And Now for Something Completely Different

It’s been only six days since I last posted, but it seems like a month to me. I think I was pretty plain in my disappointment over the whole Petraeus Report thing. I know I shouldn’t have been disappointed since I predicted most of the non-consequences. Still, I was disappointed and its been hard to start writing again.

At the same time, I have to wonder why I am even doing this blog. After close to 90 typed pages worth of postings and untold hours in trying to make my ramblings appear coherent and having only one comment in all that time, I have to wonder. I know there are quite a few folks who read the blog (Google and Feedster tracking). I even have a few subscribers, but no comments.

When I started thinking about a blog, I saw a couple of lists of things a good blog should contain. Among the ten or twelve points was, “pick a viewpoint and be passionate about it.” If that means that I have to choose my viewpoint and then never change my mind regardless of contrary facts, then I’m not your man. I do change my mind when I think I am wrong and I rarely jump onto any platform with careless abandon since I’ve found my most cherished opinions too often trashed by facts. I run hot and lukewarm on the Surge even though I want it to succeed.

Here’s what I believe, in nutshell, mostly regarding the Iraq War and our current federal government:

• I support the Surge but I expect to see measurable improvements in the personal security of Iraqi citizens by March-April 2008.
• I support the troops, and have done so since I retired from the Navy in 1975, with regular and sizeable donations to the DAV, Disabled Vets for Life, and related organizations. In more recent years I’ve added organizations that support active troops and their families to my list of donations.
• I am against a complete withdrawal of troops but neither the President or Congress has any coherent idea on what role our troops should play in a reduced presence, and without a clear mission I fear it would lead to more Bush disasters.
• I voted for George Bush twice and I sincerely apologize. I’ve been a Republican for about 50 voting years. My form Republicanism is of an age when dinosaurs died. Some would call me a Goldwater Republican but an Alan Greenspan Republican might mean more to younger generations. I am fiscally conservative but socially middle of the road. I also believe in less federal government and retention of the original meaning of the U.S. Constitution. The Bush Administration meets none of that criteria.

As you can see, I am passionate about the Bush Administration. As a student of history I can say that this Administration is the most disastrous in our modern history. As America first appeared with power on the world scene, we had a reputation for moral naivety in diplomatic affairs. As we learned to participate in world events, the naivety was lost but our Christian morality remained high and we became the beacon of all that is good in man. In just six and a half years, our beacon was extinguished and we now stand as the only Western nation (except for Germany in WWII) that believes in torture, imprisonment without trial, making war on countries that pose no real threat, and we Americans allow our government to lie to us and the world on a daily basis. You may keep this in mind because it does color some of my other opinions.

All that said, I will keep posting. I intend to shift my posts to an investigation of Islam and whether we should be afraid of Islam or just jihadists. To do that, I want to take a look at why they hate the West and the U.S. in particular. I want to compare Christianity and Islam because I see too many Americans trying to understand Islam in reference to Christianity and I believe that is the wrong approach. I will occasionally return to counterinsurgency and the Iraq War whenever I see something significant. Stay tuned.

To encourage comment, I am removing the word verification step in posting comments.