“Exterminate the Brutes”? Any general who advocated that today would be fired.
Most Americans have lost sight of what it takes to win a war. We won WW II because our generals and presidents knew what had to be done, and did it. We destroyed the German army (not discounting the contributions of the Russians and Brits) and flattened their cities. We introduced Japan to the nuclear age. without apologies. Until we have national leadership who understand what it takes to win a war, we will continue to drift along without winning one or worse, lose one.
I'm not a soldier. So I speak from a historical, rather than a visceral perspective. But the idea of war is that all else has failed and it's now time to use force to impose your will on your adversary. This is no place for half measures. You do what is necessary and you do it quickly. It's dirty, cruel and awful which is why it's a last resort. The modern idea of "limited war" has just made it more likely.
I was a US soldier for 2 years half a century ago. When someone talks about war that means someone like me is likely to die. Fight to win IF WE MUST but recall that Eisenhower and Reagan won the Cold War with intelligence and determination, qualities which seem rare in our government recently.
In 1972 I taught engineering for one year in a California state college after leaving UCLA . I discovered I really hate faculty politics. The department had 5 students from the near east. Several had been caught cheating but the Dean refused to expel them. I was naive about the out of state tuition enhancement. The second semester one of them showed up in my class not on my role sheet. He told me the Dean transferred him into my class. When I discussed this with the Dean he told me that this particular young man had decided to negotiate a better grade by threatening to kill the professor. The Dean asserted I would not have this issue. I was 2 years out of the army , 6-2 190 pounds.
I really like the Mideast culture, just not trying to reach some of them. Later I spent one month in eastern Syria. Moslem hospitality is overwhelming and quite real.
Sorry, but the missile silo photo is really scary. The same sort of idiots that run ISU are running of ruining our national security with their endless and needless wars of aggression in Ukraine and the Far East. If they bring us into a nuclear conflict do they really imagine that they and their families will survive even if they have reservations in our underground bunkers?
And to this day the holdovers from the Value-less (ops! I meant “Vailas”) mis administration refuse to admit they were grossly at fault for having any truck with this cash-for-pass scam. Not only did the scam NOT pay off from the foreign student tuition but the blatant misbehavior of the barbarians drove many of the regular student base to transfer to other universities.
And I have ZERO sympathy for the greedy landlords and car dealers who sought to cash in on these “rich” students: they raised rents making off campus housing beyond the reach of the students from our own state and region. And then the landlords were “shocked! I’m shocked I tell you!” that the damages left by the barbarians exceeded any rents they collected - assuming these students honored their rental contracts at all.
But the administration pandering to them is all of the same piece as ISU’s endless pandering to even its regular student base with grade inflation and the admin refusal to enforce academic discipline against cheating and plagiarism.
“Exterminate the Brutes”? Any general who advocated that today would be fired.
Most Americans have lost sight of what it takes to win a war. We won WW II because our generals and presidents knew what had to be done, and did it. We destroyed the German army (not discounting the contributions of the Russians and Brits) and flattened their cities. We introduced Japan to the nuclear age. without apologies. Until we have national leadership who understand what it takes to win a war, we will continue to drift along without winning one or worse, lose one.
I'm not a soldier. So I speak from a historical, rather than a visceral perspective. But the idea of war is that all else has failed and it's now time to use force to impose your will on your adversary. This is no place for half measures. You do what is necessary and you do it quickly. It's dirty, cruel and awful which is why it's a last resort. The modern idea of "limited war" has just made it more likely.
I was a US soldier for 2 years half a century ago. When someone talks about war that means someone like me is likely to die. Fight to win IF WE MUST but recall that Eisenhower and Reagan won the Cold War with intelligence and determination, qualities which seem rare in our government recently.
In 1972 I taught engineering for one year in a California state college after leaving UCLA . I discovered I really hate faculty politics. The department had 5 students from the near east. Several had been caught cheating but the Dean refused to expel them. I was naive about the out of state tuition enhancement. The second semester one of them showed up in my class not on my role sheet. He told me the Dean transferred him into my class. When I discussed this with the Dean he told me that this particular young man had decided to negotiate a better grade by threatening to kill the professor. The Dean asserted I would not have this issue. I was 2 years out of the army , 6-2 190 pounds.
I really like the Mideast culture, just not trying to reach some of them. Later I spent one month in eastern Syria. Moslem hospitality is overwhelming and quite real.
Until it is not
PS - Welcome home!
Sorry, but the missile silo photo is really scary. The same sort of idiots that run ISU are running of ruining our national security with their endless and needless wars of aggression in Ukraine and the Far East. If they bring us into a nuclear conflict do they really imagine that they and their families will survive even if they have reservations in our underground bunkers?
Thank you Martin!
And to this day the holdovers from the Value-less (ops! I meant “Vailas”) mis administration refuse to admit they were grossly at fault for having any truck with this cash-for-pass scam. Not only did the scam NOT pay off from the foreign student tuition but the blatant misbehavior of the barbarians drove many of the regular student base to transfer to other universities.
And I have ZERO sympathy for the greedy landlords and car dealers who sought to cash in on these “rich” students: they raised rents making off campus housing beyond the reach of the students from our own state and region. And then the landlords were “shocked! I’m shocked I tell you!” that the damages left by the barbarians exceeded any rents they collected - assuming these students honored their rental contracts at all.
But the administration pandering to them is all of the same piece as ISU’s endless pandering to even its regular student base with grade inflation and the admin refusal to enforce academic discipline against cheating and plagiarism.
ISU deserves to rot.