Ryan and Ollie

Look at that smirk! You'd think he was shaking the hand of a rock star, and not someone who was once staring down 16 criminal indictments, convicted of three felony counts, given a "slap-on-the-wrist" sentence, then had the ACLU over-turn the decision because of a prosecution paper-mistake. You can almost see the woody he's sporting, just holding the man's hand! Thank God he didn't let you kiss him!

So, I'm sitting in our favorite Irish pub last night... must have been about 10 PM EST (that would be about 6 pints in, my time), when my phone chirps and I get a message from Ryan about meeting Ollie and Levin... but it seems Levin wasn't taking pics with the groupies the way Ollie was. Levin probably doesn't look as good in BDU's as Ollie, though... and my buddy, Mick asks who the message is from. I show him your text, and we have a good laugh. We then begin to discuss what it is about people like G. Gordon Liddy and Ollie North (both convicted felons, one of whom did 5 years of pretty tough time) that brooks such fascination in the ranks of conservatives. It can't simply be the fact that each is a decorated vet, can it? Neither held any real position of influence in either of their respective Administrations (North in Reagan's and Liddy in Nixon's), neither were privy to any substantial insight within the government, and both opted to follow the defense of "I was simply following orders..."

So, what IS the deal? How do two convicted felons find the level of redemption that these two have found? More than just these two... John Poindexter had a position in the current Bush Administration, too... some back-office desk-jockey stint for the man convicted of illegally destroying the only documents that actually showed who knew what and when, thus making sure none of the blame ever made it back to Reagan's feet.

I mean, these guys were convicted... found guilty... of felonies, and only had the convictions overturned because of prosecutors' mistakes. Bill Clinton was acquitted of all four articles of impeachment, but is the object of contempt and disdain for every conservative pundit on the face of the earth... including North and Liddy. How does this work? Why are we supposed to simply forget that the man photographed with F Ryan broke the law on no fewer than 3, and possibly as many as 16 times, in violation of the law AND his oath as an Officer and a Gentleman in the United States Marine Corps?

I can even give Liddy the credit of having "paid the price" by pulling his time for his crime... he saw the inside of a prison, but North and Poindexter didn't, and both kept their Federal pensions.

Just wondering... nice pic, though...

But...

I will add that stories like Braveheart and The Patriot, though... piss me off to no end.

I don't mean to pick on Mel Gibson here... but these two films (and the scripts they were based on) took perfectly interesting historical characters and twisted them out of recognition. William Wallace and Francis Marion (the figure that Gibson's Patriot character was based on) played huge, pivotal and immeasurably important roles in their respective eras and conflicts... yet it isn't enough to leave the "history" alone to speak for itself.

Your example of the Band of Brothers is perfect in its accuracy and attention to detail. No addition or fiction need be included in such a tale, and that, as much as anything else contributes to its success as a movie (or series). Even the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far tells a tale that is very nearly historically accurate in every regard... and this at a time when there was a definate anti-war bend to Holywood films that rivals anything we see now.

I know we have wandered from book to film here (notice how I said "we"?), but the results are the same... a disservice to history for the often unsuccessful grasp at fame and fortune.

On the contrary...

I am a HUGE fan of historical fiction. Some of my favorite authors have used the tool to give unique insight into very specific and accurate historical stories.

More importantly, though, after you mentioned Panzer Battles, I thought of a book I know treasure in my own library... After the Invasion.

The book was loaned to me by Len T. Do you remember him, a day-shift dealer that everyone called "Squiggy"? Bit of a stoner-type, but a solid dealer... and absolutely obsessed with WWII history and facts. Sharp cookie, even if his historical "forte" was a bit narrow.

Anyway, he loaned me the book about a week before the storm hit... and I never saw the man again. I am NOT the type that normally keeps loaned books, but I simply had no idea how to get in touch with the guy after Katrina to return the book.

The book (After the Invasion) was written from the interrogations and debriefings carried out on captured and surrendered German commanders concerning what was known and unknown by the Germans prior to the June 6th invasion of Normandy. The actual transcripts of the interrogations are found in the book, along with analyses and a perspective from the Allied-side of the question. Every major player in the German High Command is there (barring Rommel and Von Paulus... for obvious reasons)... even Georing.

I have always thought that THIS book could provide the background and insight into the background of the occupied-side of the invasion for anyone with the talent and will to write an historical novel based on the German view of the invasion of Normandy. You could fill a library with the books that have been written from the Allied perspective... but very few have been written about the Axis side of the issue.

So, I'll look for your book... and I think this style of writing is very good, if done properly.

"Panzer Battles" ...

... The Study of the Employment of Armor in the Second World War"

As I told Jambo, I didn't expect to be online much this weekend, however .....

Panzer Battles is presently included in the libraries of the premier military academies in the world: Sandhurst (Britain), West Point (America), and Frunze (Russia), and 2006 is the 50th anniversary of its original publishing date, 1956.

And my Mother, at some antique's sale, uncovered a 1971 hardcover copy, and sent it to me some months ago.

So, I think, okay, this is neat, a tactical recounting, probably of the African campaigns, so I set it on my shelf. Tonight I cracked it open to the preface, always a must to read in order to know who the author is, and something of why he wrote the book, and what he wishes to accomplish in terms of the reader's experience, and my jaw drops .... I had no idea of who the author was ... get a load of this, here's the preface:

This book is based on my experiences during World War II. As an officer of the German General Staff I took part in some of the greatest campaigns in Africa, Russia, and the west, and came into close contact with many of Germany's outstanding soldiers. For over a year I served on the personal staff of Field Marshall Rommel.

Perhaps I may be permitted to strike a personal note, and explain why I have ventured to make this contribution to the increasing flood of war literature. When the war broke out I was a captain on the staff of Third Army Corps in the invasion of Poland, and when it ended I was a major general chief of staff of Fifth Panzer Army in the Rhur pocket. Apart from brief intervals of illness I was on active service during the whole war and held operational appointments in in Poland, France, the Balkans, the Western Desert, Russia, Poland again, France again, and finally in the Ardennes and the Rhineland. I was present at many critical battles; I met some heroic and brilliant soldiers; and have seen tanks in action under all conditions of war, from the snowbound forests of Russia to the endless plains of the Western Desert.

In preparing this book I have received generous aide from brother officers in the German Army. In particular I am deeply indebted to my former commander, General Balck, for putting his personal papers at my disposal; they have provided invaluable, especially with regard to fighting Russia. I am very grateful to my friend Colonel Dingler of the German General Staff for allowing me to quote frequently from his narrative of the Stalingrad operations, and I must thank Lietenant General von Natzmer and my brother General Horst von Mellenthin for providing important documents relating to the Red Army.

I have endeavoured to give an objective account of the campaigns in which I took part. Although this book is written from the German point of view, I have not confined myself to German sources.Some excellent British and American histories have been published, and I have made full use of them. With the material now available it should be possible to attempt a serious assessment of the military events of 1939-45. I feel confident that soldiers of all nations are now anxious to establish the facts about World War II, and to avoid conclusions based on individual prejudice or patriotic sentiment.

This I have attempted to do.

F.W. Von Mellenthin

Johannesburg, South Africa

I feel kind of silly saying this, but of all the history texts and both assigned and leisure reading I've done (admittedly paling in comparison to you two, yet 1000 fold of the average "joe") it just never occurred to me that there were post war topic specific books told from the first person standpoint of the German command. I just didn't picture a post-Nuremberg writing career, and I SHOULD HAVE, given it was hardly the entire Waffen on trial (& on that score, I checked this guy out online and he was not a member of the Nazi political party nor on trial at Nuremberg the best I can tell -there were lower rank hearings if you remember - and that IS all I know of his history regarding Nazism).

So why tonight of all nights? "Should have read it in the first 72 hours, troglodyte" I can hear Titus saying. Well, I didn't, so bollix off. I was listening to that radio host I recommended to you, Hugh Hewitt, and he for 2 hours interviewed a novelist of a new book, Killing Rommel. This is a fictional piece of work based in real times, surrounded by real missions. As where Clancy creates an entirely fictional character base and set of events, this author, Steven Pressfield, inserts well written fictional characters into a historically accurate time period, with documented events. He was talking of the characters in his new book, an Irish war hero, whom was part of the very real first commissioned battle group of the SAS, the "Long Range Desert Group." These soldiers were a volunteer force that went up to 500 miles behind enemy lines, Rommel commanded enemy lines no less, armed with some carbine rifles and some explosives and in 1942 Chevrolet trucks, not Army issued, but bought in a Cairo dealership!! Along with jeeps acquired as a part of Lend-Lease and stripped airplane machine guns. No up-armaments, off the lot and into enemy territory! You gotta LOVE these guys! Now, I had previously heard of them and their mission (to harass the enemy) before, but as a side reference to a survivalist show, and in no great detail. His fictional characters are placed within a series of these real events with a fictional objective - killing General Erwin Rommel.You may wonder, "well who the hell is this author?" Fair enough, I've never heard of him before tonight, but I do know, after a little research, that his last book,The Gates of Fire (a recount of the battle at Thermompolye)is required reading at the Virginia Military Institute ... not to shabby indeed.

It spiked my interest immediately and I'll be ordering the book ASAP. Yes, I know, I know, the times and lives of those days needs no embellishment to be fascinating - I'm 100% with you on that. however, I think the Band of Brothers was so very captivating and ultimately moving because of the intimate way we came to know those characters personally. From his first smirk to his smile in Goering's liquor cellar, we could "feel" Nix's moods. It was great writing with good acting, and that's why I'm drawn to this book, and perhaps will catapult me into further first person narratives of our second World War.

I will be ordering the book as soon as I finish Panzer Battles, but I wanted to alert you to something kind of neat, at the site http://www.killingrommel.com/content/index.asp?id=long
the author of Killing Rommel takes through a 10 minute mini documentary of the Long Range Desert Group, and some interesting insights to Rommel, such as the motivating reason behind joining the conspirators to kill Hitler. Although he didn't participate in the plot they had come to him prior and asked if he would take the reigns of power after Hitler's assassination. He agreed, motivated by the desire to surrender Germany to the Americans before the Russian forces arrived. He dreaded the destruction the "Reds" would bring. Of course you gentlemen know that plot failed, and soon after two general with an armed escort were on Rommel's doorstep. They drove him to a wooded area and gave him the choice - a public trial of treason or the cyanide capsule. "The worst of Germany's countrymen did what no Allied soldier could ... kill Rommel."

"Man for man no one did as much damage to us as the SAS and the Long Range Desert Group." -Erwin Rommel

"Who dares winds, and not by strength, by guile.
-The SAS creed.

God bless those damned liberty defending desert warriors, from this century and the last.


Looking forward to the trip ........

This is getting old...

Once again… I ask you to show me where I have said I want price controls, or where I have supported Clinton’s “windfall profit tax” as even a possible solution to the problem ANYWHERE in the last 110 posts made here.

I have advocated the regulation of the industry as VITAL to national security, and as such, that industry should have all the same oversight AND benefits that other SECURITY REGULATED industries in this nation have.

Once again, let me give you an example of what I am saying… then see if what I am saying is that DIFFERENT than what your vaunted “Big Oil” patriot has stated.

General Dynamics Corporation has manufactured nearly 9,000 M1 Abrams MBTs for the US military, and each and every one was designed, constructed, tested and deployed with the US Federal Government watching over everything. Each unit costs between $2 million and $5 million dollars. That’s between $18 billion and $45 billion in sales that nets them an average corporate profit of $12 billion a year. These tanks could undoubtedly be manufactured far cheaper if the Feds didn’t have their fingers in the process from start to finish… but I have the end results of 3 combat engagements that prove the process has delivered 9,000 of the finest weapon platforms ever created by man and have made the US armored combat forces of the Army and Marine Corps the most feared on the globe. My source is HERE.

This is an example of GOVERNMENT and INDUSTRY working together through a REGULATED process of manufacture and procurement that has provided the military with the finest fighting machine on the planet while also providing the shareholders a very comfortable return on their investment.

No one is saying that $12 billion is too much profit, and that General Dynamics Corp. should cut the price down so that tax payers can see some relief. No one is saying that the regulations within the process don’t drive UP costs, either… but the results speak for themselves: we have a damn fine tank there.

I know that in the very recent past, I suggested that instead of suspending the Federal Gas Tax (currently $.18/gallon), use that money to promote alternative fuel resources domestically, rather than simply putting it in the general fund. Having now watched the interview you suggested, I will change that to the suggestion of spending it on a partnership program of new refineries and production facilities to both refine crude and implement sugar-bio fuel production alongside the petroleum production. THIS is a tax I will willingly pay, knowing it is actually going to accomplish something in the long term.

Why is this so difficult to grasp for you? Is it simply because it is coming from my mouth, and not the mouth of some former Exxon executive? If I were more of an investor (other than my meager 401k contributions) and held hundreds of shares of Shell or Amoco stocks… would my concerns and ideas have any greater weight?

I simply cannot see leaving an industry as vital to American security as the oil industry is to the whims and wiles of pure free-market pricing… whether that pricing is from the barrel or from the pump. Too much of our society depends on this commodity.

Now, as far as my critical comments about “Big Oil” in general…

I too have seen the reports for the annual profits of the major players. Chevron made $18.7 billion last year… that’s an increase in profits of 9.4% over the same period the year before. I have no problem with that news, until I find out that the rate of gasoline consumption in this country FELL over the same period of time (read the proof HERE).

So, if Chevron is only increasing the price of gas it is refining to reflect the increased cost of crude oil, then the profits shown over the same fiscal period should very nearly mirror the amount of gasoline consumed, correct? If Chevron was making $1 million in profits from the sale of 100 million gallons of gas (for ease of math, lets say the gas costs $1/gallon) when the price of oil was $50 a barrel, then watching the price of crude double, while the consumption rate stays the same (100 million gallons of gas), we would expect the same profit margin only if the price per gallon went to $2 a gallon… $1 million in profits of sales of 100 million gallons.

That’s not what we are seeing though… we are seeing increased profits (9%+ for Chevron) with decreased consumption (which I am equating to decreased pump sales… unless the stuff is evaporating into thin air). Not illegal, mind you. There is no law that says you can’t increase the price of a manufactured item at will, as long as people will pay it.

But it hardly shows the kind of “American spirit” I would expect of an industry that gains while the rest of us simply tread water… if we’re lucky. It certainly doesn’t show the kind of “American determination” to join together and make the sacrifices that must be made to win a war in which the greatest threat to the nation is the removal of an item we cannot supply sufficiently ourselves.

It certainly does show that the “American Dream” is alive and well in corporate “Big Oil” though… profits, profits, profits.

John Hofmeister

Our discussion I initiated over energy & oil policy couldn't have been timed better. With the release of Exxon's numbers today its been all over traditional media ands the conservative radio rounds. And so has the man above. From GMA to Glenn Beck he's been everywhere today. You can Google his name online or on You Tube. He is a very thoughtful, knowledgeable and pragmatic man. Until recently he was the CEO of SHELL. I just listened to a half hour long interview with him, here are some highlights:

1.) He said that oil companies have done a "deplorable" job in communicating to the public what they do. The vast majority of their operating is manufacturing oil into fuel, not pulling it out of the ground, thus they have very limited impact on what a barrel goes for on the world market. And the tax incentives they are afforded are the same for all large manufacturers in the US, regardless of "what" they manufacture - no special treatment in the tax code. He says at least 50% of their bad press is their own fault.

2.) Currently the greatest short term problem is two-fold. a.) He is prohibited by law from executing new drilling within 100 miles of the coast of Texas. The problem is that the rich oil reserves beyond that mark are 7 miles under the ocean's surface and that process is excruciatingly expensive. b.) Each barrel of oil he pulls domestically sits in the barrel unrefined for up to 6 months because there has been a government induced moratorium on new refineries for the last 30 years. He can't convert the stuff fast enough. Shell, with all its billions, has only 10 operating refineries in the US at present. The government has hamstrung any further construction since 1977.

3.) Even though US oil companies produce/drill a small percentage of the oil they refine it doesn't have to be that way. 85% of the Arctic Intercontinental Shelf is off limits. They simply can't tap the sources they would like to, and even if they did they couldn't refine it at a proficient rate.

4.) Prior to his recent retirement Hofmeister allocated one of the largest set of funds for Hydrogen cell technology. He is insistent that the oil companies are rapidly seeing themselves as "energy companies" instead. What do you want to bet their R&D is moving quicker then the governments? And for less money.

5.) Just before his retirement he went on a 50 city tour, met with 26 mayors and 25 governors in order to gauge (not gouge) the effect of high prices on the ground first hand, in particular the inner cities where rising fuel and food costs have their most dramatic impact.

6.) Having toured that many US sites he know advocates a single federal emissions cap, versus the state by sate system now in place, and an emissions selling buying credit system. This will allow both a cap on emissions for those concerned with its environmental impact and these "energy companies" to project just what their cost will be on a single rate, rather then 50 varying ones, adding some much needed stabilization to the price of gas.

7.) He has put his own money into a new NGO that will lobby on behalf of energy consumers so that the practical need of fuel by the US can be explained to law makers on a routine, layman's terms basis and so that their will be a consumer advocacy group, non-related to oil companies or OPEC, that can lobby the government in a way to balance out environmental lobbies. Not that he's not environmentally conscious, he is, he just wants to add some frank, pragmatic voices to the discussion on how to make America first energy proficient, then independent, and given the US uses 10,000 gallons of oil per second (that's a swimming pool per second!), the move to alternative fuels, while eventually necessary, must be done in a common sense way.

Imagine that, a consumer advocacy group founded by an oil company CEO.

8.) Nuclear and sugar based energy must be embraced by the US congress, and the bipartisan nonsense paralyzing such industry, is a threat to national security.

Now, name me the politician, Canadian member of parliament, Algorian chowder head, or OPEC representative whom has even half the ideas or answers this one man has proposed.

Go ahead Titus, keep bad mouthing these oil companies if you want to, and ask that your representative induce even further, choking regulations, and see how that works for you. CLEARLY "big" oil, at least represented by Shell, is part of the solution, not the problem.

If our energy dependence is more of a threat to National Security then Bin Laden, as Jambo suggested, then Hofmeister is a patriot.

Just cuz it's relevant ...

Exxon released its last quarter profits today - 10.9 billion, a new record. Not good enough, the market expected more - their shares fell 3.7% by days' end.

Hmmmm ... if they are gougers, they're piss poor ones.