Yeah, the topic of this week’s Weather Report is unsettled. There are troubling aspects to the seven-month prediction- what we use as a substitute framework for the ‘seven day’ cycle used on the flat-screen. We have a sample of an increasing phenomenon here in the Writer’s Circle: some of us are boycotting the news broadcasts from all the various sources, since it is all samples of the old journalistic maxim “if it bleeds, it leads!”

We are all splattered with something these days, and the Thursday edition of what are allegedly current events has those of us that still watch the current cavalcade of political mayhem filled with mild apprehension and a certain amount of confusion. Are we at war with Iran’s proxy Houthi rebels in Yemen? We appear to be bombing targets there with some sort of reported vigorous demonstrations. Most of the early strikes were Tomahawk Land-Attack Missiles (TLAM) delivered by Navy ships augmented with manned bombers launched from CONUS.

Events continue, as they do with Israel’s quite rational decision to destroy HAMAS, though there is publicity this morning about how quickly Tehran can generate enough highly enriched uranium to produce a working atomic weapon. Additional analysis suggests they could generate fix weapons in a month. We could almost generate the target list for them right from here, though what Tehran is thinking is still unclear.

Israel would be a likely first target, even though they are already in possession of their own nukes. We are not, here at the Big Pink building, Headquarters of Socotra House Publications, LLC. So, we urgently point out that we have retired from the “threat” category of targets, though that could leave us as “contingency” targets for some of the hundreds of young foreign men who have marched- or sauntered, middle fingers raised, to the nation we love and served.

The Cuban Missile Crisis of a half century ago may have some lessons-learned, but we will not go over them today. We are surprised that there are so many additional atomic players these days, and if anything the world seems more relaxed about the possible use of Weapons of Mass Destruction than it was not so long ago. The last time we had one of these drills it was about nukes that Saddam had in Iraq. Colin Powell was SecState at the time, and there is still a sotry about that.

Ambassador- then not “General” Powell was an honest man. With nukes on the table, the old story of his “lies to the United Nations” to justify the invasion of Iraq normally comes up. Some of us had gone through the DESERT STORM campaign and routinely participated in strikes on the chem/bio weapons that the Baathists had stored up north. Those are also considered WMD, or at least they used to be in the quarter century we were subject to service against their use.

So, what Mr. Powell was saying was not a lie, but true. It was just about a different sort of mass destruction.

But we appreciate the intricacy of the current situation and wish everyone well. We have no WMD here in Arlington under our direct control, so we ask respectfully to be deleted from anyone’s ‘first strike’ list. At least until after Spring arrives and we can sleep outside if necessary.

So with that, we offer up the usual weekly weather slide and note “all this stuff is going on.” We hope it passes with some sort of peace. It would help with sleeping inside, you know?

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com