A PROPOSAL ON COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM

COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM’S TIME HAS COME

The United States has been torn with many divisive issues in the last twenty years. We’ve been involved in three wars for nearly a decade, in Afghanistan,against Islamic terrorists, and in Iraq. There are people out there I call “flat earthers,” whodon’t believe there need be any concern about Global Warming. Our tax structure is rottento the core, favoring the richest 1 or 2% while everyone else has barely stayed afloat. But,we must take care of the richest of the rich and never forget the oil and gas industries.

There’s been plenty of controversy over these issues &/or how to conduct them in the case of our wars.

From my point of view, there are far too many people on the Planet, and as theirnumbers grow, many social problems arise. One of them – not just for the U.S., but for many industrialized nations, is the question of immigration, and, perhaps morE accurately for we Americans – illegal immigration. I might also note that most Americansaren’t aware that because population increases in most countries of the world haveactually slowed, some nations such as Russia, Japan & Germany, will see an increase in th elderly who won’t want to work until they die. Even China is seeing a slowing in populationgrowth. This will absolutely cause some serious changes to whether we do or don’t wantimmigrants here in the U.S.

Right now a battle is underway to continue New Mexico’s practice of granting driver’s licenses to “illegal immigrants.” I’m not sure how that even happens, but it must, because some statistics bandied about claim as many as 80,000 illegal immigrants have proper New Mexico driver’s licenses. To me, that’s crazy. Already one of the worst states in

the Union for uninsured drivers, I don’t buy the stats that claim if we bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows, they’ll buy insurance and follow our motor vehicle laws.

Recently, the Pew Center for Hispanic Issues stated that it’s best estimate is that roughly 8.0 million illegal immigrants are in the U.S. labor force today; it believes there may be a total of 11.2 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. all together. Some would suggest that figure is about 8.8 million short. Let’s just say, for the purposes of this essay, that the actual number is 15 million men, women and children are here, illegally. From just about

every country on the Planet. Realistically, the numbers that appear to bother people the most are with Latinoillegals, from Mexico and most other Central American countries. Their numbers, contrary to previous immigration “waves” of: Irish, Italians, Scandanavians, Eastern Europeans, and Eastern European Jewish immigrants have increased steadily for ten years, at least.

For a variety of reasons, those from Mexico and Central America have not only come in large waves, but they have stayed, rather than returned to their homes. Now, as the borders see a tightening of security, many are afraid to leave. Recently, after harping endlessly about how the Government hasn’t done enough, Republicans in the House of Representatives havesuggested cutting the Border Patrol & Immigration, Customs & Enforcement (ICE) by a thousand or more slots! Insane!

I’ve given a lot of thought to this problem, and want to propose the following the following “plan” as a starting point for discussion. There certainly won’t be much agreement on these proposals, but the thing is this: if you have a more realistic plan, put it out there. If this is published in The Desert Exposure, I’ll set up a special blog where people can send reasonable comments to in response to this post. Be respectful. If you have better more realistic plan, go for it! The plan is proposed as below:

1. Regardless of how many illegal immigrants are in the U.S., we must find a way to fix the problem. Therefore, in the parlance of the computer world, step one would amount to “resetting the defaults.”

2. All illegal immigrants will be given notice, say, on 1 January, 2013, that they have 180 days to inform federal government officials that they wish to either become citizens of the U.S., or will vacate the U.S. no later than the end of 2013;

3. The U.S. government will have already hired, on a temporary basis, several thousands of Immigration, Customs & Enforcement Agency employees who will assist the State Department, and begin processing all illegals who come forward and identify themselves in those first 180 days. There will be an absolute requirement, that every immigrant here illegally, must identify themselves within these first 180 days. Forms will be at all post offices so that individuals can begin filling out those for citizenship or, a statement that they will leave the country and not attempt to return. No one will be exempted from this requirement. Men, women & children (children under 18 will be identified by parents or relatives) must identify themselves, to include:

a. Current address;

b. Country of origin (country);

c. When they entered the U.S.;

d. Where they have worked during their time in the United States;

e. A willingness to learn English, so that they can begin application for citizenship and agreement to take final citizenship exams in English;

f. Applicants for citizenship must indicate they will NOT seek or receive ANY SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS for citizenship simply because they’ve been here for some period of time. There will be no “limit,” on how long individuals have been here in order to “start fresh” on citizenship. This means that regardless of whether here one year or twenty five, these individuals must state length of time in the U.S and, take their place in the queue.;

4. Applicants must agree to give photo ID, and submit to biometric data screening to document who they are, agree to criminal check, expulsion if they have lied on applications, etc.;

5. They must finegrprinted;

6. They must state telephone #s, email addresses, friends or relatives addresses where they can be reached;

7. They must agree to notify the Immigration Service where they are at all times, to include any moves during the time they are registered to become citizens;

8. They must declare a willingness to make retroactive contributions to social security, up to a specific amount. The amount will be calculated for the average earnings per year for several strata of employment. Day laborers who have worked steadily in construction, for instance, will be required to pay social security taxes on, say $5000 per year x the first ten years of employment. Many illegal immigrants have worked this many years here and have made at least $5000 a year doing so. A professor, illegally working in a university, might pay retroactive social security taxes for $25000 per year for the first ten years.

This may seem harsh, but if these individuals DO become citizens, then at the age of retirement, they may be glad to have retroactively paid these social security taxes, which will be used for ultimate social security benefits.

9. That same figure must apply to the top most retroactive income tax repayment they must make, in order to qualify for eventual citizenship;

10. No illegal immigrant who may have somehow already paid social security taxes can withdraw those funds until they reach minimum retirement age of 62, no matter where they reside. Again, the burden of having millions of illegal immigrants here who may become citizens, and want to apply for social security later, must assist the government in funding the overall Social Security funds;

11. They must agree to learn to take the Citizenship test in English;

12. They must state that they will declare allegiance to the United States upon gaining citizenship in the U.S.;

13. They must renounce any interest in violence against the United States because these requirements have been imposed on them;

14. They must identify ALL businesses they have worked for however long they have been in the U.S. All businesses identified will be scrutinized by special IRS teams and the Immigration Bureau, so those employers can be notified that they may be subjected, also, to retroactive caps on back taxes they avoided by using illegal labor to avoid paying citizens the minimum wage

15. They must also indicate that they will begin the process of leaving the country if they find these requirements onerous, or do not wish to remain in the U.S. All of these individuals must have left the U.S. by the end of 2013;

16. If they need assistance in getting to points of departure, they should indicate what help they will need, and, where they can be found;

17. They will identify any individuals who have extorted them while in the country, to either enter, as drug couriers, or, aware of any sex slave trade or “indentured servitude” agreements or arrangements that have been imposed on them;

18. All people leaving the U.S. will be checked against biometric data, to ensure that if they have failed to register these data, they are registered before leaving. While we may not “intercept” all such individiuals, we can certainly try. This will be important for maintaining our safety so far as Homeland Security is concerned;

19. Everyone who wishes to become a citizen will “get in line,” according to the date of their application for citizenship. Upon successfully meeting these preconditions, the citizenship process will commence. Statements about how long individuals have already been here, or how hard they have worked, won’t get any applicants any advantage. The process of citizenship must be regularized, and reset, so that this Gordian knot never occurs again;

20. All attempts will be made to move all illegal immigrants who want to leave the U.S. out of the U.S., in two years. Those who say they cannot go on their own will need to show why they cannot leave on their own. It will not be the responsibility of the U.S. or individual state governments to move personal items, property, etc., into countries of origin for those wishing to leave;

21. The issue of “property” that illegal immigrants have already acquired while living in the US. will need to be addressed. There can be no effort that the nation takes over property that has been acquired, and cannot be taken out of the country. Obviously, if each illegal immigrant who wants to leave takes his/her/their vehicles, transportable goods/etc., can manage to take that property across the borders, so be it. Otherwise, a special panel should review what options are proper if homes or other business properties will be left behind. The departure of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who cannot take their property with them WILL occur, no “fire sale” atmosphere must be unleashed. Special provisions should be established to allow foreigners the right to own property in the U.S.

22. There are undoubtedly provisions which are not included here that may be relevant to a mass exodus, or, mass application process for citizenship. Such provisions will be examined, but will not hold up the official start date for these provisions to begin in 2013.

It should be obvious to anyone, that if there are between 11.2 and 15.0 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., deporting that many people will have many negatives associated with such an effort. Just a few: suppose at least half of those numbers (5.6 to 7.5 million individuals) say they want to leave the U.S. Just how do hard core anti-immigrant proponents propose moving that many people to our borders? Assuming every possible bus were made available, to say, move 4-6.5 million Latino illegals alone to the Mexican Border, how many could be moved in one year’s time? Do these proponents of “get them the hell out of here!” want such aprocess to go on for five years?

Exactly how do these proponents of expulsion think the world will see the U.S. if we take one to five years to move millions of illegals out of the country? How will we be perceived in terms of the most vivid enormous movement of people from one state to another: e.g, the Partition of India and Pakistan; the Holocaust; massive floods of refugees leaving Rwanda, Sudan, Afghanistan, in the latter part of the 20^th Century.

Do “expel them all” proponents realize what the costs will be to accomplish moving such numbers of people to our borders ?

Do these hard core anti-immigration proponents understand that one of the possible consequences if gangs of various nationalities decide to fight back against the expulsion of “their [various] countrymen” by the U.S. government?

What if Mexican drug cartels offer to arm gangs within the U.S., to fight back, and resist mass expulsions? Are we prepared for even intermittent violent resistance for mass expulsions? How much will putting down such resistance movements cost? Who will be killed or wounded, taken hostage, tortured, or terrorized in such a resistance

processs?

Furthermore, while these measures are underway American workers who are unemployed, and have low skills, will be offered opportunities to be trained to perform other types of work. However, if those individuals are basically unskilled, and they are offered unskilled type work (e.g., food service industry; maids, janitors, etc., at the then prevailing minimum wage) more than two times, they will either have to take those jobs, or lose unemployment for one year.

It’s my contention that while many of these jobs are not inspiring, or desirable, they are, nonetheless, jobs. If the Health Care Reform Act is sustained, those workers will be covered under the National Health Care options. As such,

their coverage costs will be predictable. It is also hoped that as vacancies opened by departing illegal immigrants are made, either mechanization or use of indigenous American labor will take their place, at as decent a wage as can be allowed … and, the market will bear.

In other words, the price of minimum wages may rise as employers compete for Americans who are eligible to work those jobs. This will have consequences so far as every American’s budget’s are concerned. Everyone has profited by lower paid illegal workers in the U.S. performing basic work.

There should be no surprises in store for Americans who support a comprehensive immigration reform act. We will all pay more for many products and services. Nonetheless, this bill will be comprehensive, and try to anticipate most possible outcomes. It should be obvious to most that many of the costs we have taken for granted remaining basically the same over these twenty or so years while illegals grew in numbers in the country, could change. We may see many costs we’ve factored in to our lifestyles … rise. There will be increased costs in many sectors we may not have thought through.

This will be the quintessential moment of truth. Put up or shut up, time. The number of times dining out may occur may drop in the wake of this mass movement. The costs associated with maintenance of cars, grounds, clothing

costs, and other costs will necessarily rise. Laborers for these type jobs may actually find themselves in a position where they can command wages even higher than minimum wages. This will clearly h u r t every American.

We’ve all gained mightily by having so many illegal immigrants among us. The “gravy train days,” will obviously be coming to an end as these illegals leave the country. But, we may finally know just how many illegals, given the chance to come out of the shadows, want what we have. If they are willing to “go to any length to get citizenship in this great country of ours, then we should be willing to go through this Reset period when our national defaults on the question of immigration are accomplished.

The size of the Federal Government will rise, at least for a few years. The number of ICE, Border Patrol, U.S. Marshalls, DEA, Homeland Security, & some Military agents, state and municipal law enforcement personnel, as well asthousands of bureaucrats needed to process this massive paperwork, identification, and verification process will cost us billions. Without doubt, the Border Patrol & ICE will need to grow by nearly 10,000 or more agents. We must anticipate that drug & sex slave cartels will try all the tricks in the book to infiltrate this mass of human beings moving back to their homelands.

We can't take chances that jihadists or other forms of terrorists will also try and enter the country in what they think may be a chaotic process. The need, then, to have sufficient personnel to conduct these operations will be a vital necessity. One cannot have it all ways.

We have to recognize that all of us have gained from illegal immigration. We've all managed to keep our own heads above water by illegal immigrants being exploited in ways that have conveniently kept many of our own costs

artificially low. But, the fact remains: everyone’s hands are dirty with exploitation.

We’ve all managed to keep buying things because illegal immigration has kept costs low.

This process will give every illegal immigrant a chance to either stay, or leave. If they fail to take advantage of these windows of opportunity, then there will be reason to stay. They will have lost their chance. From then on, they would have to apply for work permits, which will be time limited, as in the past. And, the Immigration and Customs Agency will have an enormous data bank of biometrics that they can employ to identify those who were given a chance to make this choice, and refused to do so.

Every effort will be made to inform all that these measures are going to go into effect at a certain point in time. Efforts will be made to explain the pros and cons of each side of the decision tree. This is not an effort to run people out of themUnited States. It's a process that will hopefully reset the defaults so we can make sense of this conundrum. If, at the end of say, five or seven years, when all individuals identified in this way have been given a chance to become citizens (the process will wind down, so far as the short term increase in federal workers necessary to accomplish these goals.

Illegal immigration isn't a uniquely American problem. Some blame NAFTA, others, diminishing resources and growing populations in poorer, less educated countries. Greed, I would suggest, on just about everyone’s part, to maintain status quo in certain area of our lives (i.e., dining out regularly), have contributed to this serious problem in the U.S.

On the other hand, the United States might set a new standard for fairness in application of this reset process. No ugly “round ups” of illegals should be necessary since in all fairness, everyone’s been warned, given plenty of notice (remember: this process won’t start until one full year AFTER Congress has passed the laws necessary to do this

monumental undertaking. I’ve suggested 2013 as the earliest date. I’d be amazed if Congress could get it’s ass in gear to accomplish even that. Plenty of posturing & grandstanding & speechifying will take place. But, this is a solution where everyone is going to pay some price for setting things right.

I take pride in suggesting this “Eagan Immigration Settlement and Reform Plan,” for review by my closest friends. If you pass it on, send it to people who won’t mail letter bombs to my house; buy voodoo dolls to stick pins into; or, take out a hit on me or my wife, our kids, and surely, don’t mess with our cars, please. If you have friends you think would like to help sponsor this proposal, we can refine it, and submit it on a blog I will establish just for this purpose.

One provision that should be included in any progressive, comprehensive immigration reform would be to prioritize and rank a list of the top 25 career positions that we need to fill for our critical growth in the future. This might be, @ certain times, might be mathematicians, genetic microbiologists, nurses, doctors willing to work in urban neighborhoods with a death of doctors, &/or rural areas that desperately need doctors. Electrical engineers, or engineers who could take us to a new level of development on alternative energy, robotics, esoteric sciences.

Likewise, we should give a serious look at entepreneurs who could bring new businesses to the United Staes. This might be even more specialized in entepreneurs who can open small manufacturing businesses. Other nations do this and we should also institute such a focused approach to immigrants who want to be citizens, and have very specialized skills they would bring to the United States.

I fought for the United States, as a combat infantry volunteer to the Vietnam War. Normally, I don’t put much stock in statements like: Serving as a combat infantryman, wounded, permanently disabled, gives me some “rights,” when it

comes to things like that. I don’t believe that, but I also need people to know that I love my country, and hate seeing the spewing volcanoes of hatred splashing us all in just this one area of debate. There are plenty of others out there.

We need to try and return to a process of joint, compromised solutions for our problems. We need to

“all get along,” as Rodney King suggested during the riots after his beating by L.A. Police. This also isn’t just a purge or pogrom of Latinos. This process will apply to every illegal immigrant, regardless of where they or their families have come from. I believe many good things will come from this, including any number of jobs for citizens teaching applicants about our government, or, learning English. It should also dissolve colonies that have established themselves in the country, where their nationality or ethnicity suddenly seems to require American citizens to conform to the ways of their “old countries.”

The book, “Mexifornia” is just one such expression of some of the realities of so many “illegal

immigrants” from one country living in an area in such ways as to insinuate that our country must be subsumed

into theirs, because they out number us in some localities. There have always been ethnic neighborhoods. Most, in the past, had most immigrants seeking citizenship, and proudly becoming citizens. They learned English, if to no other degree than to at least pass the citizenship test. But no single part of the United States should be hearing from their illegal or immigrant or mixed legal/illegal communities, that they’re going to be “returned” to Mexico or Canada when a certain critical mass of “us v. you Americans,” is reached.

Ethnic neighborhoods are American. Foreign colonies, no longer subject to American values, mores, and standards, are a potential and ominous manifestation of the twilight zone we seem to be have been living in for the last decade or more, as no one wants to step forward, and propose a solution. Bitching about this is

disgusting to me, any more.

This is my first stab at a proposed Immigration Reform Act for the United States. Let’s try to see it as the beginning of a process to rectify a wrong we’ve all been involved with. Let’s try and work together, as Americans. We can welcome with pride and honor those who want to stay with us. We can politely send those who don’t on their way, thanking them for whatever help they’ve given us in the past. They can reapply to work here, if they don’t want to stay.

We need honest, contributing members of American society, not people frightened and angry at being

stuck in a seemingly unwinnable position.

This is the “Eagan Comprehensive Immigration Settlement and Reform

Act, 2013.”

Smoke Jumpers @ Grant County Airport

An old friend of mine, Jeff Davis, who was with the smoke jumpers up @ Missoula, Montana, for nearly 20 years, & I, visited the smoke jumpers stationed @ Grant County Airport. The jumpers have so far been dropped on either the Miller Fire, near the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, &/or, the Organ Mountains ("Abrahms"). Jeff, who has seen some horrific fire seasons & fires, speculates that if the large cumulus clouds that provide lightning & thunder over the Gila, begin to build. The Gila normally sees lots of lightning strike fires. So far, the word appears to be that the Miller Fire may be related to a hunter's inattentiveness.
As well all know here in Silver City, we've already experienced a half dozen or more "human caused fires" in or near the Silver City boundaries. Several (the fire @ South Spring Street & Gold), erupted in a kind of "common area," which was surrounded by older homes, even cabins; lots of highly combustible materials along San Vincente Creek; and a dead end road where the fire fighters & trucks could have been stuck had the fire turned on them.
This fire, which was started @ night, could have engulfed some homes & single wides quickly. And, what about elderly people or people with hearing disabilities, for instance, who might not have heard fire trucks coming into the area? The arsonist, if we have an arsonist(s) at work, is/aren't apparently concerned about killing people. This is serious. Any arson fire could cost people their lives. Arson fires also can cause major property loss.
The photos are taken Saturday, May 6 & Tuesday, 9 May, 2011:

Death of bin Laden

We now know the difference in which President was focused on ending the life of the man who charged his followers with multiple attacks against the United States.
MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell showed several clips of President Bush ... one time he's swaggering, "remember that poster that used to be up in the Wild West Days? 'Wanted: Dead or Alive? was one comment. Another, in effect, I don't care that much about bin Laden. He's been sidetracked into a swamp ... nothing going on. Obama's statements during the campaign showed he wasn't kidding about zeroing in & prioritizing his goals to put Osama bin Laden @ the top of the list of "things to do."
O'Donnell did a great thing for those of us with short memories by replay key statements by George Bush over his eight year tenure. One that surprised me in March, 2002, which was REALLY early in the process of "hunting bin Laden," was essentially ... well, we marginalized him. Really, George?
It makes as much sense, NOW, to look @ the spate of Palestnians in the U.K. taking action & actually attacking & killing British citizens IN the U.K. with attacks sophisticated enough to have certainly been encouraged by some handler whispering softly in the leaders' ears: "Osama is close by. Trust me! He believes in your plan. Go forward now, & strike. He will be close enough for you to hear him clap!" or some other crap. The notion that Osama bin Laden was within spitting distance of a major Pakistani military academy & that there were thousands of Pakistani military nearby, whether retired or active, makes it ridiculous for anyone to buy that the network of past & present ISI officials did not know bin Laden was in their midst.
Killing bin Laden was, apparently, a riskier proposition than we originally thought. I've heard 60-80%/40-20% chances of success. And, I'm sorry to say, helicopters nearly jinxed the op again. Mechanical failure. Prop wash from a Blackhawk (it's own, perhaps), caused one to go down. Thankfully, two more Sea Knights or some other type heavy lift choppers with refueling capabilities were right behind. And it's obvious, as someone said last night on a national news: People who do not know of the Navy Seals are generally dead before they can make a personal comment on their effectiveness.
The Joint Special Operations Command must still report directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the President, & that makes those people among the most skillful we have in a Special Operations Command that is composed of lots & lots of special operators. I think one part of that command, the Air Force's Special Operations Group, may be locate @ Kirtland AFB, in Albuquerque. We may not know it, but undoubtedly, if there is a part of New Mexico that resembles flying into the Abbotabad part of Pakistan, those guys were flying practice runs somewhere out there in the dark, empty landscapes of our state.
Killing bin Laden should include enough video to show the Islamic world that we treated his body with more care & proper ritual than he ever gave a damn about when he ordered the World Trade Center attacked. I'll never forget the hatred I felt inside when I saw people having to jump to avoid being burned alive. I was full of hate over anyone causing people to have to choose between jumping 110 stories, with such a violent end, v. burning alive. I nearly ground my back teeth down to a flat surface in about 20 minutes over that.
I was accused by one "friend" of being the "resident Taliban" of my former office when I also reminded email readers that we had to work harder @ solving the Palestinian-Israeli crisis. I was accused, I guess, of being a sympathizer for the Arabs. That felt fairly familiar, as on some issues like this, I seem to be in both camps, able to understand both sides perhaps better than others. To say that my thoughts on facilitating the Palestinian-Israeli crisis' end, with a settlement, or recognition of the Palestinian plight made me a sympathizer of what happened on September 11, was not only ridiculous, but insulting.
President Obam is perhaps the only American President who can now step forward, & show that he chose the option on killing bin Laden that offered the least possibility of harming innocent Pakistanis. We know now that bombing the target, the compound, wouldn't have allowed any: body recovery; DNA processing; any capture of an enormous amount of intelligence data; a certain confirmation that bin Laden was dead. Obama realized if things went bad, they would be really bad if innocent Pakistanis were killed. And it is obvious that he was responsible for insuring that the body of bin Laden was treated better than any Americans were on September 11.
We want President Obama to once again return to Egypt, where a new government may form, offering more freedom for it's people, to have shown that he took pains to avoid killing innocent Pakistanis, & ordered the body to be treated properly.
I hope the White House does it all: shows us the photo(s); shows us some of the video; shows us preparations for burial; shows us the carcass of that son of a bitch going over the side of the U.S.S. Carl Vinson. "Now, he sleeps w/the fishes, Luca Brazi said to your father," Marlon Brando apparently was told in one of his discussions with one of his killers. Frankly, I wouldn't care, personally, if that video leaked out, but I realize that's my inappropriateness. I am content w/not ever seeing that. I can think it, just not really move to make it so.
We can all hope that someone managed to cut a hole in the bag holding bin Laden's body ... just enough to put the scent out in the Indian Ocean for the sharks, or other fish that feed on carrion. I think it will be good for the American people, in particular, who watched with horror what happened on September 11, to see bin Laden's end. If others wail & moan, so be it. WE deserve to see those stages of this operation. There must be some reconcilliation with the horror of September 11 & the end game on May 2.
I do want to comment on the spontaneous crowd scenes near the White House, in Times Square, etc. I was @ first offended @ the chants of "USA, USA!" in celebration of bin Laden's death. I think a lot of us didn't "get that" in terms of how OUR parents acted on V-E Day or V-J Day. We of the Vietnam generation, of course, never had any event that capped off our involvement in the Vietnam War. Instead, we have those depressing images of Vietnamese allies being punched in the face by beefy CIA security personnel; or the long line of Vietnamese climbing ladders to the top of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, hoping to get a ride out of Saigon before "the end." Not too mention dozens of Vietnamese Hueys being flown to sea, then crash landed, in the choppy waters, or pushed off the side, to make room for more incoming choppers.
The Fall of Saigon represented for me one of the deepest, darkest depressions I ever endured at the end of that war. I was for it, then against it, then somewhere in the middle, trying, again, to find a way to negotiate a settlement that would not turn into a blood bath for our friends in Vietnam. People who don't seem to give a damn about things like that are quick (the Ultra Liberal Leftists) to demand an immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan & Iraq. But, watch the film, "The Stoning of Soraya M" & then tell me you don't give a damn about an overnight withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The women, folks. The women will be killed by the thousands by those Taliban assholes. And the killing won't be pretty. I DARE YOU to watch that film, if you want an overnight withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice ... they're the ones who will have some karma coming due for ignoring Afghanistan for five years, allowing the Taliban to regroup & refresh themselves.
Obama had to do something to take us to a place where a withdrawal after all our sacrifice, HAD to be set up before being taken down.
The reaction of younger people to bin Laden's death was an indicator of how strongly many below the age of 25, even 20, have felt about the terror links to that man. I never felt frightened. Never. I recall standing in a half mile long line waiting to hear John Kerry speak, in Las Cruces, where everyone was moved through a gate and checked with metal detectors, thinking: I would rather have my liberty than stand in a security line for everything, from now on. This sucks!
But the world may have changed in many ways that I just didn't "get" in terms of how it all felt for younger people who have not only grown up in the shadow of the falling World Trade Center; Pentagon; Shanksville & other passengers on those planes. I don't travel enough to even barely grasp the changes in airport security. We've also seen our young people on the front line of STDs, and how death can come from the wrong choices with casual sex.
But in the end, it IS the men & women of the younger generation who know friends who have come back horribly mangled from wars in Afghanistan & Iraq. It was their friends who died. It was their friends who are insane after 3, 4, 5, 6 tours of these two war zones. I have PTSD & what I have came from 90 days of combat. Imagine what the men & women of the volunteer forces have with multiple combat tours!!!!!
In the end, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donny Rumsfeld, Doug Feith, Condi Rice, etc., were responsible for sending our professional military, back again & again, to war zones, to worsen their PTSD. Families will never be the same. Children will not know Moms or Dads, or even, both. Men & women will drift into alcoholism and drug addiction. Single, double & triple amputees will stop being recognized as they are now in ten,fifteen, twenty years.
I was in Valley Forge General Hospital, the second half of my 1 year in Army hospitals due to my wounds & malaria. I SAW men putting on one, two, or three prosthetic limbs, every day. The advances in prosthetics & cosmetic surgery & pain management weren't there in my day. I showed my scars on my right arm to an occupational therapist recently, & she said it looked like they' d cut me open with a coke bottle.
That was the way it was then.
Those crowds of young people were shouting "USA! USA!" because the volunteer military is more jocular now; more physical; more about men & women working out together. Check out the dialogue in "Aliens" & the banter between men & women in science fiction future wars, or "Starship Troopers," & I suspect you'll "get" a little more inkling of what the modern military is like these days. It's like Worldwide Wrestling, in some ways. Or "Ultimate Fighting." Men & women mingle more in the military, and we're on the leading edge of actually having "Starship Troopers" be a reality for our military forces.
It made sense that there would be, in D.C., particularly, with so many military & intelligence personnel there, we'd see such a spontaneous demonstration of young folks, happy bin Laden was dead. D E A D.
It HAS BEEN THEIR FIGHT, FOLKS. They should be allowed to "celebrate" in the way the culture has driven them since, say, 1990 or so. Remember the end of the Soviet Empire? The Berlin Wall coming down. Those celebrations, & the celebrations of the bin Laden killing are close together in mood. We have to step out of the way.
For those whose loved ones died on September 11 -- I weep for you, & know you will remember that day every day for the rest of your lives, regardless of how much therapy you receive for YOUR PTSD. I thought about Vietnam EVERY DAY for 22 years, until my own therapy & work on Survivor Guilt was worked on.
I vote to have his photo shown of him before & after; of him with a huge hole over his left or right eye, whichever was hit; of the bullet (double tap) wound on his chest; of some discreet photo of his body being prepared for Islamic burial; the body bag sliding over the side. I vote for all of those. I'd also vote for some video of what happened. And if it were up to me, I'd also remind the kind of Islamist haters who villify our form of government, and treat their women like Soraya M., that their "hero" was gotten.
The Pakistani Military & ISI are liars if they want us to buy they didn't know bin Laden was "there."
They knew.
I hope Ayman al-Zawahiri is next. And that we tell the ISI: you have 48 hours to take him out yourselves. Otherwise, we will watch him, & watch you, help him try to disappear, & then we will take him out ourselves. YOU do it, or WE will. Stop fucking around with us!
I didn't originally support Obama. Dorothy & I were split. She did before I. I wanted true history to be made, & for Hillary to win. However, when he won & she lost; when it was obvious it was Obama v. McCain, I knelt down, & asked God to please, help me let go of those sentiments. He was as smart as Hillary & I needed to get behind what was happening. I need, dear God, I prayed, to let it go. To "let go & let God," we in 12 Step Programs say.
I've made many mistakes, but asking for God's help to support President Obama wasn't one of them.
I've grateful down to the souls of my feet that he's there, & want him to succeed, succeed, succeed. This hopefully will stop all the bull crap about "Barack HUSSEIN Obama," & "Obama, born in Kenya," or "Obama, the Maoist."
Race baiters: give it up. Get behind our President. I'll do everything I can to see him re-elected. I'm glad we got bin Laden.
It's been a long time coming. Don't ever foget those people who had to either burn to death, or jump to their deaths. Never, ever, forget those jumpers. We owe it to ourselves, & all the America haters, to show the photos. Ask to see the photos.
Jerry E.
May 4, 2011