I am interested in military history. War has a way of clarifying conflict- it's always easier to figure out who your enemy is when he/she is shooting at and trying to kill you. For this reason I often use military analogies. It is easier to decathect from issues where vital interests are not readily perceived, whereas it is almost impossible to do this when being shot at.
I am agitated about the health care legislation in congress. I don't like the bill, and I loathe the process being used in an attempt to pass it. While republicans used 'deem and pass' before, it was never for a bill of such magnitude or controversy. Analogies with Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security are perfectly ridiculous. While these programs caused social debate, the votes for them were popular overall, and bipartisan, really bipartisan. Nonetheless, while I feel the entire process we are watching is bad for us individually and as a society, the world will not end if the bill is passed on Sunday.
The magnitude of the defeat at Pearl Harbor is often not well understood. Eight of the Pacific Fleet's nine battleships were there that day, and battleships remained in 1941 the measure of a navy's potency. While air attacks had been demonstrated as feasible against a naval target, they had been conducted against empty, defenseless, uncrewed targets. The value of aircraft, and of aircraft carriers, was clear only to a small number of free-thinking officers.
That day 6 of 8 battleships were sunk. Many will say only Oklahoma and Arizona were lost, but on December 8, 6 battleships' keels rested in the mud of the harbor, and on more, the Pennsylvania, was in drydock. The only battleship still floating was the Tennessee, and she was trapped behind the West Virginia, which had avoided capsizing like the Oklahoma only because of quick counter-flooding. Virtually all the aircraft in airfields scattered across Hawaii were destroyed as well. What happened next?
The day after the attack, the carrier Enterprise crept into the harbor, refueled, and left, demonstrating that both the US carrier forces and Pearl Harbor's functions as a base were untouched. Of the sunken battle ships, all but the Arizona were raised, and all but the Oklahoma raised in a matter of a couple of months. It is astonishing what can be achieved with a sense of urgency. The Nevada was ready for action in mid June of 1942, as was the Pennsylvania. The last ones ready were the West Virginia and the Tennessee, both rebuilt so extensively as to be unrecognizable, and they returned in 1944. Six months after Pearl Harbor, at Midway, the US sank 4 Japanese carriers, and ended Japanese aggression in the Pacific. Although there was difficult fighting around Guadalcanal and elsewhere, the US was on the offensive from June 1942 onwards.
No one on December 8 would have imagined the magnitude of the defeat we would inflict on Japan only 6 months later. No one would have predicted that only two battleships would ultimately be lost.
I don't think the health care bill is good for health care, the US people, our political process or the Democratic Party. But if it passes, there will be hell to pay for those who vote for it, just as there was for the attackers on December 7. As Nixon said, the only way you are ever truly defeated is if you give up.
Ted
I am agitated about the health care legislation in congress. I don't like the bill, and I loathe the process being used in an attempt to pass it. While republicans used 'deem and pass' before, it was never for a bill of such magnitude or controversy. Analogies with Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security are perfectly ridiculous. While these programs caused social debate, the votes for them were popular overall, and bipartisan, really bipartisan. Nonetheless, while I feel the entire process we are watching is bad for us individually and as a society, the world will not end if the bill is passed on Sunday.
The magnitude of the defeat at Pearl Harbor is often not well understood. Eight of the Pacific Fleet's nine battleships were there that day, and battleships remained in 1941 the measure of a navy's potency. While air attacks had been demonstrated as feasible against a naval target, they had been conducted against empty, defenseless, uncrewed targets. The value of aircraft, and of aircraft carriers, was clear only to a small number of free-thinking officers.
That day 6 of 8 battleships were sunk. Many will say only Oklahoma and Arizona were lost, but on December 8, 6 battleships' keels rested in the mud of the harbor, and on more, the Pennsylvania, was in drydock. The only battleship still floating was the Tennessee, and she was trapped behind the West Virginia, which had avoided capsizing like the Oklahoma only because of quick counter-flooding. Virtually all the aircraft in airfields scattered across Hawaii were destroyed as well. What happened next?
The day after the attack, the carrier Enterprise crept into the harbor, refueled, and left, demonstrating that both the US carrier forces and Pearl Harbor's functions as a base were untouched. Of the sunken battle ships, all but the Arizona were raised, and all but the Oklahoma raised in a matter of a couple of months. It is astonishing what can be achieved with a sense of urgency. The Nevada was ready for action in mid June of 1942, as was the Pennsylvania. The last ones ready were the West Virginia and the Tennessee, both rebuilt so extensively as to be unrecognizable, and they returned in 1944. Six months after Pearl Harbor, at Midway, the US sank 4 Japanese carriers, and ended Japanese aggression in the Pacific. Although there was difficult fighting around Guadalcanal and elsewhere, the US was on the offensive from June 1942 onwards.
No one on December 8 would have imagined the magnitude of the defeat we would inflict on Japan only 6 months later. No one would have predicted that only two battleships would ultimately be lost.
I don't think the health care bill is good for health care, the US people, our political process or the Democratic Party. But if it passes, there will be hell to pay for those who vote for it, just as there was for the attackers on December 7. As Nixon said, the only way you are ever truly defeated is if you give up.
Ted
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