A couple of things…
1. When I was in Antarctica, I became friends with this terrific WWII vet. He was a pilot and a flight instructor, and he trained the Chinese to fly (w/o speaking their language) such that they could defend themselves against the japanese imperialists. I asked him how it worked out, and he replied—not well. They all pretty much died. Didn’t ask whether it was equipment, seat time, or both. But anyway—he said one very profound thing to me, “People today do not know what it takes to defeat a culture.” And so my view on military conflicts changed.
2. Matt—I think you’re making my point. The military doesn’t take stutterers. But I’ve got a PhD for cryin’ out loud; I research prosthetic management, and could fool any recruiter quite easily. Not sure what would happen once in, but I doubt they’d discharge me. Yet, I do not. Your critical threshold seems to be an entire city, provided you’re single; but now that you’re married and thinking of family expansion—all bets are off. I guess my point is, (if and when we get serious,) you will fight because you have a family. But until there is a level of whole hearted seriousness, I do honestly wonder if it is worth the sacrifice. Although it greatly pains me to type this…
3. Scott—the nuclear arsenal made all kinds of sense relative to the cold war. That’s what beat the soviets; not the arsenal itself, but the production of said arsenal. And then Star Wars came along and threatened the validity of their ICBMs, thus rendering their arsenal significantly less useful. The economics of the nuclear arsenal allowed communism to collapse inward on itself. But as you point out—now, we’ve just got a whole bunch of crap that we have to maintain and don’t use.
4. And the more I think about it—the baby boomers have systematically undone nearly every (if not every) single advancement that their parents provided. The US used to be feared and respected. Now, even 3rd world countries make fun of us. And why shouldn’t they? Look at the ominous threat that we have become? An exceedingly good military undermined by our own values.
4.5 A few months back, I wrote an opinion stating that moral relativism was the single most detrimental factor within modernity. And I still stand by that statement, as moral relativism is the systematic attempt of humans to not only replace, but become, god.
5. Scott—to answer your question… They’re not winning; we’re just not fighting. We’re trying to swat at individual gnats, when we’ve got tubs full of DDT just sitting there. I can’t see the radicals going anywhere, and they will become more emboldened with every weakened step in which we limit ourselves. And this is entirely different from that of the cold war. A communist Vietnam really didn’t directly threaten our national security all that much. But a couple kooks and a nuc do. My friend and I have played this conversation out too many times. It’ll take New York city, the Washington Metro area, and perhaps another major metropolitan area before we pull out the DDT. (If the radicals were smart, they'd space each hit about a decade apart. It'll be interesting to see when and how they go about doing it.)
6. But as an aside, my grandparents (the ones you all never met) got to live with us for a few years when I was a kid, and that was quite an experience. She was convinced that the Soviet Union was the antichrist, and tried to get my dad to pay for a bomb-shelter. I can still remember her reciting scripture (?) about the “hook drawing down the bear”. (She suggested the bear was Russia; I don't even think this prophetic memory is even biblical.) Even as a kid, I questioned her views. But as an adult, I often wonder if Islam isn’t the antichrist? In a sense, I’ve made it make sense. I haven’t read Revelation in a while, and even when I did, I didn’t understand it. But the battle of Armageddon (in terms of location) makes more sense under this scenario. As does the use of embedded personal identification RF devices, due to closed borders and increased national security. And I do not profess to understand the way in which God or Satan work, but with the issues surrounding Ishmael and Isaac, I just wonder if there’s something there.
So in closing, Scott, I don’t know what it will take to turn this thing around. I’m not even sure if it is (or is destined) to be turned around. And that’s a pretty frightening concept.
P.S. My Mom's organization got some press on their local news.
1. When I was in Antarctica, I became friends with this terrific WWII vet. He was a pilot and a flight instructor, and he trained the Chinese to fly (w/o speaking their language) such that they could defend themselves against the japanese imperialists. I asked him how it worked out, and he replied—not well. They all pretty much died. Didn’t ask whether it was equipment, seat time, or both. But anyway—he said one very profound thing to me, “People today do not know what it takes to defeat a culture.” And so my view on military conflicts changed.
2. Matt—I think you’re making my point. The military doesn’t take stutterers. But I’ve got a PhD for cryin’ out loud; I research prosthetic management, and could fool any recruiter quite easily. Not sure what would happen once in, but I doubt they’d discharge me. Yet, I do not. Your critical threshold seems to be an entire city, provided you’re single; but now that you’re married and thinking of family expansion—all bets are off. I guess my point is, (if and when we get serious,) you will fight because you have a family. But until there is a level of whole hearted seriousness, I do honestly wonder if it is worth the sacrifice. Although it greatly pains me to type this…
3. Scott—the nuclear arsenal made all kinds of sense relative to the cold war. That’s what beat the soviets; not the arsenal itself, but the production of said arsenal. And then Star Wars came along and threatened the validity of their ICBMs, thus rendering their arsenal significantly less useful. The economics of the nuclear arsenal allowed communism to collapse inward on itself. But as you point out—now, we’ve just got a whole bunch of crap that we have to maintain and don’t use.
4. And the more I think about it—the baby boomers have systematically undone nearly every (if not every) single advancement that their parents provided. The US used to be feared and respected. Now, even 3rd world countries make fun of us. And why shouldn’t they? Look at the ominous threat that we have become? An exceedingly good military undermined by our own values.
4.5 A few months back, I wrote an opinion stating that moral relativism was the single most detrimental factor within modernity. And I still stand by that statement, as moral relativism is the systematic attempt of humans to not only replace, but become, god.
5. Scott—to answer your question… They’re not winning; we’re just not fighting. We’re trying to swat at individual gnats, when we’ve got tubs full of DDT just sitting there. I can’t see the radicals going anywhere, and they will become more emboldened with every weakened step in which we limit ourselves. And this is entirely different from that of the cold war. A communist Vietnam really didn’t directly threaten our national security all that much. But a couple kooks and a nuc do. My friend and I have played this conversation out too many times. It’ll take New York city, the Washington Metro area, and perhaps another major metropolitan area before we pull out the DDT. (If the radicals were smart, they'd space each hit about a decade apart. It'll be interesting to see when and how they go about doing it.)
6. But as an aside, my grandparents (the ones you all never met) got to live with us for a few years when I was a kid, and that was quite an experience. She was convinced that the Soviet Union was the antichrist, and tried to get my dad to pay for a bomb-shelter. I can still remember her reciting scripture (?) about the “hook drawing down the bear”. (She suggested the bear was Russia; I don't even think this prophetic memory is even biblical.) Even as a kid, I questioned her views. But as an adult, I often wonder if Islam isn’t the antichrist? In a sense, I’ve made it make sense. I haven’t read Revelation in a while, and even when I did, I didn’t understand it. But the battle of Armageddon (in terms of location) makes more sense under this scenario. As does the use of embedded personal identification RF devices, due to closed borders and increased national security. And I do not profess to understand the way in which God or Satan work, but with the issues surrounding Ishmael and Isaac, I just wonder if there’s something there.
So in closing, Scott, I don’t know what it will take to turn this thing around. I’m not even sure if it is (or is destined) to be turned around. And that’s a pretty frightening concept.
P.S. My Mom's organization got some press on their local news.
posted by Greg | 9:08 PM
2 Comments:
I guess my point is, (if and when we get serious,) you will fight because you have a family.
Yeah, I can see how that would be the case.
Man is this not a fun conversation. I now find myself running all kinds of scary scenarios in my head, and making plans for all of them.
Welcome to my world. And I often can't shut it off, thus rendering me an insomniac. This is *precisely* why I use an iPod as a sleep aid. Listen to a goofy podcast, distract my manic mouse running on the wheel (i.e., brain) and get some sleep.
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