1. The Case for Not Invading Iraq
2. Meanderings of a Military Mind
3. An Indictment of Leadership
4. Do-It-Yourself Guide to Simulating Submarine Life at Home
5. The Sea
6. Letter to a Fellow Former Naval Officer
The Case for Not Invading Iraq
By
Skip Keyser
(Originally published in The Napa Valley Register, January 11, 2003)
Youth is the
first victim of war; the first fruit of peace. It takes twenty years or more to make a man; it takes only
twenty seconds of war to destroy him...
Baudouin I of
Belgium
There
may come a time and a place to expend America’s economic resources and youth in
furtherance of an oil-dominated foreign policy, but this is not the time and
Iraq is not the place.
And yet, an
administration increasingly characterized by the President’s recent statement that
any questioning of the government constitutes giving aid and comfort to the
enemy, seems inexorably determined to invade Iraq and to embroil the U.S. once
again in an armed conflict in an area of the world we little understand.
In support of this
policy, one hears the oft quoted statistic that 67% of those polled are in
favor of invading Iraq. This
brings to mind Mark Twain’s observation that “there are lies, there are damned
lies, and then there are statistics.”
In this era of an all-volunteer military, this particular statistic,
that 67% of the populace favors invading Iraq, has no relevance to me
What would have
relevance, and what would send a clarion call to arms that would be hard to
ignore, would be if 67% of the mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, sons and
daughters of those who will actually bear the brunt of invading Iraq – that is,
the military ground forces – were in favor of war with Iraq. Now that would be a statistic worth
paying attention to.
Perhaps an even
better statistic would be if 67% of the present administration were in favor of
personally going over and invading Iraq.
Or if even 67% of the present administration had ever served on active
duty in the military.
Unfortunately, as a direct consequence of abolishing universal military
service, we no longer have a civilian populace acquainted first, or even
second-hand with war’s terrible price.
It should therefore not be surprising that they are increasingly callous
to or indifferent of the true cost of armed conflict, or that 67% favor
[somebody else] invading Iraq.
And beyond the
potential loss of life, an invasion, estimated by a former Bush advisor to cost
in excess of $200 billion (that’s about a $1000 for every man, woman and child
in the U.S.) would expend funds better used to repair our fraying domestic
infrastructure. $200,000,000,000
may not seem like much in a $10 trillion economy (this brings to mind one
Congressman’s comment that “A billion here, a billion there…pretty soon we’re
talking about real money!”) but it would do much to assist with improving our
education system, public safety infrastructure and medical care, just to name
three domestic areas that need attention.
And why invade
Iraq? We have, for the past decade
(largely unnoticed by those of us at home) been fairly successful in containing
Saddam Hussein by enforcing the northern and southern no-fly zones over
Iraq. While this has no doubt
stretched our military budget, it nonetheless provides daily contact with Iraqi
forces and allows us to keep the pulse of events in Iraq.
Additionally, we
have, largely through the efforts of UN Secretary General Koffe Annan and
Secretary of State Collin Powell, and in response to intense diplomatic
pressure from many of our allies not to undertake unilateral military action,
been successful in reinstating on-the-ground weapons inspections in Iraq.
Beyond this, there
are other (“national sensor”) resources which can be repositioned to keep track
of developments in Iraq. As early
as the 1970’s satellite photography was capable of detecting, by the shoulder
board markings, the rank of a Soviet officer walking on the streets of
Moscow. In the intervening thirty
years or so, the quality of this intelligence can only have improved. Certainly a tool such as this, which in
its infancy allowed us to detect the introduction of Soviet missiles in Cuba,
in its maturity can provide detailed monitoring of Iraq at something less than
$200 billion and with fewer loss of lives.
And why Iraq? Does Iraq present such a danger to the
U.S. that we need to stretch the fabric of our economic system and jeopardize
our political alliances with other Middle Eastern countries by insisting on
direct military action? It was,
after all, Al-Queida, not Iraq, which attacked the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon. And as I recall, there
have been more reports of support of Al-Queida from some of our allies (notably
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, to name just two) than from Iraq.
Which leads one to
the oft-quoted observation by the philosopher George Santayana that “those who
do not study history are condemned to repeat it.” This seems ironically
prescient for the current administration.
It is, in fact,
the economy, Mr. President.
And with the 2004
election just around the corner, President Bush should expend more of his
efforts ensuring he remains in office and less effort trying to get Saddam
Hussein out of office.
Keyser is a
retired submarine officer
Meanderings of a Military Mind
by Skip Keyser
(Originally published in The Napa Valley Register, May 30, 2003)
(Originally published in The Napa Valley Register, May 30, 2003)
We are now entering a new phase in our invasion of
Iraq, one that will no doubt prove exceptionally challenging if (hopefully)
less lethal than the previous phase.
As the Army’s 4th Armored Division
relieves the Marine Corps 1st Expeditionary Force in eastern
Baghdad, one can only reflect on the significant role the USMC has played in
this conflict. As anyone who has
watched the last few minutes of The Newshour with Jim Leher over the past few
weeks must realize, the Marines, by choice, fate or assignment, once again
found themselves in the thick of things.
Without detracting from the role played and
sacrifices made by the Army and Air Force, and without delving into the
question of whether or not this particular military adventure was justified,
the somber display of names and photographs of those U.S. military personnel
killed in Iraq since March 17th seems heavily weighted with members
of the United States Marine Corps.
My own involvement with the Marine Corps has been
somewhat quixotic, having served (out of 22 years active duty) for just under 5
years with a mixed group of Marines, submariners and airdales (US Navy
aircrew-qualified personnel) in the wilds of Idaho, two of these years under
the command of a USMC colonel.
[What such a group was doing in the wilds of Idaho is another story.]
I do however, remember taking the bus to the
recruiting station on the second floor of the Oakland post office building in
the early 1960’s and toying with the idea of enlisting in the Marine
Corps. At that time, you had to
walk past the Marine Corps recruiting office to get to the Navy recruiter. I recall thinking how sharp the Marines
looked in their tan and blues, but I was determined to serve on submarines and
at the time the Marine Corps didn’t have any. Over five years later, during the Tet offensive, I had ample
time to reflect on how life can be affected by seemingly innocuous decisions.
Regardless, it was axiomatic in those days (and
probably still is) that sailors made light of the Marine Corps’ contribution to
peace and freedom. At the height
of the cold war, when America’s military might and primary defense strategy was
concentrated in the ballistic missile submarine force and the Strategic Air
Force, there seemed little purpose served by a branch of the service whose
primary goal in life (beyond – at that time – guarding military gates, not one
of which, we liked to quip, had the Marine Corps ever lost in their [then]
197-year history) was amphibious assault.
Most of us, born after such events as Guadalcanal,
Tarawa (“Tarawa, Bloody Tarawa”), Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Siapan, Peleliu, Iwo
Jima (which led to the remark by Admiral Nimitz, in direct reference to the
Marine Corps’ performance, that “Uncommon valor was a common virtue”) and
Okinawa, were unaware of the sacrifices made by the USMC in carving out a path
in the south-east and western Pacific to the Japanese homeland.
And we were even more unaware of the history of the
4th Marine Brigade in WWI in the Belleau Wood sector, whose
performance and esprit de corps was characterized by their response to a French
general’s entreaty to immediately withdraw before a German advance. “Retreat hell, we just got here!” The Marines held, unlike the French, which
no doubt gave credence to the old saw that the reason the Champs Elise is lined
with trees is so the German army doesn’t have to march in the sun. Between the Belleau Wood, Soissons, St.
Michiel, Blanc Mont and the Meuse-Argonne, the 30,000 Marines who served in
France in WWI suffer 50% casualties in just under 6 months of combat.
Today, the Marine Corps is, technologically,
significantly different than the Marine Corps of old. And yet the precepts of service and professionalism seem to
have remained unchanged. In this
most recent of conflicts, it must certainly be a truism, as the Marine Corps 1st
Expeditionary Force sliced up the eastern approaches to Baghdad, that the first
indication to many Iraqi soldiers that they were about to have a bad day was
when they realized they were face to face with men and women who wear the
eagle, globe and anchor of the United States Marine Corps.
Semper fi.
Keyser is a Napa businessman
An Indictment of
Leadership
by Skip Keyser
(Originally published by The Napa Valley Register, December 6, 2003)
“I am all in favor of the democratic principle that one
person, even an idiot, is as good as one genius. But I draw the line when someone takes the next step and
concludes that two idiots are better than one genius.” Dr. Leo
Szilard, The Manhattan Project
As regards our involvement in Iraq, one is
astonished by the arrogance, absence of long range planning, and general lack
of leadership exhibited by President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld.
Equally complicit, inasmuch as – in this instance -
they constitute the only viable check and balance to the executive branch, is
the United States Congress.
One hopes that the outcome in Iraq will be
different than our involvement in South-east Asia. In Iraq, our involvement is no longer just a matter of right
or wrong. We are firmly on the
ground and, having dismantled the governmental, military and civilian
leadership in Iraq, are now morally and legally responsible for the lives and
safety of some 23 million people.
And the cold hard truth is, that having inserted ourselves into this
situation, we cannot now – as the British blithely did around the globe as
their empire collapsed following WWII – just pack up and walk off.
Unfortunately, as evidenced by the steady toll of
U.S. casualties in Iraq, the United States is enmeshed in a deadly, drawn-out,
perfidious military conflict that bears striking resemblance to our early
involvement in Southeast Asia in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s:
- Involvement in an area of the world where we little understand the
culture, underlying motives and alliances of the people;
- Micromanagement of the military effort from afar by civilian
bureaucrats with little regard - indeed, a tangible disdain – for the
military;
- Military involvement based on questionable – if not fabricated –
issues (the Tonkin Gulf “attack” on U.S. Naval forces in the South China
Sea in the case of Viet Nam; weapons of mass destruction and the attempted
purchase of fissile material in the case of Iraq);
- No clear or well thought out long-term strategy;
- Policies that destabilize the local government with no cohesive
plan for reestablishing local rule;
- A nearsighted belief that technological superiority can overcome a
lack of understanding of the political and cultural aspects on the ground;
- Presidential decisions to become involved based on questionable
motives;
- Congressional support of overt military action in the absence of a
clear, convincing and credible threat to the U.S.;
- Attempting to fund military adventurism abroad while
simultaneously sustaining a domestic peacetime economy;
- Attempting to misconstrue an unprovoked military invasion as an
act of liberation;
- Failing to admit the true status, cost and progress (or lack
thereof) and only belatedly acknowledging the long-term on-the-ground
involvement needed to extricate ourselves from a conflict that we
initiated.
In fairness to the current administration, it will
be another 20 to 25 years before all the facts are known, and before we can
fully understand how we started down this path and what the long-term
consequences are. The near-term
consequences appear substantial.
For the current administration has done more to
dismantle U.S. credibility in Europe, the middle east and among third-world countries
and the United Nations than any other administration in recent memory. The politic speak of “coalition” forces
notwithstanding, the current situation in Iraq is U.S. instigated, U.S. lead,
and U.S. paid for, both in lives and money.
And one also hopes that in 20 to 25 years we don’t
see Secretary Rumsfeld do the McNamara mea culpa walk, wherein the former
Secretary of Defense - as the principal architect of the U.S. buildup in Viet
Nam and having played a direct part in the loss of some 50,000 lives of our
country’s young men and women – now publicly admits that the decision he
advocated and fought for to become increasingly involved in Viet Nam was, after
all, a mistake for which he is sincerely sorry.
Furthermore, one hopes the invasion of Iraq does
not turn out to be someone’s Machiavellian idea of an economic stimulus
package, or – worse yet - a personal vendetta. For in the current situation, it is no longer just guns and
butter – it is now guns and infrastructure, our infrastructure – and the lives
of our men and women – that are at stake.
In this regard, President Bush has broken his
covenant with the Armed Forces.
His charter as Commander in Chief includes husbanding and safeguarding
the lives of the men and women in the military and to only send them in harms
way when, diplomacy and all else having failed, there is no alternative and
legitimate U.S. interests remain at stake.
This is not the case. That our invasion of Iraq was a necessary and unavoidable
step in response to credible threats to U.S. security - the President and
Secretary of Defense’s protestations notwithstanding - has yet to be shown in
any convincing manner.
And the unilateral military invasion of Iraq, the
lack of a moral imperative, and the damage to the U.S. economy, our social
fabric and our world standing, constitutes a prima faci
indictment of this administration’s leadership.
Keyser is a retired military officer
Do-It-Yourself Guide to Simulating Submarine Life at Home
Disclaimer: This is NOT an original item, although I've made some changes to it. It - or similar explanations of submarine life - have been around for ages.
1.
Assemble 143 people whom you do not like. Include several individuals
found loitering around plasma donor centers. Include 14 people who will
do nothing constructive except be first in line for all meals, get the best
seats at all movies and stand around critiquing what you’re trying to
accomplish with comments such as “That’s not the way we used to do it on the
USS Ustafish.” (These are called “riders.” They’re also called “FLOBs”
which stands for Free-Loading Oxygen Breathers.)
2.
Disconnect telephone and stop all mail. Unplug all radios and televisions
to cut yourself off completely from news, football games, etc.
3.
Close all doors and windows. Tape over all openings to outside world.
Do not answer door. If in winter, disconnect heater and turn on air
conditioner; if in summer, disconnect air conditioner and turn on heater.
4.
Paint everything grey or off-white.
5.
Set all clocks to “ZULU” (Greenwich Mean) time. Adopt 18-hour-day
schedule to ensure your body really gets confused.
6.
Cut your bed in half and enclose top and all but one side. Use dimensions
of small packing crate as reference. When not in bed, make up blankets
properly. Once blankets are made up properly, draw bunk curtains so no
one can see your bunk.
7.
Wash bed linen once every two weeks. Take bed linen directly from washer
without drying, and make up bed. Store dirty socks and underwear in a net
bag suspended by your face.
8.
Since there is no doctor available, stockpile band-aids, aspirin, and Actifed
(these are proven cure-alls for all known medical and dental problems).
Practice minor surgery on your dog. If you have no dog, use your
cat. If you have no cat, use yourself.
9.
Do not flush toilet for first two days to simulate the smell of blowing
sanitaries and venting inboard; thereafter, flush only once per day. Once
a month, to simulate inadvertently flushing while blowing sanitaries (because
some idiot left the "Secured - Blowing Sanitaries" sign down) blow
the contents of the toilet in your face using 100 psig air. Stand around
with toilet paper hanging out of your nose while everyone else makes fun of
you. Clean up bathroom.
10.
Wear only polyester blend underwear, socks and coveralls. Wash no more
frequently than once every two weeks. Partially dry, fold and stow under
sink.
11.
Since there are no barbers on board, cut your own hair once a week.
12.
Drip oil and cold salt-water on yourself to simulate leaks from periscopes and
overhead valve packing glands.
13.
Turn off hot water. Take a 5-minute shower once a week (whether you need
one or not). Use only Lava soap. Dry off with someone else's wet
towel.
14.
For entertainment, listen to the same tape cassette over and over until you
can’t stand it anymore; then listen to a cassette that causes acute nausea to
set in.
15.
Daily prepare a “Plan of the Day” listing all activities scheduled for the next
24-hours. Ensure at least half the entries are incorrect. Ensure
other half are ignored.
16.
Set your alarm clock to go off just as you fall asleep. Set the alarm at
the loudest setting. For added realism, buy a special clock with various
alarms such as “Man Battle Stations!” “Fire in the Reactor Compartment!”
“Flooding in the Basement” "Hot Run in the Torpedo Room" etc.
Respond accordingly. After responding accordingly, listen to one of the
above-mentioned FLOBs critique how it was done on the USS Ustafish.
17.
Hourly, monitor all operating home appliances; if not in use, log as
“secured.” If operating erratically, circle entry with approved red
pen. Annotate “Remarks” section of log with appropriate entry, describing
condition, cause, and corrective action taken. Notify someone who cares.
If operating normally, try and find out why.
18.
Periodically open main circuit breaker and run around yelling “Reactor Scram”
until you are sweating profusely. Restore power and secure from reactor
scram. Assemble in kitchen and critique response. Ask FLOB to relate how it used to be
done on the USS Ustafish.
19.
Buy snorkel and mask and hide them. Yell “Fire, Fire, Fire!” Hold
your breath and turn out all lights. Find snorkel and mask, put them on
and pretend you are in a smoke-filled compartment with no way out. For
variety, hook up the snorkel to a garden hose and pressurize. Secure from
fire and re-hide the snorkel and mask. Assemble in kitchen and critique
response. If FLOB starts to
comment on how it used to be done on the USS Ustafish, cold-cock him.
20.
To enable yourself to respond to any eventuality, constantly study all
household wiring and plumbing circuits. Memorize all circuits and be able
to draw from memory, including all trip points, normal operating parameters,
location, interlocks, etc.
21.
Soak all appliance owner’s manuals in oil. Wipe off and memorize.
For no reason at all, once a week tear apart a properly operating small
appliance (toaster, can opener, etc.) just in case it was going to break.
Use only a 4-inch crescent wrench and an electrician’s pocketknife.
Reassemble.
22.
Friday evening stay up all night repairing a major appliance (stove,
refrigerator, etc.). Go to sleep at 5:00 am. At 5:30 am, get up,
turn on all lights, and (manned only with a bucket and sponge) clean one area
over and over. Inspect area and prepare a discrepancy list.
23.
Once a day, after normal programming hours, plug in TV and watch one (1) movie
which (a) is at least 5 years old, (b) you have seen at least twice before, (c)
has no discernable plot, and (d) has all the interesting scenes removed.
24.
To simulate what real submarine cooks do, put on a blindfold and prepare
food. Take blindfold off and try to get your dog to eat the food.
Break out a can of tuna or peanut butter and make a sandwich with soggy bread.
25.
Once a month, allow yourself a 25-word “family-gram” to apprise you of
everything that has happened to your family during the previous month.
Ensure everyone else reads your family-gram before you find it on the kitchen
table. Ensure at least one family-gram is missed. Try and decipher such cryptic messages
as “Please don’t worry – insurance company said car can be replaced. Flooding put the fire out. Suzie is expected to be out of the
hospital soon.” (That’s what 25 words looks like.)
26.
Continue simulation for three months with no end in sight. At the end of three months, continue
for another month to simulate being extended on patrol because the USS Ustafish
couldn’t get underway.
The Sea
by Skip Keyser
(unpublished)
(unpublished)
Today, somewhere in the
Barents Sea, a Soviet submarine with 100 or so officers and men lies at the
bottom of the sea. They are,
baring some unfathomable miracle, dead and were effectively so before their
ship struck bottom. They may have
lived for a while; some may still be alive. But they are as surely dead as tomorrow will follow today.
The real tragedy lies not so
much in the fact of their death as with the ramifications of their dying. There are today sons and daughters who
will grow up never having known their father as well as they might otherwise
have. There are wives who will no
longer be held, comforted and caressed by their husbands and who will no longer
be able to hold, comfort or caress in return. There are mothers and fathers who will not have a son to
help them in their old age, and who will forever wonder what life might have
held for their child had things turned out differently. There are girl friends and lovers whose
dreams will never be realized.
True, some of these men would
have died soon anyway. Some, upon
returning to port, would undoubtedly have been killed in accidents of some
sort. Some would undoubtedly have
died prematurely of cancer or alcoholism or have taken their own lives. In any group of young men, such are the
statistical probabilities.
And in not all cases might
their death on board a stricken submarine have been bad. Some were probably abusive husbands and
fathers, for which their early passing brings relief to those who have been
tormented or abused. Some would
have abandoned their families and some might eventually have killed
others. These few, therefore, now
have the cold comfort of dying an idealized death.
But we know these few to be
aberrations from the norm. Most
who died onboard were, without doubt, good and honest men, respectful of
others, loving and caring, whose only mistake was to go down to the sea in a
submarine.
For there are no accidents
at sea. There are only
mistakes. We lose sight of this
fact in our desire to comfort those left behind, in our desire to avoid
recriminations, in our desire to avoid being judgmental and thereby avoid being
judged. But if we are to learn
from our mistakes, we must judge.
For there are no accidents at sea – there are only mistakes. The sea not only lies in wait for the
innocent, she positively stalks the unwary.
Letter to a Former Fellow Naval Officer
by Skip Keyser
(unpublished)
Mike – While you were at TI & MINSY [Treasure Island and Mare Island Naval Shipyard, both located in the San Francisco area] I was stationed
(also courtesy of the Navy) in Idaho.
One of my men, a first-class electrician’s mate and a true good ol’ boy
from Tennessee named Crawford, who owned about 34 rifles, shotguns and
revolvers (such items being de rigueur in Idaho and – I suppose –
Tennessee) also hunted rattlesnakes, albeit dead (well, they were alive while
he hunted them, dead shortly after he found them). His goal was to obtain enough skins for his wife (a good ol’
girl from Tennessee) to make him a rattlesnake vest, this apparently being high
on the sartorial wish-list for good ol’ boys from Tennessee.
At that time, having completed my first tour aboard a
nuclear submarine, I (and Crawford) were engaged in training students at one of
the land-based nuclear reactor prototypes located outside Idaho Falls. Crawford, having a surplus of firearms
and a deficit of rattlesnake skins, got the bright idea of arming these
trainees – on their day(s) off – with his spare weapons and taking them out in
the desert just outside Idaho Falls to hunt rattlesnakes, thereby increasing
his yield.
Crawford’s modus operandi was to walk around and pick
up rocks in the hopes that a suitable rattlesnake would be lurking
beneath. He apparently so instructed
a group of trainees one day, one of whom he armed with (as I recall) a Ruger
10-shot 22-cal rifle (one of the first with a nylon barrel I believe).
About a week later Crawford showed up at the reactor site
with what appeared to be the remains of a small rattlesnake skin stretched out
on a piece of cardboard. I say
“appeared to be” because this particular skin looked as if someone had taken a
single-hole paper punch and punched out about a zillion holes. What remained
looked more like rattlesnake lace than anything else.
Apparently the trainee with the Ruger, who hailed from
something like New York City or Seattle or some other urban area, dutifully
wandered about the desert turning over rocks as he had been instructed and soon
enough found one with a rattlesnake beneath it, all coiled up. Unfortunately (or fortunately, trainees
being hard to come by in the mid-60’s) he then panicked and emptied the entire
clip at the rattlesnake. At 2-3
feet away, he didn’t miss much and each round must have penetrated the snake in
about 5 different places, ergo the above mentioned perforated skin. Crawford was sorely disappointed that
such a valuable skin had been so badly mangled. (I was happy we hadn’t lost a trainee.)
As far as I recall, after about 7 more months (when I was
transferred), Crawford still didn’t have enough skins for his vest (he was
fairly large). I often wonder if
he ever got his vest (or survived the attempt).
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