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| Monday Evening |
So I'm in Sandy Eggo, work is going quite well, but...
Flew in Friday and worked the entire weekend, which includes Labor Day itself, in honor of which, our team labored, mightily. But, as a bonus I wasn't expecting, we had Tuesday off. Yay!
One of the guys suggested a "team building" get together. When I queried as to when and where he said, "Have you heard of Shakespeare's Pub¹ up on Indio?"
To which I answered, "Why yes, yes I have."
The team dinner would be Monday night, as we all had Tuesday off. I came, I saw, I ate bangers and mash and washed it all down with a couple o' Guinness. It was excellent as ever.
Tuna actually stopped by so I got to talk with him for a bit. Oddly enough, he still works for Uncle Sam and knew a number of the folks on the team I'm working with, small world, neh?
While Shakespeare's isn't haunted, there is, to me at any rate, an unseen presence in the room every time I go there. Yup, Lex is always present in spirit.
For those of you who might ask, "What the Hell, Sarge, why didn't you call me?" Well, it was technically a work function, so...
Yes, I am going back to Shakespeare's again before heading back East. I'll let you know.
Though the dinner ended at 2000 local, I actually managed to stay awake (barely) to nearly 2200 local (which is, as you might know, 0100 Sarge-Time, i.e. "back east.") I did think about writing a post for Tuesday, but as I saw that Beans had something in the hopper, I stepped away from the keyboard and watched YouTube videos for a bit (commercial TV is such an ad-laden bother) before retiring for the night.
Up bright and early at 0800 (which is three to four hours later than I arise while out here on the ship) and was ready to hit the day. What did I plan to do? Well, honestly? Pretty much nothing, I planned to do absolutely nothing.
Which I did.
The plan is to fly back on Sunday, there is the remote possibility of the work which we came out to do being done sooner. I mean there's the chance to leave a day early. Check the date on this upcoming Saturday, yup, September 11th, 20 years to the day since the event which served to completely screw up the last 20 years and kill and maim thousands of people.
No, I won't be flying on that Saturday.
Which brings me to my point, being a student of history, when I heard of us going into Afghanistan, my first thought was "now that's a really bad idea, a really BAD idea."
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| Last Stand of the 44th at Gandamak, 1842 William Barnes Wollen (Source) |
Also...
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| 09 January 1980, Mujahedeen pose on a downed Soviet helicopter. (Source) |
Yes, a couple of big powers had already "been there, done that" with a startling lack of success. What made us think we could do better? (By the way, 9/11 was perpetrated by Saudi citizens operating under the auspices of Al Qaeda, not Afghans, not Iraqis, just sayin'... Yes, you can make your own arguments/points in the comments, I welcome discussion on this topic.)
Point is, we did do it "better" to a certain extent, but still, I'll pose this question, "How do you get the Afghans to stop fighting each other?"
Answer, "Invade them."
Yes, I know, too simplistic but that's really true of any people. In the past, squabbling citizens would typically unite to face an exterior threat, it's what most humans do. You might be fighting with your brother or sister all the time, but an outsider goes after them? Fight's on! Nail the outsider, then go back to the family squabble.
Do I think Iraq and Afghanistan were worth the blood and treasure we expended there? I'm still of two minds about that. On the one hand, it's what we do (or have done since 1945), try to keep local conflicts local and away from our backyard as much as possible.
9/11 brought death and destruction to our backyard, someone had to pay, but not someone with lots of oil and lots of influence in our government. Which is another argument for killing our dependence on foreign oil, which we really did manage to do. But Sleepy Joe and the pack of effing idiots behind him realized that that wouldn't line their pockets. So we get what we have now.
I'm sure the Saudis are happy.
I'm not.
On the other hand, no, no, no, Hell no. It wasn't worth it. Wasn't worth the blood of a single American soldier/sailor/airman/Marine. Not one. I still stand by what I wrote back in 2015 concerning our involvement in Syria here. Still applies and should have been applied to Iraq and Afghanistan.
As long as money controls our government and the simpletons and thieves within it, we seem to have no choice but to send our sons and daughters out to fight and die for somebody else's interests, not those of the American people.
We hates it, precious, we do.
But I do get to experience this, for the nonce...
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| USS Anchorage (LPD 23) Heading Out, 07 Sep 21 (From my hotel room) |
Now that we loves, yes precious, we do.
¹ Yes, technically it's the Shakespeare Pub, but I've always known it as "Shakespeare's."
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Well... good to see a traditional named Navy ship. A team building get together, at a pub? Northland seal of approval given Sarge. As far as the twenty year US sojourn into Afghanistan, to quote Beans......GRRRRRRR......what a waste of even one American life let alone almost 2500 military not to mention almost 3900 contractor lives and the wounded.....GRRRRRR! Stupid, greedy, feckless politicians.
ReplyDeleteStupid, greedy, feckless politicians, aye!
DeleteI hoped our military would be in and out... But we can't seem to shake loose of anything quickly. And for the same reason you mentioned: "the pack of effing idiots".
ReplyDeleteI have a family member that, 10 years ago this Saturday, marks a large event he managed in 'Stan. He still relives that day in his dreams. And his waking. Pray for him if you think to. Some wounds don't show on the outside...
The people running the show have no earthly idea what they're doing. And it shows, over, and over, and over...
DeletePrayers up.
The 44th at Gandamak is one of my favorite paintings (which strikes me as odd, as it is otherwise a tragic event).
ReplyDeleteThe historian in me notes that at some point we essentially stopped trying to "win wars" and started other things. I suppose that is an outcome of the Cold War, when one needed strong allies and so one had to build them if they were not otherwise available. But the whole of human history suggests that war is really only done effectively when it is done for victory.
Von Clausewitz's dictum "War is politics by other means" really should have been applied in these cases, as well as a clear definition of what "victory" meant - in this case, politics might have been the other means and "victory" should have been more clearly defined as justice. As you point out, we know where the 9/11 hijackers were trained and whom they were supported by. Or even if one argues that was strategically too difficult to accomplish politically, we knew on a practical level (bin Laden) who planned it. Destroy the guilty, make it rather clear we would do it again, and then leave - being willing to come back with "kinetic solutions" as necessary but other than that, leave folks to sort things out on their own.
Instead, we have kept our military at a heightened awareness and in constant action for the last 20 years, perhaps only eclipsed by the Korea/Vietnam era. We have spent thousands of lives, thousands more injured lives, trillions of dollars - all for what? Yes, one can point to some good - the establishment of women's rights in Afghanistan comes to mind, and some blessed rescue work around animals - but that looks like it is quickly being swept away.
What is worse - and more telling in my opinion - is that we have exhausted ourselves mentally, spiritually, and economically. And we have d*mned little to show for it. At the end, this has emboldened our enemies, discouraged and insulted our allies, and I think legitimately made us more vulnerable overall.
As the Dwarves of Tolkien's Middle Earth said, if this is victory my hands are too small to grasp it.
If something is worth killing for, and of course dying for, then it should be fast, brutal, and overwhelming, not this slow "death by a thousand cuts" nonsense our idiot politicos (in and out of uniform) think works.
DeleteConcur on the painting, very well done.
And again...What would the rat ba***rd do differently if he were in the pay of the Chinese?
ReplyDeleteNot a damned thing.
DeleteSadly, it was evident when he started 'his' campaign that he wasn't home and he was just a meat muppet. So the question would be, "What would the rat bastides and biotches who are controlling him do differently if they were in the pay of the Chinese?"
DeleteAnd his only living son is one of the rat bastides. What a friggin security nightmare.
It certainly is, Xiden is just a puppet, a particularly stupid one, perhaps the perfect puppet.
DeleteAnd to quote the great detective "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
ReplyDeleteYup, right to the point and oh, so true.
DeleteWhat improbable? We knew he and his handlers were in the pay of Mother Russia and the latest Han Dynasty before 'he' ran. But it was all about mean tweets and Orangemanbad and how horrible OMB was for the environment and such.
DeleteGood point.
Delete"But it was all about mean tweets and Orangemanbad and how horrible OMB was for the environment and such." Don't forget the untold number of "suspicious" (which is Swahili for "Fraudulent") ballots that somehow showed up in multiple states in the middle of the night.
DeleteOr the votes switched from one candidate to another.
DeleteHard to believe that a man with all the emotions of a rotten potato, and the brains of said rotten potato, who couldn't draw 20 people to his rallies, outvoted someone who drew 20-50K at rallies 3-5 times a day.
Like STxAR, I had hoped we would be in to settle the score with Al Qaeda, then get back to CONUS. While I truly believe our current administration is the worst set of idiots we've seen in a long time (juvat, ditto to your comment!), previous administrations have also made some very poor, idiotic even, decisions on where we go in the world and what we do there. Granted there are some places we have to go to protect our wonderful country, but we don't have to stay once we've accomplished the core mission. And dang it, there are some countries totally unsuitable for a democratic government, so let's stop 'nation building' in those places.
ReplyDeleteCan't argue with that!
DeleteWe are attacked in NYC & DC by a handful of Saudis, so we invade Afghanistan and Iraq and we do it with cheering crowds back home.. That is a testament to the power of the media!
ReplyDeleteExcellent point.
Delete@juvat/
ReplyDeleteNow now, lets not go all judge-mental on us. You might run afoul of the ADA (Americans W> Disabilities Act) people. :)
I know, I know, the coffee kicked in a little too early this morning.
DeleteVirgil - Is one disabled if one is willfully stupid? Xiden has been a foul, crooked, corrupt bastard since he first held an office.
Deletejuvat - Speaking truth to power.
DeleteOur newest friends on the block should be encouraged to gather with their new-found wealth of stuff they can't clean, at Bagrahm (?) Air Base. Then frag the SH=T out of it with A-10's. Also I have no problem with introducing Agent Orange as a plant enhancement medium in all of the poppy fields. Collateral be whatevered.
DeleteNot working on coffee at this late hour on a Thursday in Ormond-by-the-Sea.
As they say "Stronger letter to follow".
Sounds good to me!
DeleteWow, when you don't hold back you don't hold back.
ReplyDeleteGetting out of Assgoneistan was a needful thing. The special forces portion of the war, at the beginning, was a goodly and just thing. The Endless War Big Army portion, not so much.
But the US screwed up and did the withdrawal wrong. We should not have left before any US citizen that wasn't a turncoat (and any of those we could get our hands on) were out of the country. The cowardly, crappy, shoddy, lousy, shiftless and outright evil way we left was wrong.
What is sad is that even aAfter all the things that Team Hiden have done there are many of 'his' supporters who still openly support 'him' and think 'he' is doing a better job than Trump.
Because, let's see, reduced regulations, energy independence, stopping major war in the muddled East, moving our embassy to Jerusalem (even though Congress voted to do that 30 years ago)(worst Hitler EVER!,) record low unemployment, record low inflation, record revenues generated by tariffs and taxes (even though income taxes were lowered,) all during 4 years of OrangeManBad. Oh, record low gas prices (especially in comparison to inflation numbers) and, geez, um, can we have the mean tweeter back?
I actually liked the mean tweets, entertaining as Hell.
DeleteThe current nitwit, not so much.
If you read nothing else today, Read THIS https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/09/how_to_tell_what_the_government_fears_most.html
ReplyDeleteJust as an FYI, I didn't intend that to be formatted that way, Beans.
DeleteBlogger does odd things. At least it didn't lose the comment like it usually does.
DeleteAnd, God, kids today have it so danged easy. I remember in typing class having to count words in a line, and then space, very carefully, each line to do what Blogger did accidentally. What a pain. So glad to never have to do that right now (though, with the way things are going, manual typewriters may be making a comeback...)
As to Coolidge, probably one of the top 5 best presidents ever. And the #1 best president nobody's ever heard about, especially in these fallen times. But he's not progressive like Woodrow Wilson (who never saw a black man he didn't hate, or FDR who never saw a rich, self-made man he didn't like, or Three-Letter-Guy-From-Texas (hwaack-spit.)...)
DeleteOh, you mean the guy that's buried about 20 miles east of here? The one, that every time I drive past his grave, I indicate with my non-driving hand and one finger extended exactly how I rank him in my book, That One?
DeleteYup.
DeleteSince the heart of al Queda was from Afghanistan, should we have just ignored it? OTOH 20 years in there "nation building" didn't do a thing. And it was shameful in the manner we left. There was an interesting link someone left on the Facebook page.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.sarahchayes.org/post/the-ides-of-august
For those who want the Cliff Notes, it was a corrupt government that was alienated from most of the people.
Then I was thinking of Vietnam. How the Presidents changed in coups like musical chairs We never learned the lesson.
I have a good friend, whose politics I don't always agree, but said that we should go into these places, lay waste to them, and .....leave. No doubt the MSM would whine about the inhumanity but still...
Lex's spirit is always there with me when I am at Shakespeare's too. There is a waitress there of many years, who told me where his favorite table was.
You can't tell me that certain intel sources didn't know where Osama Bin was during most any time of the war. Very suspicious the kill order got given when someone was sucking in the polls. Highly suspicious that they couldn't find him for 11 years and then, suddenly, blam, he dead.
DeleteAnd who was it that leaked what SEAL team whacked OBL? That would be, as Big Country Expat named him, Tater Jo himself.
Unknown - Get in there, destroy Al Qaeda, then leave. Roger that, nation building doesn't work.
DeleteBeans - No?
DeleteEffing MSM couldn't investigate and report on anything, let alone its masters in the (D)umbass party.
Unknown - Get in there, destroy Al Qaeda, then leave. Roger that, nation building doesn't work.
DeleteCan't disagree with any of that Sarge.
Bill
Copy.
Deletejuvat&OAFS/ TRUST ME ON THIS, I have NEVER underestimated the power of either *BOTH* and/or *AND*. :)
ReplyDelete👍
DeleteI can remember participating in some team building exercises down there in the early sixties. I don’t remember the names of the places we held them, though.
ReplyDeleteI have my opinion on the involvement in Afghanistan, and the Middle East.
I’ll keep it to myself, but I see no severe conflict of ideas.
Well said.
DeleteFor some reason I thought Tuna moved to Oregon.
ReplyDeleteBill
No, he's still in Sandy Eggo.
DeleteYep, lots of family up in Oregon, but I'm solidly a San Diegan again. I don't like to call myself a Californian, but that's due to politics.
DeleteWho can blame you?
DeleteWhile I somewhat agree that we should leave, that's only because we weren't making any headway there. Then again, that's an emotional vice tactical theory. If we were to leave, it should have been a very slow and steady drawdown. Get the civilians out first, reach out to ExPats those that helped us, move them slowly. And definitely not drawdown with a public announcement like it was. If the Taliban gets out of line, we go in a schwack them.
ReplyDeleteThen again, I don't see why we need to leave with absolutely zero forces on the ground. We're still in Germany, Korea, Japan. Why not Afghanistan? Why not a small reactionary security force? The way we left, we destroyed our reputation, and left our allies to the hands of madmen. We left without honor, putting the sacrifice of 2400 dead and 2000 casualties without much meaning. They kept us safe here, but we used the Afghanis. We also didn't prosecute the war very well- we should have hit their banking and every website used to recruit them, bombing media locations and other centers of gravity.
But Tuna, that would make too much sense, what would the Media say? /snarc
DeleteSo nice to see the correct, in context, use of the word "neh". I have used since Itazuke AB (left in '64). My wife, dear Miss Jeanie, uses it as well. Depending on the inflection, it communicates so many thoughts.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite words in any language.
Delete