Friends, President Trump is very, very smart! He tells us so on a regular basis. Whether the men advising him are similarly bright is an open question. It took the President's national security team a surprisingly long time to figure out that, if Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz, with its navy at the bottom of the sea, then we, with the world's biggest navy by far, could do so too! And no country is more dependent on maritime trade passing through the Strait than...Iran!!! That's what we call "checkmate" in strategic terms. In other words, we can obliterate the Iranian economy any time we like. Maybe that time should have been back when this conflict began. Be that as it may, we're blockading Iran now, and I'm optimistic that this will force the Islamists to talk turkey, at long last. I mean, for the U.S. of A., mounting a blockade is a piece of cake. We can do this stuff all day long for as many days as it takes. The best part is that, not only have we exposed Iran as a paper tiger, but we've done the same for every country in the world, including our erstwhile allies in Europe. Simply put, the world runs on maritime trade, and WE RULE THE WAVES!!! Get it, Trump haters???
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trumps-blockade-breaking-iran-and-european-elites-are-angry
In other news, babies are smelly and obnoxious. This helps to explain why so few people are having them these days, but, as I've been saying for years, there's a lot more to it. People invest their time and energy in whatever they believe truly matters, and our messed up egotistical culture, such as it is, does not value parenthood. Until we fix that problem, the decline and fall of human fertility will be the story of the century, the millenium, and quite possibly the punchline in the epitaph of homo sapiens, when the time comes.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/in_focus/4527119/fertility-crisis-cultural-problem/
Dr. Waddy from Jack: There are people who shouldn't have kids; for one reason or another they are simply not up to it; in many cases they are not to blame for that or it is simply not their choice of how to live their lives. Many among them then wisely choose not to have children and they act responsibly and to the benefit of themselves, childhood and our society. But some act recklessly and the damage is often profound.
ReplyDeleteWorking in prisons I was particularly struck by what a renowned prison educator and psychiatrist told me: "Think what you want about inmates; yes, emphatically, society must be protected against those who choose to victimize the innocent but , nonetheless,TAKE THIS TO THE BANK: they have ALL been abused, some unspeakably so, as children."
I know this person had far more creditable knowledge on this than I do but my close experience of 20 years with felons bids me disagree with a small part of that: I think there are some among us who, regardless of their upbringings , are just plain dirty bastards (and I use that epithet only in its modern sense). From what I've read of Charles Manson, it appears to me he had a fairly stable upbringing. And other senseless monsters like school shooters; it is futile for us to try to fathom the workings of their fevered minds in an effort to work prevention. We must defend against them and confine them for good.
Abuse as a child , society must say, doesn't excuse them from personal responsibility for crimes they commit;society cannot and should not let them run riot. Anarchy has hideous manifestations and consequences ; eg.human trafficking and sales of deadly drugs Much of that abuse probably came from parents who did not want the responsibility of parenthood. Would then, that they not had conceived them(?) I pain to say it.
My own experience of parenthood is of a phenomenon of indescribable sublimity. Having grown up in a mostly stable environment and watching my siblings having kids I was naturally aware of parent/child love. But I never realized the redeeming STRENGTH and BEAUTY of it until I've lived it as a parent; it stunned me beyond measure.
Perhaps Western civilization's best benefit is personal freedom. We have modern examples of governments which have forcefully imposed laws limiting the number of children a nuclear family may have. That is a dreadful measure. We have a heretofore unimaginably plural civilization which offers responsible adults myriad paths in life. Can we, should we, limit those opportunities in order to build population? You have expressed plausible reasons why a decline in population could be disastrous but might it not be something we must hazard before we can summon the will to remedy it?
Above I should have said ". . . justify the will to remedy it?" Jack
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Had we imposed a blockade without our first ravaging Iran's navy, air force , missile sites and command structure we could have brought on our Navy intensely destructive forces.
ReplyDeleteIn late WWII our Navy faced a harrowing onslaught off of Okinawa from land based air attack.from a desperate Japan. True , it featured suicide bombers but who is to say an Iranian "regime" which celebrates doctrinally urged suicide might have done the same ? Anyway the kamikaze were nominally guided missiles and Iran had plenty of them. Too, the Iranian Navy did have some ships maybe capable of sinking even aircraft carriers and they had conventional subs. In WWII a non nuclear American sub sank the enormous Japanese carrier Shinano.
An Iran previously unengaged would then have been an unsinkable aircraft carrier.The land based RAF in WWII prevented the intended seaborne Nazi seaborne invasion of Britain. In1982, the Argentines did much damage to the British fleet in the Falklands with land based planes.
So I think President Trump and his defense team did best by destroying most of Iran's antiship capabilities before considering imposing a blockade.
I think our President and his defense team have deftly commanded our forces in this war. Today, the stock market and the oil market have displayed much optimism and they are institutions for which very well informed advice is vital.
". . . might not have done the same?"Jack
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