![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Devon had same-day surgery on his right leg today, to release the calf muscle from the sheath. His drumming has given him what is basically a runner’s problem: the heavy use of the muscle causes it to swell against the sheath around it, causing pain. The operation cuts the sheath open; it will heal, but be looser now, hopefully relieving the pressure.
In the meantime, no drumming for a few weeks...
******
It seems to me that King George misses the lesson he should have learned from Vietnam -- never to get involved in a quagmire where you’re going to be fighting an insurgent, guerilla force on their own turf, and where you’re going to be perceived as an occupying force. You can only lose in that situation.
EDITED TO ADD: and then I went and saw![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jrittenhouse's post, and this cartoon says it better...
I find it ironic that Bush would dare to suggest that Vietnam could have been won had we only ‘stayed the course’ considering that he himself avoided active service there.
And I’m desperately tired of the lie “If we don’t fight them there, they’ll follow us home.” First, this is not holding action on a front, keeping forces back from our cities. If they wish to come here, the fact that we’re fighting in Iraq will have absolutely zero deterrent effect. I would also argue that, in fact, the war in Iraq is the greatest recruiting tool al Qaeda has. Rather than decreasing the enemy, it has the opposite effect.
*******
I was reading an article about the "Real ID" system Homeland Security is pushing, which got me thinking about the Cold War era of the sixties in which I grew up. Gee, back then we all hated and loathed the Soviet Union. How could a country eavesdrop and spy upon its own citizens? How could they arrest people for no more reason than simple suspicion, and hold them in prison forever without recourse to a fair trial? How could they convict people without letting them review the evidence against them and refute? My God, how awful that they’d have an internal passport system that didn’t permit its own citizens travel anywhere without first producing this document?
What a terrible Evil Empire they were...
Why are we so scared that we're turning into them?
In the meantime, no drumming for a few weeks...
******
It seems to me that King George misses the lesson he should have learned from Vietnam -- never to get involved in a quagmire where you’re going to be fighting an insurgent, guerilla force on their own turf, and where you’re going to be perceived as an occupying force. You can only lose in that situation.
EDITED TO ADD: and then I went and saw
jrittenhouse's post, and this cartoon says it better...I find it ironic that Bush would dare to suggest that Vietnam could have been won had we only ‘stayed the course’ considering that he himself avoided active service there.
And I’m desperately tired of the lie “If we don’t fight them there, they’ll follow us home.” First, this is not holding action on a front, keeping forces back from our cities. If they wish to come here, the fact that we’re fighting in Iraq will have absolutely zero deterrent effect. I would also argue that, in fact, the war in Iraq is the greatest recruiting tool al Qaeda has. Rather than decreasing the enemy, it has the opposite effect.
*******
I was reading an article about the "Real ID" system Homeland Security is pushing, which got me thinking about the Cold War era of the sixties in which I grew up. Gee, back then we all hated and loathed the Soviet Union. How could a country eavesdrop and spy upon its own citizens? How could they arrest people for no more reason than simple suspicion, and hold them in prison forever without recourse to a fair trial? How could they convict people without letting them review the evidence against them and refute? My God, how awful that they’d have an internal passport system that didn’t permit its own citizens travel anywhere without first producing this document?
What a terrible Evil Empire they were...
Why are we so scared that we're turning into them?