Generalship and Iraq

The portraits above are of generals who captained America's wars.

George Washington,

Andrew Jackson

Winfield Scott

Zachary Taylor

Ulysses S. Grant

Nelson A. Miles

John J. Pershing,

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Matthew Ridgway
Creighton Abrams

Colin Luther Powell

Tommy Franks

They all have the same thing in common. They were in charge of either winning or commanding, the decisive battle in a war. Everyone of this men justly earned the accolades of their nation and in the case all save one, continued to serve until the job was done.

This week a report was released by the Army, entitled, “On Point II: Transition to the New Campaign.” a 700 page report that calls into question the plan for Iraq after the fall of Sadam Hussein. An article in the New York Times by Michael Gordon Occupation Plan for Iraq Faulted in Army History details what the report says.

I will not attempt to denigrate General Franks here, I only make an observation that in every successful war, and even Vietnam, the General in charge stayed on duty to clean up the aftermath, or in the case of General Abrams, rebuild the Army. From a historians point of view it is something to ponder. Unanswered questions, that in hindsight led to many more deaths than necessary.

The end of World War in Germany saw horrific blood letting by victors against the German people in Eastern Europe as old scores were settled against ethnic Germans caught in reconquered territories. The Allies had several million troops stationed in Germany. A huge force was kept on to facilitate disarmament and security. In Iraq, the Army report states that recommendations to bring in a force of 300,000 men to secure the peace was rejected by General Franks.

Some of General Franks’s moves also appeared divorced from the growing problems in Iraq. Before the fall of Baghdad, Col. Kevin Benson, a planner at the land war command, developed a plan that called for using about 300,000 soldiers to secure postwar Iraq, about twice as many as were deployed.

But that was not what General Franks and the Bush administration had in mind. In an April 16 visit to Baghdad, General Franks instructed his officers to be prepared to reduce forces rapidly during an “an abbreviated period of stability operations,” the study notes.

If true, it a damning statement of over confidence and arrogance.

Asked about the decision to establish a new headquarters, General Franks told Army historians that he had told the Pentagon what was needed and that it was the Defense Department’s responsibility to ensure that the headquarters was rapidly installed.

The invasion of Iraq began on March 19, 2003 the country was declared secured on May 1, 2003. Twenty two days later General Franks announced his retirement from the Army. This in my recollection is the first time in our history when the winning general quits less than a month after major hostilities ceased. These are questions that call for an answer. Why did General Franks retire? The future is ripe for historians to discover the truth.

Army's Combined Arms Center's Web site. for a down version of the 700 page report.

Further discussion at Small Wars Journalm under the heading On Point II: Transition to the New Campaign.

Travel Notes-Europe 2008

One of the things that we almost always take for granted, is the ability to travel the world in relative comfort and safety. I don't need to remind people of my generation that global travel was once reserved for the privileged. The past half century since the end of World War II and the Cold War has led to an explosion in travel. Roadblocks to travel today, pale in relationship to travel just a short half century ago. I urge all who are physically able to take every opportunity to see the World and discover something new out of something old.

I just recently returned from a trip to Europe, where my wife and I spent three weeks traveling and enjoying a family reunion in Germany. Now you might think that my wife was German from the way this story is going. But in fact she is from China, where her parents still reside. Her sister and brother-in-law, have lived in Germany for the past fifteen years and are German by all accounts of language and culture. Their children are being raised to speak, German, Mandarin, English and for their teenage daughter, French and Italian. I am not writing this to brag about my niece's linguistic skills, it only shows that the effort to create a global person is well underway. She is not the exception, her classmates are all required to take language classes in English, French and other languages, and this before entering high school.

Over the next few weeks I will be posting observations about our trip. We began in London and continued on to Paris, before making Munich our base for two weeks. From Munich, we took road trips to Venice, Prague and Vienna. Our method of travel included every mode sans horses. We stayed in European hotels and never ate in a MacDonald's or sipped a Starbucks. The experience was both refreshing and eventually gave us a longing for our homeland. I will refrain from making political comments about the countries we visited and will write only about the impressions and observations of people and places we visited.

London:

My last visit to London was decades ago, and the first impression upon return is the level of how multi cultured England has become. The Tube riders looked as if they were being shuttled from a United Nations meeting. My wife remarked how strange it was when a traditional English gentleman, suited and umbrella in hand boarded the car. Later, when visiting the Tower of London, the soldiers on guard were of African descent, and the next day during the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace the guards being posted, were from the Malaysian Army commonwealth forces. A lot has been written about the blending of cultures in England and how it rents the fabric of English identity. Seeing is believing, the people we saw were British in every sense.

The famous landmarks do not change, and the feeling of grandeur only fades with the realization that much was lost to the raids in World War II and earlier massive fires that destroyed most of medieval London. For a historian, every surviving site was a primary source to savor and think about the events that took place so long ago. These relics, exist amid the towers of modernity and sound of sirens announcing the passage of ambulances. Take away a few buildings and statues, London becomes New York, Chicago or Tokyo. Still a city that should be on everyone's list to see and explore.

London had a reputation for bad food, where Fish and Chips or Bangers and Mash, washed down by tepid bitter ale was the common fare. This has changed with the introduction of dishes brought from their far flung former colonies. London's Chinatown, boasts several great Dim Sum restaurants, every bit as good as those found in Hong Kong. And the East End, the haught of Jack the Ripper' is home to people of Britain's former Indian colonies,Whitechapel where curry is king.

Leaving London on a bright Sunday morning we boarded the Eurostar train for a cross-channel journey, Channel Tunnel to Paris. The trip, covered the distance in a little over two hours, something that with high gasoline prices, might encourage planners on the crowed eastern seaboard to consider for inter-city travel. The trains, Class 373 trains are powered by electricity and travel at speeds of 186 MPH. In Europe and much of the urbanized world, all rail transportation, both surface and underground are powered by electricity. The amount of energy is drawn mostly from Nuclear power generating plants, something that the United States is rift from continuing to develop. Case in point, France Électricité de France produces 75% of their power from nuclear energy. And Japan, home of the first human lab experiment of nuclear destruction, powers its country with 55 reactors, and is the third largest user of nuclear power in the world. I said that I would refrain from political comments, but this seems to be a common sense observation that we re-open our discussion about power generation in the United States.

The trip across the French countryside as we approached Paris, reminded me of how farmland in the United States used to be. It is a place where small farmers still toil the soil and send their product to market, as their ancestors had done for a millennium. I also thought back to a time over half a century ago when Allied forces battled the Germans for every square inch of the countryside from the channel to Paris. The marks of war are gone, but hedge checkered countryside, will always hold the story in the bosum of it's bloodied soil.

Next Paris,

As a postscript: During the time of our travels, one of the people I link in my blogroll, Victor Davis Hanson was in Europe and filed these observations.

Euromania

Europe to an American

Kaboom War Journal, Critically Wounded By Censor's Electonic Pen

The author of military blog site, Kaboom War Journal was dealt a potentially fatal literary wound by the order of his superiors to stop posting, effective immediately. His explanation is posted in full below.

A Tactical Pause
Due to a rash posting on my part, and decisions made above my pay-grade, I have been ordered to stop posting on Kaboom, effective immediately. Though I committed no OPSEC violations, due to a series of extenuating circumstances – the least of which was me being on leave – my “The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage” post on May 28 did not go through the normal vetting channels. It’s totally on me, as it was too much unfiltered truth. I’m a soldier first, and orders are orders. So it is.If you think, please think of us. If you pray, please pray for us. The second half of our deployment will be just as challenging and dangerous as the first half.Thank you for caring. Agree or disagree with the war, if you’re reading this, you are engaged and aware. As long as that is still occurring in a free society, there is something worth the fighting for.

I want to honor LT G, and will continue to link his site until he returns or surfaces on another site. His insightful postings about the everyday life of his unit the Gravediggers as they preform their mission, ranks as one of the best written military blobs I have ever read.

I ask all who read this to wish the LT and his band of brothers, Godspeed and a safe return to ours shores.

Great Powers: A Book, Obama and MaCain Must Read

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Powers-America-World-After/dp/0399155376/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213970164&sr=1-3

I usually don't pre-judge a book by it's cover. In this case Thomas P.M. Barnett's new book Great Powers: America and the World After Bush, is something that I am recommending before it's release date. As many of you know who read this blog with any frequency I have linked many articles written by Tom Barnett, and posted numerous comments about his vision of shrinking the Gap, Non-Integrating Gap, that includes most of the countries we now see as failed states. I have observed Barnett as he prepared for this book by reading hundreds of books from as many disciplines, and collecting thousands of articles, all the while keeping his daily blog where he comments on the state of all things human. He has traveled the world so much in the past three years since his last book Blueprint for Action, that his frequent traveler miles would probably qualify him for a round trip to the moon, if it were available. Tom's Trips

He has traveled across the globe, to address hundreds of organizations, civilian, academic and military. His message is important and needs to be told. It is not about American hegemony, over other nations, it is about connecting the world community by using our leverage and power to facilitate positive change throughout the world. Barnett was one of the first to offer suggestions that we, "lock in China at today's prices" and make them a partner in the security net that needs to be in place to allow for economic growth. Tom also likes to say, "It's the jobs, economic determinism that will allow democracy to bloom."

For whoever becomes President of the United States this fall, be it Obama or McCain, this is a must read book for them, and their policy makers. Barnett's insight is beyond partisan and should be given ever measure of thought and consideration.

To those of you who need more convincing, here is a link to some of Barnett's wisdom via youtube. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thomas+barnett

And if that whetted your interest, here is a longer brief, Tom Barnett Lecture from TED videos.

To illustrate how Tom Barnett is a voice that resonates within the Pentagon, here is a timely post by Galrahn at Information Dissemination entitled, Observing the Resistance to the Paradigm Shift in the DoD.

And on a lighter note about Barnett's global view, Dan at tdaxp.com, who wrote this Join the Core, Support Firefox! about a post that compared support for Firefox with the Tom Barnett’s Core/Gap model:

I am not being Pollyanna about Barnett. For those skeptics who need more evidence, just click on Tom Barnett in the label links at the bottom of this post to find previous posts about his views.

June, Mid-year Course Corrections!

June, the month that spring dissolves into the heat of summer. It is a time when people have traditionally set new course changes in their lives, like marriage, graduation and the launching of adventurous vacations and new careers.

Last month,The First Saturday in May I wrote about three people whom I acknowledged for reaching their goals to graduate from high school or college and be prepared to go onto their next great adventure. They represent the millions of people, young and old, who are joining them this month to take the next step in their lives.

Yesterday I watched my youngest son graduate from high school. His graduating class was made up of young people whose fore bearers had come here from every continent. When I graduated many uncounted moons ago, the surnames were mostly European and the faces white and black. Today, my son's class was a veritable role call of the global family with one thing in common, they were Americans graduating and going forth to set individual courses on to their next goal.

This month, another of the people I've written about, graduated and this winter will enter the Masters of History program at a well known university. She works as a manager in a major company, so the natural choice should have been an MBA program. Instead, she followed her dream to be a historian, and hopefully a professor, in order to make a real difference in the lives of others. I know how much she agonized over this choice, her family said take the conservative course, but she followed her heart and chose the path that she wanted to travel. I know that someday her name will be on the lips of students, as someone who made a difference in their lives.

Lastly, another whom I wrote about last month. She overcame many hardships to graduate with a degree in International Business. The road her family traveled to place her at this threshold was perilous. She persisted and graduated last month. Too this moment, she is the most focused and disciplined person I have ever known. Today, she is fulfilling a dream to travel and see the world. It is the huge course change for her to leave her family and travel overseas to study global business practices. I know that she is having a blast learning and thinking about everything she encounters. She did not label her Myspace headline "metecognition" for not, she is the epitome of that word.

These three, represent the millions who this month are sailing off on new courses. I publicly affirm that I am immensely proud of these three. My contributions to their decisions were minuscule. They each share the same trait, that of following their passion and preparing for careers they chose because of their deep interest, not the interest of their parents or friends. As they continue their separate journey's I will watch with interest and pride as they assume their role in defining the future.

The Meme of Seven

Vicksburg-Sgt John F. Campbell 1842-1863, KIA

I've been tagged by Zenpundit!

Here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

5. Present an image of martial discord from whatever period or situation you’d like.


Here are the facts:

1. I road in the 7th memorial cavalry, and was in the 1976 centennial of the Battle of Little Big Horn.

2. People say, I have an uncanny ability to find my way around unfamiliar places. Two weeks ago I was on vacation in Europe, My brother-in-law had taken us to Vienna. Living in Munich for 20 years, he thought he knew Vienna. He got lost, and wander around for an hour. My wife asked me to intervene, with in a few minutes, I figured out the street plan and we were on our way. Ditto, for trips to Prague, and Venice. he'd get lost, I would find the way....ride back on autobahn was always fast and silent.;o)

3. I regret not learning to speak more Chinese, Farsi, and Vietnamese; knowledge that could have helped in love and war.

4. I've traveled on every continent except Antarctica.

5. My nickname in the Army was "Hawkeye" after spotting fishing line used as a tripwire on a booby trap.

6. Unquenchable taste for craft ales, and good single malt Islay scotch, where the bouquet of salt air and peat combine to transport you to the coast of Scotland. Note I said taste, not thirst.

7. I never loose the feeling of awe when in the presence of primary historical evidence. To view and touch something from a historical event, gives me a feeling of clairvoyant mind travel back to the event. Castles, battle sites, documents, old cities, all transmit the same feeling.

Now for the Tags!

Sean Meade

Potbangers Blog

Asia Logistics wrap

Information Dissemination

Chet Richards

Lexington Green

Shanghaiist

Father's Day 1952

The last time I saw my father was in 1952. I don't know the exact date, but for me it will remain Father's Day for the rest of my life. My father had been gone from the home for some time and on this particular day he had returned to visit my brother and I. I recall sitting at his feet as he played with my younger brother on his lap. He was dressed in the fashion of the day, cowboy boots, leather jacket, white tee shirt and levis. He was my hero, the under current of confict between him and my mother was never revealed to our young eyes. When it became time for him to leave we followed him to the sidewalk and watched as he walked into the distance and out of our lives forever. I suffered his loss, almost every day I would stand looking down the street waiting to see him reappear. I was told by my mother, not wanting me to know the truth, that he had gone off to fight in Korea. When he never returned I began to make up stories that he had been killed in the war. later, when I learned the truth, it left a scar that never quite healed.

Fifty years later, after an extensive online search I found my father again. He has passed on in 1985, but left the legacy of three other brothers, two of whom I was able to get to know and reconstruct my father's life. In two posts last year, I recounted his life. A Thanksgiving Tribute to my Dad and Tribute continued: .

I was lucky, instead of being left to being raised solely by my mother, my grandfather took up the challenge to make sure I was raised with some sense of direction and values. I have never publicly acknowledged his role. Looking back, being raised by someone who was born in 1886, gave me lessons that were first passed on to my mother, one of those who became know as the "Greatest Generation." I grew up with a sense of community service, so strong that when I graduated from high school, I joined the Army, just as my father had joined the Navy, December 8, 1941, and like ancestors on my mother's side, had done in every war since before the Revolution. Work was something that mattered, you did your job, but family came first, obligations were accepted and promises kept.

I was not the perfect incarnation of a throwback member of that generation. I have many of the traits of my cohorts in the "boomer" generation. But true to form, as we age into our elder years, we find ourselves becoming visionary, so that before we step off the world stage, we might be able to recover our mis-spent youth.

I am blessed have two daughters, two step-sons and a son. They have made me a grandfather six, and soon to be seven times. Their love and the pleasure it gives me to see them grow and mature is a reward that my father missed. My grandfather, E.E. Campbell, did not miss that chance, he lived to see his grand children give him great-grandchildren and passed with the knowledge that he had led a life that counted and would be remembered.

Today, I remember him and my father, and pause to whisper into the wind that I love them both and thank them for what they gave me.

Thoughts on the Role of Historians in the Public Discourse

Historians are the original "cold case investigators" studying and uncovering the truth about events in the distant and not so distant past in an effort to understand what, why and how something occurred. Their work has always been subject to review, revision and rebuttal.

Occasionally a post catches my eye in such a way that the best way to share it is to post it in it's full content. Mark, the zen master of Zenpundit posted the following at Progressive Historians;

“The Virtues and Vices of Historians as Public Intellectuals."

Mark writes;

Jeremy's post on the political commentary of Princeton historian Sean Wilentz caught my attention with this argument:

There is nothing in this statement that prohibits historians from making mistakes in public. There is nothing that says they shouldn't be partisan, or even that they shouldn't lose their objectivity and engage in "sloppy political forecasting." And there is nothing that says they have to be right.What it does suggest is that historians' opinions on the questions of the day are more than just opinions. They are opinions backed up by knowledge, by information and analytical skills that are not available to the average person. And it suggests that historians have not only a right, but a duty to publish these historically-informed opinions in a public place, where they can enlighten and edify lay readers.

I will second Jeremy's call for historians to take a more active role as public intellectuals and shapers of policy and opinion. I will also offer a gentle caution because historians, even as we clearly see the analytical shortcomings of journalists, political scientists, economists and others, have blind spots of our own.

Historians have a great deal to offer as analysts because of their command of informational context and practiced experience evaluating the credibility of new evidence within their disciplinary subfields. Ideally, historians approach a question with skepticism and attempt to explain causation within an accurate context by working backwards toward the point of origin. “Primary source” documents are privileged as evidence by which historians mean certain kinds of documents, preferably government records and memoranda, alongside private papers, These are scrutinized with great care and are supplemented by authoritative secondary material that helps the historian understand the primary sources within the accurate context of the time rather than anachronistically.

Again, ideally, these discrete facts and clues are then reinterpreted by the historian in the form of a comprehensible narrative that does not deviate from the evidentiary trail and clearly separates fact from speculation. Historians not only attack the evidence analytically - breaking down and deconstructing specific events - they also synthesize and construct analogies to elucidate larger, general, patterns of human conduct and it is here that historians are most often helpful to policy makers or in educating the general public.

Ironically, this is also where we as historians are most apt to go astray.

As a profession, historians develop a methodological outlook that can make us prone to particular distortions of perception. The first is our obvious preference for the authority of the written word which means we tend to focus on an evidentiary trail that is a) far more incomplete than we tend to realize and b) less reliable than we would like to imagine.

Of the records we use, we give greater weight to official documents than did the bureaucrats, statesmen and various officials who wrote them at the time with different motivations, not least of which could be to say as little as possible or to advance the career of the author. Some bureaucracies are less than meticulous as institutional record keepers and some regimes lie with Orwellian abandon or attempt to bury records forever behind secrecy laws.

Then there is the problem of what risk theorist Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls the " silent evidence" of the larger picture that does not attract our attention. For example, for decades, historians discounted the veracity of oral tradition until recently discovering that this method of communication could often be more reliable than the official record. Artifacts other than written documents such as art, physical spaces, machinery and personal effects tell powerful stories of their own. Alternatives not taken were often avoided for important but unrecorded reasons that drove the choices that people and groups did make but these are not always readily discernable. Statesmen seldom - Richard Nixon excepted - record their most revealing thoughts. It is all too easy for historians, in other words, to mistake what we know for the general parameters of what is important to know.

By all means, historians should be robust participants in public debate and can be confident that their knowledge and analytical skills are a useful contribution. But some humility is also in order; our methodological tools have their limitations.

Jeremy adds to the debate with his rebuttal comment available on his site. His comment ends with;

Historians are the kind of experts who know where everything is on the shelf, and who put it there, and why. That's a kind of experience I'll willingly ascribe to us, and it is very valuable both to us and to our readers. We owe it to the public to share our knowledge with them, not because we're any smarter than they are, but because we've been given a great gift of knowledge that it's our duty and obligation to share with others.

And Mark, rebutts in a masterful quote;

An old prof I had, who was a psychologist as well as a historian, used to say that historians had bigger "cognitive maps" than other fields. That we carried around more of the puzzle pieces in our heads to fit the seeming anomalies into place.

Historians, remain the preeminent "cold case investigators" our input, however carefully culled for objectivity is subject to our perceptions and prejudices. What we add to the pubic discourse on any issue is ultimately left to the listener or reader to accept or deny, based on their own conceived notions. We can only hope that our efforts can craft a clearer platform from which to make that choice.

Oil vs Grain What the Future Holds

With crude oil hitting an all time high this week and gasoline prices over $4.00 per gallon in the U.S. and over $9.00 in Europe, with no end in sight, conventional wisdom would forcast a free falling economy for the world.

Thomas Barnett's Sunday column this week offers up a different prospective on what will be the most desired commodity in the near future. This week's column.

His opening words:

In the global oil industry, there is Saudi Arabia and everybody else. But with the planet experiencing the worst food crisis since the tumultuous 1970s, the question begs, Who is the "Saudi Arabia" of agriculture? Well, it turns out that North America is the OPEC of global grain.
When the professional fear mongers try to scare you with America's "oil addiction," remember this: if the world's got us over a barrel on energy, then we've got the world over a bread basket. Moreover, while global climate change will progressively diminish OPEC's importance as we're forced to improve transportation technologies, it'll only strengthen NAFTA's role as the world's preeminent food exporter.

Anyone who has been keeping up with Barnett's blog will recognize that he did not pick this topic out of thin air. Below are links to recent posts that support his argument.

Grain companies will be the vilified oil companies of the future (like they were in the past)
ARTICLE: "Grain Companies' Profits Soar As Global Food Crisis Mounts," by David Kesmodel, Lauren Etter, and Aaron O. Patrick, Wall Street Journal, 30 April 2008, p. A1. ARTICLE: "Farming Critics Fault Industry's Influence," by Elizabeth Williamson, Wall Street Journal,...

Urbanization yields globalization yields rising income yields more food demand yields bigger farms yields more migration to cities yields ...
ARTICLE: "In Ukraine, Mavericks Gamble On Scarce Land," by John W. Miller, Wall Street Journal, 12 May 2008, p. A1. Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan have between them an untilled Idaho's worth of good farmland. Trick is unifying small plots,...

Already Beijing is thinking food security
ARTICLE: "Beijing looks at foreign fields in push to guarantee food supplies: China losing its ability to be self-sufficient," by Jamil Anderlini, Financial Times, 9 May 2008, p. A1. China replicates its own-the-barrel-in-the-ground mentality it currently displays on oil,...

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Simple math on food costs
ARTICLE: "Why the World Can't Afford Food: And why higher prices are here to stay," by Jackson Dykman, Time, 19 May 2008, p. 34. Poor harvests and restrictive trade policies + Increasing price of oil + Diversion of crops...

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Cool visuals on world food issues/dynamics
ARTICLE: "The Economics of Hunger: A brutal convergence of events has hit an unprepared global market," by Anthony Faiola, Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 5-11 May 2008, p. 6. ARTICLE: "In Mauritania, Evey Meal Becomes a Sacrifice," by Anthony...

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The next-order network perturbation
INTERVIEW: "David Hightower on the Explosion in Commodities Markets," by Maria Bartiromo, BusinessWeek, 26 May 2008, p. 021. Rising Asia gets you rising energy costs, which contribute to the rise in food costs, which soon enough (as in, next...

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A special note:

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Tom Barnett spends an extraordinary amount of time traveling across the globe, spreading his strategic message. Throughout his travels he has been able to maintain his blog, much to the appreciation of his readers.

Long day's journey into night

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He also makes the time to be what is most important, a devoted husband, father and son.

Dodged a bullet on flash flood

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And in return gets the best gift a human can receive, Love..

My family tries to buoy my spirits

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This post did not start out to focus on Tom Barnett, but in order to support the message in the headline it is important to know the messenger.

Feeding Metacognition, Ideas, Reflection, Innovation

Reading blogs have become an important source to exchange information, across this planet. I have been noting that almost 50% of the visits to HG'S World, are from countries outside the United States. I want to welcome those readers and encourage all who feel the urge, to make comments and open a dialogue.

This week there were several post that deserve attention for their thought provoking and reflective themes.

Howard Bloom offers up a post, In Praise Of Consumerism - It Was Good Enough For Marco Polo So It's Good Enough For You.
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Consumerism is responsible for some of the most important events in Western civilization. Consumerism has produced empowerments that have radically upgraded the lives of even the poorest people on the planet. And consumerism has even advanced the grand ambition of biomassto kidnap, seduce, and dragoon as many inanimate atoms as possible into the 3.85-billion-year-old enterprise of life.

And complementing the human spirit, is the Medici effect blog, where Frans Johannsen writes about the result of diverse ideas coming together to create new innovations.

Another U.S. Navy ship has joined the blog world. The USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) Blog will follow the daily life aboard a hospital ship as it preforms a mission that should make every American proud.

Captain Bob Wiley, is the civilian skipper of the USNS Mercy, currently on a voyage to the Southwest Pacific.

Dear Family & Friends,I am not a professional writer; however, I spent most of last night having what professional writers call “Terror of the Blank Page.” I knew I needed to write something…anything… But what? It was as though the “writing lobe” of my brain went ashore for a couple of beers and left me here on the ship to fend for myself. Come on, Mr. Lobe, it’s time to go to work! Today at lunch I realized the answer was sitting all around me. Aboard this vessel we have so many different people from so many different organizations. There are Civilian Mariners (like myself), Helicopter Pilots, Doctors, Nurses, Seabees, and Veterinarians. We have professionals aboard from partner nations - Australia, Canada, Japan, and the Philippines.....
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Yesterday, was the 64th anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Europe by the Allies. Several blogs noted the day, but two deserve special recognition.
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6 June, 1944 is the moving post by Zenpundit his introduction speaks to it's message.

I decided that I didn’t have any better commemorative than this post from two years ago. Thank you to all of the veterans of D-Day for your courage and sacrifice:

Often overlooked in recounting the action on D-Day, is the role played by Naval Air, Steeljaw Scribe honors their bravery in this post. Flightdeck Friday: Naval Air and D-Day - 6 Jun 44.

Turning to Iraq, the intrepid independent correspondent Michael Yon makes An Open Offer to U.S. Senators to be his personal guest and join him for a tour of the progress in Iraq.

I hereby offer to accompany any Senator to Iraq, whether they are pro-or anti-war, Democrat or Republican. I will make this offer personally to a few select Senators as well. Our conversations during the visit would be on- or off-record, as they wish. Touring Iraq with me, as well as briefings by U.S. officers and meetings with Iraqis, would provide an accurate and nuanced account of the progress and challenges ahead, so that the Senators might have a highly informed perspective on this most critical issue.

And finally, my good blogger friend Brad of potbangers has returned to explain his absence.Updates...

China in the year 8, Earthquake and Olympics Shake the Middle Kingdom

The year 2008 may turn out to be a watershed year for China. After demonstrating the worst of a response to trouble in Tibet, and suffering their most devastating earthquake in thirty years. China is poised to be a different country by the time the Olympics take place in August. No one expects it to instantly join the club of Western style democracies, but the signs of grassroots social change are evident across the width of China. Two articles, one by Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions Will a New China Emerge from the Earthquake's Rubble? sees change afoot.

In a recent post about the earthquake in China [Globalization and Giving -- the Rise of Chinese Philanthropy], I noted some hopeful signs about how society is changing in there. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who traveled through China to see how the country is responding, also sees some hopeful signs ["Earthquake and Hope," 22 May 2008].

Steve points out that Kristof's article notes that China is still a couple decades away from true democratic reforms and that transformation will be moved along by continued capitalism.

He concludes that he shares Kristof's:

...Optimism that China is moving in the right direction. Unfortunately, I don't believe the course it will take towards democracy is going to be a straight one. The rest of the developed world is going to have to find ways to help China back on the road whenever it takes a detour.

In a related article from Reuters, China's '08 generation finds a voice in tumultuous times, by Chris Buckley

By the time 2008 ends, Wang Junbo joked during a sweltering afternoon in China's earthquake zone, he and other young Chinese will have seen enough suffering, conflict and drama to retire early and write their memoirs.

...Wang's belief that this year's cascade of crises, especially the quake, has been an initiation rite for Chinese born after 1980 is widely shared. And it could leave a deep impression on a nation where the ruling Communist Party has warily faced its youth raised on global capitalism, Internet and text messaging.

The article points out that:

The public concern fostered by the quake may also amplify public scrutiny over reconstruction efforts and the resettlement of quake refugees. The Chinese public has already shown acute sensitivity to post-quake corruption exposed by an emboldened domestic media.

"People's expectations have also risen. They want to see aid used in a more fully transparent and accountable way," said Zhang Tuo, a business student in Beijing who has been organizing quake aid. "If it's not, the response will be real anger."

A lot has been written about poor construction and lack of government control of safety standards. Author Tom Barnett has pointed out that China in many ways resembles America during the boom period in the final quarter of the 19th century. Our own experience with an earthquake in San Francisco in 1906 serves as a distant mirror of a time when our own construction standards were non-existent. The two pictures above the left from China's devastating 1976 earthquake and on the right San Francisco in 1906 look starkly similar.

2008 was suppose to be a year of good luck for China. The number 8 is considered the luckiest number in Chinese folklore. They have arraigned for the Olympics to begin on 8/8/2008 at 8PM to seal their celestial fortune. The earthquake, may in the long run turn out to do more to usher China towards a more open and responsive government than a dozen Olympic style events could accomplish.

Update: A Tale of Two Countries

Two weeks have passed since the previous post called attention to the contrast between the response to natural disasters in China an Burma. The situation in China continues to improve, even in the face of new threats posed by instant lakes created by massive landslides. The Government of Burma on the other hand continues to do all it can to slow aid and in a perverted way, seem to let nature take it's course in allowing only the fittest survive.

A post today, by Galrahn of Information Dissemination provides a graphic illustration of conditions in China. Be forewarned the images are graphic and disturbing, but part of the human experience, Observing the Incredible, Sobering Images of the Earthquake in China. I concur with his observation that the earthquake is a major perturbation that will affect China's domestic policy for the better. We are already see more transparency in information and the government response which will move the Chinese to improve their internal rule set for the benefit of their citizens.

Burma's resistance to help, has led Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to comment, Gates Accuses Myanmar of ‘Criminal Neglect’.

The past two weeks, have seen efforts by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon mildly successful in getting some aid into the affected areas of Burma. Watching his efforts, at diplomatic boot licking, just to open a trickle of aid, is a sad reality of dealing with failed states, where sovereignty trumps decency. Let cyclone aid in 'without hindrance': UN chief to Burma leaders.

Reliefweb.int has a link and pdf file with the latest contributions towards relief contributions in China http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/fts.nsf/doc105?OpenForm&rc=3&emid=EQ-2008-000062-CHN

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And for Burma, http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/fts.nsf/doc105?OpenForm&rc=3&emid=TC-2008-000057-MMR

The contributions to date for Burma, $147,772,066 and China, $187,808,221 seem to be out of sync, with the amount pledged to Burma close to the amount pledged to China. Perhaps a reflection of the needs of a country further down the resource chain from China. The unsettling thing is the question of how much of that $147 million will go to line the pockets of the ruling junta members?

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As the photo above illustrates, the Junta receives huge revenues from the noted oil companies for exploration and recovery rights. Chevron Oil is a major contributor, $2,000,000 to relief efforts, is it good will, or an attempt to stay on the good side of the junta?

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Chevron's voice, along with other contributors like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are silent on the lack of aid reaching the victims. Perhaps in the interest of getting aid in, they remain silent. One reverently hopes that after the crisis has eased, that they lend their voices to softly driving those junta members into exile, and allowing Burma to rejoin the world community.

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The needs of people in China are still acute, so I am re-posting this link The Rush To Rescue. Comments by the likes of Sharon Stone, and the unsaid comments of others of her ilk, who see China's problem as payback for Tibet. And those in certain defense circles who long for old time state on state warfare, and see the quake as a weakening of a potential threat to their continued hegemony, should reap the scorn of those who hold their fellow mankind in higher esteem.