10 August 2010
 
Cordoba


Last night the Ornamental Concrete Workers International Executive Committee members were having a ball on Tony's patio, a testosterone fueled back-slapping raucous affair that used to be much more common than of late, as some of the hormonal levels have fallen.
 
Time was there would be howling long into the night like a pack of wolves, but that was when Big Pink was an island of light in a Buckingham neighborhood on the skids and everyone was much younger.
 
I managed to avoid being sucked into the maelstrom of the party as I padded back from the pool, blending into the darkness like a creature of the night.
 
I am still carrying some of the fatigue from the road, and thought I would try to watch the Sunday episode of True Blood, since there is a lot going on in the story line. I did not succeed at the regular broadcast time, the fatigue of the road and a couple bulldozer vodkas weighing heavy on my eyelids. I missed two thirds of episode 32, but vowed to get through it on Monday night, summoning it on demand from the cable company.
 
I did a little better last night but wound up with identical results. So, this morning I got up early and spent some quality time not with historical research or current events, but with the Were-trash and Vampires of Louisiana. It was a good, if somewhat bloodthirsty and unsettling way to start the day.
 
Turning to the computer, there were too many e-mail on the boil. My China group is highly agitated. The triangulation of the crisis in the South China Sea is creating new romances; Vietnam is being coy, welcoming the Americans back, all of ASEAN gazing in uneasy rebellion against the Chinese "string of pearls" strategy that has resulted in a Cheshire Cat announcement from the Chinese that the whole of the former American Lake is of vital interest to the Middle Kingdom, on the same level as Tibet.
 
The North Korean collective psychodrama of succession still has everyone on edge, even as Secretary of Defense Gates phlegmatically announced the beginning of the long retrenchment to come, the beginning of the harvest of the latest peace dividend, even as we throw the Iraqis to the Sunni wolves and strive for disengagement in Afghanistan on terms something other than abject defeat.
 
I am a big fan of Mr. Gates, but I am getting the willies a bit, since there is no real disengagement from any of it, and our enemies will be coming after us, unlike the last war we lost. There is something in the air, like the faint whiff of something charred that I have smelt before.
 
They may as well forget about the 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero; the real monument to the victors appears to be well on the way to construction just a block down the street, at the former Burlington Coat Factory building at 45/46 Park Place.
 
The new Mosque and Cordoba Center will be between thirteen and fifteen stories, and contain a pool and a 500 seat auditorium where the Faithful can gather.
 
I am a man of tolerance, and believe firmly in live and let live. I think Mayor Bloomberg's commitment to diversity and plurality is commendable, even if his words seem a little disingenuous. See, there is something about the name of the prospective development that jars me.
 
The Center will be named for Cordoba, a once-great city in Spain. in the Middle Ages was capital of an Islamic Caliphate that ruled the Iberian Peninsula, and looked north to conquer the rest of Europe.
 
Call me a know-nothing if you wish, but this really couldn't be more clear, could it? No one can call the reawakening of Islam from the long slumber that followed the Reconquista anything but what it is. It is a War that we appear to be afraid to name.
 
In the meantime, what Secretary Gates is about to start will undoubtedly impact my job, and that of the other sleek members of the contractor community as soon as the end of this year. He has announced the axing of a Combatant Command, and the target is the edifice of LANTCOM in its current incarnation as Joint Forces Command.
 
According to the Times this morning, Mr. Gates has ordered the military Departments and the combat Support Agencies to find $100 billion in spending cuts and efficiencies over the next five years: $7 billion for 2012, growing to $37 billion annually by 2016.
 
He spoke earlier at the change of command at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, on the roof of the new parking structure for the fancy new building NGA is getting to consolidate their many offices scattered across the region.
 
My pal Tish is taking the place over as the first woman to head a Combat Support Agency, a real triumph for her, but  it will be a time of trials. We have been down this road before, and this is going to be as bloody and stupid as 1992, when we started the last decade of retreat.
 
You know where that wound up. Right at 9/11.
 
General Ray Odierno is coming back from Iraq with the task of putting himself out of a job again. I think he may incidentally get mine, too.

I understand theater as well as the backers of the Mosque. This is largely a symbolic act, but with 5,000 jobs on the line, a real one. I remember the last time we did this, and the chaos will create opportunities, but also much pain.
 
I hope things will settle down after the Labor Day trip to Michigan.

Maybe things will get clearer as the leaves turn. You never can tell. What is confusing me is whether this is more like 1992, with a peace dividend to harvest, or 1973, which was a decision to pay one. History doesn’t repeat itself, not really.
 
Remember Cordoba. The Vietnamese were not coming this way.
 
Copyright 2010 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
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