Taking Mattis with a dose of salt

James Mattis's "Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead" is an interesting and entertaining book of high relevance to the thorny geo-political issues of our times. His book provides the reader with much detailed advice and sound wisdom about leadership in preparing for and conducting warfare. "Call Sign Chaos" provides a fascinating first-hand account through a soldier's eyes of the costly invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan that continue to this moment.

As a psychologist who among other career foci devoted thousands of hours to providing psychological services to Vietnam combat veterans and whose core mission is the pursuit and application of wisdom, I find General Mattis' accounts of his lifelong journey of personal development as a leader compelling. Along the way, the reader learns many pertinent facts about the generals of the past from Xenophon to Viscount Slim as Mattis shares the lessons he gleaned from their writings. Perhaps the most powerful and thought-provoking section of the book is General Mattis' account of his adjudication of a notorious incident of misconduct and error by Marines under his command in the Iraqi town of Haditha on November 19, 2005 that resulted in the deaths of 24 mostly unarmed civilians including women and children. Whatever the truth of that horrendous episode, Mattis provides a clear-eyed analysis of the tragic circumstances of war for combatants and civilians alike as only a thoughtful and seasoned warrior could. I'm reminded when we send young men and women into war, many will be faced with impossible moral dilemmas that unfold in a few short seconds and haunt the survivors for the rest of their lives. It's the duty of our country to do all we can to take care of those who return alive.

 The cautionary note here is this is Mattis presenting the sterling image of himself to the world he wishes to sell to the reading public and to military history. While the General is undoubtedly a very sharp, erudite, determined, and capable man with a nearly boundless supply of restless energy and unquestioned devotion to his Corps, country, and mission, still one must be wary and skeptical of anyone's telling his own story with no critic, pro or con, to confirm or dispute it. According to Mattis, who to be fair endorses relentless personal accountability and who does admit throughout to mistakes and shortcomings (e.g., not finding time to step back and reflect during his tenure as Commander of CENTCOM), it seems that pretty much everything that works is due to the ideas, initiative, and effort of Mattis and his elite network of military associates, while everything that fails is the fault of the ignorant people, both politicians and commanders, over his head. He goes the extra mile to praise his closest military friends, General John Kelly in particular. While the timeworn, black-and-white story line of a rugged American hero who can't spell the word "fail" battling the forces of evil and incompetence within and without will appeal to the many souls weary of our morally and intellectually compromised world, the truth is probably a little more complicated.

Mattis benefits from the hope so many of us placed in him to keep the unprepared, unfit, and inept Donald Trump from steering the ship of state onto a reef and from the inevitable comparison with Trump the General necessarily wins hands down. Besides demolishing the pompous persona of President 45 without ever alluding to him, Mattis comes across as egotistical, self-satisfied, and, well, bloodthirsty in a friendly sort of way. If we have to have wars (of which the dead are still the only ones who've "seen" the end), the Mattis of his memoir is the type of leader required to do the job effectively and ethically. But, is he truly "the perfect image of a modern (four-star) general?" He may well be but I'm withholding judgment until his account has been subjected to serious, informed criticism and debate.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi post-mortem

I'm glad the US was able to conduct a successful raid to eliminate Abu Bakr a-Baghdadi last night. I wonder if anyone conducted a survey to find out what percentage of US voters were familiar with al-Baghdadi prior to the raid that resulted in his death? I wonder how many could name one specific thing he did during his lifetime? I wonder what percentage believe the threat of ISIS is now eliminated?

Adventures in Retina Detachment

Dr. Fivgas said my retina is attached again. My instructions are to keep my face pointed down until next Wednesday with the first 3 days being critical. I'm doing my best to comply and Mary Lou thinks I'm doing it well.

How Mattis demolishes Trump without mentioning him.

While constrained to keep my face pointed down, I'm listening to James Mattis' memoir on his career prior to becoming Secretary of Defense under Trump. Mattis'  extensive, clear explanations of how he learned to be an effective leader of large and complex organizations over decades of varied experiences shows in a multitude of ways how unprepared, unfit, and incompetent Trump was to be President (not even considering his apparent mental deterioration) without ever alluding to Trump at all.

Slogging through life's mud

Tomorrow I am scheduled to arrive at 6am for a fourth surgical procedure aimed at saving sight in my left eye. I'm beginning to doubt the project will achieve the goal but I'm pressing on. In the first operation, silicone oil was injected into my left eye to help hold the retina in place. I was required to keep my face pointed down for 3 days afterwards so the oil would float upward onto the detached area. Procedure 2 was a lens replacement performed by Dr. Ehrlich. The retina detached partially in the 3rd operation where the silicone oil from the first one was removed, resulting in Dr. Fivgas injecting a gas bubble into my eye to help hold the pesky retina in place. As the gas bubble finally dissolved itself away, the retina detached once more. A film on the artificial lens implanted by Dr. Ehrlich (procedure 2) has prevented me from seeing much since that was done on July 12 but the strange dark spot in the lower left quadrant with occasional bursts of light surrounding it like a halo or corona let me know the retina was detaching. Dr. Fivgas plans to inject silicone oil in my left eye again and I'm expecting post-op instructions requiring me to keep my face pointed down for 3 days as I had to do the first time way back at the beginning of 2019. Frankly I'm tired of the process and am feeling like I'd like it to be resolved one way or the other. Losing sight in my left eye would not be the end of the world. I've gotten by on one eye all year.

Retinal setback

After 10 months and three surgeries, my retina has started detaching again. I'm going to have another procedure next Tuesday in a continuing effort to save vision in my left eye but I've accepted from the outset all of this ultimately might fail. To quote myself, "We're going to lose everything; it's just a matter of when."

On the passing of Elijah Cummings

His death is the occasion to reflect on his life and accomplishments, one of the greatest being the universal respect and affection he earned from his colleagues on both sides of the aisle. He demonstrated that there's such a thing as a politician who operates with a moral compass and a person with power who uses it to the best of his ability and understanding for the good of all. He embodied what Lincoln meant by "our better angels."

Response to a Facebook question about why the USA should support Rojava against Turkey.

That's a good question.

The situation in Syria is extremely complicated. The USA supported the Kurds in doing the fighting to retake Syrian territory occupied by ISIS who had set up a functional Islamic State caliphate stretching across Syria and Iraq. The Kurds also set up an autonomous region they call Rojava in northern Syria. The Kurdish region is widely considered to exemplify democratic ideals similar to the ones the United States until recently officially endorsed. It kept the Syrian government under the brutal, Iran and Russia-aligned Assad regime (they've used poison gas on their own citizens, bombed hospitals repeatedly in rebellious areas etc) from having control of oil fields that is could use to finance itself. However, Turkey, which has changed from a nonsecular state to an Islamist authoritarian state under Erdogan, fears that the existence of Rojava will lead to the large Kurdish minority in Turkey rebelling against government control.

With the US withdrawing as a buffer between Turkey and Rojava, the Kurds had little choice but to make a deal with the Syrian government to provide military support against the Turks who are invading across the Syrian border. Now, both Syrian government and Russian forces have moved in where the US formerly had those buffer posts. The ultimate result will be for the Syrian government and Russia to have access to the oilfields if they repel the Turkish invasion. How Turkey responds to this will be interesting- we could see clashes on Syrian territory between Russian and Turkish forces in the near future. Iranian influence will be facilitated, as well, since they are major backers of Assad (who represents a religious minority distinct from Shia and Sunni Islam).

The issue for me was the abandonment of a group that was working against both the Assad regime and ISIS and has been repeatedly repressed (by Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran which all have large Kurdish minorities) and thrown under the bus by the UK and France after WW1 and now by the USA. The benefits of our withdrawal to Assad, Putin, Erdogan and ISIS are also of concern as things unfold.

Jackie Howard letter

Owen Scott, III, Ph.D.
237 Stanford Avenue
Baton Rouge, LA 70808

RE: Jackie Howard

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to recommend Jackie Howard for a position as office manager.  I am a retired Clinical Psychologist who was in private practice in Baton Rouge from 1982 through July 2019. Jackie was employed for several years approximately 10 years ago as an office assistant and later office manager for our practice. (I am unable to give exact dates as our employment records are in a storage site.) The position was highly responsible and demanding. Duties included reception, appointment scheduling, starting and maintaining patient charts, recording client visits in our clinical software system, generating standard insurance statements (superbills) and billing statements for patients, recording and relaying messages, bookkeeping, supervising administration of paper-and-pencil tests, computer scoring of tests, billing and collection of accounts, handling incoming and outgoing mail, ordering supplies, and paying vendors and other business expenses.

I know Jackie and her family well and am confident in my opinions of Jackie as an individual and employee.  Jackie is an extremely conscientious person with a great work ethic. She is completely honest and trustworthy. She is easy to supervise and work with. Jackie is very open to guidance and willing to accept constructive criticism. She is eager to learn. She worked closely with our accountant who always spoke well of her. I can assure any prospective employer that you will find Jackie to be a dependable, honest, hard-working office manager who will always give you her best effort.

Sincerely,

Owen Scott, III

The family archives

I'm in the process of consolidating the family archives in the closet of Jenny's old bedroom with rhe goal of undertaking an inventory and database. There's a wealth of material to go through and catalogue.

Note to self: I went through the bins in my clothes closet and determined that the contents are personal to me- letters, magazines, baseball cards, photos, journals and miscellaneous items.

Infrastructure update

This week so far I've gotten new prescription eyeglasses for my good eye, bought a fancy new Macbook, ordered a manual leaf sweeper, gotten samples of Lotemax to tide me over, come up with a plan for the family archives, and hosted R&B Classics Day on my Morphies page.

Comment on Milton Leathers' post about Trump voters sticking with him

It's not that all of them are stupid or racists, either, Milton. They don't trust the government or politicians in general and they feel like no one has looked after their interests. Many aren't fond of either major party. They're angry and they like the way he tells everyone off. They were and still are willing to give him every chance to do for them and they consume media that says he's the guy who can and will  do it. Unfortunately, he doesn't care about those people, either- he thinks everyone except him is a sucker. I hope enough of them wake up to his cynical emptiness in time to limit him to one term or less.

Bonehead move #4398

It was my turn to host OMG last night. I practiced my songs in the afternoon and felt adequately prepared. Somehow I ended up arriving later than I wanted to but with just enough time to set up by 6pm. Things started ok although I didn't feel as relaxed and comfortable as I'd prefer. I really don't like having to manage the backup tracks on my Macbook while performing my songs for an audience. I made the mistake of putting a big plastic cup of ice water on the small table with the PA board and my Macbook. Sometime midway through my set to open the session I managed to knock the cup over spilling the water directly onto the keyboard! The machine continued to function through the end of my set but I was mentally disrupted. Today, I was relieved when the Macbook restarted after I'd already made an appointment with the Genius Bar on Monday. However the sound function on the Macbook is gone and I was already thinking about retiring it.

Country Music

Mary Lou and I watched all 8 episodes of Ken Burns' sweeping documentary on the music of white American working class Southerners. The film was quite well done, full of illuminating facts and tear-jerking moments, many of them conveyed through interviews with the stars and insiders of the vast genre. For those of us having only a superficial knowledge of the C/W world it was like taking Country Music 101.  AP Carter scouring the hills with a black assistant to find obscure tunes he could record with his family. Hank Williams dying in the back seat of the car at age 29 taking him to a concert in Canton, Ohio. George Jones obviously suffering from PTSD while being nicknamed "Possum" because of his "beady eyes." Willie Nelson writing a song called "Stupid" and then changing the title to "Crazy" leading to a huge hit for Patsy Cline.

My left eye

I spent the heart of the afternoon (2-4pm) at the office of Dr. George Fivgas, the specialist who performed surgery to reattach my retina and is monitoring my recovery. He informed me after all the usual  examinations that the gas bubble injected in Procedure 3 has now shrunk down to about 10% of it's original size. However, it left a film on the lens implanted by Dr. Ehrlich that will have to be removed in a fourth surgical procedure. Vision in my left eye should then be restored an an improved level due to the artificial lens which will correct my nearsightedness. Yay. I'm so tired of slogging through this recovery.  This evening I'm mentally tired. I've struggled with mental fatigue ever since I was in high school, a condition I chalk up to one of the ill effects of my experiments with hallucinogens. Is that the true cause? I'll never know. The important thing is to maximize the use of my talents and resources while I can. To that end I'll keep seeking answers.