The 9-11 No One Talks About

 Around 28 years ago....26th of February 1993....a couple of Muslim guys put a 1,336 pound urea-nitrate-hydrogen gas bomb device into the basement of the World Trade Center.

Players?  Ramzi Yousef and Eyad Ismoil.

Intent?  The North Tower would have crashed into the South Tower.

Result?  It basically failed.  Bomb engineering wise, the building was built to handle this.    In the end....six people died and around a thousand wounded.

This was the original 9-11, and the Clinton Administration failed to grasp this.

We talk a great deal about 9-11, but no one ever goes back to the 1993 episode and considers what we should have done at that point.  

Lee-Thinking and Biden Chatter

"But it is — the kinds of things — or, you know, the stuff that’s coming out of Florida, the stuff that’s coming out of — you know, “If Robert E. Lee had been in Afghanistan, we would have won.” Anyway, I’m telling you too much."

-- President Biden, yesterday

I paused over this commentary that he made.  Whole thing was a weird deal of ramblings which didn't really fit into some clear statement.  

My pondering?  Well....the comment over Robert E. Lee.

I've spent a fair amount of time in my life reading over Lee, his general strategy on warfare, and his successes.

Lee in an Afghanistan matter?

Lee would have analyzed things over a week and said that a ‘war’ cannot be waged against a ghost-pretender-force, unless you went to burning down every single village where you felt trouble was brewing. 

I might also suggest that Lee’s perception of Afghans was their heart and mind weren’t geared for this type of republic or 'democracy'.

Then he would have ended the short blunt assessment.....that a forever-war....cannot be a end-result/goal. If he could have not 'won' the war within two to three years, then it's not worth fighting.  

Somewhere between 1865 and 2020....we lost this perception of things.

Lee wouldn't sign up to such a war, and Biden's understanding of Lee's strategy probably amounts to a 3x5 inch card....at best.  

The Review Which Will Never Be Done

 I will occasionally read a page over at Defense One....which typically dwells on military issues.  Today, they had a chat with the present Army chief of staff (General James McConville).

So he says...from his own prospective, he wants a top to bottom review of all decisions that led to Kabul's situation and how the US military conducted the withdrawal.

Odds of a Army-sanctioned review?  I give it a one-percent chance of occurring. 

Odds of a Pentagon-sanctioned review?  Probably less than one-percent chance.

Odds of the Army War College allowing several (maybe 50 individuals) to conduct such a review as part of their master's degree thesis program?  I'd give it a 90-percent chance of happening.  

The odds of the White House or State Department providing data or reports to the thesis writers?  Zero.

The problem here is you have one of the five most stupid government concepts since the 1960s (Bay of Pigs at the top), and literally no one wanting to describe how they f**ked-up, nor wanting to describe how President Biden was 'out-to-lunch' when all of this occurred.

It's funny in a way to ponder upon the mistakes made, how they can't be attached to a review, and how the system seems to want to move on.  But if you asked people in 1970 what the Bay of Pigs was all about.....it became this 'mystery' very similar to Afghanistan's crisis.  

Paint Story

 So I was reading a CNBC business report this AM, and this odd story comes out....there's a national shortage of paint going on.

The jest of this?

Several factors occurred in 2021....mainly around Covid, that freeze-period in Texas, a supply chain problem, and escalating prices.

As the stores describe it....sales are at a robust stage, and not slowing down....even though it costs more to buy paint now.

How long this trend holds?  Well....the business opinion is that the trend continues into 2022....so if you did have a paint job on your mind....you might be shocked at what paint now costs, and wondering about waiting a couple of months.  My advice....that couple of months might end up being a full year for prices to drop back down to normal.

So if the wife has been after you to paint the exterior of the garage....explain the money angle to her and hope that she finds a cheaper project for you to work upon.