Redemptive Society - US Style

When the Stalinist Soviet Union demanded that purged political enemies of the people confess and admit their crimes publicly before they were shot in the back of the head at Lubyanka prison in Moscow, Americans gasped at the barbarity of the show. Now in America, we demand that celebrities beg for redemption publicly to restore their standing with the public; no speeding bullet coup de grâce, but just more humiliation for the sinner. Celebrity must be a terrible addiction for those who grovel so desperately to regain it. Self-pride is out; self-pity is in.

Ever since the American revolution threw the English monarchy out of the USA, there has been a historical yearning by many in the USA to worship secular; something other than a non-secular god. To adore politicians, film stars, inventors, military leaders, business tycoons, sport figures, religious leaders and journalists has been substituted for homage to an old effete monarchy.

Some of European and Asian communities have kept their royalty but made it politically toothless; it is maintained as tradition – a sense of continuity that enables colorful ceremonies with jeweled crowns, bright tailored uniforms with unearned decorations and... with a few harmless salacious scandals.

Worship of celebrities is a hazardous endeavor. Politicians are mostly corrupt; films stars overdose on booze and dope; inventors steal ideas; military leaders lose wars foolishly; business tycoons sell their country for profits; steroid-bulked sport figures are bribed, run dog fighting, have illegal weapons, earn assault charges and are killed by their girl friends; journalists sell their souls for a story; and lust... nails the preachers and priests.

The European monarchies collapsed mainly because they lost wars, some which they started, which were followed by economic catastrophes. Inbreeding between the royal houses encouraged hemophilia and the bloodlines were thiner and thiner as royal leadership appeared more incompetent as rulers; ergo, the masses organized and revolted. Gone are the grand Houses of Hapsburg, Hohenzollern, and Bourbons. The Windsors came about when Edward VII arbitrarily changed from the German royal house to Windsors, because the Huns in WWI became the enemy of England.

Celebrities publicly seeking atonement and redemption has been a staple on the American scene for a long time. Bill Clinton was sailing along just fine until Monica Lewinsky's blue dress popped up. He called on Rev. Jesse Run Jackson, who had plenty of woman problems of his own, to save him. Rev. Martin Luther King had a white mistress; he was assassinated before it became a public issue, but he still needs to be defended on dysfunctional family issues. Something President Obama can do as he extolls Rev. Kings' virtues. Maybe the Devil made them all do it.

Politician womanizers abound, such as Spitzer, SC, Gov. Sanders, senators in both parties, and congressmen who cannot keep their hands off page boys. Some of these more pathetic things ask their wives to stand by them publicly as they are mortified.

My issue with all this is not the moral turpitude or betrayal of office, as it can be handled by law or voters; but rather, it is the hypocrisy of the process which permits salvaging of their careers. Ah, that good old Judeo-Christian forgiveness. The USA is one grand confessional. And the publicists and media talking heads administer absolution.

This eagerness to forgive breeds irresponsibility that trickles down from the so-called entitled celebrity class to the lower rungs of society. It encourages the spinning apart of a responsible society by example.

TIGER TIGER BURNING BRIGHT – the media circus surrounding Tiger Woods auto de fé was astounding. It was as if the world stopped to listen to his drivel. Woods is Buddhist. Even the Dalai lama checked in on the issue. The last time I checked, this religion has no Ten Commandments. His wife is a Christian; her religion has commandments as a moral compass... it is going to require celestial wisdom to sort this out. Buddhists believe in self-discipline and consequences of actions; so the Tiger is still caught by the tail.

Radio talking head Lou Dobbs condemned Woods because he victimized his pack of paramours. His female listeners made Dobbs back down as they raged about how all the gals knew Tiger was married when they frolicked with him. How banal can it get?

Tiger lost income when he lost lucrative advertising contracts because some corporations kicked in their moral clauses; he is now a lost sheep returning to the flock. He is involved in a sexual therapy cure. Save your money my friend, just say NO! Take saltpeter or stare at a photo of Golda Meir to kill your lust.

As for celebrity justice in the USA, just sit back and enjoy the lurid drama; it will get worse. Josef Stalin must be smiling somewhere. Colonial Robert E Bartos USA Ret

The Charge of the Pink Brigade

Are you are convinced by polls that say the American people are yearning to overturn DO NOT ASK AND DO NOT TELL (DADT) in the US armed services to permit gays to serve openly? Anyway, that is what you are to believe based on a Washington Post/ABC News poll last week that found 75% of Americans want this policy change. This finding is based on a telephone sampling of about 1000 souls. We do not know whether the respondents are from Fire Island or San Francisco or somewhere else.

President Obama apparently intends to pursue this policy as it was a campaign promise. His Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mullen, are openly for it. General Powell Ret. who helped conceive DADT is for it, treating the issue now as civil rights. After General Powell's deceptive performance before the UN on weapons of mass destruction, uncertain why he is taken seriously about anything. Gate's and Mullen's support is significant as their departments live with any chaos if the policy is instituted.

From my personal experience, albeit dated, command is complicated enough with disciplining drunks, drug abusers, bed wetters, thumb suckers and coping with racial conflicts. Racial issues appear to have subsided as the draft ended. But like women, gays serving openly makes the command problems even more complex.

As far as women integrated with male troops, this is still a work in progress; over 50% are reported to have been raped and another 35% have reported sexual abuse. Pregnancies continue to cause turmoil requiring unplanned replacements in combat commands; this also burdens Army medical facilities. So the cliche that the command can solve social problems through discipline so far is absurd.

Another canard promoted by gay activists is that because NATO and Israel have gays integrated in their forces, the policy would work as well in US forces. NATO forces are not much more than small parade ground troops; their combat record in Afghanistan is abysmal. The Dutch forces, one the first that permitted gays to serve openly, fled before the Bosnian Serbs in Srebrenica permitting the slaughter of most males in the city. The English Army is an exception; it completed it mission in Iraq with skill and professionalism.

Uncertain what percentage of the Israeli force is gay – it is a reserve Army, so its mobilized civilians are key to their war fighting. They do not have much choice in manpower as every healthy male and female is needed; survival of the Jewish state is always at stake. Israel Defense ground force performance, most recently in their offensive into Lebanon against Hezbollah, was mediocre

Many of the best US soldiers and NCOs usually come from south of the Mason Dixon line; aka: the Bible Belt. They are raised mostly as evangelicals and their Bible tells that them homosexuality is an abomination. There is a tradition in the Army of treating gays as undesirables; this is what the gay activists seek to change by mandate. In the process, national security could be damaged for social gain.

White southerners and blacks over the years developed a modus vivendi in the Army: professionally integrated, but tacitly, socially separated. It works and the force holds together cohesively as both groups understand the boundaries. Because it works for race, there is no indication it works for sex; failures with women in the army is a case in point.

Gays, both male and female, historically made good fighting personnel. Gays always point to Alexander the Great, Frederick the Great and WWII English Field Marshal Montgomery. And no one agues against facts that indicate gays have served honorably in American wars, but this service was discreet about sexual preference.

Admiral Mullen has declared that US service men should not lie about their status. DADT mandates shut up, not lie. With a US military justice system, military institutions are not run democratically. The service has rules; no one is compelled to join. So Mullen-the-moralist is off base. Our highest military officer in the charge, doing a chaplain's duty is a stretch. Are you serious Admiral? A Blue water navy that does not tell lies. Are your sailors altar boys too?

The Army is under stress due to involvement in Iraq and in an expanding war in the Afghanistan/Pakistan theater; suicides are up. Expensive mercenaries are filling over half the troop requirements in both combat areas. So the unknown impact of dropping DADT is high risk...a risk that puts up the necessary to gain the superfluous. No one knows for certain how this thing works out.

With gays serving openly in the Army, the mess halls could turn gourmet, day rooms would be rearranged daily, uniforms would get more snappy, there would be greater variation in haircuts and gay military parades would play to sell-out crowds. With all this anticipated Broadway, too bad we have to fight wars too. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA Ret.

Mad Missionaries & Other Religious Freakiness

Missionaries are a scary bunch – you can argue a mixed blessing. Are they self-righteous jackasses, GOTT IST MIT UNS fanatics who seek to enslave in the name of God? The more primitive or the least educated their targets, the greater their success. Even saintly Mother Theresa of Calcutta had the punies and deep misgivings at the end of her life over the integrity of her ministries. Missionaries administer to the needy and forgotten for certain, but at a Faustian price – your soul in the trade, please.

Leonard Clark's 1953 edition of the book RIVERS RAN EAST, an unsurpassed exploration account of the Amazon Basin also studied the effects of missionary conversions on the naked natives of the region. Once converted to Christianity, the converts had to wear clothing; they then were known as Shirt Indians. Fed by the missionary camps, these new Christians soon forgot how to hunt and gather food; their offspring never learned these jungle survival skills and became totally dependent on the missionaries. They lived between two worlds and became diseased, drunks and slaves to missionary projects. They were totally dependent on religious paternalism; they were de facto slaves and worked mainly on missionary enterprises. Ironically, we are told, they were nearer to God.

GOD GREW TIRED OF US was a documentary film made in 2004 by National Geographic. Its subject focused on the brutal ethnic cleansing in the Sudan, in Darfur. It followed the group, The Lost Boys death march across their country to Ethiopia and back and then, finally into Kenya where they were interned and supported by the UN and missionary groups. If there was ever a group that needed succor, it was this collection of over one thousand 12 -14 year boys without parents or guardians, dodging slaughter by the Sudanese Arabs.

They managed to build themselves a Lord of the Flies society. They were fed and clothed by the UN and Christian missionaries, who also taught them English to augment their tribal Dinko.

The US selected a small group of the brightest ones to become refugees and in the US, sent mainly to Syracuse, New York and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Unintentionally, the film proceeded to document their maladjustment. Once they received social security cards, they found menial jobs, worked hard and repaid airline tickets from Africa, but the daily grind was pure misery for them psychologically. They were planted in a freezing cold geographic area, in the midst of white societies and were barely tolerated; they had very little in common with American blacks.

The documentary ends with them bringing relatives over to the US, sending cash to to African relatives and returning to Africa for wives from their tribe. With the help of white activists, using pity politics, they organized into a national political action group to advocate justice for Darfur – some of their leadership began wearing native African dress and headdress. So what did America gain from this forced diversity? It seems to me more social headaches. The missionaries did not do this alone; it took the US government under a reborn GWB.

Haiti still remains White Man’s Burden. While this characterization is considered racist by the politically correct, the missionary groups do not seem to mind, as their business is to lift burdens. Before the earthquake, Haiti had an estimated 500,000 orphans. After the calamity, who knows? The orphanages are run by non-governmental organizations, most religiously affiliated, and there was no central coordination.

Haiti’s exports included tropical fruits, sisal, coffee, and at one time, made all the baseballs in the world. Today it appears its main export is orphans. A squalid group of 10 Baptist American missionaries were just picked up by Haitian authorities for illegally attempting to transport 33 Haitian orphans across the border. It was reported that 60,000 dollars were offered in bribes to free them, but was rejected. Unless released missionaries will remain in stinking Haitian jails where they will now learn about salvation through suffering.

Church groups portray the export of orphans as finding a better life for them. However, according to the NYT, some are sold as slaves to rich land owners, or as sex toys to pederasts while others may find a happier situation. There have been other reports that some are killed and their body parts sold.

So the next time you dig into your pocket to support the far flung missions of your church, remember JESUS SAVES... but you should know at which bank. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA Ret.

Chinese Dragon Stokes its Fire

Confucius say, MAN WHO PLAY WITH FIRE EATING, BREATHING DRAGON GET BURNED.

The NYT reported, "The Obama administration notified Congress on Friday of its plans to proceed with five arms sales transactions with Taiwan worth a total of $6.4 billion. The arms deals include 60 Black Hawk helicopters, Patriot interceptor missiles, advanced Harpoon missiles that can be used against land or ship targets and two refurbished minesweepers." There were other reports that included communications gear and air defense components. This sale was to be the first installment on an 11 billion dollar military sales package that was negotiated by the GWB administration.

The Red Chinese government flew into a diplomatic tizzy, much like a Chinese opera over the planned sale; their actions had all the bongs, gongs, fire crackers and sing-song Chinese high-pitched screeching associated with their opera performances. They called in the US Ambassador to Peking, curtailed Sino/American military exchanges and promised to retaliate against US corporations that provided the military hardware to Taiwan.

You can bet your favorite ivory chopsticks that the Chinese will slow walk and undermine any support for US policies in Iran and North Korea as well as tighten the screws in Latin America.

Except for the Harpoon missiles, there is almost no threat to the Chinese mainland from these weapons systems. The sale is well within US law, so despite the fact that that US trade regrettably depends on extensive military sales, the world now knows that the US will take any risk to maintain its top rank, world role as a military merchant – it is a clear hard signal.

Chinese retaliation is not without risk to them. In May 2009, the US owed China $772 billion. The Chinese have used this surplus to outbid the US in competition for world natural resources and leasing of strategic installations such as the Panama Canal. They have even regularly outbid the US for oil concessions in Iraq. This money was borrowed from them to fuel Neocon/GWB wars during the last eight years of Republican misrule.

There is an inverted imperialistic advantage the US maintains: it could devaluate its currency, making the Chinese holdings worth much less. Such a step, some would argue, would wreck the US economy also; but others contend it is already wrecked, so what the hell? Anyway there is other US leverage: who would buy Chinese junk such as alarm clocks, fans that fall apart right after sale... or buy baby cribs and toys that kill or are toxic to humans and poisoned dog food and drugs?

The foreign affairs in the USA in are dominated by American Jews such as Gelb and Haas out of NYC as well as AIPAC lobbyists in congress. These advocates are not only Middle East firsters, but Israeli firsters and as a result an important country like China gets less attention than Iran in American diplomatic circles; this is because of Israeli hysteria over Iran. China has nuclear weapons, but so far has limited capability to project them to the US. Iran is not a threat to US unless its fleet remains a sitting duck in the Persian Gulf as it is today. For example, a Jihadist-class rowboat nearly sunk the USS Cole and killed over 20 of our sailors.

One can wonder how the Tea Baggers attack Obama as a Bolshevik when they are silent on Communist China that is a growing military and economic threat. War with Red China is a better than even possibility in the next decade.

My view on the Taiwan military package is that the US at last is pursuing its own national interests toward China. After GWB surrendered on the forced downed US Navy re-con aircraft to China early in his first term, there has been little to curb Red Chinese arrogance. Time will tell whether President Obama holds to the course or rolls over, especially when the Ding Hao Chinese Red Dragon Lobby goes to work. Watch as the billion dollar Chicom reserves go to work on our money-hungry congress. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA Ret