Behind the Green Gates

Feline doppelganger observes and comments on war, literature, sex, mankind, biology, Afghanistan,
tree-hugging, music, art, God and gods, America, books, politics and the return of the Florida anole.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

The Wrong War

Also the title of a book: Why We Lost in Vietnam, Bing West hangs out with the Marines again and tells us why we're losing in Afghanistan. It's in the title, essentially putting the grit into our strategy. Let the Marines and Soldiers fight to the death and forget about protecting the population, which has become a welfare society and sincerely duplicitious on top of that. He also suggests a hard core advisory group which we should be training now to aggressively get the Afghan Army on board with fighting the Taliban. It's amazing how the Afghans don't seem to care or realize that they're about to be subsumed by the Taliban in the very near future. Are they stupid or just lazy?

Monday, July 11, 2011

Arctic Indifference

The Long Exile tells the cruel story of Canadian Inuit who were forcibly relocated to desolate and virtually unliveable locations in the Canadian Arctic in order to validate land claims for Canada during the Cold War. Although used to surviving in Eskimo fashion in the Quebec Arctic, these new locations would not have been intentionally selected by anyone with any sense to live in and yet these Inuit were forced to remain there by the Canadian government. They didn't even have proper dogs for that type of terrain and had to eventually find Greenland dogs to breed with. It was a horrible existance and they didn't achieve recognition much less justice until the 1990s when a special commission was formed and the Inuit territory of Nunavik was created. Those surviving relocatees were compensated financially and the press castigated the Canadian government, which never did apologize. What these Inuit went through to adapt in these terrible conditions is amazing and true testimony to their inner strength.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

The Great War

My Experiences in the World War Volumes 1 and 2For 7 boxes of books to sell at old Tampa Book Company, I instead ended up with a trade for the two-volume set of autographed, limited edition My Experiences in the World War by John J. Pershing. Hoo-ah! What a treasure. And for $300, one I surely would never have gone out and bought but for a semi-life's accumulation of books, well worth it. Thus far one of my favorite recurring themes is in the cooperation and support of the press. Believe it or not, they did not report the sailing of Pershing's staff to Europe. Unbelievable to imagine such national loyalty today. I'm reading it alongside John Keegan's Illustrated History of World War I so as to keep up with the politics of this silly, horrible war and while tragic, excellent reading to be sure.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Still Fighting

"We were no match for the German artillery. Those Germans were technologically advanced for being a small country. They had the best fighters in the world, the Fallschirmajager, German paratroopers and and the SS-Nazis, even the Germans were scared of them. They were fearless, raised as boys to live and die for Hitler. Germany was prepared and America was sound asleep. We didn't make plans for it, kid. ... I never expected to survive a day, much less the whole war." Fortunately, Bill, of Easy Company's Band Of Brothers did come home and tells his tale in this bestseller. What are the lessons to be learned about being a nation unprepared? How long did the German build up to WW II last? Almost a decade, we watched and snoozed. Our Commander and Chief today plays golf on Memorial Day. That's reassuring.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Happiness UnPlugged

I read "The Happiness Project" quickly. Eager to get through to the happiness parts and what I found was a sprinkling of them and surprisingly, some I'd already discovered on my own and done. I highly recommend it if you are swimming in ideology and depression and low-illumination like me. First thing I did months ago, was clean out my closets. Sounds really, really dumb but once you open those boxes of Joy Mangano Huggable Hangars in lavendar, olive and camel and start putting your favorite clothes up in neat rows ... happiness abounds and when the closet is all dressed right dressed and those clothes practically salute ---- it's a cheap thrill, I admit but one nonetheless.