Reactive

Afghanistan grows a lot of nuts
--commenter on Diane Rehm Show 1/16/09
(speaking of pistachios and pecans)

Some roads bring renewal
Some roads hide and wait
Some roads promise everything
And steal your fuel away
--Loose Change, Neil Young

I know just how to fake it,
And I know just how to scheme;
And I don't know how you do it,
Making love out of nothing at all
--Out of Nothing at All, Air Supply

Nothing will come of nothing
--King Lear, Shakespeare
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Ranger likes to think tactically, That is what Rangers do -- we try to break things down into their components, thereby simplifying the planning process. Without planning, there can be no successful execution of operations. Ranger wonders why our leaders often fail to recognize this simple fact.

A unit can attack or defend. They can fall back, retreat, prepare, move to contact, etc. -- but it boils down to attack or defend. Historically, wars are won through offensive action, and soldiers are imbued with the offensive attitude. Ranger was trained as an assault troop with a bayonet on his rifle. The spirit of the bayonet is still the spirit of the infantry.

Is the U.S. in 2009 attacking or defending? And what are we attacking, and what are we defending? Why do we want to do either, literally or figuratively?

The Bailouts are an example. Are these hundreds of billions a defensive or offensive gesture, and should we be attacking or defending?

Assuming it is offensive, what is the next objective? Surely the economic system will not be salvaged by a simple movement forward. What are the long range objectives of any of these economic moves? What happens when the attacks bog down, as surely they must? What happens if they fail?

Attacks are only successful when made in-depth to achieve deep objectives. The bailouts are limited-objective operations. The action is reactive versus planned. Success is patterned upon success, while the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) and bailouts are based upon failures. Failure never forwards a national agenda, even when spun to sound like success.

Look at Hitler's wars: he overextended Germany with unrealistic objectives, requiring the economy and military to perform beyond their capabilities. Add in the psychotic nature of the enterprise and you get something that looks like America's PWOT and bailouts on crack.

Hitler and Napoleon showed you can invade countries, set up quisling governments and impose your ideology on the populace, but they will never love or respect you. One can force compliance, but not respect. This is the first rule of COIN that is not in FM 3-24.

The U.S. is committing the same errors but is too distracted to notice the front is collapsing. Committing reserves to plug the gaps is not a national policy. A complete strategic reevaluation and new mission is required. The sanity of the moment will be shown to be insanity to history.

Neither a nation nor an Army can survive a hostile environment by making short-term, reactive fixes. The PWOT and the bailouts are reactive knee-jerk responses that promise no long-term benefit. Why do our leaders choose untenable objectives.

All of Ranger's military training boils down to this: A commander at any level should never reinforce failure. Only success matters, a goal which should be extended to economic and diplomatic matters. Today's U.S. reinforces failure (Challenger license plate, anyone?)

The Surge in Iraq is a case in point. 30,000 more troops did not return magic. The momentary reduction in troop casualties was the result of tactical changes, as journalist Tom Ricks explains here. Ultimately, the return will be a reinforcement of failure.

In Dec. 1944 Hitler gambled on a strategic offensive to recapture Antwerp resulting in the Battle of the Bulge, an offensive operation that even if successful would not have affected the outcome of the war. Offense is not always the correct maneuver.

In Korea 1950, United Nations forces arrived at the Yalu and the Chosen Reservoir following various successes and advances. But what had passed for offensive success was actually an over-extension of the front, leading to the isolation of forward engaged divisions which lacked depth and reeled when assaulted by Chicom forces. What looks like success is often illusory.

After seven years of war in Afghanistan it is time to separate the illusion from the reality. The fiction is, continuing the battle in Afghanistan is critical to the safety of the U.S.

The bank bailouts are a logical extension of the PWOT. Hurry up, throw valuable resources into a money pit.

The PWOT is attempting to forge viable democratic states out of nothing and the bailouts are attempting to conjure capital out of bad paper. You can't build something out of nothing.

This caveat should be the subtitle of FM 3-24.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

How dreadful!" cried Lord Henry.
"I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable.
There is something unfair about its use.
It is hitting below the intellect."
--The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
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Well, it seems we have come to the apotheosis of Mr. Bush's ownership society in the government's takeover of the banks (Bailout Becomes Buy-In as Feds Move Into Banking.)

Just as likely, we ain't seen nothin' yet. It is odd to have a group called the republicans who claim to champion small government acting so blatantly against their stated position (Signaling a Shift to Europe's Path.) FOX news economists reassure their legions that Paulson and Bernanke are free market economists, yet they fully support the bailouts and nationalizations. Either one is or it isn't; one can't be both.

How can the small government republicans, responsible for the largest budget deficits and largest expansions of government via the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) and the recent bailouts, still say with a straight face they support limited government and will slash our taxes? How can they look at themselves in the mirror each morning?

All of this is saying, "Vote democrat." The question is, "Why is that?" There is no division between the democrats and the republicans, other than their rhetoric, and their words are lies. And the lie is, we are still a democracy.

While most see this latest move as socialism, economist blogger Dark Wraith says it has moved beyond that, into "definitional 'fascism': the fusion of corporate and state sovereignty into a governing coalition."

It all feels like the people are being given a bum rush to judgment.

Paying the Piper

The Aragon was a cock-up, the Yank said.
No artillery, no plans, no timing, no leaders,
everybody running around like rabbits
--from Moment of War, Laurie Lee (1991)

To compare terrorism with an all-encompassing
ideology like communism and fascism is evidence
of profound confusion
--Sen Joseph Biden [D-DE]
(from "Republicans and our Enemies")

Where's your shame
You've left us up to our necks in it
--Changes, David Bowie
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The true-blue cheerleaders of the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) are right about one thing: they do want to destroy our way of life. Except the "they" are members of the National Command Authority to include partisan lawyers justifying the Dr. Jekyll nature of U.S. policy.

Two of the worst of the worst, David Addington and "puling scrivner Yoo" (as beautifully embodied by fellow blogger FDChief here) recently testified before Congress to little fanfare. Two men who should raise the righteous ire of any self-respecting Democratic member of Congress, raised nary a whimper.

What is changing our lives and destroying our freedoms are the actions and inactions of our elected leaders. Our lives are being diminished by federal operating deficits in excess of $500 billion per year, the punishing costs of elective phony wars, the skyrocketing price of oil and gas and all that devolves from that and the price of everything rises due to the devaluation of the dollar, the inevitable result of a broken consumer economy. One figure guaranteed not to rise anytime soon is the average paycheck or subsidy allowance.

The threat to the U.S. is not posed by terrorists. The threat is posed by willful ignorance by all players of the ugly issues facing our boy-in-the-bubble societal mindset, or as Steve Pearlstein in WaPo called it, our "mirage economy." Forget Iraq and Afghanistan -- who will pay the piper when the jig is up?

Those regions will both survive without our beneficence. They function as costly distraction, much as the pathologized member of a triangulation functions in a family system. The war hawks can project and focus the ire of a population on The Other for a time, but eventually, when the floor drops out from beneath them the citizens will notice.

Most still accept the long war paradigm vis-a-vis current conflicts, but an even bigger problem is that our national planners are anticipating future wars of the same nature. Even usually lucid Senators Joseph Biden and Richard Lugar of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee say we need "a new national security act," that gives the U.S. a diplomatic and civil administrative strike force capacity, ready to move into "Iraq-type conflicts as the military is to cope with hostile forces" (Foreign Policy's Best Hope.)

The U.S. must focus on the welfare and survivability of our nation before spending irreplaceable deficit dollars on pipe dreams.

Viewed another way, don't invasions and forced regime changes mean we hate them and want to take away their freedoms and change their way of life? U.S. policy does to them what Bush says they want to do to us. "I know you are, but what am I?" Does this make adult sense?

Such a sham; such a shame. Our combat might enable elections in theatre, but without any meaningful democratic features. Theirs is a government of flunkies, minus country or national consensus or identity. Maybe that is why our confederacy of dunces declare all is going well -- it is a case of narcissistic identification.

Our armies are fomenting hatred and embitterment that cannot be quelled with palletized greenbacks or ballot box props.

Triage, Homestyle

There's something screwy around here
--Elmer Fudd
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We here at Ranger are not survivalists, but some people who are better-qualified to be economic cassandras are sure sounding like them.

Marketwatch.com has recently offered several pieces on coupon-clipping, keeping in mind that these are readers for whom coupons usually mean interest on their securities. Their audience is not largely composed of food stamp recipients -- those who have about $100 to spend at their grocer each month.

Next we saw a review for the book, Patients Beyond Borders: Everybody's Guide to Affordable, World-class Medical Tourism, described as "the first comprehensive guide for Americans facing long-term financial insecurity due to challenging medical conditions." The name riffs on Doctors Without Borders [Medicins Sans Frontieres], the group that provides urgent medical care abroad to victims of war and disaster.

Medical tourism used to be for the privileged. The plastic surgery trip to Mexico or South America was a popular jaunt, as the participant came back glowing and looking so much better without having to 'fess up to the actual work done. Ditto cosmetic dentistry. But these were discretionary expenses, not medical necessities. This author speaks to those who must travel for needed care.

The New York Times ran a piece some months ago about a medical charity caravan of health care professional which tours the West Virginia countryside once a moth, providing urgent medical care to residents who would otherwise go unserved. They could not treat all with need, and had to turn away many patients each time.

This is back in the U.S.A., where it seems we are ripe for our own version of Doctors Without Borders. Meanwhile, billions of dollars are sunk into a desert folly, which creates more patients daily to be tended, or not, by our already stressed health care system.

That ain't right, to quote one of our presidential candidates.

Looking through some old milblogs this morning, which are often so eloquent and direct, and found the following soldier's statement:

We are an isolationist, myopic country with tremendous arrogance and a complete misunderstanding of the depth of what we are involved in. We are not global citizens, but we are global consumers. The fact is that we do actually look down on the rest of the world. The rest of the world gazes back at us in amazement, wondering what in the hell we are thinking about to feel so self-righteous (billandbobsadventure, 12/17/07).

It's probably not our health care system.

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Contribute to the Story Project.

You don't have to be a veteran, or a citizen --
just someone with a perspective on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Say who you are, what you think
and why you think it, here:

Drowning

I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning
--Not Waving But Drowning, Stevie Smith

Why don't they make some kinda new law

That stops making a religion out of war?
--Far Far, M.I.A

Stupidity got us into this mess,
and stupidity will get us out
--Homer, The Simpsons

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The wars and the economy are inextricably linked key concerns for the U.S., yet none of the presidential hopefuls draw the parallels: the failures are two sides of the same coin. Both must be dealt with concomitantly or the country will not pull out of its nosedive.

"In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the "burn" rate of its earliest years, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and co-author Linda J. Bilmes report in a new book.

"Beyond 2008, working with "best-case" and "realistic-moderate" scenarios, they project the Iraq and Afghan wars, including long-term U.S. military occupations of those countries, will cost the U.S. budget between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion — or more — by 2017 (Iraq Costs $12 B Per Month.)"

Historically, all wars have been financed with deficit spending. But that was then; this is now. The U.S. is no longer facing an expansive future. Now is a crucial moment of reevaluation and realignment for this nation.

From oil to the dollar to trade deficits, to mortgage concerns and private and public debt --all are immediate problems demanding answers. The leaders so far have chosen the route of ignoring the problem, or denial. George W. Bush takes his cues from Martha Stewart and simply chooses to call all bad things, good things. It is not rational nor reasonable, but it is unassailable for that reason.

The wakeup call is coming, whether our leadership decides to get real anytime soon or not. You don't have to call the concierge on this one.

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Dave C. Johnson: Ranger requests you make contact via personal email. We would like to recognize you as a friend and bring you into the wire. We appreciate your advocacy. All personal email remains as such --Ranger

Not Feeling Too Irie Myself

If the human race wishes to have a prolonged
and indefinite period of material prosperity,
they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way
toward one another.
--Winston Churchill
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USA Today reports a record one million homes in foreclosure, with another 3 million behind in mortgages in the fourth quarter, a trend which will continue through '08 according to the Mortgage Bankers Association Thursday (Record: 1 Million Homes in Foreclosure.) As Real Estate Forum understatedly said in their February issue, all of this "leaves industry executives in a rather dour mood." It doesn't do much for the foreclosed upon homeowners, either.

"Nearly 3 million homeowners, 6.3%, were behind on their mortgages in the fourth quarter of last year, and more than 1 million more borrowers -- a record 2% of all loans -- were in foreclosure. The key drivers of the increase were in California and Florida, which together accounted for about 30% of the new foreclosures."

That is the news from the homeland. Soon perhaps they can truncate the cumbersome "Homeland Security" to just "Land Security" when all of the homes are gone.

On a brighter note, excess money earned by drug lords there is fueling a real estate boom in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Whose good fortune was brought courtesy of homeowners in the U.S.A. who are losing theirs.

You gotta ask yourself a question: "Who is winning the War on Drugs"? Ditto the War on Terror.

Does it really matter to you if your home is being foreclosed upon?