THE FOUR POLITICAL DISASTERS

As I look back over my long life, I notice four major disastrous actions since WW-II.

The first happened under President Eisenhower when the CIA helped overthrew a duly elected democratic government in Iran* and our relations with Iran have gone downhill ever since.  At the behest of the forerunner of BP (Anglo-Persian Oil Company), the British government requested that the U.S. overthrow the government of Mohammod Mosaddegh   Defenders of Eisenhower say that the CIA went rogue in doing so and Eisenhower didn't know about it.

The second was when President Reagan failed to react militarily to the embassy attacks in Lebanon and Kuwait plus the Beirut Marine base bombing.**  Instead he cut and ran which emboldened terrorists who concluded that the U.S. wouldn't react to their machinations which eventually led to the U.S. getting involved militarily in the quagmire of the Middle Eastern politics.

The third involved President George W. Bush (Bush-43) who got us involved militarily in the middle eastern quagmire in Iraq.***  I think that it was appropriate for the U.S. to get involved militarily in Afghanistan after the World Trade Center airplane attacks killing nearly 3,000 people.

The fourth also involved President Bush (Bush-43).  His opposition to regulation of the financial industry**** resulted in a financial collapse of the economy from which we are still digging out although the stock markets and corporate profits have been very good

You might ask what about Vietnam and President Johnson?  At the time of the Vietnam war, I would have included it as a major disaster and in terms of lives lost it is.  Today, however, we have friendly relations with Vietnam, and they are an important trading partner with which we have diplomatic ties.  President Bush (Bush-43) went to Vietnam twice and wanted to sign a trade agreement with them, but the Senate disagreed.  We may have to wait for my generation to die out before full economic relations are achieved with them.  Korea was another major problem at the time, but, since the Korean War, South Korea has developed into an economic power, and, in spite of the hostile nature of North Korea, the area seems stable with South Korea being an ally of ours.  President Eisenhower did us a favor by ending the Korean War.  In contrast, I don't see the Middle East countries becoming important U.S. allies within say the next 30 yrs, but I won't be around to see if I am right.

Even WW-II resulted in Japan and Germany curiously becoming important allies of the U.S. and major economic powers.  Because of problems involving religions and former colonization, I don't see that happening with the Middle East.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d'état
** http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/19/1147106/-Breaking-Ronald-Reagan-refuses-to-call-embassy-attack-an-act-of-terror; http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/176699.pdf
*** http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/870845/Iraq-War
****http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007–08; http://www.umsl.edu/~dibooglus/personal/financial%20crisis_revised.pdf

I'M SITTING OUT THIS ONE

I've decided I'll sit out the ISIS (ISIL if you prefer) War.  I usually record news programs like Morning Joe so I fast forward through the ISIS parts.  I may miss something else, but so be it.  If the news program is not recorded, I toggle between Soundscapes and the news program to avoid the ISIS War.

I went along with al Qaeda being very bad.  After all they actually killed nearly 3,000 people in this country.  Maybe more if you count those who are delayed in dying from smoke inhalation.  I felt we had to do something and invading Afghanistan to get al Qaeda was fine (remember Afghanistan tribes provided the first "boots on the ground.").  Now we are told that ISIS is even worse.  And the other day I heard of yet another organization that is considered even worse than ISIS in that their aim is to destroy the U.S.(Khorasan).*  And there are also those who say that Hamas is just as bad as ISIS.**

Now during most of my life (and I'm 83) the standard was to say that a group or individual was"worse than the Nazi's."  It is interesting that this analogy is no longer used.  After all, the Nazi's were defeated almost 70 yrs ago.  We've had two or three generations grow up since then.  I guess there is a feeling that ISIS is worse than the Russians.  Remember when it was Assad that had to go?  For the minute we'll ignore him, but I'm sure we'll get back to him some year.

To begin with, we won't put "boots on the ground" though special forces or the CIA don't count.  President Obama wants other Arabs or Muslims to do this.  I have to wonder why they haven't already done this?  They don't seem to worry about ISIS being a threat to them.  We always seem to align ourselves with a group of people that don't want to fight for their land.  Remember Vietnam and the Iraqi military divisions that collapsed when they were first threatened and armed ISIS by abandoning all their equipment?  How many years did we train Iraqi troops - 8 yrs at least, I think.  Who trained the North Koreans (well maybe the Soviets), North Vietnamese, Taliban and ISIS forces?   They seem to be self trained and better than all our training of their opponents    Hey the Americans will do it for us, calm down!

I don't remember the Korean War very well (though I was of age to be called up with the draft), but before we entered the Korean War, it seemed like the North had almost pushed the Southern forces into the sea.**  It used to be that the first thing we would do was send in 5,000 Marines and then regretfully build up from there.  It is interesting, however, that since we were kicked out of Vietnam, they want to be our trading partners, and we have no residual forces there.  Can you imagine that?  And Indonesia is still a non-Communist country.  Remember the Domino Theory where if South Vietnam would fall to the communist North, then the other SE Asian countries would fall, including Indonesia.

Of course the big focus on the Middle East concerns oil.  I had supported oil exploration of ANWR on the north slopes of Alaska and fracking, and the Keystone XL Pipeline to make us independent of  Middle East oil  and allow us to withdraw from there, but it hasn't worked.  Importing some oil from Canada, Mexico, and Valenzuela would be OK.

I yearn for the good old days of Carter and Reagan and Clinton when all we had to worry about were Embassy kidnappings, war with the island nation of Grenada, and fly by shooting of Iraqi radar posts.****  I'm going to sit out this latest war.

* http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-the-khorasan-group-airstrikes-isis-islamic-state-2014-9
**  http://mondoweiss.net/2014/09/israeli-government-propaganda
***  http://www.history.com/topics/korean-war
**** http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2014/09/good-old-days.html

"GOOD OLD DAYS"

I sort of miss the "good old days" of Presidents Ford who ended U.S. occupation of Vietnam, Carter with only the American embassy hostages.  Called by Democrats a "Warmonger," President Reagan stubbornly refused to go to war over three major Embassy attacks (twice in Beirut and one in Kuwait) plus the Marine barracks disaster, and at least when he went to war, he at least picked someone we could beat - Granada. President Bush (41), of course, did have Desert Storm (Iraq I) and his "invasion" of Panama to capture Noriega, but the things calmed down again with President Clinton with his drive by shooting in Iraq from American military airplanes.  Clinton, who had several terrorist attacks, also is distinguished by winning the only war won without "boots on the ground" - Kosovo - won by air power alone.  Those are about the years closest to peace I have seen in my 83 years since Japan invaded China in 1937.

This comparatively "sleepy" period from 1974 through the 1990s was preceded by WW-II of President Roosevelt, Korea of President Truman, and Vietnam of Presidents Kennedy,Johnson, and Nixon and succeeded by the Afghanistan and Iraq II wars of President Bush (43).  Now we can add the Iraq III/Syria war of our "peace" President Obama.

TRIBUTE TO EXCESS!

Look, I'm fine with rebuilding the Twin Towers area as has been done as it has symbolic value in addition to economic value.  I'm fine with the "$1.8 avg. million dollar" payments to the families of the victims not to sue the airlines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11th_Victim_Compensation_Fund).  I'm fine with the tasteful list of the names of all the victims in the courtyard.

But I get into trouble with the 100,000 sq.ft. museum that is 7 stories  (7 STORIES) underground (UNDERGROUND) at a cost of a billion dollars PLUS $60 million/yr for upkeep of which $20 million/yr is to be provided by the Federal government.  Sen. Coburn has objected to this, and I am with him (http://www.politico.com/huddle/0912/huddle1122.html).  It seems like there is not enough that can be done for the victims, their families, and survivors of the Twin Towers disaster.  And you can add to that the health concerns of the survivors of which I am all in favor as I am for universal health care.

Look if some billionaire or group of billionaires were to bankroll this, I certainly wouldn't stand in the way and a billion dollar gift would provide a $50 million/yr for upkeep (@5% withdrawal/yr).

I also can't imagine what they are going to put into the museum.  I can see one story and maybe it has to be underground, but 7 stories and 100,000 sq.ft.?

SO, have we done enough for the U.S military victims (58,282 KIA and 153,303 WIA requiring hospitalization) and their families of Vietnam? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_casualties)  And what about the 33,651 military and plus 3,262 other U.S. deaths in Korea? (http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-507_162-202741.html)  And many of the injured have life changing wounds (lost arms, legs, and minds).

While I am at it, there were more troops killed in Iraq (4,409 plus 31,908 wounded) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War) than in 9/11 twin towers (2,606 in the towers and on the ground).  This is not to say that the number killed in Afghanistan won't exceed the number killed on 9/11 as the casualties have passed 2,000 with 1-1/4 yrs to run plus another 17,382 wounded in action. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_casualties_in_Afghanistan).  Then there is the little contribution of $5 billion/wk to run these wars.  Though we may have invaded Iraq over oil and the threat to kill Bush-41, we certainly only invaded Afghanistan because of 9/11.  It seems to me that this blood and treasure are a huge monument to the victims of 9/11 by itself.

YOU ARE SO LUCKY (Biographical)

In 1965, we arrived in Tokyo, Japan, in the afternoon on Japan Airlines from Hawaii. We were a couple of geochemists (plus my wife) involved in the U.S.-Japan Scientific Cooperation Program. We were to be accompanied by some Japanese scientists to sample the volcanic rocks of all the active Japanese volcanoes but two under the tutelage of the legendary Professor Hitashi Kuno of the University of Tokyo. In Tokyo, we stayed at the Hilltop Hotel, a steel frame and brick structure which was indeed on the top of a hill.

That evening, we were taken to the Ginza to a restaurant for a sukiyaki dinner with Professor Myaki, whom I had briefly met when I was a student at the California Institute of Technology. But he also was the Professor of my partner, Dr. Mitsunobu Tatsumoto, when he was a graduate student at the Tokyo University of Education. Professor Myaki was famous for leading a small group that analyzed the radioactive fallout from a U.S. atom bomb on the Japanese fishing vessel, the Lucky Dragon. In doing so, they found that the bomb had been of what was then a new type, a fusion and not a fission bomb - a hydrogen bomb. This so surprised the U.S. government, that they were sure that some spy had leaked the information. But they hadn’t accounted for the cleverness of the Japanese.

After the wonderful dinner, we left the restaurant and found there was a large parade on the Ginza, a very wide boulevard. Prof. Myaki said, "Ah, you are so lucky. We don’t have many demonstrations anymore." Then I noticed that as the groups of young people marched in orderly groups, many across, they would yell something about "‘Melicans" in unison. So I said to Prof. Myaki, "It sounds like they are saying, Yankee go home." He said, "Oh, no, but you are so lucky to see a demonstration." After appealing to some other Japanese in our party for a translation, I was finally told that the demonstration was an objection to the South Korean’s claim that the Japanese owed them reparations because of World War II. The Japanese felt that they had built a lot of factories in Korea so no more reparations were owed. The Koreans had countered that these factories were mainly in north Korea and didn’t count. Ah so, but I then asked why I kept hearing something about "‘Melicans this and ‘Melicans that?" "Oh," was the reply, "That is because you are siding with the Koreans." "Oh." I replied, "so it is Yankee go home." \

I began to look around and saw a huge crowd of people lining the Ginza with us being the only Caucasian faces I could see. This observation left me more than a little nervous, even though I did note about a dozen riot police nearby. Then there was a break in the demonstration and someone said, "Let’s go to the other side." I looked over to the other side and saw maybe twice as many riot police there so I was in total agreement. Once we were on the other side, someone said to me, "The demonstrators are the Zenga Kurin, a group of radical students, and, if you think the police are sympathetic with them, you are mistaken as these police have already put in a full day’s work. Soon the student’s will begin to snake around. Then the riot police will pull down their plastic shields over their faces and go out and beat the students with their night clubs. You are so lucky to see this." I replied that this was our first night in Tokyo, and we were so tired from our trip. We really would like to return to our hotel. So we were taken back. But it turned out that the students didn’t snake that night.

The first morning we were in Tokyo, there was an earthquake. The motion was lateral and not up and down so we were not over the epicenter; however, we were on the top, 5th floor, of the steel frame hotel so it was like being on the end of a seismograph needle and our room swayed back and forth alarmingly. My wife said, "Should we run down the stairs?" I yelled, "I couldn’t even make it to the door." as I held onto the bed. I figured that the hotel had survived many such earthquakes and that we would be all right. Though my emotional self wasn’t convinced of this rational reasoning during the event, my supposition proved to be correct. The earthquake seemed to last forever, but lasted for maybe 15 or 20 seconds at most. Soon after it was over, the telephone rang. One of my Japanese acquaintances was on the phone and asked, "How did you like your welcome to Tokyo earthquake? You are so lucky."

The following morning, there was a newscast of a typhoon coming. Shortly after that, the phone rang and another Japanese acquaintance said, "Ah, you are so lucky. You will experience a typhoon." Well, we were "unlucky" in this instance and the typhoon didn’t hit Tokyo or, at least, not where we were.

So I wrote to my mother, telling her of these events and saying, "The Japanese have such a wonderful attitude. You are so lucky to experience all of life’s disasters."