Now, did anyone else notice that Independent basically wasted our time by posting? He basically claimed that Obama was spineless - arguing agaisnt the conviction that Sen Obama has the courage to stand firm for his principles.

Obama is just a little slicker, a little subtler a little smarter, in the way he gets you back. It’s subtle but good enough:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DygBj4Zw6 No&feature=related

He has some fight in him, even if it’s subtle - but granted - it quite rare for him. He’s usually busy with the issues that matter to Americans.

As yesterday was the 7th anniversary of 9/11, I wanted to tell you about a book a read a few weeks ago. The title is “Second Wave” and it is a real eye opener. The fictional story is about how easy it would be for terrorists to hit us again. The author is J.P. Spanik, Jr. I purchased my copy direct from the publisher at PublishAmerica. com You have to read it because there is no b.s. It gets straight to the point.

I’m glad to see that President Clinton and Senator Obama are getting together finally, Mr. & Mrs. Reader. It’s only right that Mr. Clinton should campaign for Mr. Obama. After all, Mrs. Clinton is out there doing her part for the democrat ticket and party.

I think that the father-son team of President George Herbert Walker Bush and President George Walker Bush should get out there on behalf of the republican ticket and party. That’s only right too.

I look forward to the upcoming debates between Messrs. Obama and McCain concerning real American problems and democrat vs. republican solutions for those problems. These two candidates need to go head-to-head instead of dancing around the issues (and around each another).

Mr. Obama should get back on message and leave any democrat dancing to Senator Biden.

Likewise, Mr. McCain should take a breather and leave the republican dancing to Governor Palin.

After all, Mrs. Palin showed her capacity for dancing around directness and openness during the interview with Charlie Gibson of ABC. As a matter of fact, she seemed very tense. Perhaps one-on-one isn’t her forte…or perhaps simply answering questions isn’t her forte…when she doesn’t have the depth & breadth of experience necessary to come up with the answers.

I was surprised that Mr. Gibson wouldn’t give Mrs. Palin all that much slack…and even lectured her (he’s 65, she’s 44) on George W. Bush’s foreign policy doctrine, i.e., shoot-first-and-skip-the-explanations. Mrs. Palin was at pretty much of a total loss on that one (or simply didn’t want to admit how reckless such a foreign policy has become).

Through the entire interview, Mrs. Palin’s physical posture was slumped and defensive, and she struck me as trying to bluff her way through most of the answers. For example, she indicated that she knows that being a member of NATO brings the cavalry running when any member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is attacked by a nonmember, e.g., Russia.

On the other hand, Mrs. Palin wasn’t sure if the arrival of the cavalry would mean killing. Perhaps she doesn’t know that Europe mobilized for World War I’s trench warfare and mass killing because of mutual security pacts similar to that of NATO. Likewise, Great Britain was obligated to declare war on Germany in 1939 because of the Brits’ mutual security pact with Poland…after the latter was attacked by Germany [the Germans (Japanese & Italians) having a shoot-first-and-skip-the-explanations foreign policy during World War II].

War is killing…and death and destruction. It is internal organs and brains being blown out of human beings and scattered about the landscape. It is the loss of lives, as well as the loss of limbs, sight, hearing and mental & physical health. It is brutal. It is something that should be hated, rather than glorified as some “onward-Christian-soldier” piece of propaganda like Mrs. Palin thinks it is. She has no idea what Our Best & Finest are exposed to. And I doubt seriously that her little trip to Kuwait and Germany was as “life changing” as she claims. If it was truly “life changing”, then she would be condemning war, and not glorifying it.

Of course, if another republican, Chuck Norris (movie/TV star), is asked about war, he conveniently ignores the killing aspect of it too (although he’s spilled more than his share of silver screen blood).

On “Larry King Live”, Mr. Norris got very angry about Mrs. Huffington’s criticism of the fiscal irresponsibility associated with the war in Iraq ($350 million a day). He stated that he has been to Iraq two times…that he has served two “tours” in Iraq (whatever that ridiculous statement is supposed to mean)…and had spoken with many young enlisted members of Our Best & Finest & “all” of the U.S. commanders in Iraq.

Based on his “experience” (i.e., his “tours”) in Iraq (and what he was told by both enlisted folks and “all” of their commanders), the only solution for Mr. Norris is the McCain solution, i.e., stay in SW Asia till the job gets done (whenever that might be).

Mr. Norris doesn’t define what that job is, however. That’s because he doesn’t know. Not even Mr. Bush knows (ditto Mr. McCain).

Basically, the present conflict in SW Asia is an unwinnable & indeterminate counterinsurgency. The last man standing is always the insurgent, not the counterinsurgent. Every major counterinsurgency in history bears that out.

While I respect Mr. Norris’ peacetime service in the U.S. Air Force (1958-62) and am cognizant of the grief he surely experienced when his younger brother was killed in Vietnam in 1970…I feel an obligation to tell him a couple of things about how enlisted folks think.

Enlisted folks don’t have a lot of free time to spend analyzing the political implications of their deployments to Iraq. As a matter of fact, they want to get the job done as quickly as possible & get the heck home to their loved ones. That is, enlisted folks have no desire to hang out in SW Asia indefinitely. As a matter of fact, “till the job gets done” talk is politician and career officer talk…not enlisted person talk.

Secondly, if “all” of the commanders Mr. Norris spoke with were colonels, generals and admirals, then he needs to know that they spend most of their time thinking about their military and post-military careers–and not about getting the job done as soon as possible, or about getting enlisted folks home to their loved ones.

As a matter of fact, a prolonged war in SW Asia allows more time for officer career building (just as it did in SE Asia)…regardless of how many enlisted folks have to sacrifice their lives or their limbs, sight, hearing and mental & physical health in the process.

As a matter of fact, Mr. Norris (being a former enlisted guy) ought to know all of this already. Well…perhaps he’s forgotten a fact or two after having been out of uniform for 46 years.

OK Jack