Another War Joe?
The Bad Orange was supposed to be the one to end the world by war. Intersectional War was just ideological. Inevitable shooting within the tent started before the bodies got cold. Now what?
I traveled the last two months for my new role, and am up to my eyeballs with on-boarding, hardware-gathering, and training videos. With the events of the last three weeks upon us and still unfolding, I hesitate jumping off the soapbox onto my high-horse to an unsupportable conclusion. I believe it fair to say though, that Gaza will never be like it was before 10/7. The rest of the world as well, I suppose.
As the world celebrates Pride month and rainbow flags brighten up the white city of Tel Aviv, in the West Bank and Gaza, the contrast couldn’t be greater for the LGBTQ+ community. While Pew Research shows that attitudes towards LGBTQ+ have evolved to be more tolerant in much of the world over the last decade, in the Palestinian territories there has been no progress.
Despite the dark reality for gay Palestinians, some left wing and LGBTQ+ groups in the West still insist on supporting the Free Palestine camp. Yet, while they call for Israel’s destruction, Palestinians legally and socially persecute their own LGBTQ+ community.
Not only are there atrocious laws against LGBTQ+ in the West Bank and Gaza, the social attitudes are an even larger problem, with deeply embedded homophobia rampant in the culture that endangers the local community.
Willful ignorance makes me dumber. It strips my logic and flays my patience. It becomes exhausting but elucidating, yet ultimately, deceptive and discouraging. It cuts at the core of freedom as it destabilizes internal thought and weakens resolve. Rational reflection reduced to racial ripostes. Serious study censured as supremacy suppositions.
Exhibiting not just cognitive, but moral dissonance in the absolute extreme, these protesters reach a new low of self-entitlement wallowing in historical ignorance wrapped up in a ribbon of hateful ideological groupthink.
Disgustedly displaying not a shred of self-awareness as a member of a spectrum long persecuted by religious zealots and political fanatics, these preppy provocateurs prove they’re positively polysexual, if not perceptively polymathic.
This is not an anti-gay or anti-Palestinian sentiment. It’s an anti-medieval mindset. One of the reasons this post has taken so long is that I wanted to read and watch and learn some stuff first. I’ve certainly not learned enough to call myself anything but more informed than I was last month, before the war started.
That really should be a goal in each of our own paths to growth and development. Be better than you were the day before and week before and month before. With better meaning better able to live within the context of humanity. With recognizing that other humans are quite unlike each other. We are of different tribes.
But, thanks to God (in my belief system) more like each other than not. We tribes formed civilizations. We then fought tribal wars on world-wide scales. We always have. We currently have two tribal wars. Are they 100% Joe’s fault? Probably not.
At bottom, it’s humanity’s fault. We are capable of savage, depraved acts. Some of us are evil. I’ve met evil and talked to evil and broken bread with evil. The human beings that committed the acts of savagery upon other human beings are just that. Human Beings. It’s hard to fathom.
It’s not an excuse. It’s just the human condition. While I was in prison, I read the Bible eight times. In 240 days. All slightly different versions. As I write this, four Bibles sit on my bookshelf, and Grandma Waelbrock’s big ole Catholic Bible occupies a place of honor on a table that acted as her living room alter.
This is not to prove some Bible bona-fides or to tighten my Bible-belt, but to say that I know what I know about Bible lessons because I read the Bible, and I mentor my Brothers and Sisters in Christ living behind the walls to this day. I actively participate in learning about some things that make me feel incredibly positive about myself and about humanity.
The human beings that carried out the atrocities of 10/7 in Israel had motivations different than mine. And yours as well, I think is safe to assume. But judging from the reactions I’ve seen worldwide, including in this country, my perspective is not universally shared. They are acts of butchery and condemnable.
Watching college students deny what video shows (recorded by the perpetrators themselves) is eerily similar to the end of WWII denials of German citizens.
Much will be said and screeched, and moral equivalencies will contort weak-willed people to disbelieve their own eyes and hearts.
Excuses will hemmed and hawed, reservations will be projected, and some cultures will be celebrated while others denigrated.
Reality will be replaced and reinvented, vengeance will be extracted and expected, and sadly, today’s wrath becomes tomorrow’s will.
The two images leading this post illustrate a willful ignorance and a dangerous intention. In my belief system, history is one of the elements of life that creates culture. And this truly is a battle of historic and ancient cultures.
Blindly supporting one side or another is intellectually impossible for me. I argue that to blindly support one side or the other is what has gotten us to here in the first place. My support is clearly behind Israel, notwithstanding some very real misgivings about ‘context’ and ‘history’.
. . . need to be independent from colonists . . .
So in that regard, I’ve collected and presented here a mix of the concepts and ideas I’ve been exploring.
I watched the documentary IRAN Saturday morning. With stunning regularity, documentary after documentary, America’s political, military, and industrial hegemony is a corrupt root in the tree of global unrest. Hey, this is coming from me, the most America-First dude around.
I searched ‘America’s Wars’ and the Gettysburg Flag Works leads with this description of our military history
Americans have fought in many wars, within their own country as well as abroad. These wars were fought for a variety of reasons, ranging from the need to be independent from colonists to the expansion of national boundaries.
But we are one power behind two proxies, against Russia and Iran, in two wars, and by some projections, soon to be a third against China. So we might want to throw some cards face up here to see how fucked we might be. We might got scared money.
America is the Empire NOW. I searched ‘George Washington, Guerilla Fighter’ and, low and behold, yeah. It’s common for historical memories to lose salient facts that cut against victorious narratives.
The actions of the First General of America in forming this nation were galvanized by his war experience on the diplomatic front-line starting in 1753 and culminating in his combat fatigue. And decried by his opponents as dishonorable.
Washington began his military career with enthusiasm and a hope that he could rise in His Majesty’s Service. When he resigned his commission for the final time, it was with the knowledge that he could not succeed under the conditions of his service, even though his “inclinations [were] strongly bent to arms.”[77] He finally accepted that a regular army commission at the rank he wanted would not be forthcoming. He had several offers of a captaincy, [78] but taking a lower rank than what he had held in the Virginia forces was unacceptable. When he did serve with regular officers, it became apparent that the British had little respect for the colonials or their abilities. When he commanded his own Virginia forces, he found the House of Burgesses unwilling to commit the money necessary to equip and support an army. He was further frustrated by the lack of support among the people he was supposed to be protecting. His initial enthusiasm, which led him to report at Jumonville’s Glen, “I heard Bulletts whistle and believe me there was something charming in the sound,”[79] had waned by the taking of Fort Duquesne. However, years later, in the war for independence, he would call upon his French and Indian War military experience and apply the lessons he had learned.
I’ve always been a cartographer at heart, much like Sheldon and his Flags. In that same vein, I believe it beyond critically important to know where in the world we are talking about. Every time I watch a documentary, I’m simultaneously exploring the globe on my desk.
Still Life. Still?
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly. Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai Everybody's lookin' for…
A cursory look at the world map visually depicts the logistical challenge of endless wartime largesse. Every war Joe has pledged America’s endless treasure and trophy to is a long-ass away from us.
The sheer cost of this is unsustainable. Should China attack Taiwan, we’re screwed even more. We’re almost out of bullets as it is. So, we’re left to muddle about our ‘normal’ lives, arguing with each other about meaningless first amendment rights and such nonsense. Mask up everyone.
Meanwhile, the world burns as America flagellates itself for sins committed long ago by founding fathers. We purge our collective community for out-thinkers and non-conformists, for wrong-voters and unruly unsubjects.
We can’t talk about real because we are playing grown-up. In this version, what we think is what we want you to want. What we want is wantable by all. And if you don’t want what we want, we have a problem. So get on board, stop believing what you see, and start thinking like you’re supposed to.
Who’s carrying the rainbow flag to Gaza?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Simply click on image to go there. Did you know Hamas fought a savage battle against Fatah, the PLO faction that controls the West Bank? So internecine violence is not off the table.
I’ve been obsessed with Curtis Harding over the past couple of months. There are some great songs here, please explore. A few favorites - If Words Were Flowers, Welcome To My World, I Won’t Let You Down.
I’ll leave you with this. Not sure where the world goes now, but if history and human nature is our guide, we’ll keep fighting each other.
Vive la struggle,
Ric
What is a Freedom Fighter?
Until his unconventional victory at Trenton in December 1776, George Washington, the founding father of the United States of America, had incurred a series of losses both on the battlefield and of political confidence in his leadership.
The first and largest battle of the war against the British took place in August 1776 in Brooklyn, New York, also called the Battle of Long Island, which saw the Revolutionary Army bested by a professional force led by experienced and determined officers. The British Army had several centuries of development proven in many wars and was a formidable force in which overconfidence naturally prevailed in the war of the American Revolution.
Trenton was a real guerrilla action in which a military leader, classically trained, sought to strike against a fixed military position, which in its genre, would have resulted in retreat if faced with firm opposition or capture of the target. George Washington chose a plan to be implemented in a manner and at a time not seen before in the revolutionary conflict, which was destined to catch the opposing elite force of German mercenaries by surprise and eventually, mean defeat of the Hessians.
The plan was simple in concept and entailed the movement of several thousand soldiers across a swift, wide, ice-ridden river to face an encamped enemy half their number, at night, on Christmas Day, accompanied by three times the artillery compliment of the target, in the dead of winter.
Washington had his force of over 2,000 men and 18 pieces of artillery mustered at dusk to begin a Christmas-night crossing of the Delaware River from Pennsylvania into British-held New Jersey, across a flowing waterway beset with large floes of ice that could crush or sink a boat. Among the many vessels used for the event were long, short draft Durham boats capable of carrying many tons of cargo crewed by Massachusetts sailors from Marblehead.
Various delays, including worsening weather, saw Washington's forces cross just nine miles north of Trenton in the early morning. Washington nevertheless pursued the attack and divided his force into east and west elements for an encompassing attack on the slothful, but still dangerous, Hessians.
The Trenton attack force had a key commander in Colonel Henry Knox who secured the crossing of men and cannon before proceeding to Trenton where artillery was strategically placed and moved, when necessary, to command the open streets. The Hessians were unable to launch a significant counter-attack or reduce themselves to small roving irregular bands under the Germanic military theory prevailing at that time.
In general terms, heavy and slow artillery had not been part of the guerrilla arsenal ,but used and discarded after capture as part of an overall strategy, or retained if desired for the rare occasions of securing base territory gathering points. Over time, artillery was replaced by ubiquitous rocket propelled grenades, wire guided anti-tank mobile missiles or shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles and more recently, vehicle-borne explosive devices.
On 26 December 1776, Washington led his men to the first encounter with a Hessian outpost, a mile from Trenton, when there was an exchange of gunfire before they fled to Trenton to warn their companions of the American assault. Washington dispersed his men and cannon at key points, ironically at King and Queen Streets, the very spot Rall had contemplated but omitted to establish an artillery emplacement. The disciplined Hessians repeatedly retreated, returning fire and receiving cover fire from other soldiers as they went towards the north end of Trenton.
Colonel Rall, who took command after some delay, got his men to come up the streets to overcome the rebel artillery, but this failed at every attempt due to the volume of fire from the American rebels, and even some citizenry, from the protection of buildings along the open streets. The Hessians then faced an overwhelming attack of men, musket shot and cannon fire, which led to the capture and abandonment of the Hessian cannons, forcing a full retreat to the rising open field to the north of Trenton where Rall got his men to form proper lines to counter-attack. Some Hessians fled the area completely in a wild melee to reach safety and evade capture.
The Hessians broke and fled to a nearby orchard having incurred about 100 casualties, which only increased their demoralised stance as they faced abject defeat in North America for the first time. German speaking members of Washington’s raiding party shouted out to the Hessians to surrender, which they eventually did in acknowledgement of the futility of further conflict. The captives were nearly 1,000 in number with a dead commander, many dead officers and all their arms, artillery and supplies seized by the rebel army.
Washington had secured his first victory, which started a reversal of fortune for the British in its American colonies, which culminated at Yorktown in 1781, with the aid of French assistance to the American Revolution. Naysayers of the D-Day casualties to liberate France and Europe should remember this. Some may think that the decimation of the Hessian force was a better outcome for the American cause, but a thousand examples of defeated Hessian soldiers marching through Pennsylvania to Philadelphia, and in some cases deserting to the rebel side, was invaluable to Washington.
The full story is even worse. Iran is not alone in its treatment of atypical sexual expression. It is similar in most Muslim countries and regions of control.