Being Taken Seriously, and Not

Yesterday afternoon, while engaged in some overdue physical labor out in the back of my home, I heard the radio newsreader report that another aircraft had violated the Washington, D.C., No-Fly Zone. This time, it was a much more powerful and speedy aircraft of the corporate variety. At least part of the government evacuated. Then, to my astonishment, the lady newsreader said that this was the THIRD AIRCRAFT THIS DAY TO VIOLATE THE CAPITAL NO-FLY ZONE.

All sorts of things ran through my mind. First and foremost was this so-called "war on terror." Right behind it came the issue involving the aircraft. My mind matched them and told me why.

First, let me ask the rhetorical question of why we are having such a hard time being taken seriously in the world. The truly bad guys, e.g., jihadists and their sponsors Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Syria really laugh at us. In fact, so does that caricature figure in North Korea. China is wary but still plays us like a Wurlitzer. Many other countries look at us with disregarding disdain, including those self-appointed saints populating "old Europe."

Now, leap ahead a bit to the Washington, D.C., and the "invading aircraft" issue.

The last big public kerfuffle involved two persons flying with Lindbergh era technology over the capital, coming dangerously close to the capitol before we spent a jillion dollars scrambling two 21st century military aircraft to "advise" these "Maryland hillbillies" to veer away. A few more seconds, and they would have been right over Nancy Pelosi who had already panicked right out of her pumps. You can imagine how a dropped "trucker bomb" filled with Sarin might have stirred the fleeing "sand crabs."

Much, much too much, talk followed. Fingers pointed. Tongues wagged. And, "at the end of the day," to cite another contemporary cliche', not a damned thing changed. The guys flying the "Ma and Pa Kettle Express" got into a heap of trouble, and they took the hit for all the others who managed to make it to the cover-your-a__ dispenser just in time to fog up the issue beyond recognition or management.

Later, it comes out that over 60 incidents per month like this happen. All the king's men and all the king's horses can't stop Humpty Dumpty from repeating this stuff at an average of twice a day. And what is the "national response"? It goes something like this: You know, we have the full authority to shoot you from the sky many miles away from the Capitol, when you enter forbidden air space. You know this because it has been disseminated to all airports, flight schools and businesses, airlines, newspapers, and all other electronic and print news media. And, stern warnings have gone out over and over and over and over and over; well, you know, a whole bunch. Don't you ever, ever, ever do this again, or we might just refer you to the U.N. Security Council for a "stern resolution."

Guess what happens? No change, that is what happens. Why does nothing happen? It is really very simple: No one who flies takes our government seriously.

The same thing goes on internationally. We find endless ways to insert our national head deep into our rectum and tell ourselves that no one can see anything. At least we can't hear them laughing at us while our head is so placed.

Everybody in government has talked enough. Everybody in America as well as everybody all over the world knows our principles. No further education is needed. We have been speaking softly while saying we have the big stick. Now it is time to shut up and thump with the big stick, over and over until we get the results that matter to us.

Try this on. Tomorrow, every airplane violating the Washington no-fly security zone is shot down within the first two miles of entering the forbidden zone. If three doufuses trespass, then three doufuses learn about air-to-air missles. Everybody else learns that WE MEAN WHAT WE SAY.

Now, guess what happens the day after? Why, bless my soul, no more aircraft violate the zone. It will be a cold day in hell before another plane "forgets."

Now, suppose we let our Marine, Navy, Air Force, and Army pilots use anything in Syria for target practice one day. We tell the old eye doctor that this was really just scrimmage; we plan to turn these guys loose the next day and the days to follow unless his support of all this jihadic crap ceases permanently. He, of course, will look at our past behavior and laugh at us. But, the next day, our guys carve up Syria into four zones and come in from the Mediterranean and Iraq, just itching to try everything they have ever wanted to try. Syria goes silent because no one is left to speak for it.

Then we ask Saudi Arabia and Iran if they "feel lucky." When they laugh, we thank them for "making our day," tomorrow. Then we provide them a sample of what that means.

Guess what? The "insurgency" in Iraq goes very quiet, and Iraq gets on with the business of updating itself from the 7th century C.E. Our men and women stop dying, as well as the Iraqis, and we start getting the hell out of there.

The old principle is "mean what you say," along with its counterpart, "say what you mean."

All the politicians, bureaucrats, academics, journalists, etc., make everything much too complicated. They "nuance" life into morasses, impasses, and total constipation. Think of what would happen, given the moral chimeras of today:

The ClapTrap-o-Crats arise in unison, become like Dervishes, chanting their prepared scripts while whirling mindlessly. The White Rabbit Republicans grab their quarters and head for the Compromise-for-Every-Occasion vending machine. Every cabinet department turns its spin cycle to high. All of the bore-you-to-death news networks book everybody they can find who has a negative opinion, in hopes that someone, other than their staff members, will watch. Fox runs the same damned story every five minutes around the clock until people begin throwing brickbats at their televisions. Every windbag lawyer who can find a television camera bleats, sounding like an ailing bagpipe. Every "people's organization" lights up its internet websites. Everybody scares everybody else into total stagnation. Nothing gets done.

Tomorrow, the planes violate D.C. airspace, and every worthless tyrant in every worthless country laughs at us anew.

The solution is not hard to understand. All it takes is opening one's eyes, seeing the facts of reality, identifying the principles involved, and acting in accordance with those principles. It is called morality.