« Howard's Curse | Main | Planet Castro - Part 5 »

Contrails

One of my own lingering memories of the days after 9/11 was the absence of aircraft in the sky. On the day of the Massacre, I was 3,000 miles away from New York, but the impact of the attack to me was immediate. There was no air traffic, there was nothing was in the air. I will never forget what it felt like to look up and see an empty sky.

However, the next morning there were jet contrails over the city in big oval shapes and I knew that the F-15’s of the United States Air Force while I lay sleeping had been on the job overnight. Each night over the next few days, the Air Force was easy to pick out in the sky in its duty station in wide orbit over the city, as they were the only things in the air still flying. Their navigation lights giving those of us on the ground at least the feeling of security.

I remembered something the other day about the Afghan Theatre of Operations. The tale was told more than once of CIA and Army Special Forces sitting down and negotiating with the Taliban. There, sitting in the home territory of the Taliban was some guy who grew up in some Kansas suburb, side by side with the local Afghani tribal Chieftain, trying to talk the Taliban into giving up their fight.

Let’s face it, back then the Taliban were working on their home ground. The local chieftain has been under the thumb of the Taliban for years, and the operative is “just one guy”. So what tipped the balance?

What tipped the balance is when the uncomfortable part of the conversation came to the part where the Talibani commander would sneer and say:

Oh Yeah Buddy! You and what army?

To which the Local Chieftain would just point up into the sky and smile as his retort. There, in the high stratosphere over Afghanistan was a manifestation of fear and death for the Taliban. High in the sky well beyond reach by any of the Taliban lived row after row of American Aircraft armed with precision weapons that could be dropped in response to a simple call on a small radio. These radios, left in the hands of the Local Chieftain meant that with just a simple call, he could rain down death on any place that the Taliban could hide. The Americans could drop bombs on specific buildings in a block, on cars on the road and even caves or hillsides. More importantly there wasn’t a thing that anyone in the Taliban could do to stop it.

The solution was simple for most of the Taliban, they could lay down their weapons and stop fighting, or die.

I was thinking tonight of what it must be like to be with the people in Beirut. What must it be like to stand in peaceful protest against Syria and the occupying army of Iran Hezbollah (let’s just call them what they are, shall we…?) See, it’s easy when you sit here on the sidelines thinking “why yes! Let’s have a protest!”. It’s a bit more difficult when your neighborhood is run by an organization that would make Al Capone and Frank Nitti wince in shame. Make no mistake about it; Hezbollah and the Syrian occupying army are ruthless murdering thugs and yet, the men and women of Lebanon are walking right up to them and saying “Time to go home, Assad!”.

So, what is it that’s letting the people of Beirut feel free to oppose their oppressors? And just exactly how do you face down a Broke-nose Hezbollah ‘ward heeler’ while you sip coffee in the corner café? My guess is that they just look up at the contrails of the jets and they get the message. The message is clear and the president delivered the message when he said “Stand for freedom and we will stand with you!”.

Somewhere over Lebanon tonight is an unmanned UAV quietly snapping pictures in the cold high atmosphere of the Bekaa valley, leaving its signature behind in the form of thin white vapor contrails, visible for all to see. Sitting far below in gun emplacements are Syrian soldiers looking up at the contrails as they unfold across the sky. The soldiers as well as the Lebanese civilians are getting the message long before their leaders get the message. The message will be delivered to their leaders in the form of a folder containing pictures of the very same gun emplacements taken by the UAV. It is my guess that someday soon, very soon, Ambassador Bolton will deliver the folder to President Assad. Ambassador Bolton will smile in retort in the way that the Afghan Chieftain did to the talibani commander just a few years ago. His statement to Assad is essentially the same, lay down your weapons and stop fighting, or you will surely die.

The message the Ambassador delivers will have been spoken in words by the President of this country but make no mistake; the message was born on the wings of the United States Air Force.

The people of Afghanistan, Iraq and now Lebanon all share something in common with Americans as now we all look to the sky and think of the men and women who helped bring us liberty by piloting aircraft that leave contrails in the sky and fear in the hearts of our enemies.

Posted @ March 14, 2005 10:40 PM | Current Affairs

Posted by: HansBricks at March 15, 2005 01:32 AM

Posted by: leelu at March 15, 2005 11:59 AM

Posted by: ptritsch at March 15, 2005 05:06 PM

Posted by: MajorDad1984 at March 16, 2005 06:32 PM