News, the Sequel

This week the news I listened to was more like a trip down memory lane than a discovery of new stories.
The week started off with the news of the mine tragedy in Raleigh County, West Virginia; something I spent much of my life listening to.
As a kid (born in Raleigh County) and returning to WV after my Dad retired from the Marine Corps, it was a pretty normal thing to hear the newscasters on good old WSAZ-TV telling about another mine accident that killed a group of men.
Back then in WV when you left high school (unless you were lucky enough to be able to go to college) you either went into the mines, went to work at FMC or Union Carbide, went to the seminary or joined the military.
I chose the Marines because I didn’t want to work for the chemical plants or preach something I wasn’t sure I believed in and I damn sure didn’t want to work in a hole in the ground.
Now, I have nothing but respect for the folks who do mine coal. It takes a certain kind of bravery to go down into the dark to dig black gold and I don’t posses that kind of bravery. But I do think that there has to be a change in the way it is done. With all the technology that we have at our disposal it just seems to me that we could continue to mine coal but do it in safer ways. (Just as a note, Mountain top removal mining isn’t an option). I don’t know what that way would be, but there just has to be a way to do this without risking lives this way.

The next news item that brought up old memories was the signing by the Presidents of the U.S. and Russia of a new strategic nuclear arms treaty. It took me back to the simpler days of the Cold War when we knew who our enemy was. Back then we hated the Soviet Union and they hated us. It was a good guy – bad guy world and we knew where to look for trouble and what we would do if they got out of hand. We also could take comfort in the fact that we were safer because with enough stockpiles on either side to obliterate the world 20 times over, we knew neither side would fire no matter how much posturing went on. Now, since the damn Soviets couldn’t hold it together, there are old USSR nukes floating around the world in the hands of god knows who? Thanks comrades, nice job.
This has led to new terms like “suitcase nuke” cute name for a nasty incident waiting to happen. There is no deterrent for a Fanatical Muslim Jihadist who gets his mitts on one of the little bombs and sets it off in New York, Las Vegas or Charlotte. Makes it a little hard to sleep when you think about it, doesn’t it?

Lastly, are the problems we are having with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and his open disdain for America and our presence in his country. This guy and his problems with the U.S. reminds me a lot of South Vietnam’s former President Ngo Dinh Diem. He was at the beginning of our involvement in that country – long before we became mired in that unpopular war – a huge pain in another Democrat President’s ass, namely one John Kennedy.
During the Geneva conference in 1954, the U. S. delegation proposed Diem's name as the new ruler of South Vietnam. The French argued against this claiming that Diem was "not only incapable but mad". Not unlike the way some in the international community view Karzai. However, it was eventually decided that Diem presented the best opportunity to keep South Vietnam from falling under the control of communism.
After his election to the Presidency Several attempts were made to overthrow Diem but Kennedy had always instructed the CIA and the US military forces in Vietnam to protect him. In order to obtain a more popular leader of South Vietnam, Kennedy agreed that the role of the CIA should change. Lucien Conein, a CIA operative, provided a group of South Vietnamese generals with $40,000 to carry out the coup with the promise that US forces would make no attempt to protect Diem.
In November 1963, President Diem was overthrown by a military coup. After the generals had promised Diem that he would be allowed to leave the country they changed their mind and killed him. Nguyen Van Thieu, the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of South Vietnam, replaced him.
Well, we all know now how that and other decisions our government made during that war worked out and now it seems we are headed in that same direction.
Difference this time is that Karzai is threatening to join with the Taliban which would be akin to Diem threatening to join the Viet Cong back in ’62-’63.
So, I don’t know if a CIA backed coup would be a good thing or not, but as I asked on my Facebook page earlier in the week; how hard could it be to find a more cooperative puppet leader? Maybe the best course would be to cut our losses (as crass and ugly as that sounds) and leave the old boy to twist in the wind. I’m not so sure the Taliban would leave him in power or breathing for long after he no longer had our protection and support.

I guess, looking at these stories and how they compare to historical news stories, proves that there really is nothing new. And that when we forget about our past we really are doomed to repeat it.
Makes me worry about what we are going to do next especially since there are some states crying “State’s Rights” and rumors of secession float through state houses across the country.