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Quick round-up, today being the official last day of winter.

Open first cut — Fic Issues

Susan’s work on her Army Wives fic is now past 60,000 words, though she expects that she’ll be cutting quite a bit of that once she reaches the end. Right now she’s still feeling her way through; it is, after all, a first effort.

[livejournal.com profile] sroni and I have both signed up already for this year’s RemixRedux. I’m feeling a bit of concern: because of my orders for maneuvers at the National Training Center, I’ll be incommunicado for most of April and the first week of May, so that — upon receiving notification of my assigned author — I’ll have less than three weeks to complete and post my remix, rather than the full month. My past performance gives me ample reason to believe that I can deliver within those constraints, but I still wish I could have access to the entire period, just for safety.

Close cut

Open second cut — Family Issues

[livejournal.com profile] sroni herself continues preparation for confirmation in the Catholic Church. It appears that there’s nothing to prevent that from taking place this Easter. (The bad news of which is that my duty at NTC will prevent me from attending. In fact, I’m still negotiating urgently to be allowed to come home a couple of days early so I can be at my son’s graduation.)

I already noted that Susan and I bought a new Honda CR-V for her a few weeks back; well, this past Friday (i.e., eight days ago) I acquired a ‘new’ car for myself, the 2002 two-door version of the vehicle I’ve been driving contentedly for the past ten years. I passed my former vehicle to my son, who likewise passed his over to his sister, so now all four of us are happy. Last week I got cruise control, which makes me happier yet. And, after five years of rattling around the country (and Far East) with two other people, Roni has passed the written test for her driver’s license, so in a few weeks we’ll be a four-car family with four actual drivers.

Close cut

Open third cut — Random Issues

Other minor items:

  • Squirrels have gotten inside the walls of our house, and I need to find somebody local who can deal with that kind of thing. I barely notice, but the gnawing and scrabbling will wake Susan at 4 in the morning, at which point discontent manifests.
  • My Reserve unit is getting a new commander this summer, about whom I know nothing. We’ve had a few good COs and a few poor ones and a few who just didn’t make much impression (like the current officer). It’ll be interesting to see how things are under the newcomer.
  • As we approach April, I have to make an appointment with a tax attorney. There are a few issues Susan and I need to work through separately, and of course now our finances are intertwined. Also, the estate of Susan’s parents will be settled soon, so that gives us something else we’ll have to shake to meet.

Close cut

Fourth third cut — Military/Political Issues

I look at the developing situation in the Middle East, and I simply can’t begin to anticipate the probable results. By which I mean, how these events are likely to affect me, directly and soon. I’m not sorry to see Mubarak’s ouster, but he was both a fairly reliable ally of America and the steward of a durable if chilly peace with Israel, and there’s no assurance that any successor government will be better or even as good. Qadaffi, who was increasingly in dire straits but made a massive comeback powered by his own ruthlessness and permitted by western impotence and indecision, is a criminal psychopath every bit as deserving of invasion and overthrow as Saddam Hussein ever was … but our sitting President has shown himself far from impressive in foreign policy and military acumen, and I have little confidence that 1) he will take decisive action re Libya when he still has such vast stores of empty bluster to call on, or 2) any action he might take would be competent, consistent, appropriate, or effective. Protests and potential uprisings in Saudi Arabia? Though I have little love for the princes of the Kingdom, neither do I desire turmoil for its own sake, and this could be another step in the kind of spreading instability that — in Europe — presaged World War I. There will, I think, be more than enough to keep me busy in the Army until forced retirement, but there’s also an excellent chance that such duty will be more haphazardly planned and implemented than has been the case in the past.

Close cut

We live in interesting times. That’s worked out pretty well for me so far, but I suspect I could quickly find myself wishing for a little boredom.

Date: 2011-03-19 08:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] texanfan.livejournal.com
I'm eager to find out who I get for Remix. It's a pretty intimidating prospect right now.

The squirrels are a major issue. They are doing significant damage to your house. We had a similar issue a few years ago and we delayed dealing with it. The delay cost us significant money.

Where ever you are sent and whoever leads I pray you will remain safe.

Date: 2011-03-20 10:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sam-arkand.livejournal.com
On the whole, it is better for regional powers like France to take the lead on this. Let the French Foreign Legion take the hit when it comes time for the locals who screamed for your help to turn on their foreign saviors like rabid badgers. La France certainly has the qualifications: they spanked G/Q/Kadaffi twice when he got too big for his britches in Chad.

The unofficial words is that certain parties--SAS, Egypt's Unit 777 spec-ops unit, and the Christians in Action SOG--are already in-theater with laser designators and SATCOMS. The US "doesn't have forces" in Libya just like there ain't nobody but us chickens over the Durand line in Pakistan.

Indirectly, US influence may have been critical in Egypt's revolution. The junior and mid-level officers who said "no" to pulling a Tianamen on the protesters in Tahrir Square were the products of decades of US military training and aid. Mubarak was, essentially, there on the military's sufferance anyway.

As for the other news? Glad to hear about the good things in your life. NTC should be interesting. I picked up a book called "Dragons at War" that dealt with a US infantry unit that cycled through the NTC in the early 80's. Quite fascinating reading about late Cold-War era assumptions of conventional warfare.

Date: 2011-03-20 10:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sam-arkand.livejournal.com
Thing is, Africa *is* where France is a fairly serious player. They have a rather murky record of interventions--including a fairly self-interested "peace keeping force" in Cote D'Ivoire--in Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa going back to the sixties. Word is that the Libyan intervention is both realpolitick and a populist move by Sarkozky. It is honestly no skin off of America's nose to let another regional power take point. You guys have enough on your plate.

Also, honestly, putting any more boots on the ground other than deniable or clandestine spec-ops operators is akin to shoving your face into a cage of rabid honey badgers. The Benghazi rebels appear to be...well, reasonably un-psychotic as Middle Eastern military movements go. I've heard that the leadership are less traditional political activists than technocrats; Libyans who went into higher education were, um, "encouraged" to study engineering and business rather than humanities. Hence the unusually down-to-earth actions like setting up trash collection and interim governing authorities.

Still, you never know. One moment you're being hailed as heroes, the next the tiny Islamist fundie movement is tossing Molotovs against the infidel crusader enemy. This is the Libyans' fight. Ironically, the West can be akin to France in the American Revolution: providing key strategic pressure (air strikes and the no-fly zone) that the rebels can't manage along with some training ("assault rifles have to be *aimed*, moron").

And if a Tomahawk or JDAM happens to land on Gadaffi's head? Bonus.