Can I please have my spy drone back?

What’s a president to do?

Now that the Iranians have one of our drone aircraft, the best thing to do, at least according to comments by our President, is to ask them to return it.  I’m not saying that such a suggestion is childish, although it is, but to think that a country like Iran would even consider giving such a prize back is beyond the absurd.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must be laughing out loud at such a naïve suggestion.  Capturing one of the US government’s highly touted drone spy craft has to rank at the tippity top of Iran’s normally blustery anti US tirades.  What better evidence to prove that the US is spying on them than to show one of our spy planes on TV?  That seems to justify and support all the other accusations they have made over the years. It’s like, ‘see, we told you they were evil.’

But how foolish to think we could simply ask for our drone back and they would say, ‘why yes, how did it get here anyway?’  To think they might treat it like a proverbial dropped hanky is beyond ridiculous.  It would have been better to just ignore the fact that they have it.

But how about setting the darn thing up so that it self-destructs when we lose command? These things cost only a few million, a drop in the comparative bucket when we consider war machinery. Why not set them up to destroy themselves when they fall into enemy hands—that makes perfect sense to me.

So what can the Iranians figure out from one of our drones?  Well, probably how we go about flying them, the frequencies we use for the controls, and all sorts of post-modern aircraft architectural design.  I guess that’s not too much, and I guess the Iranians would just capitulate to such persuasive negotiations.  Hah!

Hawk Iranian General Hossein Salami, deputy commander of Iran’s military, went so far as to say that it didn’t matter where the aircraft originated. It was still an act of invasion and belligerence.

Well, invasion is debatable since it was indeed an unmanned and unweaponed drone; and belligerence is also debatable, since it wasn’t a Reaper or any of the other myriad drones that come armed.  So it’s a spy plane. It’s job is merely to look things over and check out what’s happening. But then, why do we really need these?  Don’t we get enough information from the spy satellites that hover over the world and send back stellar High Definition photographs of whatever we decide we want to see? I in fact ordered one of those photographic gems that showed my wife kissing Santa Clause.

There’s little question that we, as a country, totally miscalculated everything in Iran.  We backed the wrong government under the Shah, and compounded that ever since. The whole Jimmy Carter-era escapade to try to free the hostages was another high-point of diplomacy between the US and Iran.  Interestingly, it took only days after Ronald Regan’s election to have those hostages released.  But then, I guess the Iranian’s realized they wouldn’t be dealing with rhetoric any more, they would be dealing with air strikes and missiles, ala Lebanon.

I can’t tell when this situation will turn around. But I can tell you that in terms of diplomacy, asking for our drone back is beyond naïve. I guess it’s what you do when you have no other idea at all what to do but feel compelled to do something. I read, earlier this week, that we thought about trying to run a mission to get the drone back but opted not to due to the cost-benefit ratio.

But why not have some kind of kill switch built into the drone to make it fry its circuits, or even catch fire?  Doesn’t that make sense?  Maybe I am being naïve here, but I thought things like suicide pills were common to avoid interrogations. Wouldn’t some kind of kill switch serve the same purpose here?

Lock him up, please

All I can say is it’s about time.

The recent CNN report that Jerry Sandusky has been jailed, at last mind you, and didn’t have time to arrange to post a $250,000 bail has been a long time coming. This sad excuse for a man needed to be locked up a long time ago, and that he wasn’t is a shame on Penn State, Joe Paterno, and the Penn State football program.

To think that the hierarchy of that school allowed a child sex predator to remain at large, and in an environment in which his victims roamed unaware of him lurking behind every corner and every shower stall, is appalling. I don’t for a minute believe the school, at least in the person of Joe Paterno, hadn’t an inkling of an idea that something was amiss with their defensive coordinator.

It begs credulity to think that Sandusky could go from the anointed ranks to retiring in one season.  At one minute, he was hailed as the likely successor to the Penn State Football Program, and the next minute he stepped down and took an early out. What could possibly have changed to create that big a difference?

While the physical proof may not have been manifest in those earlier incidents, pre-2002; it’s entirely likely that Paterno and the rest of the football team leaders knew there was a rat in the wood pile. Things like this, until they become unmanageable, happen all the time. There’s always that cryptic warning of ‘watch out for so and so’ and the likes of that.

As much as I know about teams, there isn’t much that’s hidden.  The players, I know, are aware of strange encounters, and people, like Sandusky, whose actions are just a little bit out of kilt, so to speak. Such things come to the fore quickly in sports.  It’s not something easily hidden, and there are certainly enough wary athletes who would sniff out Sandusky’s oddities without much additional proof.

Proving things like that are much harder. But with Sandusky there seems to have been substantial circumstantial evidence.  The Penn State investigator isn’t starting his investigation with the 1998 Bowl Game incident that was pushed under the rug.  I think if you look deeply and darkly enough into Sandusky’s past, I am sure there are many other victims, and quite possibly another monster or two, since I don’t believe people like him just crop up. Something probably happened to him when he was a young lad, too.  But that needs to come out. Right now, we have the picture of Sandusky the boogeyman.

There is now more coming out about the actions of the Penn State staff, and the inner workings of The Second Mile.  The interrelationship between the Penn State staff, the Second Mile, and the university itself seems to be loaded with nepotism, favoritism, and special deals.  The initial auditing forays have returned some interesting results. I don’t know if any laws have been broken outright, but there certainly seems to be some cause for wonder. Some of the reports read like the Begat sections of Genesis.

On another front, it looks like Bernie Fine will escape prosecution for his child molesting due to statute of limitations.  Should there even be a statute of limitations in such cases? I don’t believe so. In fact, I think it’s tantamount to murder.

The people who perpetrate these kinds of crimes against innocent youngsters need to be stopped, hampered to such degree that they can no longer hurt anyone, or just plain put away.  There may well be some rationale for their actions; typically people who molest children were at one time molested themselves.  That being the case, they likely need help themselves. But no one can deny they represent a danger to innocents who are incapable of protecting themselves.  That’s when it becomes the province of society to step in and put a stop to it.

All I can say is I hope the civil case against Mr. Fine has enormous negative results for him. And as far as Sandusky is concerned, I would be careful with the soap in your new abode.

Not exacty Jerry's kids

The continuing sad saga at the University of Pennsylvania surrounding former Defensive Coordinator Jerry Sandusky has taken a turn for the worse.

Say it ain’t so, you say?

The papers recently provided yet another instance in which Sandusky is alleged to have sexually abused a teen, making the total now 11:  the original eight victims, two more reportedly out of his own home, and now this one, which dates so far back that the case isn’t even being considered for the upcoming trial. Nope, this is one that Jerry won’t be getting jail time for; instead, this is the first of the cases for which Jerry, The Second Mile, and quite possibly Penn State, may end up forking out big bucks.  This is the first of what I am certain will be a long line of civil suits seeking monetary compensation for the victims.

When this first broke, I felt it was just the tip of the iceberg. These kinds of allegations are rarely made up.  To have so many of them surface telling essentially the same exact story is an indication of modis operandi, and not some great right wing conspiracy.  It is beyond belief that people can still think that all of these allegations were dreamed up, or in some way, all of these victims got together to destroy one man’s life.

At the time, I felt there would be a lot more bad news coming out of this, and sure enough three more victims have stepped forward. My feeling now is that we have only just begun.  This scandal is going to be far worse than it is already, and if and when it is all hashed out, we will be wondering how on earth such a thing could happen right in the midst of, arguably, one of the better universities in the country.

But just as this is coming out now about Mr. Sandusky (expletives deleted), there is much more going to come out all around the US.  This scandal relates directly to the incident at The Citadel and the one coming out of Syracuse. Anyone want to take bets on whether any more such cases will be coming out of the woodwork in the next year or two?

Not me.

I expect there to be a huge jump in sexual abuse cases coming out of colleges and universities.  Why? Because the lawyers will be looking for the next in the long line of big pay days.

What do I mean, The Lawyers?  I mean, Big Tobacco has pretty much settled down now for big money lawsuits and the Catholic Church child sex abuse cases are on the wane. So the lawyers are back in their roosts, looking for the next piece of road kill to fatten themselves up on. It’s amazing to me that we continue to find ways to feed them.

OK, so that rant may be a bit over the top, but it is essentially true. And, I am not saying that someone shouldn’t come to the aid of these victims, and that the people who perpetrate these crimes should not be tried, jailed, and then sued for all they have.

When these kinds of allegations come forward, there are always those who choose not to believe them, like Coach Jim Boeheim at Syracuse.  He stepped forward adamantly, and to some extent foolishly and perhaps naively, in support of his long time assistant, Bernie Fine.  He knew that there had been allegations against Fine in the past, and that he had been “cleared” of those allegations.  That doesn’t mean they were investigated properly, and it also doesn’t mean there weren’t more victims.  I think, ultimately, the tape recording of Fine’s spouse likely made Boeheim rethink his initial comments.

Why is it so hard for these people in authority to believe that people like Fine and Sandusky exist right in their own back yards, or front yards for that matter?  In the case of Sandusky, I am convinced that at least Joe Paterno was aware of issues with Sandusky. Why else would he have gone from favored child to retirement virtually overnight?

So we have two examples now on what not to do when such a scandal comes to your door. The proper thing to do is to step out of the way, do not make any brash statements, and allow the investigation to proceed.  When the investigation is over, then you can make statements, such as “We never doubted Bernie Fine’s integrity, but we had to let the legal system run its course” or, “We are horrified at these allegations, and feel for his victims, their families, and anyone affected by his alleged crimes.”