How To Break A Terrorist, OR ...

... How To Pick Up Girls

Because the idea of 'approaches' works for both.

Let me clarify what my stance on torture is. It is banned by the Geneva Conventions not to mention many other governing documents. That is good enough for me. What initially gets to me, is the same thing that makes Col. Jessup such a tragic figure in my mind. He is the last of a breed of men that we are not making anymore. And that is cool.

But as far as assigning 'responsibility' for what took places, I am ready to accept whatever punishments that were issued, and move on. As far as the previous doctrine behind interrogation techniques go, let them be. And get over it.

Snuck to Borders at Fairlane and the Barnes and Nobles in Allen Park and read 'How to Interrogate A Terrorist' for free this weekend. It was a quick read, and I took notes and everything. But I think I can do without them for this.

What I don't like is the call for someone to be held accountable. Problem is, you still need people to do those jobs, albeit with different techniques. The latte sippers, who wear Birkenstocks and eat their organic food may as well be chewing gum with their bung hole, because when they talk about things, they fart. And with gum in the bum, they end up popping sh*t.

I had two opportunities to be a 'real soldier', and let me tell you, until you do it, you have no idea. Remember the cat in 'Private Ryan' that got assigned to Tom Hanks because he spoke a little German? I may have mentioned before, that would have been me. The point being, that I really never got 'close' to anything. I was just 'in country'.

So I am only a 'little less' ignorant of what it takes to be on a front line than any of the pundits that 'know' how we should deploy our troops and conduct military policy. My thing, is what do we do with the Col. Jessup of our military, and now that we make them obsolete, are we going to punish them for a 'job well done'?

If you want to say that now with the new administration, this is policy, say it. As far as retroactively punishing people, forget it. Shun them into retirement and let that be that. Change their jobs, so that they are effectively removed from the position that gave them access to do what was once tolerated.

Witch hunting and damnation for public display? Spare me. YOU DO THAT JOB, the one that they did. You know what torture says to the troop that is on the ground, in hostile territory? It says that my country has my back. That is about it, and no, it isn't enough to justify it.

But try telling that to the 20 year old kid from Appalachia or the South Side of Chicago, trapped by guys whose sense of right and wrong is straight out of the 6th century. We want to believe in 'Private Ryan', and we want to believe that we will do whatever it takes to get our boys back safely.

This is actually a more nuanced subject to really be journaling about. Joe Biden said on '60 Minutes' that 'We don't torture.' And that is the long and short of it, no moral grandstanding or anything. We don't do it.

REFRAMING THE DISCUSSION

As far as 'picking up girls', I have always found that finding an 'approach', the one that gets you into their mind, is key. The book essentially had a 'bees with honey' theme, building a rapport with each suspect (everyone was Abu -something or the other) was key. A book that was mentioned in Ken's journal the other day, 'The Peter Principle' was a big stumbling block to getting the right man to interrogate the key to find the cat they were looking for.

Many women often 'rise to the level of their incompetency'. How many of them want someone on a level that they themselves are not only on, but capable of reaching themselves?

That is what makes a lot of girls vunerable, because of the mess that society makes of a woman's identity. Hey, I am just saying ... I know that the hypersexualization of women really retards their emotional growth. Women deal with contradictions that men don't have to face in defining themselves, which allows men to feel less conflicted in being 'a man'. No matter what, women are still being defined by their ability to find a partner. And with all the mixed messages that are being sent from all points, you have women with 'beer money' trying to live out their 'champagne dreams'.

Now, when I mention 'beer money ...', I am not talking only about material things. It is a 360 approach I am doing. What kind of human being are you, how intelligent and aware a person is, and being 'real' for real, you dig? Like in the book, there was a 'culture clash' in the gator pit, because you had one group who believed that their way was how to handle the interrogations, and the new guard, who had wanted to take a different tack.

Same thing with women. I sort of weep for both Mookie and Tee Jay, whose expectations hasn't changed as they have gotten older and the world has changed around them. It isn't that what they are expecting in a partner 'can't happen', but no matter how many times I shake the ol' magic 8 ball asking that question for them, it continues to say 'unlikely to happen'.

What this means, is that they risk becoming 'victims' of the same games as they were before. The one thing that I got out of both of them, is that I was different from their norm. Not 'abnormal', but different. With Mookie, (and to some extent, my ex Wife) if there was more 'truth' to their 'realness', we may have found a way to make things work.

Tee Jay, it was pretty much my bad. BUT, it wounds me to have heard she is back to where she was when I met her. So while she experienced a 'different' kind of relationship with me, one where she knew how much she was valued, she is again looking for the very cat who didn't appreciate her. Not too big of an assumption, because in the few convestations we have had, she has said as much. I don't have 'this' or 'that' to my deportment (and why do people even think that 'this' or 'that' is related? they don't even share any DNA!), and she would like someone with a little more 'hood' to them. Oh, well all right, all right then!!

I sort of feel like one of the 'new school 'gators' in the book. Between 'Cinderella complex' and the desire for that 'Roughneck love', I anticipate a lot of resistence to getting back out in the field. I been thru all this kind of mess, back in my twenties. If women are still being driven by these same kind of ideas ... well, it sheds May - December romances in a new light. There was some friction because in order for them to get the break they needed, the Air Force cat had to work around the old school obstruction that caused the problems in locating their target.

No different in relationships. In the cases that I mentioned from my life, whatever it is they are 'stuck' with, they have to be willing to be helped thru or overcome themselves. No, you shouldn't have to change to be loved, but when you don't love yourself, you need to change to someone you can love, and then you will have love to give.

Anywho, I am starting to get off track here ... or is it a new track, because I want to get into what is what for my summer!