9 October 2012 Left the engineer with a worried mind

Once upon a time, there was an engineer.

Drove a locomotive both far and near.

Accompanied by a monkey that would sit on a stool,

 Watching everything the engineer would do

One day the engineer wanted a bite to eat,

He left the monkey sitting on the driver's seat,

The monkey pulled the throttle, the locomotive jumped the gun

In addition, did 80 miles an hour down the mainline run.
Big locomotive right on time, big locomotive coming down the line.

Big locomotive no. 99 left the engineer with a worried mind.

Read more: GRATEFUL DEAD - MONKEY & THE ENGINEER LYRICS 

         

“Last year, Romney called the Obama administration’s intervention in Libya “mission creep and mission muddle.” On Monday, he accused Obama of declining to use “America’s greatest power to shape history” and of eschewing “our best examples of world leadership” in that same corner of the world.

Last year, Romney said American troops “shouldn’t go off and try to fight a war of independence for another nation. Only the Afghanis can win Afghanistan’s independence from the Taliban.” On Monday, he spoke of that same conflict as a matter of the utmost national importance, saying the route to “attacks here at home is a politically timed retreat that abandons the Afghan people to the same extremists who ravaged their country and used it to launch the attacks of 9/11.”

Last year, Romney reversed his earlier support for the Iraq war, saying, “If we knew at the time of our entry into Iraq that there were no weapons of mass destruction. . . obviously we would not have gone in.” On Monday, he was back to his original view, accusing the Obama administration of an “abrupt withdrawal” from Iraq and portraying the situation there as part of “a struggle between liberty and tyranny, justice and oppression, hope and despair.”

That pretty much describes the genesis of America’s entry into the war in Iraq.  It also does a good job of defining our role in Afghanistan. 

          We charged into Iraq, and then removed all the restraints and controls that had maintained any semblance of a modern nation.  The monkey became the driver on that train, and still is.  The train has maintained its momentum toward some final destination in Iran. 

          We entered Afghanistan with a limited goal that soon became ignored.  The open throttle and barely functioning air brakes that held a juggernaut on out of repair rails allowed various commands to run different bits of the conflict while micro-managers in the cab would frequently nudge the throttle and ease up on the brakes.

          Now, 12 years of hold and go warfare have resulted in many lost lives, ours and Afghan.  Social customs have been badly broken, as the religious components of the opposition have continued to solidify their power. 

          We’ve built up a hotter fire in the firebox.  Our engineers have all been told when to leave the locomotive cabs.  The controls will be handed over to the monkeys by the dispatchers in Kabul. 

          However, the monkeys slated to take over the controls have not been watching our engineers.  They’ve been conspiring to replace the dispatchers while simultaneously jockeying to gain power in concert with the Taliban. 

          When the Afghani locomotive is released, the dispatchers will grab all the money they have stashed away in foreign accounts and try to beat the Taliban in a race down the mainline.  While the Taliban want no truck with modernity, they fully appreciate money.  They don’t want the current civil authority to escape at all, but they will settle, temporarily, for capturing the money that the dispatchers plan to use to pad their escapes.

          The interesting thing about this train wreck is that we know when it will happen, we know who it will happen to (by and large it couldn’t happen to more deserving people, and we know who will have the misfortune to be underneath the wreckage when the derailment finally happens. 

          Enough narrative for today.  It is a weak analogy, at best. This entire project was intended, most of all, to stave off or delay the mental degradation that lurks in the darkness like a Lovecraftian visitor.  Whether or not it is effective remains to be seen. 

          Today’s bit of amusement:  I turn 65 next year.  The various insurance companies that feed off Medicare have been apprised of the fact.  They are beginning to circle like vultures, hoping to entice me to sign up for one of their Part D plans and/or to fall into the Advantage plans that funnel extra premiums into their coffers under the false premise of providing better, cheaper, “special” services to Medicare insures.  There will be no benefits for any insurance corporation stemming from my Medicare enrollment.  I am fortunate to be covered by VA health care benefits.  There’s no love in my makeup for health insurance companies.  I’m looking forward to the day we finally become smart enough to become a single payer, socialized medicine nation.  That’s what happens when the monkeys really watch the engineer and learn how the system is intended to work.

Here’s how the Romney-Ryan plan will work.