Someday, if you run a bit short of things to blog about, in a topical to today sense, I'd like to get your educated opinion on such views and mindsets as expressed by:

http://www.thewarriorsong.com/Video.html

and:

http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=V...player_embedded

There's other examples out and about, but those two were in my favs list, so figured I'd use them as illustrators.

H/T to Theo Spark's place for both them.
Grimmy | Email | Homepage | 10.31.09 - 11:15 am | #

Say, if you're still having difficulty selling your house, maybe you could contact CAIR in Detroit, have them blow it up, and take the insurance money.
Gagdad Bob | Email | Homepage | 10.31.09 - 11:56 am | #

I was thinking of deeding it to Barney Frank or Chris Dodd with my compliments.
Dr. Sanity | Email | Homepage | 10.31.09 - 4:10 pm | #

Nahhhhh...Barney Franks looking for a one bedroom eight bath. Lol
SteveH | Email | Homepage | 10.31.09 - 5:30 pm | #

What do the people here think will happen with regard to Israel and Iran by the end of the year?
LLB | Email | Homepage | 11.01.09 - 9:51 am | #

Grimmy,

Saw 'The Warrior Song' from B5 and left my comment there.

I'll check out the 2nd link later.
always right | Email | Homepage | 11.02.09 - 12:05 pm | #

always right:

The second link is best viewed on Nov 10. I would have waited to post it then, but duty calls me to be getting fall down drunk on that day with fellow members of my tribe.

So, I figgered I'd post it early while my brain was more or less functional.
Grimmy | Email | Homepage | 11.02.09 - 12:23 pm | #

Can someone explain this 'Peter Peter' cartoon to me?
dchamil | Email | Homepage | 11.02.09 - 12:49 pm | #

Perhaps it's 'Peter Peter pumpkin eater!'
dchamil | Email | Homepage | 11.02.09 - 12:51 pm | #

dchamil:

You got it. Poor pumpkin kid is gonna get eaten.

Gotta develop and maintain that Situational Awareness thang.
Grimmy | Email | Homepage | 11.02.09 - 12:54 pm | #

Grimmy,
Just saw the birthday message link.

Hooah and raise my 'canteen cup' in spirit (from a sheep).

Semper Fi
always right | Email | Homepage | 11.02.09 - 10:42 pm | #

dchamil, There's a children's nursery rhyme.

Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater,
Had a wife and couldn't keep her.
He put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her very well.
Gloria | Email | Homepage | 11.04.09 - 2:35 pm | #

Grimmy,

I'll be interested in hearing Dr. Sanity's take on the Warrior Song. I watched it the other day after you posted it at Crittenden's place. I like it, but it also gave me pause. I would be interested in reading any thoughts of yours that you may wish to share.

Also, thanks for sharing the tidbit about your grandmother's roses on the other thread. That's really nice to think about. I miss my grandmother so much. She grew cymbidium orchids in big pots around her elm tree and also grew a lot of chrysanthemums. She lived in San Gabriel, California, and did her gardening early in the morning before the day got too hot.

As I recall, Dr. Sanity will be in Northern California. Rose Heaven.

LLB,

I wish I knew. I am so worried about it. I have friends in Israel. I worked for an Israeli-founded company for a few years, and spent three weeks in Israel writing a paper with a computer scientist at the Weizmann Institute. An honor and a joy. Never have I been treated so well as I was by my colleagues there who hardly knew me. I was taken to the symphony twice in my three-week visit by the founder of the firm, taken on trips to see the sights by my colleagues, invited home to dinner by practically everyone, etc. People who had never heard of me put me up at their Moshav in the north because I was a colleague of a friend of a daughter.

Anyway, to your question. From a military perspective, as I'm sure you know, the Iranians learned from the Israeli strike on Osirik and so they have dispersed their nuclear program and hidden their most sensitive assets deep underground. It seems that a next-generation bunker-buster will be needed to take destroy these facilities. As it happens, we appear to have just such a weapon in the works, the MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator). Its production has been sped up and it is expected to be ready by the end of the year. Two of these enormous bombs fit on the B-2 stealth bomber. The bomb apparently is designed to explode at a depth of about 200 feet, which ought to do it. This is of course all public information. Northrop-Grumman has a lot of interesting stuff on their website about this program and also the B-2. For example: "It can fly more than 6,000 nautical miles unrefueled and more than 10,000 nautical miles with just one aerial refueling. With its ability to carry more than 20 tons of conventional and nuclear ordnance and deliver it precisely under any weather conditions, the B-2 also has the ability to change the outcome of a conflict with a single mission."

I find it reassuring to read about our military superiority. But of course we have to make the right decisions or it does no good.

My guess is that President Obama will make the right decision for the wrong reasons. He doesn't seem to understand that peace comes about because of strength ("leverage" as President Bush put it when trying to send President Obama a clue about the nature of diplomacy). But he does seem highly motivated to cause people to think well of him. I imagine it will eventually start to bother him that our adversaries are laughing at him. (A-jad, for example, saying to the Iranian press that President Obama's foreign policy consists of begging the Iranians to talk to him.) What I am hoping for is an alignment of his narcissistic interests with our military interests. I think we will end up striking Iran because it will be the only chance President Obama has to do something that actually matters.

So in an odd way, the failure of his so-called health-care reform seems important to our national security. What a weird world we live in.

What do others think?
Sarah Rolph | Email | Homepage | 11.05.09 - 9:20 am | #

Don't forget Germans (and others) helped build those bunkers, even with the sanction in place. Even then they are our allies.
always right | Email | Homepage | 11.05.09 - 12:12 pm | #

Sarah:

First:

That song was written by a civilian with no personal military experience, but who had family members with such. He wrote and produced that song specifically to express his appreciation to American war-fighters and raise funds for a military charity.

Second:

My own thoughts on it. I'm speaking as a former USMC infantryman who was lucky enough to serve during peace time, so can't speak to other services or those currently facing the elephant. That should be kept in mind when reading the rest of this.

It is my opinion, and limited experience, that this song speaks directly to a "mindset" that is required by those standing the line.

Much of infantry training is aimed at giving the infantryman time and experience necessary to build up emotional and psychological 'armor' so that he can put aside his natural priority to be self preserving and safety seeking. When training for skills in the infantryman's job, infantrymen are also coming to terms with the reality that their job may well cost them their lives.

It has been all the vogue to poopoo on testosterone for the last few decades, but testosterone is absolutely required in heavy doses for grunts to do their job. It's a dirty, brutal, and often disgusting job, but when it has to be done, it needs be done without quivering, foot dragging, hesitation or second guessing. Those behaviors simply guarantee that death or dismemberment will be a more likely outcome and mission failure will also result.

A controlled fierceness, hardened heart and drive to accomplish the mission regardless of personal cost, as strange as it may sound, help to limit casualties taken as well as aid in more rapid accomplishment of assigned missions.

The mission of an infantryman is to close with and destroy an enemy.

I was in three different battalions during my time as a Marine grunt, and each unit had its own rituals and particular practices aimed at developing and enhancing exactly the mindset as described in that song.
Grimmy | Email | Homepage | 11.05.09 - 12:20 pm | #

Gagdad, from one 'Minister of Information' to the other: your post was hilarious!

Very well said!! The Acorn/Cair way is the only paying way:

"We are All Parasites now!!" - (God willing)

Baghdad POP


And thanx a trillion to Pat Santy for her own addiction to sanity!
AcidPoP | Email | Homepage | 11.05.09 - 1:34 pm | #

Thanks, Grimmy. Very well said. I think you have filled in the missing piece for me. What you say makes a lot of sense.
Sarah Rolph | Email | Homepage | 11.05.09 - 9:54 pm | #

Doc: You must be shaking your head with the latest example of denial. I'm speaking about the Hasan murders at Fort Hood. Everything and anything is being blamed, except for the fact that Hasan's Muslim loyalties exceeded his loyalties to the Army and this country. He is what used to be called a traitor.

I think the purpose of our news media is to lead us into a self-induced coma. I'm quite glad that I refuse to participate in it.
Dems R NeoMarxists | Email | Homepage | 11.06.09 - 10:54 am | #