About four years ago, my job brought me in contact with a lady who has become a very good friend. Her name is Cheryl. We've been friends since early 2004 while she was stationed in New Mexico. She's a career Air Force intelligence officer. She is one of the smartest people that I know. She's married to a good man named Ellis and has two children - Claire and Caleb. She and her family have since moved to the Tidewater area in Virginia, but we have stayed in touch.
Why do I bring her up? About a month ago out of the blue I received a phone call from her. She told me "I have breast cancer." Suddenly everything that I had been dealing with on a professional level became extremely trivial. When we spoke she sounded like she was dealing with her diagnosis very well. I'm not sure how I would deal with such a thing. One never knows until you hear the words "you have cancer." Those are words I hope to never hear. My brother has heard them, and my "little sister" Jean has heard them. I'm happy to say they are both cancer-free.
Cheryl has a blog where she shares with all who care to read her about trials and tribulations in fighting [and beating] breast cancer. If you read this page, please go over to Cheryl's page and see how she's doing. She can be found at http://cherylsbreastcancerblog.blogspot.com. You'll have to cut-and-paste the URL into your browser since I seem to be autistic when it comes to making links to other websites.
I can sum up Cheryl's attitude thusly - she is going to kick cancer's ass! She says that when she turns 40 she is going to have on helluva party. I have no doubt in both cases.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
The Russians – They’re Back!
As an old “SAC-trained killer” I’ve often expressed that I “missed” the Russians since the end of the Cold War. During the Cold War, we knew who the bad guys were. We had a reason for being, we had an enemy in Soviet Communism. These guys were big, bad, and they had thousands of nukes pointed right at us. Then the Berlin Wall came down the day before my birthday in November 1989. Suddenly peace broke out everywhere, the Cold War was over, the Republicans became victims of their own success, and we got stuck with Bill Clinton as our Commander-in-Chief for eight long years [yes, Bush-haters, I know EXACTLY how you feel having had to live through the Clintonian Reign of Error]. When 9/11 happened I thought to myself, while stranded in Yuba City, California until the planes could fly again, that we had a new Cold War on our hands. Only this time it wasn’t the Russians but Al Qaeda. We had a real enemy, and this time they were “at the gates.” However, as of August 8th I think we’ve seen the rebirth of the “Real McCoy.”
A couple of days ago The Messiah [The One] lamented off-camera [but not out of microphone range] that the Russians followed our example when they went into Georgia two weeks ago. He was alluding to what we’ve done in Iraq. To give The Messiah [The One] his due, he’s half-right. The Russians have emulated our behavior, but not in Iraq - Kosovo. The parallels between what we and NATO did in Kosovo and what the Russians did in Georgia are astounding. In every article that has been written about Russia’s incursion into Georgia, replace the word “Russia” with the word “NATO,” “South Ossetia” with “Kosovo,” and “Georgia” with “Serbia” and you get to get the picture.
During Operation Allied Force [“OAF” – we certainly did act like a bunch of OAFs], we attacked [without a declaration of war] a Russian ally [Serbia] in order to defend a group of people [Kosovars] who did not want to be part of Serbia. Fast forward nine years and the scenario is almost the same. Russia attacked [without a declaration of war] an ally of NATO and the United States [Georgia] in order to defend groups of people [Abkhazians and South Ossetians] who did not want to be part of Georgia. Neither we nor the Russians went to the United Nations for any official sanction. “What’s good for the goose” as people would say.
It need not have turned out this way. We have a Secretary of State who has been described as a “Russian expert." One would think that a “Russian expert” in charge of the State Department would provide a guiding hand in dealing with the Russians, but that hasn’t happened. First we junked the ABM Treaty [more on that later]. NATO then admitted former Warsaw Pact nations into NATO. These countries include the following: Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, and Bulgaria. NATO has also talked of inviting Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance. NATO is an alliance that was originally created during the Cold War as a containment mechanism against the spread of Soviet Communism. After admitting all these former Soviet client states to NATO, we said we wanted to deploy anti-ballistic missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic. Our stated reason was to defend Europe against rogue states such as Iran from attack by nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. Vladimir Putin suggested a joint US-Russian ABM operation in Azerbaijan. We said “thanks but no thanks.”
If I was in charge of Russia, these are developments would make me go “hmmm…” Historically the Russians have been weary of encirclement by enemies real and imagined. It has been that way for centuries, with attacks coming from the Mongols, the Swedes, the French, the Germans [twice], and our intervention in the 1918-21 Russian Civil War. The Russians are a paranoid lot, and with good reason. I’ve accused The Messiah [The One] of being ignorant of history, but the same can be said of the Bushies. At the risk of sounding like a Democrat, we need not have gone out of our way to piss off the Russians as we have since the end of the Cold War. With the events that transpired in Kosovo, the literal expansion of NATO to Russia’s doorstep and the talk of putting anti-ballistic missiles in Russia’s backyard, is it any wonder why the Russians reacted the way they did when Georgia’s president attacked South Ossetia?
I’ve seen this movie before. I didn’t like it the first time, and I don’t like it now.
A couple of days ago The Messiah [The One] lamented off-camera [but not out of microphone range] that the Russians followed our example when they went into Georgia two weeks ago. He was alluding to what we’ve done in Iraq. To give The Messiah [The One] his due, he’s half-right. The Russians have emulated our behavior, but not in Iraq - Kosovo. The parallels between what we and NATO did in Kosovo and what the Russians did in Georgia are astounding. In every article that has been written about Russia’s incursion into Georgia, replace the word “Russia” with the word “NATO,” “South Ossetia” with “Kosovo,” and “Georgia” with “Serbia” and you get to get the picture.
During Operation Allied Force [“OAF” – we certainly did act like a bunch of OAFs], we attacked [without a declaration of war] a Russian ally [Serbia] in order to defend a group of people [Kosovars] who did not want to be part of Serbia. Fast forward nine years and the scenario is almost the same. Russia attacked [without a declaration of war] an ally of NATO and the United States [Georgia] in order to defend groups of people [Abkhazians and South Ossetians] who did not want to be part of Georgia. Neither we nor the Russians went to the United Nations for any official sanction. “What’s good for the goose” as people would say.
It need not have turned out this way. We have a Secretary of State who has been described as a “Russian expert." One would think that a “Russian expert” in charge of the State Department would provide a guiding hand in dealing with the Russians, but that hasn’t happened. First we junked the ABM Treaty [more on that later]. NATO then admitted former Warsaw Pact nations into NATO. These countries include the following: Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, and Bulgaria. NATO has also talked of inviting Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance. NATO is an alliance that was originally created during the Cold War as a containment mechanism against the spread of Soviet Communism. After admitting all these former Soviet client states to NATO, we said we wanted to deploy anti-ballistic missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic. Our stated reason was to defend Europe against rogue states such as Iran from attack by nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. Vladimir Putin suggested a joint US-Russian ABM operation in Azerbaijan. We said “thanks but no thanks.”
If I was in charge of Russia, these are developments would make me go “hmmm…” Historically the Russians have been weary of encirclement by enemies real and imagined. It has been that way for centuries, with attacks coming from the Mongols, the Swedes, the French, the Germans [twice], and our intervention in the 1918-21 Russian Civil War. The Russians are a paranoid lot, and with good reason. I’ve accused The Messiah [The One] of being ignorant of history, but the same can be said of the Bushies. At the risk of sounding like a Democrat, we need not have gone out of our way to piss off the Russians as we have since the end of the Cold War. With the events that transpired in Kosovo, the literal expansion of NATO to Russia’s doorstep and the talk of putting anti-ballistic missiles in Russia’s backyard, is it any wonder why the Russians reacted the way they did when Georgia’s president attacked South Ossetia?
I’ve seen this movie before. I didn’t like it the first time, and I don’t like it now.
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