The Wrong of Wright

I keep thinking back to all the hysteria about Theresa Heinz Kerry during the '04 election, and what a 'distraction' it was as the Wright issue continues to seethe in the twilight of the Democratic primary. I can see both sides of the argument on issues like this. On the one hand, it is unfair to judge a man on comments he did not make himself. As a basic human courtesy, we owe Obama the opportunity to be judged on his own stated beliefs, not those of his pastor. On the other, it is not inappropriate to draw conclusions from the company a man keeps. Particularly when said candidate's record is anemic enough that his primary draw is that nebulous element of character. Obama himself has admitted that there is a certain legitimacy to these questions, and it brings the issue all the more into the spotlight

Still, the real judgments I'm going to make about Obama aren't going to stem so much from the insanity spewed by his hate mongering preacher. I know that I am not always in agreement with my pastor on political issues. While I certainly would not have tolerated the things Wright said, I know the Senator and I have different world views. However, I am going to judge him for not having the good sense to pack Wright off on a six month tour of distant African countries. Specifically, ones without any form of media or reliable electronic communications. How simple is this? Wright has clearly already muddied the waters, so how does the Obama campaign miss that Wright is about to appear on CNN and say incredibly controversial things?

What kind of foolishness asserts that blacks and whites have different brains? What rational person would argue that the United States is morally equivalent with Al Qaeda? Come on Senator, it was pretty clear that you needed LESS Wright exposure, not MORE. How hard would it have been to remove the reverend from the spotlight until AFTER November?

If you are not inclined to question Obama's judgment about his connections to Wright, Ayers, etc., then we must agree to opposing views. We all have our own tolerances. Still, from a purely tactical standpoint, I would think that it is self evident to all he has fatally erred here. We should all question the Senators judgment for his failure to control the Reverend Wright issue. It should be easily managed, and instead it has become his Achille's heel. Sen. Obama has two hundred million some dollars in his campaign fund. Certainly some of that could be utilized to ensure that the so called 'distractions' of this race are not making themselves the centerpiece of major press events. That's just bush league.

Chicago Police Issued M-4 Carbines

This article from the Chicago Tribune wonderfully illustrates so many of the errors in Illinois anti-gun legislation. Illinois is one of the country's most oppressive states, it is one of only two with absolutely no carry permits. Within Illinois, Chicago stands out as an uniquely hostile region for law abiding firearm owners. Possession of virtually any sort of weapon is illegal within Cook County. The few excepted citizens happen by coincidence to be alderman and Daley cronies. We don't need to delve into that element of it here, but it makes Daley's preaching a bit more odious.

I have no problem with the CPD having access to M-4s. Many police departments across the country are provided such weaponry. What bothers me is the way that Daley has framed this necessity within the larger context of his failed anti-gun legislation.

Daley's argument is summed up in this quote:

"Many times they're outgunned, to be very frank... When they come to a scene, someone has a semi fully-automatic weapon and you have a little pistol, uh, good luck."

I'm not going to entirely ignore the absurdity of his statement "semi fully-automatic weapon", as it usefully demonstrates the ignorance of those who legislate. Still, it is hardly the worst element of the hysterics perpetrated by these types of politicians. What Daley is entirely missing is the wondrous irony of his speech. This is the mayor who has self righteously stripped his citizenry of the right to legally defend themselves from these same gangsters he is frantically gearing up his police force to combat.

Daley and those like him think that if they can just declare firearms of all types illegal, the endemic violence of the inner city will simply go away. The continuously demonstrated reality is that those already inclined to break the law have no compunctions about ignoring his ridiculous weapons legislations. His refusal to recognize the futility of his gun free utopia seems increasingly desperate, but given his previous demonstrations of petulant tyranny, it is all too likely that he will manage to force the issue. For those of us who believe in the 2nd Ammendment, Illinois increasingly seems a lost cause.

Chicago gang violence is an ongoing tragedy. The loss of life there reflects a broken society in desperate need of repair. The Mayor Daleys of our world who prey on the fears and horror of this sad situation do no one any favors, and instead serve only to weaken members of an already victimized group. A basic right to self defence is crucial for any free society. Increasingly we're seeing this stripped in the futile effort to achieve nebulous 'public safety' goals. For a people already beset by tragedy, stripping them of their rights is not the answer. We must fight this nonsense tooth and claw to maintain the hard won rights we so treasure.

The Overwatch of an Education

I remember the schoolhouse vividly. You can see it in this picture, centered just above the barrel of this 240. I remember standing long hours of guard, looking down the sights of this machine gun while the children danced outside in the sun, their bright tunics rare spots of color in the barren waste.

About 100 meters separated our fire base from this two room schoolhouse. Our base was the biggest bullseye in the whole Shkin region, regularly bombarded by 107 mm rockets carefully aimed from Pakistan. The rockets usually missed us, sometimes by distances much greater than the 100 meters to the school. It was directly in the firing line. I had a lot of time to ponder this quandary. Children, the most precious resource of any culture, collected daily in this impact area of a school to learn to read and write, to do basic arithmetic. Why?

The answer is simple really: safety. Protection. For all the danger of constant bombardment, to build this school elsewhere would have been that much worse. The first people the Taliban killed were the educated, the teachers. Our AMF lieutenant had been a teacher. They'd killed his family, tortured him by pulling out his fingernails with pliers. Teaching was a surefire death sentence under this regime.

Nestled under the barrels of American machine guns was the only safe place for the school and its instructors. In an area still rife with Taliban influence, a school was a symbol of defiance to those who would oppress them. These children and their teachers were relatively safe next to us, where we could protect them. The rockets were a danger, but not nearly so much as isolation would have been. Tragic, painful, but reality.

This is why I pursued education when I left the military. I have seen the dreadful price which must be paid for this most basic freedom. It is not to be squandered. Education is that most precious of commodities, worth any price, any cost, and it must be defended fiercely. God help those children, and god help those of us here who do not recognize it's worth.

Transitions

Everywhere I turn, I see transitions.

This summer marks the fourth major transition in my life. You'd think I'd get used to the feelings of anxiety, but it never seems to get any easier. Every change is the first transition, every change is the only transition.

The first big shift was leaving home and heading off to Basic Training (actually OSUT for us combat arms types). Sacrificing civilian freedoms for military discipline is a complete adjustment of expectation and awareness. Every morning was a new challenge, every day I woke wondering whether I had what it took to continue. The only real credit I can offer myself is that I continued to move forward. I did not do this so much from my own resilient spirit as the fear of shameful capitulation. I could not fail to finish. It was a necessary transition though, a needed preparation for what awaited me.

The second transition wasn't our first deployment. Even the initial months where an extended tour of my time in garrison. We trained, we wandered through the mountains. Our magazines were full, but our guard was down and I remained unprepared. Things changed with combat. The first rockets slamming into our firebase served as a wake up call, a reminder that the Army was more than wargames and tough guy posturing. I do not know how well I met this challenge. I only know that I came through it. I may not be a hero, but I was not a coward either. Still, my time in the service made clear that it was not my bliss. It was time for an exit.

This third change, my exit from the army, was in many ways the most difficult. After years of doing as I was told, the return to civilian life and the weight of being my own man was a heavy burden. As the Army's man I simply had to obey, now I had to think, and act. I was better and worse for this, but I have finished and am now looking at the path ahead.

I'm about to exit the surreal world of academia, and go to work in a prison. I'm not sure what the future holds, I only know that it will be a new awareness and a new perspective. It is one I look to embrace. I want to be better than I was. I want to be better than I am. I have come through much, and await a fresh awareness.

Peddling Morality

My beloved Corner had a discussion today on explicit* adult material being sold in the base exchange. It began with Andrew Stuttaford rightfully decrying the effort, but soon enough had Kathryn Lopez rallying against the idea of adults in the military being.. well adults, capable of making their own decisions. Kathryn asked for military members to weigh in, so I sent her this missive:

Klo:

As a former enlisted service member, I find the idea of banning pornographic material from the base exchange a demeaning practice. It's true that service members willingly forgo many of the freedoms that are enjoyed in civilian life. This makes them no less citizens, and the few freedoms left to them are all the more cherished for their scarcity. Why should we be able to dictate what these men and women view in their off time?
The counter that it is readily available off base holds little water with me. That is disproportionately unfair to the young and unmarried enlisted members. When you are forced to live in barracks, the base exchange is your primary source of any and all amenities. Even if you are lucky enough to possess a car, getting on and off base is a hassle. Similarly, soldiers posted overseas have few if any opportunities to enjoy the materials of their preference. The base exchange is the only reliable touchstone they have to American culture and goods.
There's a wide gulf between the sale of Playboy, a magazine readily available in most bookstores, and the ridiculous allusions to destroyed cohesion and morale in the emails you posted. Courage, discipline, and teamwork do not require saintly morals. We trust these men and women to make adult life and death decisions on a daily basis in combat zones, but we can not entrust them to make an adult decision about whether they can view explicit material? Sheer nonsense. There is clearly an interest, so lets give our boys and girls in uniform a little bit of a break.

I don't think it will get posted, my emails have yet to make an appearance there, but the concept is bothersome to me. We ask enough of these men and women who still serve without having to dictate their off time to them.

*Explicit in this case being Playboys, as anything more extreme has been banned for at least a decade.

In Memoriam

This week will mark the fifth anniversary of my unit's first combat losses in Afghanistan.

R.I.P. Pvt. Jerod R. Dennis and A1C Raymond Losano. Both were killed in an ambush, vicinity Shkin, Afghanistan on April 25th, 2003.

Video killed the radio star...

So last week myself and four hundred eighty some veterans of the War on Terror descended on Washington, D.C. to advocate for the necessity of completing the mission in Iraq. It was interesting and inspiring on a number of levels, and I was profoundly moved to be a part of that experience. I may write more on this group and it's noble aims in the future, but for the moment I want to share something a bit more selfish.

We split into groups by state so that we could speak to our specific representatives, and I had the good fortune to run across another Illinoisan, Michael Koolidge, host of the The Michael Koolidge Show. Michael has a local radio show which is syndicated on a couple of stations in the northwestern regions of our state. Long story short, this week he had me on as a guest on his program in my first (and undoubtedly last) appearance in media at large. I'd have liked an opportunity to wax political, but we spent most of our discussion time on my own experiences in the military and fighting overseas. I suppose it is equally worthy, but it is hard to resist the soapbox when given the opportunity.

Anyway, I have a follow up interview scheduled with him next week, so I'm looking forward to more of my thirty odd seconds. Certainly having a chance to discuss the positive elements of the military and our current endeavors are more appealing to me than a humiliating youtube video.

He hasn't yet posted our conversation in his audio archive, but when he does I'll be sure and put a link to it here.

A brief hiatus....

What, a guy can't let a year or so lapse between postings and chalk it up to ennui and apathy? Nobody (and I do mean nobody) has read any of this anyhow, so I'm perfectly ok with such significant chunks heaving too and fro. I write this for me, so there.

A year gone by, and so much has happened. I've seen my man Mitt rise to prominence in the Republican eye, even garnering the endorsement of my beloved National Review, before fading into the background with too many also ran contests. Maybe next year. I'm from Chicago, home of the Cubs, and I don't have to like baseball to appreciate the patience necessary.

I have to admit I am stunned by the outcome of the primaries so far. Who would have predicted such a bloody, brutal slugfest on the left? Certainly the continuing revelations about our state's junior senator have come as no great surprise to those of us more familiar with Chicago politics. I didn't think we'd ever be so lucky as to have the venomous hate speech of his preacher captured on DVD for our viewing entertainment, but it was a surprise gift for the fall. The Ayer's connection, the Rezko case, the snobbish anti-gun comments were not exactly anticipated, but each of these things fit my general understanding of the man.

That being said in reviewing my post last year, I was delighted by the 'I told you so' possibilities within. If ever there was a chance for me to trumpet my own prescience, my portrait would be the case. Sure, I was wrong about the whole 'smashing Obama aside' theory. He's the surprising favorite right now. I don't think he's in a position to win, however, and given that I do think this will have a devastating effect on his potential within the DNC. Beyond that, I do think that Obama has more than mirrored the picture I painted, and so I feel a tad smug about that. It's been a year, and his positions are no more clearly articulated than they were at the time. His attempts to be all things to all people has taken him so far, but whether it can take him any further I have serious doubts.

The Clinton implosion at the start of the campaign was also a huge shocker. The long feared Clinton Machine pulled a Keystone Cops routine so laughable as to discredit decades of Republican fears about the family. We've seen a bit more of the old Clinton skill come out in these last few weeks, but it seems too little too late. Whether a bloodied Obama can still claw out a nomination remains to be seen, but I wonder if she hasn't knocked him off the pedestal just enough that even John Mccain can finish the job.

Speaking of, it's hard for me to be thrilled by a John Mccain candidacy. I have tremendous respect for the man and his service, but I have enough disagreements on policy that I'll be casting a very reluctant vote come November. Add on his seeming inability to masterfully articulate an argument which doesn't include spitting out the same rehearsed talking point, and it is hard for me to think he will shine in the fall. To face Obama or Clinton, the Republicans should have fielded a master debater. Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson spring most forthright to my mind from the Republican field, but both where passed over for the candidate of inevitability. So it goes, but we endure.