Sunday, August 30, 2009

Good Friend, John Barrows, Shares His Thoughts on Cooking

My good buddy, friend and mentor, John Barrows, was interviewed recently in a local newspapaper here in Oregon. Here's the link.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Why we must re-focus our efforts in Afghanistan. Or, why bother with protecting voters in small far-flung villages?

If widespread media reports are even marginally accurate, U.S. efforts to root out terrorist activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan are apparently not working well. More ominous, these efforts are not likely to end well for our soldiers unless we gain some focus - and fast. Protecting handfuls of voters in far flung provincial villages seems like an enormous waste of money and time. Our young soldiers deserve better than to lose their lives in places that are not even on maps.

Our stated government policy is focused on activities designed to disrupt or destroy terrorist activity. Yet, we don't have enough resources to achieve that ambitious goal. Hell, we can't even control the Mexican drug trade in our own country, so how do we think we can control the same kinds of activities in a country half a planet away? Mexican drug lords are simply trying to get and keep us all high. Afghan drug lords on the other hand, protected by their terrorist brethren, are trying to get and keep us high AND kill us at the same time.

If Mexican drug cartels wanted to support democratic rights in territories under their control, would we soften our position to them? No chance. Not so in Afghanistan where we are seeking to join hands with "moderates" in the Taliban political structure. People. Please. We have lost our minds. And soon, if we don't get some common sense working here, we are going to find the rest of our bodies in plastic travel bags.

For example...

I'd like to believe that we can use a few thousand Marines to win the hearts and minds of people living in deserts. But, that's naive. More than that, it's stupid and arrogant to think we can change them. People who live in deserts don't apparently want our assistance -- or anyone's assistance for that matter. If they wanted a better life, they would not be living in a desert. What the hell are we doing trying to help people who believe cultural destitution is their birthright? And yet, we literally "soldier on" in a half-baked and dangerous mission to protect their right to vote?

They've already voted -- with their feet! They don't apparently want to be part of the solution. They don't want to be part of the problem either. In short, they just don't want to be a part of anything. So, let's move on. Let's focus on getting the really bad guys and leave people in the nether regions of Helmand Province, etc., the hell alone (or alone in hell?)

This past week I drove from Edmonton, Alberta, through to Portland, Oregon. It was a long drive. About 1,000 miles. Along the way I passed through many small towns hanging on to the bitter edge of far away economic centers like Edmonton. I stopped for gas and food in several of these places and while no one struck me as a facile student of quantum physics, they seemed happy. And that's my point. They are happy living away from what the rest of the world considers civilization. They enjoy being left alone and I can damn near guarantee you if you asked them if they liked government -- in any form - the answer would be an emphatic, Hell no!

Should we think it any different in Afghanistan or Northern Pakistan? Imagine a group of armed Marines rolling in to your small burg, setting up check points, pointing dangerous weapons at your cars and explaining all the while that they were there to protect your right to vote. It's laughable in the extreme. In fact, I simply can't go on.

We must get back to focus on killing as many at the Taliban and their Al Qaeda friends as possible and stop this folly that we can convert vast amounts of nothingness into an Americanized somethingness. Otherwise, we will be sent packing just like the Turks, the Brits, the Persians, the Greeks and the other powers before us. Maybe we should take a vote first.