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Here, There, Every Hare
Here, There, Every Hare The ears rise and the nose turns It’s out there somewhere Paws forward Body still As the last sun tweaks the visage The sky spilling its paints once more To keep us interested until tomorrow Still in the grass The hare at dusk He knows we are there. He believes ifRead more -
My contribution to the Poetry – La Nuit de la Poésie
My contribution to the Poetry – La Nuit de la Poésie Quand s’éloigner dit bonjour Seulement cette fois quand elle s’en va est-ce que je l’aime plus Cette fois, sa bonne nuit semblait avec plus de bien que de nuit en elle. Son sourire hurla silencieusement le bonheur qui a nié le vent en dehorsRead more -
The Coyote Clears The Fog
THE COYOTE CLEARS THE FOG BY TOM SQUITIERI Jan 27, 2019 | Poetry | 2 | The capture of the morning is yours when you look. It settles my uncertainty. It tells me who I am. It makes the fog genuflect to open a pathway inside. Morning dances, with a melody still forming. TheRead more -
Tennyson Warned Me
TENNYSON WARNED ME BY TOM SQUITIERI Jan 27, 2019 | Poetry | 2 | The day and I told them it would be bad But they scoffed and refused to believe They insisted on doing things their foolish way Proving they were war zone plebes So, hours after we were cleared and supposed toRead more -
Not Any Harbor
NOT ANY HARBOR BY TOM SQUITIERI Jan 27, 2019 | Poetry | 1 | And then there are the harbors always waiting for us Seemingly blocked, but in reality Reminding us we have the key and must use it Your legs are poised, your harbor is ready and waiting The shoals remain yet for theRead more -
If not victory, , can there be success in Afghanistan?
WASHINGTON — If you search for the metrics to winning the war in Afghanistan, you will get plenty of results, plenty of metrics — and no victory declared. And that may be the way it will be, indefinitely. At best, the U.S. is seeking success, not victory, experts are now saying. The U.S.-led coalition isRead more -
What’s in a name? More than you may think — and more than the Pentagon wishes to share
WASHINGTON — When U.S. military leaders decided to make a new spring push against ISIS in Syria, the commanding general, Lt. Gen. Paul Funk, looked to his grade school for guidance on what to call the new offensive. Funk attended elementary school in Roundup, Montana. To Funk, that was the perfect name for an operationRead more -
Red Sox powerful Pentagon weapon revealed
WASHINGTON — Top Pentagon officials dogmatically decline to speculate about any future operation, maneuver, deployment or weapons system when asked a question by a reporter. That is, unless it is about the Boston Red Sox. Boldly going where few generals trod, Gen. James McConville says the Red Sox are a lock to win the World SeriesRead more -
Berlin airlift 70 years ago saved the city and proved the Air Force was needed
By tom On Wednesday, July 18 th, 2018 · no Comments · In And more news stories ,News stories ,WritingWASHINGTON — Raymond Roberts still remembers vividly the sight of that Soviet MiG jet teasing the cargo plane he was in as a crew member ferrying supplies 70 years ago to a besieged Berlin. “We were helpless,” Roberts, who lives in Denton, Texas, said in an interview. “We were just flying in a small (air)Read more -
Mattis, Chinese take measure of each other
BEIJING — Defense Secretary James Mattis came to China armed with his knowledge of geography, history and the determination to see — perhaps prove — that retired generals do not fade away, they make the world better. Mattis believed the two superpowers could find common ground, trumpet that duet, and then try to proceed toRead more -
WITNESSING A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS: Rohingyas in Bangladesh
Almost every refugee crisis can claim to be the worst. The truth is, they all are. Yet the one now ungluing in Myanmar and Bangladesh has dwarfed most others, the result of sinister, racist corruption that has leveled the crisis of desperate Rohingyas into historic tragedy. To those who are there, trying to help,Read more -
Snowflakes reappear in the Pentagon: Rumseld’s musings have life again
WASHINGTON — Very few things send Washington into a tizzy like a forecast of snow. But those palpitations are nothing compared to the tsunami shudder that coursed through the Pentagon at the thought of a ”snowflake” circulating up and down its more than 17.5 miles of hallways. That would be a Donald Rumsfeld snowflake —Read more
WASHINGTON — Very few things send Washington into a tizzy like a forecast of snow. But those palpitations are nothing compared to the tsunami shudder that coursed through the Pentagon at the thought of a ”snowflake” circulating up and down its more than 17.5 miles of hallways.
That would be a Donald Rumsfeld snowflake — the nom de plume for the often short, well-crafted memos the former Defense secretary would send to staff, colleagues and anyone else he thought needed his guidance or prodding — notes that would send fretting subordinates into an intellectual swoon as they grappled with an unanswerable question sent by the former collegiate wrestler.
Like the rare D.C. snowstorm, it is snowflake time again — thanks to the unsealing of dozens of the former Defense secretary’s missives.
Some are well-known and previously reported, such as declaring the Pentagon bureaucracy the biggest threat to the U.S., in a snowflake on Sept. 10, 2001 — the day before four airplanes crashed into the Pentagon, the World Trade Center and the Pennsylvania countryside.
Other memos are being seen for the first time, adding to the robust context many who have chatted, communicated or parried with Rumsfeld carry in their memories.
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