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The WALTHER REPORT
By Tony Walther
Here’s some observations on the news and trends of the day:
– President Bush says we’re going through trying times, but basically our economy is sound. Kind of sounds like Herbert Hoover to me.
– Barack Obama says that we should have been paying more attention to Afghanistan in the first place, instead of Iraq. He may well be right, but his most recent statements involving the war over there should be instructive to anyone who might vote for him thinking he will get us out of war. More than likely, he’ll just move it over a little.
And on the subject of war, my wife and I were watching a television saga called “Army Wives” and in it there were these dedicated soldiers who fought in Iraq and wanted to go back for more. Now of course this was fiction, but I think we were both thinking of how in real life we constantly see and hear reports of military personnel who suffer terrible injuries wanting to go back and fight again. We sometimes wonder if the media doesn’t cherry pick (my term) who they interview, but whatever, most of these military people seem a reasonably intelligent and dedicated lot. Anyway, with that in mind, I made a comment on how dedicated they are (mixing fact and fiction, entertainment land with real world, kind of like Ronald Reagan used to do), and she looked at me and said: “yeah, they’re not a bunch of whiners.”
It got me to thinking about our all-volunteer military. I have had my doubts about whether we should have what I think of as something akin to a mercenary force (although my dictionary tells me mercenary only refers to fighting for a foreign country). I still do have concerns. But I have to say, from what I have seen of them, they are indeed the best fighting force we’ve ever had. Of course, that’s just an off-the-cuff opinion with nothing really to go by other than perception and comparison of news reports, newsreels, reading of history, and so on (and we also have seen the reports of the high suicide rate among soldiers and of complaints about unending deployments).
But, assuming that we do have this highly skilled and motivated military, we should use them to our best advantage. I still believe that the basic strategy of throwing everything we’ve got at the enemy would be the way to go. The other options seem to be endless stalemate, or to quit. If we were to just quit we have to realize the likely consequences: years of recriminations (who lost the Middle East?), emboldened enemies who will see the USA as what communist China used to call a “Paper Tiger,” and a demoralization of our military like we saw post-Vietnam (but also a much lesser drain on our economy).
Now I have just written something that makes me seem pro-war, militant, jingoistic, whatever. But I maintain that I am not. I would rather see the U.S. avoid conflict whenever it can. I actually like to the idea of neutrality, within limits. But when you pick a fight, you should be able to carry it off.
It’s a little late to conclude we just made a mistake –- where was the mass outcry from the public?
It still rings in my ears when pre-Iraq war it was pointed out that there seemed no logical reason to attack Iraq. The believers kept saying: “the president knows things we don’t.” I’ll just shake my head and leave that alone, well except:
In a recent letter to the editor in my local newspaper the writer implied nuclear weapons material was found in Iraq after all and that we shipped it to Canada. Looked that one up on the web and found that the U.S. did recently secretly ship 500 tons of low grade uranium, reportedly not weapons grade, to a private concern in Canada at a cost to the taxpayers of $70 million. Obviously it’s not a secret anymore. The Iraqi government had asked us to get rid of the stuff. If that was what Bush knew way back when, I think he’d be crowing about it now. And they didn’t throw rose petals at us when we “liberated” them either.
Moving on:
– Budweiser, the all-American beer, has been bought out by a Belgium-based brewing conglomerate. Ho hum I say. If you really enjoy beer, Budweiser is about as close to real beer as bottled water. Just don’t take over Sierra Nevada or Anchor Steam, to name a couple.
– Recently while waiting to get a blood draw, I thumbed through a copy of U.S. News and World Report. What a good weekly news magazine, I thought. I had been disappointed with Time and Newsweek these past many years. Now I read on the web today that U.S. News is dropping down to a once every other week cycle, a victim of online. Of course it is touting its online edition, but I can see the handwriting on the wall. Traditional print is dying, and it makes me sad.
As I was waiting in the doctor’s office today, I thumbed through the printed version of U.S. News and World Report and spotted an item that suggested that if elected Obama might consider a Supreme Court nomination (when the chance arose) for Hillary Clinton. I check the web every day and I hadn’t seen that one.
– Last Thanksgiving or Christmas I was talking politics with the family and I prognosticated that Mitt Romney would win the Republican presidential nomination, not because I like him, but because I thought he had the smoothness, the business tone, the look. I was surprised when he fell out of the race so soon. Well, He’s baaaack, maybe. The web tells me he’s high on the list for VP picks for John McCain. With the economy in the dumper, I’ll bet he would really strengthen McCain’s chances. Again, that is not an endorsement from me, just an observation. And with my track record on such prognostications, well, sorry Mr. McCain.
