Maggie's Farm

O/T Climate change...a great article ...do I keep my flip flops or buy mukluks?

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/comment/story.html?id=597d0677-2a05-47b4-b34f-b84068db11f4&p=4

O/t again...New Gallup data show confidence in Congress at all time low
Just 14% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress.
14%..doesn't that make the President, in the eyes of the people , more than twice as inspiring of confidence?

If yoy were smart and shorted Congress a few months back you've made a fortune.

More O/T Specific random thoughts;

As a sixteen year old I watched Marines Corps Aviation in 1964 transition from it's top line fighter the F8U Crusader to the newer F4U Phantom. Both were remarkable aircraft.

I also watched my mother and the base chaplain visit six or seven quarters at Laurel Bay, SC to inform the women there that they were now widows. 1964, early in the war, yet to Marines it was a hot war with real losses. Most of the Marine Corps leadership had fought in WWII and Korea, so they knew war. They didn't know diplomacy, just the arts and skills of a warrior. Vietnam began to change that as the malignancy of the Korean cease fire began to spread into the politico-military operational doctrine. Outright victory, Douglas MacArthurs words, "There is no substitute for victory" became just meaningless.

The various high level war colleges that senior Colonels and newly minted Brigadier Generals attend cirriculums changed to incorporate this new no win doctrine. Hearts and minds, not pincer movements and flanking of armies became the emphasis. After all we had MAD for the BIG ONE and all other wars would be by proxy, thus needing the skilled diplomat-warrior, not the fighting-killer

We now see with crystal clarity the smooth talking general at the new conference talking of rebuilding schools, marketplaces and the like. Never a "no comment" on ongoing operations because the ongoing operations aren't going on with relentless aggression, just sporatic thrusts with blood tipped names like "Operation Arrowhead Ripper", which to date has probably expended several millions of dollars to kill a score of the enemy.

Just as the F8U Crusader was known as "The Last Gunfighter" and the F8U Phantom intitially became known as a limited capability aircraft, and thus "Top Gun" was born, changes are drastically needed. We need to get our generals off the TV screen, out of war colleges that teach diplomacy not fighting skills and we need an larger contingent in the armed forces that actually meet the enemy. Most in the services support people, not warriors who actually fight. In Vietnam it was something on the order of 35% that actually faced the enemy.

If we don't make these changes then more wives and chaplains will continue to make the long painful walk to the widows door.