06 June 2007
Dinosaurs to Noise
The Battle of Midway, 4-7 June 1942, was still going on all those Junes ago, and two Junes later, on this day, the immense invasion of the Continent surged in steel and flesh across the Channel.
The first was a halt to the long retreat. The second was the beginning of the end.
A glass to those who served in that binary conflict of good and evil; to those who are symbolized by the living presence of my friend Mac, who as a Lieutenant helped to position the Americans in a desperate gamble to stop the Japanese expansion in the mid-Pacific.
To the departed, symbolized by Uncle Dick, who as a brash young aircraft commander took his bomber on three engines to strike the bridges behind the beaches, and prevent the Panzers from hurling the Allies back into the sea.
What immense commitment it took to accomplish those feats, and what sacrifice.
They tell me there is a storm rising in the Gulf, filling the wadis of Oman. It is not one borne of war. It is nature, wet in tooth and claw, and a symptom of a changing world. They say it will affect the price of oil, as if everything does not, so perhaps it would be prudent to fill up the tanks today as a hedge against the future.
Oil and energy. The more we burn the more we change. Those that have that volatile resource translate it into more volatility. “Turning dinosaurs into noise,” is what we used to say about the thunder that emanated from our J-79 jet engines, and it is not so far wrong.
Dinosaurs to noise, indeed. It is a shame about Venezuela's caustic Colonel. He is traveling so swiftly down the short road to despotism. It is almost as though he has not seen the movie before, or imagines that he can do the same thing as all the others Colonels and have a different outcome.
We must do something, though I stipulate that does not mean me or the 14th Airborne Corps. I am weary of unilateral military action at the moment, and it appears others are, too.
Shutting down Radio Caracas Television is a crucial test. There are protests in the streets, and it remains to be seen how violently they will be suppressed. Latin America, particularly the resurgent Left, must recognize that this issue affects them directly. Only the freedom of the press gave them the power to oust the Right. They cannot remain indifferent to the closing of RCTV or to the implied threat to close other media outlets, one by one, that dare oppose the Colonel.
This should be a perfect moment, since the Organization of American States is holding its general assembly in Panama this week. It is regrettable that the RCTV issue is not on the published agenda. A Hemispheric response to oppression ought to be front-and-center.
I expect that uneasy acquiescence will be the answer, since that is the easiest way forward. That would include a mild embarrassment that the Red Flag is being waved so fervently under the mantle of the cult of the personality. The Colonel apparently believes he can inherit Fidel's mantel, and it is sad that he will not. Cuba had nothing but sugar, and the interest of a Superpower in a piece of prime real estate ninety miles from the Keys.
Besides, Fidel was a jolly communist with a wry sense of humor.
The Colonel has oil, which is his blessing and his curse. It suggests to me that he will go the way of Colonel Noriega, or Trujillo or Allende, in a burst of gunfire. It was so much more civilized when the incumbent regime could be bundled off on the late Pan Am flight to Miami.
Now, of course, that sleepy southern city is the vibrant de facto capital of Latin America, whether the Colonel likes it or not. As the Presidential candidates declaim their views of the immigration mess, there is a stunning denial of reality. America is already a bi-lingual society. In fact, we are drowning in languages with English paddling uneasily on top.
Here in town, The Affaire de Libby is at a midway point; a sentence has been handed down that is harsher than recommended, to make a point. The real questions has not been answered, though, since if he can remain at liberty as he appeals his conviction, the President will have the opportunity to pardon him after the results of the next election are known.
Some of my pals are howling for a demonstration of resolve and immediate incarceration. It is a way of getting at Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rove, vicariously stringing them up. Other associates comment that sitting presidents who perjured themselves to grand juries only briefly lost their license to practice law.
The whole affair reminds me that Watergate is not over, and will not be until the last of the actors in that farce are no longer on the stage. G. Gordon Liddy, the charismatic and frightening lawman summed up the issue nicely long after. He said that the Nixonistas believed themselves to be at war, and that special rules apply in combat situations.
There will be many more dinosaurs turned into gas before this ponderous system begins to change. I am sure the Colonel would agree, though I am not sure where any of us will be at the end of it.
Copyright 2007 Vic Socotra
www,vicsocotra.com