Precious Blood

Sometimes you come to a point in a situation where a previously held position needs some serious rethinking. Iraq and Afghanistan now fall in that category for me. All three of my older brothers were actively engaged in World War II. In 1945, my oldest brother, whom I lost last year, was in the Philippines preparing for what was to be the imminent, massive invasion of the Japanese islands.

Then, unexpectedly, the most destructive secret weapon ever developed unleashed its overwhelming fury on Hiroshima and Nagasaki –and within days it was all over. Harvey, Roger and Roland would come home with their minds and bodies intact. Ours was one of those lucky American families. And my life would be forever enriched from the experience and brotherhood of these three street-wise kids who somehow made it through.

After Pearl Harbor, the objective was clear: Mobilize. Get the troops to Europe and to the Pacific – fast. Do whatever it takes. Gear up the entire economy for victory. Finish it. Don’t let a vanquished enemy dictate post-war terms. Above all, finish it.

It’s fundamentally different now – many of our leaders seem to have lost sight of true north, and Congress has gradually shifted its war-declaration responsibilities to the White House, hiding behind lukewarm war authorizations which have resulted in finger-wagging every which way, especially when an administration changes hands. Most wretchedly of all, our leaders don’t know when to fight and when to stay home.

But this one thing is clear: If Iraq and Afghanistan were George’s wars then, they are Barack’s wars now. So what will he do to end those with victory and honor? Truman never complained that he “inherited” WWII from FDR. He came in as a relief pitcher and ended the game decisively. The ball is now in the hands of Barack Obama. Thousands of American families with blood in the game are waiting.

Smart Guy Jumps off Plane

The deepening financial crisis in America reminds me of how so many smart people who thought they had everything under control guided so many other people and institutions off the edge of a cliff, just like lemmings. This came vividly to mind as I read the following excerpt from a new book by John Ortberg.

“Smart people mess up as easily as the rest of us. Three men are in a plane: a pilot, a Boy Scout, and the world’s smartest man. The engine fails, the plane is going down, and there are only two parachutes. The smart man grabs one. ‘I’m sorry about this,’ he says, ‘but I’m the smartest man in the world. I have a responsibility to the planet,’ and he jumps out of the plane.”

“The pilot turns to the Boy Scout and speaks of how he has lived a long, full life and how the Boy Scout has his whole life in front of him. He tells the Boy Scout to take the last parachute and live. ‘Relax, Captain,’ the Boy Scout says. ‘The world’s smartest man just jumped out of the plane with my backpack.’”

There is a message in this about all those smart guys who were pumping up the financial bubble to the point of bursting: Some of them are now in Washington advising the President and Congress.

‘Nuff said.

Time’s A’Wastin’

Sorry to interrupt, but the honeymoon is over. Like many married couples who never had the privilege of nestling in for a brief period of nuptial bliss before assuming the demanding obligations of life, so it is for President-Elect Barack Obama.

America can’t wait until after the inauguration on January 20, 2009, for a confirmation or re-direction of the economic engines of the country. With the October 3rd enactment into law of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) by President Bush and the 110th Congress, the groundwork has already been laid for our new chief executive. But it’s a ship that needs a new rudder, and that is President Obama. (I truncated the word “elect” from his title, because time will not permit two months of transitional idling.)

Markets don’t wait for people to move. They have a thrust of their own and, in the absence of consensus on a clearly-stated working plan by Obama – negotiated with Congress and the current administration – financial markets will define the future by what they see and hear today.

President Obama now has the force and prestige of his campaign momentum to reinforce him. He needs to negotiate the introduction of a modified plan, or to endorse the current one with President Bush and Congressional leaders Reid and Pelosi within the next two weeks. It’s time for some late-night cramming and candle-burning.

Should Obama fail to roll up his sleeves now, and should the economy sink further into recession, no longer will there be any basis for Bush-bashing. It’s your dime, Mr. President. Spend it wisely. I know you didn’t ask for this, but neither did we.

The Bear is Back

If anyone ever thought that the breakup of the U.S.S.R. in 1991 would result in a declawed, friendlier Russian bear wholly unable to assert itself on the international scene, recent events in The Republic of Georgia have reminded the world community that the Russian bear will be a very potent influence in the 21st century.

Vladimir Putin – a former KGB agent and judo devotee – is still smarting from the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which he labeled, “The greatest political catastrophe of the last century.” Now buoyed by the economic stimulus provided from Russian oil fields, he seeks to reassert Russian influence over some of its strategically-positioned, former client states.

In June, 2001, when Presidents Bush and Vladimir Putin first met in Slovenia, they both seemed to hit it off well personally. At least President Bush thought so, because he voiced his opinion that, "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul."

Well! Well! I don’t know about you, but I have enough challenges just trying to get a good sense of my own soul, let alone anyone else’s. I prefer to leave that relationship up to the Almighty.

If George Bush was about to dance with this particular Russian bear, he would have been much better off to forget about trying to peer into Putin’s soul; and, instead, to keep very alert for the condition of that bear’s claws – that, it seems to me, would have been a much more accurate indicator of the state of Putin’s soul.

Bush and Obama’s Common Trait

What could George W. Bush and Barack Obama possibly share in common? The first seems to be as conservative as one can be (at least on paper!), while the other seems to be tilting as far to the liberal side as he can be (at least on paper!).

But if you put on your memory thinking cap, you may remember that way back when Bush was running for his first term, he declared that the U.S. should not get involved with nation-building: It would not be his administration’s business to get involved in the internal matters of other countries, he would go on to claim. Years later, the events of 9/11 changed all that, and the U.S. Military is now deeply involved precisely in what Bush once said he wouldn’t do: nation-building.

That brings me to Barack Obama. During his entire presidential run, when he was not yet the presumptive Democratic nominee for President and, at a time when he was heavily engaged in a campaign struggle with Senator Hillary Clinton, he emphatically and proudly underscored his premier campaign clarion call: He did not vote for the Congressional resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq, he emphasized over and over and, should he be elected President, he vowed to bring all the troops home within 16 months.

Now we hear Obama claiming that, after his trip to Iraq where he will meet with General Petraeus and other U.S. Military commanders, he will, if necessary, “refine” his strategy. Well, you should have heard all of the brouhaha generated in the media and political circles about that remark! It caused Senator Obama to quickly re-appear before the mikes and cameras in an apparent effort to recant.

However, should Obama win the general election in November, there will be a transition team put in place to advise the President-elect of all classified information concerning national security. That’s when the President-to-be discovers the dirt about what’s really going on.

This isn’t what surprises me, though. What does is that Obama has declared himself so soon about a potential policy reversal regarding troop withdrawal. The man has a large, well-paid cadre of advisors on his team. Yet, for reasons known only to him, Obama decided to test the acceptance of a potential future change in his troop withdrawal strategy with the use of the word, “refine.” In Washington, in a statement about Iraq, that’s a fighting word!

A long time ago, Bush decided to go into the nation-building business, something he said he would never do. When the dust settles after November, Obama could very well find himself following the same policy of nation-building.

When Bush was first running for President he proudly considered himself a Washington outsider, as Obama now does – a trait which each man shares in common. But, the real question is not whether a presidential candidate is a Washington outsider: It is what that person does once he gets on the inside.