Unsolicited Advice to Those Who'd Honor Our Troops

Pentagon is paying sports teams honoring the troops;

Patriots got $700,000.00...  Oops.

That's not very patriotic, if you're asking me,

(Even though, I've heard, they let the Navy in for free.)

Shouldn't we be paying them when troops show up to sing,

Or when they unfurl the flag or fly some massive thing

Over our sports stadiums before we play a game?

Charging for the privilege to honor them is lame.

NFL and MLB, NBA, NHL

Ought to donate all that money - and some more, as well -

Put it in to causes that will really honor vets...
 (Wonder if it's cheaper to get honored by the Jets.)

Confidence Is Not High

(Iraqi troops have been practicing this maneuver for a while.)

President Obama's pledged "advisers" to Iraq;

U.S. troops to train an army which appears to lack

Any will to battle back when ISIL troops advance.

Can 400 U.S. forces change that? Not a chance.

It's not like we haven't trained Iraqi troops before;

10 years we've been trying...  Do we think a few months more

Will instill the spine their army needs to stand and fight?

What makes us so sure, this time, they're gonna get it right?

I don't have some bright idea for how to fix the mess.

Neither does Obama, so we're stuck with this I guess.

Wish I had more confidence but history has shown

When the U.S. gets involved, the problem's only grown.

Memorial Day Rhyme, with Apologies to John McCrae

 

Never been In Flanders Fields, where countless poppies grow,

'though I have seen Arlington's white crosses - row on row.

Walked the grounds where those who've fallen make their final bed;

Mourned each time we add another to our honored dead.

Don't forget the sacrifices that so many made

After some fresh wreath to Unknown Soldiers has been laid.

That is what this weekend's for so, when you see a flag,

Think of what it represents. (I know...  I'm such a nag.)

It's not just the start of summer - golf and barbeques -

Nor the day on which you can begin to wear white shoes.

It is row on row of markers - each one with a name -

Silent sentinels at rest beneath eternal flame.

Smart Policing Doesn't Require Tanks

(The evolution of policing?)

President has stopped the flow of tanks to the police;

They don't need such heavy calibers to keep the peace.

Don't need armored vehicles for stupid, college pranks.

Cops are not the military...  Why would they want tanks?

Situations escalate when citizens perceive 

Local cops as faceless troops with weapons they receive

From a force that used them to attack the Taliban,

Or pursue al Qaeda ('though that didn't go to plan.)

There's a lot of surplus gear we used to hunt them down

That police will get to keep for use in your home town...

It may not be tanks with treads but there is plenty still.

I don't feel protected, though...  To me, it's overkill.

The Real Jade Helm 15 Conspiracy

(Courtesy of/slantedright2.blogspot.com)

I have met a lot of Texans; they were good to me

Even if, politically, we didn't quite agree.

All the Texans I have met were patriotic folk...

Not one seemed as if their wagon wheels were short a spoke.

I must not have met the kind who think Jade Helm 15

Is a plot for sneaking Special Forces to the scene,

Where they'll round-up dissidents and take away their guns.

U.S. military there, detaining Texan sons.

Could it be the reason why I never met that kind,

Who - just like their Governor (who's clearly lost his mind) -

Think that this conspiracy is anything but nuts

Weren't in the military?  Didn't have the guts.

If they'd ever served their country they'd know it's a lie...

If Obama were a despot, still he wouldn't try.

Jade Helm 15's being staged where long-horned cattle roam

Because it lets half our Special Forces visit home.

Failing in Yemen

(Courtesy of/news.yahoo.com)

No one wants to say that Yemen's failing as a state

But the situation on the ground ain't looking great.

President has fled the country; Houthis hold the streets...

I'd say the criteria for failing's one it meets.

Saudis and Iranians engaged in proxy war;

Former leaders want to loot the country even more.

Sunni fighting Shia with al Qaeda in the mix

Yemen's problems may yet prove impossible to fix.

On the brink of civil war - the final coffin nail -

What else would you call this if it's not an epic fail?

U.S. forces left already; writing's on the wall

As another sign of Arab Spring becomes its Fall.

Unsolicited Advice re: ISIL

President Obama says, if we intend to win

In a war with ISIL, some ground forces must go in.

U.S. boots on foreign ground to call in missile strikes;

Hunting down the vermin no one in the region likes.

ISIL threatens more than Middle Eastern countries, too.

Wish we had another choice, but I don't think we do.

When recruits they've trained go home, who knows what they've got planned?

Easier to kill them while they're in a foreign land.

I've got zero sympathy for those who've joined that group;

Don't care if they're stupid kids who ISIL sought to dupe.

Proud to be barbarians; they've advertised the fact...

Now we'll have observers there to catch them in the act.

We can't bomb a movement but adherents we can kill

And, with spotters on the ground, the more of them we will.

ISIL, time and time again, has proven it deserves

Our full force and fury.  I would call up the Reserves.

A Veterans' Day Limerick

Saluting the women and men

Who serve and defend us all when

The country's in need;

Thus proving, by deed,

They're mightier than any pen.

Africa - I'd Take ISIL Any Day

Hemorrhagic fever in West Africa has spread.

Thousands are infected now; 2,000 plus are dead.

Doctors there were overwhelmed - the system broken down -

As Ebola moved from rural village into town.

This outbreak got out of hand 'cause locals didn't trust

Guys in plastic suits insisting quarantine's a must.

Scary strangers came to take their relatives away

Since, without a cure, there's nothing else to do but pray.

Doctors Without Borders were the targets of these fears.

Villagers threw stones, sometimes, at health-care volunteers,

Lied and said they weren't exposed and they were feeling great;

Hiding any symptoms of disease until too late.

President Obama, in a speech he made today,

Just announced he's sending U.S. troops into the fray,

Plus supplies to aid the victims of this dread disease...

I think I'd feel safer bringing ISIL to its knees.

Yes, of course we have to help in any way we can.

They need our assistance; I support Obama's plan.

But I know if I were still in uniform today;

Africa, I'd think, should merit hazard duty pay.

Consummatum est

'We can't fix Afghanistan so we are going home;'

Words some army's spoken since the days of Ancient Rome.

Afghans have to be the ones who cure the country's ills.

Groups of fundamentalists are holed up in those hills...

'though they take the winters off (because they'd freeze their buns)

When the "fighting season" starts, the men pick up their guns

Then return to home and hearth and shelter with their clan.

It's become a way of life throughout Afghanistan.

We are not the first to have to face this fact of life -

That, in certain regions of the world, there's constant strife -

We are just the latest, though I doubt we'll be the last.

Countries never seem to learn their lessons from the past.

Russian FOX News

In a propaganda war it's hard to know what's true.

Both sides may be lying...  We know Putin's told a few.

Russian news claims Nazi sympathizers rule Ukraine,

Backed by U.S. Special Forces.  Clearly, that's insane.

Russians must believe it though 'cause many of them call

For new annexations in Ukraine...  Don't want it all.

Just the eastern bits (the part with mines and rich farmland)

And, if we don't like it, we are welcome to pound sand.

Russians seem to think their country's only lending aid,

Unaware that protestors on city streets got paid.

It's as if they're trying to form rational world views

When their only source of information's like FOX News.

Voting in Afghanistan

Photo/Courtesy of payam-aftab.com)

Watching the election process in Afghanistan.

Not a lot that separates the candidates who ran;

Most would like a U.S. presence; all of them are men.

Even once they count the votes, won't know the winner then.

I get so embarrassed by the voters in those lines,

Knowing that they're facing more than people waving signs,

They are risking life and limb to go and cast their vote...

I know people who don't go if they can't find their coat.

Dear Veterans... You Honor Us

Happy Veteran's Day.  Thank you for your service.

If you see a person in a uniform today;

Navy blue or Air Force green or, even, Army gray,

Khakis, whites, or camouflage, whichever one they wear -

Take the time to thank them for protecting us out there.

But let's not forget the vets at home who've paid the price

Or their families who've also had to sacrifice.

'though they're out of uniform they, too, deserve our thanks.

All of them have honored us by serving in our ranks.

Thanks especially to my Dad and family friend, Derek McCann

Oh, and by the way, this is how we actually say "Thank you" to American veterans.

Across the Pond - Afghanistan: The Karzai Conspiracy Theory

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is pointing fingers. (Photo/Telegraph.Co.UK)

Karzai said the U.S. plays an underhanded role;

Working with the Taliban (behind the grassy knoll?)

Offering assistance to extremists 'cause our plan

Is to make them beg us to stay in Afghanistan.

Karzai thinks in areas (as much as 51?)

His men would already have the bad guys on the run

If it weren't for secret plans to make police look bad.

Recently he told the Afghans they were being had.

Maybe I am crazy but I don't believe a word.

It's the most ridiculous conspiracy I've heard.

They were, once, strategically important...  Times have changed.

Nowadays, 'most anywhere's more easily arranged.

Maybe if Chuck Hagel had been killed, the way they tried,

Karzai would believe that NATO leaders haven't lied.

Taliban is no-one's friend and, lest Karzai's forgot,

There's a lot of  U.S. forces out there getting shot.

Across the Pond - Afghanistan. Fool Me 21 Times?

Afghanistan.  (Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Fool me one time, shame on you... And two times? Shame on me.

In Afghanistan this week, they fooled NATO times three.

So much for us helping out.  We're target dummies now?

Someone has to stop this awful killing spree - somehow.

Forces we are training to step up as we draw down;

Teaching to defend the laws and streets of their own town,

Have a dreadful tendency to harbor in their midsts

Taliban extremists we do not have on our lists.

Men who open fire, killing everyone they can...

Seems to me the screening process hasn't gone to plan.

Maybe we should change the ammunition? Give them blanks.

When we have the chance to stand in front - decline, with thanks.

'though I know we plan to go and bring our people home,

Let's remember lessons learned as long ago as Rome;

When you deal with tribal customs things are slow to change.

Everyone's related and all families are strange.