Monday

                             Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“I was once in a spelling bee but I lost because the other contastants cheeted.”

                                               Paul Patenaster

                                          Syrian Follies

In the Spring of 2011 there were demonstrations against president Assad of Syria because of his authoritarian and oppressive rule. The demonstrations were aggressively and brutally beat down with probable use of Sarin gas.

The United States and the United Nations told Assad that he needed to step down to avoid an open civil war where the main casualties will be civilians and would allow the UN broker a peace to avoid this possibility. Assad told the United States and the UN that he is not going to step down, civilian casualties be damned. Eventually the United States and the UN ordered Assad to step down or else. Assad said screw y'all and the horse you rode in on. The POTUS says “Uh, OK I think I will go shoot some hoops and play some golf.”

There is further evidence that Assad was using Sarin gas once again to suppress the insurgents at the cost of more civilian lives. In 2012 the POTUS said that there is a red line that cannot be crossed and that is the further use of Sarin Gas and said if that happens we will intervene. 4 1/2 years later at at the cost of at least 14,000 civilians and untold thousands of insurgents killed by Sarin gas Assad is still in power and that POTUS is history.

This obvious display of not following through with threats that POTUS has encouraged the rest of the aggressors in the Middle East to ignore the United States as a power to be dealt with costing even more lives both military and civilian including Americans. Rather than put a stop to Assad as promised and end this slaughter of the innocents, the POTUS chose to open the borders of the United States to those Syrians trying to escape this hell and behaved as if this was the right and noble thing to do rather than take aggressive action to stop that madman in Damascus like he promised. Islam understands one thing...strength or the lack thereof.

As of April 6, 2017 Assad realizes that he no longer is immune from attack even with the alleged Russian umbrella. Those 69 Tomahawk missiles made it from the Mediterranean to their Syrian targets undetected by all the Russian devices and countermeasures.

I wonder what is going through the mind of that munchkin in North Korea. I don't understand what is going on there. I know there are professional military officers in North Korea that must realize they are approaching suicide. That whole peninsula is surrounded by submarines from a variety of nations in the free world that could blanket them with lethal devices both nuclear and otherwise. Why don't those officers just cap that jackass?

There is a new sheriff in town and it remains to be seen what the future holds...but I sleep better at night.

                          This Date in History   April 10

1778 On this date one of the greatest United States Naval officers, Captain John Paul Jones, departed the French port of Brest in command of the 140 man warship the USS Ranger. His objective is the Irish Sea and to attack the British ships reported to be there. John Paul Jones was born in Scotland 1747 and went to sea at an early age sailing mostly in the Caribbean. He was off the coast of New York when war was declared between the United States and England and he offered his services to the Colonies. In December of 1775 he was given the rank of First Lieutenant in the colonial navy. After arriving in the Irish Sea, he found no British vessels and then he went to waters he knew well, the Scottish Bay of Kirkcudbright with the intention of kidnapping Lord Selkirk and exchanging him for captured American sailors but the Lord was not there. Then he sailed over to the Currifergus Sea and there he found the HMS Drake. He captured the Drake without firing a shot by simply sending over a few Marines and they killed the Captain of the ship and his First Lieutenant. Jones fought with great distinction throughout the war as did his Scottish countryman, John Barry. His most famous battle was against the 50 gun HMS Serapis. Jones’ ship, the USS Bonhomie Richard (in honor of Ben Franklin) was damaged early and was shipping water and was on fire. The commander of the Serapis signaled for Jones to surrender. Jones signaled back the famous phrase “I have not yet begun to fight”. Jones was able to stem the flooding and extinguish the fires and did indeed outmaneuver the Serapis and captured her. Jones is buried at the United States Naval Academy. When his crypt is opened for ceremonial reasons there is a Marine honor guard present.

1865 After surrendering to US General U.S. Grant the day before, on this date CSA General Robert E. Lee issues his final order as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. The order read:

“After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia is compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. I need not tell the survivors of so many hard fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to the result through no mistrust of them. I determined to avoid useless sacrifice of those whose past service has endeared them to their countrymen. I bid you an affectionate farewell.”

Winston Churchill said it best “Never in the field of human conflict has one man been so loved by so many.”

1963 On this date the United States nuclear submarine USS Thresher was conducting pre-combat patrol drills about 300 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. The boat was accompanied by another nuclear submarine the USS Skylark. During the drills the Skylark received a message that the Thresher was having a “few small problems”. About five minutes later, the sonar on the Skylark recorded the Thresher breaking up on the way to the bottom taking 129 sailors and civilian contractors to Davy Jones Locker. Investigation revealed that a water leak in the engine room had short circuited an electrical connection and that started a domino effect that eventually prevented the Thresher from controlling a dive. Needless to say the US Navy raised almighty hell with the contractor that built the submarine. The boat was launched from the Portsmouth Naval Yard, New Hampshire and quality control became a major issue after this disaster. Twenty-five years later the Commander of the US Navy said that “the loss of the Thresher pointed out problems with construction of our submarines and we are a much safer submarine fleet today.” Tell that to the 129 American souls on the bottom of the North Atlantic near Georges Bank.

Born today:

1829 The founder of the Salvation Army William Booth in England. He said “There are men so incorrigibly lazy that no inducement that you can offer will tempt them to work; so eaten up by vice that virtue is abhorrent to them, and so intolerably dishonest that theft to them is a master passion.” Yes William, I am afraid there is and plenty of them.

             Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow