A friend at a large Northeastern University sent me a book review.  In this time of Pelosi and lefty this is a must read:

 
When basic survival trumps civil liberties.

By WARREN KOZAK
Wall St. Journal

On Sept. 12, 2001, it is highly doubtful that any member of Congress was worried that our government would be too harsh in its treatment of terrorists. When countries are threatened, basic survival trumps civil liberties not just for enemy combatants but for citizens as well. Our priorities change.

We saw that with the attack on Pearl Harbor . Days before Japanese warplanes destroyed the U.S. Pacific fleet on Dec. 7, 1941, 80% of Americans did not want to go to war against either Germany or Japan . The day after the attacks, those numbers reversed themselves. Over the next four years, the United States did things it would never do in normal times — Japanese-Americans were placed in prison camps, press reports and the mail of American soldiers were censored by the military, and the FBI tapped phones without court orders.

In peacetime, a country can deliberate the balance of its security and civil liberties. It can even apologize for actions that were clearly wrong. When a nation is in peril, however, a forceful defense takes priority.

Following Pearl Harbor , this country asked its military leaders to commit acts that, when taken out of context, can be viewed as war crimes today. Between March and August of 1945, 38-year-old Gen. Curtis LeMay ordered the deaths of more civilians than any other man in U.S. history. No one else comes close, not William Tecumseh Sherman, not George S. Patton — no one.

On the night of March 9, 1945, LeMay sent 346 huge B-29 bombers loaded with napalm from the Mariana Islands (Guam, Saipan and Tinian) to Tokyo . The first planes dropped their incendiaries on the front and back of the target area — like lighting up both ends of a football field at night. The rest of the planes filled in the middle. More than 16 square miles of Japan ’s capital city were gutted, two million people were left homeless, and 100,000 were dead.

It didn’t end there. Washington gave LeMay the green light as his bombers burned 64 more cities. He used the World Almanac and just went down the list by population. Altogether, an estimated 350,000 people lost their lives. Anyone hearing this for the first time in 2009 would be hard pressed to defend such an action.

Yet at the time, newspapers across America heralded the event as a tremendous achievement — not unlike the moon landing 24 years later. The New York Times ran the story of the bombings on its front page for 10 straight days. Its lead editorial on March 12, 1945, warned the Japanese that if they didn’t give up more was on the way. The New Yorker magazine ran a glowing three part series on LeMay . Time magazine put him on its cover.

Today Japan , which has been one of the most successful and responsible nations on earth for the past 64 years, doesn’t seem like it should ever have received such punishment. Without understanding the context, some people would argue that the U.S. was just a wild, racist nation bent on payback after Pearl Harbor .

What many Americans today do not know was that for almost 10 years prior to LeMay’s bombing, Japan was on a genocidal tear throughout Asia . There was a second Holocaust in World War II that most Americans are unaware of — one that killed upwards of 17 million Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos and other Asians.

So when LeMay finally figured out a way to bring the war to a faster end, there was jubilation not just in the U.S. but throughout Asia . LeMay also knew that both the U.S. and Japan were preparing for what would be the largest invasion (and most horrific bloodbath) in history.

With the fighting becoming more ferocious as the Americans came closer to Japan , Washington focused its attention on landings scheduled for November 1945 and March 1946. Combat troops who had survived the war in Europe were being brought home, given a one-month leave, and then shipped to staging areas in the Pacific. The Japanese were also getting ready by mobilizing old men, women and children into suicide squads. Squadrons of kamikaze planes were set aside to hit U.S. ships. The atomic bomb would not be tested until July 16. No one could be sure it would work.

In the strange calculus of war, LeMay helped prevent an estimated one million American casualties and upwards of two million Japanese by helping push Japan ’s Emperor Hirohito to surrender before the invasion. Killing large numbers of people to save even more lives is not a decision most of us would want to make. But at the time, the majority of Americans were thankful that LeMay was willing to do it.

Today, some question whether the ends justified the means. In 1945, no American with a husband, brother or son serving in the military did. For them, the speediest end of that horrible conflict was the only goal.

Mr. Kozak is the author of the just published ” LeMay : The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay” (Regnery). 
 

Today I received an email from a friend serving in Iraq.  He says it sums up the feelings of our men and women in uniform:

 
     If you want to do something that will really “support our troops,” contact President Obama as well as your elected officials about this. Basically, because the ACLU won a court case against the Defense Department, the Pentagon will release hundreds of additional photos on May 28th from the Abu Ghraib detainee abuse incident. The President and the Congress–both Republicans and Democrats– are going to fight this on the grounds that it will incite violence against US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Please offer the President and your elected officials your support, as releasing these photos will surely result in dead American service members.
 
Thanks,
 
XXXXXX

 
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

UNCLASSIFIED

Obama Faces Uphill Battle in Blocking Release of Detainee Photos

The next legal step in all of this is unclear, yet any legal move will
put the Obama administration in the awkward position of fighting a
pillar of its political base: the ACLU, which quickly lambasted
President Obama’s decision. 
 
Winning the legal fight won’t be as easy now that President Obama has
changed his mind and will oppose a court ruling ordering the release of
photos potentially showing detainee abuse at the hands of U.S. troops in
Iraq and Afghanistan.

The next legal step is unclear, but it will be decided in the next few
days, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. It could include appealing
the case to the Supreme Court, or perhaps revisiting it with the lower
courts, he said.

Yet any legal move will put the Obama administration in the awkward
position of fighting a pillar of its political base: the American Civil
Liberties Union, which quickly lambasted Obama’s decision.

“The decision to not release the photographs makes a mockery of
President Obama’s promise of transparency and accountability,” said ACLU
attorney Amrit Singh, who had argued and won the case before the 2nd
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. “It is essential that these
photographs be released so that the public can examine for itself the
full scale and scope of prisoner abuse that was conducted in its name.”

Obama defended his decision Wednesday.

“My belief is the publication of these photos would not add any
additional benefits to our understanding of what was carried out in the
past by a small number of individuals,” he said in a brief appearance.
“The most direct consequence would be to further inflame anti-American
opinion and put our troops in greater danger.”

Lawmakers who urged Obama to fight the release of the photos are
planning to assist Obama.

Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Wednesday
they plan to offer an amendment next week to a bill to prohibit the
release of those types of photos “until some period after the end of
hostilities.”

Despite a lack of detail, Lieberman called it “one of the great
balancing acts” between openness and risk.

Graham brushed aside concern that the courts may wind up ruling against
the government.

“So be it,” he said. “We’re a rule-of-law nation, and we’ll respect that
result. But it’s good for the troops to know that their commander in
chief is going to bat for them, and that’s what he did today.”

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, however, said the president believes
the government has a strong argument to make in the legal battle.

“The president does not believe that the strongest case regarding the
release of these photos was presented to the court,” Gibbs said,
explaining that the new argument is based on national security
implications of releasing the photos.

Gibbs said the previous administration never made that argument.

“They argued a couple of different things, including, a law enforcement
exception,” Gibbs said, noting that the judge ruled against them. “This
is a different argument that the president thinks is compelling.”

The administration said last month it would not fight a court order and
agreed to release the photos by May. 28. Federal appeals judges had
ruled in favor of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the
ACLU.

The Justice Department had concluded that further appeal would probably
be fruitless. At the time, Gibbs said the president had concurred with
Justice’s conclusion, though without commenting on whether Obama would
support the release if not pressed by a court case.

The Obama administration had assured a federal judge that it would turn
over the material by May 28, including one batch of 21 photos and
another of 23 images. The government also told the judge it was
“processing for release a substantial number of other images,” for a
total expected to be in the hundreds.

But Obama informed his legal team last week that he did not feel
comfortable with the release, concerned they would inflame tensions in
Iraq and Afghanistan and make the U.S. mission in those two wars more
difficult, Gibbs said.

The effort to keep the photos from becoming public represented a sharp
reversal from Obama’s repeated pledges for open government, and in
particular from his promise to be forthcoming with information that
courts have ruled should be publicly available.

As such, it was sure to invite criticism from people, including more
liberal segments of the Democratic Party, that want a full accounting –
and even redress — for what they see as the misdeeds of the Bush
administration.

Gibbs emphasized that the president continues to believe that the
actions depicted in the photos should not be excused and supports the
investigations, prison sentences, discharges and other punitive measures
that have resulted from them.

He said the new decision does not contradict Obama’s promises of
transparency, since details about investigations into the abuse are
available on the Pentagon’s Web site. “The notion that somehow you don’t
know about these investigations because you haven’t seen the photos
doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
 

We get so busy in our daily lives we sometimes forget those people around us.  I’ve been on-air at WGMD for twenty months and this morning it occurred that any success I’m enjoying is shared.

First, Friday afternoons are generally my favorite days of the weeks.  Captain Bill Baker and Andrew Betts could host radio shows in large cities.  They don’t because they’ve got much more to their lives and understand it’s just a radio show.  Their families and commitments to work and faith are their cornerstones. 

By the way, I work for nice people.  It’s the nature of talk radio to rub some folks the wrong way.  Managers catch the flak, for which I offer thanks.  Radio can sound easy but what you’re hearing is just the tip of the business iceberg.

Others tell me we’re over loaded with advertising. Can you name me three other talk radio stations east of the Mississippi airing three daily local talk programs?  Advertising supports local radio.  Additionally many of our advertisers live and do business within a ten mile radius of our tower.  These people are not only neighbors but they employ other neighbors and answer the telephones when you call their offices. 

As for the advertisers who join me in studio let me say they’ve all become friends.  Take Tom McGlone, Bruce Hermann and the folks at Peninsula Financial Group.  These people are all “experts” in their field or fields.  Most of us wouldn’t get an opportunity to talk with any of these people routinely on a weekly basis.  I also like to think someone listening has made some money choices based on these fellows and is on a path to a more secure retirement. 

Rob Lisle at Insight Homes is an evangelist for a new way of building.  He doesn’t propose anything radical but he does make sense for both environmentalists and people looking to hold on to more of their money.  The McKee’s offer another housing solution and in trying times we need options. 

Dr. Hattier’s bi-monthly visits are designed to answer some health questions.  We likely don’t have nearly enough in the way of medical answers on-air. 

I’m comfortable working with all of these people because primarily I respect them.  It helps I also like them and can vouch they are good people.

Well, I guess his mom voted for him.  Is he suffering after a loss?  Can we say Meyer Persow didn’t suffer enough?  Ronald Reagan is in heaven and he wouldn’t say it, the great man didn’t have it in his disposition.  Tell me, Meyer, is it the fault of WGMD?  Or the haters of Sussex County?  Or the illiterate country rubes who just don’t get your published comments?  The fault dear Brutus is not in our stars…

This morning I looked at some photographs of a palace once owned by Saddam Hussein.  They were posted at Facebook by one of my former talk show colleagues.  He’s a real estate agent and I commented he could make quite a commission.  Or he could if he were in civilian life.  He isn’t scheduled to return until August.  His family waits on a lovely piece of farmland near Lake Ontario. 

Not far from there lives a little boy named Patrick.  His daddy just left Iraq but sent me a new mailing address in Afghanistan.  It makes me wonder if “Paddy” will remember his father when he finally makes it home. 

It puts the hardships of my life in perspective.  Saturday I put of mowing the redhead’s lawn as it was 90 degrees and very humid.  By Sunday afternoon it was just 72 and the dew point was lower.  We also went to Salisbury and wandered the well-stocked shelves at Sam’s Club.  Later when she needed to feed a vacationing friend’s cats we drove to Fenwick Island.  I read the op-ed pages in The Washington Times and Washington Post from the family’s living room, looking through the enormous glass wall, which faces a small bay and from where you can see the towers in Ocean City.  Yeah, tough day!

And I spent much of my day in an effort to reach my daughter.  For the past week she was at the Mayo Clinic and I was a tad desperate to learn how she fared.  Most of you are parents and you can understand.  Logistically I couldn’t accompany her.  Grandma and Grandpa are retired and chaperoned the trip.  When they reached Rochester, Minnesota the mobile telephone service was unreliable and there wasn’t a diagnosis until the weekend.  The news was mostly good.  Or when you consider what could go wrong with a soon to be 16-year-old the news was mainly good.  Her heart and blood are fine and her present condition is believed to have been triggered by a bout with mononucleosis several years ago.  She has an illness, which is treatable and with a good diet and exercise may not last long into adulthood.  She can lead a life just like other young Americans, paying down the debt owed Beijing.

When we finally spoke Sunday she wanted instead to talk about a dog show where she’ll be working this next weekend.  I’m breathing more easily today.  Some friends and the people I work with may have thought last week I was suffering from early onset of dementia.  I’d like to think I held together well but inside I was churning to the point where I could have opened a butter factory.  I went to bed Sunday night in the neighborhood of 10:30 and slept until just after 8:00 this morning.  A great weight is lifted. 

This brings me back to those friends serving their country in Iraq and Afghanistan.  They can’t afford the early onset of dementia.  People take figurative potshots at me when I’m at work.  These men and women in uniform literally face much, much worse on the job and when they’re relaxing or even trying to sleep.  There is something super human in their capacity to endure and I don’t think it’s nearly enough respected.  After 8 years of war I fear many of us have become so wrapped up in our shrinking 401Ks and our own job prospects we’ve lost something truly special; the character to dig in our heels and endure at home. 

President Obama has today signed an Executive Order mandating politeness. Therefore all references to old crones have been deleted. As of this day forward all comments on blog posts will be directed to the new website and the pull down menu on the left side of the page. This will allow comments to be approved more quickly and without the need for me to take time at home to approve all of Nancy’s comments (643,793 at last count).

I walked out of her garage and expectorated.  This was just after I put her lawnmower away.  As soon as I realized what I’d done in the driveway I looked in several directions and all was quiet.  She didn’t see me as she was over behind the shed working on another project.  A good thing let me tell you, because she doesn’t like it when men expectorate.  I learned this the hard way one day when she came over to meet me for a trip to the diner.  Before we left I brushed my teeth and when I couldn’t find a rinsing cup in the bathroom I went to the kitchen, rinsed and expectorated.  She walked in just as I expectorated and she wasn’t pleased.

You have a mannerly Catholic school graduate, including a strict Catholic college, and then you have me.  She also had me change my shirt that day before going to the diner.  She claimed my Hawaiian shirt didn’t match my pants.  When I changed into another Hawaiian shirt she was placated.  People are going to have different tastes in clothing and apparently Catholic school girls from Baltimore were forbidden from expectorating and wearing flowered clothing.  It’s something apparently that never leaves them after graduation. 

For the last ten years she’s lived in a rural community about ten miles from Ocean City and admits she still has issues adjusting to the ways of country people.  She isn’t condescending but sometimes I can see her reactions and I know she’s wondering why her neighbors make choices she sees as strange.  Like all women I’ve met, city or country, she believes men are beasts that never plan or think about the choices we’ve got to make in life.  So they ask a lot of questions you’ve already reviewed in your own head some six or ten months before.  And when they finally find out you’ve actually given it some thought they ask why you didn’t earlier share that you actually thought things through.  Then they want to know the steps you used to reach the conclusion.

They ask if you’re sticking to your diet.  Then they ask if you’ve recently had any pizza or beer.  This just hours after you explained that you tried Michelob Ultra last week.  They didn’t ask about your impressions of Ultra but a guy would. 

Then after an hour grocery shopping on a rainy day when you’re driving out of the store parking lot they ask you what’s bothering you.  This after they watched you load groceries in the rain while they sat inside the Jeep.  This after you stopped at the greenhouses before going to the store and walked around in the rain holding an umbrella over her head while she shopped for more perennials to fill what little space at her residence is left not already filled by perennials.  Nothing was bothering me leaving the store.  Actually I agree with her on some points about men.  She came to the house a couple of weeks ago when I was watching NASCAR.  She pointed out the drivers just go around and around on the same circle.  So I took the remote and changed the channel to drag racing. 

Nothing was bothering me and I said so leaving the store Sunday.  If I’d been quicker I would’ve said if not for the rain we could be walking the beach.  If there had been a microphone attached to the dashboard it would’ve been said.  I told her nothing was on my mind and I laughed.  Five minutes of silence followed.  Well, after I was quizzed about the laughter.  Then I explained that sometimes my silences are so rare that when I’m silent she believes something isn’t right.  The air cleared and we had a nice chat. 

Wednesday I’m meeting with a mortgage broker.  She’s says if all goes well she’ll go house hunting with me and we can play “Good guy, bad guy” with the realtors.  Trust me; she’s got some skill here.  When I finished mowing her lawn Saturday I told her the Mexican immigrants in the house next door had been dropping their trash and some of it had blown on her property.  She walked over to the house and motioned to a Mexican man inside.  He came outdoors and the 5’2” woman demanded to know why he and his housemates considered her yard a landfill.  It’s when she noticed a car had backed over a log separating the properties.  The log was split and crooked and her landscaped pine needles out of place.  The rugged Mexican man grew very nervous and agitated.  “No drive, no drive.  I bicycle, I bicycle”, he told her.  She instructed him to explain to his friends the need to be more careful.  He meekly apologized and backed away. 

She’s quite a woman and I’m quite impressed, however.  Don’t ask her why she took the mulch bag off the lawnmower.  Don’t ask her why she has a mower with no side vent.  Don’t ask her why she didn’t keep the bag and save the grass in a mulch pile.  Don’t ask her why the mower leaves grass in clumps because it can’t vent.  Don’t ask her why she has me waste gas by going over the lawn a second time with a mower at a tilt in hopes of blowing apart the clumps of grass.  She thought this through a long time ago.  And whatever you do, don’t laugh when she explains the process. 

Ah, love!  After all, it’s a two way street.