The Decline And Collapse Of The American Dream

The Decline And Collapse Of The American Dream

Life has become much more complex today then it was a few decades ago when “Big Daddy” Lipscomb played defensive end for the Baltimore Colts. “Big Daddy” was a physical specimen nonpareil but used the English language just slightly better than George W. Bush, our former president who recently slunk back to Dallas. Eugene never had a chance to go to Andover Prep, Yale, and Harvard. He was born in Alabama, never knew his father, was orphaned at 11 when his mother was murdered in the Detroit ghettos. Gene never had a chance at college, but was a good enough high school football player to be drafted by the pros and play for ten years, including three times in the NFL Pro Bowl. He died of an overdose of heroin at age 31. When asked why he was so effective against the running game, Big Daddy furrowed his brow and said, ” Why, I just sorts through de players until I find de one with de ball.” Rather a difficult task for a simpler time.

The earth has become much smaller for ordinary citizens since Big Daddy sorted players. An AP story out of Switzerland indicated that Swiss police discovered a two-acre plot of high-grade marijuana growing inside a field of corn. The police used Google Earth, the company’s satellite mapping software to find the 87,000 sq.ft. “plantation,” smaller than some homes in the Hamptons owned by Wall Street fat cats. In addition to finding the pot, the police were able to “read” the property for the addresses of two “farmers” suspected of being the front men for the operation. The investigation resulted in the arrest of 16 people, and the seizure of 1.2 tons of pot worth $780,000.

I had fooled around with Google Earth before, but I had not realized the potential until this story hit. What in hell are we doing assigning Marine foot patrols to the almost perpendicular mountains of Afghanistan or the confines of the Khyber Pass when we could reconnoiter the area by satellite? Don’t we have pilotless drones called Predators to blow up terrorist strongholds? Our military planners have to be incompetent, stupid, or ill-informed, or all of the above.

The only thing I could find about military use of Google Earth when I “Googled” the subject was Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula’s complaint that “data available commercially through online mapping software…posed a danger to security but could not be rolled back.” And this guy is deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaisance! Sounds like we need someone who can sort through the problems as they come at us—and then nail the one with the ball.

The Big Spy In The Sky

Maybe if the Pentagon would stop building $6 billion aircraft carriers to attack the Himalayas and the Russian steppes, $3 billion attack submarines to patrol Pakistan, and $2 billion B-2 bombers to eliminate a sniper in Mosul while fighting two wars of insurgency, we could actually concentrate on technology that would help us control radical Islamists.

We don’t hear anything about our spy satellites anymore. Remember years ago when we could read license plate numbers from space or see a golf ball on #17? What happened to this technology? Are we using it?

Google maps the earth from images received from satellites, aerial photography, and GPS positions. Earth images are available from 6 inches resolution to 45 feet resolution, depending upon what areas of the earth have been subjected to imagery and photography. Yes, you should be able to check a license plate or how much heat escapes from the roof of a 1200 sq.ft. house. Las Vegas, Nevada and Melbourne, Australia can be examined in 6-inch blocks. Gee, you might be able to spot a 6-ft. 5-inch guy with a beard wearing a caftan and turban-complete with walking stick and AK-47 roaming the casinos or beaches.

Google can also monitor traffic speeds at loops located every 200 yards in real-time from space. On January 17, 2009 Google updated ocean floor imagery. As an example, small islands may not show up but their shores are completely outlined. Google also has developed Google Sky which can utilize all of the pictures from the Hubble telescope.

Google has developed the software for a flight simulator based on the flying characteristics of the F-16 fighter and a small civilian plane called the Cirrus SR-22. To quote from Wikipedia: “The Google Earth flight simulator features the ability to fly to any supported locations of the world. The pilot can choose any location to start a flight or attempt to land a flight in the world. ...It takes the F-16 at highest speed at least 60 minutes to fly from coast-to-coast.”

We are not going to win wars of insurgency with aircraft carriers, submarines, and F-22s. We presently have 200,000 troops scattered around the world in 100 countries—not counting Iraq and Afghanistan. For what purpose, other than bringing the U.S. to bankruptcy?

This Was Not The First Pyramid Scheme

Most realists have determined we lost the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars over five years ago. I’m a realist. How can we defeat religious extremists who use extreme violence to control people? A Muslim grandmother was recently arrested for recruiting young female suicide bombers from the hordes of sisters and wives of martyred insurgents. She had an extensive list and boasted that 26 of her recruits had already blown themselves to Paradise. These radicals we are trying to find on Afghanistan mountaintops and in Iraqi deserts are not miniature lap poodles but are junkyard pit bulls who kill indiscriminately for the Heaven of it.

In 18th century Afghanistan King Nadir stopped a tribal revolt by beheading 6,500 men chosen by lot. That’s enough blood to fill two big gasoline transport trucks. And Nadir added a cruel, bizarre detail. He had his troops build a huge pyramid of the heads—only after they had imprisoned the main instigator of the revolt inside the pyramid.

Our puppet President Hamid Karzai, chosen by Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld of the American Taliban to lead Afghanistan out of the circle of terror, freely admits: “The banks of the world are full of the money of our statesmen.” Not a good sign for victory. His former finance minister Ashraf Ghani says the Afghanistan government is “one of the five most corrupt in the world” and is basically a “failed narco-state.” Not a good sign for victory. Afghanistan produces 93 percent of the world’s opium, with about 40 percent of the retail sales going to support the Taliban, the “religious” enemy of the government. We would be further ahead if we said “Have a nice day!” to Karzai and pulled all of our troops out of the country. It is now way beyond nation-building.

The Afghan people are now blaming Karzai for the lack of economic and social progress and the corrupt government. In fact, 85 percent say they will not vote for him. He has had seven years to put a working government together.

The Marine Corps New Growler: A Stimulus For Economic Disaster

I joined the Marines almost 60 years ago because I wanted to be a member of the best. But sometimes the generals go off the deep end. About 20 years ago the Marine Corps equipment guys started to fool around with the idea of replacing their helicopters with the V-22 Osprey, a two-engined, tilt-winged aircraft that could land on a dime vertically, take-off vertically, and carry troops at 350 mph to an attack site. It is now “operational.” However, it has never been used in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan.The problem is it has a nasty habit of falling out of the sky and killing passengers and crews. And it can’t fly in the desert because of sand. And it can’t fly in the cold because of icing. Pilots are afraid to fly it because it doesn’t forgive even tiny mistakes.

When you see a picture of it you begin to realize this abortion of engineering and design should never have been approved for flying, let alone taking troops into combat. One well-placed bullet from an AK-47 will bring it down like a rock. It’s a piece of junk put together by the some committee that grew the camel. Even “No-Brainer” Dick Cheney tried to kill it when he was Secretary of Defense. But greedy Congressmen from districts where it was being built always brought it back from the trash heap because it was a gold mine for them in campaign contributions and a pot of rainbow gold for their defense contractors.

Sticker Shock For The Taxpayer

Now the Marine Corps is compounding this error by attempting to design a small troop vehicle which can be flown in the Osprey. Called the “Growler,” it looks like an old WWII jeep, a cheap ATV, or a stripped dune buggy. But the price is something you can really growl about. When the contract was awarded in 2004 the individual price was $94,000. The contract was renewed in 2008 with an increase to $209,000 per unit! In that it could be used to haul mortars and carry ammunition in combat zones, trailers have been designed to be towed by it. That truck-trailer combination was contracted for $579,000 in 2004. In 2008 the price was increased to $1,078,000. It’s got to be the damndest trailer ever build in Christendom.This is the finest example of sticker shock I have ever seen. It uses an engine that is similar to the one used in the GM Yukon. Naturally it has power steering and power brakes and an air suspension system that allows it to shrink in size so it can be loaded on the Osprey. Are these guys nuts? Did they all go to Ivy League business schools? What’s the price on a stripped jeep and trailer, about $20,000? Talk about waste, fraud, and abuse!

When Osama Bin Laden attacked the World Trade Center in 2001 he was striking at the center of the U.S. economy. If his cave in Pakistan has CNN, he must be chortling over the fact he is driving us to bankruptcy and succeeding beyond the wildest dreams of Mohammad—and he doesn’t have to move a muscle. The Osprey and the Growler and Wall Street are symbols of our incompetence, greed, and total lack of leadership at the highest government levels.