Maybe the best two years of my 14 years on active duty in the Navy I spent at Camp Lejeune with the Marines. My operational billet was with THE FLEET SERVICE SUPPORT GROUP. My medical unit was assigned to Marine Recon—the equivalent of the better-known Navy Seals. I only deployed twice with “recon” both times for two weeks of field training and I never saw combat. Most of my time I spent at the Naval Hospital as a Board Certified Internist.
Every week I was asked to report to “Recon”, and I was required to do PT—physical training, 5 days a week. That was great for me as I lost 40lbs, and I ran several 10K’s and two marathons. We also were given assigned readings—a list of books that the Commandant of the Marine Corps felt was necessary and served as a basis for integrating officers that came from very dispirit backgrounds into a cohesive group. There was nothing like “White Fragility” on that list. One of the assigned books was the ZEN BOOK OF WAR by Sun Tzu. As I recall there were 14-15 chapters and each chapter dealt not only with war, but with economics, politics, and with stern advice about how any team could be organized into a cohesive group with a common goal and purpose.
Many great leaders including Civil War Generals, Douglas McArthur, Admiral Nimitz, Chairman Mao, both Erwin Rommel and George Patton, referred to Sun Tzu.
Bill Belichick, Woody Hayes, Jack Welch of General Motors(where are our patriotic corporate leaders today) and Sir John Templeton admitted to reading Sun Tzu, Sir John also favored C. S. Lewis amongst other authors. Many today in the conservative movement feel despondent and are almost on the verge of losing hope. I would like to prove to them that we are to the contrary on the verge of a great victory, but we are still fully capable of beating ourselves.
In one of the early chapters Sun Tzu states that there are stages to a battle. People, prepare, position, execute, and adjust. He also states that to go into battle without knowing your opponent’s invites catastrophic defeat—ask George Custer. Our opponents have changed colors over the past 50 years—since Viet Nam.
No longer are the progressive liberals the party of the poor and the downtrodden. They have always been the party of slavery—the party of the confederacy, the party of Jim Crow and the KKK, and since The Great Society Programs of the sixties, the party of subjugation of the poor and the party that has tied to put the clamp on “upward mobility” not of any particular race, but on an economic class of people. The Democrats of today are the party of the “New Wealthy” and the Academic Elite. They are the party that is trying to centralize power, and the party “command and control economic principles” that are only focused on the short term and not the long term ramifications of a large debt, a weak military, and a nonexistent boarder or immigration policies that favor those crossing the boarder—no matter who they are, over those who have stood in line like so many of our ancestors in order to take a chance on the opportunities and liberties that have been worked and fought for and protected by our grandparents—our human treasure. And finally, the progressive Democratic Party has been able to embrace atheistic and Marxist principles and values that support the group and tribe over the individual and the family. Judeo-Christian “first principles”—Aquinas would call them first instances, are what conservatives try and many times fail to follow. Relativism and situational ethics are the foundation for progressive thought. The God of Israel is replaced by the god of government or the god of the institution or the god of the corporation. Sir John Templeton warned of the last situation.
The liberal progressive base resides in the “Blue” congressional districts on our left and right coasts and in large cities. They are all imploding from within. Crime takes the place of commerce when small businesses can no longer reside in neighborhoods where the rule of law and the police are being marginalized. Maybe thirty percent of our people are truly “progressive”. Even they are seeing the “Cubanization and Sovietization” of our democratic institutions, corporations, educational systems, and local, State and Federal governments as the pathologic symbiotic collusions between all these organizations—and may I add a willing media, become a head wind for democratic principles and organizations.
Zen informs us that when the enemy is silent and you cannot locate them they are ready to attack and are confident in their strategy and force. When you hear the enemy and they are rattling their swords and shields, and when they are announcing their presence with screams and shouts they are announcing their own fear. This is true in war and business and in sports and government. Why do people seek power for its’ own sake? Because they themselves are afraid of being able to manage their own lives and control their own destinies. Confident people want to control their own individual destinies, take their own risks. They understand that in a long life they will both win and lose, but they are confident in their own abilities to get back up and ultimately succeed. People who grow up getting a participation trophy or having “mommy and daddy” pave the way into an Ivy League College or after graduation a high position in a business or law firm, never learn to fail. They might hide in a large academic institution or Medical School and rely on government grants from the CDC or NIH.
Small businessmen, farmers and ranchers, many individuals who have their own “S-Corps” or “LLCs, work every day to prove to themselves the value of their own “human capital”. These are people who are just saying “enough is enough”. Teachers, doctors and nurses across the country, airplane pilots and mechanics at Southwest airlines, truckers and now union members—not their bosses, are just saying enough—ENOUGH ALREADY.
Locally I am watching the Ryan Cole situation closely. I agree with 90% of what Ryan has to say. I along with my wife did get the vaccination, but not because we were “mandated” by government or our employer to do so. But now people who have never taken care of a patient or gone through the rigors of an elite Mayo Clinic residency and fellowship in virology are putting Ryan’s license in jeopardy. When the time is right these are the very people in government and in our medical institutions that need to undergo an out brief, an after-action report, or an M&M. Mistakes have been made. That is to be expected. This was new, but as early as 2003 the need to develop an action plan by the State and the hospital systems was discussed at the highest levels of State government and nobody did anything. The large hospital systems at that time weren’t interested nor was the IMA/IHA. At the least we lost the battle from the beginning in Sun Tzu’s planning stage. Whose fault is that? Not Dr. Cole’s. I believe that those who have been signaling a government action against those in the medical community who disagree with the Covid actions by our State —think of the article written by Jim Jones in a Magic Valley newspaper—no doctor he, or the interviews given to Audrey Dutton by the CEO of one of our large hospital systems, anticipating the State Board of Medicine’s action against Dr. Cole. This action was planned, and is an example of the collusion between government, industry, and a willing uninquisitive media. That is exactly what conservatives are against—corruption and collusion.
Can you hear them yelling and screaming? Can you see them rattling their shields and swords? They are about to lose big time and they know it. The only people that can beat us in this battle—is us. We must stop fighting each other. We must focus on one candidate for Governor. We must elect real conservatives to our legislature, and school boards and city councils.
“If not now, when. If not you, who” Can you hear them screaming? I can
MIGA (Make Idaho Great Again) “Fight Like Hell”
