Tomorrow Morning

[Ken White]

There are know endstates there are only Targets and Exit points.

Life's good and the world's been in much worse shape on every count...

Ponies abound!

[Rex Brynen]

Life's good and the world's been in much worse shape on every count...

Ponies abound!

Dammit, I wanted a unicorn.

[Ken White]

or maybe the second over...

I know there's one somewhere.

[slapout9]

Life's good and the world's been in much worse shape on every count...

Ponies abound!

Ken, your missing the point everyone is depressed because Oprah announced she is quitting her show next year.

PS you doing OK haven't seen you around in awhile?

[Ken White]

Yep, Okay for all practical purposes -- just been a little busy and like all old folks, have good days and bad days. In true Pony rustler mode, I have more good ones than bad ones...

[MikeF]

Yep, Okay for all practical purposes -- just been a little busy and like all old folks, have good days and bad days. In true Pony rustler mode, I have more good ones than bad ones...

This type of thread is what happens when I think too much. I gotta put down the books on metaphysics, grab some salt tablets, and go PT (Ken's rules).

Mike

[Steve the Planner]

MikeF:

I spent a career as a planning troubleshooter. Looking at problems, trying to understand what was wrong, and trying to fix it.

Without metaphysics, I find nothing depressing about tearing things apart in order to understand them better, and how to fix them.

I took this Tomorrow Morning thing to be about asking the positive question: How do I engage this? What can I do about it?

My simplistic and perhaps overly-sympathetic view is that this war stuff comes in two flavors: Big and small.

Small Wars are, perhaps, about confined and definable problems and objectives, but could also be viewed as a mission or campaign within a bigger war.

Since WWII, however, US ability to effectively engage in big wars seems to be increasingly bogged down in inter-agency infighting, variable political/military objectives, and, as a rule, a failure of "big picture" effective engagement with the World beyond our shores. Maybe that was just because the particular problem (Viet Nam, etc...) was not easily definable or properly understood, and "muddle through" an incremental, but limited, strategy was not a path to success.

For me, immediate stability/reconstruction, rather than military/political stuff, is a definable area where positive success can be identified, planned, executed, and obtained. Closing the door of US conflict, as measured by the end of body flow, is, to me, both a positive objective, and, based on Iraq, achievable.

History cruelly shows how unstable endings, like the first run into Iraq, or the WWI settlement against Germany, lay the foundation for future conflicts, and are not really endings at all. But it doesn't look like we can affect that.

At the moment, I have been trying to absorb what I learned about Iraq, and understand what to do about it.

Yesterday, I read part of a book by Michael O'Brien, America's Failure in Iraq, where he venomously assaults the failure in 1991 to "play through" in Iraq while 500,000 troops were on the ground, then, after 2003, the catastrophic "reconstruction" effort. While I might agree with a lot of it, it seems to me that his approach is, in so many ways, neither going to engage or solve....just a venting.

Lately, I am all the more becoming interested in writing a book on Iraq that looks past and around the 2003-2010 episode, and certainly not to engage the military/political "market". In my view, there are plenty of war fighters who should properly tell the heroic and unheroic tales of war, strategy, and personal experience of those. Literature, too, should have some interesting contributions after some of these young soldiers get through college and try their first books.

But that's not my place.

Maybe it is better, first, to engage a bigger public in a more general tale about the background, rich history and challenges about the area (to create a positive context for engagement).

I started with the idea that the background is the frame story against which the US activities are explained. Funny thing is that the more I approach the research and storytelling, the less I see the US activities as important to the story. If that makes any sense????

I'm not at all depressed by the thread you opened, nor trying to figure out the Tomorrow question. I do it every morning.

Steve

[MikeF]

I spent a career as a planning troubleshooter. Looking at problems, trying to understand what was wrong, and trying to fix it.

Steve,

Well said. Every man and woman that post regularly here is passionate about problem solving. That's why I like this site. Although we may vehementaly disagree at times over ways and means, the folks here ultimately desire a better future for our children. Common interest with differing reasoning that may collectively broaden to the betterment of our fellow man.

As with all those that our driven and passionate, sometimes emotion overrides rational thought. That's where I'm at now. So, I'm gonna take a break until I can reconcile and not say things that may be hurtful towards others. That's what I need to do.

What happens tomorrow is an important question. As for me, two years from now, you'll either find me in Nuristan holding the gap or in Wilmington, NC working in concert with the police, social workers, and teachers to leave my home a bit better than it was before I got there. Where to serve- that's a decision that I must decide for myself.

Write your book. Tell the world your story, your sacrifice, and how you see things. In time, I will tell my story. It is important.

Mike

[Kiwigrunt]

Write your book. Tell the world your story, your sacrifice, and how you see things. In time, I will tell my story. It is important.

I’m pleased you said that Mike because this (from your Paying homage to Ceaser thread)
bothered me a bit:

If you know me or have followed my thoughts on SWC, then you know that I could easily write a memoire and secure a financially-beneficial job with political influence within the Beltway and appear semi-nightly on Fox News.

Honestly, that prospect disgusts me.

I had prepared an over-long reply but refrained from posting because considerations got in the way. I now consider it redundant.
Thank you for continuing to share.