HerbEly

Root Cause of Culture Wars?

It seems to me that bitterness of the current presidential campaign bitterness traces back to two governmental decisions. Both involved a usurping of competent authority, to use just-war terms. I’m tired of the unending arguments over John Kerry’s medals, George Bush’s Air National Guard service, abortion, homosexual marriage, hanging chads, etc. instead of getting into these, let me suggest a root cause of the bitterness over Vietnam and abortion.

Toxic Leadership

Having spent my career working for the US Army, analyzing the Soviet Army, and being a lifelong Catholic, I often make comparisons among these three institutions.

In my opinion, military and business leaders display a greater dedication to improving institutional integrity and performance that do church leaders. Perhaps this is because military and business failures are immediately observable. In addition, while military enemies actually shoot, and business competitors can capture customers, church leaders, smugly relying on the promise that the “gates of hell will not prevail” Mt. 16:18, don't expect to fail.

The comparison jumped out at me as I read the article by Col. George Reed

War is Declining, but …

Is peace breaking out? Charles Hanley reports on the soon to be released 2004 yearbook from the Stockholm Internal Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Since 1991 the number of major armed conflicts has dropped from 33 to 19. SIPRI defines a major armed conflict as one in which there are over 1000 battle related deaths in a single year.

Reasons for this decline include a decline in turmoil following the end of the cold war, removal of superpower support for “proxy wars” and mobilization of the UN and regional bodies for peacemaking.

Before anyone gets overexcited, recall that Hanley isn’t really announcing the arrival of peace, just the decline in warfare. It ishowever, time to rededicate ourselves the Bishop’s motto: “If you want peace, work for justice”.

Right Question - 4 Years too Late

Greg Miller, in the LA Times (reg. Required) reports that the CIA weapons search team will be "using a timeline as a tool for analysis". This makes more sense than the previous story which reported that the CIA would project whether Saddam Hussein would have had weapons by 2006 or 2008. Had the CIA released such a report, the administration would have been defending itself against charges of premature preemption.

Before the war started, I wrote my Senators and representatives, saying that the administration had not shown the immanence of an WMD threat by the Iraqi military. On Feb. 3, 2003, I wrote the WaPo about the lack of timeline analysis, saying:

“it is unclear whether the administration analyzed Iraqi programs in terms of milestones. Administration statements (including the October 2002 NIE) do not show that the Iraqi military had tested, deployed and trained to use WMD in the past decade. Therefore, the military threat did not seem imminent.”

A timeline analysis, however, would have not resolved uncertainties about an Iraqi supported low-level terrorist attack with WMD’s.

I hate to sound peevish but in the 1980’s the intelligence community knew how to analyze weapons R&D programs. scroll down to document 28, here for an example. Did they forget?

An Anthology on Workplace Spirituality

Thanks to Nancy Smith for providing links to my articles on Institutionalized Denial and Spiritual Guidance in the workplace. Visit her website for an excellent anthology on workplace spirituality. If you are interested in practicing spiritual principles in your daily life on the job and at home, please bookmark this page.

Too many days late, dollars and lives short

It's a good thing that I'm on my way out of town and won't be able to comment on this until Monday. Now the CIA proposes to do a study of Iraqi weapons programs. Was anything similar done before the war started?

Gone till Monday

We are headed for the Capital District Kiwanis Convention. Check Blog from the Core while I'm gone. And thanks to Lane Core for featuring my mother's poetry over the past 4 weeks.

Political Pandering at Expense of our Troops

Normally I ignore the fact that politicians will pander whenever the see an opportunity. This time, I instinctively reacted to Senator Kerry’s attack on the administration plan to withdraw troops from Germany. Ralph Peters, in his usually blunt fashion, said it better than I would have
:
“ON Monday, President Bush announced a plan to improve military readiness by withdrawing our troops from Cold War-era garrisons overseas. This should not be a partisan issue. But it's an election year . . .

Every Democrat jockeying for an assistant-to-the-deputy-undersecretary janitorial position in a Kerry administration attacked the proposed basing changes as calamitous: We'll throw away our influence in Europe. NATO will buckle. South Korea will be defenseless. And virgins will be ravished around the world.

In remarks on the subject yesterday, John Kerry lied to an audience of veterans. He knows the withdrawal plan will span a decade and isn't precipitous. He knows we're not abandoning South Korea. He knows the Germans and French won't join us in Iraq, no matter who's president. But he and his gang of has-beens will say anything.

Note that when the panderers speak few mention the well-being of our troops. Not one presents a reasoned strategic argument for maintaining wasteful garrisons abroad. And not one admits that the Germans only care about losing the jobs we provide.

The Dems' position boils down to this: Withdraw our soldiers from Iraq, where they're needed. Leave them in Europe, where they're useless and unwanted. And to hell with the welfare of our troops and their families.

There are three key issues in this mud fight: strategy, economics and taking care of our soldiers. On each count it makes sense to bring the troops home.”

I’d love to quote the piece. Please take a . look.

Red & Blue Churches

Get Religion pick's up on one of my favorite themes about the culture wars.Terry Mattingly cites James Hunter's book on Culture Wars as an excellent analysis of the situation. I would add Hunter's Before the Shooting Begins in which Hunter picks up in Mary Ann Glendon's suggestion that Europe escaped much of this bitterness. Why? Because in Europe the voters had a direct voice in abortion laws. In this country the Supreme court took it out of our hands.

No Election Fraud in Venezuela?

The news reports are telling us that Chavez survived the recall and that international observers stated that “the voting appeared fair and accurate”. Based on the comments of my brother-in-law, the voting was fraudulent even though this statement may be true. (Note that he took the time and expense to fly back to Venezuela in order to vote.) Here is how Chavez may have survived: Places of registration were changed. If I had to travel from Charlottesville, Virginia to Charleston, West Virginia to vote, I might have stayed home, especially if I had gotten hints that my business might suffer. Maybe Jimmy Carter and the international observers never saw this at the polls.