Waiting, By The Arctic Patriot.

[twyacht]

This coincides with pops1911 How Much Longer? Post.

The Arctic Patriot

"To stand on the firing parapet and expose yourself to danger; to stand and fight a thousand miles from home when you’re all alone and outnumbered and probably beaten; to spit on your hands and lower the pike; to stand fast over the body of Leonidas the King; to be rear guard at Kunu-Ri; to stand and be still to the Birkenhead Drill; these are not rational acts. They are often merely necessary." -Pournelle
8.02.2011
Waiting

Looks like we won't lose our Aaa status. We've "virtually eliminated" the risk of default.

Hmm.  Think.  Would we have defaulted, really?  The nation that prints money to bailout GM, banks, and to fund ridiculous projects as "stimulus"?

No.  Even if we couldn't meet our sovereign debt obligations (and we could have, with no ceiling increase), this government would've just printed the money to do so.

Now, we're stuck with more of the same can-kicking, and a "deal" that virtually guarantees more can-kicking before the end of the year.  Awesome.

So, the age-old questions.

What?  How?  When?

What do we do about the oathbreaking, traitorous bastards driving our nation to ruin, bankrupting our children, enslaving our posterity?

What do we do?

We wait.

...*crickets*...

I know, I know, you're tired of waiting.  All the prepping, the learning, the training, you're eager and willing to set this straight.

The current situation reminds me of being a young enlisted soldier, out on one of my my first (training) observation posts.  After all the prep and training, we were inserted via Blackhawk, did a night infiltration, and set up in a good hide position.  All I did was follow my squad leader, and it was just training, but I was pumped.  We got set up, and I asked my sergeant what to do next.

He just looked at me and said, "Now we wait".

Do you know how hard it is for an eighteen year old private with a load of blank ammo to hold his fire with the enemy right in his face?

Sitting right smack dab in the middle by an OPFOR Mech Infantry batallion, armed with only a radio and M16's, there wasn't much else we could have done.  Many times, if a scout uses his personal weapon, he's already failed.  He's dead.

We waited.

We sent intel.

We improved our position, when we could.

When the fight started, we used the radio (a scout's most powerful weapon) to rain hell (simulated arty) down all around us.  We had used the excruciatingly boring day and a half of "waiting"...doing "nothing"... with the enemy close enough to hit with a rock, to identify the enemy BN command and staff, as well as several other key positions that were made untenable with well-directed simulated artillery.  We sat there in the sun, plotting, ranging, estimating, setting up TRPs...

We were "waiting", but we were busy.

That "waiting" paid off.

Another time (again, training here), on a screenline, we "waited", and let OPFOR's advance guard pass us.  We let the main body pass as well.  We "waited", while an Armored Cavalry task force charged ahead, overextended, and found itself trapped in a mess of obstacles, washed-out ditches, and -oh yeah- scouts armed with TOW missiles.  One ten-vehicle scout platoon decimated many times more than its number in Bradleys.  Our dug-in M-1s took care of the rest.  The exercise was reset to allow the other side to get some training value out of it.  To win completely, we had to allow the enemy to commit, to over-extend.  We had to allow a lethal foe to close within striking distance.

Maybe there are some correlations or lessons to be learned there.  Maybe not.  Maybe I'm just spouting off about old Army wargames.

So, what do we do?  I can't answer that for anyone but myself and my family.  We wait.  We prepare for the worst.  We make our lives ones worth dying for.  We build strong minds, strong bodies, strong tribes.

We Resist where we can, we hide or pull back where we must.  Some of us will have to stand and receive punishment for saying, "no more".   That's hard.  Some of us will have to suffer disgrace and humiliation where our pride says "fight!"  Sometimes that's just as hard.
You, me, others, the "little people", we're powerless right now.  We're spectators to our own downfall as a nation.  It's always that way.  The little people are nothing, impotent, meaningless.

Until they're not anymore.

That moment often comes without warning.  When it comes, nothing can stop it, even if looking back it seems entirely avoidable.

Remember WW1?  When one spark was lit, it set off an unstoppable chain of events that no one could control.

Our time will come.  One way or the other.

I don't know the when or the how.  I know part of the "why".

Use the time we have now.  Use it to prepare for whatever you see ahead in our future.  Use it or squander it as you will.

We're the little people.  We're the "consumers", the cannon fodder, the "suspects", the "voters", whatever serves the purposes of the moment for those who would be our masters.

We'll always be impotent.

Until we're not.

Resist.
Posted by Arctic Patriot at Tuesday, August 02, 2011

http://arcticpatriot.blogspot.com/2011/08/waiting.html

*****

[2HOW]

Awesome post, and spot on .................

[alfsauve]

Remember WW1?  When one spark was lit, it set off an unstoppable chain of events that no one could control.

Our time will come.  One way or the other.

I don't know the when or the how.  I know part of the "why".

It's called a "tipping point".   Some, one spark will really set it off.  As my moniker says:  "Semper Vigilantes"   

[Magoo541]

Awesome post.  Takes me back to some good times, funny you rarely remember the cold, boredom, pain, lack of sleep or all the BS going on back home.  Then again that was over 20 years ago and the strong memories are all that remain. 

God help us if it ever comes to that....

[mauler]

I like it.

[Sponsor]

[pops1911]

Well said - it's been over 40 years for me. Seems like yesterday - well ok last month or so.