Circuses, But No Bread for You

  

 im ein kemach ein Torah 
(If there is no bread, there is no Torah, Avot 3:17)

And when I have broken the staff of your bread,
ten women shall bake your bread in one oven,
and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight:
and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied 
--Leviticus 26:26

____________________

I'm back at the hotel where, last week, I was privy to the incessant drone of the news feed in the common room, as unaffected yet relentless as the spiel of the Costco greeter in the film, "Idiocracy" ("Welcome to Costco;  I love you"). In equal measure it consisted of:

--The Cleveland Three: three women held captive for a decade by apparently a lone man, a neatly tied up ball of evil from which was also recently cut the Tsarnaev Bros., Saddam, Moammer and Osama bin Laden (our very own Stalins and Adolfs -- que fabuloso!)

--The guilty verdict of the boyfriend-murderin' Jody Arias, replete with news reports worried about those who had been following the Arias trial on social media for the last year or so, much as they had been transfixed by the Casey Anthony trial before it; there will now be a gap in their lives, it seems

--A limousine erupting into flames on a freeway in California

--An unfortunate woman shot in the head with a spear from her husband's spear gun (How could it have happened! Who could've imagined!)

Today, it is Angelina Jolie's breasts -- same-same, sadly.  Adding to the inanity was the repeat footage of an errant golf ball into a body of water (being as there was a golf tournament going on in Jacksonville, this most average of United State's cities as reported by America's most average paper, USAToday.) The shot seemed to symbolize . . . something.

I was here having my broken wrist set, an injury which was the endpoint of an odd 10 days: telephone knocked out for a week, followed by DSL out in 33 states for days. The IT guy who kindly visited when my computer failed to re-sync yesterday said my lack of connectivity was unique.

Road Warrior of connectivity I remain, typing with one hand when a connection offers itself, and oddly not displeased with my limited access; it is an enforced detachment, but much of what is online really doesn't deserve viewing time. How little of what we are fed is important. Maybe this is divine intervention to allow for some perspective.

Postings will be limited over the following few weeks as my wrist heals; there will be occasional postings. Please feel free to use this space as an open forum and comment as you see fit.

Oh, and a USAToday news flash: the excruciatingly middling Tom Hanks (aka "Everyman") and Sandra Bullock have been named by the most middling paper as the Most Trusted Americans by Middle Americans.

And so it goes.  Good night, and good luck.

Why He Does What He Does

 
And now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams of past glory 
--And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda, 
The Pogues 

He was quick-tempered with a
strange halting way of speaking 
--Seinfeld, Lotus episode
__________________

The answer to the titular question is, neither for love nor money, fame nor fortune. He is not gunning for the ubiquitous "consulting" position. He earns no buckaroos for the project. No -- the origins are to be found in a career with the organization in which he discovered that thinking was not allowed, at least, not aloud.

Ranger was the perennial gadfly, or "pain in the ass", depending upon whom was doing the accounting. It was the same in Vietnam. To questions concerning our function in country he would say, "It is THEIR country, after all ..."  This did not win him acolytes.

Ranger retired as a Terrorism Counteraction (TC/A) training specialist for the Department of the Army, designated a subject matter expert (SME) who, at the time, was one of few who had graduated from every school the Department of Defense ran on the topic of terrorism -- including all Special Forces training and Air Force Training in Low Intensity Conflict (TLIC). He maintained his interest in the topic following retirement, and his analyses at RangerAgainstWar are not based in idle speculation.

While in the field, he also disagreed with the official doctrine that terrorism was a great threat to our national security and one that would affect the operation of our Armed Forces, believing instead that terrorism would be a manageable nuisance were correct protocols emplaced. His view was not popular as the dynamic nature and flashiness of the terror threat provided a great moneymaker for the military.

The news media and the security apparatus of the United States were in collusion selling this fear, and the contractors in three-piece suits with leather attaches selling lesson plans two years out of the Military Police corps were a dime a dozen, their legion whisked through revolving doors.  Fear sells, and the Dod was its pied piper.

RangerAgainstWar's recent piece, "The Boston Massacre", was a down-and-dirty evaluation of the tradecraft usually associated with a well-planned and executed event. Terrorist's must use Old Special Forces tradecraft in order to penetrate the U.S. and operate in any successful manner. Their success indicates our failure at practising these methods which used to be a standard part of SF Officers Training course. (Even CIA operatives came through our course which was based on the old OSS tradecraft.)

Direct action and fancy gadgets have largely supplanted that approach, but that's another story.

Raw Awe

--Even CB2 Knows ...

It's Official: We're Back!

--No more of those shoes apres Labor Day
(Georges Simenon)  

Back in black
I hit the sack
I've been too long
 I'm glad to be back
--Back in Black, AC/DC  

More discipline, less bondage 
-- High Anxiety (1977)
____________________

RAW is cooling down, heating up, and generally getting in the spirit of post-Labor Day.  We are tightening up ship, leaving the languorous 5+ months which constitute a North Florida summer behind. We think the days of 90+ degrees are behind us for a bit, so picture your staff no longer swooning before the oscillating fan, groping for cold beverage.  We are committing to a regular posting schedule once again. Game on!

This a manifesto for our loyal readers by way of a slightly sheepish apology: We have been less-than-steady writers over the last month or so, but we are back and STRAC, or will endeavor to be so.  So please look for the usual 4-5 posts per week, with the occasional homily, occasional contest, and anything else you might like.

Ranger's "Advice for the War Torn and Love Lorn" will return on Friday as an open weekend blotter for your scatter shot. Remember: This is your site -- please join in the fray.

Ranger puts the new-found rigor this way: "No more pussy pieces!"; Lisa stares, aghast.  There will be hard and soft, Yin and Yang.  This will remain a human site.

Should travel interfere with regular posting, we will adhere to a truncated bi-weekly posting (and mean it.)  We will declare so ahead of time, when necessary.

Discipline, discipline, discipline.

Anyway, we're back, baby!

Long Ago and Far Away

I would have given you all of my heart
--The First Cut is the Deepest, Cat Stevens

You're only dancing on this earth
For a short while
And though your dreams may toss
And turn you now
They will vanish away
--Oh, Very Young, Cat Stevens
_________________

It seems like such a long time ago that I was a young trooper signing into CoA, JFK Special Warfare Center. It was 31 Dec 1969 and I was Temporary Duty Assignment (TDY) en-route to the 5^th Special Forces Group, Republic of Vietnam (RVN). The TDY was Special Forces Officer Class.

My Army sojourn was 18 months old at that point, and three months of training were in order prior to my deployment. I volunteered for Special Forces and for RVN service after having served in a line Division in the Federal republic of Germany (FRG) as both a reconnaissance and the 4.2 Mortar Platoon leader.

Since I was an Infantry Officer by choice rather than chance, the duty in Europe was a real eye-opener. After 18 months of Army life it was evident to me that the Army ate its young – both officer and enlisted – and Ranger’s volunteering for SF was motivated by one factor alone: Line Infantry was not conducive to long life.

Of course in those days, neither was SF duty, but the difference was that The Green Machine and its flagpole was further away in SF than it was in the Infantry. After that initial 18 months, SF seemed a more personal environment in which one might jump less obstructedly through the Army hoops (hoop jumping being a requirement for all.)

SF duty lasted from 31 Dec 1969 to 2 Mar 1971, at which time Ranger returned to Continental U.S. (CONUS) duty with the 3^rd Ranger Company at Ft. Benning, which was exactly the epicenter of Infantry thinking.

What did a young Lieutenant learn and was it worth the ride? I learned that the Army would spend shit-buckets full of money to create a combat leader and soldier, with the result being an expendable replacement unit in an assembly-line of violence and death.

The dawning of the realization of this mundane truth still startles me. The reality was accepted so casually then, yet now it seems surreal (remember that I am speaking Infantry, not Combat Support or Combat Special Support).

Ranger was a volunteer for Infantry, the Regular Army, the Airborne, Ranger and SF with a 5^th Group assignment, on a clear trajectory to being another character in a future movie about a war. Yet it was not to be. Death rode a pale horse while we wore the Green Beret, and the fates were playing with my life somewhere beyond my control.

After all of this training, sweat, sprains, twists and misery I was assigned to B-53 / 5^th SF Group – a safer place to inhabit this earth than was growing up in Eastside Cleveland. The gods obviously had a plan for one dumb LT and now I recognize this destiny. I was selected to present the long-term interpretation that you the reader are subjected to daily at RangerAgainstWar.

For this function I did not volunteer but was selected by forces larger than any of us. It has been a long ride and it is my hope that my writings make the journey a bit more comprehensible and less painful to a new generation of soldiers.

Story Project

Hey Ranger readers:

I'm starting a story project, and I am inviting you all to pitch in. If you feel like waxing poetic, or not, tell me why you're doing what you do, and how you feel about these wars.

But don't comment here, write to me personally. It will go on the new blogsite:




Below is the project outline --

"Many people want to speak out about the events in Iraq and Afghanistan, but don't know how. They question the legitimacy of their voice and they do not know if anyone will hear them.

This is your sounding board. You don't need a pedigree to share here -- just a thoughtful, reasoned response to the United State's military actions since 2003. Think of it as your own Town Hall.

I will not be posting, save for making an occasional comment. I hope for many different voices, from many places, stateside and abroad. From the most simple to the eloquent, young and old. Any view is valid and welcome, as long as it is thoughtful and in the spirit of civil dialog.

If you know someone who is not wired, please pass along our address.

The rules are simple:

Say who you are, what you think and why you think it. It can be as short or as long as you wish (up to 500 words.) As personal or as disinterested as you like.

Relevant artwork and poetry are also welcome. Submissions may be edited for grammar and length. If you don't want your name published, use a pseudonym.

We are looking for original content. Your truth. If your piece has been published elsewhere, let us know so that we can make proper attribution.

For your efforts, we offer a free Ranger Against War bumper sticker (below) so you can display your dismay, if you are of a mind to do so. Send a #10 business sized SASE to the address below.




I have a thought to take this to a wider audience and publish it in another format, if it catches on. With that in mind, you would surrender your exclusive copyright to your submissions, so submit with that in mind. If you want your real name used in such an eventuality, but do not want it published on the blog, let me know and I will honor your confidentiality.

Make your submissions to: lisa@rangeragainstwar.com, subject line: Submissions.

If you do not have a scanner and would like to submit a graphic, or would prefer to mail your submission, the address is Ranger Story Project, P.O. Box 3674, Tallahassee, FL 32315. Send a copy, as entries will not be returned.

We will see where this goes.