently relevant and wise. It provides a strategic pivot around which people of diverse viewpoints can rally.

Bravo,
Fred Moritz

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On Nov 18, 2009, at 5:43 PM, Congressman Walter B. Jones wrote:

Dear Mr. Moritz:

Thank you for contacting me to express your thoughts regarding sending additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

I appreciate you taking the time to share your views with me on this matter, and I am happy to respond.

As you may know, General Stanley McChrystal, commander of the North American Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan, submitted a request to President Obama in August for 40,000 more U.S. troops to be committed to the region.

General McChrystal is a seasoned commander for whom I have great respect, and our troops serving in Afghanistan are doing so with honor and courage.

Obviously there is great debate the future of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. Some, like Admiral Mike Mullen, want our troops to now combat Afghanistan's "culture of poverty".

Others, like conservative columnist George Will, believe "America should do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, airstrikes and small, potent Special Forces units, concentrating on the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, a nation that actually matters".

What is undeniable is that the United States is running trillion dollar budget deficits as far as the eye can see, adding to what is already a record $12 trillion in U.S. federal public debt.

The money being spent "fighting the culture of poverty in Afghanistan'" (and therefore not being spent of roads, and schools, and jobs here in America) is being borrowed from our international competitors like communist China.

Our forces in Afghanistan are not being directed to eradicate the poppy crop in that country, which would help deal with the problem of drugs on American streets.

Rather, the money we are borrowing from China is being spent to stabilize the government of President Hamid Karzai whose Vice Presidential running mate in the recent disputed election was an ex-warlord who is widely accused of giving cover to Afghan criminal gangs and drug traffickers.

In fact, the Karzai government has been described by Economist magazine as so "inept, corrupt and predatory" that people sometimes yearn for restoration of the warlords, "who were less venal and less brutal than Mr. Karzai's lot."

What started out as U.S. involvement in one type of mission has clearly become U.S. involvement in another type of mission altogether.

After spending eight years of blood and treasure, our national policy in Afghanistan has drifted into an ill-defined strategy of 'doubling down' to protect the status quo, with no end in sight.

The war in Afghanistan has now gone on longer than U.S. involvement in World War I and World War II combined.

Supporters of the status quo would have us borrow yet more money from communist China to send additional troops to reinforce an overall policy that President Obama has yet to articulate, much less gain support for.

I do not believe we are faced with the false choice between "doubling down" in Afghanistan or pulling out completely and creating a vacuum which might ultimately be filled by America's enemies.

Military experts have testified to Congress that there are a range of policy options between those two extremes that can protect America's interests in that part of the world, minimize American casualties, and which would do far less to hasten the bankruptcy of the U.S. Federal Treasury.

I voted to authorize the use of U.S. forces in Afghanistan in order to rid that nation of Al-Qaeda training camps, and to remove from power those elements that gave shelter to those who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001.

However, I cannot support requests for additional troops until President Obama can first lay out a coherent comprehensively revised policy that rationalizes our continued involvement in Afghanistan, makes plans for a clearly defined end-point to that involvement, and gains the support of a majority of the American people.

Thank you again for contacting me. If I can be of further assistance in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,
Walter B. Jones

Member of Congress

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Obama's Sophie's Choice -- when media cannot see

"Ample Make this Bed," by Emily Dickinson,
from the 1982 movie, "Sophie's Choice," --
Where no choice is clean -- though one must be made

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"Ample make this bed.
Make this bed with awe;
In it wait till judgment break
Excellent and fair.

"Be its mattress straight,
Be its pillow round;
Let no sunrise' yellow noise
Interrupt this ground."

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"Obama's Choice:" Play Agressively

With a Weak Hand

After two months of researching and writing about President Obama's Afghan policy choices, I am convinced I have witnessed a "mass media" disaster.

A globally important issue has been dominated by polemicists, ideologues, and party campaigners who spin, proclaim, and argue, who scream the loudest -- with very little emphasis on illuminating the challenges of choice.

It is fair to conclude that the more one has followed the national "debate" in mass media, the less one understands.

We have witnessed a form of national media pollution.

In a strategic and political and moral trap where there may be no good or easy choices.

Indeed Afghan policy may be a kind of "Sophie's Choice."

Whomever President Obama seeks to save, many others will die.

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Very rarely have there been mass media explorations of the nuances of choice as they would be dealt with in political and military planning.

Very rarely does the mass media provide historical or cultural context -- beyond slogans and reported polemic.

Such issues are reasonably obvious to anyone who seriously researches these subjects -- but systematically obscured by mass media.

There have been exceptions in the pages of serious newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Wall Street Journal.

PBS and National Public Radio have often tried to get below the surface -- although each is limited by the nature of its news judgement.

Sometimes this involves political slant.

Even in these relatively sophisticated outlets there has rarely been concrete indepth examination of the President's options.

American media tend not to be interested in the nuances, the dilemmas of choice.

The focus is on conflict, polemic, who are the "good guys," who are the "bad guys."

The worse offenders have been talk shows and cable news, especially FOX, MSNBC, and CNN.

Where commentators and "political strategists" repeat liberal and conservative "talking points."

Where the emphasis is on argument, on debate.

One redeeming feature in this dismal media scene is the rich variety of source material available on the internet.

True, the internet is chock full of the same opinion, hyperbole as other forms of mass media. But it also contains rich background and primary sources of the kind which are screened out of the mass media.

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As of this writing, a "hybrid policy" seems to be emerging.

U.S. troops will be increased, but a wholesale national counter-insurgency policy will be avoided. Certain key population centers will be held with mobile strikes elsewhere.

A key aim will be to avoid over-extension of limited forces -- the kind of over-extension which made American forces so vulnerable to being overrun at Wanat.

The Battle for Wanat: Has it helped shape

Obama's Decision?

The New York Times reported the basic emerging Obama strategy on October 27.

One great danger is that the American military will be put in an impossible position: unreachable goals with limited resources.

As one veteran puts it, "to be set up again for defeat as we were in Vietnam because no sitting President wants to be seen as losing."

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Time now to drop back -- and let the issues unfold not through the "pens" of journalists -- but through actions and events in the real world.

"Time and Tides" march to their own drummers...but it can be interesting to watch.

Here is a listing of this writer's Afghanistan blogs:

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"Tipping Point:" guns or doctors? China watches

What Will We See When the "Fog of War" Clears?

For Afghanistan, What Lessons from "The Crater?"

Obama's New Policy: Senator Kerry's Speech

Obama's Great Grim Gamble: He Holds a Weak Hand

A Digital View of Afghanistan: Obama Looks to a Hybrid Strategy

Rudyard Kipling Warns President Obama

Will Obama Follow Lord Roberts Advice: Get in Fast, Withdraw,
Rule Indirectly, with Limited Occupation?

Pick off an Occupying Army: Updating an Old Story

Following Alexander the Great to Afghanistan

Should Prez Obama Take Advice From a Russian

Left, Right, Join In: Ring the Bell on "Obama's War"

US in Afghanistan: Bearing Gifts to Other Nations

America and China: Circling the Afghan Carcass with a Bamboo Curtain Dead

"The Kiterunner" as a Guide to Afghanistan

True Love - fundamentalism's enemy - crosses lines

Just like the land that bear the name Africa,
Love is on my mind.
It's for everyone no matter where you're from,
Love, it cross all lines.
Like the feeling of all the seasons changing,
Love is a memory
And in these last days, when iniquity blazing,
Truth Love Speaks.

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What is love really if it only affects,
one aspect of life?
That’s like a musician who only accepts,
his own musical type.
That’s like a preacher who only respects
Sunday morning,
and not Saturday night
That’s how a soldier can come to reflect,
that Love is
more than a man and a wife.

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Regardless of one's moral sentiments, this is an astoundingly beautiful song.

Nothing else this group has done quite rivals it.

As to a loving globalism of the heart, a precedent is perhaps the breaking down of barriers, which technology helps do.

Still the globalism of terror stimulates nationalism and hatred.

Reprisal and counter reprisal both of weapons and of the mind.


So we live in a paradox.

The growth of globalism goes hand in hand with terror, military operations and brutal war.....

Leaders make decisions...but they are also children of their times...jockeying for position, pushing their agendas.

On balance I think we see an enormous growth in global consciousness which also stimulates a fundamentalist backlash -- whether it be of the Islamic or Christian variety.

Nationalistic fundamentalism is alive and well on virtually all continents.

We can only hope it does not become as strong in China as it now is in the Islamic world and in the United States.

At present China's official, sometimes repressive media policies discourage ultra nationalism.

Let us hope that does not change.

In America ultra nationalism, sustained by religious fervor, is still a powerful force -- nourished by politicians, religious leaders, talk shows, and cable TV.

Obama seeks to restrain it.

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The evolving Chinese American relationship is a miracle of our time -- despite the dark patches.

We can see from President Obama's visit that China "pushes back," is feeling its leverage as a rising power, senses the American weakness amidst economic woes, growing debt, and overextension in overseas wars.

Likewise Obama appeared to go out of his way to avoid treading on Chinese political sensitivities. He abstained from meeting with political liberals and opponents of Chinese restrictive practices.

China appears to have a leverage it earlier lacked.

It is a joy that I have lived to see the emergence of this miracle -- where these two powers have reached the freedom to show respect toward one another.

For it was my subliminal but clear aim from the beginning of my journalism career to work toward seeing this happen.

China uses hi tech to seek "harmony" with YOU

China's CCTV-9 (China Central TV) has a sophisticated web broadcasting facility which transmits all kinds of programming attuned to the most modern of internet technologies.

This video is based on a Beijing University 2009 Beijing Forum on the theme translated as "diversity" but built on the Chinese concept of "harmony" between nations and regions around the world.

"The harmony of civilizations for all, looking beyond the current crisis toward the harmonious future for all."


Attracting some "300 academics and scholars from some 40 nations and regions."

Including noted scholars from both the United States and the Islamic world.

The format and substance is designed to create an interaction between Chinese and other viewpoints.

To bridge conflict areas toward what are presented as common ends.

An interesting discussion useful in its own right -- and of course organized and structured to be "in harmony" with official Chinese goals.



The above video image, from the program "Dialogue," is not an "embedded video."

But if you click on it, the full video will come up on a separate page.

The CCTV website contains sophisticated utilities allowing for DIRECT export of links onto "blogger" formats.

I have placed the link exported to my blog within the above image of the video -- an image I have separately downloaded from the CCTV website.

The CCTV purpose is to encourage persons such as myself to "re-broadcast" the programming in a different format to a different audience.

That would be YOU.

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