Monday, August 1, 2011

A Fine Kessel of Fish

--American Economy, Osama Hajjaj

It's a tragedy

It's a strategy

To prey on contrast

To not indulge fact

Divide, conquer, subcontract

--Sodom, Gomorrah, Washington D.C.,

Anti-Flag


Strange days have found us

Strange days have tracked us down

They're going to destroy

Our casual joys

We shall go on playing

Or find a new town

--Strange Days
, The Doors

Everybody's talking

and no one says a word

Everybody's making love

and no one really cares

--Nobody Told M
e, John Lennon
________________

In World War II, the German Army fought battles called kessels, or "cauldron battles" -- not the greatest fighting position.


Kessels were characterized by a loss of movement and maneuver after decisive commitment, Stalingrad being a prime example: The troops would fight to the last round, then fix bayonets for the final, glorious, assault. We all know how that worked out -- heckuva job, Heinie!


But lo, it looks like our Executive and Legislative branches in Washington are fighting their own cauldron battle after being bypassed and surrounded by economic forces that are whipping them and us just as badly as the Russians whipped the Nazis in 1943-45.


The Battle of the Cauldron 2011
will not solve any of our problems or add to our ability to maneuver back to a position within a secure battle line. Our leaders are aiming friendly fire at divergent elements within the
kessel. The enemy is romping and stomping past them in columns of hordes, yet they prefer to direct their fire inwards, a stance so contrary to soldierly behavior as to defy the imagination.

The kessel that we call the budget cap talks is as irrelevant to the daily lives of Americans as is the memory of Stalingrad. It doesn't matter if we raised the debt cap; that is collateral to the primary issue. It doesn't matter if we tax the rich to the benefit
of the lower classes or vice versa. The U.S. debt ceiling does not limit debt.

The budget cap does not address that which affects our daily lives, which is the diminution of our freedoms and our economic well-being. Leaving the debt ceiling in place does not get us out of the cauldron -- it just pushes the day of reckoning down the line. The debt has risen exponentially since the George Bush administration; it will still balloon, simply at a slower pace . . . to a time past the 2012 elections, when another
"cast of characters is sent back to Sodom to do the people’s business." (The Debt Deal: Disaster Averted, Decline Straight Ahead).

The issues are so immense that we ignore them while entertaining ourselves with meaningless diversions. The U.S. is like the German Army of 1943 on the Russian Front: We are about to be forced on the strategic defensive, while our leaders prefer to fight battles that cannot be won or stem the tide.

9 comments:

  1. jim-

    I haven't started this have i? I was just "funning" . . .

    Enjoy August, I know I will.

    Kind regards to Lisa.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very well done, Ranger.

    Kessel, indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. seydlitz,
    In your wake i'm mulling the possibility of doing a essay on how the recent debt limit fight violated the Principles of war.
    Another metaphor for the recent war was the sitzen war of 1940.imo.
    I've always been a student of the ost front.
    jim

    ReplyDelete
  4. publius,
    In a cauldron battle the defenders can only buy time for the retrograding forces. This is the only reason to sacrifice them. If they bleed off en. assets until the main body re-establishes
    it's lines then it's a calculated trade.
    Lives for space and time. Even when the thing is ultimately lost. A greater good, of sorts.
    Our 2011 kessel didn't by us anything but a little time but/and our space is still restricted.
    Metaphorically speaking.
    jim

    ReplyDelete
  5. publius,
    I liken our leaders to Hitler.
    He couldn't understand the mobile defense on a strategic level, and our leaders have no fucking idea what the figure 0f 12 Trillion$ actually looks like.
    Both he and they are disconnected from reality.
    I know you liked Obomba, but the guy never had a real job. Wasn't that true of Hitler also?
    jim

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ostfront?

    Who gets to play the role of General Vlasov?

    Not to mention General Seydlitz-Kurzbach?

    ReplyDelete
  7. seydlitz,
    I did an article with you in mind..
    It's about the principles of war and how they were violated in the recent debt cap bullshit.
    Coming soon.
    jim

    ReplyDelete
  8. jim-

    Great. Look forward to reading it.

    ReplyDelete