CHUCK HAGEL AS SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

Whatever your views on Secretary of Defense designate Chuck Hagel, if the Senate confirms him, the likelihood that he will leave Defense four years from now better than he found it are extremely low. Discussions about Sen. Hagel’s personal views on gays, Iran, Israel, and other issues aside—after all, the White House makes policy, not the Pentagon—he will have little going for him and enormous challenges to deal with as he assumes office.  (Read the full column at EWRoss.com)

Filed under: National Security, 9th Infantry Division, Afghanistan, Air Force, Army, best and the brightest, Bill Clinton, brigades, broken marriages, china, Chuck Hagel, Ed Ross, ewross, fighters, First Gulf War, gays, health benefits for the military, Iran, Iraq, israel, John Kerry, light footprint, long-lead-time decisions, Marine, military healthcare, Navy, or George W. Bush, Pentagon, posttraumatic stress disorder, President Obama, PTSD, roles and missions, Ronald Reagan, second-string players, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State designate, sequestration, ships, special operations forces, squadrons, suicides, tanks, U.S. defense industrial base, U.S. forces, U.S. qualitative edge, Vietnam War, White House, wings

CHRISTMASES THEN, NOW, AND YET TO COME

Each of us who celebrates Christmas in America, at one time or another as December 25 approaches, thinks about Christmases then, now, and yet to come. We string Christmases past together in our minds as if they were bulbs on an old strand of Christmas lights. There are those that flicker and glow dimly or not at all because they hold unhappy memories; and there are those that glow brightly with happy ones. We wonder how brightly Christmas present will glow when it becomes a Christmas past and how many more bright bulbs we’ll add to the string. (Read the full column at EWRoss.com)

Filed under: Uncategorized, 1949, 9th Infantry Division, Afghanistan War, American Embassy, Beijing, china, Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas in America, Christmas lights, Christmases past present and future, December 1966, December 1983, December 25, Ed Ross, end stage renal disease, ewross, grandchildren, Happy New Year, Howdy Doody, Iraq, Merry Christmas, peace on earth good will to men, Pennsylvania, Philco, religious, Revolutionary War, Saigon, secular, son-in-law, Swissvale, test patern, traditionalists, TV set, U.S. Army Attache, Vietnam, Walter Reed Army Hospital, Washington D.C.

WHY SOME AMERICAN WARRIORS BEHAVE BADLY

In every American war there have been those few that will urinate on enemy corpses or degrade and abuse enemy detainees. War is hell and it can bring out the worst in people. But do those who behave badly do so because of the stresses of combat or because of a propensity for such behavior before they entered the military? As a Vietnam War combat veteran, I can testify that both are true; but instances of the latter, in my opinion, outnumber the former as American men and women in uniform bring with them their personal moral and ethical bearings.  (Read the full column at EWRoss.com)

Filed under: Military, 9th Infantry Division, Abu Ghraib, Afghanistan, alcohol and drug abuse, American warriors, behave badly, cell-phone video, Conflicts and Wars, cut ears of corpses, desecration of corpses, digital photography, Ed Ross, ewross, firebombing, General William Westmorland, geopolitical environment, Germans, Germany, highly decorated combat veterans, History, Hollywood propaganda, Internet, Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans, Japan, Japanese, Japanese fishing boats, Japanese Navy, laws of war, Mai Lai Massacre, Marines, Medal of Honor recipients, mental stability, Military, moral and ethical choices of tomorrow, moral fabric of American society, moral relativism, mores of war, posttraumatic stress disorder, psychiatrists, psychology of war, PTSD, search-and-destroy strategy, sub-human, suicide, U.S. Armed Forces, U.S. government, U.S. submarines, Uniform Code of Military Justice, United States, urinating on Taliban corpses, VC, Veteran, vietcong, Vietcong villages, Vietnam War, Vietnam War combat veteran, war crimes, warriors, world war II

CHRISTMASES PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

Each of us who celebrate Christmas in America, at one time or another as December 25 approaches, thinks about Christmases past, present, and future. We string Christmases past together in our minds as if they were bulbs on an old strand of Christmas lights. There are those that glow dimly or not at all because they hold unhappy memories; and there are those that glow brightly with happy ones. We wonder how brightly Christmas present will glow when it becomes a Christmas past and how many more bright bulbs we’ll add to the string.  (More)

Filed under: Uncategorized, 1949, 9th Infantry Division, Afghanistan War, American Embassy, Beijing, china, Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas in America, Christmas lights, Christmases past present and future, December 1966, December 1983, December 25, Ed Ross, end stage renal disease, ewross, grandchildren, Happy New Year, holiday, Howdy Doody, Iraq, Lights, Merry Christmas, peace on earth good will to men, Pennsylvania, Philco, religious, Revolutionary War, Saigon, secular, son-in-law, Swissvale, test patern, traditionalists, TV set, U.S. Army Attache, Vietnam, Walter Reed Army Hospital, Washington D.C.