This and that, Part II....
*Two more helicopters down in Iraq today with lose of life. The news hits all to close, reminding me of earlier times in another conflict in the late 1960's and early '70's. One soldier dying in a foreign country is one to many, but that is why we have soldiers and armies. To protect our freedom and help others gain theirs.
CNN, in their online news report, makes the comment......"The deaths brought the number of American soldiers killed in the Iraq war to 417. Of those, 278 have died since President Bush declared the end of major combat operations on May 1." It's that second sentence that gets me. To my way of thinking, inferring that somehow President Bush mislead the public into thinking there would be no more casualties.
CNN thinks that you, me and the American public are morons who will rise up in protest over George's "lie". We are not and we will not. Most people with half a brain know what he meant, that the large scale unit actions were over......that in fact we won the war. Which we did, routing a very large army and sending it's dicatator despot leader into hiding. The lives we are losing now are in the enforcement of the peace. Not that a death in enforcement is any less painful than one in war, it's not. But there is a big difference. In Vietnam, we never had the chance to enforce a peace, we could not conclude the war.
417 deaths in Iraq. That's to many, especially to the families and friends whose lives this will alter forever. But many of us who remember our history, and perhaps lived a little of it, can compare this to other military actions. In WW I, the US military lost over 70,000 dead in under two years. I dare say that 417 soldiers were killed at D-Day in Normandy in the first 30 minutes of action. My friends and comrades in the 1st Cavalry who fought in the Ia Drang in 1965 lost 305 of their buddies in just under 5 days. I hope we can keep this in perspective.
*I have embarked on my first phase of the redecorating of the estate.....La Hacienda del Oro Perro. The guest room is becoming Jack's room, and at his request he wants an Army motif.......good boy! So the walls will soon be some version of brown close to Desert Sand, which will coordinate with the desert camo pillow covers that his Mom will make.
I am compulsive about doing things "right". The words still ring in my ears from childhood, "if something is worth doing, it's worth doing right", but this time I'm fudging a little. Currently the walls are papered, and the "right" thing to do would be strip the paper, retexture the walls and then paint. But....to save time for my other projects, which do involve wallpaper stripping, I have chosen to paint over the paper. I am doing that "right" though, by floating the seams in the wallpaper to hide them and priming the walls before painting. I am also compulsive about projects, once started, being completed quickly.......so I have to go back to work now.
*Two more helicopters down in Iraq today with lose of life. The news hits all to close, reminding me of earlier times in another conflict in the late 1960's and early '70's. One soldier dying in a foreign country is one to many, but that is why we have soldiers and armies. To protect our freedom and help others gain theirs.
CNN, in their online news report, makes the comment......"The deaths brought the number of American soldiers killed in the Iraq war to 417. Of those, 278 have died since President Bush declared the end of major combat operations on May 1." It's that second sentence that gets me. To my way of thinking, inferring that somehow President Bush mislead the public into thinking there would be no more casualties.
CNN thinks that you, me and the American public are morons who will rise up in protest over George's "lie". We are not and we will not. Most people with half a brain know what he meant, that the large scale unit actions were over......that in fact we won the war. Which we did, routing a very large army and sending it's dicatator despot leader into hiding. The lives we are losing now are in the enforcement of the peace. Not that a death in enforcement is any less painful than one in war, it's not. But there is a big difference. In Vietnam, we never had the chance to enforce a peace, we could not conclude the war.
417 deaths in Iraq. That's to many, especially to the families and friends whose lives this will alter forever. But many of us who remember our history, and perhaps lived a little of it, can compare this to other military actions. In WW I, the US military lost over 70,000 dead in under two years. I dare say that 417 soldiers were killed at D-Day in Normandy in the first 30 minutes of action. My friends and comrades in the 1st Cavalry who fought in the Ia Drang in 1965 lost 305 of their buddies in just under 5 days. I hope we can keep this in perspective.
*I have embarked on my first phase of the redecorating of the estate.....La Hacienda del Oro Perro. The guest room is becoming Jack's room, and at his request he wants an Army motif.......good boy! So the walls will soon be some version of brown close to Desert Sand, which will coordinate with the desert camo pillow covers that his Mom will make.
I am compulsive about doing things "right". The words still ring in my ears from childhood, "if something is worth doing, it's worth doing right", but this time I'm fudging a little. Currently the walls are papered, and the "right" thing to do would be strip the paper, retexture the walls and then paint. But....to save time for my other projects, which do involve wallpaper stripping, I have chosen to paint over the paper. I am doing that "right" though, by floating the seams in the wallpaper to hide them and priming the walls before painting. I am also compulsive about projects, once started, being completed quickly.......so I have to go back to work now.
