Another of God's Masterpieces

This is another in my intermittent series of posts on the beauty of nature and talent of the Master Artist. This is beautiful.


Thunder In Slow Motion - The most amazing bloopers are here

Merry Pedantic Christmas

Christmas carols are a fun part of the Christmas season, at least until you are hearing them for the twentieth time on the radio, but there are a few of the over-educated among us who can put a fun twist on the familiar. Here is Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer as Cicero might have sang it.

Rudolphus, naso rubro,
naso nitidissimo,
si umquam eum spectes,
dicas eum fulgere.

Reliqui tum renones
deridebant ludentes,
semper vetabant eum
apud ludos ludere.

Deinde ante Natalem
Santa venit, et
"Tu, Rudolphe nitide,
traham meam duc nocte."

Dein, ut renones amant,
exclamantes hilare:
"Rudolphe, naso rubro,
in annalibus eris!"

There are more Latin Christmas carols here.

Of course many people know Latin, but how many could sing it like like a Saxon bard.

Hwæt, Hrodulf readnosa hrandeor --
Næfde þæt nieten unsciende næsðyrlas!
Glitenode and gladode godlice nosgrisele.
Ða hofberendas mid huscwordum hine gehefigodon;
Nolden þa geneatas Hrodulf næftig
To gomene hraniscum geador ætsomne.
Þa in Cristesmæsseæfne stormigum clommum,
Halga Claus þæt gemunde to him maðelode:
"Neahfreond nihteage nosubeorhtende!
Min hroden hrædwæn gelæd ðu, Hrodulf!"
Ða gelufodon hira laddeor þa lyftflogan --
Wæs glædnes and gliwdream; hornede sum gegieddode
"Hwæt, Hrodulf readnosa hrandeor,
Brad springð þin blæd: breme eart þu!"

If you can read this, you spent WAY too much time in school.

The Next Chapter

Some time has passed and I am finding out just how difficult change can be. I used to know what I would do each day when I woke up, but after a break of nearly a year, I have forgotten most of the habits that drove my life. That is probably a good thing over all, but creating an entirely new life is as difficult as breaking individual habits one at a time.

I am slowly getting my house in order. This is not an easy task with both my brother and myself living here. I have some cleaning to do and organizing to do so that we both fit. My front yard also is still waiting for my attention.

I have not yet talked to my employer about my return, but I will have to do that soon. I may return sooner than I thought. I have only been home for a week and a half, but I am already getting a little anxious to have something to do with my days. I can do nothing, but only when there is something to do. When there is nothing to do, I am lost, but I am not so adept at finding something to do so that I can do nothing occasionally.

I am not sure what i will be doing with this blog going forward. I have enjoyed writing and would like to continue, but I don't know what I will be writing about, or how often. When I was posting almost everyday, it was a pleasant escape from the drudgery of staff work. Right now, I sit down to write and nothing comes to me. As I said before, if I have nothing to do, I am lost. I am not even sure that the title of my blog works anymore. This will all shake out over the next few months. I will find a niche and hopefully, it will still be somewhat interesting. Thanks to all of you who have followed this blog. I hope you will continue to find something worthwhile here.

In closing, I would like to recommend the following:


More will follow.

Home At Last

I am still on active duty officially until 21 December, but until then I am on terminal leave. The Navy is still paying me, but I have accrued 28 vacation days that I get to use up before I separate from active duty again. the only thing that I have to do is report in to my Reserve Center on Monday so they know that I am back and endorse my orders to that effect. Beyond that, I don't know what I will be doing for the next month. I am going to relax for a day or two and then begin working on getting my life restarted.

Almost Home

I have finished everything that needed to be done. All that is left is getting to the airport tomorrow. If I don't miss my flight, I will be in Utah tomorrow afternoon at 1:45 and home maybe by 4:00.

For my sister in San Diego, I am sorry that I won't be here for Thanksgiving, but thank you for the invitation. I hope to see you again soon anyway.

Back in The USA

It took almost 30 hours, but I am back in the USA again. My group mustered at 1830 local time in Kuwait to ride to the Kuwait Airport. The only place that there wasn't a line to get through was boarding the plane itself. There were at least four other lines that we had to get through first. It was a good thing we started so early, because there was just barely enough time to get on board for a 0040 departure. Naturally i had the middle seat of the 2-5-2 configuration on the Boeing 777 for the 14 hour flight to Washington Dulles Airport. oddly, for such a long flight, it seemed to go quite fast, partly because I slept for about seven hours off and on and partly because I watched two movies that I had missed - Wall-E and Get Smart.

After sitting for 14 hours it was a pleasure to stand for the hour or so that it took to get through customs and security again at Dulles. On the flight to LA, I talked to a gentleman in my row for almost three hours, something that I hardly ever do. If you know me, you know that I can't even talk to friends for three hours straight, much less strangers. After LA, I had another short hop to Oxnard and finally to Port Hueneme Naval Station where I will demob. I spent about an hour checking and then found my room at the BOQ and went to sleep. I think I slept for about 10 hours, which for me is a record.

I almost didn't get a room, because my credit card company helpfully closed my account while I was in Iraq, because I wasn't using my card. It is remarkable how difficult it is to get along in the workd today without a credit card. I am going to have a lot of work to do getting all of that retarted when I get back home.

As for getting back home, the NMPS staff is trying to get me through their process and cleared by Friday so they can send me home on Saturday. They have a large group coming through then and don't want me to get stuck here because of the volume. So, it looks like I will be back in Utah sometime on Saturday. I don't have a flight plan yet, but I will let you know. See you soon.

Kuwait Update

All of the business of getting out of theater is done now, except for the actual departure. Life is pretty laid back right now. They encourage casual dress, either civilian attire or PT gear, and nearly every minute is free time. It is called the Warrior Transition Program. For most of us it is a chance to decompress and start practicing being a civilian again. It is also a chance to not be responsible for anything at all for a couple of days before life intrudes again.

I will be leaving tomorrow night very late and will probably be traveling for close to 24 hours before I finally get to my next stop. The first leg alone is 14 hours long, non-stop. Hopefully I will spend a lot of that asleep, but certainly not all of it. I will have about a week in California outprocessing there before returning to Utah, which means I should have less than ten days to go. I am looking forward to seeing everyone.

Back In Kuwait

Yesterday was a long day. I was up at 0330 to get ready and finish packing for a 0540 show time at the airport. We didn't take off until just after 1000. After arriving in Ali Al Salem, we flight joined another for the trip to Camp Arifjan. First we had to load our gear into a truck, then partially unload it, because we had accidentally started loading gear that wasn't ours, then finish loading it. A two hour convoy finally brought us to Camp Arifjan where we had to unload the truck and sort ourselves into our assigned tents.

Today is a day off and most people are using it to sleep. Tomorrow, we start outprocessing. Mine will be fast. I turned in most of my gear and my weapons in Baghdad, so I have very little of that to do. All I have left is my armor. It is fortunate that I left my weapons behind. I gave them a good cleaning, but an armorer would probably have made me do it again before taking them back. Anyone who has weapons here will have to satisfy an armorer before thay are done.

I am not sure what I will be doing today, but looking forward to home. I might in fact be home for Thanksgiving. I think that whoever made my travel arrangements sent me out four days earlier than I was supposed to go.

Coming To A Close

Technically, I am not yet ready to depart, but what is missing is only a little bit of paperwork. All of my gear has been turned in, except what I am required to take to Kuwait and turn in there. I no longer have a weapon. That feels a little weird. My bags are packed, except for what I need to shower and change one more time. All I am waiting for now, is for 1700 to roll around so I can get my show time at the airport. I hope that it won't be in the middle of the night, but most flights south are. What I really hope is that show time will be tomorrow afternoon or later. Someone will have to drive me out to the airport and I don't want to spring this on them with no notice. Also, I have let one item of business slide that I really want to finish up before I leave.

I have noticed a bit of something that could be nostalgia seeping into everything I do. I am starting to do things for the last time. This happens with every chapter of my life that comes to a close, even the ones that were not especially pleasant. Everything I do or experience shapes my life and at the end of each episode, I start asking "what if" and "what next" questions of myself. I am not an adventurous personality, so I don't look forward to change. Even when it is necessary or good, I usually find myself preferring the status quo to the challenge of the new. Someday, maybe I will make a present that doesn't need to change so much.

The End of War

Today at 1100, ninety years have passed since the armistice that ended World War I and 63 years have passed since the armistice that ended World War II. Incredibly, there are still a very small handful of veterans of WWI still living. Actuaries say that the veterans of WWII are dying at a rate of more than 1000 each day. If you know one of them, there is very little time left to hear their story before they follow their buddies.

Veterans Day is an easy day to forget. Usually it means a BBQ and a parade, but it is also usually just another day off work. I wasn't even thinking much about it until I got into the dining facility for lunch. As I was going through the line, I saw that the DFAC crew had set up a POW/MIA table and a KIA memorial. Most soldiers do come home alive and fewer come home dead now than before. Still, the dead and the missing leave a hole in the lives of their family and friends.

My time of service has been thankfully short on excitement. I am glad to be coming home soon.

Happy Birthday Marines

This day in history, 10 November 1775, the second Continental Congress authorized the raising of two battalions of naval infantry to serve as security aboard naval vessels, for boarding and repelling boarders and for assaulting enemy forces on shore from the sea. A lot has changed in the 233 years that have followed. Missions have expanded and changed as naval doctrine has adapted to history, but there are no better warriors or fighters in the world. All of the other services periodically forget and have to relearn that they exist to fight. The Marines never have and never will. If you know a Marine, whether he still wears the uniform or not, wish him a Happy Birthday today.

Why Am I Still Here

Some of my office mates are wondering what I am still doing here at my desk when I am going home in only one week. They all said that they would be anywhere else but here. Truthfully, I am not actually doing much at my desk. My one outstanding task is very nearly complete. Most of my day, even at my desk, is more vacation than work. Tomorrow morning, I will be putting a couple of big boxes in the mail, so I dont have to carry anything home that I wont be using until I get there. I hope that will get me down to just one duffle bag, but probably not. I do have my travel itinerary from Kuwait back to San Diego, but I wont post it just yet. OPSEC is still somewhat important. I just hope that I get my flight out of Baghdad. That is the hardest part of getting home. From Kuwait, it is easy. Iraq to Kuwait is the most uncertain.

On Going Home

It is harder, apparantly, to leave Iraq than it is to get here. Getting here was just one long day. Leaving requires many visits to many offices to collect signatures that say I do not owe anything to anyone, turning in issued gear so I am not charged for it, and finally getting a seat on a flight out. One of the guys I went through training at Fort Dix with is going home early too. He has been jumping through hoops trying to get clearance for the last two weeks. He was supposed to leave last night, but he didn't get a seat. I helped him get to the airport today, where he hopes to get a seat from a no show.

For myself, I am waiting to hear from the people that I am supposed to turn my gear into. They gave us enough grief just to get it in the first place, you would think that they would be eager to get it back, but it has been three days and still no word. I have most of the signatures that I need. I just want to know how much lighter my luggage is going to be before I start mailing stuff home. The more I have to carry to Kuwait, the more I will want to mail.

I should also say that I probably wont make it home for Thanksgiving after all. I might make it to San Diego where I will demobilize, but I wont get back to Utah until almost December, if there are no problems getting a seat on a flight out of Baghdad.

Citizenship

On the subject of citizenship, 186 non-citizen soldiers took the oath of citizenship at the palace. It was good to see so many young men and women who loved their adopted country enough to be here for their swearing in. Non-citizens can join the military, but they work under strict limitations, mostly because non-citizens can't have the security clearances needed for the more interesting jobs. This also limits their opportunities for promotion. A lot of them still enlist and more than a few have died. Death brings automatic posthumous citizenship by the way. I have never met a foreign national in the United States military who didn't love our country and hope to be a citizen some day. It is a sad thing that this privilege is wasted on so many who are born into it and grow up to despise it. Not these though. They know what it is worth, because they have paid for it.

The Most Important Day

Today is the most important day of the regular four year cycle that defines American Politics. The collective actions of American citizens (and some nontrivial number of non-citizens, dead folks and pets) will have an effect that will reach every part of the globe. Most other nations in the world change their governments without elliciting even a yawn, but when the United States sneezes, then world catches cold.

One way or another, everyone will be disappointed. Half of us will have supported the losing side. The other half, will have supported the side that isn't quite what they expected it to be. Whoever the next President is, because he is a human being and because he is a politician, he will not do all that we expect him to do. That is both good and bad. Good, because neither will be as evil as his opposition believes him to be, and bad, because neither will be able to do all that his supporters hope he will do.

On the whole, I believe that Senator McCain will do more good and less harm than Senator Obama. I truly hope that the voice of the people comes down in his favor, but our country is resilient enough to survive even a President Obama. After all, we survived the ecoomic idiocy of the Hoover and Roosevelt years, and the amateur military adventures of the Johnson years, and the general well rounded stupidity of the Carter years. Even the combined efforts of Obama, Reid and Pelosi cannot hurt us beyond what we are able to repair.

Not that I expect great things of a President McCain. At best, I expect his Presidency to be a holding action until something better comes along. At worst, the hole he digs us into will be relatively shallow.

In any case, if you have taken upon yourself the obligations of citizenship, then do your moral duty and vote. The time spent is not wasted, even if your favored candidate and party loses. To declare for one side or another is enough. I will respect even an Obama supporter, wrong as they are in my opinion, who has thoughtfully and deliberately concluded that he is the best candidate. Vote even if you are in a state, like Utah or California, that leans so heavily to one side or the other, that it seems to hardly matter if you vote or not.

It is a well proven human behavior that what costs nothing is valued at nothing. The little effort it takes to vote will give value to the rights and privileges and freedoms that you enjoy. And regardless of who wins, pray for him. Presidents do not have the advantage of being led by revelation like our prophets are, but they still have to do the right thing every time. That is a hard task, even for the wise.

Snow White

Cassini spacecraft has been orbiting Saturn for several years now. Cassini gave us this view of Saturn. Click here for the hi res image from wikipedia. What I really like about this picture is that there is a small bright blue dot just to the left and above the brightest rings. Saturn is sharing the stage with its little brother Earth.

Cassini also dropped the Huygens lander on Titan and showed us its surface for the f irst time ever. The "sand" is hydrocarbon ice and the "rocks" are water ice.

Most recently, Cassini has been taking a close look at Enceladus. This moon is mostly water ice so it is very bright. It reflects nearly 100% of all light so it is also very white. Today Cassini will make the latest close flyby and get even more imagery, but you can see some impressive photographs from previous flybys here. My favorite is this one.

There is so much left to discover just in our own neighberhood. How many little treasures like Enceladus do you think God left for us to find?

Rights, Priveleges And Duties

I voted yesterday. I was worried that my absentee ballot wouldn't arrive in time, but it did and its in the mail. Now, I only have to worry about it getting back in time. I won't waste much energy worrying about whether or not it will actually be opened and looked at. Fortunately, I am not from a state that actively looks for reasons to disqualify military votes, like Virginia, but I also know that absentee ballots are only opened when the margin from regular voting is close enough that they could make a difference. Utah leans pretty hard to one side of the political spectrum, so it is unlikely that my vote would need to be checked. So why vote at all?

Voting is simultaneously a right garanteed by the Constitution, a privelege of citizenship and the duty of a patriot, and other things to other people. Which attribute has primacy for different people is interesting to observe.

For some people, it is the privelege of voting that is of highest importance. These people are usually well educated in our history, whether by study or experience, and are deeply grateful to be citizens of our country. They remember the "captivity of their fathers" and the great things the Lord has done for them. For some immigrants, this memory is not figurative, but even people with deep generational roots can have this kind appreciation.

Those who vote out of a sense of duty are very closely related to those who consider voting to be a privelege. Robert Heinlein said that duty is a debt that you owe to yourself for having taken upon yourself an obligation of your owe free will. Being born into citizenship, while a blessing that most of the world's children are denied, carries with it the disadvantage that unearned wealth is rarely appreciated. In the sense that Heinlein gave to duty, one may be born a citizen but not born to duty.

Many people, though far too few, do make the leap from passive citizenship to active citizenship by a conscious act of will, deciding that they will be an agent for good in their community and nation. They do not vote out of habit, nor because they are expected to, but because they know that it is by the voice of the people that the course of our nation is steered. They do not vote in ignorance, nor is their vote driven by the passions of the crowd, but by study, and occasionally by prayer.

I prefer to describe voting by these two attributes, and I hope that my voting is due mostly to a sense of duty to my community and country and a sense of gratitude for the blessings of freedom. Having been born into this magnificent birthright with roots at least seven generations deep, I could easily have come to take it for granted and sold it, as Esau did to Jacob, for something of far less worth. But I prefer to think of voting as a right only when it is unjustly threatened, particularly since the meaning of the word "Right" has been so thoroughly polluted in the political discourse of recent decades.

The Constitution does not grant or create any rights out of nothing. It only specifically garantees a few such rights as already exist in nature and even goes so far as to note that it makes no attempt to exhaustively list all such rights, but limits the power of government to any of them, whether they are overtly mentioned or not. Rights are inherent in humanness and do exist even when there is no piece of parchment to say so. But rights in this pure sense also are indivisably joined to responsibilities. Right and duty are necessary opposites and one is dead without the other.

From before the world was, there were those who rebelled against this duality and have sought to have the good without paying the cost. There are people, sadly, who see voting first, foremost and only as a right without acknowledging either privelege or duty. In this election, especially, I see too many people who will vote, not in profound gratitude or solemn obligation, but as a weapon weilded against those of their fellow citizens that they have designated as their mortal enemies.

They are universally without a sense of history preferring the complicated simplicity of madcap cartoons to the simple complexity of the grand vista of real hisory. They see the world in black and white, or red and blue, by refusing to recognize the full spectrum of the rainbow that colors the real world.

This division is not strictly defines by politcal ideology. Those who vote out of privelege or duty can disagree on the course to take, but they are not disagreeable about it. I may not like their ideas. I may believe that their ideas are profoundly damaging to the interests of my country. But I do not believe that such people are my enemies, and, in victory or defeat, I will still respect them.

However, as a rule, voting as a privelege or duty and voting as a weapon do not mix to a great degree in the politcal spectrum. Most of the former are one one side, and most of the latter are on the other, and for the first time in my political life, my natural optimism is being tested. I hope that such people as would see me as their enemy, if I came to their attention, are kept out of power by those they elect, if they win. It is my privelege and duty to stand against them. I hope that I chose well.

Low Brow Arabic Art

Arabic art isn't at all like the art of most of the rest of the world. There is an Islamic prohibition against making art of any kind that represents real things, at least in the modern era. There have been periods where representational art was not as discouraged. As a result, the only other outlet for artistic expression is in writing. Mostly this is seen in very fancy Koranic verses, but here are a few examples of less lofty, but still fanciful writing.



Since brand names are usually transliterated rather than translated, this reads Seven Up Free, or rather yrf p' nvs, which is pronounced exactly like the English version. Arabic is written right to left and usually without vowels.




This one reads tyal aloc acoc, pronounced Coca Cola light.





And this one reads tyal tyarps, pronounced Sprite light.

The Windows Of Heaven...

...opened up this afternoon, and the rain poured down. Hard enough to make mud. Hard enough to wash the dirt off the sidewalks. Hard enough that I will be soaked on the walk back to my room tonight if it doesn't let up. The lakes that surround the palace here have been about three feet low for the whole time that I have been here. Nationwide, farmers have been in drought conditions for a long time. Hopefully this will help a bit.

New Arrivals And Returns

My roommate of less than two months (He had the room to himself while I was in Basra.) just left. He is Air Force, and his "tour" was four months long. I will have the room to myself for only a few days at best. Living space is at a premium now, so the housing authority wont let the room sit idle for long. My roommate couldn't just not tell them he was leaving like I did, since he wont be coming back.

On the incoming side, C9 had around ten new arrivals start in processing today. They are replacing a few people who are leaving. All the same nonsense that happened to my group happened to them. They are arriving just as I and a few others are leaving early. Clearly there is very little planning involved is staffing decisions. Some of that has to do with the way things work here. In military slang, they are called drug deals, under the counter trading of favors, in this case involving duty assignments, that never get back to the human resource planners. My time in Basra was one of these. I was loaned to them temporarily, because it takes less time than vetting a new billet through resource planners, but that means that the job I was doing will never be officially acknowledged. It will always be filled by begging, borrowing or stealing a body from someone else.

Im getting short now. In a month or so, I will be home and a civilian again. "That's not right" is already becoming "Its someone elses problem."

An Interesting View Of The Universe

I corrected the width of the picture so it fits in the post frame. Click through to the source to see it full size. -Ed.

Its Raining!!!

Down in Basra, I saw a couple of light showers, hardly more than a few drops. I just heard the noise of something hitting the roof of my office. Its rain, and not just a few drops. It actually made the ground wet. There have been some really big clouds in the sky for several days now, but they finally let a little water go. It doesn't sound like the rain is going to last long, but the season may be on us. I want to know what they air around here smells like when it is clear of dust. Of course, once the rain sets in, I am going to be walking in mud.

The Song of the Righteous

A friend of mine likes to blog about music. Once each week, she features a song of the week that she found meaningful. Usually, it is a popular song, but she includes hymns occasionally. She always includes the lyrics, which I like. She might even like to include the music, but Blogger makes it difficult to include audio files and it is illegal. After her last post, which was about a hymn, I was thinking about how much I appreciate good music. I don't here much of it over here, and I have missed out on almost an entire year of new music. I haven't recognized any of the popular songs that my friend has written about.

I also thought that sometimes music can hide the words. This usually has the effect of making bad songs more palatable. Catchy music has hidden a lot of rubbish. The popularity of huge parts of the hip-hop genre is evidence of that. Sometimes this happens to good songs too. A tune too familiar or a hymn sung too often can become routine. We listen to it or sing it out of habit, and the notes and the words only penetrate deep enough for us to recognize something familiar. Familiarity can breed complacency.

I like my friend's song of the week. I like reading the words. When you read a song's lyrics without the music to interfere, the song becomes poetry and the hymn becomes scripture. Words have power. Try reading a hymn like "I Believe In Christ" out loud in a normal tone of voice and in a normal speaking rhythm and see if it doesn't sound like something completely new. Then try reading as if you were trying to convince someone else that they should believe in Christ too. To me it sounds a little different this way than the way it usually sounds in church. Usually there is much more meaning, because I can sing the words out of habit, but to say them requires me to think about them. I can think about the words when I sing, but I have to make a greater effort when it is a song that I know well.

"The song of the righteous is a prayer unto me...", but a prayer loses its meaning when it becomes so routine that it is formed without thought or feeling.

Happy Birthday

On this day, in the year 1775, the Continental Congress appropriated funds to build and fit two gun boats for the purpose of seizing or destroying British ships carrying ammunition to their armies in the colonies. The more famous fleet of six frigates, among them USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) would follow later. From this humble beginning, the United States Navy rose to nearly unchallenged position it holds today in, on and over the worlds oceans. It is now 233 years old and going strong.

 

By way of a birthday present, I was informed this morning that I will be coming home early. The drawdown in Iraq is proceeding apace and has reached me. I said before that military staffs bloat nearly as quickly as any other governmetn bureaucracy. There just isn't enough work to go around any more.

 

I am a little disappointed. I don't like leaving a job before it is done. I will miss out on about four months of pay that I was counting on. I haven't seen much of the country or the people either. But I have been away for nine months now, and it will be good to be home. I have to go through the same process going home as I went through coming here, except for the training, so I expect that it will take two or three weeks to demobilize. I should be home in time for Thanksgiving though.

 

Thanks for the packages, but no more please. I will be gone by the time they get here most likely.

 

See you soon.

Back In Baghdad

I only had two days notice to get back here. I wasn't expecting to leave Basra until Saturday, and I had hoped to be here long enough to correct a couple of problems that I will now have to leave for my replacement to solve. The flight was short and, unlike last time, my bags and I arrived at the same time. It was a long day though. It was getting close to midnight when I finally crawled into bed.

Fortunately, Fridays start a couple of hours later than usual, so I slept in a bit. My new job, at least for the next month, will be trying to figure out how to properly assess our progress in Iraq. We need to do better than we are now, but we aren't sure what we can do different or better. You have to be able to measure something if you want to change it.

One small bit of luck that came my way was a package from home that had been lost in the mail for a month or so finally turned up. I didn't have any room in my bags for it, so I ran it down to the post office and forwarded it to myself in Baghdad. Hopefully it won't take another month to reach me.

Movement Orders

It was a bit of a surprise. I was expecting to be here for a few more days, but my flight leaves tonight. There was just enough time to turn over my projects. I will probably have to answer questions by email for a while yet. I am leaving a couple of open issues, unfortunately. I was hoping to have enough time to resolve both before leaving, but I think my replacement will be able to muddle through. Just as things were getting interesting, it is time to move on.

Astronomy As Art

I hope you liked the Astronomy Picture of the Day link from several posts ago. I have always liked astronomy. The universe is a big place, so there is a lot of room for God to show his artistic talents on a grand scale, arranging gas and dust and lighting it up with stars across a canvas light years across. I dont think that it is ALL for our benefit, but it is nice that he made the universe beautiful as well as functional. It is a good lesson that anything worth doing can still be made better with a little effort in presentation. A building or a bridge that is only functional is usually ugly and soon forgotten. Really good engineers and architects and chefs are artists as well. Anyway, here is another link to enjoy. The Hubble Heritage is the best of the Hubble Telescope pictures. A new one is released every month.

Once More Into The Breach

Or outside the wire. I went outside the camp for the second, and possibly last, time today. The biggest project that I have been responsible for started officially with a ground breaking. It is a new school for gifted students. It will eventually teach up to 250 students from Basra, Maysan, Dhi Qar and Muthanna provinces each year. They will compete for admission.

 

The mission didn't get off to a good start, but we recovered, and the ground breaking went well. We got lost at first, because the grid we had for the site was off by about a mile. We ended up standing around in the Jameat for about 30 minutes until we reached the contractor, who met us and led us to the actual site. One thing that every says about being outside is to watch the children. If they are around and being pests, then there isn't going to be any trouble. If there are no children then something bad is going to happen.

 

We had about two dozen boys and girls all around us. Some were trying to practice their english. Some were just begging for some kind of gift. But they were all smiling. Children are cute no matter where in the world they live.

 

Although Jameat is next door to Hyyaniyah, it isn't an open sewer like Hyyaniyah. It is what passes for middle class in Basra. It is still fairly dirty, by US standards, but it looked remarkably clean compared to other parts of Iraq. There is a lot of new construction too.

 

I would have liked to see more of Basra. In a couple of months, a school will be openning in a much nicer part of town and there is a hospital by the river that I could have seen too, but maybe I will be sent back here again. Corps has been sending people home early for lack of work, so maybe I can talk someone into letting me come back.

The Silent Service

I will probably never serve on a submarine again. I may never ride one again. The only way that I may even see the inside of one again is to pay a visit to a museum ship. I am still a submariner and look back on the three and a half years that I spent at sea fondly. That may be in part because of the natural tendency of memories to fade with time. Good memories last longer. Bad memories tend to fade faster. When you join an organisation, its history becomes your own. Today, I learned a little bit more about some of that history.

 

On the 3rd of October, the Navy confirmed that the wreck of the USS Grunion (SS-216) had been found about one mile down near the Aleutian island Kiska. Grunion had been on her first war patrol, attacking Japanese shipping around Kiska. Kiska and another island, Attu, where the only US territory ever occupied by Japanese forces. They were seized in an attempt to draw US Naval forces away from the planned attack on Midway Island. USS Grunion was harrassing and interdicting the Japanese supply ships when she last reported in and was ordered to return to port. She never arrived. She was declared lost with all hands (70 officers and crew) in mid August.

 

The sons of her commanding officer, financed the search for the wreck, and after a big break in the form of information on the internet that had been posted by the son of a Japanese Maru sailor, that told of an attack on a submarine near Kiska that had not been previously known. It is likely that Grunion was sunk by an armed merchant shortly after reporting in for the last time.

 

USS Grunion is one of 52 subamrines lost during World War II and 63 lost from all causes. Nearly all went down with all hands. The submarine service had the highest mortality rate of all branches of the military in World War II. 3505 submariners never returned from patrol, nearly 1 in 5. In the Pacific Theater, they acounted for more than half of all Japanese shipping sunk. Aa an aside, the Japanese Navy, after the war provided material claiming nearly 500 US submarines sunk.

 

In addition to those submariners lost during World War II, 371 others died due to accidents and other perils of the sea, both before and after the war. The last two, and the only nuclear submarines to be lost, were 129 on USS Thresher and 99 on USS Scorpion.

 

The sea has always been a dangerous place. All sailors have a respect for each other that goes beyond nationality. War, at least in the past, wasn't personal. Ships fought, not men. When the fighting was done, men collected the survivors. There was a degree of kindness in that, because the winners knew that they could be on the losing side just as well and in need of a helping hand out of the water. Among submariners, with time putting some distance between events, there is even respect for the Japanese and German submariners who were lost at even higher rates than ours. Germany, for example, lost between 700 and 800 uboats each with 60 to 80 men. Subamriners dont really consider them lost at sea. They are still at their stations. Still on patrol.

 

I wouldn't trade that history for anything.

 

Submarines Lost Through Enemy Action
                  Date of Loss Casualties
Sealion   (SS-195)  10 Dec 41    5 killed
Shark     (SS-174)  11 Feb 42   58 killed
Perch     (SS-176)   3 Mar 42   59 POWs, 6 later died
Grunion   (SS-216)  31 Jul 42   70 killed
Argonaut  (APS-1)   10 Jan 43  105 killed
Amberjack (SS-219)  14 Feb 43   74 killed
Grampus   (SS-207)   5 Mar 43   71 killed
Triton    (SS-201)  15 Mar 43   74 killed
Pickerel  (SS-177)   3 Apr 43   74 killed
Grenadier (SS-210)  22 Apr 43   76 POWs, 4 later died
Runner    (SS-275)  28 May 43   78 killed
Pompano   (SS-181)  29 Aug 43   76 killed
Grayling  (SS-209)   9 Sep 43   76 killed
Cisco     (SS-290)  28 Sep 43   76 killed
S 44      (SS-155)   7 Oct 43   55 killed
Wahoo     (SS-238)  11 Oct 43   80 killed
Dorado    (SS-248)  12 Oct 43   76 killed
Corvina   (SS-226)  16 Nov 43   82 killed
Sculpin   (SS-191)  19 Nov 43   12 killed, 51 POWs
Capelin   (SS-289)  23 Nov 43   78 killed
Scorpion  (SS-278)   5 Jan 44   76 killed
Grayback  (SS-208)  27 Feb 44   80 killed
Trout     (SS-202)  29 Feb 44   81 killed
Herring   (SS-233)   1 Jun 44   84 killed
Gudgeon   (SS-211)   7 Jun 44   78 killed
Golet     (SS-361)  14 Jun 44   82 killed
Robalo    (SS-273)  26 Jul 44   74 killed, 4 POWs
Flier     (SS-250)  13 Aug 44   78 killed
Harder    (SS-257)  24 Aug 44   79 killed
Escolar   (SS-294)  17 Oct 44   82 killed
Shark     (SS-314)  24 Oct 44   87 killed
Albacore  (SS-218)   7 Nov 44   86 killed
Growler   (SS-215)   8 Nov 44   85 killed
Scamp     (SS-277)  11 Nov 44   83 killed
Swordfish (SS-193)  12 Jan 45   89 killed
Barbel    (SS-316)   4 Feb 45   81 killed
Kete      (SS-369)  20 Mar 45   87 killed
Trigger   (SS-237)  28 Mar 45   89 killed
Snook     (SS-279)   9 Apr 45   84 killed
Lagarto   (SS-371)   3 May 45   85 killed
Bonefish  (SS-223)  18 Jun 45   85 killed
Bullhead  (SS-332)   6 Aug 45   84 killed

 

Submarines Lost Through Accidents and Perils of the Sea
                  Date of Loss Casualties
F 4       (SS-23)   25 Mar 15   21 died
F 1       (SS-20)   16 Dec 17   19 died
G 2       (SS-27)   30 Jul 19    3 died
H 1       (SS-28)   12 Mar 20    4 died
O 5       (SS-66)   20 Oct 23    3 died
S 51      (SS-162)  25 Sep 25   33 died
Squalus   (SS-192)  23 May 39   26 died
O-9       (SS-70)   20 Jun 41   33 died
S 36      (SS-141)  20 Jan 42    0 died
S-26      (SS-131)  24 Jan 42   46 died
S 27      (SS-132)  19 Jun 42    0 died
S 39      (SS-144)  16 Aug 42    0 died
R-12      (SS-89)   12 Jun 43   42 died
Tullibee  (SS-284)  26 Mar 44   79 died
S-28      (SS-133)   4 Jun 44   50 died
Seawolf   (SS-197)   3 Oct 44   99 died
Darter    (SS-227)  24 Oct 44    0 died
Tang      (SS-306)  24 Oct 44   78 died, 9 POWs
Cochino   (SS-345)  26 Aug 49    1 died
Thresher (SSN-593)  10 Apr 63  129 died
Scorpion (SSN-589)  27 May 68   99 died

General Conference

I couldn't watch General Conference this time. None of the networks available to me allow streaming video. I miss it. I can still download the audio and listen to it, but it isn't quite the same as when I know that I am watching along with a few million others at the same time. I wouldn't even have minded staying up until one am. The time difference between here and Utah is nine hours. I did catch the news that there will be a temple in Rome soon. That is exciting news. I wonder how much of the world is left that is more than say six hours away from a temple. That isn't necessarily an indicator of usage. I live maybe fifteen minutes away from the Provo Temple, and I dont attend nearly as often as I should. The closer a temple is, the easier it is to take it for granted. I hope that is one bad habit that I shake off when I get back.

Moving Again

I have said that I am somewhat conflicted about being here in Basrah. On one hand, I have work to do that can make a difference to the people of Iraq. On the other hand, the living is rougher. On the whole, I think that I would prefer to stay, but I have received word that my replacement will be arriving soon, maybe as early as tomorrow, but maybe not. I have complained about air transport before. I hope to have a week to turn over my projects and and make introductions, before heading back to Baghdad, and whatever assignment awaits me there. I hope I get to travel a bit. I did not get to see much of Basrah, and I have seen even less of Baghdad. Time will tell.

The Pyramid of Honor

I read a story in Stars and Stripes recently about one of our honored dead who had received the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in combat that led to his death. Apparantly, while tragic for his family, it was judged by those tasked with reviewing recommendations for valor awards to be very high on the scale of heroism as such things are measured. The DSC is no small award, as it is only exceeded in honor by the Medal of Honor itself. I can hardly read such stories without having to fight back tears. However, one part of the story got me a little peeved.

 

It seems that his mother found it disappointing that he was not approved for the Medal of Honor and had taken it upon herself to ask the Army to review the award decision and upgrade the award to the Medal of Honor and was making the case publicly to try to put pressure on the Army to do so. As with any endevour that is made by human beings, the review process for valor medals can be flawed. There are known cases of awards being upgraded later when reviews found that a higher award was justified and that bias, prejudice, or inaccurate information had been the cause of the downgrade or denial of the award. These cases are rare though. The process of review, especially for the highest of awards is as thorough and rigorous as any process can be. It often takes up to two years for a Medal of Honor recommendation to be vetted and approved. For valor medals, unlike my previous post on medal inflation for administrative medals, the military takes its responsibility very seriously.

 

For a history of the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross and other valor medals, including the honor roll of those who have receieved them with citations, please visit the Medal of Honor site and the Home of Heroes site. In brief, the history of these medals follows. These sites have more details. From the founding of the country, the military had disaproved of medals as being too European and aristocratic. Until the Civil War, there were no medals that were authorized to recognize valor and heroism. During the Civil War, the Medal of Honor was created, first for the Navy and then for the Army, and was restricted to the enlisted ranks only. Officer were expected at all times to behave valorously in combat and to provide extra recognition was thought unnecessary. Officers were eventually made eligible to receive it though.

 

In 1917, a review of the Medals of Honor showed that with only one medal available, there was no way to distinguish between various degrees of valor and the Medal of Honor was being devalued by awarding it for actions that, while heroic, did not meet the standard of above and beyond the call of duty and of conspicuous gallantry. To correct this error, Congress created a series of medals that permitted actions to be recognized without diminishing the honor of any award. The pyramid of honor was capped by the Medal of Honor, along with another short lived award called the Marine Corps Brevet Medal which was discontinued in favor of the Medal of Honor. At the next level was the Service Crosses, the Distinguished Service Cross for the Army, the Navy Cross, and later the Air Force Cross. Finally came the Distinguished Service Medals for each service and the Silver Star.

 

Each of these awards must be justified by actions of great and conspicuous valor, in combat against an enemy, which places one's life at risk. The standards are set by statute by Congress and are very specific in describing the degree of valor and heroism required. So high are the standards, that close to 8 out of every 10 Medals of Honor are awarded posthumously, and the larger fraction of those awarded to surviving heroes were awarded in the distant past. Almost no one, who merits the Medal of Honor, survives the action that earns it. A large fraction of the Service Crosses were also awarded posthumously, but death alone does not automatically equate to conspicuous gallantry or beyond the call of duty. Tragically, duty often requires death which disallows the very highest of military honors. In all of World War II, in which there were more than 400,000 dead, only 138 Medals of Honor were awarded, 27 were for actions during the battle for Iwo Jima. It is for this that it was said that "among the Americans who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valor, was a common virtue." Twenty-seven awards from a single battle stood out.

 

Not even everyone in military service understands this, and this is readily apparant in the medal inflation of administrative awards. It would be a great tragedy and a disservice to all of our heroes, living and dead, to degrade the value and honor of any of our valor awards. The services take this responsibility seriously, and review each recommendation for its merits carefully. I think that when there is any doubt, the preferrence is to err on the side of a lower degree of honor in order to protect the distinction of the higher. An award can be upgraded if such is warranted, but how do you downgrade an award if that is also warranted? You cant, and therein lies the danger that the process guards against. If the honor of an award is at all diminished by giving honor where it is not due, the damage cannot be undone, and all awards, past and future, are diminshed by it.

 

If this soldier truly meritted the Medal of Honor, that honor will come to him, but his mother does his memory no service by trying to force that honor to come outside of the system set up to render that honor to him. It is no insult or shame to receive the Distinguished Service Cross. One of the greatest American soldiers of all, General George S Patton, Jr said of his Distinguished Service Cross, "I would rather be a Lieutenant with it, than a General without it." He held it in higher esteem than even the four stars of his rank which in war denoted the highest degree of trust in his judgement and leadership that the nation could bestow. I wish that she could understand that. Less than 14000 of the many millions of men who have served our nation in war have received this honor. No one who has ever worn the uniform would think poorly of him for not being one of the fewer then 3500 who have received the Medal of Honor. I never will.

Weapons Of The New War

Once upon a time, wars were fought by nations who raised masses of men, gave them weapons and then repeated smashed them into each other until one of them gave up or ceased to exist. This worked because weapons were expensive and dificult to use. Only nations could afford the cost of procuring the weapons and training soldiers in their use. Ordinary people, if they dared resort to arms at all, usually made do with farm impliments. That meant that commoners had little say over who their princes and kings were. A war, if they survived it, just meant that someone else might be taxing them to death.

 

Weapons are much less expensive now, and that makes war much more complicated. Where armies once only took note of commoners as a source of cannon fodder or forage, now they have to worry about what side they are on. Now, when anyone in the war zone suffers a loss, they have the capacity to wage their own little war against whomever they see as their enemy. Now, armies cant just fight wherever and leave the survivors to pick up the pieces.

 

Our enemies understand this better than we do sometimes. That is one reason that we had so many problems in Iraq at first. We took away something bad, but we didn't replace it with anything better. The common people had come to terms with what was and had learned to survive. Then we gave them some hope for something better, but didn't follow through quickly enough. It was expected that those that were tied to the old regime would be upset enough to fight, but we also thought that the rest would be happy enough with the old regime gone. Instead, when we didn't deliver, a lot of them through in with the insurgency, in many cases because the "political" wing of the insurgency ran schools and clinics and provided jobs.

 

Too few commanders understood that the best weapon against an insurgency is money. It doesn't do any real good to directly bribe the lilttle powers - clan chiefs, sheiks, etc. At best that only buys a little time, and they use the money to arm themselves and get ready to extort more money down the road. Where money becomes an effective weapon is in building the infrastructure that makes peace better than war. People who have something to lose, have something to fight for. When what they would lose came from our enemies, they fought for our enemies. When we gave them something that our enemies could take away, they fought for us.

 

This is a difficult weapon to use, because there are no clear targets and no clear way to immediately tell if you hit the target. Sighting in the weapon so you deliver the right amount of money to the right place at the right time takes time and patience, and a lot of money because sometimes you miss and missing is just as expensive as getting it right. Too much money makes people dependent and disappointed when it doesn't continue. Too little is disappointing and makes people think your dont care enough to try. Any kind of miss can turn people against you. Fortunately, in Iraq we mostly learned the lesson in time to make a difference.

 

For a good lesson in the wrong way to handle things, please read Michael Yon's report from Afghanistan - "Death in the Corn". He makes his living living with the troops on the front line, first in Iraq and now in Afghanistan. In this post, he tells about the efforts of British troops to deal with a sniper that used to be a farmer, until he lost some trees and wasn't paid for his loss. He wasn't paid because the rate of compensation was set by accountants back in Britain so low, that he preferred revenge to what he considered theft. Sooner or later he will be killed, when he should have been and could have been a friend.

 

This is what I do in Basra. I have paid someone for a car that was totalled by an armored vehicle. I am building schools and hospitals so the Iraqis have something to lose by chosing war instead of peace. I am trying to be fair to a contractor so he will finish a job instead of turning to terrorism. There aren't enough troops here to suppress insurgency by force now. The fact that there has only been one attack in two months, means that the people here, for now at least, prefer peace. Hopefully that will last.

Two Good Daily Links

Everyone needs a little awe every day. Something to remind us what a wonderful universe we live in. Sometimes ordinary, but usually extraordinary, see if you dont find yourself thinking "Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder..." here.

 

Everyone needs a little "aah" every day, or at least a smile, if not a good laugh. If you haven't been introduced to LOLcats, try it here.

 

I Should Have Taken The Bet

By nature, I am pretty optimistic. I prefer to see the bright side of things or imagine positive outcomes. I have a friend over here who has a very different personality. For example, I have never thought that I would not make it home alive. My optimism is tempered by reality. I do recognize that there is some risk, but I dont confuse reality for the fantasy that so many people build of a dark and hopeless future.

My friend was absolutely convinced that there would be a "Tet Offensive" this year during Ramadan. Every year, so far, Ramadan has seen a huge increase in violence against the coalition and Iraqi government. He thought that with the success of the counter insurgency that this year would be the last chance for the insurgency to make a statement or attempt to influence the political picture, especially with elections coming up both here and at home. He was sure that we would be defending the wire and fighting infiltrators inside our camps.

There are still a few more days left for his prediction to come true, but there hasn't been any indications yet. I should have taken his bet.

Blog Error Found - But Not Fixed

I think that I found the error. When I posted the "What Is Truth?" by email, either gmail or blogger added a DIV tag around the text of the post. The tag is explicitly closed, so I dont know why this would have caused the problem, but the result looks like adding a closed tag created an open one. My knowledge of HTML is too limited to figure that one out. The end result is that the page that has the "What Is Truth?" post on it won't render correctly. I haven't been able to edit the post either. It is a problem with the network. I think that it is blocking the action, but being sneaky about it. The problem may reoccur because of this, but I will try to find a better solution.

Blog Error

I dont know what Blogger did to my layout, but it obviously isn't right anymore. At least when I look at it, all of the stuff that is supposed to be on the side is all the way at the bottom. It may take a while to figure out how to fix it. No other Blogger hosted blog that I open does this, so I have no clue. I even changed the template, but that didn't work either. If anyone has the answer, please leave a comment.

The First Rule Of Fight Club Is...

The first rule of Civil Affairs is dont make any promises. No one has the authority or the power to garantee a promise of any kind. Even if you lose control of your tank and flatten a house, you dont promise to rebuild it. The most that you can ethically and honestly promise anyone is to look into it. There are just too many people who can say no. Those who control the purse strings and the lawyers are the most obvious, but sometimes even the Iraqis dont want what you may have promised. It is their country after all.

Managing expectations is the number one concern if you want to help someone else. Raising expectations beyond what you can reliably support is asking for trouble. It is far better to promise nothing and deliver a little, than to promise even a little and deliver nothing. The time to show someone what a great person you are is when the contract is signed and the money obligated, because the work cant be stopped after that. Anything less around here, and you are risking blowback in the form of violence and not just against yourself. Angry people are not selective in who they take their anger out on.

There are way too many people, ostensibly on our side, who are in the habit of making promises without thinking about who has to keep them. Sometimes they dont even have the courtesy to tell you that they made a promise that you now have to find a way to keep. To put it mildly, I am really annoyed right now. I have to figure out how to accelerate a someone's pet project that isn't a priority to anyone but him, and the people to whom he made the promise. Fortunately, he doesn't read this blog, but I suppose that I will have to delete this post eventually.

While I am ranting, I was supposed to go out on another mission yesterday. It would have been my first overnight stay out in the city. Would have been, because I couldn't get any transportation. The Brits mean well, but they have drawn down their presence here over the past year and don't have the capacity to support us like we need. They have playing defense for a long time, and that is also annoying me right now.

Cash Is Pretty

A lot of our contracts get paid in cash. The Iraqi banking system is beginning to work, but not everyone trusts it yet. For smaller projects, especially those with small businesses, it is easier to work in cash. Personally, I have only had $2000 pas through my hands as a paying agent, but two of my projects have paid out in cash to the tune of $75,000. One of our paying agents routinely handles mid-six figure cash payouts. Handling that kind of money is strange, because it just doesn't happen back home. Anyone with that amount of cash is as likely to be assumed to be a drug dealer as anything else. A lot of police forces even have seize first, ask questions later, and never give back regardless policies based on that assumption. Around here it doesn't even raise eyebrows, even when the values get into six figures. Credit cards, checks and bank drafts certainly go a long ways to making our lives more comfortable - when we use them responsibly.

What Is Wisdom?

I read an interesting article today, written by a very interesting author, that raised the title question. It was a piece of political commentary, so read it, or not, as you will, but it made me think. Nephi said that learning and wisdom were not necessarily synonymous, and the former without the latter was a very dangerous thing, especially to the learned one who had no wisdom, but that learning was a good thing when the one who had it was not so full of himself that he would no longer listen to anything beyond his own thoughts.
Wisdom can be learned in academia. The classical liberal education was designed just for that. A major portion of it was a study of Western and classical philosophers combined with history so the student could see what brought about success and what brought about failure on the world stage. There is wisdom in philosophies that were developed and tested over the course of many centuries, even if they were sometimes lacking in truth.
Modern academia, in the main, seems to have thrown all of the wisdom of the ages out in the belief that anything older than memory is at least suspect if not actually evil, at least to the extent that evil is acknowledged at all. Modern philosophies tend to be developed, not by looking into the past and considering the measured results of actual decisions by real people, but by projecting the wishes of the present into the an imaginary future. For the present learned, it has the advantage that it cannot be tested or refuted, because the past is dead and beyond consideration. If some deem the philosophy flawed because it has failed so far, they just haven't given it enough time. There are still devout communists who believe that the dialectic will yet come true in just a few more years.
I think this is one reason that there is such a disconnect between the coasts and fly-over country. Wisdom can be learned from the right kind of academics, but it is far more easily learned from experience. People who are not insulated from the consequences of decisions learn quickly what works and what doesn't, even without a background in classical history. They develop a practical philosophy for living that would be easily recognized, if it were articulated, or could be articulated, by any of the old philosophers, who might quibble over details, but not broad strokes.
Too many people in academia and other "disciplines" only learn to think right and to think forward and so continuously stumble over obstacles that would easily be visible if lighted by the experience of the past, or even the present.
William Buckley's statement that he would rather be governed by the first 500 people in the Boston phonebook than the faculty of Harvard carried a lot of truth in it. The latter class of people could do considerable damage, if only because they would be thoroughly convinced of their own rightness and righteousness in every decision, and because academia today is so monolithic in its culture that there would be no dissenting voices to question the direction of march. They would march right off a cliff, all the while proclaiming that once they reached the bottom, they would find the promised land. The former, at least, would argue about the direction of march, and those that lost would would be looking for problems, so they could warn the others that the cliff was getting close and be heard.
Mosiah held the voice of the people is fairly high regard. He undoubtedly knew that they wouldn't get everything right and that it would be a messy process, but that it was uncommon for the voice of the people to choose iniquity. In modern terms, people who are not thoroughly convinced of their own infallibility and superior learning will muddle through. They may move slowly and in fits and starts, sometimes this way and sometimes that way, but on average they move in the right direction.
Government does need specialists for its operations. Agencies are not easily run by those inexperienced with large organizations. It is also good for those that govern to be advised by those learned in the areas of decisions that must be made. The decision makers, though, need wisdom more than learning and there doesn't seem to be nearly enough of that. Part of the problem is that the wise tend to not stick their nose into other peoples business which means that they are not attracted in great numbers to the business of government. It is difficult to come out of government with your honor, much less your reputation, wholly intact.

Sacrifice

We often sing "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven." As a statement of faith it contains an ocean of meaning. We can see a little bit of the surface, illuminated by experience, study and testimony, but even more is hidden in its depths that is only opened by revelation. Much of what I wish I knew about it, is still hidden. To a certain extent why sacrifice brings blessings is known through scripture, but the question of how is much more mysterious. In many cases, such as the payment of an honest tithe, it amounts to a combination of faith and obedience. A specific blessing is promised in exchange for a specific activity or behavior. In other cases the tie is less direct or specific, especially when both the sacrifice and the blessing are made and received by more than one individual.
I started thinking about this again yesterday when I heard about the helo that crashed near here that killed seven soldiers. It was just an accident, of the kind that can almost be predicted statistically. In every so many thousands of flight hours, on average, there is bound to be a fatal crash, but even death by accident, for a soldier at war, is called the ultimate sacrifice. The magnitude of the sacrifice, as judged by those who survive, is only evident in the medal that is presented to the next of kin.
What blessings come from the willing sacrifice of a soldier? Or that of the more than 4000 who have now died during this war. If a war could be fought without a single life lost, would it be a war worth fighting? The value of a prize is generally measured by the cost to obtain it.
I am in the camp that firmly believes that this war is both right and just. I do not minimize the mistakes that have been made that unnecessarilly added to the costs in material, money and lives, but no enterprise that in anyway involves people will ever be without them. To the question "Was it worth the lives lost?", my answer is yes. I believe that when the true history of the world is written, without being clouded by the prejudice of having lived it, this war will be seen as one of the opening acts of a great work among the children of Ishmael.
The gospel must be and will be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. Obstacles to that end will be overcome, usually by many years of labor on the part of good men and women of every kind. It took close to sixty years to bring down the Iron Curtain and establish the conditions that allowed the gospel to reach those nations that were behind it. The cost is counted in the trillions of dollars, and for all that it was a "cold" war, many tens of thousands of dead. Was it worth the cost?
Blood sacrifice was once required for the remission of sins. After Christ, it is no longer required, but there is something in the nature of a life willingly lost in a good cause that opens the windows of heaven. The nature and scope of the blessings that follow may not be readily apparent or follow immediately, but they do and will come.
I can see here the difference that is already being made. Iraq may still fail as a nation. More and more of the labor required to build their country is being placed in their own hands. I dont envy them the task of building a free and prosperous country given what they started with and their recent history, but we were quite a small and struggling nation for many years before we were firmly established in the world too. I don't think they will fail, though the nation that they build for themselves may not be precisely what we would like them to be. Only time will tell.
What blessings will come to us will be more difficult to see. There is the fact that we haven't seen another attack like 9/11 yet, but that is only temporary. I am sure that it will happen again at some point, but that kind of safety is a small thing.
Nations are raised up and destroyed according to the Lord's own purposes. Rome established the conditions for the Primative Church to be established. The nations of Europe nurtured and spread Christianity throughout the world. The United States was established so that the Modern Church could be restored. But the United States was still a small and insignificant in the world when that happened. Many decades passed before we were "lifted up above all nations" as Nephi put it.
But "To whom much is given, much is required," and we have been given much. No other nation in the history of the world has had so much influence in the world. The greatest empires of the past have not so thoroughly dominated the world as we can and do, whether it be in the economic, political, military or scientific arenas. That kind of greatness and the prosperity that comes with it must come at a price. Part of that price is that our good men and women cannot do nothing and allow evil to prevail, even while the world hates us for acting. We cannot fight every war, nor depose every tyrant, at least not all at once, but neither can we do nothing in the face of evil, or we will assent to it, and that is the surest way to lose or place in the world.
It may be that in other than the very distant term, the only blessing that we may see from the sacrifice of our dead, is that we remain as we are. The lone superpower, hated or distrusted and simultaneously envied by all, yet depended on to act because no one else will. If the time ever comes that we lose the collective will to stand against evil in the world, then we will have outlived our usefulness, and another nation will be raised up in our place, perhaps even literally.
I can live with that, or die for it. Either way, I will be in good company.

Changing Horses

There is an old saying that you dont change horses in the middle of the stream. I suppose that it could be extended by saying, unless you have to. Yesterday, General Petraeus was relieved as MNF Commander by General Odierno. This is good news. Just like you dont change horses in mid-stream, you dont change generals in the middle of the fight, unless you have too. Sometimes the general might be killed or otherwise become incapable of continuing. Then you would have to replace him out of necesity. Sometimes he might be so incompetant or reckless, that you might replace him so as not to provide aid to the enemy by having someone working for the other side in charge of your own. That isn't the case here. We are changing generals now, because the one was successful and solved the problem that he was sent to handle. The new one has his own, but different, issue to deal with. The old one is being bumped up the ladder to apply his solution to a broader arena. It can't be pleasant for the rest of the nations of CENTCOM to know that the general who smashed the insurgency in Iraq is now in charge of the entire region that spawned them. Overall, I think this is one more indicator that conditions are improving.

Future Operations

I had been assuming that I would be going on R&R sometime in November. Well, I finally asked what my approved dates were, I was a bit surprised. AS it happens, my R&R dates are in early February. I would get back into theater about a month before demobilizing and going home for good. I am not sure that I understand that, but I told the Master Sergeant that I would take whatever was left after everyone else since I didn't have a pressing need to get home, like a child's birthday. For a minute I even considered skipping it all together, but now I think I will take it anyway. The timing is pretty good for getting arrangements in place for when I come home for good a month later.
I got an email from a coworker a while back to updated me on changes at work. I have been thinking about whether or not I should return to my former employer. The company has changed a lot since I started there, and I am not sure that it is a good fit for me anymore. It may finally be time to move on. If so, this little trip to the Middle East could be a convenient way to make a clean break with enough of a nest egg to get me into my next job. If anyone from work is reading this, please dont take it personally. It is just something that I am thinking about now.

Some Welcome Changes

The weather seems to have changed for the better. The Heat stress condition didn't go to RED until 1100 yesterday. Two days ago, I made the 10 minute walk to a contractor's office for a notice to proceed meeting on my first project and barely broke a sweat. I hope this means that fall is here now. Of course it also means that, sooner or later, the walk to the showers in the morning is going to get cold.
We also reorganized our office space not long ago. There are fewer people in my office now, so the air conditioning can actually keep up with the bodies that are left.

A Word From Our Sponsor

I just found out that the Division Public Affairs Officer and Media Operations Group have put up a blog site to talk about what is happening in Basrah. Their job is to make things look good, but it is easier to do when things are good. In his second post, he writes that his first time over here, the first thing he did after stepping off the plane was hit the deck for a rocket attack. I have heard the alarm only three times in the six weeks that I have been here and heard the explosions only once, so things are much better. Anyway, even coming from the division media spokesman, it is another source of news about the area. Maybe you will find it interesting.

Brought to you by Multinational Division Southeast - The Basra Blog

A Few Links For Yesterday

We must always remember

11 September 2008 8:46:40 AM -- American Airlines-Flight 11

11 September 2008 9:03:11 AM -- United Airlines Flight 175

11 September 2008 9:37:46 AM -- American Airlines Flight 77

11 September 2008 9:37:46 AM -- South Tower Collapse

11 September 2008 10:15 AM -- United Airlines Flight 93

11 September 2008 10:29 AM -- North Tower Collapse

Seven Years

Today we had a minute of silence at 1546, 0846 in New York. Lacking a US chaplain, one of the Brits stood in and said a prayer. This is one of those events that you will always remember, if you were old enough to know what was happening. It has been a long and sometimes uncertain road so far and will be into the foreseeable future, but that has always been our way of doing things. Jumping into an adventure without knowing the way, at least gets the work started, instead of being paralysed into inaction by doubt. Somehow, after much milling about, we manage to strike off in one direction mostly all together, and more often than not, it is generally in the right direction. I think that we have managed to leave things better than we found them. All this really needs a much longer post to cover completely, so it will have to wait for another day.

I Spoke Too Soon

In my last post, I said that Basrah doesn't have sand storms like Baghdad. That turned out to be only partially true. Last night, there was a huge storm. There was only a little rain, but the wind really tore at things. We heard that several power line were down around Basrah, and a pontoon bridge over the Shatt Al Arab was torn up. There was some local damage in the camp, too, but the biggest problem was the blowing sand. There wasn't the suspended dust that you see in the picture of the palace, but it wasn't pleasant to breathe and it got into everything. There was a pretty good lightning show too. When the rainy season starts, I think the only difference will be the amount a water coming down. People are saying that basrah turns into one huge mud bog.

In other news, if you know any Luddites who just aren't happy unless everyone is miserable, the Large Hadron Collider was started up yesterday. No black holes were produced, so the end of the world will be delayed yet again. It is supposed to discovery the Higgs Boson, which among other things, is suspected of being the reason that matter has mass. I read someone today who said that, if it is found, it might provide evidence that "ether" really does exist, at least in the sense that there is something that completely pervades the universe and touches everything in it. Isn't it funny how, the more science advances, the more closely it seems to approach where religion has been all along. Can someone recall who said that true science and true religion are never in disagreement. I have also heard and thought myself, that all truth, whether it comes from science or revelation, is a part of the Gospel. The only difference being that on some things we depend on for our eternal welfare and others only for our temporal welfare.

Breathing Sand

I never did get the original post fixed, so here are the pictures again, just to show the difference between good weather and a sand storm in Iraq. This storm wasn't even a bad one. The pictures were taken at the same location and at about the same time of day. I haven't seen sand like this since I have been in Basrah. The wind doesn't usually blow from a direction that would bring in sand like this.

Grace Under Fire

I survived my first real attack last night. I was the epitome of calm and reacted to the attack immediately according standing orders. I got down flat and into a bunker to avoid flying shrapnel and stayed put until the "All Clear" was sounded.

Don't read too much into it, especially you, Mom. The rockets finally landed close enough for me to hear them explode, but they weren't close enough to shake anything. The alarm was actually louder than the rockets were. I was already in bed and almost asleep when the attack came, so I was already as close to the ground as I could get and already in a bunker, since I sleep in a little one every night. I stayed right where I was. When then alarm was finally turned off and the command post stopped making announcements about not moving around and staying under cover, I finally went to sleep. I do wish the insurgents were a little more considerate, though. An hour earlier, and I would have had my computer out and I could have passed the time watching a movie instead of just laying there.

If you want excitement out of a war, you don't fight it on a staff. You join the Marines.

BTW, this is where I ride out indirect fire attacks, or sleep, as the situation calls for it.

A Brief Update

We have some new people in the office - a new Royal Army Captain and a Private from the Artillery. We will be getting another one this week and another the week after, probably from the Royal Navy. The weather has shifted again. It wasn't as hot, but it was very wet today. A south wind is blowing humid air up from the Gulf. It even looked like there had been rain last night. There should be some steady cooling over the next couple of months as winter approaches. It never really gets cold here, except at night, but if the highs get down to the low 100s it will be a huge improvement. My roommate seems to have disappeared. He returned from an extended stay in Baghdad for two nights, and then went off somewhere else again. There isn't much benefit to having the container all to myself, but at least I dont have to try not to wake someone up when I get up. I am a morning person, and he is not. For some reason, the Navy Unclassified network no longer blocks this blog, so I can post without any trouble now. Maybe it will mean more frequent posts too. Good luck to everyone going back to school. I will be trying to build a few of them here. BTW, Ramadan has started, and we have two Muslims working in our offices. It has been interesting. I try not be obvious about eating or drinking in front of them. It must be hard going without water, especially, as hot as it gets here.

The Quotable Lois McMaster Bujold

It was a slow day. I couldn't get a ride out of the Camp to inspect my projects. I haven't received paperwork that I need from my Iraqi contacts yet. So I ended up finding this.

• Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will.
  A Civil Campaign
  What others think of you may make your life easier or more challenging, but they can only judge what they see, and that imperfectly. What matters, in the end, is what you know of yourself, and what God knows.


• Any community's arm of force - military, police, security - needs people in it who can do necessary evil, and yet not be made evil by it. To do only the necessary and no more. To constantly question the assumptions, to stop the slide into atrocity.
  Barrayar
  This sounds like a highly paraphrased description of Captain Moroni.


• If you want to catch something, running after it isn't always the best way.
  Borders of Infinity
  No comment here. It just sounded like good advice.


• The will to be stupid is a very powerful force, but there are always alternatives.
  Brothers in Arms
  I thought this was a good warning to the partisans of this political season. To bad so few of them heed it.


• Some prices are just too high, no matter how much you may want the prize. The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart.
  Memory
  This is also a good warning in general, but particularly in politics, where it would be better rendered as "the one thing you shouldn't trade for the honors of men is your own honor."


• I don't confuse greatness with perfection. To be great anyhow is…the higher achievement.
  Mirror Dance
  I have never understood how some people can look at the giants of history and only see their flaws and failings. As if George Washington was nothing more than a slave owner, or Columbus did nothing but kill a lot of Indians.

When You See Someone Striding Purposefully Toward You...

With the intent of doing you good, run away.
We are getting close to the end of the fiscal year. In government circles, that means it's the season to spend money before it disappears, because, in the perverse world of government finance, if you didn't spend every penny allotted to you then you obviously don't need as much next year. Government financial rules have mechanisms that specifically disincentivize good judgment and frugality. The rules also seem to push any sense of propriety or law out of peoples minds.
This weekend, a tornado of government good intentions descended on us with the mandate to find something, anything, to spend the last of their money on, and it absolutely had to be done right now. We worked right through lunch. I worked right through my half-day off. I got all of their projects ready, just in time, and all along, I knew it wasn't going to go anywhere. All of my time was going to be wasted, because the urge to do something good, blinded them to what was right, or at least
what was legal.
Today, when the do-gooders have gone, and sanity has been allowed to return, it turns out that every project I worked up will likely be denied, because they tried to do an end run around a rule intended to prevent very large sums from being spent without a high level review. There isn't anything wrong with any of the individual projects. Each one on its own merits is a good thing and could probably be justified and approved, one at a time, and spread out over the whole year. But all together, all at once, in a way that tries to dodge a pretty big rule, means that a lot of money wont get spent, and a bunch of government do-gooders are going to look like idiots.
It is also going to sour relationships that we have with the people that they made promises to that they were not allowed to make, and we are not allowed to keep. This will always happen as long as people who get to spend money are judged by how much they spend rather than by how well they spend it.

The Quotable GK Chesterton

I stumbled upon some quotes from GK Chesterton a few days ago. I really like him. Someday, I will have to read him a little more thoroughly. Anyway, I thought that these lines were especially good.


"Fairy tales are more than true — not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten."
"Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed."

Stories don't have to be true to be good. The fact that Shakespeare is quoted in General Conference as often as he is is evidence enough that "Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom" (D&C 88:118) includes more than the canonized scripture.

Another really good quote of his is "Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously."

Thanks Mom ...

... and everyone else who contributed. I got my first care package today. I try not to care about this sort of thing, but it is nice to get something that reminds me of home. Thanks everyone. I love you Mom.

The Wages Of Sin

Anytime you misbehave or dont listen, the consequences always catch up to you. Looking back, I can remember a fleeting thought that I should walk back to work from lunch, or take the bus. Didn't Joseph Smith say something about recognizing the first hints of intelligence that might be revelation. If I had listened, I wouldn't be nursing a strained back. The roll over might not have happened either, but I can't say for sure, because they had been pushing the limits for a while as youngsters often do. I even had a second chance, because I remember thinking after going around a couple of turns at an uncomfortably high speed that I really should tell the driver to slow down.
Then, I was late getting something done that my Boss wanted, so that he had to step in. I got my bags back out of the deal, so I am finally wearing clean clothes today, but I am paying for it, because hauling them around made the strain a little worse. My back is really hurting today and will for a few more days.
Let me tell you, it is never a good idea to blow off what might be a gentle push out of harms way or to put off until tomorrow what ought to be done today.

I got to take my first helicopter ride yesterday between Camp Basrah and Umm Qasr. It wasn't really very exciting, because there wasn't a reason to be in a hurry. It is even hotter in Umm Qasr than it is in Basrah. Today, I left the wire for the fist time on the ground to go into a district of Basrah called Hyyanniyah. MRAPs are a pretty nice ride, but the Marines are going home soon. I have been told that the British Mastiff and Bulldog vehicles are not so nice, and that is all that will be left, until the Brits leave and the Army takes over.