Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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I recently stumbled across a column in Axios, written by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen. The article is based on “regular conversations with White House and congressional leaders, CEOs, and top technologists,” and is titled, “Behind the Curtain: Rattled U.S. Government Fears Wars Could Spread.” My sources consist of aging retired military personnel, many of whom spent time in Sunny South-East Asia. We reached that same conclusion a while ago. The writers list a conflue...
When I was a 19-year-old lance corporal, it was common to have open debates in the squad bay about the various wars or insurgencies that were going on, or had gone on in the past and what would be the best way to solve these conflicts. Inevitably the outcome of these debates was, “Kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out.” While this made perfect sense to young enlisted men, I never thought I’d hear it espoused from supposed mature, elected senators who like to consider...
I am constantly reminded that most Americans have little interest in what goes on outside their own borders. As a matter of fact, during the football season, most Americans have little interest in what goes on off the gridiron, college or professional. In spite of all that is going on in Ukraine, the citizenry has pretty much given it the ho-hum treatment. After last weekend, all that is about to change. The Hamas attack on Israel put an end to U.S. indifference, probably...
The only people who believe Russia is winning the war are a smattering of retired U.S. military officers, retired CIA analysts, assorted writers of opinion columns and the Russian government. The chairman of Russia’s Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Chief Sergei Shoigu, speaking at different times, recently noted that Russia is not interested in a negotiated settlement with Ukraine. Volodin’s statement, “Ukraine must surrender on Mo...
The terms misinformation, disinformation and lies fall into the category of Shakespeare's “A rose by any other name.” Many poets and playwrights avail themselves of poetic license to shade the truth and enhance the plot. The other day, for example, while watching a movie, I heard a Marine drill instructor tell a recruit, “Don’t call me sir. I’m a sergeant.” I almost dropped my coffee cup. “Sir” was all we ever called our drill instructors. That’s a bit of misinformation. P...
If you are the parent of an active-duty Marine, the last person you want to see out of the blue on your door step is a Marine officer in dress uniform. He is generally there with bad news. This is true in peace time as well as war. The same holds true for the other services, but I’m familiar with Marines. Military folk die even during peace time, and someone is designated to make casualty calls. During a war it gets worse. According to the Watson Institute, International & P...
William J. Burns is the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. From 2005 to 2008 Burns was the ambassador to Russia. In February 2008, Burns sent a memo that that was distributed widely within the upper echelons of the George W. Bush administration. The memo concerned the NATO meeting that would determine whether to allow Ukraine and Georgia membership in NATO. Burns titled the memo, “Nyet Means Nyet,” and it read in part: “Foreign Minister Lavrov and other senior offic...
Well, the first Republican presidential debate was held on Aug. 23, and we celebrated Labor Day last Monday, so I guess the 2024 presidential campaign has well and truly started. I have thought for a few years now that the primary debates in their current format have reached their sell-by date, and this year may drive the nail in their coffin. A cast of 10 or so candidates, all competing for time and all attacking the supposed front runner doesn’t make for a...
If you google ‘NATO Mission,” you will find that: “NATO’s essential and enduring purpose is to safeguard the freedom and security of all its members by political and military means. Collective defense is at the heart of the Alliance and creates a spirit of solidarity and cohesion among its members.” Hastings Lionel Ismay, a politician and general in the British Indian Army, was the first secretary general of NATO. Ismay is credited with coining the phrase that the purpose o...
Two widely different stories that caught my attention recently. I had planned to do a piece on the Marion, Kan., newspaper kerfuffle, but the publisher of this newspaper beat me to it. I will add one fact to the story, that may be of interest. The search warrant was signed on Aug. 11 and served on Aug. 14.. On Aug. 16, the Marion County attorney said his review of police seizures from the newspaper found “insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus b...
I recently watched a three-hour Joe Rogan podcast where he interviewed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about his views on COVID, why he wanted to run for president and a variety of other topics. One of the interesting points that RFK raised was how political campaigning has changed over the years. Kennedy made the point that Franklin D. Roosevelt brought radio into the arena with his “Fireside Chats.” Kennedy’s uncle John F. Kennedy carried television fully into the political wars...
For the presidential election held in 2016, Donald Trump formally announced his candidacy on June 16, 2015. This suggests that if you are a serious candidate for the 2024 election, you may be running a tad late. The Democrats have two announced candidates, sitting President Joe Biden and Kennedy family scion, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. There any number of potential candidates sniffing around in case Joe stumbles (politically, not literally) in his quest for the nomination....
Madison-Avenue types will tell you it is better to look good than to feel good. In politics that dictum is expressed as, “the optics are everything.” This iron rule for publicity flaks is what causes press secretaries to claim that although using cluster ammunition may be a war crime if someone else uses them, we only use the kind of cluster bombs that are safe. Recently, when a baggie of cocaine was found in the White House, the U.S. Secret Service was the designated age...
During the past two years, five Marine recruits have died during boot camp at Parris Island, S.C. These deaths were caused by a variety of reasons and some of them remain under investigation to determine the cause. As a result of one of these deaths, the drill instructor involved is facing trial for negligent homicide. In addition, the commanding officer of the 1st Recruit Training Regiment and his sergeant major were relieved of their leadership positions “for loss of t...
I’ve written before about the curse of linguistic professionals. These are the folks who spin janitors into maintenance engineers; personnel administrators into human resource professionals; the opposite of pro-life from pro-death into pro-choice and propaganda into “the narrative.” Reality is for people who can’t handle booze and drugs. On June 24, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted: The bottom line on the “costs” supporting Ukraine: 1. Zero American service members in...
Depending on what news outlet you follow, there are either 16 of 17 organizations or agencies that gather intelligence of the United States. These organizations are broken down into two broad categories: the National Intelligence Program and the Military Intelligence Program. The 2022 Fiscal Year budget appropriation for these two programs was about $90 billion. For that kind of money, you would think the government is provided with intel that is timely, accurate and verified...
In his recent paper titled, “The Darkness Ahead: Where The Ukraine War Is Headed,” Professor John J. Mearsheimer writes: “Western leaders frequently portray the Ukraine war as an integral part of a larger global struggle between autocracy and democracy. On top of that, the future of the sacrosanct rules-based international order is said to depend on prevailing against Russia. As King Charles said this past March, ‘The security of Europe as well as our democratic values...
Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently returned from a trip to Beijing, where he met with senior officials of the government including Chinese President Xi Jinping. His return was heralded by the Washington Post with the headline, “Blinken ruffles feathers by stating US ‘does not support Taiwan independence’ after meeting China’s Xi.” The story noted that several Republican Congress persons castigated Blinken for “kowtowing” to China by stating, “the Biden administration...
We have the potential of involving the United States in a boots-on-ground conflict in Ukraine with the possible result leading to WWIII and Armageddon. There are three scenarios in which this could happen, but one is so crazy that I tend to discount it out of hand and will cover it now. Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has suggested providing Ukraine with tactical nukes. In an article dated June 9, Rubin details a situation in which Russian...
If you watched Saturday morning cartoons with the kids, back when cartoons were innovative, funny and thought-provoking, you are familiar with Sherman, Mr. Peabody and the way-back machine. The fictitious way-back machine has become the internet, where nothing is ever lost. Let’s visit the way-back machine now, and plug in, “Ukraine War, 2022.” At the onset of the war, we were told by western experts that Russia would defeat Ukraine in a matter of days. This prediction came...
I once had a discussion with a friend about the U.S. flag and how it should be displayed. The issue he raised was how did I feel about groups who displayed the flag upside down. I immediately replied that I thought it was wrong to display the flag in this manner unless it meant those displaying like this were in an emergency situation and required immediate assistance. He then said, “How ’bout if the flag is held by a group of wounded war veterans who feel they are being den...
Many people watch network or cable television exclusively for information on what is happening locally, state wide, nationally and internationally. Many other people obtain their news information from major printed newspapers as they appear on the internet. Over the years the “news” and the reporter’s “opinion” have become blurred almost to the point where viewers cannot determine where the news ends and the opinion starts. Here’s a thought exercise that contains some news:...
Memorial Day is Monday, and we will once again honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their service to this country during a time of war. Alas, I fear that we are on the brink of another major war, and I see our government doing little to curtail these fears. For more than a year, we have been involved in a so-called proxy war in Europe that our government continues to insist we have no actual responsibility for. We continue to provide weapons, ammunition and...
Two recent stories in The Washington Post about the Ukraine debacle have left me flabbergasted. The first is an item sourced to classified U.S. intelligence documents that maintain the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, proposed to bomb a pipeline that transfers Russian oil to Hungary, which happens to be a NATO member. Does this scenario seem familiar to anyone besides me? In point of fact, the Druzhba pipeline is one of the world’s longest and largest oil pipeline n...
There are three things we know for sure about the Nord Stream disaster that occurred last September. The first is that it was an act of sabotage. This information was provided by the Swedes who investigated the event shortly after it happened. Second is the fact that when Sweden completed its investigation, it refused to published the findings on the grounds that these findings would impact national security. It was never made clear exactly whose national security would be...
