Category: News

  • Finally, A President That Can Admit Defeat

    Don’t Send Our Young Men and Women into a War We Cannot Win

    “With Taliban fighters poised to rout the U.S.-backed Afghan government — and with it the 20-year, multibillion-dollar effort to root Western-style democracy in Afghan soil — President Biden over the weekend first offered compassion for those left behind. “Our hearts go out to the brave Afghan men and women who are now at risk,” he said in a statement late Saturday as insurgents closed in on Kabul. But then Biden pivoted to the cold calculation behind his decision to pull the plug on a mission that has cost more than 2,000 American lives.” 1

    • The American War in Afghanistan: A History
      The American War in Afghanistan: A History by Carter Malkasian
      The American War in Afghanistan: A History – Available from Amazon.com

      The American war in Afghanistan, which began in 2001, is now the longest armed conflict in the nation’s history. It is currently winding down, and American troops are likely to leave soon ― but only after a stay of nearly two decades.

      In The American War in Afghanistan, Carter Malkasian provides the first comprehensive history of the entire conflict. Malkasian is both a leading academic authority on the subject and an experienced practitioner, having spent nearly two years working in the Afghan countryside and going on to serve as the senior advisor to General Joseph Dunford, the US military commander in Afghanistan and later the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Drawing from a deep well of local knowledge, understanding of Pashto, and review of primary source documents, Malkasian moves through the war’s multiple phases: the 2001 invasion and after; the light American footprint during the 2003 Iraq invasion; the resurgence of the Taliban in 2006, the Obama-era surge, and the various resets in strategy and force allocations that occurred from 2011 onward, culminating in the 2018-2020 peace talks. Malkasian lived through much of it, and draws from his own experiences to provide a unique vantage point on the war. Today, the Taliban is the most powerful faction, and sees victory as probable. The ultimate outcome after America leaves is inherently unpredictable given the multitude of actors there, but one thing is sure: the war did not go as America had hoped. Although the al-Qa’eda leader Osama bin Laden was killed and no major attack on the American homeland was carried out after 2001, the United States was unable to end the violence or hand off the war to the Afghan authorities, which could not
      survive without US military backing. The American War in Afghanistan explains why the war had such a disappointing outcome.

  • Yes, They Really Said That: Byrne, Locke

    Sister Dierdre Byrne, M.D.

    Called the vaccines “diabolic,” falsely linked them to abortion, and claimed the shots are a government plan for “total control of a populace.” 2

    Of course, the Pope is silent on this statement.

    Pastor Greg Locke

    He will kick worshippers out of his church if they wear masks, references QAnon conspiracy theories in his sermons, and even calls vaccines “a dangerous scam.” 3

  • Say Something Good – Meetings

    By Art Fettig

    Meetings

    Meetings. Attending the Trade Show of the AENC this week at the fabulous new Raleigh Convention Center, I met with perhaps a couple of hundred people who are involved in creating Association meetings that make a difference in their particular field. It started me thinking about the conferences and conventions I had attended in my earlier career. The first one was in Texas and I had won an Assoc. of American Railroad’s Award for an article I had written. My wife and I were treated almost like celebrities and somehow it made all of that extra work I had done in writing such articles worthwhile. My horizons expanded all the way from Michigan to Texas. I learned more attending sessions at that meeting than I had learned in my entire career as a claim agent for the railroad. It was like being exposed to a big, new, wonderful world.  I know, like me, you have attended far too many disorganized, unprepared meetings than one should endure in one’s lifetime, still, it was exciting to be exposed to all of these wonderful people who are so totally dedicated to make their meetings and conventions really have a positive impact on their attendees and their profession..  May God bless America and keep our troops from harm. 

    Form Art Fettig’s Newsletter – December 14, 2009

  • I love A Parade

    By Art Fettig

    Art Fettig
    Art Fettig laughing while sitting in his “borrowed” Lamborghini – The seat is almost on the floor…

    No, I didn’t ride in that beautiful red Lamborghini.  The seat is almost on the floor of that beautiful car and I figured it would take a crane at least to get me out of it. One strong man managed the job. Instead. I rode in the annual Mt. Airy, NC Christmas parade in a 1938 Chevrolet coupe and it was a real thrill. The sign on our vehicle read, “Almost  Andy…Art Fettig” I couldn’t resist the temptation to get out and walk and I must have walked half way from here to eternity before the parade was over. My new business card reads, “Almost Andy,  Close enough for most.”  No matter how many times I told greeters that I was not Andy Griffith the more they went right on telling me how they loved the TV show and how they had seen every program. Some families told how they taped the program every day and watched it at 5 PM every day as a family. At least a dozen individuals told me how happy they were to finally have an Andy Griffith look-alike that really looked like Andy. I hope I didn’t deceive anyone unintentionally.

    Seeing all of those smiling faces I hope that I brought a little joy into the lives of those hundreds of people watching the parade. Meeting Santa and Mrs. Claus was the most fun of all.  It’s great to be eighty and I sure do love a parade. I do. 

    From Art Fettig’s Newsletter – December 14, 2009

  • When Does Life Being?

    A Jewish Perspective

    Baby Finger

    “Nineteen hundred years ago when Caesar Anthony asked this question of Rabbi Yehudah Ha’Nasee, the rabbi replied: “From the moment the fetus emerges from the womb” (Midrash Bereishit Rabbah 34:10). The 11th-century Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi) explained: “for the fetus in the womb is not considered a person until it is born” (Talmud Bav’li, Sanhedrin 72b). Earlier rabbinic codes clearly place the welfare of the mother first, and “if a woman experiences difficulty in childbirth, the fetus is dismembered within her, limb by limb, because her life takes precedence” (Mishnah Ohalot 7:6 and Talmud Yerushalmi, Sanhedrin, end of Ch. 8).

    Not only her life, later rabbis added, but her emotional well-being. “While woman is biologically equipped to bear children,” writes Rav Yeruchem Perilman (19th century), “she is nevertheless not as a clump of earth, and is therefore not obliged to nurture seed implanted within her against her will” (in Ohr Gadol No. 31).

    Classical Jewish rulings concerning abortion rely primarily on the woman’s instinct, and they respect that until the fetus emerges from the womb, it remains an integral part of the woman’s body alone.

    Rabbi Gershon Winkler
    Walking Stick Foundation
    Thousand Oaks, CA”

    References: