Year in Review

I must say that the last year has been filled with more excitement than any other year I’ve lived.  I am sometimes bewildered that I’m still alive.      I think the things having the most impact on me mentally came in the form of reality checks when I learned about guys I previously worked contract with were blown up in various regions in Iraq.  I must say that I have no idea how my current team has been so fortunate with limited injuries and no deaths in Mosul.  We have been extremely fortunate. 

I am disgusted every time I pick up a newspaper or read the interent news and see the ongoings of the American government and Muslims fucking up no matter what country they are in.  It’s really quite bothersome. 

The American government has no clear objective in Iraq.  There are soldiers and civilians dying there in masses, yet there is still no clear objective.  A fact is we are fighting an enemy we can’t see, and an enemy who is glorified if he dies for his cause.  You can’t win a fight when you’re engaging such an enemy.  I read in the news the other day that the fabulous President and staff were holed up at his Texas ranch to develop a plan…for what?   To exit?  To supply the troops with better equipment?  To contrive yet another lie so the American populace will be convinced that this is a fight that we can win?  I chuckled when I read the first line of the article:  Pres Bush and staff spent almost THREE HOURS discussing options.  Three hours??  WTF? 

As the death toll lingers a couple of carcasses shy of 3000, I remember why so many soldiers are blown up, and I’m sure many of you have absolutely no idea that this is going on.  The U.S. State Department has put such limitations on Rules of Engagement and requires that every round discharged from a weapon must be documented by the soldiers.   Warning shots are forbidden.  Many of the dead soldiers were killed by VBIED’s – Vehicle Bourne Improvised Explosive Device.  To tell you how powerful these babies are, I’ll tell you about my H.Q. in Kabul Afghanistan.  One VBIED delivered its load to the front gate of our building.  This building was no ordinary building; it was a previous H.Q. of Osama and all of the walls were reinforced in the case of such an event.  I believe 18 of our vehicles were destroyed.  I’m not talking ‘totaled’ like after an auto accident; I’m talking destroyed as in hulks of metal were all that remained.  It was so powerful that it literally turned a human into a grease spot on a wall; the body disappeared.  The VBIED was laden with ballbearings.  One ball bearing went through two reinforced walls of our H.Q., through a television (which sucked because it was the only tv there), through an  inner wall, and struck a co-worker in the back.  He was wearing a level four body armour, and it still broke the ceramic plates.  Now back to the soldiers dying in Iraq.  You’re going to love this:

Tennis balls.  Since soldiers are forbidden to use warning shots from guns, they carry around bags of tennis balls to throw at encroaching cars.  Do the math with the description I provided of the H.Q. in Kabul, and you’ll surmise that if a car is close enough to be engaged with a fucking tennis ball, it’s close enough to blow up a HUMMV filled with G.I.’s.  Pathetic. 

Back to our country.  Unless Congress met four more times in the past week, this is the laziest congress since 1924.  We are a nation at war on a global scale.  We have N. Korea and Iran developing nukes.  Korea has rocket technology to deliver a warhead as far as Denver, yet our congress just asked for a pay increase even though it’s the laziest Congress in the 20’s.  Is this OK? 

It seems to me that many politicians are only concerned about greasing their own palms.  So many things aren’t talked about by the media.  The reason?  War is a money maker for some of our politicians and other rich Americans.  Check and see who owns NBC news:  One of the largest Defense Contractors on planet Earth. 

Thank Allah that Rumsfeld is gone.   What a racket that dude ran with the bird flu.  Here is something that I didn’t pick up in U.S. media sources:  The amount of people who die from birdflu is very minute.  Guess who owns the patten for the seeds which provide a cure for birdflu?  You guessed it.  Rummy does.

On to the Muslims.  I must first issue a disclaimer:   I am not at all a religious man.  It is my opinion that religion has been turned into a money maker and controller of the masses.  Now don’t get me wrong…I think religion is a good  thing.  It gives some people a will to try and do good.  It gives others a reason to keep living.  It gives most a dream that there must be some reason for all of the madness on the planet and the strife in this life.  Religion definately does some good for humans. 

If you were to ask me the last time a Christian, Hindi, or Buddhist strapped themselves with explosives, shaved their head, and blew up a popular night club in Bali, I would respond that I’m unaware of such an occurance.  Then there is Islam.  Hey – call it for what it is.  It doesn’t matter where in the world you go, it’s the followers of that chaotic religion who are blowing shit up or generally creating problems.  U.S., Thailand, Australia, Malasia, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Isreal, Somolia, Egypt.  Think about it. 

I’m sorry, but it’s not little old grannie in the wheel chair who is a threat to blowing up an airplane.  It’s not a soldier who is checking in with his military issue I.D. card.  Still the U.S. government does not support ‘profiling’.  Pathetic.  Call it for what it is.  I can tell the difference between someone from the Middle East and a white person from Europe or a Mexican or a black person from the Americas.  C’mon.  Do the right thing.  Keep people safe and profile.

Sadaam is dead.  That would have been unbelievable three years ago.  Castro is almost dead…thank god because I really want to visit Cuba.  Talk about grudges…what’s up with that?  The people from the land of the free are not free to go to Cuba?  Geesh.  One hell of a grudge.  Louisianna is still not fixed…which it shouldn’t be anyway…it took a real bone head to build a city below sea level right next to the sea.  But still, Uncle Sam said he would re-build it, and it’s not done.  Coup in Thailand.  Riots in Sydney.  Shots fired over the DMZ.  Higher gas prices…now the citizens of the U.S. are now only paying about 75% LESS than the rest of the world.  Bleeding hearts saw to it that stricter controls were implaced for those detained at Gitmo…yeah…great plan.  Annan is FINALLY gone.  The death of two previous presidents.  And the University of Arizona Men’s basketball team is currently on an eleven game winning streak…last time this happened, they went to the champion

ship in what…91?  Yes…it has been one hell of a year.

Politics aside,  I think the two things that I enjoyed the most from this year was all of the traveling and the time I got to spend with friends.  This is the first year where I will take in the new year at 34,000 feet.  I am trying to calculate…I think I will celebrate it through four time zones.  Australia is GMT +11, Thailand +7.  Four new years in a day. 

Happy New Year

Peace