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Gordon Glantz is the managing editor of the Times Herald and an award winning columnist.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Absolute Reality

Ding! Word! Touché!

Read on ... (and yes, it's all Bush's fault):


Gates says too few in US bear the burdens of war


DURHAM, N.C. – Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that most Americans have grown too detached from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and see military service as "something for other people to do."

In a speech Wednesday at Duke University, Gates said this disconnect has imposed a heavy burden on a small segment of society and wildly driven up the costs of maintaining an all-volunteer force.

Because fewer Americans see military service as their duty, troops today face repeated combat tours and long separations from family. The 2.4 million people serving in the armed forces today represent less than 1 percent of the country's total population.

To attract and retain recruits, the Defense Department finds itself spending more money, including handsome bonuses and education benefits. The money spent on personnel and benefits has nearly doubled since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, from $90 billion to $170 billion.

"That is our sacred obligation," Gates told the audience of compensating troops. "But given the enormous fiscal pressures facing the country," the nation must devise "an equitable and sustainable system of military pay and benefits that reflects the realities of this century."

Gates, who plans to retire next year, has been using academic-style speeches to outline what he believes to be the nation's toughest challenges that lie ahead when it comes to defense.

Earlier this year, Gates asked whether troops were training for the right kinds of missions and called into question the utility of D-Day style amphibious landings handled historically by the Marine Corps. He has also embarked on a cost-cutting initiative to prepare for what he says are leaner days ahead for the department.

As is the case in most of these speeches, Gates on Wednesday tried to raise awareness about a long-term problem rather than solve it. He offered no plan for what he described as a growing divide between Americans in uniform and those who aren't.

"Whatever their fond sentiments for men and women in uniform, for most Americans the war remains an abstraction — a distant and unpleasant series of news items that do not affect them personally," Gates said.

Even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, for most Americans "service in the military — no matter how laudable — has become something for other people to do," he added.

Gates gave his speech in front of some 1,200 faculty and students at Duke, considered one of the nation's top universities.

Like most elite colleges, only a small fraction of Duke students consider military service. With 34 of its 6,400 undergraduates enrolled in its Reserve Officers' Training Corps, an officer commissioning program known as ROTC, Duke is actually considered among the more military-friendly elite colleges.

Yale, for example, has only four of its 5,200 students enrolled in ROTC, whereas Harvard doesn't allow ROTC or military recruiters on campus.

Without calling out any one particular university, Gates said he was disappointed in institutions that "used to send hundreds of graduates into the armed forces, but now struggle to commission a handful of officers every year."

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are considered the first large-scale, protracted conflicts since the Revolutionary War fought entirely with volunteers. Most military officials agree that this isn't a bad thing. Today's U.S. military forces are considered more professional and better educated than their predecessors.

More enlisted troops hold a high school diploma, or its equivalent, than their civilian peers. Two-thirds of new recruits come from neighborhoods that are at or above the median household income.

But the military isn't representative of the country as a whole. Recruits are most likely to serve only if they grow up around others who do so. The military also draws heavily from rural areas, particularly in the South and the mountain West.

The trend is reinforced by the location of military bases, which tend to be in rural areas and the South where land is cheapest, rather than close to the big cities and the Northeast and West.

Today, most soldiers who are not deployed are stationed in Texas, Washington, Georgia, Kentucky and North Carolina. Many military facilities in the Northeast and along the West coast, meanwhile, have been shut down for environmental and budgetary reasons.

Whereas Alabama hosts 10 ROTC programs, the city of Los Angeles — with twice the population — hosts only four.

"There is a risk over time of developing a cadre of military leaders that politically, culturally and geographically have less and less in common with the people they have sworn to defend," Gates said.

The premise underlying an all-volunteer force also has changed. Initiated in 1973, the concept was that such a force would fight in short, conventional conflicts like the 1991 Gulf War, or defend the U.S. and its allies against Soviet aggression.

But after almost a decade of warfare since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, troops who have escaped combat unscathed still faced repeated deployments with long separations from their families. In Iraq at one point, some combat tours stretched to 18 months. More than 1 million soldiers and Marines have been deployed there during the course of the conflict.

The consequences of long deployments in combat zones have been real. Suicide figures have increased, while the divorce rate among enlisted soldiers has nearly doubled.

"No matter how patriotic, how devoted they are, at some point they will want to have the semblance of a normal life — getting married, starting a family, going to college or graduate school, seeing their children grow up — all of which they have justly earned," Gates said.

Without offering specifics, Gates said a system must be created that is generous enough to recruit and retain people without causing the Defense Department to sink under the weight of personnel costs.

Witchy Woman

Christine O'Donnell? Really?
She makes Sarah Palin almost seemed qualified to do anything beyond baking brownies for the next PTA meeting.
Forget her comments on witchcraft and evolution, and her shady use of campaign funds, and you still have a candidate with a big smile and a small mind.
And she could win.
When she is an elected leader -- on the national level, no less -- she will be a product of a society that has been systematically numbed up and dumbed down.
However, within the darkness there is a light.
Jay Leno, who has yet to be consistently funny since freeing viewers from being Conan O'Brien's hostages, has gotten his groove back -- at least when it comes to busting on O'Donnell.
Still ... a U.S. senator?
Christine O'Donnell? Really?

Sunday, September 26, 2010

How To Save A Life

For all of you wrestling with your conscience over the fact that a felon -- let alone a dog-killer -- is now quarterbacking the Eagles, think of it as a humanitarian gesture.
The way the offensive line has been playing, Kevin Kolb would -- to be blunt -- get killed himself. So, in a way, Vick is giving back to society by taking some of the hits -- and escaping the others -- while keeping Kolb from contracting a incurable case of DCS (David Carr Syndrome).
For you non-football people (i.e. females), Google David Carr.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

I Go Swimming

A Dolphins jersey? No, Eagles fans, I have not jumped ship and gone swimming with the smartest creatures in the sea.
There was a stretch -- from 2000 to 2004, to be exact -- when I openly pulled for the Dolphins, as long as the Eagles were not the opponent (it happened only once).
That's because Jay Fiedler (No. 9, the same as the jersey I donned on the most recent edition of "Football Fridays" on THTV) was the starting quarterback.
Much maligned for one reason -- he was not his predecessor, Dan Marino -- Fiedler did OK for himself.
Another he never put up gaudy stats, like Marino did, Fiedler managed the game well and the team actually won more. He led them to three 10-win seasons, two playoff appearances and one playoff victory. For his career, which ended with the New York Jets, he threw 69 touchdown passes.
That's 69 more than he was expected to throw, according to football's laws of gravity.
Fiedler was a NFL anomaly from the jump. He played in the Ivy League, at Darmouth. He was undrafted, originally making the Eagles for two seasons (1994 and 1995) as the third quarterback, before getting cut (in favor of Bobby Hoying, LOL!) and spending one year playing in Europe and another coaching at the college level, before old teammate Randall Cunningham (the namesake of my most beloved dog) urged his employer, the Minnesota Vikings, to give Fiedler a chance to get back into the league.
And he made the squad, leading to another season in Jacksonville -- where did well when pressed into duty -- and then the chance to start in Miami after Marino retired.
Oh, and he was Jewish.
A Jewish football player?
Yes, a Jewish football player.
A Jewish football player who is not a kicker, a punter or an offensive lineman? A skill player? A leader of men? A quarterback?
Yes, a quarterback.
So, when I saw the chance to buy his jersey (albeit a size too large), I pounced.
I wore it to one fantasy football draft -- back when I was deranged enough to involve myself in that sub-culture -- and got ripped for it, unmercifully, on the league's message board.
But I was loyal to Jay.
Chances to give the jersey away to charity came and went, and in the closet it stayed.
Until Wednesday.
That's when I taped the show with it on (and, regrettably, no longer a size too large).
My stated reason was that I was alongside sports desk guy Stuart Christ, a Dolphins fan who I wanted to make feel at home on the "set."
But I had a hidden agenda.
"Football Fridays" was being shown on Thursday because the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur forced the schools with appreciable Jewish populations to not play on Friday night.
No one came out and said it, but I know many out there were thinking it: What's the difference, your inner-voice asked, Jewish kids don't play football anyway?
Now imagine if someone said that to Jay Fiedler back when he was a tyke.
You never know.
And I wanted to wear the jersey as a reminder.

Friday, September 10, 2010

In Bloom

No, you're eyes were not deceiving you during the latest installment of "Football Fridays" at www.timesherald.com. For the astute among you, that was a No. 11 black Eagles jersey I was wearing.
And it was in honor of the Jewish New Year, as it was a Jeremy Bloom jersey. For those of you who simply chose to forget, Bloom (technically half-Jewish, though reportedly now a born-again Christian in his post-athletic career as a high-end real estate agent and college football analyst) was among the final cuts from the Eagles preseason roster a few years back. The result was disastrous on two fronts. My dream of seeing one of my brethren playing for my favorite team -- let alone at a skill position -- was shattered. And the Eagles were left without a punt returner for the season-opener in Green Bay. The forgettable Greg Lewis fumbled one punt that led to a touchdown and, with no faith in Lewis, safety J.R. Reed fumbled another punt that set the Packers up for a game-winning field goal.
Bloom, an Olympic skier who had flashed as a receiver and returner at Colorado before giving up football before the Eagles drafted him, failed to show the hops in the preseason that the Eagles had hoped. However, he showed solid hands and would not have dropped either punt in that painful loss.
With the Eagles about to open the current season against Green Bay, and with the high holy days upon us, the jersey seemed appropriate -- at least in this warped thing above my shoulders that I call a head.
As for the jersey worn in Week 1, that was my vintage No. 31 Wilbert Montgomery shirt (circa 1980, the year the star running back led the Eagles to a Super Bowl loss to Oakland) that I received from the better half for Chrismanukkah (Christmas/Hanukkah) two years ago. While a beautiful jersey -- with stitched numbers, as opposed to iron-on -- the Eagles are 0-4 with me wearing it on game day.
Since I have no high expectations for this season anyway -- it's one of those years where a step back will hopefully lead to two steps forward down the road -- I plan to let my Montgomery jersey to see enough game action to break the jinx.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Stone Free

You go, Barack!!!


Obama channels Hendrix on critics: ‘They talk about me like a dog’

Has President Obama been listening to a lot of Jimi Hendrix lately? With just under two months to go before Election Day, Obama kicked off the fall campaign season Monday with an aggressive speech targeting Republicans. But it was an off-script moment in the speech that's attracted the most attention, as Obama accused his GOP critics of talking about him "like a dog."

"Some powerful interests who had been dominating the agenda in Washington for a very long time -- and they're not always happy with me -- they talk about me like a dog. That's not in my prepared remarks, but it's true," Obama said during a speech at Wisconsin's Laborfest on Monday.

Watch Obama's remarks (the Hendrix quote is a little more than a minute in, at 1:13):

Though Obama didn't acknowledge it, the line was a verbatim quote from "Stone Free," the first song Hendrix wrote after moving to England in 1966. "They talk about me like a dog," the song says. "Talkin about the clothes I wear. But they don't realize they're the ones who's square."

It's unclear if Obama consciously or unconsciously cited the lyric. A White House spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. But regardless of its source, Obama's off-script message syncs with his overall frustration with Republicans, whom he has lambasted repeatedly as the "party of no."

With polls showing Democrats still trailing badly as the midterm campaign enters its post-Labor Day upsurge, Obama stepped up that attack line Monday. In his remarks, he suggested that the GOP will always block bipartisanship, no matter the situation. "If I said the sky was blue, they'd say no," he vented. "If I said fish live in the sea, they'd say no. They just think it's better to score political points before an election than to solve problems."

[Photos: Obama starting to show his age]

It's all a part of the Democrats' efforts to convince Americans that a vote for the GOP this fall would return the country back to the state it was in before Obama won the presidency. Though polls show the effort isn't working, Obama has made the argument again and again, tying it to the issue that seems to be driving voters this fall: the economy.

"They're betting that between now and November, you'll come down with a case of amnesia. They think you'll forget what their agenda did to this country," Obama said. "They think you'll just believe that they've changed. These are the folks whose policies helped devastate our middle class and drive our economy into a ditch. And now they're asking you for the keys back."



Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Could It Be Magic?

What do we have here? Nothing like the truth hitting you right in the face.


Noted anti-global-warming scientist reverses course

With scientific data piling up showing that the world has reached its hottest-ever point in recorded history, global-warming skeptics are facing a high-profile defection from their ranks. Bjorn Lomborg, author of the influential tract "The Skeptical Environmentalist," has reversed course on the urgency of global warming, and is now calling for action on "a challenge humanity must confront."

Lomborg, a Danish academic, had previously downplayed the risk of acute climate change. A former member of Greenpeace, he was a vocal critic of the Kyoto Protocol -- a global U.N. treaty to cut carbon emissions that the United States refused to ratify -- as well as numerous other environmental causes.

"The Skeptical Environmentalist," published in 2001, argued that many key preoccupations of the environmental movement, including pollution control and biodiversity, were either overblown as threats or amenable to relatively simple technological fixes. Lomborg argued that the governments spending billions to curb carbon emissions would be better off diverting those resources to initiatives such as AIDS research, anti-malaria programs and other kinds of humanitarian aid.

Lomborg's essential argument was: Yes, global warming is real and human behavior is the main reason for it, but the world has far more important things to worry about.

Oh, how times have changed.

In a book to be published this year, Lomborg calls global warming "undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today" and calls for the world's governments to invest tens of billions of dollars annually to fight climate change.

Lomborg's former foes in the environmental movement are so far unimpressed by news of his conversion. Calling him a "shrewd self-promoter," Grist.org's Jonathan Hiskes marveled at Lomborg's ability to "play the media" in simply "adopting a position already held by millions of sensible people." And Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Mike Childs told the U.K. Guardian, "It appears that the self-styled skeptical environmentalist is beginning to become less skeptical as he enters middle age."