Major Hasan and Sgt. Bales

This past week two widely publicized military trials came to a close. In one Sgt. Bales was accused of leaving his base under cover of night and going to a nearby Afghan village and murdering 16 Afghanis in cold blood. In the other Major Hasan was charged with the murder of 13 of his brothers in arms in an attack on a base in Texas. Sgt. Bales plead guilty and was granted a reprieve from the death penalty which caused great consternation among the Afghanis whose culture called for an equivalent punishment. Major Hasan did not plead guilty but offered no defense while serving as his own counsel. He was found guilty and sentenced to death.

We can ask ourselves why was the sentence different for very similar crimes? Of course, one could argue that in one it was an American soldier killing native Muslims. In the other it was an American soldier who was a Muslim killing other Americans. We would like to believe that justice was weighed blindly and just sentences were meted out. There is much more to these incidents than the simplicity of a murder trial but that burden very likely falls on the American people and their leaders.

What were the circumstances that led to these tragedies? Why would these two men who had taken an oath to protect our Constitution veer off on such a tangential path? Sgt. Bales was on his fourth deployment. He had suffered at least one concussion as a result of his involvement in a vehicle rollover.. He was diagnosed with PTSD and had drug and alcohol problems. A good case could be made that a soldier with this kind of condition should not be sent into combat but instead should be receiving intensive treatment for his battle wounds. Just because his flesh wasn't torn does not mean he was not wounded. If this is the case then a defense of diminished capacity could have been considered.

In the case of Major Hasan, a military psychiatrist, we have a man who is asked to betray his faith and his god. For a person of faith it is an unimaginable conflict that can be resolved in very few ways. Once the decision was made to follow his faith it was a short step to desire martyrdom. Why was he placed in such an untenable position? It seems likely he joined the military in order to get his education payed for and did not contemplate actually being shipped to a war zone. It further seems that Major Hasan had been in contact with a known Al Qaeda leader for some time before the attack.

These arguments are no effort to excuse these two soldiers from responsibility for their actions. If we excuse such attacks by reason of stress, belief or other reasons then we would lose the basis for regulation of society by making it possible for anything to be excused. However, this does not mean that we should not take note of these rampages and seek to understand how to avoid them in the future.

What were the actions that led to the circumstances that befell these two men? Why would they think it was okay to express themselves by the murders of innocent people? Perhaps the warning signs of the increasing stress and irrationality by Major Hasan should have been picked up on earlier. For crying out loud, he was a psychiatrist and a Major and must have done something right before going so long. Did no one see that. As for Sgt Bales, four deployments into combat, exposure to actions known to cause problems for soldiers and substance abuse should have been warning signs. The simple truth is that during our involvement in two wars we have been pushing the edges to keep soldiers on the battle lines.

The larger question must be an examination of how and why we ended up involved in two wars against people of a Muslim faith and what did we expect to gain from the grinding sacrifice of so few asked to do so much for so many who sacrificed nothing. Even now, as we prepare for disengagement in Afghanistan, we have no clear idea of what we will leave behind to make the whole thing worth it. Very likely we will end up with the same kind of result we left in Iraq which is now in a spiral towards civil war. And as we reel from a lack of favorable strategic results we consider another foray into a morass where there is no clear tactical or strategic purpose. Without clear goals that will define the time when we achieve our objective it is impossible to wage war. We can fight and die but we will not wage any kind of war for any reasonable purpose and our military leaders know it. War must aspire to achieve political victory otherwise it is just fighting.

Is This The Best We Can Do

What does the National Rifle Association, Coal Keeps the Lights On, the US Army and Jesus all have in common? It's a trick question. They are all stickers I saw on the back glass of a pickup at Wal-Mart. When I think of Jesus I most often think of him teaching on the Mount of Olives as mentioned in the beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12. Most often 5:9 which reads, “blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called Children of God.” It is difficult for me to harmonize that teaching with gun violence, war and poor stewardship of the Earth.

I'm probably going to catch some flak over this but my difficulty is in understanding how people come to the rationale that there is no problem with selfishness, violence and war. I have stated before that I do believe that the second amendment establishes the right to keep arms but I don't see it as an absolute right since it is predicated upon the need for a ready militia. An archaic notion at best. And coal has kept the lights on for a century but at a terrible cost. Coal powered the industrial revolution that propelled our country into world leadership but at the cost of massive destruction to the earth and ongoing damage to the air we breath. Our continued use of it threatens to bring hardship on large numbers of the people globally. The Army is almost sacrosanct. But our country spends more on military affairs than the next 13 countries COMBINED. Isn't there something just a little bit insane about that?

I have written extensively on this topic, maybe more than is interesting to many. I have quoted many people, even a Republican president, on the dangers of allowing too much money and influence fall into the hands of the military-industrial-congressional complex but it is happening at a staggering pace right before our eyes. Recently Governor Beshear proudly announced one of the major defense contractors was going to be locating in the former Bluegrass Army Depot and our Congressman Hal Rogers announced that Northrup-Grumman, who used to just build things that fly, is planning to locate a facility in London. Not to build equipment but to staff an intelligence gathering hub. Why on earth are we allowing our government to use our dollars to spy on its own people? But one has to admit that it seems to be a growth industry with unlimited financing.

The National Rifle Association is a thinly disguised front for its member arms manufacturers and receives the bulk of its financing from those businesses. It reminds me of the pharmaceuticals who churn out tons of Oxycontin knowing that there can't be that much legitimate use for the product. Who do the NRA and its financiers think is buying all those guns? Do they suppose that we just keep buying them and stashing them in the closet or are they aware that a large number are being funneled into illegitimate activities? Is this the reason why they won't even entertain sensible regulations that they proposed themselves just a few years ago?

The extraction of coal has become a difficult process. All of the easy stuff has already been mined and now mountains must be moved to get at the thin seams. The industry cries about the “War On Coal” when what is happening is simple capitalism. Supply and Demand. Cost efficiency. We may yet find that the extraction of natural gas by fracking does far more damage than we currently suppose but it still burns much cleaner than coal. The Oklahoma oilman, Boone Pickens, had it right. It is a useful transitional fuel as we move to a sustainable energy future. The time will come when we stop tearing up the planet to get fuel but it is a while down the road. We need to try to keep a place to live long enough to get there and therein lies the need for good stewardship of our only home. Make no mistake, the earth will survive but it does not need people for that to happen.

It is hard to fuss too much about the Army. The problem is not with the Army, it is with those who want to use it for nefarious purposes. The Army responds to civilian direction and sometimes the civilian direction has motives other than national security in mind. I think the point is that when one maintains a massive military there is the natural tendency to do something with it. If you don't then someone may get the idea we don't need such a war machine standing ready to fight wars anywhere on the globe two at a time. Right now I can't think of a single place that we have our armed forces fighting that we really need to be there. Quit the fighting, come home and let's rebuild our country. We can use the money here but Boeing and Northrup-Grumman may have to find something else to do. What do you bet they don't have enough pull in Congress to keep the gravy train running?

General Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, gave a stern assessment of any military intervention in Syria but as I write this it is all but certain that the trigger is pulled and only the firing is delayed. Just as we wind down a war another is created in order to fuel the enormous gluttony of our military-industrial-congressional complex.

My take, if anyone is interested, is that as a nation we get the kind of government we allow. If you don't like it, change it. Let's save the missiles and bombs and build roads and fight fires.

The Congressman sez:

The Congressman said that everyone in his district that needed food stamps would get them. Well, lah dee dah. According to his party everyone who is hungry enough and deserves them is already getting them already but, just to be safe, they're going to cut the nutritional program a bit more just to give those slackers a kick in the pants to get working. Maybe he can cut a few million out of Operation Unite to feed his constituents. The Congressman sits atop what may be the most powerful committee in the House of Representatives, a powerful member of the majority party and still his party can't pass a Farm Bill with a food stamp provision because it wants to cut the benefits even more than they have already been cut. The majority party couldn't agree to fund food stamps so they just decided to not talk about it any more. Well, to be fair not all of that party is really so zealous to cut food stamps but almost all of those members fear the new kid on the block with the initials TP and don't want to make him angry. They went ahead and passed the Farm Bill without the food stamp provision so they could go ahead and give some billions in benefits to the huge corporate farms. The Congressman said that if no bill is passed funding will continue at the present amount just as if that will be the best thing one could hope for. Well, that is not the best we can hope for. We can hope to actually feed the huge numbers of fellow citizens whose families don't have enough to eat rather than allowing them to fall into the same condition that people did before we had enough compassion to help them survive the hunger.

Most of us have never known the kind of hunger that the food stamp program is designed to alleviate. Oh, we may have skipped a meal or two and felt like we could eat the south end of a north bound skunk but we have never experienced the hunger that dulls the brain and sucks the life out of a body. The kind that a kid may experience before he gets back to school to get a square meal. When we look at breaking the cycle of poverty there are few things more important than having a kid nourished enough to learn.

We can talk right now about the frustration of some people who fall into line at the store behind someone with a cart full of steaks, potato chips and soda pop who pulls out his benefit card to pay for it. It makes us mad when we can't even afford those things for ourselves and our kneejerk reaction is that there are too many people receiving benefits who wouldn't work in a pie factory and we need to cut them out. I invite you to take a moment to think about that. There are very few who would deny the help to someone who really needs it and if that is true then the problem is not the food stamp program, it is the oversight of it.

I personally know people who were barely getting by on the benefits they had when the latest round of cuts came through. What some families receive now is laughable. Not funny laughable but outrageous laughable. For every person who thoughtlessly and carelessly uses their benefits there are dozens or hundreds or thousands who depend on them to survive and who use them to the greatest benefit for their families. The problem is not misuse although that does exist. The problem is the great unfairness and inequities in how the wealth of this nation is distributed. Our national philosophy is built on the notion that if one works hard then great success is possible but that has turned into a myth. Over the past thirty years a person in Europe has a greater chance of bettering himself than does a person in the United States of America and we need to ask ourselves why that is. What changed, what happened and what is going to happen to us if we continue down that path?

People like simple answers but the answers are not simple any more and require not just planning but long term planning and the people we elect are too worried about the short term to do that. There is just no incentive for them to do so. If you think they should do it out of a desire for public service you are right but most people just don't do that. Most of us are pretty self-centered. As I said, nourishment is key to education and education is key to success. All of us have looked around us and seen kids that don't stand a chance due to the environment in which they live. If they make it out of there it will be an exception rather than the rule. As a matter of fact, if the children of any of us rise above our station in life it will now be the exception rather than the rule and that is wrong.

One of the things the food stamp program needs is more, not less. And not just more food benefits but also more social workers on the job. One can't expect administration of this program to be efficient without those people who go into the homes and educate those people on nutrition, cleanliness and help nurture in them a desire to do better. Unfortunately, when we cut costs those people are the first to go. How on earth can we expect the public's assistance to the poor to be effective without the workers who go into the homes? Our social programs are not supposed to be just giveaways. They were comprehended to be a force that would help lift the beneficiary out of poverty and into a productive and taxpaying life but we cut the legs off those programs with our short-sighted zeal to cut costs in the short term but all the while increasing the need in the long term. When the red ink zealots took up the pen those who held those cushy government jobs were the first to go.

Now, the Congressman made an attempt to lay the large number of benefit recipients in his district at the feet of the President and the “War on Coal” which is a craven attempt to divert attention from his own party's responsibility and onto the party of the President. It may work, it certainly has been successful in the past in getting people to vote against their own self interests but it certainly won't be truthful.

But the food stamp program only touches the worst of the problem of hunger. Even more insidious is the desperation of the “working poor.” Those who actually have a low wage job that doesn't pay enough to feed the family and who are relying on food banks and charity to make ends meet. Does that sound like the “greatest nation in the world” to you?

In what may be the best documentary of the year, “A Place at the Table” is available to watch or read. If you don't do anything else this year take the time to watch or read this. It examines the critical issue of food inequity in our country. It won't be pleasant but sometimes it hurts to be shown the ugliness.

My take on just one of the injustices inflicted on our people. Stay tuned. Let me know whether or not you think about things like this.