Know Your Enemy

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Sean T. Smith

The world is reeling In the wake of terror attacks in Pakistan, Canada, and Australia. The slaughter of more than 130 children at a school in Peshawar is evil incarnate, and it is impossible to see the images of those small coffins without feeling rage and sadness. These terrorists systematically slaughtered kids in a school. It will happen again until this brand of extreme Islam is stamped out. This enemy is relentless and hungry, and there is nothing but evil in him. Bring on the waterboarding.

When the Taliban took over in Afghanistan, there was little outcry around the world. I recall watching a few stories on the news about them at the time. It wasn’t until 9-11 that we started paying attention here in the United States. More than a decade later, we are still engaging these evil sons of bitches. They receive funding from a global network of “charities,” as well as weapons and training from nations. Pakistan itself divides the Taliban into separate categories, with the “good Taliban” waging jihad outside their own borders.

I keep hearing about the moderate, decent Muslims around the world who insist that Islam is a peaceful religion. This may be true in theory but it is most certainly not true in practice. ISIS is spreading like a virulent disease, sweeping through Syria and Iraq, lopping off heads, raping and killing with wanton abandon. Where are the voices of protest from the streets of Jerusalem, the cries of outrage in Tehran? When will we see edicts from a group of the most influential clerics calling for war against these dangerous killers which threaten to plunge the world into darkness? The west cannot wage this war alone.

Other religions have their share of blood on their hands. Christianity has been perverted to wage war and commit atrocities. The Inquisition was terrible, and the Crusades stained countless battlefields with blood. Even now, there are nut-case extremist people who call themselves Christians who say awful things, advocate violence, and make other people of faith look evil by association. Here’s the thing, though. Other Christians jump all over these fringe crazies, ostracize them and isolate them. Whether you are Catholic or not, it’s hard to say that the Pope is an evil, violent man who is pushing for war.

Islam needs to come together to reclaim their religion. They need to say, “enough is enough, these terrorists do not represent our beliefs, and here is why…” And they need to act upon it. Stop funding these extremists, cease giving safe haven to terror groups, put the Imams in jail who are brainwashing kids to strap bombs to themselves. So far, though, the world has seen little in the way of Islam policing itself. There is too much resentment of the west, too much distaste for Christians, years of bottled up anger seething beneath the surface of placid smiles.

Only light can drive out the darkness. Only love can defeat hate. When I see videos of an innocent reporter getting his head sawed off, when I see these little children covered in blood, I admit I feel hate rising in me. I don’t want it, but it’s there. I try not to make generalizations, I try to keep an open mind and believe that most people are decent and kind. If these terror groups hope to instill fear, I believe they are failing. They instill hate. They want a religious war, and in the end, they will have it, dragging the world into it with them, consuming our humanity.

I hold my young boys tight, and when I see them playing Army together, sometimes I have tears in my eyes because I fear what they will be doing in ten years. I fear that this war will be upon us, and my boys will be carrying real assault rifles and keeping their heads down because darkness has already won.

Torture and the Terrorist

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Sean T. Smith

There is a great deal of howling and gnashing of teeth regarding the Senate Intelligence Committee’s recent report which details the “enhanced interrogation techniques” used to obtain information from terror suspects over the last decade. The report reveals some practices that many people find objectionable. China and Russia are wagging fingers and calling the United States out for hypocrisy. Senator John McCain stated that our country has lost its honor. I’m fairly liberal on most issues. This is not one. Call me a hypocrite.

The Senate report delves into the treatment of 119 detainees. Not thousands, not hundreds. 119 men. I understand that the rule of law is important to our civilization. I respect human rights and civil liberties, and I am thankful I live in a nation which champions those causes around the globe. I understand the danger of a slippery slope. I don’t like the idea of a shadowy organization beholden to none operating at will, subverting our values.

On the other hand…

If sleep deprivation and water boarding could have prevented 9-11, would it have been justified? To save thousands of lives, would it be acceptable to force a terror suspect to listen to Brittany Spears music until his ears bleed? How much collateral damage is too much? How many innocent lives are lost every month in the ongoing war on terror? How many American troops have fallen fighting Al Queda?

Remember these guys? I wish they’d been strapped into a chair on September Tenth, a burly Special Forces operator beating them to a fruit-juicy pulp before they decided to hop on planes and kill thousands of people.

This is war. It’s a different kind of war than all of our nation’s previous engagements. The enemy crosses borders at will, from the mountains of Pakistan, the rocks and valleys of Afghanistan, to the deserts of Africa. This enemy is motivated by hatred and religious zeal, and is plotting against us right now. This foe will not hesitate to kill innocents, to torture and maim women and children, and his goal is nothing short of the complete destruction of our way of life. He hides behind children, wears no uniform, and melts into the crowds of the market or subway. He likes to blow things up, and is willing to strap a bomb to himself, inflicting the highest amount of damage possible with ball-bearings that fly out in all directions, tearing through flesh and bone. There is no mercy in him.

This is who we fight. An enemy with no fear of death, who in fact takes comfort in the promised rewards of martyrdom in the afterlife. This war is only just beginning, and will continue to rage for the rest of this century.

I fear America has lost its stomach for war. If war were not necessary, this would be a good thing. Peace comes through strength, though. War is brutish and ugly, and sometimes the only choices are between two evils. In World War II, bombs killed hundreds of thousands of civilians. In Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Dresden, the United States unleashed firestorms. The goal was to win the war. It was awful, yet brutally effective.

I don’t mind that these terrorists were subjected to torture. Some things should remain secret. I sleep better at night knowing there are soldiers standing at the gates against the barbarians.

Tired of That Bullshit: Here it Comes

Posted on November 21, 2014 by Sean T. Smith

The BMW scooted down a mile of traffic and cut in one car ahead of me, not merging, but slashing, his actions, and those of the same ilk, causing the the traffic jam in the first place, when there were people like me who would have let him go ahead and slip in without causing everyone else to slam on their brakes.

THOSE guys, drive me nuts.

Those guys are everywhere, it seems. The ones who think they are more important than anyone else, bringing civilized folk to an abrupt halt, while they cut in and get what they think they deserve. There are fewer of them, those predatory self-important hyenas who fancy themselves lions but who are nothing more than carrion-feeders, than there are decent and good people. The school of fish is a buffet for the souless shark.

I’m a big man, and I’ve never lost a fight, not a man-to-man fight. Been beat down by groups a few times. I’ve been shot at and stabbed at and had my nose broken and my eyes swollen shut, but my scars are honest and earned. There is no such thing as a friendly fight, but there is a difference between a fair fight and a sucker punch,. Except, in today’s society, there is no distinction, and perhaps there never was.

In The Art of War, Sun Tzu says, ” Appear weak when you are strong, and appear strong when you are weak.” The guy in the BMW with a short-guy complex is winning in America. He is weak, and yet we, the people, are defeated. Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson would smack that guy in the face. Or, not. Our founding Fathers were Mercedes kind of people. They were short, wealthy, and male. They owned slaves, land, and “cut in” even though it made Britain rather angry. They were brilliant, and they got richer because of the American Revolution, no more saints than Bill Gates or Carnegie or Warren Buffet.

Americans are getting cut off by that guy. It’s been happening since the first boots landed on the New World. The people with money and clout dictated what everyone else would do. They made the laws, established an oligarchy, and enforced their will by killing and burning and revolting when it suited them to do so. They gave the rest of us a chance, gave a nation room to breathe, until the United States became great, not because of these bastards, but in spite of them. America stayed one nation through the bloodletting of the Civil War, not because the industrialists and plantation owners deemed it so, but because Lincoln was willing to spill blood for that ideal. American boys paid that price in blood at Antietam and Gettysburg and all over the eastern United States, which were anything but united. In World War Two, the Greatest Generation fought and bled and died from Omaha Beach to Berlin for that dream of freedom and a nation that stands as a city on a hill, a beacon of righteousness. Generations have died for a flag and an ideal which could be true, but which is being stolen right now,.

The sonsofbitches that think they are above everyone else, then as now, did not allow their sons to be put in harm’s way. They did not fight themselves, but chose to hide behind wealth and position and condescending smiles. They cut in, assuming, aggressive, and entitled. Along the way, they created a news network and convinced people that whatever sprang from that network was the Truth.” If FOX says it, coming from a college dropout or pretty blond, then it must be true,” thinks a whole segment of our great nation. Go ahead, and cut in. I won’t be angry. It’s all right with me because—

“Screw you, cutting in front of me, you entitled sonofatbitch!”

I’ll just speed up a bit so that you can’t get in, and blithely smile at you while you rage, and then cut ahead in line and get in anyway, causing this whole traffic jam. Nothing gets done, really, except that the jerk got in ahead anyway. And that is that bullshit.

The country is gridlocked by assholes.

The bank bailouts, the stock market crash, the worst Congress in history, the lies perpetrated by certain networks, prove this.The fear, misinformation, ignorance, bigotry, and outright hatred spewed by those in power and those with a vested interest in it prove that nothing is going to happen in terms of real legislation. Change? No. Because the king likes to be king, and who can blame him? The thing is to convince the paupers that they are kings. And that happened. They did that!

The rich will continue to get richer, though, and they’ll claim that they are hurting. They’ll try to convince the rest of the country that poor people are poor because they are lazy and rich people are rich because they are good and Americans will buy it and let them cut in.

There will be a wreck. I’ll be that guy that really slows traffic down. Because I’ll ram the next son of a bitch in a BMW that cuts me off, I’ll floor it in my work truck, and I won’t give a damn. And when he gets out of his car, pressed white shirt and angry and talking about lawyers, I’ll knock him right on his ass, because I don’t care anymore about the traffic jam and fairness and that bullshit that I’ve been putting up with while people like this steal from me. I’ll punch him in the eye because that’s what I’ve been wanting to do, every time I’ve been stuck in this traffic for the last twenty years.

That’s what I’m going to do, and that’s because I’m sick and tired of that bullshit.

Objects of Wrath, half price.

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Sean T. Smith

My publisher, Permuted Press, is running a promotion this week for Objects of Wrath; more than eight hours worth of adventure set in America after the next global war. Readers say that the novel “sits at the intersection of The Road and Full Metal Jacket.”

“

I truly enjoyed this book, and it probably one of the best reads I’ve had so far this year. ”

The Bookie Monster

The final book in the series comes out in February. Curl up by a cracking fire and spend a day immersed in a world that may yet come to be.

http://www.amazon.com/Objects-Wrath-Volume-Sean-Smith/dp/1618682245

“We’ve got this.” Misplaced Faith in the Government

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Sean T. Smith

I grew up believing that the government of the United States pretty much had things under control. We prevailed in World War II, put a man on the moon, did not engage in a shooting war with the Soviet Union and managed not to blow up the planet. Sure, there were some missteps, but overall, when I listened to Ronald Regan on the evening news, I felt confidant that the our leaders had things under control. After 9-11, I had the prickly feeling in the back of my head that I was wrong. Now, more than a decade later, events prove that when the government says “we’ve got this,” we should take that with a hearty grain of salt.

In the area of Northeast Florida where I live, gated neighborhoods have sprung up like weeds. Some have security guards out front, while others use automated gates. These gates make people feel safe behind their walls, and they pay hundreds of dollars per month in HOA fees to feel that way. It’s absurd, though, an illusion of security rather than the real thing. On any given day, in these sprawling McMansion neighborhoods, hundreds of construction workers, lawn crews, and house staff waltz through the gates. Many of these are undocumented workers, some, no doubt convicted felons. It amuses me. The United States is like one of these gated neighborhoods. We desperately want to believe in our own security and supremacy, and that when the government spokesman gets on the news and offers his assurances that there is nothing to worry about, he’s telling the truth.

We’ve learned that the FBI warned about the potential threat presented by the 9-11 terrorists. The government clearly did not have that under control. We went to war in Iraq because we believed that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction. Whoops. (Now that the region has been destabilized by more than a decade of fighting, ISIL is an evil menace that makes Saddam look like a cute puppy.) We’ve yet to respond properly to that threat, in my humble opinion. I hope our leaders figure this one out before the enemy breaches the gates, because evil knocking, and it’s hungry.

When Katrina leveled New Orleans, it took days before FEMA arrived and any kind of order took place. We saw the bodies in the streets. The government didn’t have that under control. Not by a long shot.

Our embassies have been bombed and attacked around the world, despite warnings, costing American lives. One hand seldom knows what the other is doing, it seems.

A crazy guy with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, firearms, and knives in his car gets past the gates at the White house, and makes it all the way inside before he is finally subdued. Are you kidding me? The alarm had been muted because it annoyed the staff. The Secret Service clearly did not have that handled.

Ebola is now here in the United States, and the CDC is telling us not to worry about that. Yet we find that this guy in Texas was sent home by the hospital even after he told them he’d just come back from Africa. After he was diagnosed, local officials entered his apartment without wearing the proper protective gear. The U.S. has been staggeringly slow to respond to the crisis, and bungled the first known case on our own soil. So when I’m told not to worry, I laugh.

I’m not going to stay up at night wringing my hands. I love the United States, and we are a great nation, a great people, and there is a reason that the world still turns to us for help in time of need. But when they say, “we’ve got this,” I don’t believe it any more, not even for a minute.

“We hoped that clear heads would prevail. We were wrong.”

We The People

Posted on August 3, 2014 by Sean T. Smith

I love the United States of America; we are the greatest nation in the history of mankind, yet we are not the country that we were, nor the one we believe ourselves to be. America lost its light along the way.

America stopped Hitler. America invented rock and roll, the automobile, and the internet, and put men on the moon. We are a nation of innovators, fiercely independent, and hard working. We as a people were admired for standing for freedom and democracy. That is part of our heritage.seantsmithauthor.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/what-do-i-need-to-know.jpg”> Self-Compassion

America defeated the Soviet Union without firing a shot. (Not The Big shot, thank God.)

Those are defining moments as Americans, right? We stopped Stalin, King George, and Saddam Hussein. We helped rebuild Germany and Japan after World War II.

But…America became a nation by killing off the people that were actually Americans first. Whoops.

Along the way, America built a nation upon the backs of people who were enslaved. Slavery happened. People owned people. That’s also part of our heritage. This country would not exist as we know it without the push west at the expense of the Native Americans and the generations of slave trade and labor which built the agricultural base in the South.

I love America. I love the United States. We are not all one thing, though, either good or evil, nor have we ever been a homogenous society. In fact, our diversity is one of the things that made us great. We have been a champion of freedom and that which is good, but we have also committed atrocities and grave mistakes.

And now, while the United States consumes itself with bitter fire and ignorance, self righteousness and self- loathing at the same time, what is the truth of it? As a people, as Americans, can we recognize the difference between a patriot and a fool?

It’s harder than we think, and now a war within looms because we’re that idle and dumb. The patriots, who are not actually patriots but those who undermine the country with lies, ignorance, and hatred, are dangerous because many of them advocate open war, rebellion, and violence. And their numbers are growing.

The amount of misinformation being blasted over the airways and internet is mind-blowing. The truth seems hard to discern, and many people, it seems , prefer to believe lies, whether the lies we tell ourselves or the lies of others, than to look for the cold, hard truth. The truth, like the America itself, is not just one thing.

The United States strove to be a beacon of hope for the world, a “city on a hill,” and in many respects, the country succeeded in fulfilling the hopes of our founding fathers. It seems to me though, that we the people no longer strive for this ideal.

We watch videos of cuddly cats on the internet rather than try to learn something. We past memes on social media full of ignorance and hate because it is easier to click than it is to actually read. We are convinced we are right and that the other side is wrong, seldom listening to those who disagree with us, remaining in a bubble of ignorance.

The true patriot will listen, learn, and read a history book.

One of the building blocks of our democracy is compromise. Without it, the government cannot function, either at the national or local level. When politicians and voters become so entrenched in their beliefs that they are unwilling to bend, the whole system breaks down. The government now is a picture of this dysfunction. Unfortunately, the government reflects the will of the people, and we are divided.

The true patriot will strive for unity over division. The only way this great country will find its light again is if we the people become that light.