Back to the Future

President Obama has been president for almost 100 days as of this writing (his inaugural date was Jan 20, 2009).  The economic stimulus plan has garnered the majority of press but other decisions are equally important.

First was the pronouncement by Vice President Biden and the Defense Secretary that the US military needs to be restructured to meet contingencies similar to those in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I see two problems with this view.  First, it suffers from the fallacy of basing your tactics on the lost battle fought.  Every single military school out there teaches the error of “fighting the last battle” over again.  Future adversaries have seen how we fought in Iraq            and Afghanistan that means they have the ability to develop counter-measures.  We need to develop new tactics for new adversaries.

The second decision is related to the first.  Secretary of Defense Gates decided to cancel the F-22 based on it being “too powerful”.  Shortly after the decision to cancel was made, the Secretary seemed to back-peddle when he pointed out the technological advances being made by Iran, North Korea, and China.  North Korea subsequently fired a long range missile further questioning Gates’ criticism that the F-22 was too powerful.

These first two decisions caused me some concern as the world is ever changing and it seemed as though the Obama administration was going to sacrifice military advancements because it did not perceive any viable threat.   Secretary Napolitano followed suit by removing “terrorist attack” from her speeches and replaced it with “man-made disasters”.  Collectively the administration seemed to be moving away from active to a passive position.

Then an old-fashioned threat came back to the future; pirates.  Somali pirates had become increasingly aggressive over the last few years but had never taken American hostages.  Secretary Clinton followed the rest of the administration by lamenting the need for a 21^st Century solution to pirates.  Shortly after uttering those words, an American crew was captured by Somali pirates.  The captain was taken off the ship, the crew was able to retake the ship from the pirates.  It seemed like the administration was not going to let the Navy send in SEAL team in to rescue the captain.  Much to everyone’s surprise, the President did authorize the SEALs to execute a rescue mission ending with three of the four pirates dead and the captain rescued.

Things were beginning to look up, in my opinion, for the Obama administration.  The President may want to mend fences but he was also willing to protect Americans.  Then Secretary Napolitano released her report warning everyone about the threat of right wing extremists, especially disgruntled veterans.  The report based this warning on the combination of the economy, the first black President, and large number of returning veterans.  The conclusion seems to be that veterans are both a) disgruntled and b) willing to act against to the very government they swore an oath of allegiance.

I resent the report’s conclusion that all returning veterans are disgruntled and willing to commit “man-made disasters”.  Veterans may have more organizational, leadership and fighting skills than the average citizen but they also share another quality that prevents them from becoming a threat to the government; patriotism.  I and every veteran out there swore an oath the protect this country.  We are the last people that Secretary Napolitano needs to worry about.  She needs to seriously rethink her decision to have shared this report.  It is insulting and misleading.

I remember towards the end of the last decade the concern many law enforcement agencies had as the militia movement was growing.  Several of these groups claimed to have found a government report listing former military personnel as being at high risk for committing crimes against the government.  According to these groups, it seemed as though the government feared the very people they had spent so much to recruit and train.

 

 

As President Obama nears his first 100 days, I applaud his handling of the pirates but hope he does better with his decisions regarding the security of the nation.

CincyVets

The CincyVets group on LinkedIn has 48 members and we are trying to have our first luncheon next month at Cincinnati State. I also attended a meeting of Veterans Helping Veterans at the College. Veterans Helping Veterans is a student group for veterans attending the college. They are trying to raise funds to create a student loan program. Students using the GI Bill or VA benefits often experience a delay between when the benefit pays and when tuition is due. To help bridge the gap, the loan would allow students to borrow the money to pay for that term's tuition or to purchase the textbooks. Once the GI Bill or VA benefit pays, the student pays back the loan. This is an excellent opportunity for local veterans groups or business interested in supporting veterans to help out. If any of you are interested or know of a group that may be able to help, please let me know.

Veterans Helping Veterans

I’ve been meaning to do a post about Operation Troop Aid for several weeks. Mark Woods and I became acquainted through the Cincy Vets group on LinkedIn. Mark created Operation Troop Aid to become the “premier care package provider” for deployed service members. Mark is a retired Navy veteran and has worked using his connections with military concert coordinators to find performers who want to entertain the troops.

I served in OPERATION DESERT STORM and OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM and whenever a performer came over to give concert, it was a great moral booster for everyone. I used to wonder when I was growing up what the big deal was for Bob Hope to go around doing shows for the troops until I became on of those deployed troops myself. I encourage you all to check out Mark’s website at www.operationtroopaid.org.

When I first heard about LinkedIn, I really didn’t understand what a social networking website was about. Over the past two years it has helped me connect with other veterans and technical experts in the local area that I would not have otherwise met. The Cincy Vets group is trying to have its first meeting soon to try and generate new ideas to help other veterans in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area. If you are on LinkedIn and are veteran, I encourage you to join.

Veterans-only Court

There is discussion about creating a veterans-only court in Hamilton County.

A veterans court would:

Free up beds at the jail that could be used for inmates charged with more violent crimes.

In the first six months of 2008, Hamilton County took in 23,009 inmates. Of those, 1,125 - or 4.9 percent - were veterans and more than half of them had substance abuse or mental health issues or both.

The issue is particularly timely as Hamilton County just closed one of its jails and lost 800 beds.

Create a process to get jailed veterans the federally funded benefits due them.

Many of the people who first enlisted in 2001-02 are coming off of their second enlistment and perhaps their fourth or fifth rotation to Iraq. All of this means more veterans will be joining the civilian population, many with physical as well as mental health problems.

The veterans-only court not only is a service to the veteran but also to the community. Too often veterans find their way into correctional institutions when what they really need is help. The proposal makes sense both from a safety and security point of view as well as the debt society owes these men and women who served their country.