Lewis-McChord combat vet loses GI Bill for pot and spice... the day before he was to be released from active duty.

Former combat infantryman Bill Surwillo (left) with battle buddy Nick White.

Austin Jenkins / Northwest News Network

First let me give you the article from local radio station KPLU:

Here's a soldier's tale. Bill Surwillo deploys to Afghanistan. Nearly a quarter of his platoon is killed. He comes home with PTSD. He turns to marijuana and spice – a synthetic version of the drug – to relax. The Army kicks him out and takes away his GI Bill. Is this fair?

I meet Bill Surwillo at a noisy café just outside the gates of Joint Base Lewis-McChord. His car is packed and he's ready to head home to Wisconsin. He's been kicked out of the Army for drug use one day shy of his official end of service date – and he's bitter.

"I gave my life to that unit for the past four years."

Surwillo is especially upset the Army took away his college benefits. He wanted go to trade school to become a plumber or welder.

Sitting next to him in the café booth is his friend and fellow battle buddy, Nick White. Over the din, they describe the chaos in both their lives since they returned home.

That leads them to war stories from what they call their "gnarly" deployment to Afghanistan.

Surwillo tells me about one of the many roadside bombs that maimed and killed his friends and fellow soldiers.

"We were driving down a road on a resupply mission and our 2-1 vehicle hits an IED. Saw the mushroom cloud. Stryker go up."

Two soldiers were killed in that incident.

Dr. Bridget Cantrell, of Bellingham is an expert on soldiers and PTSD. She believes Surwillo's commanders should have gotten him help instead of booting him from the Army.

"This is a very big deal. To lose your objective, to lose your purpose, your goals, your goals are cut short because you made a mistake."


Dr. Les McFarling heads the Army's substance abuse program. He says combat vets are subject to the same zero-tolerance drug policy as soldiers just out of boot camp.

"We don’t a policy that says if you have PTSD you get a pass."

But he adds commanders can consider those factors when deciding how to handle a soldier who's been caught using drugs.

"We place a lot of trust in a commander's ability to make discretionary decisions such as this."

That is some of the article. The link for the whole thing is at the top of this blog.  There is a link on that page to the audio if you prefer.

I do agree, that we can't just let these soldiers come back and cry about what they've been through and think that gives them a pass to break the law. And maybe commanders should have discretion to make some decisions.

But someone needs to stand back and look at this kind of thing and say, NO, we help our soldiers. If they come back and are addicted, action or crime prone, you have to look at their record before they left and see, were they like this before? Or, did our sending them into harm's way cause them problems and it's the responsibility of the United States Government to see that they are fixed as best as possible with the available resources and not dumped on the roadside like a corpse from a roadside bomb. We treat the dead better than we do the living sometimes. Because the living can dissappoint us and cause us effort, money, time and resources.

It is the Government's responsibility to NOT send people to war. And if they do, to go out of their way to treat them with respect and care, not to dump on them just because we can. If you go to war, if you are in harm's way, if you especially have seen action, you need to be treated with respect and seen to be put in a situation allowing for the best possible reset of your life after.

If you go around killing people, raping, maiming, etc., then you are broken, and locking you up, is a reasonable response. But sneaking some pot on to a base, though stupid, isn't grounds to ruin someone's life who has nearly given their own life up for their country. It's wrong. It's always been this way. It needs to stop.

One of the responses to PTSD is acting wrong, over reaacting. placing blame, acting inappropriately. That is a person's way of calling for help. So how does it make any sense at all that instead, we punish them, instead of setting them up in life to succeed, to help them through this rough patch, to help them assimilate back into common society. And yes, that can take years, and even millions of dollars.

And if you don't like it, stop sending people to wars. Put up, or shut up!

Weekend Wise Words - Mother's Day, another angle

Be Wise. Be Brilliant. Be... Aware.

Since this is Mother's Day weekend....

"There never was a child so lovely, but his mother was glad to get him asleep." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Cheers to those who can celebrate a satisfying familial tie to their progenitors!

Having children is a privilege, but some treat it only as a burden. We dole out marriage certificates like they are candy; guns like toys; driver's licenses with more care than the most important thing we can ever do in our life, which is to create and raise our children.

Parents are just people who have had sex and a baby came from it. And some people have really bizarre beliefs. When they become parents, especially if they are the types that should never become parents, they treat their children through these strange beliefs and pass on their ridiculous thoughts to them.

I heard a guy the other day saying how he was on a plane and a kid was making a fuss. The dad got in the kids face and trying to be quiet but exhibiting terrifying passion to the kid, told him to shut up or else. The observer said he wanted to stop the parent, realizing the kid had just lost this last hold on safety and security and was probably traumatized, but instead, he went to the back of the plane to regain his equilibrium. While he was calming himself, he realized something. He realized that if that man had done that to a dog, the guy would have punched him out, but because it was the guy's kid, he didn't lift a finger, or say a word, or even project a look to affect the parent. What does that say about us as people? That we are living in a litigious society or age? That we are cowards? That children truly are still object of property? That these little people, the future leaders and rulers of our world when we're too old to manage, are being raised to be defective, untrusting, insecure, fearful?

I think we need a page for people who's mother's are not what they should be. There are many people out there for whom Mother's Day (or Father's Day, or both) is a painful thing. If you have had a bad relationship with either of your parents, well, consider this, have you ever had a bad breakup with someone, your girlfriend or boyfriend broke up with you leaving you raw, scarred, in emotional pain that almost feels like physical pain; maybe a divorce, or even a death? Death is a cop out though. As with a martyr, it leaves you with a different set of dynamics; unless it was a relief that they died.

My point is that when you have that breakup, have you ever noticed that you hear and see reminders of what you lost, simply everywhere? You turn on the radio for a distraction and it's all love songs. Every movie you try to watch or that is available to watch seems to be a love story. Or you find a good one, maybe a good thriller or horror film, something that in no way is going to have a love story in it by your reasoning. But then, there in the middle when you least expect it, bang, someone breaks up with someone, or someone is enjoying what brings you the most pain, romance before the down side in the film. Maybe that down side makes you feel better in a kind of negative feedback sort of way.

My point is, Mother's day is like that for some people (or again, Father's Day for that matter). Everywhere you turn this past week, has been marketing, marketing, marketing. Mother this, that and the other thing. For those who have no Mother, or whose mother is a horrible person, these people have to suffer through that. It's a tough time for these people, but no one thinks about it. If they think about it, they tend to think openly, or surreptitiously, what a horrible person, they don't love their mother, they have a terrible attitude about their mother, etc.

But inside, those people want to have a loving relationship with their parent(s). They just can't, and for most people in that situation, the responsibility is weighted on the parent's side, leaving the child with a painful wound that will never heal until either the parent dies, or that person does. Not only does the child have to go through life with a damaged parental relationship, a seminal touch point for every human being alive that needs to be healthy, they have to suffer hiding their feelings. Or if they open up about them, they only get ugly looks, negative feelings, or bad comments from people who don't, can't, or won't understand or try to understand, putting down people who simply do not deserve it.

Most people can't understand what these people have been through. Luckily, these people are in a minority. But they are out there.

So, the next time you start going on about your loving relationship with your parents, or their Day and what you are going to do for them, be aware of the people around you and how they react, what their body language is. If they wince, if they suddenly for no apparent reason come off negatively, perhaps in an entirely unrelated way, consider, you may have just unintentionally wounded them.

As with Thanksgiving and Christmas, New Year's even, being the "silly season" for the higher rates of suicides, Parent's Days, are one of the other, hidden and sad times of the year where we need to be a touch more aware, that not everyone has had, or continues to have, a pleasant live because of a random choice of who their parents are, or were.

That all being said, do give the respect and love, attention and care to your parents who deserve it and enjoy the time you have left with them; espeically, if they have been good parents to you. Because the good ones, deserve all you can offer them in thanks and love.

Happy Mother's Day!

"To nourish children and raise them against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons." - Marilyn French

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." - Theodore Hesburgh

"Having children makes you no more a parent than having a piano makes you a pianist." - Michael Levine

My past with the GTO "Goat" and it's owner

I think we've all had enough of the serious side of life this week and after all its Friday. So let's take it easy, get ready for a party this weekend.

This is a tale about some of my experiences around a GTO that a "friend" of mine named, John had. I heard it mentioned somewhere this week about GTOs and how they were once called "Goats" but now they call them "The Judge". I thought that odd. It got me thinking. And I decided to write this down.

John got his cars in High School. Then I ran into him just after we graduated. I started hanging out with him. I knew him during High School, but only in passing. But I knew just about everybody. Everyone seemed to know me. I once told my cousin if she ever came to my High School, just stop anyone and ask where I am, and they will know. I was kidding but when her and a girlfriend visited with her from Washington High School (I went to Lincoln HS), they stopped a guy and asked him about me and he said, "Oh, yeah, I just saw him in the lounge, but I think he headed off campus for a few minutes." And so I missed them, but then, my reputation was set.

Anyway, in the beginning, John and I had a good time, but things eventually got pretty complicated and dire. Ugly really. Leading to infidelities an end to our friendship and nearly a murder.

Just for specs, my car was a 1967 SS/RS Camaro, the first Camaro built, the delux show model. The top photo has the right color shade for mine and mine also had the chrome faux spoke wheels. Anyway....

John had two cars. A Chevy Impala was his first car (my first model of car too, only his was far nicer) and a Pontiac GTO "Goat", what they apparently now call, for no reason I can fathom, a "Judge".

 1970 Pontiac Firebird

My parents said they were going to get me a Pontiac Firebird, a hot little car, but they were afraid I'd kill myself (probably would have too), so they got me a 67 Impala "boat" with "three on the tree" shifting, standard transmission, 283cu. in. POS engine. But, it was huge inside, it turned out to be my friends and my party car. We took it everywhere and we could fit like eight people in it if we had too and a keg of beer or two in the trunk (which we also did). I got my back window shot out once out on the Ft. Lewis Army Training Base reserve, but that's another story (we also got chased by an Army helicopter out there, but again, that's another story).

John's first Impala

 

My first Impala

Anyway, I don't know where that name "The Judge" popped up along the way from then to here and now but to me, it sounds pretty silly. Okay, maybe more current owners now a days were just trying to sound cooler than, "Goat"? I guess now that's understandable.

We called it a "Goat" because when pronounced, "GTO" came out "goat" to us (it was either that or "GehTo" and that really sounded stupid and a bit too "urban" if you see what I mean). Plus, it was one of those things where you call someone/something, the opposite of what everyone knows some one or thing to be and is obvious to see, like calling someone smart, stupid, or handsome, ugly. So "Goat" indicated a slow stupid creature, when we all had great respect for the GTO.

But calling it a "Goat" back then, had plenty of cool about it. It's only in a vast span of years that it has lost that coolness.

His "Goat"

His "Goat" looked something like this, except his was "Fuzzed" (thus no shiny areas), with raised paisley patterns. Actually both his cars had the purple fuzz. I remember one time we drove through Spanaway Park and the people near the lake by the club house all wanted to touch it and ooed and awed about it.

The "fuzz" was created by spraying a glue over the car, then powdering it with some kind of crystals or something, then using a template to add patterns, finally running an electric charge through the vehicle chassis which burst the powders into the raised velor kind of texture.

It was actually pretty cool although I always wondered how it would hold up over the ensuing years. All he did to wash his car was hose it down. I assumed that over the years, it would lose the glue part and start to peel off but I have no idea what happened as we lost touch, and for good reason.

Especially, I don't know what happened to his cars, because he eventually crashed them both into telephone poles, falling asleep while coming home in the early A.M. from work. He had a physically strenuous job so I suppose that was reasonable. I believe he got the cars fixed up, but  then I went into the Air Force and lost touch with him.

After my wife told me one night, shortly after we were married, that while I was in Basic Training, she went out with him drinking one night, along with his fiancee (she met him through her and I met her through him, through his fiancee who she was living with for a time at her family's house, a block from my first apartment); he dropped off his fiancee at home first that night, then didn't drop my fiancee off, rather took her to the woods for some slap and tickle.

But nothing much happened. After we married, when she told me, feeling rather guilty no longer able to keep it from me, it all came out while we lied in bed one night. We later found out she was very hypoglycemic. It seemed, and I saw this repeatedly, that if she drank alcohol, she simply became someone else, all inhibitions dropped. So she stopped drinking and got healthy, even turning vegetarian. We both got healthier actually.

And as for that night, she said it was like she "woke up" to find herself making out with him in his car. It scared her as she didn't know how she got there, the alcohol must have worn off enough by then. She was afraid of turning him down by then so she told him, how about we get a motel room which he responded to very well. Then she said, take me home so I can get my car and meet you there. He agreed. When she got out at her parent's house, she said she said, "Thank you and good night." She closed the door and went in the house and never saw him again. He was probably afraid she would tell his fiancee and he didn't bother her.

Lying in bed listening to this that night, I was 20 at the time, so was she, I nearly got up, grabbed my .357 magnum from under the bed, drove the 300 miles from Spokane to Tacoma, and ended him. We lived in a scary apartment building with doors you could breathe on to blow open and she was scared being there alone, soon after this would finally moved into our leased perfect house, liittle white house with the park like yard sans the tiny white picket fence. So I kept the gun loaded under the bed where she knew she could easily get to it.

I swore I would end him, next time I ever met him. Needless to say, I never wanted to see him again. I finally did see him again once, at the Tacoma Mall. I was with my next girlfriend after getting a divorce (for other reasons) and had a dilemma as if he talked to me, I knew I was beat the hell out of him. But in the end, I decided that was stupid too, so I walked out of Hallmark that day and walked off, he didn't see me. That was best for both of us at the time.

The next I heard of him, he'd found Jesus. Whatever.

He was admittedly good looking, women loved his look anyway, but he was also a pretty vain guy and had an odd home life at his parents. None of my friends understood why I hung out with him. But I felt sorry for him and he had cool cars. And a piranha. So I thought maybe he was kind of cool but no one could see it.

Basically though, he was a nice guy, flawed, but more or less okay once you got to know him; as long as he wasn't around women, because he'd sleep with anything that moved, as they say. Which lead one night to my telling him, I remember it clearly, sitting in his car somewhere, some Friday night, looking for something to do, someplace to get into trouble, I told him back in those youthful eighteen year old cruising around days, that I knew what he was like, and if he ever tried anything with any woman I was with, I'd kill him. He needed that kind of clarity to understand your feelings. I made them clear. Those were our High School days, post High School, really. That first year after, actually, when you're still hanging with your friends from school.

He said he understood. But apparently, when you are in Basic Training in the military, all bets are off. But how messed up is that? To hit on your friend's fiancee while he is suffering through Basic. I couldn't be more miserable down there in San Antonio, and there he was hitting on the one woman in my universe that I did nothing but think about every minute of the day and night, quoting passages out of Kahlil Gibran's published book of love letters to his lady, that I had found in the small library int he barracks one lonely night.

But then, that guy wasn't that bright either. I remember one time, we had the "Goat" out on a Friday night. We stopped on a dark street running along side the I-5 freeway. I didn't know what he was going to do. He revved the engine up, then dropped it into drive from neutral and... blew the rear gears. Friday night and we're sitting there in the dark in a car with a powerful engine and no drive train.

Eventually the police showed up. He asked them for a ride to a phone or gas station. But they treated us like slime. They wouldn't even help us push it off the road, they just said, get it taken care of. What jerks.So, we pushed the car off to the road side. I offered to make a call while he stayed with the car. I had to jump the cyclone fence protecting the freeway, I ripped my upper arm a bit as I came down on the other side, no stitches, but a bit of blood. I made it to a gas station on the other side of the freeway, made the tow truck call, then came back.

Someone recently told me that later models were changed so that wouldn't happen, so many others must have blown their gears too.

There are other stories about that guy, like how he ran off with my girlfriend, but that was something I set up with him, so that I didn't have to break up with her, again. I felt that if I was going to break up with her, after starting things up with her yet again, I deserved whatever she dished out, just so she didn't feel bad in getting dumped and letting her think she dumped me. That was a noble gesture until I realized she wouldn't let it go and berated me every chance she got until he finally had to tell her, one fine summer day in my apartment, to knock it off.

Ah, youth....

Polling the Public on Presidential Performance

According to The Olympian, in February 2005, USA Today reported that 64 percent of high school graduates go to college, but the number of Americans with bachelor degrees is only 29 percent. So what happens to that other 35 percent between the time they go and four years later?

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 26% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-six percent (36%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -10.

SO... the President's approval rating is -3 (29% with degrees, 26% positive), then considering some of those being polled have no degree, it's probably better. Considering some of those who have a degree are idiots anyway and regardless (or irregardless as some of them would say), well, I guess we really don't know what people think or who should be thinking what; or, if polls really matter much.

But the question has always been, how much should we pay attention to polls? Think, when you were a kid, your parents made you do what was best for you, you didn't always agree with it, you didn't always understand all of it, you didn't always have all the information nor could you understand some of it; but they were there to protect you, care for you, make you do what is right. It is somewhat the same with the President. However, we did vote him in, so he is or should be, more responsive to us more than our parents were.

However, there will always be times when he gets caught between wanting you to understand, knowing you never will, and having to do what you don't want, unless you know all the facts. This is something I taught my kids is a part of life. You do what is right and sometimes, you will get in trouble for it, no one will ever know the truth, or believe it, but you will always know you did what was right.

Once in second grade, I stood up to three bullies in fifth grade, who were picking on a first grader. I got beat up after school, drug through a filled drainage ditch. My mom drove up looking for me and turned the kids in. Three of them told the Principle I stated it on the playground. I did, I told them stop picking on the little kid. The little kid was terrified and wouldn't tell the truth. I understood that. I was good with it. But in the end, the kids got away with it, I got a set of swats from the Principle and that was that.

As for polling, if I poll a group who thinks I should supply better crack to the neighborhood, perhaps I'm polling the wrong people, or asking the wrong question, or they are just idiots.

We do have to consider a few things in polling. How much correct information do those polled have? How good of a critical thinker are those people? Do we really care what they think if they are just stupid, ignorant or have a ridiculous way of looking at life? What negative viral Memes have infected their minds prior to polling? How much should it matter if the President does something unpopular but is best for the people, in the long run, or for the better good of the US, or the better good of Humanity.

Sometimes, Life's just... complex. For some of us, more than for others.

Chill. Peace.

Top 10 ways Osama Bin Laden could have been found and killed

With all this talk about Osama Bin Laden's death and demise, I was thinking about how he died, or how he could have died. I wondered what my top ten desired ways would have been that would make me happy.

First, let me mention this Bin Laden related FBI cyber warning. Don't be so curious about his death, it may cause you computer grief.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, I realized that the best way to get rid of him, was to simply have him, Disappeared. Or perhaps, found in a compromising position, something to discredit him, to turn his followers away from him in disgust. A lady on talk radio this week said she thought he should have been buried with a pig. People are getting out their frustration, anger and sorrow out, all in different ways.

Here's my top ten:

10. Melted, in perhaps, aqua regia, used sometimes to dissolve gold

9. Incinerated

8. Flown to Antarctica and dropped alive, in a remote crevasse; I'd give him many ten minutes to freeze?

7. Died in a gas leak at home

6. An "Accidental" car accident

5. Hantavirus infection from mouse droppings in his house

4. A wood chipper "accident"

3. Killed in a tall building by way of an aircraft crashing into it

2. Blown up by a suicide bomber (push the definition, make him the suicide)

1. Found at home, in bed, with young male prostitutes, death by heroin overdose with plenty of unacceptable porno laying around and a syphilis infection.

But then again....

 Lawrence Wright

I was listening today to NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross where she interviewed Lawrence Wright (May 2, 2011). New Yorker staff writer Wright has spent the past 15 years of his career thinking about al-Qaida. Wright assesses what bin Laden's death means for the future of al-Qaida and the United States' relationship with Pakistan.

 Listen to the Fresh Air interview here: Lawrence Wright: Bin Laden's Death 'Long In Coming'

Part of what he said is below, and I think it was incredibly acute and poignant. When you have a character like this, you need to get the most out of his death. You need to manipulate and advocate. But you need to be open, honest, and heartfelt. Three of my favorite things to do when I have a tough choice, or deal with a harsh situation.

He said he would like to have heard Bin Laden were caught and taken to deal with who he is:

"You have to deal with his legacy, and not make him a martyr. Take him to Kenya, where in August 6th 1998 where he set off a bomb at the American Embassay killing 229 people and wounding and blinding 150 Africans. So let him sit in a courtroom in Nairobi and explain to all these blind Africans that he was just striking at a symbol of American power. That's just getting started.

"Then take him to Tanzania where on the same day he set off another bomb killing eleven people there, all of them, Muslims. Bin Laden excused that because it was Friday and all Good Muslims should be at Mosque.

"That would be a wonderful venue to talk about what a good Muslim actually is.

"And then, you could bring him to America where he could answer for the death of the seventeen Sailors on the USS Cole in October 2000 and the 3,000 Americans who died  on 9/11. But you don't have to stop there, you could take him so many places. Casablanca, Madrid, London, Bali.

"Then take him one last place, take him home [Saudi Arabia], and have him tried under Sharia law. Which is the only law which he and his followers would respect. And if he's convicted, he would be taken to a square in downtown Ryad. And the executioner is a big man with a long sword. It's Saudi custom for the executioner to go out to the crowd is composed of the victims of the condemned man and ask if he is forgiven and if they couldn't do that then the executioner would do his job and bin laden would be taken and buried in an unmarked wahabi graveyard.

"And I thought in that manner you could begin to roll back his awful legacy."

Actually, all kidding aside, Lawrence was thinking along the lines that I was on Monday and he gave his view of how he would like to have seen Osama handled when captured. I was concerned myself that making him a Martyr was a bad idea. Disappearing him, is only second to that. But the best way to to discredit someone using their own philosophy or laws against them.

He also said he thinks that plans that were in the making will now be rushed to completion and carried out, either by his own group, or one of their affiliates.

Al-Aqsa Mosque imam vows to avenge killing of Osama bin Laden in Youtube video. 'Dogs should not rejoice too much for killing lions'.

Omar, not Osama's replacement?

Osama bin Laden's son Omar bin Laden warned ABC News in an exclusive interview last year that if the U.S. succeeded in killing his father the al Qaeda leadership that would follow would be "much, much worse."

Omar bin Laden turned his back on his father's philosophy, a remarkable step for a man in an Arab culture where it is a sin to disobey his father and taboo to openly criticize him. It was doubly significant for Omar bin Laden because his father had picked him to succeed him as the leader of jihad.

Omar bin Laden spoke out shortly after hearing his father in an audio tape praise the attempt by the so-called "underwear bomber" to blow up a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009:
"Attacking peaceful people is not being fair, it is unacceptable. If you have a problem with armies or governments you should fight those people. This is what I find unacceptable in my father's way," Omar told ABC News.

Omar had a chilling warning for those who were hunting his father with drones, secret agents and missile strikes. From Omar bin Laden's up-close look at the next generation of mujahideen and al Qaeda training camps he says the worst may lie ahead, that if his father is killed America may face a broader and more violent enemy, with nothing to keep them in check.

"From what I knew of my father and the people around him I believe he is the most kind among them, because some are much, much worse," Omar bin Laden, who was raised in the midst of his father's fighters, told ABC News in an exclusive interview in February 2010. "Their mentality wants to make more violence, to create more problems."

These are still not unsimilar to street gangs and punks be punks, whether they try to kill people or not, whether they have more room to move around in or more sophisticated weaponry, or not. They are criminals and the more countries realize that, the faster everyone will become safe from their childish wanking ways.

Even Osama's family thought he was a chump. Really, they need to get a life. But the gist of the trade wind is, trouble is on the horizon for killing the guy. Lawrence was most likely, right. Then again, sometimes, you can't catch a cockroach and once you get the chance, you simply need to squish it, hit it with a rolled up bamboo mat (did that in Hawaii one time); kill it any chance you get and when it took you ten years to finally get a crack at it, maybe the only way to do it was to shoot first and not ask questions later.

But if they are going to return fire from the Osama camp, I would only ask that if they are going to try killing people, they pick on someone face to face and be a man about it, face them down and give them a chance like we gave Osama, and not;blow up women and children and old men with a hidden bombs like cowards; be it planted or suicide, because suicide bombing is cowardly. You want to be brave? Stick around and deal with changing the world, think, struggle, work hard, speak for change; now that, is hard work. Blowing yourself up is the easy way out.

On the other hand, it may indeed lead to the end of al-Qaida sooner than later, however, probably not without the lives of more innocents. When they hide, as they have been, they are hard to find, as in the cockroach metaphor, but when they strike, it's far easier to pull out a can of "Raid" and melt them down into the dirt. If they want to attack innocent civilians, there is little we can do until the crime is committed. At this point, it feels more like an FBI operation than a CIA one. They need to stop being killed and start being put in jail for crimes against Humanity and like Lawrence said, humiliated by their own kind as even by their own religion and laws, they have broken the rules.

And that is indeed, what makes them criminal.

America as Perceived from Abroad

Leon Penetta and David Patraes are taking over new jobs, running the Pentagon and the CIA, respectively.

That is fine. However, I agree with Fareed Zakaria that this is a prime opportunity for those newly in charge of these agencies to rethink, to redevelop the way we think and respond to International Crisis. We should be considering how the world percieves us. Not how they have perceived us for decades, not how we want to be thought of, but how we are currently being thought of and by the people of the world, not just those rich and powerful individuals and governments.

Our National Security Bureaucracy is immense and it dictates far too much of how the majority of Americans perceive themselves and our the world perceives the US, there is too large of a discrepancy between those two ideals.

We throw immense amount of money at National Security and it's workhorses and we have been left with a peculiar, to say the least, dynamic of nearly automated response and daily repetition of reactions. It is not a system that is self corrected, nor is it tested by outside (that is to say, inside to the American Government but outside) of its own apparent self appointed and self created Universe.

We spend about $80 Billion on intelligence every year, more than the rest of the world put together. Yet, how prepared do you really think we have been for major international events? The CIA did not imagine the fall of the Soviet Union. Nor did they see the revolutions of Eastern Europe. The breakup of Yugoslavia. September 11th. Saddam Hussein's non existent arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. The Global financial crisis. And recently, did we see the Arab uprising coming across the Middle East recently? No.

These were things not foreseen by most agencies around the world. But that is not the point. It is obvious we are not seeing the money we put in to these agencies of ours, distributed in the right places. We have consistently used SigInt (Signals Intelligence such as "spy satellites") rather than HumInt (Human Intelligence, having agents on the ground actually seeing and hearing what is going on). To be sure, we pulled our intelligence from Iraq for years because, Saddam was our "friend" in the Middle East and we had no need for expensive HumInt, besides, we had the "Eyes in the Sky". Have we yet learned anything by those things?

I am not expecting miracles from our hard working agencies. But, shouldn't they at least be preparing our levels of government who are responsible for protecting our physical and economic well being, for sharp changes in the world dynamics at the international, regional and national patterns? At least for the more general situational changes that could be intelligently anticipated, or even expected?

They should be preparing our policymakers for the possibilities of sudden shifts in new circumstances and they should be the ones who are preparing us for expecting the unexpected. We need to know the possibilities ahead of time, to consider the scenarios (which is what the CIA is chartered after all, to do) that are possible and seek solutions ahead of time. Yes, that is time consuming, but what are we paying them for, if not to do these things?

These are the things that distinguish the private sector firms in managing crisis. Isn't that the least we should expect from our Intelligence Community? The running of a government, or a business for that matter, is a condition of "risk management". Management and consideration, scenario analysis, projection and responses.

This has been boiled down decades ago to a Game. Using gaming dynamics, the Intelligence community has been able to plan ahead. But that seems to have died out of late, either due to relying on hard intelligence without proper analysis, or leaning to the sway of saying what is expected. This has been shown to be part of the problem recently in books by those who were at the center of recent crisis management. Check out this photo analysis page for kids at the CIA. It will give you an idea of what it is like to assign appropriate intel to remote intelligence and analysis, as opposed to having feet on the ground kind of intelligence. And this is child level analysis. You may not find it that hard to do, but consider this is the lowest level of this type of intelligence.

We need to be prepared this time, for what will happen in Saudi Arabia. Is someone looking at this? Serious protests in that country, will spike oil and gas prices across the world. They may be our "friend" but they may also need to react to an unseen force, that is falling down across their necks at any moment. I get the feel, they are leading with a similar buy perhaps harsher dynamic than the US has used, and from what we have been seeing, this is reacting like hitting a tree with a stick; the impact can come back upon you and lay you out.

As Fareed asked today, how would you respond to oil at $200 a barrel?

Considering this scenario, why do we not yet have alternative energy? We started upon this road back in the early 70s, and we still do not have this situation under control. I think about people like Pres. Reagan, entering the White House and removing the solar cells from the roof of the White House. Why, when he should have been pushing for more of that, further research, more options of alternative energy than fossil fuels.

We have been living for far too long on the top ends of our credit cards. We are overextended. We need buffers for these times, fuel reserves, other forms of fuel, energy that leaves us not with a bad taste in our mouth, but with a more full pocketbook and not at the will and destiny of other countries who have strangled our wallets for long enough.

We need to get this under control, to stop struggling with debt, stop multiple military actions around the world (and Libya was a good start). We have a demographic and economic time bomb about to blow up in our faces. Are we prepared for that, yet?

One more unforeseen crisis like this, and we may fall flat on our collective faces, unable to get up. Many of us cheered at the fall of the Soviet Union. But how much laughter will ensue from us, if it is the US who falls and cannot get back up to take our seat at the head of the table? China is fast approaching on our tail coats, are we going to simply give them a ride there?

Let's get our act together. Start foreseeing these crisis, or the possible outcomes of our current and ensuing situations. Start getting some buffers set up to protect us when the unexpected happens.

We can make it through this. These are just tough times, not impossible. But sitting with our heads in the sand, isn't going to do anyone in the world, any good.

Osama Bin Laden be gone

Well, the President of the United States said on TV tonight that Osama Bin Laden is dead, by his order, through the efforts of US Military troops and they reclaimed his body after a firefight and no US citizens have died. All the photos of Bin Laden I'm seeing on TV are nice shots of him looking like a normal person of his type, but I want to remember him for what he stood for. Violence.

First of all, my heartfelt and sincere condolances to the Bin Laden family. Because they didn't believe in what Osama was doing either and were mortified by it along with those who had known him and saw the self serving ministrations that Osama perpetrated upon US citizens, Muslims, his own people, and many around the world. I think, the world is a better place now without him, or his type. But then, I'm Buddhist in my thoughts and getting your way by killing, to me, is just wrong.

The Murderer, more like the mobster behind those who were murderers, because I question if he ever killed anyone personally, are still out there, although we have gotten some of them over the past years.

Al Queda has lost its leader, and its main bank, or at least its original bank and gained a martyr. I wasn't sure if it would have been better to capture him and lock him up and away for ever, but sometimes, you simply need to end it. When you are responsible for that many deaths, truly, only ending it is the best policy and locking him up would have only been problematic.

The man that spawned the destruction of New York's Twin Towers, and many many people on that day, the first attack on US Soil of this type and magnitude.

So, it's over for Osama. Osama be gone. Good riddance.

Pres. Bush didn't get it done, I might add. Pres. Obama did. The Republicans would mention it were it reversed, so someone should say it. And no, I'm not a Democrat. I just get sick of Republicans pointing the fingers and for their part, the Democrats always running from a fight.

Now we have the hard part. You know, it's interesting because I bumped a blog article for this one due to the sudden nature of Osama's death. It is titled, "America as Perceived from Abroad". The bumped article will be up for tomorrow morning, I only delayed it one day. But the topic of that article is about changing our attitude and now, I'm writing this....

Osama be dead, now we have to change our attitudes, alter the world, make life better for everyone so people stop having the feelings that Osama was able to work into a frenzy of death and destrution. Because they were there and available for some slimeball like Osama to manipulate, because if these people loved America, this couldn't have happened. Think about it.

So I say, from here forward, onward and upward. For everyone.

And now, let's pay attention to what is really important: Carl Safina: The oil spill's unseen culprits, victims; what happens when you put the murderer in charge of the crime scene (BP), from July 2010.