I Learned Dharma

Last Saturday I visited a friend in a nursing home. He wasn’t there because of age but rather, he had taken drunk and during that drunk fell and broke his leg. The drunk continued for another week and the leg became infected, badly infected, and but for the keen observation and quick response of the owner of the cheap, “No tell motel” that he called home, his alcoholism would have achieved its goal of killing him.

After six weeks in the hospital without insurance or a pot to piss in for that matter, the hospital was more than happy to dump him off at this other facility some two hours away from Nashville in the foothills of the Eastern mountains. But enough about this guy, he’s going to get it or he won’t, that’s up to him.

As I was leaving the home, walking down the hall to the next building and into the main building, past dozens of rooms full of old people, some there and others not, I suddenly felt sorry that their lives had brought them to this place and this condition. I experienced that life was impermanent. I learned Dharma from that walk.

Dog Older and Out

A Thought On Casualties

During a two day car trip from Nashville to Scottsdale to deliver a car to my sister I listened to a book on tape titled, "A Concise History of the the Middle East Over the Last Twelve Hundred Years". I'll admit that I fast forwarded to the last six hundred years after it became apparent that little had changed in the political, religious and social landscape for the first six hundred. Conquerers came and conquerers went but never, not once did, an outside power bring any change to the region. A great deal of time was spent on Iraq, or the land that has become known as Iraq after it was created by the European powers after WWI. Had anyone of the giant brains in the Bush Administration spent any time, even a light perusal, studying this history, the last thing we would have done was invade. VP Dick Cheney had it right when interviewed after the war to liberate Kuwait and he said that to invade Iraq and oust Sadam Hussein would mire us in a war we could not hope to win. Unfortunately, when he was in power and his oil company puppet masters told him to secure the oil fields for them, he forgot.

When the war on Iraq began my friend Paul and I spent long hours discussing the situation. Paul, one of the most widely read of my friends, and I shared our ideas and our prognostications about the outcome. Paul has kept up with the death toll. Now this might sound odd to some but the death toll in a war can tell us a great deal about the politics of the ones waging it on our behalf. This is an update for your edification:

TOTAL U.S. ARMED FORCES CASUALTIES (dead + wounded) = 31,645*

TOTAL U.S. ARMED FORCES CASUALTIES + NON-HOSTILE INJURIES/DISEASE = 28,308^?

BLACKWATER CASUALTIES (dead + wounded) = 12,917i?

GRAND TOTAL U.S. ARMED FORCES & MERCENARY CASUALTIES (dead + wounded) =

*72,870*

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All Coalition Dead:

U.S. 3760*

U.K. 0169

Other 0129

Total 4058

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As of 07-31-07:

U.S. 118* Died of self-inflicted wounds

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U.S. WOUNDED:

03-19-03 to 09-07-07:

15,291 Wounded returned to duty w/in 72 hrs.

12,476 Wounded not returned to Duty within 72 hours

27,767* TOTAL

As of 07-31-07:

07,459 Non-Hostile Injuries - Medical Air Transport Required

20,849 Diseases/Other - Medical Air Transport Required

28,308?

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BLACKWATER MERCENARY CASUALTIES AS OF c. July 2007 (conservative estimates):

00,917 Dead

12,000 Wounded, applied for benefits

12,917i?

The Popeye Point

Until the recent troubles with the mortgage industry, the financial industry and its talking head puppets in the media were crowing about the rising numbers in the stock market. Every time I heard a glowing report on the market translated into a strong economic outlook I found myself saying to the TV “...and the stock market has what to do with the economy”? I know, I know, talking to the TV, or to anyone for that matter who is not there can be consider suspect behavior. All right, I admit that I’m crazy, I have papers that prove it…six pages in the last report.

But as crazy as I am, I thought the people in the Bush administration were crazier. Time has shown me that they are not crazy at all. They are lying, cheating, no good sons-a-bitches and the majority of the American people still buy into the myth.

When Bush took over in 2001, he had predicted a surplus of $516 billion for fiscal year 2006. The 2006 deficit of $248 billion, missed the Deciders projection by a mere $764 billion and change. Bush then went on to say that the numbers are "proof that pro-growth economic policies work" and are "an example of sound fiscal policies here in Washington."

Sound fiscal policy? Even conservatives disagree. Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation said, "The White House has a track record of projecting budget numbers to be a lot worse than they end up, which therefore helps them defeat the gloomy expectations and declare victory." If Bush does manage to make the tax cuts permanent, it will add more than $3 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years. The federal budget would be virtually in balance if there had been no tax cuts. Ooops, is Bush stupid or just a liar?

Meanwhile, what we see in the economy as a whole is an immense shift of wealth from the poor and middle class to the very rich. It seems a little painful to have to point this out yet again after six solid years of it, but these strong economy stories are just lies, damn lies based on some sort of statistical masturbation.

While lightening the tax burden for the rich, other parts of the Bush economic program continue to undermine the middle class in this country. As you may recall, in 2005 the credit industry successfully rammed a disgraceful bankruptcy reform bill through Congress. It's working out just the way we expected it to: Middle class families are borrowing more than ever to make ends meet. Most families go under if: (a) they lose a job or (b) they have a health emergency crisis.

An attorney friend of mine sums up the legislation's impact: "It's designed to make life miserable for anybody who owes money. It's a help-the-banks, squish-the-little-guy law."

One of the lessons of history is that we don’t learn anything from history. If the powers that be would read just one book I suggest that if they value their interests they might want to read Das Kapital and the section about what I call the “Popeye Point”. That point occurs when the squishees declare, “I’ve stands all I can stand, I can’t stands no more.” At that point there will be a place along the wall for the ‘haves and the have mores.” It might make a good reality show.

Dog Out

Three Tap Frag

America's hero Pat Tillman may or may not have been killed in action. Early reports had Tillman, a professional football player who gave up a lucrative contract to join the Army, being killed by enemy combatants in an action in the Eastern highlands of Afganistan. When that story changed to him being killed by friendly fire during an ambush, things began to take a turn for the worse. Now, after the true facts began to filter out to the public, it appears that Corporal Tillman, a squad leader met his death in a totally different way.

First of all, Army investigators found no sign enemy action as alleged by the members of his squad. Army medical examiners also questioned the head wounds which were the cause of his death. It was clear to the examiners that he was shot three times at close range by an American assault rifle. Ouch, three taps in the head from close range by a member of his squad. Could we have a fragging here?

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term fragging it refers to the act of soldiers killing their own commanders. The Vietnam conflict was the first I'd heard of it and from all accounts it happened with increased frequency as the combat force became increasingly top-heavy with conscripts and they were lead by green officers right out of ROTC. The offensive officer either got it in the back during a firefight or someone slipped a grenade into his living quarters.

What is interesting about the Tillman case is that despite the lack of evidence of a firefight and despite the close-up and personal taps to the forehead with a good guy assault rifle, his squad members are sticking to their story. Hmmmmm!

Dog Out

Corporate Piracy: A New Business Model

The monied interests in the US have moved one step closer to making defrauding investors an accepted growth industry, and Enron’s employees who lost their pensions and the investors who got fleeced in the Enron fraud schemes just got shafted again—this time by the hand of President George W. Bush.

The monied interests lead by powerful investment banks and their accomplices lobbied the Solicitor General, the person who represents the US at the Supreme Court, to reject the recommendation of the Securities & Exchange Commission that the Justice Department support the defrauded investors, the shaftees, in their appeal to the Supreme Court.

The position of these short money financial pirates is really self destructive if you give it a minutes thought. I mean, what investor in his/her right mind would buy stocks in a company, any company, if they knew that it was ok for the company managers to manipulate the books and steal from them?

See: Stoneridge v Scientific America.

A Lie is Forever

A Lie is Forever

At the time of, and shortly following the attack on September 11, the conspiracy theorists went wild with allegations that the Bush Administration or one of its shadowy corporate boy’s clubs was ultimately responsible for, or directly complicit in, the attack in an effort to create a vehicle for corporate America to complete its takeover of the government. Like most Americans, I shook my head and dismissed these wackos as non-thinking fear mongers who didn’t really understand the ways of the world. I’m beginning to change my mind. James Madison reminded us that, "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy"

Going after those who gave comfort and training to our attackers in Afganistan was, after all, the right thing to do. Any ambivalence I might have had was based on my knowledge of the history of Afganistan and the fact that no power had ever conquered these people. My concern has become reality. We are mired in a conflict that is, in any western way of thinking, unwinable. And then there’s Iraq. Before I get into the Iraq thing, I want to quote or erstwhile President. "You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.” We are now made privy to the intelligence estimates made available to the policy-makers pre-war vote and it’s worst case scenarios have come true.

Based on this concept the President has acted as if the American people were shills at a carnival, to be tricked and fleeced for the personal gain of the show. He lied to us and we fell for it, hook line and sinker. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that a politician lied to me, I mean that’s what they do. I usually avoid excessive quotations but in the normal course of my weekly reading I continue to come across words that ring loudly and often in my thoughts on this matter. As I engaged in a little light reading to clear my head of such thoughts, Friedrich Nietzsche pulls me back into them when he writes, “I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.” For a free thinker who is usually tolerant of the ideas of others, I find myself unable to believe anything this President says. And that’s what I hate the most.

Maybe Oscar Wilde was right when he said, "America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."

Dog Out

What Have They Done To My Corps

My old friend Wes is walking the last mile of his life. Age, lung cancer, a broken back and now pneumonia have left him pretty near death. I get by a couple of days a week to visit but there's not much to talk about. That's an odd feeling because we always had healthy and spirited discussions about everything from religion to politics and everything in between. We never really agreed about anything...well there is one thing and that one thing is this Bush war in Iraq.

Wes was a Marine, to be exact, a member of the United States Marine Corps. He got wet on the beaches of Iwo Jima, Saipan and several other unfriendly islands during WWII, and came home, much to his surprise, without a wound, well not a wound you could see, but one he would carry up to the present.

The other day, prior to the media frenzy over the death of Anna Nicole Smith, I dropped by to visit and as I entered the room I saw that he was crying...big tears rolling down his face. I asked him what was wrong, a question that I immediately was kinda dumb, I mean the guy is dying. He pointed to the TV which was looping video of young Marines in some city in Iraq kicking in doors and searching civilian homes. Women and children, frightened into silence stood by as these young Marines tore their homes apart and arrested their men. In a barely audible voice he said, "What have they done to my Corps? What have they done?"

I had no idea what to say, I just picked up the remote and surfed until I came upon a rerun of Sanford & Son. We sat in silence for an hour and I left. Later that day they took him by ambulance to the hospital. What have they done to his Corps?

Freedom Of The Press?

A recent survey of 112,003 high school students conducted by the Knight Foundation found that 36% believe newspapers should get "government approval" of stories before publishing. 51% say they should be able to publish freely; 13% had no opinion. When asked whether the press enjoys "too much freedom," not enough or about right amount, 32% say "too much," and 37% say it has the right amount, with 10% saying it has too little.

This finding, during a time when the government is jailing reporters more frequently and for longer periods, and giant corporations are consolidating their strangle hold on the printed news media leaves Dog scratching his head. Our time is coming.

“Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences.”
Robert Louis Stevenson

Dog Out

So Much For the Moral High Ground on Terrorism

The Bush Administration has imposed an arms embargo on Venezuela because of its relationship with other OPEC countries which the administration claims have links to terrorists. No wonder the world thinks we have lost our way. What hypocrites we have become. In 2003 terrorists bombed the Spanish and Columbian embassies in Caracus. The admitted terrorists, former military officers Jose Antonio Colina and German Varella, fled to the United States and sought political asylum which was denied.

In spite of the denial of political asylum the Bush Administration refuses to return these admitted terrorist to authorities in Venezuela. Why would the Bush Administration care what happens to these admitted terrorists? The answer is simple. Since Bush took power in 2000 his administration has, on no less than three occasions, using the International Republican Institute, attempted to overthrow the democratically elected government of Hugo Chavez. The financial and political relationship between Colina and Varella and the IRI is well documented. I’m reminded of something I learned as a young man: “If you see it, you be it.”

Dog Out

Our country has spent over 500US Billion so far in our excursion in Iraq. As health, education, environmental and infrastructure needs in the US are crumbling because of this drain of resources our leaders tell us we are faced with only two choices. Support the Bush administration and stay the course, whatever that is, or pull the troops out immediately and force Iraqis to take care of their own business. I for one am not willing to accept the fact that we can solve this complex problem with either of these simple solutions. As HL Mencken said, “Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers.” To make myself clear I want to point out that there are no simple solutions to this complex problem. No matter what solution we decide upon, we must, working hand in hand with our international allies and adversaries, avoid a regional conflict. The model used in the former Yugoslavia gives us a workable guide to achieving a workable solution in Iraq.

The following are some ideas, not necessarily my original ideas, but ideas that I think might make the best of many bad options:

1) Establish three largely autonomous regions with a viable central government in Baghdad. The Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite regions would each be responsible for their own domestic laws, administration and internal security. The central government would control border defense, foreign affairs and oil revenues. Baghdad would become a federal zone, while densely populated areas of mixed populations would receive both multi-sectarian and international police protection.

2) Entice the Sunnis into joining the federal system with an offer they couldn't refuse. To begin with, running their own region should be far preferable to the alternatives: being dominated by Kurds and Shiites in a central government or being the main victims of a civil war. But they also have to be given money to make their oil-poor region viable. The Constitution must be amended to guarantee Sunni areas 20 percent (approximately their proportion of the population) of all revenues.

3) Encourage the protection of the rights of women and ethno-religious minorities by using American aid to Iraq and tying it to respect for those rights.

4) The president must direct the military to design a plan for withdrawing and redeploying our troops from Iraq by the end of 2007 (while providing for a small but effective residual force of UN/NATO troops to combat terrorists and keep the neighbors honest). We must avoid a precipitous withdrawal that would lead to a national meltdown, but we also can't have a substantial long-term American military presence. That would do terrible damage to our armed forces, break American and Iraqi public support for the mission and leave Iraqis without any incentive to shape up.

5) Under an international or United Nations umbrella, we should convene a regional conference to pledge respect for Iraq's borders and its federal system. For all that Iraq's neighbors might gain by picking at its pieces, each faces the greater danger of a regional war. A "contact group" of major powers would be set up to lean on neighbors to comply with the deal.

This plan is obviously not perfect. But there are no perfect plans for Iraq. The thing I like most about this plan is that it is brash. In order to get anything done, we need to find a way to control the violence--we must stop the bleeding. Security will drive everything else in Iraq. The best way to battle the insurgency is to discourage Iraqis from joining the fight. Showing that we can ensure safety for the average Iraqi helps do that. The current (inadequate) number of troops playing Whack-a-Mole for the next three years won't do it. Forcing the three main ethnic groups into neutral corners might give them a shot at stabilizing the situation.

There are of course problems with this plan (as with any plan). Iraq does not have a clean set of lines that divide the ethnic groups. There is also no reliable data to show how the Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds and other factions are spread out, and where exactly they live. Splitting the large cities like Baghdad would be very complicated. This plan would also create massive displacement issues that could instigate violence.

That being said, this plan is surely better than "Stay the Course," and might buy us all some much needed time to force the political situation to take root.

Please forgive my presumptuousness at bringing this to your attention but I feel that it is extremely important that we not be herded by self-serving politicians and a less than thoughtful media into thinking within the prescribed box.

Dog Out