Counting Coup

I would like to begin by saying that as I type these words, my one and only child is on a Navy vessel in the Persian Gulf. (Or near abouts he can't tell me exactly.)

That out of the way, I would like to know if anyone in the uppity-ups of the military, or even the news media, has ever heard of counting coup?

If not, perhaps they should look it up.

Five Iranian speedboats were not attacking the US Navy. They were counting coupe. And our media, falling right into their hands, played it up like the Iranians were boarding the Navy ships with nukes strapped on their backs.

There by making the incident appear more serious than it was, making it seem like a few little speedboats had scared the mighty United States.

We gave even more honor to their coup.

It would have been nice if we had a diplomatic relationship with Iran, so we could send our own ambassador (instead of Russia's who always has the United States best interest at heart, right?) directly to the Iranians to say, "Yeah, hey, that was funny and ain't your boys got a set of balls on them, but um, if it happens again, we're gonna just blow their boats up, okay?"

The men and women on those Navy ships are keenly aware of the Cole and what happened there. They will shoot to kill if necessary. And if Bush hadn't squandered all our good will in the world there would be minimal political impact if that happened.

Come on now, really, he is over in Palestine trying to get a peace treaty signed while two of his Middle Eastern wars are still raging and he is actively trying to begin a third? Does that make freaking sense to anyone? It's like trying to steal a kiss from a girl while your friends beat the shit out of her date right in front of her eyes. Then acting surprised when she isn't receptive to you.

But I'll tell you, I really don't want my child to have to kill someone, no matter how justified. I want him to do it if it means his life or the lives of those he serves with, don't get me wrong. But I don't want it to have to happen at all.

I don't want it to happen because Bush wants it to happen so he can start another war. I don't want it to happen so the oil companies can continue to rake in huge profits because the region is unstable. I don't want it to happen because Bill O'Liarly needs something to puff his chest up about and rage until his dick gets firm. I don't want it to happen so Keith Olberman can once again put Bill O'Liarly on his "worst person list". I don't want it to happen so the candidates for 2008 can have another debating point.

I want someone who knows how to talk to people. I want someone that the rest of the world will hopefully come to trust and respect. I want someone who understands people, who understands cultural differences that can make communication and understanding difficult and who will commit to attempting to bridge those differences, not cowboy up and pull out the six shooter because someone is different.

That's all.

Loki sez: Give peace a chance!
(My stupid spelling errors now edited. Sheesh. Spell check should have known what I meant!)