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| English: Navy SEAL (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
From Denny: Watching this man-child implode in North Korea because of a rapidly deteriorating economy, placing the whole world on the brink of war and destruction, started me thinking this entire week about a radical approach for a change of world mindset, a paradigm shift. After all, we can no longer operate on the 60-year status quo as set in place by the World War II generation after the Korean War peace signing.
It's past due time this generation institute a new program, one designed to preventing or circumventing this kind of international mess of loose cannon dictators and terror organizations that want to blow up the world. It would give the various sincere world leaders and experienced diplomats the time they need to work it out when there is an impending crisis. Or, if all hell broke loose there is an apparatus in place globally, in every country, to do the horrifically unthinkable: rebuild from nothing.
RISE to the Situation saying in large font
I've always been a huge fan of a multitude of back-up plans for one situation, especially since as a kid I grew up hearing the CIA mantra "You're on your own, good luck!" every time there was danger coming our way. Yes, my CIA officer father and CIA secretary step-mother were a couple of real putzes who always took care of themselves first, last and always, ignoring their basic parenting duties to my little sister and me.
As it was they attempted to leave my eleven-year-old sister and me, at age 17, abandoned in a foreign country by taking our passports and placing us in the path of arriving assassins - all on purpose to create an international incident with China, courtesy of rat bastard President Nixon's scheming. (Yes, I know, tell us how you really feel but hey, who likes the A-hole that sent assassins to kill American high school girls just to play international politics? Is it any wonder I have no use for drunks in national politics and refuse to vote Republican?)
Obviously, I figured my way out of that mess because I am here to tell the tale decades later. That said, I am only too familiar with - and harbor no illusions of - the worst places of the human heart. Figuring my way out was not one decision here or there but a multitude of calculations and re-calculations as I had to adapt to the rapidly changing conditions - and other assassination and kidnapping attempts - over two years. While most high school girls were dreaming of being cheerleaders or mooning over some silly boyfriend I was trying to figure out how to stay alive long enough to graduate said high school and go on to work my way through college.
Fortunately, I met many a good person along the way that fed me the knowledge I needed to succeed: a Taiwanese lawyer of a stellar good reputation who was later killed by Chinese intelligence, our sweet soul aging Chinese housekeeper who translated for us at a critical moment and a hero in several other instances, traveling CIA officers that checked in with my father who also thought he was a real putz and made it quite clear they didn't trust him any more than I did.
Then there was the very decent Air Force colonel in charge of the local base from whom I extracted a promise to get my little sister and me out of the country whenever we might show up at the base gates with or without passports. His daughter and I were good friends at the American missionary boarding school and I occasionally visited their home on base.
There were some Navy Seals (called frog men back then) and Green Berets that also helped out and protected me in one assassination attempt when I went to them for knowledge of how to kill the guys that were hunting me whenever I stepped outside the school gates. Though I was swift it was only a matter of time before they would finally catch me. You should always take it seriously when the Triad is hunting you in packs of seven.
The Special Forces guys laughed at me as they just wrote me off as a curious teenager until they realized what was really going on. The guys sent me home to scavenge for makeshift weaponry over the next couple of weeks while they gathered intel internally to verify what I was telling them and hunted the local offenders. I can only imagine how many alarm bells went off in different agencies and created investigations as a result. The Special Forces guys took care of those who were hunting me as they were never seen and never heard from again. One group of assassins down, just three more to go - though I didn't know that at the time.
Over the years I've seen some of these old warriors suddenly show up in the background, still making the effort to watch over me whenever I travel overseas. God bless them, they - and now their sons and recruited friends who have taken up the banner like some secretive Knights Templar group protecting the Holy Grail, are all sweethearts. Talk about dedication and loyalty.
As a teenager I soon figured out it was a good idea to make friends down at the USO. Who knew listening to and interviewing guys on leave from the Vietnam War as a budding teenage journalist, talking down their stress and pulling them back to spiritual balance and praying for them, would create loyalty and help later? I didn't consider taking the time to calculate that outcome but it was a pleasant and beneficial result.
Even a local highly esteemed hermit Chinese Taoist spiritual master volunteered to do the historically irregular and come down from the mountains to meet and train me, a female, such as he could in a high stress situation. I was not as alone as it appeared. There were a long line of quality people who took risks for possible bodily harm and their careers to do the honorable thing to teach me how or keep me alive during that time of a steep learning curve.
God bless him, that Air Force colonel called Langley and created such a fuss that my little sister and I were soon on a plane back to the U.S. because he was so furious at my father's cowardice to take care of his girls. On the return journey there was only one more assassination attempt in the Los Angeles airport from Nixon's henchmen. But CIA Director Helm's apparatus (he and Nixon hated each other) was present to help - but only if I figured out who they were and requested it because technically they were only observers. They did not volunteer. Weird behavior.
Fortunately, I got a good read on them as I studied them for a few hours, comparing them to the other Nixon A-holes that were pretending to be airline agents there to help the departing passengers. It was like watching a macabre play. Yet when our turn came to be helped with our lost luggage those fake airline agents abruptly walked away. Then suddenly they briefly reappeared, popping around the corner to shoot me an evil grin. More weird behavior.
Don't you just love body language and micro facial expressions as tells? That's why I don't play poker as it just isn't fair to the other guys at the table. Anyway, I was just waiting for Nixon's agents to feel smug and self-satisfied and finally leave so I could approach the Helms' guys, keeping them out of trouble by not giving away their willingness to be decent.
By then my sleep deprived and understandably unruly and whining little sister, and I, were finally on our way to the Aunt and Uncle in Annapolis who were frantic after trying to locate us for the past two days. A very nice airline ticket agent placed the collect call for us since I did know the exact address of my Aunt and Uncle and she found the phone number through information. Of course, I had no money left at that point since I used it for food and drink for my sister so a collect call was the only avenue left.
We were MIA as a result of purposeful delays to deprive me of sleep so I could not make good decisions, and, therefore, easily place us in the kill zone. All that sleep deprivation and so called "lost luggage" strategy did was improve my decision-making as it placed me on heightened alert. Besides, after departing Taiwan our plane was delayed in Japan for hours where they suddenly changed all the crew.
I saw them take our luggage off the plane and not replace it like they did everyone else's. It was like another one of those Bad Dad Tricks so I was aware we were being set up and in the process of getting screwed over. I just had to be patient and wait to see how it played out. It wasn't like we were going anywhere, trapped on the plane.
Of course, the new airline attendants and crew thought they were ever so stealthy as they actually watched me like hawks, scribbling notes every 10 minutes, whispering to each other, as I got up to stroll out the kinks from hours and hours during the long boring trip. Talk about weird behavior. When was the last time a flight attendant took notes on you? Exactly.
After all, my father and step-mother knew about the Los Angeles henchmen assassination setup as I was only given $20 for the two of us in case anything happened and to travel 8,000 miles. Even my usually stingy stepmother thought I should have $100 for the long trip. Did I mention I had never traveled alone, this was my second plane trip, and knew nothing about what to do in the event of an emergency or the flights changed?
No phone number was provided to me for my father's sister in Annapolis. In fact, I had requested it several times but I was refused as many times which alerted me then to something really negative was in the works against me. True; I have no use for depraved indifference as a result be it in politics, parenting, the military, you name it. There is no excuse for ducking responsibility or compassion in this life.
Well, the parents' depraved attitude and neglect did leave me free to my own devices and made me resourceful, to say the least, as I worked to figure out how to keep my sister and I safe in a ruthless environment - with no training provided like the agency sometimes gives to families today. It also taught me to develop unorthodox thinking and unusual networks of disparate people.
After my little sister and I returned to America, a couple of weeks later there was only the de-briefing contact as the CIA returned my pilfered luggage, acting like they were airline agents. But airline agents don't allude to whether your CIA officer father might be a traitor. To which I replied he was too stupid to know how, easily manipulated by fawning compliments delivered by other agents pretending to be his friends. No worries there. There was no need to kill the putz. The man looked surprised I nailed exactly what they thought of my father no matter how good his resume looked on paper.
My poor frazzled worried Aunt breathed a sigh of relief as she realized what they were doing and yet her stupid obnoxious brother would now live. Did I mention my uncle was former WWII Navy intelligence and a physicist that worked in weapons research? It wasn't like my Aunt was a stranger to the whole nefarious intelligence community snooping, threats and usual obnoxious behavior.
That said, fast forward to the present and know that I am finally finished healing from the car accident that sidelined me the past seven years, healing from nerve damage. Guess I was too nice and forgiving of the old guy that should never have been driving as he rammed into me at 50 mph while I was sitting still - and trapped with nowhere to get out of his way.
But I figured I would heal faster and more thoroughly if I did not harbor anger and resentment on a spiritual level. I also passed on all pain meds as I did not want to get caught in the healing process and it would never finish because the brain was suppressed. The agony of years of nerve pain was rewarded with a full healing and I'm now pain free for several years. The absolute wonders of what the brain can do if you will only cooperate with the process.
So, enough about me. That was to give you a flavor of how strong-willed I am to achieve what others label as impossible. I also worked my plans to the final successful conclusions - neither were easy but I accomplished them. The word "impossible" is an annoying word I refuse to accept. The phrase "not yet but soon or eventually" would be more appropriate in most situations.
What is my proposal? Writing the news gives a person a great overview of culture, what is happening globally and historically. It also points out resource problems for pressing situations. As a conceptual thinker, I do have this habit of combining ideas from the oddest corners to cobble together a practical solution. Sounds nebulous for the details only learner? Read on.
Here's a novel idea. I've been contemplating how to put to work one of our nation's best and most costly resources since it's time I "pay it forward": retired Navy Seals and other Special Forces soldiers. I had hoped I could "pay it forward" by writing about their needs as veterans and political writing these past few years but it's increasingly evident what I've been doing really is not enough. It's time to get more involved.
Too often these retired military Special Forces are farmed out as security to diplomats (a good idea) or hired as security consultant firms for the nation or corporations (another obvious good use). But what does the government get for all those millions of dollars spent on these individual men after they retire, taking their knowledge into usually the private sector or just retire all together? Not much.
Because these Navy Seals are severe over achievers, proficient in the hardest of experiences, they are often found to be too difficult to work with one on one as partners. Even the regular military find them either scary or just plain not user friendly. Yet I say we start a partnering program of one military to one civilian. These can't just be any civilians. They must be mentally tough, perhaps even ex-military. Ex-CIA officers partnered with them will not work in most circumstances since there are serious trust issues on both sides.
So, I'm going to jump up and volunteer to play the prototype guinea pig because what I am suggesting is a program where a retired or almost retired male Navy Seal is paired with a civilian woman of similar age. Yeah, I'm probably crazy but hear me out as this could be one brilliant idea if carried out well. It will take years to develop before we could bring on the next generation. I love being the tip of the spear when it comes to innovation and experimentation.
Women - even civilian women - need real experience in the military and intelligence environments in order to develop as the country's leaders in the private and public sectors. Profile for women who are spiritual and truly confident - not just bluster - as they are the only kind who can hold their own in the area of mental toughness and not wilt under pressure. And you don't want them young either, at least well past the age of fifty, because of what could be the obvious complications.
I am suggesting to make good use of the Baby Boomer age group for both the civilian women and the retired military men. The military is culturally derisive and disdainful of civilians - and often downright frightened of us. It's time the two come together and learn from each other. We have had a volunteer military for two generations now. The civilian population no longer understands or relates to the military environment it once did because most of the civilian population has never served. Because of that cultural divide a huge amount of institutional memory is increasingly being lost from the American culture to our detriment.
That said, women are by far more teachable than men, as most older women are willing to lay aside career ambition and bloated ego to achieve the problem solving. What I'm also saying is that many older Navy Seals are getting pushed aside by the younger Seals who think they can't teach them anything. The older guys maybe can't teach the younger about technology but they can teach them about institutional memory which is invaluable as the administrations change every four to eight years, mindsets of adversaries, strategies used in the past that can be tweaked for the present and so much more.
So, how about a detailed plan to achieve this you say? Yeah, I am so ready for you. I thought I'd start from the top down with a Navy Seal that has tremendous institutional memory, is retired but consulting, drives the regular Joint Chiefs of Staff crazy, is not very user friendly and is still a fire-breathing dragon in his older age: Seal Team Six's originator Richard Marcinko.
I remember when my husband, nicknamed Satan in my house as he specializes in being difficult just for his idea of fun, came home years ago with one of Marcinko's books. All his male co-workers were so excited and reading the Weisman penned Marcinko fictional dramas drawn from his Seal experiences. My husband hands me the book and says, "Hey, you're the macho one in the family and I don't have time to read it. You read it and tell me all about it so I can talk about it at work with my friends." So, I did read it and several others after that point in time. I was struck by how at that time Marcinko was basically an annoying 13-year-old who was a fire-breathing Visigoth dragon on steroids. He sure had me laughing, a testament to the good writing of Weisman.
Hopefully, Marcinko has mellowed at least 10 percent - and probably several wives since then. I can imagine a man like this is eager to teach what he knows and get back in the game on some level. So, you guessed it, I'm willing to partner with this fire-breathing dragon. Just call me Kahleesi, Mother of Dragons (Game of Thrones). As soon as I publish this post, I will probably go outside and kick myself around the block a few times for volunteering to partner with Satan 2.0, but what the hell, I'm starting to get bored and need a new innovative project and a tough global challenge now that I'm all healthy again.
Just understand if he annoys me he might limp into work one day - after I take a baseball bat to him. I promise you I won't quit the very program I'm creating even if he does irritate me but it will cost you more money, perhaps double or triple. :) That said, the man has experience creating new programs and is a fellow innovator. I just make wiser decisions and cannot be bullied. Why not pair him with someone willing to learn his institutional memory and other valuable knowledge? He, and a lot of other Seals in his age group, aren't getting any younger, many already well into their 70's.
It's time we keep our retired Special Forces purposefully engaged and still useful in their older age, helping to spread knowledge to the civilian sector as well as the private corporate sector. As we connect with counterparts globally, when useful or necessary, we could be the more effective and better organized back channels for on-going problems.
What's important is that we assess the resources and skills - or lack of - in each country, weather and terrain challenges after a disaster like an earthquake has occurred, cultural and religious issues in order to connect civilian groups of us for the benefit of all the countries, not just America's national interests. It certainly could speed up and streamline response time for national and international disasters as we will know who to call for what and get it to the area in the world most in need immediately. No more would we face this red tape nonsense of bloated inefficient bureaucracies. Groups of civilians (not just businesses for profit), military and government folks all intertwined and working together would go a long way toward bringing down the temperature of heated world politics.
It's time to step up and "be the change you want to see in the world." Send Dragon Boy Marcinko. I've recently googled what he looks like now and will recognize him as I won't answer the door or the phone unless I recognize someone. After the brief bio above I'm sure you understand why this is my policy.
I'm sure Marcinko's up for a challenge. We could run the program out of DNI Clapper's office since he is probably one of the few with the patience for Marcinko, maybe one of the old dragon's few real friends, as he is ex-Navy (Marine and Air Force) too. We can develop an awesome program for retired Special Forces vets that will get the most bang for the buck the American taxpayer has invested. Works for me. Game on.
This idea could go a long way toward redirecting the focus of other countries away from nukes as protection. Let's bring down the world political temperature as everyone gets attention and benefits from this program. It has to be cheaper than foreign aid money thrown down the rabbit hole. At least this way we would no longer fly blind, be constantly involved and it would not be necessary to always respond with a violent military solution.
I get to "pay it forward" for those guys that helped me when I was a kid by creating this program and helping them have purposeful work in their old age. The Navy Seals get to be truly useful and considered partners instead of just protection war dogs for traveling diplomats. The American taxpayer continues to benefit from their investment. Everyone wins.
Contact the Dragon Boy, send him to Louisiana, and let's get this program moving as the current situation with North Korea just proves there is no time to waste.
RISE to the Situation saying in large font
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