YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT OPINIONS!

YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT OPINIONS!

(Brian Michael Jenkins, Green Bay Press Gazette)

(Profiles of Jenkins, Rand Corporation, Frazer Chronicle)

Everybody has opinions, it’s nothing new, in fact it’s really healthy, conversation speaking, for different opinions to come together be stated, talked about and maybe, just maybe some opinions change for the better. The melding of ideas as well as culture is what has made the United States so diverse in its approach to world problems.

However when opinions are set in granite, when opinions are tempered like steel, when the eyes and ears are closed to other opinions…..because not enough information is readily available, people can’t make educated opinions, here is the problem…..and here is where we’re at today. Opinion editorials are common place in newspapers today, and have been for decades.

However today, in the radio and television media, opinions can reach millions and millions of people, and if an opinion is stated long enough, and hard enough, some in the United States culture begin to embrace it as truth, and assimilate it as fact and part of their lives.

In science, cognition is a group of mental processes that include attention, memory, producing and understanding language, learning, reasoning, problem solving, and decision making. In reality, the ingredients of cognition, and the understanding of each is necessary to make good sound decisions…..or opinions. It isn’t for everybody, this cognition understanding, and herein lays the problem; idiots can’t make sound decisions, and render reasonable opinions!

ENTER PEOPLE LIKE BRIAN MICHAEL JENKINS

At first the headline grabbed me, (How our war on terror has evolved) in fact after scanning the op ed  I moved on to the sports for a minute. However I couldn’t get the header out of my mind and decided to read the article in detail.

Before I go any further I gotta admit that I’ve never heard of Brian Michael Jenkins, and so, through the magic of the internet I discovered that Jenkins was a 71 year old United States Army veteran, served with the 7^th Special Forces Group in the Dominican Republic and with the 5^th Special Forces Group in Vietnam.

Jenkins also has an M.A. in history from the University of California as well as a B.A. was chairman of security for the Kroll Association. He served as a member of the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security, National Commission on Terrorism, was an advisor to the U.S. Department of State, the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and currently is a senior advisor to the President of the RAND Corporation.

So it would seem that Jenkins would have impeccable credentials that would be necessary to be an opinion maker, right…..well maybe not…..so right. I am opinionated, I feel that what I feel, and how I judge a situation carries a pretty big dose of veracity, call me vain, I’ve always been quick to formulate what I feel is sound judgment.

I’ve been around the block several times, served in different settings, worked in difficult situations, and pretty much called my own shots. It would seem a fair bet that Mr. Jenkins has done pretty much the same as me, however where Jenkins and I part company is backgrounds, mine is more diverse, while Brian Michael Jenkins has had a strong background in security, the military, and seeming conservative activity.

I have found that when people do not diverse themselves, they tend to be one tracked, and subscribe to only a narrow set of opinions. I don’t know about you, but I want people who are opinionated to be kind of like a melting pot, where they have been around all kinds of different situation, and absorbed. It’s really the only way to arrive at educated opinions.

HOW OUR WAR ON TERROR HAS EVOLVED

I find it laughable when people talk about war kind of like in the 3^rd person, war is always up close, and personal. People get killed in every war, of that we can all agree on; there also are very few winners in a war…..usually only those that look to profit from it. The misery, the human degradation and the aftermath of war is always costly, and the reclamation process takes years.

And the last couple of wars that the United States has waged have come up with an interesting scenario, the reason for the initial action seems to be lost in the fog of truth and the different stated reasons for the military activity in the first place get all blurry and mixed up.

How has our War on terror evolved, well to be frank, and honest…..and in my opinion, very little…..to impress our preserved enemies we still have to shoot and kill them…..and that attitude has been around since the first cave-man picked up a rock and threw it at another cave-man. If you truly look at human warfare, you ain’t gonna find much different from 2013 and 1913, or 1813, or 0013, the one overriding impetus is to kill the other guy.

Weapons are different…..you betcha, a weapon that was introduced into an army’s arsenal in 2013 is revolutionary, but so was the machine gun in 1913, or the repeater rifle in 1850, and the sling-shot in 0013. Man seems to have an unending thirst for weapons that make killing an opponent quick, easy, and as bloodless as possible.

This Jenkins guy talks about Growing capabilities, Psychological utility and Mission flexibility like a side show, or new ideas. There are neither side shows, nor new ideas, there are, sadly becoming watch-words that help explain the attitude of the United States towards our foreign neighbors.

According to Jenkins growing capabilities is a domain U.S. intelligence organizations can fully exploit its ability to collect, analyze and transform intelligence into operational opportunities. It’s what we need as a nation, too bad the effort to collect this information is in foreign countries, and not here at home.

Here’s a real kick in the can, psychological utility, another of Brian Jenkins opinions is the fact that terrorists can attack anything, anywhere, anytime, while the United States cannot protect everything, everywhere, all the time. What does this mean, why in hell would I want to protect some oil field in bum-rapped Egypt.

According to Mr. Jenkins attacking anything, anywhere at any time has been a terrorists advantage…..how can that be, the United States attacks anything, anywhere, at anytime, check out Libya, Iraq, or Afghanistan, I’m pretty sure innocent civilians have heard and felt the howling wrath of U.S. military activity.

Mission flexibility, here’s a beauty, small scale raids that turn unfavorable would allow U.S. forces to withdraw without risk to national reputation. I hate to tell you this pal, but do you really think that the rest of the world doesn’t know what were up to…..from under what rock did you just crawl from  Brian baby? I hate to burst your bubble, but lots and lots of people don’t like what we’re doing.

Or maybe it’s our image that Mr. Jenkins is referring to, well gee…..people applaud when we, as a nation screw up, and it’s getting worse, the people of the world now actually look for America’s mess-ups…..hell they probably make book on it.

No, Brian Michael, I’m sorry, we need a whole new approach to how we deal with the populations of the world, I fear that our time is running out, and lunk-heads like you Mr. Jenkins will bear part of the responsibility.

HAVE A NICE DAY!