A Dilema

I think I know how Gen McChrystal feels. He should not have made comments that disparaged his chain of command to the press. However, the comments he made were not not made to the world at large. This is not like Gen. MacArthur's infamous press release. Now, I'll grant that saying anything in front of a reporter is probably a bad idea when you have that many stars, especially if said reporter works for that shining light of journalistic excellence, Rolling Stone.

Now for the biggest "but" of all: Somehow, all we soldiers are expected to keep or mouths tight in the face of this administration? To elaborate, we have to deal with ROE that get in the way of completing missions. We have to face people with intent to kill us with kind words unless the situation is really bad. We have to purge areas of Taliban, but we are not allowed to chase them back to their holes. We have to listen to people who just three years ago were accusing us of being terrorists ourselves tell us how to do our jobs. We have to put up roller coaster manning levels that erode our knowledge base, disrupt logical program progression, and sap morale. We have to live with the idea that our Commander in Chief is cozy with people who have attacked the Pentagon, for crying out loud.

I understand where General McChrystal is coming from. He is a soldier. He's working for a "community organizer", whatever that is. That's the problem: a leader working for a sycophant.

We'd be better off with one McChrystal than a thousand "community organizers". He's a man who does something worthwhile for a living. I'm still struggling to find anything that the President has done that could be construed as worthwhile.

Mass Misunderstanding, Mass Incompetence

Round about 60 days or so ago, an explosion destroyed an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Since then, one of the biggest loads of BS I've even seen has been swallowed by the the American people, if I can trust the polls.

Most people seem content to demonize BP as if they did this intentionally. They cheer as BP has 2 billion extorted from it. They become enraged when Mr. Hayward goes yachting. They swoon as the President tells blatant lies.

Where is the outrage over our President's appalling failure? I'm not making political hay here! What is it called when an offer from the dutch of four large skimmer ships is turned down without comment? Those ships could have damn near kept up with the leak! Just those four... and our President turned them away. This offer was made three days after the spill... where is the outrage about that?
Where is the outrage over the fact the Governor Jindal's request to barricade the Louisiana wetlands against the spill is still pending on Capitol Hill? Where is the outrage that the U.S. Coast Guard help back several boom ships? Where is the outrage over the President ordering BP to cease use of chemical dispersants?

People are content to slam BP and cheer as they are hauled up before congress, but they say nothing about the fact that all other drilling in the American Gulf waters are now still. They do not notice the hit to their own pension and investment funds. They let the President get away with saying that the only oil we have left is five miles down when Alaskan land has something like three times more that OPEC.

I've written the truth now. You can ignore it and join the mindless mob or you can search it yourself, verify that it is true, and join me in an effort to hold the U.S. government as culpable for the continued disaster as BP was for getting sloppy and letting it happen. You tell me which is the bigger crime, though.