The End of Palestine

It is time for Israel (and the rest of the world) to admit that any attempt at reconciling relations with Israelis and Palestinians is hopeless. The only things Israel has gotten for its leniency in allowing the disputed areas to have home rule is rockets fired from them into Israeli towns. Enough. The course should be obvious to all involved: Israel needs to provide government to the West Bank and Gaza. It will not make any nation hate Israel more to take over the running of these two regions. The occupants have proved themselves incapable of running them and the support from Palestine-sympathetic countries is running out. Neighbors like Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt no longer offer much hope to Palestinians and while Syria would love to poke a sharp stick at Israel using Palestinians as the sharp stick, they aren't offering much in the way of support any longer themselves. Palestinians have run out of friends.

The people who call themselves Palestinian refugees only need to remember that it was their fellow Arabs who told them to pack up and leave after Israel declared its existence. It wasn't the Israelis who moved them out. The war didn't go the way the Arab nations thought it would and it was these same Palestinians who suffered the loss of home as a result. Now they need to make a decision - stay where they are or immigrate to another Arab country. If they remain they should be content to accept minority status in Israel because that is the only way these areas are ever going to achieve decent government. Those who choose not to become Israeli citizens will need to move.

At the same time, Israel needs to encourage new settlements in both the West Bank and Gaza until the areas are a seamless whole with current Israeli borders.

As an outsider to this conflict I can be unemotional about it, not favoring either side except pragmatically. For the sake of those yet to be born the issue has to be solved and this is the only way it is at all likely to be settled.

Our New Book
Mood:  energetic

Members of the Secret Scurvy Dog Society, including yours truly, have published a book of short accounts of life aboard U.S. Navy destroyers. The book is called Scurvy Dogs, Green Water and Gunsmoke: Fifty Years in U.S. Navy Destroyers. It is a two-volume work of 18 destroyer veterans, many of whom have had stories published in The Tin Can Sailor newspaper. These two books are filled with stories from the experiences of these men.
All profits from the sales of this book will go to benefit Navy-Marine Corps Relief and is available from Tin Can Sailors, Inc. (www.destroyers.org), Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble's website. All profits from the books are being donated to Navy-Marine Corps Relief. Here is an example of the things other writers have said about the books:

 

"Deck apes, snipes, and powder monkeys alike will just eat up these evocative and entertaining tales of life in the United States destroyer fleet. Smartly told, irreverent and fun, SCURVY DOGS, GREEN WATER AND GUNSMOKE upholds the honor of the surface navy and captures the big-hearted spirit of the tin can sailor from every generation. This book belongs on every navy man's shelf." -- James D. Hornfischer, author of SHIP OF GHOSTS and THE LAST STAND OF THE TIN CAN SAILORS. 

 

 

Lloyd Bentsen
Topic: A True Statesman
The loss of former Treasury Secretary and U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen this morning is sad but we can celebrate his life with much respect regardless of which side of the aisle we typically inhabit. Lloyd Bentsen was a Democrat, true, but those of us who are Republicans respected and even admired the fairness and above-board way in which he operated while representing the Lone Star State. He was, first and foremost, a Texan and Texas and her people were always at the top of his agenda. I was not able to meet Bentsen though his office did provide my family and I with tickets to various Washington, D.C. area tours when we visited the capital during a vacation some years ago. I was always grateful to his staff for that courtesy. Bentsen was a tough campaigner but he kept things clean. The harshest rebuke I ever heard him utter was to Dan Quayle during their Vice Presidential debate in the 1988 election when he said, "I knew Jack Kennedy and you're no Jack Kennedy." Yes, it was a bit theatrical but effective. Bentsen was much like former Texas governor John Connally in being a conservative Democrat except that Connally switched to the GOP while the slightly more moderate Bentsen attempted to keep the Democrats more toward the center. Bentsen had amassed a fortune and could have spent his life in the pursuit of more but he felt the need to serve the people of Texas and of America. He did that extremely well and he will be missed.

Making Nice with Iran
Now Playing: What is the Farsi phrase for "glows in the dark?"
It is obvious that we have moved beyond the point where "Something should be done about Iran" to "Something will be done about Iran." It remains to be seen whether the United States does it unilaterally, as part of a multinational coalition, or we just get out of Israel's way. Israeli patience must be wearing thin about now, what with Hamas publicly condoning bombings in Israel and the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling for Israel's destruction. Can he really be so obtuse that he believes Israel won't crush Iran in short order? Tell me one Middle East foe that has successfully stood up to the Israeli military at any time since 1946. I wouldn't want them mad at me. Would Israel use their atomic weapons against Iran? I doubt it. They don't need to plus they would no doubt want to keep that threat in reserve. Their use would be widely condemned and might cause a shift in the precarious balance of world attitudes against them even further. Hamas is underwritten by Iran. I believe that Iran wants Israel to be preoccupied with Palestinian issues in the hope that Iranian uranium enrichment will not be attacked by Israeli jets. Iran could not stop attacks from Israel. In fact, they could barely defend themselves from anyone. Without outside aid the Iranians do not have the war materials to fight even a defensive campaign at present. This despite a cash reserve in excess of $40 Billion, according to the CIA World Factbook, and probably higher given petroleum prices at present. The Iranians do know oil and they are good at marketing it. Their problem is that they have little infrastructure of other industry, having relied on purchases from military powers for their hardware and training. Their populace seems educated but in reality they have 40% in poverty and these are not educated people. They can't be readily converted into a military equipment manufacturing force and even if they could, such a move would be seen on the world stage as preparatory to war. Israel has already demonstrated their unwillingness to tolerate true strategic advantage of an enemy. Russia and China say they are not ready to impose sanctions on Iran so no United Nations action should be expected in the near term. Europe does not shy from a confrontation with Iran as they did with Iraq, especially France. The French are tiring quickly of the attitudes of their own Muslim immigrants and population. I think the U.S. can expect support from most of Western Europe for a change. Whether that support would continue into hostilities remains to be seen but Europe cannot easily tolerate a nuclear Iran. This is going to be reaching crisis status all too soon and we need to be prepared for consequences of actions taken by others that we can't control. Our intel services need to have Jimmy Carter's bindings permanently removed from their hands so that they can do their jobs. More later.

Slim Pickins and I don't mean the actor
Mood:  mischievious
Topic: Gubernatorial Election
I am so disappointed in this year's field of candidates for the governor's office. Let's take a look, shall we?

Larry Kilgore, a 41-year old consultant. Consultant? Consulting in what? I don't know. The GOP website doesn't say. A lot of people call themselves consultants because they can't find a real job but there are real consultants so we'll let that pass and give Mr. Kilgore the benefit of the doubt. I still don't know anything about him and the primary is already in early voting. Guess not.

Star Locke is a rancher and builder. That's good so far. I visited his website at www.starovertexas.com and it seems that Mr. Locke is opposed to a lot of things and is fond of our flag but I didn't see much there about what he would do as governor. Guess not him either.

Rhett R. Smith. Now there is a Texas-sounding name if I ever hear one. However, one brief visit to his website at www.rhettsmithforgovernor.com told me all I needed to know. He calls the cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad "outrageous satirical cartoons" and "'hate' speech" which leads me to believe that he has either never seen them himself or that he wets a finger to see which way the political winds are blowing. Nope, won't do.

Rick Perry. What can I say of an incumbent who let several special sessions of the legislature get past him without showing an ounce of backbone or leadership? We still don't have school finance reform so he is apparently willing to let the courts do what he and the legislature should have done. No. Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don't but in Rick Perry's case I'll take my chances with the unknown.

Carole Keeton Strayhorn. This one, tough grandma was a favorite of mine for many years, even before she ran for Comptroller. At a GOP dinner some years back I suggested to her that she consider a run for governor. Her comment to me was, "Really?" Carole, I meant as a Republican! If you haven't got what it takes to challenge Rick Perry in the primary then maybe you aren't ready to sit at the grownups table after all.

On the Democrat side we have Chris Bell up first. He is an environmental lawyer who has been endorsed by Howard Dean. Need I say more?

Bob Gammage actually has an impressive array of positions held. Then all of a sudden he dropped out of sight for more than ten years and popped up in Austin. Not bad but a little left of center for me. Guess not.

Rashad Jafer makes more promises than anyone else in the race from any party (or lack of party affiliation) with his "In four years Texas" will have this that and the other thing. Apparently Jafer can work those miracles that have eluded every other politician in the State's history. He does take the trouble to tell us how he plans to walk on political water but I lost interest before I got through more than a few paragraphs. He seems to have forgotten that he needs for the Texas legislature to actually do all the things he wants to do and even if the Democrats take back the legislature, which I sincerely doubt will happen, most of them are not going to agree with what he wants to do anyway. Keep your day job, Mr. Jafer.

Well, that leaves us with Kinky Friedman. His platform? "Texas politics stinks." Maybe I need to take another look at this "Jewish cowboy," as he calls himself because like he says, "Why the hell not?" It's a poor reason to vote for someone but it's better than no reason at all.

The Great Danes
Topic: Forced Censorship
I've been remiss, I know, in posting to this blog and even though there have been things that have irked me to the point of response I have held off. Now something has gotten itself under my skin to the point where I can't let it go without comment. This insane, almost apoplectic demand that the West censor itself to the desires of Islamic masses has much of Europe in an uproar and frankly I can't see why Americans aren't equally outspoken in our view that no one is going to tell us what we can and can't say. If the leftwing atheists want to portray Jesus in some comic light I will hate it but I won't lift a finger to stop them. I have seen many cartoons of God and laughed at most of them, not because I demean the Creator but because I can worship my God while laughing at caricatures of Him. There is little that is so important that it can't be talked about openly or even mocked provided it is done without slander or falsehood.

These Muslim extremists somehow decided that they have the right and the authority to do violence against the Danes, some of the most peaceful people on the planet, for running cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. I fully understand the reverence in which the faith of Islam reveres their Prophet. I also understand Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, Jainism, and Christianity and I don't like to mock or to denigrate someone else's beliefs. I am a Christian and I don't like to have non-Christians attack my religion, yet that is precisely what these uncivilized mobs are trying to do. They want to do away with Judaism and Christianity much as some of our own ancestors tried to do to their ancestors. Apparently, it is okay for them to say what they will against the religions of the West but no one is allowed to speak about Islam even if we don't say anything bad about the religion itself.
The Islamists are boycotting everything made in Denmark. I say let's all buy everything we can so that if anything, sales of Danish products are higher than ever.
Pass the butter cookies, please.

She's At It Again
Topic: The Dingbats Are Back
What's wrong with this picture? There is so much wrong with it that I hardly know where to start. A leftover hippie smiling stupidly and thrilled by her ability to draw the likes of Jesse Jackson to her roadside hovel is one. The fact that the world's most important clergyman, at least in his opinion, came to Texas at all is odd. I mean, the man lives in Chicago, doesn't he? I've lived in Chicago, too, and it isn't that close to Crawford, Texas. Jesse must have been lost. Next we have the poster in the background that reads "Worst President Ever." Well, as a student of history I could name you quite a few presidents who are deserving of a share of that title but GWB isn't one of them. Then why do the liberals hate him so? Because he won. Because he represents the things that they abhor such as family values, religion, faith in God and self, belief that individuals and groups are more capable than government when it comes to improving their own lot. His belief that the educational system in this country is broken and that the break was caused by the teachers' union and its insistence on seniority above all else, including education. His belief that there are better ways of settling disputes than courts and attorneys. His belief that it is proper to use force to preserve American interests where necessary. And probably the one that really irritates the left the most of all: George W's insistence that America is a great nation and that we don't need to emulate Europe to be great. During the presidential campaign, John Kerry (you remember him, don't you?) accused GWB of costing America its friends. By that he meant France and Germany, neither of which has been particularly friendly to us about anything for years. Well, I want to interject something on behalf of those of us who don't agree with the junior Senator from Massachusetts. France exists because we saved their butts not once but twice. Germany exists because we allowed them to exist after we kicked their butts each time they invaded France. We even defeated the Soviet Union peacefully and tore down the Berlin Wall so that Germany could be reunited. Oh, but France came to our aid during the American Revolution. Yes, that's true if more than two hundred years ago and under a previous French government and we have more than doubly repaid that debt in the last hundred years. And our good friend Germany! Look what all Germany has done for us.... Okay, they gave us good beer and sausages at least, shouldn't that account for something? Yes, it acccounts for some good restaurants in Fredericksburg, Texas and a few other Central Texas towns but if you want to look at what they've done for us in the last half century, well, I don't know what that might be. And finally, Jesse is not the center of attention in the photo and that bothers him greatly. Just look at his face. Is that the face of a happy man? Or is that the face of a man in search of more friendly cameras in a place where a strange woman with a goofy grin hasn't attached herself to his back. So what does Cindy hope to get out of her vigil in Crawford? I don't know and I don't think Cindy does, either but you can bet that it has something to do with cameras being pointed in her direction. If she went back home, the cameras wouldn't follow but in the proximity of the President, she is news. That alone should tell her something.

Bush's Counterattacks Heat Up
Topic: What is it with liberals?
Normally, Congressman John Murtha (D-PA) is as staunch a supporter of the military as they come. The ex-Marine Vietnam veteran is highly respected on the right side of the aisle but now he comes up with a pet theory that defies logic. He says Americans are siding with him against the war in Iraq. I'm sorry, but what Americans are those? The ones I know who discuss the war would like to see the troops come home, too, but not while they still have a job to do. To pull them out early is the absolute worst thing possible. Al Qaeda attacked us because they believed America didn't have the stomach for war, that we would pull out and run as they believe we did in Vietnam, Somalia, Lebanon, and Bosnia. Prove them right and they'll leave us alone, is that it Congressman? I thought we knew you better than that. People need to understand that it no longer matters whether we went to war in Iraq for the right reasons. The simple facts are that Congress, Democrats and Republicans, had the same basic intelligence on which to base their decisions concerning Iraq and they came to the same conclusions. Well, except for John Kerry who voted for it before he voted against it but since it's just possible that a run for the presidency was on his mind and he just might have had political reasons for the reversal. Critics say that the White House had more access to intelligence than the Congress. A friend in Mukilteo, Washington has a favorite blanket statement that he would use here but that I won't repeat that would adequately express what I think of that. Of course the White House had access to more intelligence but why is it we are expected to believe that the White House's intelligence sources were saying anything different from what the ones briefing both branches of government were saying? If we have sources who tell us what we want to hear rather than what they determine from the facts in evidence we are going to have a lot more problems than are going on in the Middle East right now. If we can do no better than that I suggest we close up shop and buy all our intel from Israel. They are better at it than anyone else, anyway, but their very survival depends on how good they are at intel. But back to Rep. Murtha. He says that Americans were opposed to the war before he said it yet he doesn't cite any indications of support for caving in and running that I can see. Was I missing something in what he said? Was there evidence of uprisings like Chicago in 1968? No, there are polls taken at a time when the Democrats are taking potshots at Bush and he was trying to take the high road and not comment. Congressman, wait until the GOP has a chance to answer volley for volley and then see whether Americans are ready to cut and run and hope that a pair of oceans will keep the wolves at bay. If after that the majority of Americans think as you and Michael Moore then maybe Jimmy Carter was right. Maybe America is no longer a great nation. Maybe we should take a backseat like some has-been European imperial power and leave the future of the world to the Islamist fanatics. But if America is not around to stand up to terrorists, those left alive in this country after the jihad takes over had better prepare for one helluva culture shock.

Iraq Is Not Vietnam - Comprehend?
Topic: Tired of the Liberal Slan
In May of 1961, President John F. Kennedy sent 400 Green Beret troops to Vietnam to train the Vietnamese military. By the time of the end of the war in 1973, some 58,249 soldiers and sailors had died. Their names are engraved on The Wall in Washington, D.C. In August of 1972 the last American combat troops left Vietnam. That means that in 11 years and 3 months, an average of 5,178 Americans died each year of the war. Since few casualties were massing until after President Johnson’s 1964 buildup, a more realistic picture would be to account for most of those killed in action during the last eight years of the war. Assuming that 55,000 died during that period, and the number is almost certainly higher, the average per year was 6,875. Compare the numbers and it is easy to see that the comparisons to Vietnam foisted on us by the left simply does not hold up. There are at least two valid comparisons, however. Jane Fonda was then and still is a traitor and Cindy Sheehan hasn’t matured a day since her anti-Vietnam War protest days. In purely financial terms, according to an article in January of 2005 in the New York Daily News World and National Report (Jan. 26, 2005) the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were projected to cost $300 Billion compared to the cost of the Vietnam War expressed in today’s dollars of $623 Billion. While those numbers will no doubt rise with continuing efforts to combat terrorists in those two countries, it is clear that there is nowhere near the level of activity in two campaigns in the Middle East that there was in Vietnam. In Vietnam there were two Allies if you discount the South Korean efforts that were totally funded by the United States. Only Australia and New Zealand provided military assistance. In Operation Iraqi Freedom alone there were more than 30 nations involved in the effort and that doesn’t include Afghanistan. So, since there is no basis for comparison in terms of casualties, expense, duration, or number of countries involved I have to ask: Why do liberals insist on making a comparison?

People, Get A Life!
Now Playing: The DeSoto School Officials as the 3 Stooges
Topic: A Rush to Judgment
I can't begin to believe what I just read about the DeSoto, Texas Schools. Three students, one an eleven-year old girl named Destiny Thomas, were suspended for folding paper in the shape of a gun. They were given suspensions and 30 days in an alternate school for the action. For folding some paper??? This is much akin to the boot second lieutenant syndrome: "I understand your problem Sergeant but it says right here in the book...." Who, in their wildest imagination could construe some paper, folded by a fifth or sixth grader to be either of the banned items, "weapons or replicas?" Does that mean if a child carries a photo of a car to school or pretends on the playground to be driving a car that he is guilty of driving without a license? In our fear of lawsuits have we lost our collective minds? There are obviously actions and individuals who should be immune from frivolous lawsuits and faculty and school board members are close to the top of that list but as long as the Trial Lawyers Association continues to hold sway over government there will be no chance of that. They want the ability to sue anyone, anywhere, for any reason. We used to live in a small town where it was said, the town was too small to have enough work for one lawyer, but that it would have more than enough work for two. Obviously, I'm being unfair to attorneys but the fault does lie with the fact that we are an overly litigious society. If the plaintiff in lawsuits received just rewards for damages and none whatever for punitive reasons a lot of this nonsense would cease. Give any punitive damages the jury feels are necessary to the state or to charity, not to the plaintiff or to plaintiff's counsel. They didn't do anything to deserve more than the judgment they got. Most of us don't like it when big corporations make excess profits so why are we eager to see someone take home punitive damages that are over and above any pain or suffering they might have received? We shouldn't and if it weren't for the "sticking it to the big guy" philosophy, we wouldn't like what is going on now, either. But sanity prevailed after all in DeSoto, Texas. The punishments ordered for the kids were dropped when officials actually sat down and read the rules and the interpretation. Personally, I'd be looking at whoever made that interpretation to see if he or she actually hates children. Maybe he or she should look for another line of work, like perhaps being a Prison Guard?