Fear Mongering And Ebola

I've stayed away from the Ebola issue thus far because nothing yet seems certain enough about the disease to write intelligently.  A few thoughts on what I do see however.

The CDC and therefore the government misread the likelihood it would reach our shores. Hospitals across the country are ill prepared to handle anything of this magnitude. The media is misstating what is known to the degree that people are most likely overly nervous. For instance I think going to the Cowboys game in Dallas is probably pretty safe.

I'm nervous to the extent I don't think we've yet seen the worst of it.  We have as director of Homeland Security a man who has no experience.  His qualification? A bundler for Obama.  Now the President has named another political hack to be the Ebola Czar.  Again, no relevant experience what-so-ever. Why?  There are highly qualified people in both the security and medical fields that could have been tapped for both positions.  Not only does it make me nervous, it makes me angry.  Not that it takes much with this bunch.

I read this morning our troops are getting a whole four hours of training before being deployed to the danger zone.  If the disease is as easily communicated as is said, you can be sure not all of them will come back.  Consider that all the tents they are putting up to contain those so inflicted are worthless without the proper medical personnel and equipment.

I see in this our usual pattern of doing something just to be seen as doing something.  Right, wrong, good or bad.

To even think of deploying reservists or national guard is criminal. Deploy needed equipment instead!

This would be boots on the ground equally as serious as in Iraq or Syria fighting ISIS. There we at least have some knowns.  With Ebola we have few and what we think we know seems to be in error too often to generate confidence.

I'm not going to suggest the actions we are taking shouldn't be.  I am suggesting this is a time to really pressure other medically advanced countries to contribute man power in the way of medical personnel, expertise and funding.

My last suggestion is to think the whole thing through rather than deploying policies willy nilly with no thought to the what ifs.  You could call it a strategy but unfortunately this administration is not proficient when it comes to creating one.  Part of strategy is the exiting part we hear so much about in war.  This too is a war that knows no boundaries, religion nor ethnicity. Fight it by all means, but do it right.  Do it to win it.

Unfortunately I'm not sure this country is able to provide that kind of leadership. The media, however, could help by ceasing to hype specious truths for the sake of ratings.

You Can't Have It All Ways!

Unlike this country where the President wants things his way or no way Turkey's Erdogan has played it differently. He really wants to be the new Caliph with Turkey as the center of the Caliphate. Like us, he prefers to let others do his fighting while playing both sides.

Where we once thought of him as a suspect ally he has proven to be a turncoat by disallowing coalition forces, such as they are, from using his air bases and turning a blind eye toward those crossing his borders to join IS.

I suspect he wants to let IS fight his war than he'll take care of IS in lieu of joining forces with them. Good luck.

He's at war in a lesser sense with the Kurds because they want their own country and in my opinion should have it.  On his eastern border, however, their territory is in Syria so he lets his tanks sit on his side of the border while the Kurds fight desperately against IS for the survival of Kobani.

Further west Kurdish territory is partially in Turkey, partially in Iraq and partially in

Iran so he is taking advantage of the chaos to bomb those Kurds while they too are fighting IS. The poor Kurds are surrounded by hostiles, yet they remain democratic and pro western.  Unfortunately they're finding that allegiance has gained them nothing.

No arms as promised.  No support from the Turks and sporadic air support from the coalition.

So now what?  The Kurds are mad.  Really mad and beginning to rebel against the Turks. That puts them in an even more tenuous position because I'll bet it will effect our promise to provide them with more appropriate arms.  Will Turkey crumble?  Probably not but they'll be forced into some kind of armed conflict to quell the angry Turks leaving al Assad in Syria even freer reign than he already has.

Now back to IS.  While the media is focusing on Kobani IS is inching ever closer to Baghdad. We've been assured that Baghdad won't fall.  The Iraqi forces won't allow it yet two outlying bases and the accompanying arms have fallen to IS in the past few days.  Suicide bombings within the city limits are on the increase.

Will Baghdad fall?  Have we kept Ebola out of the U.S.? If it does Erdogan can forget his ambitions, IS will reign for at least a time then we'll turn our attention to a nuclear Iran.

This is why when one goes to war the goal should be to win.  Unequivocally. You can't have it all ways.

 

Trouble With The Truth

Why is it politicians, of any party, feel it is okay to lie to the people they serve?  Granted there are times when it's better we not know some things to avoid panic but for the most part we deserve the truth.

The biggest and most consequential lie of the Bush administration was weapons of mass destruction.  The fall out of having pushed that lie may never be put to rest.

This administration seems to be doing it's share too.  Benghazi for starters.  All the denials that preceded departmental investigations - the IRS, the Veterans Administration, Obamacare.  Carefully, calculated lies.  Why?  To obscure departmental short comings? Or is it mere contempt for the intelligence of the public? Do they really think no one will notice?

I can't help but wonder where this mind set originates and why it's so difficult to eliminate.  Perhaps the most egregious set of untruths come from the President when he promises and fails to deliver to countries who had once been our friends.  The most recent and worst is saying Turkey will allow us to use their airports to launch strikes against ISIS. Wrong.  No such agreement has been made.

Did Susan Rice think that by saying so Turkey would be embarrassed into to doing so?  Well, whoever was behind the statement miscalculated.  Again.

The only thing that comes from such actions is a demeaning of this country and its leadership and the establishment of mistrust among our allies.  And triumph from our enemies.

If we don't want our boots on the ground in massive numbers arm the Kurds like we promised.  If we don't, there will be no boots what-so-ever.  IS will continue revising it's strategy, and like yesterday when they over ran another Iraqi Army training center, our arms will continue to fall into their hands. That's not the type of arming we should be doing.

It certainly cannot be our intent.  Can it?

What Will We Do When Baghdad Falls?

We need more than a genie on a flying carpet to get out of this mess.  Baghdad, if you've looked at the latest maps of the IS progression, is surrounded.

Despite assuring us Baghdad will not fall, circumstances make that assumption suspect. We know the Iraqi army isn't up to snuff.  We know more and more suicide bombings are occurring within the green zone and we know that the surrounding towns have had their water supply shut off. They will fall like dominoes. All IS has to do is wait.  Keep nibbling around the edges.

The coalition which was such a triumph a few weeks ago seems to have disappeared. Is anyone other than the President calling the shots in this conflict?

If we weren't going to fight this war to win it we should have stayed out of it.  Sorry aid workers and journalists.  You go into dangerous territory at your own risk. Some will tell us IS is not a risk to our national security because they have neither the weaponry nor the means to get to our shores.  Perhaps they don't if you're looking at them sending an army.

But if you look at our porous border, and our malcontents they are very much a threat.  It is obvious whoever is leading their strategic planning knows what they're doing.  I wonder where they were trained.  Because of that I don't believe for one minute that somewhere within their ranks plans for doing serious damage to the U.S. are not in the works.  No matter whether or not we hear chatter.

What is equally as troublesome is the political process that is buzzing around us.  Business as usual.  Dirty campaigns.  Republicans still without a message and a President more intent on reaping the praises of a Gwyneth Paltrow than working with his generals on how to defeat this enemy.

It seems as if to him it's a game he didn't want to play and is now bored by it.  It's not going his way and nobody else wants to play by his rules. So he walks away from it leaving those we promised to help hanging.

I'm very sad at what we've allowed ourselves to become.  Disinterested, disrespected and inept. Whats even more sad is I see no way for matters to change for at least two more years.  By then who knows what will be left. If anything.  Anywhere.

Nobel Finally Got It Right

After having awarded the Peace Prize to Barack Obama on the strength of his rhetoric, the Noble committee has finally gotten it right. And how fitting.

 For Malala Yousafzay, who you remember was shot in the head by the Taliban for being an advocate for girls rights to an education, nothing could be more fitting.

And Kailash Satyarthi, long an advocate for children's rights. Again, how fitting.  It is the children, after all, who will have to sort out the mess the so called adults have imposed upon the world. Hopefully they will gain the wisdom made possible by people like these to make it right.

Let us learn from this too.  That education is so very necessary.  Not what we're giving youth today where it's driven by ideology but rather education based on fact. Note too that the recipients are from countries hostile to one another.  That they've put their faith in the young is telling.

I hope their message is the one that finally resonates rather that the allure presently aimed at the disenfranchised youth to join in bloody jihad in order to promote a vagrant vision of their "religion".

It is for others that these two speak.  It is for others to take up the cause and move it forward.  The idea, while so much the same, is for such a diametrically opposed end.  Freedom, education, equality rather than submission, ignorance and subservience.

President Obama should return his Peace Prize for he neither earned it upon accepting it nor deserves it now.  Actually, he should have declined it in the first place.  He didn't and that act told us, had we thought about it, about his character.  When it should have been about selflessness it was all about self.  And remains so today.

Personally I prefer and applaud the selfless.