Terror or "Error"?

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
As promised, over this past weekend I read Dr. Humberto Caspa's new book, "Terror in the Latino Barrio: The Rise of the New Right in Local Government". It's been 50 years since I've done a book report, so I'm not going to try to give you all the gory details. I'll just give you my opinion of the book. If you really want to try to find out if your name is in it you'll just have to shell out $17.00 or so at the local bookstore later this month or order it on Amazon. com.

NOT A GREAT BOOK - A GOOD BOOK
Let me start right off by telling you that in my opinion Dr. Caspa, whom I consider a friend, did not write a great book. He wrote a good book, full of authenticated facts, plenty of names, a pretty good time line of events and a lot of passionate opinion. He wrote a book that chronicles events in Costa Mesa over the past few years and draws conclusions from his analysis of those events. In most cases I agree with his conclusions.

LANGUAGE LEADS TO LEVITY
Unfortunately, although he holds a PhD, Dr. Caspa still has some difficulty with the nuances of the English language - don't we all? And, there are just enough typos and malapropisms sprinkled throughout the book to make his critics - particularly those of the Mensa persuasion - salivate about ways to use them to reject the premise of the book. That won't work, because his premise is rock-solid and amply documented.

DON'T FENCE ME IN
One example of an entry that brought a smile to my face is on page 76, where Dr. Caspa addresses the loitering day-workers at Lions Park. In his attempt to provide his readers with an image of Lions Park in their mind he includes the following description: "On one corner of the park, there is a barbed-wired baseball field on which city administrators organize softball and baseball tournaments." I'm sorry, but while this is no big deal in the grand scheme of things, the mental image of our kids playing softball in a field surrounded by barbed-wired cries out for comment. He, of course, probably meant "chain link fence", not barbed wire. I suspect you're smiling, too.

CRITICS WILL ATTACK
Dr. Caspa's critics will certainly try to refute some of his allegations - that's to be expected. He did a good job of documenting statements on which most of his opinions are based. There will be those who will attack his work as fiction - it's not. He headed off those critics with thorough documentation and attribution. Some will reject the title of the book, saying there is no "terror" in Costa Mesa. Those folks will likely not be members of the Latino community in our city, who today walk the streets very carefully for fear of unwarranted apprehension and deportation. This fear was exemplified by a young woman who raised her hand during Dr. Caspa's recent presentation at OCC to say that she never leaves her home without her green card for fear of being stopped for some minor infraction and summarily deported.

CHRONOLOGY IS THERE
Throughout the book Dr. Caspa attempts to provide the reader a chronology of events and introductions of main players in this little drama that we call Costa Mesa. He has done exhaustive research toward that end, all of which is footnoted for your reference. Quite honestly, while the information is there, I sometimes found the flow of the book a little herky-jerky.

NAMING NAMES
Dr. Caspa discusses the various organizations, groups and individuals that have come and gone in the quest to "improve" the Westside of our city. He names names, lists accomplishments and those events for which some of the players should receive credit or blame. Many of the names will be familiar to those who follow city politics - Mansoor, Bever, Leece, Monahan, Steel, Robinson, Davidson, Egan, Bunney, Elmore, Garlich, Scheafer, Dixon, Foley, Roeder, Morello, Turpit, Burciaga, Johnson, Dodero, Berry, Snowden, Hensley, Acosta... the list goes on and on. Heck, he even mentions me a couple times.

MANSOOR'S MUFF
Dr. Caspa discusses in detail the events of the past couple years, ever since Allan Mansoor attempted to deputize all Costa Mesa police officers as immigration screeners, including the unfortunate arrest of Benito Acosta. He does a good job of laying the groundwork so the reader can understand the evolution of events that set the stage for Mansoor's actions.

THE COMMON THREAD
The common thread throughout the book is the reference to one local activist and his pervasive influence on people and events in our city. This person has been called "Your Neighbor" on this blog and has named himself "Mr. U-Know-Who" on his own. Caspa makes very clear, unequivocal references to him by name throughout his book, pointing out in great detail what he perceives to be his unmistakable footprint on politics in this city for nearly a decade. Mr. U-Know-Who will not be a happy camper when he reads the book. That, alone, is enough to bring a smile to my face.

INTERESTING SIDEBAR
One interesting sidebar is that Mr. U-Know-Who implied in a very recent blog entry that he's upset with his hand-picked city council majority - he says they don't have the "gonads" to get the job done quickly enough - and indicated that he just might run for city council this year. He provided his list of goals should that happen. Apparently he feels HE has the testicular fortitude to get the job done. Many of us would relish having him in the race, but I doubt he has that equipment he seeks in others to do it.

WORTH READING?
Is Humberto Caspa's book worth reading? Absolutely! Much of what he says will come as no surprise to folks who have been following events in our city since the late 1990s. In fact, much of what Caspa says in his book has been chronicled on these pages since I launched A Bubbling Cauldron nearly three years ago - and before that in letters to the editor.

FACTS ARE FACTS
As I said, I agree with much of what Caspa says in his book - particularly his reference to the influence and impact of Mr. U-Know-Who on contemporary events in our city. Those of you who doubt such influence will have, in the form of Caspa's book, all the reference material you need to validate it as fact.

FIND IT AND READ IT
Buy the book or go to the local library and check it out. I'm sure there will be folks who deny Caspa's thesis. I'm looking forward to hearing what they have to say. This blog can be a forum for that discussion if they choose to avail themselves of it.

UNCOMMON COURAGE
I admire Humberto Caspa for having the passion and courage to write this book. It took uncommon courage, for a lot of reasons, to present this view at this time in our city. I think it is a chronicle of an important time in the evolution - some might say regression - of our city and should be required reading for all those seriously concerned about the future of Costa Mesa.

December 7, 1941 - A Perspective

"Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of American was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."
---President Franklin Delano Roosevelt


AN INFAMOUS DATE
66 years ago the Empire of Japan attacked the United States military bases in Hawai'i and dragged our country into World War II. With those words above as the preamble, President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war for that dastardly deed. The rest, as they say, is history. I don't remember that date - I was four months old at the time - but I've studied World War II throughout my life and today, on this anniversary, I cannot help but compare that sneak attack on Pearl Harbor to the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001 and the resultant conflicts.

TERRIBLE LOSS
World War II - which for the United States lasted four months short of four years - took more than 400,000 American lives. More than 16,000,000 Americans participated in that war. As terrible as those numbers are, worldwide the loss of life totaled more than 70 million. While no war is "popular", World War II was a unique time in this country - a time when most Americans pulled together, sacrificed much in terms of lives and treasure and united to fight the common enemy - and were successful.

"THE GREATEST GENERATION"
That generation of Americans - my parents generation, which Tom Brokaw has defined in his books as "The Greatest Generation" - is passing on at a rate of around 1,000 per day. A few continue to try to give us some perspective on what it was like for them - like Daily Pilot columnist Joe Bell, who served this country as a Navy flier. He wrote another moving piece in the Pilot yesterday, which can be read here. That generation's story has been chronicled in many books, motion pictures and television series, like "Saving Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers", but despite those excellent portrayals, I'm not sure many of "The Greatest Generation's" children and grandchildren really understand what they went through to defend this country more than a half century ago.

SACRIFICE REMEMBERED
There was no American life that was not disrupted during World War II. The bloodlines of thousands of American families were severed at the roots with the death of so many young men in the flower of their youth. Fathers, sons and brothers were buried on foreign soil, thousands of miles from home. Those who survived came home very different men than those who volunteered to serve our country at the outset of the war. They came home with the ghosts of war in their heads, but also brought with them a resolve to make our country a better place - a place where their children wouldn't have to face the same horror of war that they experienced. Sadly, that was not to be.

PROSPERITY AND DEFEAT
In the six decades since the end of World War II the United States of America has experienced prosperity in such a short time unmatched in human history, but she also fought and lost two divisive "wars" in Korea and southeast Asia.

A NEW ENEMY
Today we face an enemy that is every bit as dangerous as were the Axis powers in 1941. On September 11, 2001 those extremists snuffed out more lives than the Japanese did at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Since President Bush declared a "War on Terror" more than six years have passed and, as I type this, nearly 4,000 young Americans have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. Every one of those brave young people volunteered to do what they perceived to be their duty - to protect this country from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

MISSING RESOLVE
Today this country is far from united about the War on Terror. This is probably due, at least in part, to the bitter memories of the unsatisfactorily-resolved Korean and Viet Nam conflicts. I'm deeply troubled by our apparent lack of resolve and unity regarding our battle against those terrorists who seem determined to exterminate us and our way of life. I find myself wondering just how many more "9/11" events it will take for the anti-war proponents to realize what this is all about.

DIVISIVE ISSUE
Of course, it doesn't help that we have a federal election staring us in the face - a time which, under the best of circumstances, we see candidates routinely lie and misrepresent their opponents positions on every issue. This war will be the most contentious and emotional of issues this time around and some of those politicians will use it to further divide our country. Some of the current crop of candidates seem more than willing to yank our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, abandoning our allies in the area, to be slaughtered as our troops dust off for the last time.

PROGRESS AND CAUTION
Progress is being made in this war and no one who gives serious consideration to it expects our country to withdraw form either venue soon. In the meantime, we must continue to be vigilant to prevent other catastrophic attacks on our soil.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF WAR
This is going to be a long battle, one not fought in the hedgerows of Normandy or on the decimated islands of the Pacific with visible and clearly defined enemies. No, this one not only pits us against Muslim extremists, but has many of those factions fighting among themselves for control - particularly in Iraq. There are some who think we should just pull out and let those factions fight it out among themselves. Others think we should abandon the arbitrary political boundaries established for that region at the end of World War I and re-align the area into their historic "tribal" areas. Most informed observers of the area know this would likely create an opportunity for even more instability in the area, with Iran, Syria, Turkey and maybe even Russia, all vying for partial or complete control. No, we can't leave yet.

PERSPECTIVE
So, on this anniversary, let's try to keep some perspective. 4,000 American lives over the past six years is a terrible loss, but it doesn't come close to the losses in World War II, or Korea and Viet Nam, for that matter. Regardless who ends up in the White House in fourteen months, we Americans must unite on this issue and give our leaders and military men and women the support they need to succeed. To fail to do so will only encourage our enemies to continue to plan our annihilation. The future of our country and our very way of life depends on a successful resolution to this war.

NEGOTIATION?
It doesn't seem as though negotiation will accomplish much in this conflict. We have no entity with which to negotiate, only ethereal bands of jackals - some of whom are likely to be state-sponsored - who seem more than willing to die in order to defeat us and be greeted by those 72 virgins promised to them. Until we can convince those states in the region who provide support for the terrorists to stop, we should use every resource and tactic available to us to help the terrorists find those virgins as quickly as possible.

STRENGTHEN OUR RESOLVE
In the meantime, we, as a nation, must strengthen our resolve. We need to reach deep and try to find the courage and determination that The Greatest Generation found to defeat the enemies of World War II.

Never Forgive and Never Forget

Putting 9/11/01 In Perspective

"The United States loves life. We love death. That is the difference between us."
- Osama bin Laden




THE WARRIOR REPORTS
Here we are, six years downstream from the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. and the resolution of our response is still unclear. Today I watched as General David Petraeus, the commander on the ground in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker presented to Congress the results of our current policies in Iraq, including the "surge", and their take on what is necessary for success in Iraq in the future. Following their testimony their words will be dissected and criticized by those opposing our continued presence in Iraq - that has already begun as I type these words. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail and our military commanders will be allowed to complete the job they were sent to do.

PERSPECTIVE
I think it's time to put this War on Terror in some perspective. Searching for that perspective I recently came across a publication by the Congressional Research Service entitled, "American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics.", which was published June 29, 2007. This report was apparently written in response to numerous requests for war casualty statistics and lists of war dead. It's a fascinating piece of reading and covers American casualty statistics from the Revolutionary War forward to the present day. It includes not only major wars, but peace-keeping operations and other skirmishes, as well. Here are some excerpts:

THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
As you leaf through the pages of this report you can't help but be staggered by some of the numbers presented. For example, in the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) it is estimated that between 184,000 and 250,000 men served and a total of 4,435 Americans died - the same number was reported for so called "battle deaths".

THE CIVIL WAR
During the four years of the Civil War (1861-1865) 2,213,363 members of the Union forces served. 364,511 died, of which 140,414 were considered "battle deaths". Confederate statistics are unreliable, but it has been estimated that between 600,000 and 1,500,000 served, 133,821 died, of which 74,524 were "battle deaths". In the battle of Gettysburg alone, on two days in July of 1863, more than 165,000 men from both sides fought that bloody battle. More than 46,000 died. Nearly 500,000 Americans died in our Civil War.

WORLD WAR I
During World War I (1917-1918) 4,734,991 Americans served. 116, 516 died , of which 53,402 were "battle deaths".






WORLD WAR II
In World War II (1941-1946) 16,112,566 Americans served. 405,399 died, of which 291,557 were "battle deaths".



KOREA
In the Korean War (1950-1953) 5,720,000 served. 36,574 died, of which 33,741 were "battle deaths".





VIETNAM
During the Vietnam Conflict (1964-1973) 8,744,000 served. 58, 209 died, of which 47,424 were "battle deaths".

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
Finally, the most recent numbers for our current conflict, which the report refers to as "Operation Iraqi Freedom" (from March 19, 2003 to June 2, 2007) 3,480 Americans have died, of which 2854 were "hostile deaths". This number, sadly, continues to grow as we know from the daily reports via the news media - the most recent number I heard was just under 3,800 deaths.

If you've managed to slog through all those sad numbers, you'll find the rest of the report itself fascinating.

WAR ON TERROR
My point here, although it took a long time to reach it, is that the current War On Terror has taken many, many fewer lives than any other "war" in American history. The Vietnam War - one that still resonates with so many of us who served in the military during that period - cost us nearly 60,000 young Americans. The Korean War, which ran for only three years, cost over 36,000 lives. While every single young American life is precious, the numbers of dead and wounded during this current war pale when compared to any other conflict in our history. That does not mean that losing another American soldier in combat is acceptable, but each day the news media, with the help of the internet, provides us with images of carnage that keep the wound that is our American perception of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan open and bleeding.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
As you look at the photos on this page I hope you'll remember what started this whole thing. The quote from Osama bin Laden at the top has defined the tone of this conflict. Nearly 3,000 American lives were lost on September 11, 2001, snuffed out as the fuel-laden jets crashed into their targets. When the twin towers in New York City imploded those innocent victims stood no chance - they were simply shredded, mangled and vaporized as the buildings came tumbling down around them. The brave passengers of Flight 93, apparently headed for another target in Washington, D.C., were the first heroes on that day six years ago. They all lost their lives, but saved unknown thousands from death and injury by their brave action.

THE BEGINNING - BEIRUT, 1983
This war on terror is actually a war declared by radical Muslims well before September 11, 2001. This attack on America and her allies may have begun as far back as October 23, 1983, when a truck bomb exploded at the American military barracks in Beirut, Lebanon with a force said to be the equivalent to 12,000 pounds of TNT - at the time, the largest non-nuclear blast ever deliberately detonated on the face of the earth. In that blast 241 American military men and women died. This was preceded by the bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut in April of that year, which took 17 American lives among the 63 killed in the attack.

WORLD TRADE CENTER TOWERS, 1993
On February 26, 1993 the World Trade Center towers were attacked by al-Qaeda terrorists, who exploded a truck loaded with a urea nitrate fuel oil device and included sodium cyanide, which they hoped would filter through the ventilation ducts and slowly smother the occupants of the towers. The plan was to explode the bomb so as to knock one tower into the other, toppling both and killing an estimated 250,000 people. 6 people were killed and 1,042 were injured. The plan failed and most of the perpetrators were captured, tried and convicted and are serving 240 years each.

KHOBAR TOWERS, 1996
On June 25, 1996 a car bomber exploded the equivalent of 20,000 - 30,000 pounds of TNT at the Khobar Towers in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 Americans and injuring 372 people of various nationalities.

USS COLE, 2000
On October 12, 2000, in an attack that is viewed by some as a precursor of the 9/11/01 attacks, the guided missile destroyer USS Cole was attacked by two suicide bombers who approached the ship and exploded their cargo, leaving a 35-by-36 foot gash in the ship's side. 17 sailors were killed and another 39 were injured.


THE PATH TO 9/11
If you doubt we are at war, take a look at this link, which chronicles the path that culminated in the attack on September 11, 2001 in amazing detail. It contains 580 entries, which lists the intelligence success and failures that resulted in the attack. Take a look at the numbers above and understand that this "war" is a long way from over. Don't forget the attacks in England and Spain and the murders of Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl. Let those be a reminder that, as has been said many times - if we don't defeat them over there we will be fighting them over here.

UNCERTAIN FUTURE
As I post this today there have been rumors about another massive attack somewhere to commemorate 9/11/01. I hope that, as you read this, nothing of the sort has happened. We, as a country, must remain steadfast in our resolve to quash these evil forces that are determined to destroy our way of life. Regardless of the political posturing and rhetoric by our elected leaders, we must show unity and dedication to that end.

STRENGTHEN YOUR RESOLVE
If your resolve weakens, remember the quotation from Osama bin Laden at the top of this entry.

NEVER FORGIVE AND NEVER FORGET!