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Article for Thursday, December 7, 2006:
Graceful Exit
Today, Thursday December 7, 2007 marks the 65th anniversary of the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor. God Bless the soldiers who fought and gave their lives for our country in this attack. It goes without saying we will never forget those soldiers, men and women who are fighting on homeland and overseas in today's war on terrorism, especially during this holiday season.
Article for Friday, December 8, 2006:
Scandalous and Scandals
Article for Saturday, December 9, 2006:
Milt Was Wrong On The Draft
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REUTERS/Tim Shaffer
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"In my view it is time for a major adjustment," Mr. Rumsfeld wrote a few days before his resignation/or firing. Clearly, what U.S. forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough," he said. The former secretary of defense(more than 99% likely he will be replaced by Robert Gates) has been a symbol of a dogged stay-the-course policy in Iraq.
The New York Times has a copy of the infamous Rumsfeld Memo saying that we ought to change course. Duh! I go back to an interview I heard with the author of Fiasco, Thomas Ricks. Fiasco is the best book I've read on Iraq.
Ricks said that in early 2004, it became obvious that we needed to change course in Iraq; we had made some dumb moves, but still, it was recoverable. Rumsfeld had a chance to use his forceful personality to bring it about. Yet, according to Ricks, Rumsfeld seemed bumfuzzeled-just clueless as to how to get out. Now, when all is in deep doo doo, Rumsfeld says we need to change course-two years down the road from when he could have effected the outcome of Iraq.
I am amazed at the continual denial of the Prez and his group. Honestly, it is as though they are continuing to operate in a parallel universe. What is it with this? Maybe he will listen to the Iraq study group report that came out yesterday which says the Bush plan is not working, diplomancy is urgent, and most combat troops need to be out of Iraq by 2008(I think the troops need to be out before then) Bush says he will take the report seriously, let's hope so. kt
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| For the Holidays: Scandals and Scandalous
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zuma press
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I think that because we have so many scandals on the forefront today that we simple let many scandalous acts, as my Mom would say, go by the board. They chap me, I can tell you that. The average annual CEO pay is $10.5 mil, 369 times the average worker pay of $28,310. Now that is scandalous.
Here's a another scandalous act: Jeff Skilling's lawyer was paid $800 dollars an hour. Can you believe it? The guy must have a pair the size of all outdoors and they are brass. And, Skilling was found guilty. He paid out something like 23 million to his lawyer and the lawyer says he owes more.
Skilling, who will be behind bars well past seventy if he serves his full sentence. would have been better off with a public defender. His lawyer justifies the expense because he had a team of 12 lawyers, 5 paralegals, and other staffers in addition to many expert witnesses at 600 bucks a pop which caused the big fee. And, again Skilling's lawyer lost the case. As far as I can tell, nobody is even sneezing at such. For me, personally, I think it is scandalous. KT
( Jeff Skilling Ex-Enron CEO must surrender by Dec. 12 at low-security lockup to serve a 24-year sentence)
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| Milt Was Wrong On The Draft
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(AFP/File/Tim Sloan)
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I didn't agree with recently deceased (Nobel peace prize winning economist) Milton Friedman on much and we Southerners don't like to speak ill of the dead, but a recent article in Newsweek, warrants additional comments on his philosophy. It is his philosophy about the Volunteer Army that is wrong. Nothing personal, Milt.
(When I say the Volunteer Army, I mean, all the "forces." However, much of the volunteer military has always been voluntary: the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force, and all of the elite forces such as Green Berets, Navy Seals--an entire Division, the 82d Airborne Division has always from its inception been voluntary.)
Friedman said, "a military draft is undesirable and unnecessary. We should man our armed forces with volunteers." What is often left out of Milt's quote about the draft, however, is an "add on" "a military draft is undesirable and unnecessary. We can and should man our armed forces with volunteers as the United States has traditionally done except in major wars."
Aren't we in a major war? Yes, the war on terrorism.
I would love to have spoken with Mr. Friedman because I agree with Newsweek, he is definitely one of the most influential men of the last hundred years. Often, I am not so sure that someone like Friedman, God bless his soul, is wrong, rather possibly "he is not right". Or, maybe we need to approach the same issue in light of new data or, in our case, a new time, i. e., the war on terrorism.
What about our Volunteer Army? Is it successful and is it a good Army? It is a matter of perspective. Absolutely, it is successful in terms of fielding a military and a good one. On the surface, the present military is probably as good as any we have ever had. The Volunteer Army from another perspective, however, is not successful because simply it is not representative of our American free society and that is what makes the Volunteer Army morally indefensible.The military(as I have written over and over again) should come from all socio-economic backgrounds, not primarily from low-income and disadvantaged families.
Milton Friedman railed against the draft from a generational point of view that, to me, really didn't make sense. Who can interpret this Friedman statement: "the draft is wasteful because determent of students, fathers and married men jams colleges, raises the birth rate and fuels divorce courts." What in the hell does he mean? And, I love this one, "universal national service would compound the evil-regimenting all youth to camouflage the regimentation of some." Huh? Agree? Again, in my opinion, everything comes back to the inequity of the draft(the poor, lower class fight our wars).
Where I think Friedman is off the mark is that Universal Service simply provides an opportunity to serve. The fact that it is compulsory is simply an update on the times. Youth, if forced to serve, no exceptions, will do it and when it is over, my prediction is they will say, "I did it, I gave back and I'm the better for it." Friedman didn't like the draft, universal service, price controls, minimum wage standards, etc. Hey, at least Milt was consistent.
Well, in life, I think there have to be some controls and restrictions. To me, youth serving their country is not so much a control as a freedom to serve. KT
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