Friday, July 07, 2006

Another Week Under Our Belts

The New York Times reports that lowering of recruiting standards has allowed hate groups to infiltrate the military.
A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists" to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization…

… "We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," the [Southern Poverty Law Center] quoted a Defense Department investigator as saying in a report to be posted today on its Web site, www.splcenter.org. "That's a problem."

It's also one more way in which getting stuck in a long, unnecessary war has weakened our professional military's capabilities and effectiveness. We have neo-Nazis running loose in the land of the Hajis? There's a "hearts and minds" strategy for you.

Over at Free Republic last month, Dr. Jack Wheeler gave his suggestions to Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki for a real peace plan. Hang Saddam. Shoot al Sadr. More stuff like that.

Discussion of the 24-point plan Malaki has actually proposed fell off the scope last week. The most contentious aspect of it, in many minds, is its offer of amnesty to insurgents whose only "crime" has been to fight occupying U.S. and coalition forces. I don't think he has any choice but to offer amnesty. If the Bush administration manages to block the offer, they'll take away any motivation the insurgents might have to stop fighting U.S. and coalition forces. In fact, it will put them in a position where they can't ever stop fighting.

The big media are breaking a story about a plot to bomb New York's Holland Tunnel. It's interesting how all these terrorist plots are just now being discovered. I expect to see more of them coming to light between now and November.

China and Russia are aligning against the U.S. positions on Iran and North Korea, further evidence that the Next World Order has already arrived. I just heard on CNN that Japan has dropped its demands for sanctions on North Korea. Will American be able to maintain a status as "first among nations" in the post-neoconservative era?

We had an interesting discussion this week at Pen and Sword over whether anything "good" has actually come from our war in Iraq. Can anything be termed "good" if it doesn’t justify the costs and consequences of achieving it? Is it good that Saddam Hussein is out of power considering the chaos ousting him has created in Iraq? If you lose your right leg, should you be happy that you've dropped 35 pounds?

Over at ePluribus Robert Fuller, author of All Rise discusses his vision of a Dignitarian Society.
The precise and universal cause of indignity is the abuse of power. Make a list of the most distressing issues of recent years: corporate corruption, the lobbying scandals, the Katrina catastrophe, sexual abuse by clergy, Abu Ghraib, domestic spying, etc. Every one of them can be traced to an abuse of power by individuals of rank. Often the abuses had the blessing of people of even higher rank.

Toward the end of my naval career, the expression "knowledge is power" became quite popular. Looking back, it occurs to me that this saying supports the notion that the ultimate goal of gaining knowledge is to obtain power.

Will we ever see a time when humanity values wisdom over power?

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Commander Jeff Huber, U.S. Navy (Retired) writes from Virginia Beach, Virginia. Read his commentaries at ePluribus Media and Pen and Sword.

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:35 PM

    Of course, no one wants terrorist attacks to happen, so if the FBI is stopping them, that's good. The problem some people have is that people outside the FBI use this success as a political tool. When you hear of a foiled plot to take down the Brooklyn Bridge, it makes everyone warm and fuzzy for a few days. When you find out a year later that the "plot" consisted of one crazy guy with a blow torch, it makes you wonder why the media made such a big deal out of it in the first place.

    When you hear of a foiled plot by Muslim extremists to take out the Sears Tower, again, warm fuzzies all around. When you find out the guys weren't even Muslim, but rather some odd Christian/Jewish/Haitian voodoo group, it makes you curious. When you find out that the group may have been talked into some of their more violent ideas by an undercover FBI agent, it makes you wonder why the FBI needs to resort to what is arguably entrapment to make an arrest for a crime that hadn't happened yet.

    When you look back at other news going on around the same time as some of these foiled "plots" that were hailed by the administration as great successes and proof that their strategies were working, you wonder if maybe they just made some stuff up to cover up the bad news. It's kind of like having a Friday afternoon bad news dump whenever you want it. When the administration continues to harp on "successes" that were proven fraudlent or empty for months afterwards, it makes one wonder if you ever get anything but feel good propaganda from the people in charge, and whether or not one should ever trust anything they say again.

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  2. Anonymous1:13 PM

    Apparently, "knowledge is power" originated with Sir Francis Bacon, "English author, courtier, & philosopher, advocate of inductive reasoning in science, wrote 'Advancement in Learning, 1605' ..."

    I like your interpretation of the phrase, but I always took it to mean that by refusing to seek knowledge, one lives in darkness. Not power in the sense of military might, but power in the sense of human advancement.

    Other quotes of his include:

    "A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."

    "He of whom many are afraid ought to fear many."

    "In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior."

    "Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper."

    Ok, I admit I have to think about that last one a bit ... :)

    Kerstin

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  3. Not everything can be a conspiracy, but from what we'e seen from these ducks, you can hardly ever count one out.

    Thanks to Kerstin from me also for identifying Bacon as the source of the knowledge/power quote. I suspect the context in which he said it is different from the one in which I hear it today.

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  4. Anonymous5:26 PM

    I don't recall pushing any conspiracy theories. I was just pointing out a pattern. Pointing out patterns and discussing them does not constitute a conspiracy theory. As Aristotle once said:

    "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

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  5. Over at Free Republic last month, Dr. Jack Wheeler gave his suggestions to Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki for a real peace plan. Hang Saddam. Shoot al Sadr. More stuff like that.

    Yeah, kick ass and take names. Or is it take names and kick ass. That'll get it done. Good show Wheely.

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  6. Sure. That's worked great so far.

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