Fallen Heroes, Wounded Warriors

Why is America at war?

Or to rephrase - why is America still at war in Afghanistan?

Too many people have suffered & died for whatever's the lame answer. All over the world, families grieve for their injured and crippled. Thousands of people suffer psychological trauma from horrendous experiences in the war zones.

It is time the spotlight celebrating Fallen Heroes & Wounded Warriors is turned on our civilian leadership and their financiers.

Lakefront jet-skiing by Mitt Romney might be interrupted by a few sad moments -- sure, politicians & bankers can put on dark clothes and look grim for a few hours, but America's po' families grieve forever, along with the families of enemies abroad.

Vietnam, Laos, Iraq, Afghanistan - the soldiers are expended not for freedom, but so 1% enjoy a fancy lifestyle.

Shared sacrifice?

US Military Muscle Cramp

The 31,000 ton USNS Rappahannock recently fired on a small fishing boat off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, killing an Indian fisherman and seriously wounding others of the crew. As the two ships neared each other in the shipping lanes, the US vessel, a 677 ft (206 m) Naval support ship, came to believe the much smaller craft was a potential threat. The 25-foot skiff (which proved ultimately to have no radio and no weaponry), "ignored defensive, non-lethal warnings" by the US Naval vessel before being raked with machine gun fire and partially disabled.

(photos not to scale)

Such incidents are likely to occur.

American troops are deployed in assorted sensitive areas around the world, and must be sensitive to the threat of attack.

How can accident and bloodshed be avoided? Best redeploy in the mainland USA, and slowly shrink the size of the US military -- it is too large, too widely deployed, too expensive. Posting US military forces all around the world generates trouble.

Too often US military presence relies on cozy relationships with despotic and non-democratic unpopular regimes. When we prop-up the hated government, no doubt local people despise our presence. Bring the US troops home.

Shapely Olympic Females

The 1912 Olympics in Stockholm had 2407 athletes, including 48 women. Team USA did not send any female members - surprisingly, for similar reasons as Saudi Arabia until this year, due largely to modesty. - (link) "because U.S. team rules required women to wear long skirts in all their events, no American women competed."

Field Marshal Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney's claims of loyalty to der Fatherland USA might be doubted. He himself ably avoided service during the Vietnam War, and among his five sons, none achieved the lowest rank of Private. That's because none volunteered for military service (one is training in medicine, others are fast-track finance or real estate executives).

US-based Romney's offshore financial manipulations make him a suspect citizen, otherwise he's cleancut and seems nice (fellow Republican Ted Bundy also seemed honorable, except for his serial killer weaknesses).

If Romney is elected US president, we'll have a chickenhawk leader seeking to prove his toughness through slaughtering other people's sons (and daughters). At 65 years old, Romney hasn't completed any great service projects or exhibited very honorable traits. He's served himself (and perhaps his family). Romney is a whiner and chickenshit, who'll cause great damage to the wider world.

Banks = Bank Thieves?

Another huge financial scandal has been settled, where credit card companies & major banks have agreed to pay retailers up to US$7.25 billion for price fixing. It's likely the largest antitrust settlement in history. (WSJ link)

This just after we learn giant international banks manipulated the LIBOR rate at our expense.

Ultimately and systematically, big finance screws you.

The collusion of these corporations is terrible. Is it criminal? Will hundreds of bankers & finance industry insiders be imprisoned soon for corruption?

Of course not! The corruption is part of the system. Many of the regulators are former or future employees of key financial firms. Some are related by family ties. We can expect no accountability for their 'ignorance' - which all surely deeply regret. Typical format is fines paid by companies, which avoid admitting guilt.

Note the embarrassing family link between former NASDAQ Chairman Bernie Madoff & the Securities & Exchange Commission, where SEC compliance official Eric Swanson married Madoff's niece Shana (she was a compliance lawyer for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities firm, her dad was Chief Compliance Officer). Corruption, compliance shortcomings and poor regulation helped Madoff & Co. launder tens of billions of dollars. But wrongdoing by most of his cronies & family co-workers is unproved, no charges have been filed - we're told nobody but Bernie knew nothing...

Would Romney Steal Love?

Mitt Romney seems to me an amoral weasel. He appears the type of person who'd somehow manage to "miss" World War enlistment, when I imagine he'd stay on the home front, wheeling & dealing, fiddling with deployed soldier girlfriends & wives, selling the military poor quality equipment at inflated prices...

Romney has no leadership quality at all. I'd not willingly follow him anywhere, as he seems a conman who'd steal or weasel something if he got the chance.

He's too much like Captain Francesco Schettino of the destroyed Costa Concordia: abandoning responsibility with sleazy excuses. Romney's shown his commitment to Mitt Romney Ltd. His financial scheming indicates he'll quickly dump America for personal profit. I don't respect him at all.

Made with Pride in China

The U.S. Olympic Committee is under siege by politicians (link) for purchasing uniforms from China for the Olympic team USA.

US Senator Harry Reid advocates burning the uniforms, because "We have people in America working in the textile industry who are desperate for jobs."

What a load of balderdash!

Senator Reid no doubt uses foreign-made goods himself.

Prior to US Independence Day, I  was recently in a Massachusetts shop full of patriotic goods: US flags, bunting, pennants, etc. Most of the products were made in China. I saw a large red, white & blue pennant proclaiming "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave" made in Pakistan.

Hand-painted Christmas decorations can be odd: traditional winter scenes made in Bangladesh, where the artists have never seen snow...

Our global world can be strange.

Chop Chop

Infant circumcision is difficult to justify. Whether for boys or girls, the practice seems to me ghastly: irreversible genital mutilation upon individuals given no choice.

Religious groups may claim long traditions, but similar rituals of scarification or baby tattooing or sacrifice would not be tolerated.

Claims that some circumcised as children might eventually benefit medically must be counterbalanced by the reality that circumcision procedures sometimes lead to infection or sudden death. Even one such accident, or a single adult claiming the procedure was a violation, should be sufficient to ban the painful rite as child abuse.

In respect to culture & religion, youth should enjoy freedom to choose their own path and religion upon becoming adult. Adults can snip-off bits from their own bodies. But it seems to me very wrong that anyone be allowed to injure permanently the genitals of babies & children.

Children should not be medically disfigured with no informed choice. The procedure breaks a key rule of Hippocrates:  
Do No Harm.

This is a civil & human rights issue -- in my opinion, circumcising vulnerable young people is unsupportable & should be made a serious crime.

Tap Tap

The US government dipped into cellphone user accounts over 1.3 million times in 2011. Nine major US carriers (link) provided data released by US Rep.Edward J. Markey, co-chair of the Bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus.

"Information shared with law enforcement includes data such as geolocation information, content of text messages, wiretaps, among others."

Carriers can be required to provide "cell tower dumps" of all calls & user data connected with an area tower in a given period; this includes location & data of many other people unrelated to law enforcement investigations.

There's very little judicial oversight of such activities. Rep. Merkey is reportedly concerned about what's done with the data collected.

The public also should be concerned: there's now no accountability as our private communications & on-line activities are monitored & exchanged among private sector technicians, the police, and ???.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation seeks to improve transparency and rule of law over such investigations.   You can join or donate here (link). Don't wait and be too late...