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.