Last week, Parker ate bananas for the first time. The week prior, we tried plain rice cereal, to which he didn't take very well. Perhaps it is the sugar in the bananas, but he certainly agrees with those.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Saturday, December 30, 2006
"Not a Good Day to Die" by Sean Naylor
"Not a Good Day to Die" (http://www.amazon.com/Not-Good-Day-Die-Operation/dp/0425207870/ref=cm_cr-mr-title/102-9486720-4800961) is a true account of a battle that took place (Operation Anaconda) between predominantly American forces and Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in March of 2002, several months following the battle at Tora Bora, which allowed senior al-Qaeda leadership to escape into the mountains separating Afghanistan from Pakistan.
This book takes us from the planning part of the operation, where senior American leadership was expecting 100-200 Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters whom they believed would yet again attempt to flee the country, all the way through the battle itself, including its successes and monumental failures.
While the detail is significant enough to leave those who are not part of the military a little lost in jargon and leadership structures, it presents a very clear picture of the tasks under which the military was operating at the time.
If you recall, by this time, the Taliban had been overthrown and al-Qaeda leadership was thought to have fled to Pakistan months earlier. Additionally, there was significant concern that placing divisions of troops on the ground may lead to a 1980's Afghan War insurgency to develop. Finally, the Secretary of Defense was tasked with reducing the footprint of the military and emphasizing "smart" technology, like laser-guided bombs, etc.
This story looks at the decisions that were made, the inability of certain military groups to effectively work together, and the broken down chain of command due to disparate groups working together.
All in all, this is a great book thoroughly detailing a significant battle in the war on terror, and one that should be studied by military planners for generations.
This book takes us from the planning part of the operation, where senior American leadership was expecting 100-200 Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters whom they believed would yet again attempt to flee the country, all the way through the battle itself, including its successes and monumental failures.
While the detail is significant enough to leave those who are not part of the military a little lost in jargon and leadership structures, it presents a very clear picture of the tasks under which the military was operating at the time.
If you recall, by this time, the Taliban had been overthrown and al-Qaeda leadership was thought to have fled to Pakistan months earlier. Additionally, there was significant concern that placing divisions of troops on the ground may lead to a 1980's Afghan War insurgency to develop. Finally, the Secretary of Defense was tasked with reducing the footprint of the military and emphasizing "smart" technology, like laser-guided bombs, etc.
This story looks at the decisions that were made, the inability of certain military groups to effectively work together, and the broken down chain of command due to disparate groups working together.
All in all, this is a great book thoroughly detailing a significant battle in the war on terror, and one that should be studied by military planners for generations.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Parker got some new toys for Christmas
Aside from sitting up, Parker received many gifts for Christmas, including the outfit he is wearing and those toys pictured above.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Christmas Day @ the Needhams 2006
As with every Christmas at the Needham's, Christmas Day is pajama day. Today was no different. Like yesterday's post, this will be broken into 4 parts. This is part 1 of 4.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Christmas Eve 2006 Part 3 of 3
Look Ma, no hands! I could be wrong, but below are the first pictures of which I am aware that Parker is sitting up on his own. Now, he did eat carpet a couple of times, but he was able to sit up for several moments.
Christmas Eve, Part 1 of 3
Friday, December 22, 2006
Thursday, December 21, 2006
The Life and Death of Saparmurat Niyazov
Saparmurat Niyazov, head of the country of Turkmenistan, suddenly passed away today at the age of 66. If it weren't for the fact that his countrymen were so poor or they lived in a police state, the story of Niyazov would actually be quite funny.
The nation of Turkmenistan sits just north of both Iran and Afghanistan and borders the Caspian Sea. It was one of the central Asian nations to be annexed by Russia in the 19th century. Geographically, Turkmenistan is roughly the size of California with 5 million residents. Most are ethnic Turkmen and nearly 90% of the citizens are Muslims.
Despite being next to the Caspian Sea and consequently having access to significant natural gas resources, the population of Turkmenistan is extremely poor. This is largely a result of the extreme mismanagement of the nation's resources by Niyazov, a former Soviet apparatchik.
In recent years, Turkmenistan and Russia have had disputes largely relating to energy but have begun bilateral negotiations for Russia to provide energy due to the underdevelopment of Turkmenistan's resources and Russia's extortionist energy policies.
The amusing aspect of Niyazov is his total messianic cult of personality. This was manifested in the fact that, like other tin-pot dictators, he has honored himself by erecting paintings of himself everywhere. However (imagine Robin Leach's voice) this dictator has taken self adulation to a whole new level. Niyazov erected a 20 foot gold statue (featured above) which rotates throughout the day to face the sun. Additionally, he took the title of "Turkmenbashi" or father of the Turkmen and even renamed the month of January after himself.
Of course, someone this crazy certainly has his detractors, most of whom are in prison or in a different country. Many of them have been tortured and/or killed. To state the obvious, dissent was not tolerated under the leadership of Saparmurat Niyazov.
While Niyazov did have heart problems, it would not be outside the realm of possibility to wonder about his actual cause of death. Russia has been quite active in the assassination and strong-arm game as of late and would have a significant financial interest in taking over Turkmenistan's oil and natural gas fields. Stranger things have happened.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Making the Corps
"Making the Corps," (http://www.amazon.com/Making-Corps-Thomas-Ricks/dp/0684848171/sr=8-1/qid=1166641893/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-7361455-7084848?ie=UTF8&s=books) is a story which follows platoon 3086 of the United States Marine Corps from their bus ride down to basic training on Paris Island, South Carolina to a year past their graduation. It was written by Thomas Ricks, currently the military reporter from the Washington Post.
Mr. Ricks did a very good job of giving a semblance of what life was like moving through boot camp, week-by-week. If you are considering joining the Marine Corps, this is probably as good an idea as you will get of what you are in for (the exception being that this book was written before the Crucible was instituted).
Towards the latter part of the book, you begin to get the feeling that Mr. Ricks has fallen in love with the Corps (a problem I see many writers falling into as they intensely cover one topic), but his tone changes as he begins to follow the platoon into Marine Combat Training and various post-boot camp schools (infantry, etc.). You get the feeling the boot camp was nearly a religious experience and then the Marines come face-to-face with the realities of their career. Many are still extremely enthusiastic, many others are complacent, and others are downright disenfranchised with the ideal as portrayed at boot camp, with the reality as played out around the country, and in fact the world.
In sum, I feel the book was a very fair representation of this fascinating branch of the U.S. Military and even some of Mr. Ricks concerns in the epilogue are ominously accurate. This book was written in 1997, but includes observations such as:
"...the American people simply won't tolerate casualties in situations where they dislike or don't understand it, as with Somalia."
"Not to understand the military is dangerous both for the military and the nation. Nowadays civilian policymakers tend to overestimate what the military can do...Overestimating the military is probably even more dangerous than believing the military is peopled by incompetent buffoons, as the Baby Boomer generation seemed to believe in the 1970's."
Finally, Mr. Ricks sees two major problems partially expressed above. The first is that fewer and fewer citizens (and consequently politicians) have any military experience. Therefore, the do not understand the military nor its capabilities. The second is that this above problem, along with the breakdown of morals in this nation lead to a hyper-moral military force defending a populace that in large part lacks morals. Taken to its extreme, this can have severely negative consequences.
Mr. Ricks did a very good job of giving a semblance of what life was like moving through boot camp, week-by-week. If you are considering joining the Marine Corps, this is probably as good an idea as you will get of what you are in for (the exception being that this book was written before the Crucible was instituted).
Towards the latter part of the book, you begin to get the feeling that Mr. Ricks has fallen in love with the Corps (a problem I see many writers falling into as they intensely cover one topic), but his tone changes as he begins to follow the platoon into Marine Combat Training and various post-boot camp schools (infantry, etc.). You get the feeling the boot camp was nearly a religious experience and then the Marines come face-to-face with the realities of their career. Many are still extremely enthusiastic, many others are complacent, and others are downright disenfranchised with the ideal as portrayed at boot camp, with the reality as played out around the country, and in fact the world.
In sum, I feel the book was a very fair representation of this fascinating branch of the U.S. Military and even some of Mr. Ricks concerns in the epilogue are ominously accurate. This book was written in 1997, but includes observations such as:
"...the American people simply won't tolerate casualties in situations where they dislike or don't understand it, as with Somalia."
"Not to understand the military is dangerous both for the military and the nation. Nowadays civilian policymakers tend to overestimate what the military can do...Overestimating the military is probably even more dangerous than believing the military is peopled by incompetent buffoons, as the Baby Boomer generation seemed to believe in the 1970's."
Finally, Mr. Ricks sees two major problems partially expressed above. The first is that fewer and fewer citizens (and consequently politicians) have any military experience. Therefore, the do not understand the military nor its capabilities. The second is that this above problem, along with the breakdown of morals in this nation lead to a hyper-moral military force defending a populace that in large part lacks morals. Taken to its extreme, this can have severely negative consequences.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
I Got a New Camera
Today, I received a recently ordered new digital camera. It is pretty nice and I bought it from a friend whose wife works at a major digital camera manufacturer. In this light, I have included some new photographs of the little guy. The pics are of him in his Adidas sweats that a woman in the Adidas factory in Indonesia made specially for him (my sister-in-law works for Adidas and she went to Indonesia to meet some of the workers). The sweatsuit is not for retail sale, so I guess you can say it is one-of-a-kind.
Also, Noanie sent him a Christmas hat that he wears in some of the other pictures.
Hope you enjoy!
Blow The House Down
On Saturday, I completed reading the first novel I have read in exactly one year. "Blow the House Down" was written by Robert Baer, former case officer in the CIA. As I have referenced on these pages or on my Amazon homepage (http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A6UM853EULFEV/002-7361455-7084848), Mr. Baer is a great writer who brings great understanding and perspective that only someone who has operated from the "inside" can. He has met the people about whom he writes and has visited the places about which he references.
"Blow the House Down" is half Robert Ludlum and half X-Files. It is long on intrigue and conspiracy and short on the James Bond'ness that too many novels about spy agencies focus. The premise of this novel is that a veteran CIA case officer (not too incidentally modeled after Mr. Baer himself) searches for the kidnappers and ultimately killers of CIA station chief, Bill Buckley (real person). In his quest, he ruffles some feathers and gets kicked out of the agency. Being like a bull-dog, he refuses to give up his quest and ultimately stumbles onto the 9/11 plot months before it is perpetrated.
It makes for some engrossing reading and a plausible conspiracy theory to explain the attacks. In the epilogue, Mr. Baer acknowledges that his theory is far fetched, but leaves us with some unanswered questions regarding the attacks not addressed by the 9/11 Commission, including a possible Iranian angle. It is a quick and interesting read and a good display of the kind of officers we have out in the field.
"Blow the House Down" is half Robert Ludlum and half X-Files. It is long on intrigue and conspiracy and short on the James Bond'ness that too many novels about spy agencies focus. The premise of this novel is that a veteran CIA case officer (not too incidentally modeled after Mr. Baer himself) searches for the kidnappers and ultimately killers of CIA station chief, Bill Buckley (real person). In his quest, he ruffles some feathers and gets kicked out of the agency. Being like a bull-dog, he refuses to give up his quest and ultimately stumbles onto the 9/11 plot months before it is perpetrated.
It makes for some engrossing reading and a plausible conspiracy theory to explain the attacks. In the epilogue, Mr. Baer acknowledges that his theory is far fetched, but leaves us with some unanswered questions regarding the attacks not addressed by the 9/11 Commission, including a possible Iranian angle. It is a quick and interesting read and a good display of the kind of officers we have out in the field.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Parker's 1st Real Meal (Sort of)
Today, we fed Parker something other than formula or expressed milk: rice cereal. I was trying to convince Kari to let me add some hot sauce or something (I am sure it was pretty bland), but she wouldn't let me.
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