Knocking on Heaven’s Door by Gun n’ Roses

What does Knocking on Heavens Door have to do with the Long Crisis now being experienced by most of the world’s developed economies?

Well, nothing really, but listening to spirited music does offer a welcome relief to the flow of hype and “not to worry” nonsense being put forth by the “public servants” of our day.

We know things must be pretty bad when the President of the United States makes a fast overseas trip to put a plug in for Chicago as the site for the 2016 Olympic Games. While Obama may love Chicago, and having the Olympic games in the USA may be great for the home team, with the President’s plate overflowing with more urgent business of the day Obama’s trip seemed to me to be a bad idea. Especially since even after Obama’s rushed last minute pitch job Chicago lost out in the first round of voting and Rio in Brazil won the honor of spending billions of dollars in preparation for the games.

I guess that Obama just wanted to have a diversion from the constant flow of bad news piling up on his oval office desk. Riding around on Air Force One is probably great fun.

Another bad idea is to escalate the war in Afghanistan. Yesterday the US lost eight troops in the defense of an isolated base that was immediately abandoned after the US defeat. As a Vietnam veteran this “winning hearts and minds” talk by American generals while we attempt to defend exposed poorly supported bases makes me want to throw up. Our troops deserve much more than this BS approach to war.

The military is not well prepared for a hearts and minds strategy. You need a long term non military approach for that involving NGO’s, school teachers, infrastructure construction projects, teams of trainers and administrators to help establish a government and institutions that work, and mega bucket loads of money. The military is well prepared to search and destroy, not for nation building. Then there is the unpleasant fact that we don’t have nearly enough man power to clear and to hold very much ground against a Taliban that has a growing presence in Afghanistan.

I expect that the generals know this but are reluctant to admit that the military is not well equipped nor trained to carry out a hearts and minds strategy. The military is a blunt hard hitting tool whose main task is to search, kill, capture, and destroy. You would think our leaders would know all of this by now.

Oh well, back to Knocking on Heaven’s Door and Gun N’ Roses. That is a lot more pleasant than thinking about the impossible to complete in any satisfactory way pile of goodies on Obama’s plate.