Archive for July 23rd, 2006

Book Review: “Around the World with the US Navy”

July 23rd, 2006 by xformed

Around the World with the US Navy

After reading “No Higher Honor,” I found Brad Peniston had written another book, “Around the World with the US Navy.”

Published in 1999, the book is a travelog of just about every Navy community, short the SEABEES and the SEALS. Brad spent about 2 years covering the story, with a period in the summer of 1998 where he and his crew spend about 2 months observing the world of Navy units, traveling between Navy commands, ashore, afloat and in the air. The meat of the book are the statements made of the sailors and officers in a Navy that was seeing the shortages that came as a result of the rapid drawdowns when it was clear the Cold War had ended.

The beauty of this read is the straight forward, no nonsense descriptions of life in the Navy, with Brad’s added talent to paint a word picture of the living envirnment, physically and emotionally. from boot Seamen to senior admirals, Brad captured wonderfully illuminating insights, as well as the detail of life at sea, in the air, or under the waves.

I recognized several names of former ship and schoolmates, and found out some of the performance of Admiral Boorda’s Smart Ship Program, which I managed to sit in a meeting to get my command a seat at the table in the very beginnings of the USS YORKTOWN’s recreation.

Even with my interaction with some of the communities mentioned, which included the Special Boat Units and the VR Naval Air Logistics Operations (NALO) units, I gained a greater understanding of some of the non-Surface Warfare related communities.

Maybe it’s time for Book II of the series, with Brad and his photgraphers heading out again to sample the fleet in the wake of the major strikes conducted in support of OIF and OEF.

If you would like to get a detailed glimpse of what it’s like to be a sialor maintianing a carrier’s arresting gear, on being on a Visit Boarding & Search crew, or life beneatht he waves as you sit in the control room and dive the “boat” upon clearing the shallow water, or if you always wondered what a P-3C Orion crew did, thinking they were just there for the per diem check, this is the book for you.

From a historical perspective, it’s a documentary of the strains on the manpower of the Navy during some difficult years and worth hearing what real operators had to say about the work they did to keep things going.

Maybe you’ll find some of your old shipmates in there, too.

Category: Book Reports, History, Military, Military History, Navy | Comments Off on Book Review: “Around the World with the US Navy”

Senator Rick Santorum Discusses the War

July 23rd, 2006 by xformed

H/T to Chapomatic again. He links to Tigerhawks’ blog, where the entire speech made by Senator Santorum (R-PA) lays out what this war is all about.

Like most Americans we are more concerned about the future of our country. Now most of you would expect me to now launch into my often written about rants about the culture, the family, and children. Not today. No today the biggest issue facing our children’s future is a war. Not, as so many describe it, the War on Terror. Not the war in Iraq or Afghanistan. But the world war, which at its heart is just like the previous three global struggles.

In those wars we fought against European tyrants and their allies, from the Kaiser to Hitler to Lenin, Stalin, and their heirs. We fought them because we knew that our survival was at stake. The tyrants would never stop attacking us until they had defeated us, or we had defeated them. Our only choices – choices imposed on us, not chosen by us – were either winning or losing, because there was no way out.

We are in the same kind of conflict today. We are not fighting a War on Terror anymore than we fought a war on blitzkrieg in World War II. Terror like blitzkrieg is a tactic used by our enemy, not the enemy itself. We are fighting against Islamic fascists. They attacked us on September 11th because we are the greatest obstacle to their openly declared mission of subjecting the entire world to their fanatical rule. I believe that the threat of Islamic fascism is just as menacing as the threat from German Nazism and Soviet Communism. Now, as then, we face fanatics who will stop at nothing to dominate us. Now, as then, there is no way out; we will either win or lose.

It’s a long read, but it brings clarity to the situation, and in fact, the last week, I have been mulling over the fact that the war being waged against the western world is garbed in a religious wrapping, yet, if a nation and it’s allies would say “We’re going to conquer you!” there would be little ambuiguity in our thoughts as to what that meant to our national survival. In fact, we didn’t have any problem seeing the Communist threat for what it was. Some of my beginnings on this thought process are here.

I’m sure Mohammed didn’t forsee the freedom of religious expression right being written into our Constitution a millenium beyond his life, but, it now causes many to stop and wonder just how can we judge this “religion.” I submit it is not a religion, but more a poitical power, with religious leadership, and unlike anything we have encountered.

Yes, we have seen guerilla warfare and began our own history with it, but the allegiance to the nation came quickly. It isn’t uncommon for Muslim-Americans calling radio talk shows, when questioned as to what they would do in the event of a fatwa declared to bring down the US, for them to either respond with a question back to the host (such as one did Friday afternoon to Michael Meved) as to where their loyalties would be…The Muslims seem to either refuse to answer the question, or they hesitate and never repond in a manner that you would understand a definite postition on their part. I take from their response, they would not take the approach to defend the US.

As Senator Santorum points out, it is many nations, all claiming a state religion of Islam, who all have publically stated they are out for our defeat. This is just like the Axis powers, but the added factor is not just small bands of guerillas conducting sabotage, as did Nazis landed from submarines, but western nations with massive populations of Muslims, who regularly demonstrate against the country of their citizenship. France has about 3M Muslims, as one example. England has many. Each nation, as with ours, have Imams who openly speak about destruction of the very nations they inhabit. During the riots when hundreds of cars were burned, imagine the internal strife if those same people had been supplied with arms and told to rise up against their adopted homelands?

We’re in for a long haul, and education will be a weapon that will serve the world well….

Category: Geo-Political, Political | Comments Off on Senator Rick Santorum Discusses the War

Plato Nailed It a Long Time Ago…

July 23rd, 2006 by xformed

I picked up this link to Mahmood’s Den blog from Chapomatic, who’s broad reach provides many interesting links, and his own excellent commentary and analysis, when he (Chap) gets rolling.

Here is the point, from near the end of Mahmood’s post that I think is particularly notable:

Regarding the deafening Arab silence in condemning Israel, I think it demonstrates several important factors:

[…]

5. Nothing, absolutely nothing demonstrates the tribalism of Arabs more than wars and conflicts, even on a micro level, let alone this “huge” conflict we have on our hands now. These events crystalizes positions – unfortunately – without much thought beyond the family, tribe, sect, country. The brain ceases to function beyond those things, and of course logic has left the building quite a while ago, and if – and that’s a big if – one declares a position slightly out of those drawn and accepted lines, then that person is immediately vilified, attacked verbally and possibly physically, labeled a traitor and a sell-out, and ostracized. A lot of these people who do question accepted norms more often than not answer with their lives.

Violence, you see, is something that is built into our psyche as Arabs, if the situation does not yet demand the use of fists, then at least the floor belongs to that person who shouts loudest. [CSA emphasis added] Most definitely not to that person who is trying to reason and look at alternate points of view to arrive at a conclusive solution.

It is this trait, I think, more than any other that has succeeded for centuries in cowing us, in forcing us to happily accept tyrants, and has allowed us to regress rather than progress. And we really have only ourselves to blame.

One of my friend Mohammed’s conclusions is that this situation will breed more terrorists. Mohammed I agree with you; this will most certainly rub some passions raw and someone will take it upon themselves to “avenge” the Arab honour. After all, Hizballah’s birth was another Israeli incursion into Lebanon, Al-Qa’idah’s birth was the mountains of Afghanistan in response to Soviet intervention, Zarqawi et al is the result of the American insurrection in Iraq, so it is safe to assume that this conflict too will give birth to some more “freedom fighters” who will continue to perpetuate and wreak havoc in the world.

By the same token, and in the continued absence of proper educational systems in the Arab and Muslim worlds [CSA emphasis], one that values critical thinking rather than learning by rote, there is no doubt in my mind, that someone, somewhere, out of 250 millions of my Arab brothers and sisters, and the more than 1.3 billion Muslims around the world, will have read part of this post and have already decided that I too, should be ostracized for my views… Simply for asking the “wrong” questions.

So…what does Plato have to do with this?

“Man, as we say, is a tame and civilized animal; nevertheless, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill educated he is the most savage of earthly creature.” – Plato

I do believe there may be a connection between studying a single set of writings as the sum total of wisdom and the outcome discussed above by Mahmood.

Category: History, Political | Comments Off on Plato Nailed It a Long Time Ago…

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