SCARY #FWOD

Today’s single word writing prompt is “scary” (Fandango), This, That and the Other, WP blog). This is my piece for this prompt entry.

A pretty spot on prompt for today, a day of twists, turns, blunders and all-out stupidity emanating from our White House and Pentagon.

Let me add a slight disclaimer here, while it may not be exactly necessary I believe that it’s pertinent to the post I am about to write. I am a veteran of the US Army (80-86) and served during the scary cold war. Thing about that period of time was that it was one of those times when you never knew what would happen or when or where…sneaky Russians, very real threats of nuclear war and dangerous leaders of many countries. I had the pleasure (said with sarcasm) of serving all of my Army years in nuclear missile units, both in Germany and the in the southwestern USA. In Germany my unit handled intercontinental missiles, the big boys. And in the US I was in an MLRS unit. Multiple-Launch Rocket System. Smaller, fast as fuck and deadly accurate. The ones we handled were nuclear capable, this type of missile system can be used and adapted to lots of applications, ships, planes, ground transport, etc. They’re still in use today. The big boys I spoke of earlier were removed from Germany in 1989 under part of the ending of the cold war’s agreement with Russia. I am sure that the US military has plenty of missiles positioned around the entire world. We’re kind of obsessed with them and always have to have the most and the best. This is disputable according to Russia now, it seems they may have surpassed us in the nuclear weapons field by quite a bit. I could probably write lots more about this, but this is not the point of this post….I got derailed I think…back to our topic…

Our president, Donald J Trump, made a huge, very reckless move by authorizing the assassination of Soleimani in Iraq. Yes, this guy was a super duper bad guy and needed to be eliminated anyway, but this wasn’t the best way or time to do this deed. I understand it had to be done eventually, but I disagree whole-heartedly with the way this was done. Trump takes full personal responsibility for this – at least right now, I am betting he will flip and start blaming it on someone else when things go very, very wrong here – and they will, it’s only a matter of time.

So, he orders the strike. The drone takes the guy out – AT the Baghdad International Airport!!! Trump immediately starts bragging all over Twitter about his successful assassination. The USA has not assassinated a man of this stature since 1942, they shot down a Japanese generals plane and killed him, very different circumstances in a very different time period, really no comparison, but good historical fact to know.

The coming retaliatory strikes will be brutal. They have so many capablities that I don’t believe the average American can even fathom. These people are professional warriors with lots of sneaky, underhanded methods of warfare. Their strikes WILL affect the homeland, most likely in the form of cyber attacks. They’ll shut down our electrical grid, disable banking, cause havoc on the stock market, force oil up over $100 a barrel (they’re already doing that, it was $70/brl today!) And while this is going on you won’t know how many they are blowing up over in the various middle eastern countries because our communication system will be inoperable here. We’ll be in the dark. That. IS. SCARY.

I know this sounds like some sort of war novel I am dreaming up. It’s insane. But it’s happening. I follow this pretty in depth. I read the Iranian reports, Iraqi reposts and everything from the major hubs on this. So much is happening it’s hard to keep up with some days even. I’ve heard every major military expert and strategist talk in depth about this and their outlook is very stark, scary and not good for the US. Yeah, we are a strong military, but Trump is counting on a conventional war and Iran is not.

Iranians do not fight their own wars, they fight strategically across the globe, often simultaneously in strikes, and are very smart about their methodology. Soleimani made damned sure of this. He organized this entire set up and now his right hand man is in charge, he’ll carry out Soleimani’s plans to the letter. It’s going to be bad, and I am worried about HOW bad. It’s quite SCARY that Trump has his stupidly tiny fist on the big red button in the situation room. THAT is the MOST SCARY to me! I really hope they will tackle his ass if he even considers using that button.

Trump is taunting the Iranians like a school yard bully. It’s so embarassing and has his aids and military guys scrambling every time he says another outrageous thing on Twitter. He’s threatening outright to commit war crimes. He’s very pro-torture and says he will authorize water boarding and worse. He’s threatening to blow up cultural sites. That makes me angry AF because historical and cultural sites should always be protected, just as hospitals, schools, churches and synagogues should always be protected. There are just things you don’t touch. Trump doesn’t care, he’s not following the Geneva convention’s rules of armed conflict (1954) that protects those sites. I hope like hell his guys will NOT carry out orders to commit war crimes. They DO have that right, you can refuse an order if it violates common sense and is illegal. These are exactly the type of things that terror organizations do, this is ISIS type behavior. It’s not dignified of the United States military – any branch.

Trump is doing all of these things himself. No Congressional involvement like there is supposed to be. No declaration of war from Congress. No authorization. No consults with military specialists, experts, generals (“I know more than any of my generals!”) He’s being outrageous dangerous, violating every rule we’ve ever followed about attacking other counries, we have processes and he’s not abiding by ANY of that. Blatantly defying Congress and stonewalling the American public.

Thousands of more troops are being shipped over there by the hour. Six B-52 bombers are now positioned in the Indian Ocean, just out of reach of Iranian missiles but ready to strike at a moment’s notice once given a mission and a target. THAT IS SCARY!

I watched as some loaded on TV today, the looks on their faces were horrible. You could almost feel their reluctance to board those planes, not understanding the reasoning behind these crazy presidential orders and moves. You know they all go because their dedicated to their oaths – I was, I would go where told and do what I was instructed as every soldier is taught. Being in the service doesn’t work out for anyone if there is not complete obedience across the board so that everyone is operating on the very same page of the manual. It’s a rule; a fucking unwritten warrior’s law. Going rogue will get you killed or at least removed in some way, depending on where you are and the situation at hand.

I feel for those being deployed. I am scared for them, for their families, for their futures. For tomorrow. They’re being sent into a cauldron that’s heating up by the minute. I hope they stay save, act bravely and with precision.

There’s so much else going on in Washington DC. It’s a complete debacle of madness. Impeachment, which is just crazy. No one obeying laws or court orders. Cover-up of major corruption by the administration. A rogue leader, a rogue Senate leader (McConnell) and a completely lemming kind of Republican party, Senators and Congressmen/women, I think there are only 2 women in the GOP portion of the Senate. Bunch of racist old white guys mostly who are all afraid that they will be exposed by #45 for something he has record of them doing – probably being in Jeffrey Epstein’s black book for most of the. You KNOW that William Barr had that delivered to him immediately upon discovery during the FBI raid on his home. Trump has that book, I’d bet a $Millon that I don’t even have that he has it. It’s never been mentioned again since the night they took it during the raid. And the Epstein was dead shortly afterwards…conveniently. (that’s another topic entirely!)

That’s it for this blog rant. That’s what I think of what’s going on in the middle-east and why I am scared for the whole world. Times are changing. Life for all of us will be markedly changed for this time in history. It will be interesting, but scary, to learn and adjust to how those changes will affect each of us.

Peace to all.

~MB