America the Beautiful

As some of you may know I recently started reading the Economist. For those that do not know it is a magazine that is written in Britain, and it focuses on foreign affairs and economies. The last weeks issue had entire extra segment dedicated to the US of A. At first, thought I would have to weather through an anti-American slant. Instead it was an incredible series of articles that highlighted the brilliant and unique that is US. I highly recommend looking for a copy of it.

The first article touched on the highly mobile nature of Americans. I actually learned a lot that I did not know. We move, on average, every three years and about one out of every ten moves is to a completely different state. However, the facts are not what really blew me away. It was the analysis of the effects. The utter paradox of our political system : its rigidity and looseness. How the large levels of Hispanic immigration are helping us more than hurting us. We are becoming more class stratified and less class stratified at the same time.

I could go on, but what I really picked up on was the authors quiet admiration of this cornucopia we call home. Again...you should find this issue and read it. (issue thru 22 Jul)

Darwin and Hitler

I am presently reading a book called The Modern Mind. It is basically an intellectual history of the 20th Century. I love the concept of the book. So many people have analyzed the geo-political, military, and economic history of the twentieth century, but Peter Watson was the first person I have seen to recount all of the great ideas and thinkers. Of course, almost immediately in the 20th century two of the most revolutionary ideas in centuries appeared. Freud's Interpretation of Dreams and Darwin's Origin of Species. Whether you agree with the ideas or not they changed how we collectively looked at the world. It is hard think that we never even considered psychoanalysis before Freud. Try to imagine a world without psychoanalysis...it has become an integral part of how we live with each other.

We still argue about Darwin to this day. Honestly the war between creationists and evolutionists is almost out of control. For the time being I am not going to weigh in on my opinion on this subject. However, as I was reading this book, I started to see the roots of the ideology behind WW II even at the beginning of the century. Would World War II have happened had Darwin never published his book on evolution? I really do not think so. Granted anti-Semitism raged throughout Europe during the day, but hatred of the Jews was not the primary reason Hitler was able to engage in his conquest of Europe. Instead the supremacy of the Aryan race (that idea actually sprang up in France even before WW I) is what Hitler used to impassion the German people to throw their hearts into conquering Europe. The Perfect Race should reign supreme. Ironically it was the resource intensive extermination of the "lesser race" that hamstrung the German war machine.

I think that it is important to look at this for several reasons. First, WW II was not a religious war. Yes, the extermination of Jews sounds religious, but really they were after Jews as an ethnicity not a sect. WW II was the first evolutionist war. A war used to promote the "superior" species and annihilate the "inferior" species. Evolution proved to be as deadly an idea as any religious idea. It just gave humans another way to segregate themselves, and hate one another.

If you zoom out even further and look at Darwin's idea as the spark. You will see the fire that it started; a fire that engulfed the entire globe. The most costly war in human history. Has there ever been any better illustration of the power of an idea? Good, bad, or indifferent?

It is something to think about.

Some pictures from Kuwait

Well, remember when I talked about the lack of humidity here? That all changed a couple of days ago. The wind changed from Westerly to Easterly. Which means we started pulling air off the Persian Gulf. The humidity went from 5% to 90% within an hour. Granted it cooled the air by ten degrees, but it increased the dew point by thirty. Not cool. The air was like pea soup. Anytime went outside we immediately started sweating. We were wet through in no time. I could not imagine working outside in that kind of weather.

Anyway here are some pics from my Blackhawk ride.


Little California...about the only green fields in Kuwait.


A Kuwaiti village. Most Kuwaitis leave the country in the summer. So some of these are probably empty.


There is village then there is nothing.


The CHOPS (Chief of Operations). He is basically my boss. He really a cool guy. He loves this picture that I go of him. He looks like his is surveying down below or something.


The Bay of Kuwait...it looks deeper on the map.

I will talk more about Kuwait later.

I HATE FOX NEWS

Another report from work. One of the things that is drives me absolutely crazy is FOX News. Leave it too the military to find someway to import the worst news channel half way across the world in real time. Then to add insult to injury...they play it on every television screen available. I cannot escape it anywhere at work. It is like they are trying to brainwash me with it.

I guess the part that kills me is that it is played in the CIOC (the NASA type place). This is a forward deployed Army HQ that is responsible for most of the mid east AOR and we only ethnocentric self absorbed 24 hour news. Who made that call...we shall flog him. There almost no coverage concerning the Middle East or Asia in general, but they cover the Natalie Holloway case up one side and down the other. Every menial and inconsequential detail of that case covered in excruciating detail. Some days I want to scream. I honestly think she took a late night swim, got caught in a rip tide, and we will never find her.

Then there was Hurricane Dennis. I watched Geraldo attempt to report from the scene of the action. I desperately hoped that he would get taken away by the storm. Of course, if any of you saw the report you know how comical his attempt to report was. The man could barely stand. Instead he seized on camera like he was handicapped as each blast of wind buffeted him. I swear FOX news keeps that guy around solely for comic relief. How many times does he have to get kicked out of combat zones for making stuff up before they realize he is just a boob?

Sadly, there are two much better alternatives to FOX: BBC World and CNN World. Do not be fooled, these are not the same versions that they broadcast inside their respective countries. The two channels offer a global perspective and focus on reporting stories of significance that happen outside of America's and England's shores. It is amazing...novel even. They also have segments that focus solely on Asia and the Mid-East Region. You cannot believe some of the stuff going on around the world. Just like the massacres in the Sudan we never heard about. But none of that gets any coverage from FOX. No we have to hear from Twitty Holloway for 300th time. Granted no news channel is perfect, but anything is an improvement over FOX.

Of course, FOX manages to convince people that it is the best by slinging mud at the other news networks. I am shocked by the irony of them dedicating broadcast time to talk about the lack of quality in journalism. Did it ever occur to you people that you are PART of the problem? You are a news source too. I will not even touch the "Fair and Balanced" lie.

Had to get that off my chest. Rant complete.

Seeing Kuwait

A couple days a go I got fly around Kuwait to get a feeling for the Area Of Responsibility (AOR). I was interesting. I gained a whole new appreciation for how absolutely desolate this country is. We visited the border with Iraq (to learn how they conducted border crossing and customs operations) and Camp Beuhring (to learn about how they train new units that are new to the theater. I never pass up a Blackhawk ride...It is always a blast...although it does not have A/C and that day the temp was over 130 F.

This little field trip goes hand in hand with my new job. I am in charge of the Ground Operations Section for 3rd Army CFLCC (Combined Forces Land Component Command). As with most Army jobs for officers it sounds really sexy but in reality I am just rearranging chairs on the Titanic. Basically, my day begins a 0430 and I search through all the significant reports from the night before to find ones that are REALLY significant actions we initiated(>9 detained, >20 RPGs captured, high value targets, etc.) Usually, it is difficult for me to find more than 6. Then at I brief them to everyone on the COIC (Combined Operations intelligence Center...imagine a control room at NASA) floor. Usually I have no less than 3 stars worth of generals in attendance, on somedays there are more than 10.

I basically work on the work on the COIC floor. When I say think NASA control room I am not kidding. In the front of the room are three banks of monitors comprised of 9 projection TVs each stacked 3X3. The assemblies are about two stories tall. Throughout the day the various screens have all kinds of data about the theater. Real time feeds from UAVs all over the world, icons tracking every truck moving in theater, you name. Some of our capabilities would really blow your mind.

In front of the screens are all the desks. There are about 100 work stations on the floor. Each row terraced above the other so everyone can see the big screen. Each station has a headset, which we use for briefings because all the material we talk about is classified.

I must say it is weird have a job that requires me to shred just about everything I touch. Of course, I do not have a TOP SECRET clearance. Only a SECRET one. So most of the information we deal with is not super important. SECRET information is more like if right person let slip the right information and it somehow slipped into the right hands it could expose an short term vulnerability. TOP SECRET stuff is more like the kind of information the enemy is actively seeking out and if it slips out it could have major consequences. So if it slips out the bad people will find it. That is a very basic explanation of it. Most of the stuff I shred probably does not need to be shredded, but why risk it.

Well that is it for now. More later.

Groundhog's Day

Well, this is my first update from the lovely country of Kuwait. Well, actually the country is not all that lovely. It is basically a piece of desert with an enormous oilfield underneath it. The country is about the size of New Jersey. However, there is really only one city in the whole country...Kuwait City. The rest of the country is a hodge podge of little villages and nomads. Of course, I came to these conclusions the last time I was here.

The difference this time is that it is hot here. Hotter here than in Iraq. Truth be told according world reports I have been seeing...it is the hottest country in the world right now. Of course, there is no humidity, which helps immensely. The wet globe indicator is always about twenty degrees lower than the reported temperature. So water on your skin out here feels similar to pouring rubbing alcohol on your skin back home. Our sweat glands work at maximum efficiency...it evaporates so fast you rarely feel like you are sweating. Regardless, the wind here is similar to a blast from a convection oven. The shade offers almost no relief from the heat. Really it is merciless.

Fortunately, I work and sleep in air conditioning. So I only have to expose myself to the heat for limited periods. I do not envy the guys who work in the heat all day.

I have been here a week already. So I have adjusted for the most part. My clock is still a little off but it is getting better. It really felt like I never left this place when I got off the plane. Everything looked the same and smelled the same. Not to mention at night the temp drops into the middle 80s. There have been a lot of changes in the last year though. Several Camps are now closed and others are closing or trying too. The camp I am at, Camp Arifjan, will become the main hub in Kuwait in a few years. I cannot help but think all the money that is involved in all of this. I will talk more about that later. Next time I will talk about my job and what that all entails.

For the time being these updates will be sporadic. Eventually I have my work schedule ironed out and then these will be more consistent. However, most of what I do is classified so I am not sure how I will be allowed to talk about.