Whoa, What Are We doing Here?

Posted Friday, May 9, 2008, at 12:27 AM

Change of Command 1979, maybe Ol' Simmons needs to head out to pasture for good.

I went to dinner tonight and participated in some terribly interesting conversation. I'm not the kind of person who initiates this kind of verbal confrontation, but if it gets started, I will occasionally respond with a few pieces of my mind. When people talk about our elections, they really need to understand what is going on in other parts of the world, not just in the good old US of A.

The Indiana Presidential primary became a hot subject tonight very quickly and I can tell you this from my personal opinion, I'm not impressed with any of our remaining hopefuls.

Choose who you want, you will anyway, regardless of anything that I could do or say.

Just keep in mind, your military is what keeps you safe from harm. How do you and I best protect a military establishment, designed to keep us from harm, from becoming severely depleted while trying to win a non-winnable* civil war? We tried something like this back in the 1960's and 70's, for those of us who are old enough to remember, but someone stumbled on the neat idea back then, that after 58,000+ US servicemen's deaths, that it was enough, and we should get out of there and call it quits.

*Maybe non-winnable is an incorrect term, should I elaborate or do you understand? I could offer some explanations of "jihad", if you need this for additional information.

Comments
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"Falling in love is like war, easy to get into but hard to end" (H.L. Mencken)

-- Posted by jdog on Fri, May 9, 2008, at 5:51 AM

This is a touchy subject for conversation, even more so for a blog, yet the path to enlightenment is often through such discourse.

It seems to me there are well informed folks on both sides of this grave issue. We are a country divided, that's a fact. I have never been called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice to fight in a war, so with respect and reverence to those who have, I will attempt to understand what is at stake here, and then ask myself at the end of this long presidential campaign- Who do I believe will be the best bet for leading us as a nation out of this mess?

And Keith, if anyone ever verbally confronts you again about election results (or anything else that makes you uncomfortable) while I'm around, give me a signal and I will step into the conversation to steer it into a more dinner friendly direction~

-- Posted by hopeanddust on Fri, May 9, 2008, at 8:01 AM

If you want to enjoy your dinner, never talk of politics. Or religion. It never ends well. Opinions are like a#$holes.

-- Posted by virginia is for lovers on Fri, May 9, 2008, at 8:18 AM

Sad thing about our elections is 50% of the electorate never vote.

I have more respect for a person who is passionately opposite my political leaning and votes accordingly, than I do a person who believes more like I do, yet never participates in the voting process.

But let me tell you, the highlight of last night for me was the passionate rendition of "Where are you tonight?" sung by ol' Simmons, Wiggs, Tim C., and myself-and judging by the applause, this is not a biased opinion.

-- Posted by hopeanddust on Fri, May 9, 2008, at 8:56 AM

I too feel sad that 50% didnt vote.

You know if your passionate about this subject like most people I know and dont vote then technically your a lier.

What I would really like to see is a Knowledge test before you vote--or hold office. Just watch "Jay Walking " with Jay Lenno and you know why..

oh I did I hear the rumor that that "group" was going to sign a recording deal and start touring this summer--- touring the 19th holes where ever they can!

-- Posted by silerCityDude on Fri, May 9, 2008, at 3:13 PM

The conversation last night was fantastic, as was the spaghetti carbonara. I've never had that dish before, but once again, Mark and the Pepperoni Grill staff provided the ingredients for a wonderful evening.

I'm not sure anyone noticed but I sang the Roy Clark part of Where Oh Where Are You Tonight. I'm pretty sure that was the primary cause for the thunderous applause from the enlightened and surprised late evening diners.

-- Posted by simmons on Fri, May 9, 2008, at 3:20 PM

PFFT You Were Gone

by Buck Owens

album: Too Old to Cut the Mustard (w.Buddy Alan] (1972)

Archie Campbell/Buck Owens/Hee Haw

---------------------------------

You took off your leg, your wig and your eye glasses

And you shoud've seen the look on my face

I wanted to kiss, I wanted to hug you

But you were scattered all over the place

Where, where, are you tonight?

Why did you leave me here all alone?

I searched the world over,

And thought I found true love.

You met another and

Phht! you were gone.

-- Posted by hopeanddust on Fri, May 9, 2008, at 7:52 PM

Hee Haw salutes my home town, Jasonville, Indiana, population 2,490. SAL-UTE!

-- Posted by Chris&Jeremy'sDad on Sat, May 10, 2008, at 5:58 AM

B ball fan was the only one to go after this one? Come on guys..

They're burying another kid today about 15 miles south of here, that was killed last week. The Indiana and Ohio Brigades are deployed now. I'm close with a kid that got into Baghdad right after Thanksgiving and he is doing a 16 month tour as an Infantryman with the 4th Brigade, 10th Mountain. He tells me that they're going to Afghanistan after they get back. He tells me that the non combatants need help, but that this is never ending.

Our local Army Aviation unit is tagged and packing all their gear now. A pilot I know says it's a cluster; they don't know where they're going or who they're replacing. They're taking their own Blackhawks as well. There's a shipping charge you don't want to pay..

Across the street lives Dwayne, when he's not deployed. He's a policeman, but also the 1st Sgt. of a Reserve Airboune Psychological Ops. Company. He had a trip to Bosnia recently, and they've been getting ready since last summer for a soon to be announced foray into Iraq.

Schwarzkopfs book made more than a few references as to what could have happened, why the leadership didn't want to go to Badhdad during the first war. Civilians in charge of this war at the time that it started were aware of what could go wrong, and they obviously made the wrong choice. Most all of them aren't around now..

The surge looked good, but they continue to let al-Sadr live, and I have seen over the last 3 months that it's not working and surely isn't sustainable. And while our army of annihilation tries to do social work they get sniped by rifle, rocket, and mortars.

I'd like to see a drive back down to Kuwait. Bring all of our equipment out because we can't afford to just leave it there this time. Get everybody and everything we have home, and then rebuild and wait. Because there may be a bigger fight out there in the near future.

Voting is very much on my mind. I thought the original Three Stooges were much more funny than this current trio. And what I'm really afraid of is that one of them is going to really cut the military, and then tax me at about 39%, and then give it to people overseas. I like my church, and all of my guns.

-- Posted by M Boyd on Sat, May 10, 2008, at 6:40 AM

Speaking to Congress 57 years ago about McArthur's request to extend the Korean War into China, General Bradley stated, "Frankly, in the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, this strategy would involve us in the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy."

No one knows what he would have said about our current situation, but I believe that the statement is appropriate for where we are today.

Our miltary leadership understands the consequence of this type of protracted warfare. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/washin...

What we are seeing in these short term gains as a result of this surge, is exactly what the Muslim world wants to see and that is the creation of a long term crisis for all of the American military. The war is sapping the strength and quality of our military.

-- Posted by simmons on Sat, May 10, 2008, at 8:28 AM

[The Army and the rest of the service chiefs have endorsed General Petraeus's recommendations for continued high troop levels in Iraq. But Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, and their top deputies also have warned that the war in Iraq should not be permitted to inflict an unacceptable toll on the military as a whole. "Our readiness is being consumed as fast as we build it," Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army vice chief of staff, said in stark comments delivered to Congress last week. "Lengthy and repeated deployments with insufficient recovery time have placed incredible stress on our soldiers and our families, testing the resolve of our all-volunteer force like never before."]

The above was copy/pasted from that link you gave us.

And given your resume, and that I've had the priviledge to converse with you in person, thus giving me a sense of who you are as a man, your opinion on this situation carries a lot of weight, and I assure you, I am listening real hard here.

So then,

If I'm not missing something, this article seems to suggest there are divisions, or grave concerns, within our top military leadership about our military health as a whole, yet the concensus is General Petraeus's lead is in the right direction for the moment.

Now I have no delusions that my reasoning power is flawless, indeed, I am just alert enough to know how little I do know and how much I miss, yet this very article from the New York Times suggests to this simple hick, that of the Three Stooges we have to choose from, one in particular far out credentials the other two-is it Moe? Or Larry? Or Curly?

Now we have to accept that all 3 want to end this conflict and bring everyone home, the question is how? and when?

I wrote a song once, the Hangman's Blues. The haunting doubt of the executioner that maybe this one was innocent...the timeless challenge of decision making.

May God help us all.

Damn that snake-I step on it every time.

-- Posted by hopeanddust on Sat, May 10, 2008, at 10:37 AM

It would be great if we could solve even one of our nation's problems by just talking about it in this blog. I don't know if I'm pessimistic or realistic, but the future doesn't look as bright as it once did.

Oh, for the good old days when all we had to worry about were the Ruskies coming thru the Fulda Gap and Mutual Assured Destruction was our answer.

How about we put all the unemployed folks to work building a Great Wall of the United States between us and the Canucks and Mexicanos. Pull our military out of Iraq and Afghanistan and have them man the wall. Then we round up all the illegals and environmental wackos and give them a one-way, all expense paid trip to the other side of the Wall.

Then those that are left can start drilling for more oil, building more windmills and solar panels and hydro-electric dams and nuclear energy plants and get us free of dependency on foreign oil.

Stop all foreign aid and UN subsidies and use that money to pay down our debt, get our economy & our dollar on solid footing.

Then eliminate taxes on school teachers and provide them with free golf club memberships, car allowance and expense accounts.

That should just about fix things.

-- Posted by Chris&Jeremy'sDad on Sat, May 10, 2008, at 10:51 AM

Thanks C&J'sDad-I needed that one!

-- Posted by hopeanddust on Sat, May 10, 2008, at 11:04 AM

That's it-I've used up my two cents.

I'm heading out to the 40. There's a war going on between me and some alien species of itchweed. So far, Hadrian's wall isn't working. Time to pop open an Oberon and regroup.

-- Posted by hopeanddust on Sat, May 10, 2008, at 11:15 AM

Wooowee-I'm getting out the hotdogs and marshmellows 'cause this blogs on fire~

Speakin' of John Prine, I just caught him on a 2005 Austin City Limits episode coverin' Blaze Foley's "Clay Pigeons"-amazing performance of a great song. It's on Youtube, so check it out.

-- Posted by hopeanddust on Sat, May 10, 2008, at 8:32 PM

I've heard it said its best to keep our mouth shut and let people think your stupid other than open your mouth and let them KNOW you are!

I think that applies in the military sense as well --- it being best to let people actually THINK your strong and not PROVE you are not!

Ask the French about 1940, Iraq about 1991 and others.. just a point.

SO I hope to hear the sound sounds comeing from that quartet some time

-- Posted by silerCityDude on Sun, May 11, 2008, at 1:08 AM

Another great blog entry.

"Bring the boys back home.

Don't leave the children on their own." - R. Waters

-- Posted by GarthHudson on Sun, May 11, 2008, at 4:03 AM

Blaze Foley's "Clay Pigeons"

---------------------------

I'm goin' down to the Greyhound Station, gonna get a ticket to ride

Gonna find that lady with two or three kids and sit down by her side

Ride 'til the sun comes up and down around me 'bout two or three times

Smokin' cigarettes in the last seat

Tryin' to hide my sorrow from the people I meet

And get along with it all

Go down where the people say "y'all"

Feed the pigeons some clay

Turn the night into day

Start talkin' again

When I know what to say

-- Posted by hopeanddust on Sun, May 11, 2008, at 9:42 AM

B ball fan, did you watch/hear Townes & Foley singing "Snowin' on Ranton"?

Good stuff is fun to share.

-- Posted by hopeanddust on Mon, May 12, 2008, at 7:47 AM

B BALL FAN STICK TO B BALL AND LEAVE THINGS THAT SEEM TO MAKE YOU WIMPER TO THE FOLKS THAT TRULY MAKE A DIFFERENCE. YOU HAVE EVIDENTLY NOT SEEN THE THINGS THAT WE AND I DO MEAN WE HAVE SEEN. YOU SEEM TO ONLY GO ON WHAT YOU HAVE HEARD OR FORMED AN OPINION ON. HAVING SEARVED SO MANY YEARS I STOPPED COUNTING I FIND YOUR COMMENTS ON THE EDGE OF NOT SMART AND STUDIED TO STUPID. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT SIMMONS IS A PROFESSIONAL AND YOU ARE NOT. SIMMONS AND OUR YOUNG RETURNING HOME VETERANS DO NOT NEED TO NOR WANT TO HEAR YOUR GARBAGE.

-- Posted by sergeantmajor on Sat, May 17, 2008, at 9:57 AM

Is that you, Owen Meany?

-- Posted by virginia is for lovers on Mon, May 19, 2008, at 4:40 PM

"...Simmons is a professional..." Professional what? Engineer? Writer? Golfer? Beer Drinker? Story-teller? A little bit of all-of-the-above?

Some of my very favorite people in my 20 years in the military were Sergeants Major. Spent many hours playing pinochle with our CSM, another SGM and one 1SG in Germany and Saudi Arabia in 1990-1991. One of my favorite plaques I received was from the CSM, 1SGs and MSGs of 1/55 ADA that read,"to the best Bn XO in the business". Every XO gets one just about like it, but it felt really good to get it from those guys. You talk about professionals, those guys wrote the book on it. You don't make SGM without knowing what you're doing, and what you're doing is making sure your unit accomplishes its mission and takes care of its soldiers.

-- Posted by Chris&Jeremy'sDad on Mon, May 19, 2008, at 7:45 PM

Constructive and Imaginary Ambiguity

Keith Sims

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