Afghanistan, Vietnam: "same ol', same ol'"

Troops war view differs from Washington 

by Mike Marcellino

Part 2 of a 3 part series on America's course in Afghanistan

The more leaders tell you things are "different" the more they seem the "same."


In a nutshell, that's what I'm piecing together in another installment of my series - "America's Course in Afghanistan."

In Vietnam, where I served in the U.S. Army as a combat correspondent at the height of the war in 1968, they told us the body counts, how we were killing them 10-1 or more.  The told us how most of the country was now "pacified." (Sometimes pacification took B-52 bombs, endless jet strikes, ship salvos, artillery fire and agent orange.)  They told us we're winning "the hearts and minds."

The more reading, the more recalling , the more researching, the more America's involvement and increasing escalation in the civil wars in Afghanistan and Vietnam fit a saying learned on the streets of Cleveland  - "same ol', same ol'. 


In today's interview with the BBC, Matthew Hol, an ex-Marine captain in Iraq who resigned as the senior civilian in Zabul Province, says only political action, not the troop surge, will settle the 35-year civil war in Afghanistan.  He also estimates 500,000 troops would be needed to subjugate the countryside. 

(See the BBC story)

BBC interview with Matthew Hoh

More than 500,000 U.S. troops were in South Vietnam at the height of the war in 1968.  That effort allowed U.S. and South Vietnamese forces to control the major cities, but not the rural areas in a country of 65,000 square miles and 16 million people.  Afghanistan has nearly twice the land area (119,000 square miles) and population (30 million) and a terrain even more difficult, if that's possible.


President Obama and U.S. military leaders say the Afghanistan war isn't another Vietnam. 


(In the Vietnam War, U.S. troops pulled out in 1973 after a decade long war.  Three years later, the corrupt and controversial government and army of South Vietnam collapsed weeks after the North Vietnamese army invaded.)

A report November 12 "Stars and Stripes" from Zabul Province, a Taliban stronghold and route from Pakistan, American soldiers tell a view of the war much different from our leaders in Washington. It reminds me of that similar difference between the capital view and the reality on the ground in the war 40 years ago in South Vietnam.  


Drew Brown's interviews with soldiers from the U.S. Army's 5th Stryker Brigade from Ft. Lewis, WA, are telling in this excerpt -


“During the three-day mission in the Chinehs, a number of soldiers said that even though the area had been identified as a suspected Taliban stronghold, the villagers were the friendliest of any they had encountered in Zabul. But when officers asked about the Taliban, they were usually met with blank stares or polite, noncommittal responses. Most villagers denied knowing anything about the Taliban. Some made slashing motions across their throats. ‘You stay here for one and a half hours in our village, and when you leave, the Taliban will come in our homes and beat us or worse,’ said one man. Replied 2nd Lt. James Johnson, 23, of State College, Pa.: ‘Well, there’s nothing I can do to help you, if you don’t help yourselves.’”

(See "Stars and Stripes" story)

"Stars and Stripes" story from Aabul, Afghanistan

Sounds awfully familiar to me as I covered the Vietnam War as a US Army combat correspondent and my stories and photographs were often published in "Stars and Stripes."

It also seems, even with the surge of 30,000 more U. S. troops to total of 100,000 won't be enough.  As many as 500,000 (including Afghanistan government forces) may be needed to get the job done. The job being either defeating or at least beating the Taliban and other insurgent forces back enough to allow the Afghanistan army and police to keep the peace.

Though U. S. troops have been in Afghanistan for nine years, the effectiveness of Afghan security forces remains uncertain.  What's odd about that is Afghanistan's insurgent forces, the Islamic mujahedeen, defeated the Soviet Union in a nine year war ending in 1989.

In 1996, the Taliban, a radical Islamic group, came into power in Afghanistan, but, by 2001, with help from the United States, the Northern Alliance, a group of minorities, overthrew the Taliban.

While all this is pretty factual summary, if you stop to think about it, it sounds bizarre. It reminds me of the Abbott and Costello comedic question, "Who's on first?  Afghanistan also has the same chaotic ring of the Mexican revolution in the early 1920s,

The Afghanistan and Vietnam wars are also reminiscent of a scene in "Lawrence of Arabia." After the Arab army, led by British Maj. T. E. Lawrence, had defeated the Ottoman Empire, German ally in World War I, they couldn't get along well enough to keep the power on and water running in Damascus.

The winner in Afghanistan may be who is willing and able to fight and die and not give up.  One thing seems certain; people don't like to be occupied by foreign armies.  History tells us the people in far flung countries didn't like the oppressive rule of the emperors of Rome, and the Roman Empire collapsed.

In a recent commentary in "Dandelion Salad," an Internet blog highly critical of America's military involvement in the Afghanistan, Rick Rozoff indicates that documents show that Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal estimates a combined army of 500,000 U. S., Afghan and NATO forces will be needed to win the war.   

 A foreign soldier on the ground in a civil war quickly understands that the will of the people who live there decides the outcome.


In the Stars and Stripes story, an Afghan villager tells a US Army officer what it will take to end the war -


"We asked what can be done to improve your situation here," (1st Lt. Christopher) Franco said. "They said, ‘Our problems will be resolved when you guys leave and we can sit down and talk to the Taliban leaders.’ At least they were honest."


Mike Marcellino, a national award winning civilian journalist, served in the U. S. Army as a combat correspondent and photographer in the Vietnam War

only tombs of unknown solidiers, a poem

A prose piece written by Gary Willmore, "Belfast 1972" and memories of 1968 and a night in a bunker on the Cambodian border in the Vietnam War led to writing this poem, naturally very late at night


Only tombs of unknown soldiers
by mike marcellino

Words spoken
thoughts bleed
broken men
survivors of patrol.

Words unspoken
thoughts bleed
cracked open
in the pitch
ambush of questions.

Words written
thoughts bleed
the conscience of war
only tombs of unknown soldiers.

only tombs of unknown soldiers copyright 2009 Mike Marcellino

Year in Review: Mike Marcellino debuts with "Amelia Earhart, soft silver wings;" rises to #49 among Top Folk Artists in New York City

Love song to aviator Amelia Earhart, lost over the Pacific in 1937

Amelia Earhart, soft silver wings

Listeners comments:

Just listened to Amelia Earhart, Soft Silver Wings.....I love it. It's funny what you said about not having to do anything but listen. The music was so atmospheric; all I COULD do was listen....Beautiful - Julia Chapman, Bristol UK

Mike, if she were here your tribute would be painted on her left wing; her right wing would have inscribed the names of Nobel peace prize winners - Clarice, Grand Rapids, MI

Since releasing their first song in September 2009, Mike Marcellino with Ensor has risen to #49 of Top Folk Artists in New York City and in the top 6% on Global and National charts of ReverbNation.

Mike Marcellino, words, vocal

Tomas Texino - mandolin, composition and production

Recorded in St. Augustine Florida

Other songs of Mike Marcellino with Ensor -

Las Cruces

Flatbush

The walls of fire

Bondi beach

The lyrics - 
Amelia Earhart, soft silver wings

by mike marcellino

Amelia Earhart,

Love your picture

in flight.

Love your goggles,

love your lips.
Love how you circled the world,

single handed.

amelia

amelia

amelia.

Like that leather

air cap.

You’re a goddess, a woman,

soft white,

ahead of your time,

such afterglow

night

in shinning armor.

Meet me on a northern coast,

not far from the equator,

above the island

where they made King Kong.

Your Atlantis, risen

in my South China Sea.

amelia

amelia

amelia.

Oh, your last flight.

Oh your last flight.

What a night.

Looking at your picture

in my book,

soft silver

soft silver

wings.

Your lips, painted colors

light, pretty pink.

Those eyes,

imagine,

sigh.

Your nails, natural,

fingertips.

Taking you with me.

amelia

amelia

amelia.

Soft silver

soft silver

wings.

"Courage"
Courage is the price that Life extracts for granting peace.

The soul that knows it not, knows no release.

From little things.

Knows not the livid loneliness of fear.

Not mountain heights where bitter joy can hear

The sound of wings.

How can life grant us boon of living, compensate

For dull grey ugliness and pregnant hate

Unless we dare

The soul’s dominion? Each time we make a choice, we pay

With courage to behold the restless day,

And count it fair. 
- Amelia Earhart, 1927

You made the crossing

not alone.

Meet you over the Atlantic.

amelia

amelia

amelia.

Soft silver,

soft silver,

wings.

copyright Mike Marcellino amelia earhart, soft silver wings 2009

To listen -Mike Marcellino with Ensor bandsite on ReverbNation

Nobel Peace Prizes: 2009 and 1929

Hope for peace, 

the pact outlawing war  

by Mike Marcellino

In his speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday in Oslo, Norway, President Barack Obama reminded us that, at times, war is morally justified, to defeat evil in the world.  

Newspaper headlines reported that the President refused to renounce war.  Journalist wrote of the "irony" of the President receiving a prize for his efforts to bring peace days after ordering 30,000 more troops to the war in Afghanistan.  

Commentators said Obama had moved to the political center.  Critical reviews of his speech range from recalling President Kennedy to pronouncing it as "incoherent."  Some called it a d move to the political center in American politics.  Republican leaders cheered him.  Anti-war activists reeled in disbelief.

"Make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaida's leaders to lay down their arms," he said.  

To sort out something so perplexing, look to history.  

What is renouncing war?  What are the concepts of good and evil, peace and war all about in the context of American politics? 

Trying to understand the nature of these questions and possible answers may stem from another Nobel Peace Prize awarded 80 years ago and to times of torment our nation's history, as far back as the Civil War.

On December 10, 1929, Frank  Kellogg, all but forgotten, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.  He stands in the shadow of a president who inspired millions of American voters in an election less than a year ago with his promise of change. 

Frank Billings Kellogg, former U. S. Secretary of State and  senator, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to create a treaty, signed by 65 nations, renouncing war.  They include the United States and countries such as China, the Soviet Union and Afghanistan.  In part, the pact states a purpose of - "uniting the civilized nations of the world in a common renunciation of war as an instrument of their national policy" and condemning “recourse to war for the solution of international controversies. Nations agree to use pacific means to solve their differences.

Kellogg received the Peace Prize for being co-creator of the Briand-Kellogg Pact, also known as the Pact of Paris for his partner in peace was French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand.  

Kellogg was born in 1856 in Potsdam, New York into a nation divided over state's rights and slavery on the eve of the Civil War.  

Our terrible ordeal of brother fighting against brother, literally, cost the lives of 618,222 Americans -  Union and Confederate.  A single battle, Gettysburg, cost 40,350 lives in the Allegheny foothills of Pennsylvania, only a two-day march south to our nation's capital.  One civilian was killed, a woman, Mary Virginia Wade. Nine women disguised as men, died in battle.  

Frank grew up on a wheat farm in Elgin, Minnesota where he went to a country school until he was 14.  He entered a law office, studied using borrowed books and became a lawyer.

A Republican, he earned a reputation as "trust buster." On a mission from President Theodore Roosevelt he successfully prosecuted for restrain of trade the General Paper Company and later Union Pacific Oil and the Standard Oil Company.  He was appointed secretary of state by President Calvin Coolidge.  

Kellogg received the peace prize a decade after "The Great War."   To drum up support for American's entry into World War I, President Woodrow Wilson called it "the war to end all wars."  It took the lives of 17 million people, nearly 7 million civilians.  

The Great War, as if anything could be "great" about war, was triggered by the assassination of an archduke of Austria by a Serbian nationalist; the world was pretty much lined up.  On our side it was the Allies - the British Empire, Russia, France and Italy and the other side, the Central Powers - the remains of the Austria-Hungary, German and Ottoman Empires.

Some historians say the Great War was bred by imperialist foreign policy.  Perhaps it was caused by a militaristic mindset to settle disputes among people and nations.  

Kellogg's Nobel Prize for crafting a peace pact to outlaw war came at a time of turbulence in America.  Weeks earlier the stock market crashed on October 24th and 29th, "Black Tuesday" and "Black Thursday.  Recently, economic analysts contend the collapse of our wealth and financial system and the Great Depression came, not from economic weakness, but fear and panic.

In another decade, America would be embroiled in World War II - a struggle to defeat "evil" in the form of  mass murder, oppression and torture committed by Hitler and the Nazis, along with his fellow dictators and tyrants in the Axis.  

As many as 72 million people, military and civilian, were killed in World War II, making it the most deadly war in world history.  This includes the Nazi mass murder of 21 million people, including 6 million Jews. In addition, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, killed 21 million of his own people. 

Makes a person wonder if the world is headed in the right direction.  

Many social thinkers and politicians would dismiss Kellogg's efforts to convince nations to settle their differences peacefully as a fantasy and unrealistic.   

Kellogg did admit that the pact doesn't provide provisions to punish violators. 

Still, this little known secretary of state and Nobel Peace Prize recipient offers a mindset for peace.

In his Nobel Prize acceptance, he envisions how the treaty would be enforced by the will of the people -

"...in the end the abolition of war, the maintenance of world peace, the adjustment of international questions by pacific means will come through the force of public opinion, which controls nations and peoples - that public opinion which shapes our destinies and guides the progress of human affairs."

And, Kellogg described a mindset for peace -

"There will always be disputes between nations which, at times, will inflame the public and threaten conflicts, but the main thing is to educate the people of the world to be ever mindful that there are better means of settling such disputes than by war. It is by such means as the prize offered by your Committee that the attention of the world will be focused and that men and women will be inspired to greater efforts in the interest of peace. The churches, the peace societies, the schools and colleges should add their educational influence to this great movement."

Today, the 1928 Kellogg–Briand Pact remains a binding treaty under international law.  In the United States, it remains in force as federal law.

It remains a different mindset.

Copyright by Mike Marcellino 2009

Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941

USS Cod 

A memoir: War and remembrance

by Mike Marcellino

I remember December 7, 1941, the day of the Japanese fleet's surprise attack on the U. S. base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in several personal ways, each one I treasure.

I remember friends who served in World War II, some living, most dead... attending Pear Harbor Day ceremonies at the U. S. Naval Reserve Center in Cleveland, representing the city of Cleveland and Congress as Liaison for Veteran and Military Affairs.

Each ceremony was a unique moment in time of war and remembrance.  I remember each occasion over 13 years, sometimes in sunshine, sometimes in snow, looking down from the deck of the USS Cod, the last intact submarine from World War II at wreaths of flowers floating on Lake Erie.

At times, the sunlight would flicker on the waters as the flowers were carried out to sea, a beautiful tribute to those lost at Pearl Harbor.

USS Cod today in Cleveland harbor.

America's war in Afghanistan: "Nothing is written"

Peace route in South Asia through India and Pakistan 

by Mike Marcellino 

Part 1 of a 3 part series on America's course in Afghanistan

Why can't the United States resolve human rights problems peacefully, without the use of force, any longer? 

Secretary Clinton says the U.S. won't talk unless the Taliban throws down their weapons (surrender). 

Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, says they won't talk until the U. S. and NATO forces leave Afghanistan (surrender). Oddly, Omar was America's friend when he lost an eye fighting against and Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. 


And, the war and violence in Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan escalates and widens. 


According to an article written by Raja Karthikeya in Asia Times Online Nov. 25, 2009, the way to peace in Afghanistan is through India and Pakistan.  Interestingly, the author never mentions the United States or NATO once in his article.


One wonders if American and European diplomats and political leaders are listening to the voices of reason, peace, history and politics of South Asia.  Afghanistan, Pakistan and India share that region, its history and current entanglements.  Granted Afghanistan has ties to the Middle East.  And as Karthikeya points out, the Taliban doesn't seem to fit anywhere, and appears to be more an ideology than a political movement. 


I highly recommend reading the article by Karthikeya, a researcher for the Center for Strategic Studies in Washington D.C.


Here's the link to the article -
A route for South Asian peace through Afghanistan

The historical problem with the view of United States' diplomats and political leaders is the function, for the most part with blinders on - seeing the word in America's view without really looking at nations through their eyes of their own people.


America hasn't always had her provincial blinders on.  Two cases in point that I can testify to from my experience in our national government as an aide to one of the most respected congressman and champions of human rights in our country's history.


In the past, the United States has ended oppression in the world without the use of military force. America brought freedom to Jews in the Soviet Union and ended the longest period of marshal law in world history, bringing freedom to the Taiwanese. 


I can vouch for the fact that oppression can be ended and peace achieved without a shot being fired.  


From 1983 to 1987, I served as an as an aide to former U. S. Congressman Louis Stokes of Ohio and worked successfully with many people in the United States and the world to resolve, without military force, critical human rights problems that at the time seemed insurmountable in the Soviet Union and Taiwan.  Both human rights matters existed within the backdrop of tensions over the Cold War and the threat of war between China and Taiwan. 


As an Englishman, "Lawrence of Arabia," (or, at least, actor Peter O'Toole in the Academy Award winning film), once said:  


"Nothing is written.


In my book, "Nothing is insurmountable."  


Copyright Mike Marcellino 2009

The Amanda Knox trial

"Facing-saving" Italian style?

by Mike Marcellino

Until now, I haven't followed the case of Amanda Knox, American exchange student found guilty of the murder of her roommate in an Italian "court."
A journalist friend from Cleveland caught my attention with this opinion piece in the New York Times by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Timothy Eagan, just before the verdict. It's an eye opener.  -

There are enough questions in the case to drive a more than a few trucks through. Until the Italian judicial system or government conducts a fair investigation of the murder and trial, I'm brewing drinking French roast, not Italian. 

As a newspaper reporter, I've covered just about every crime, including a double murder of a couple in Mentor, Ohio. Their son, H. Thomas Hoffman III, shot his parents as the slept in their bed, set fire to them and their house. He's still in prison I believe. The bizarre case, filled with kinky sex and such, was handled well by police, defense and prosecuting attorneys and the courts. 

In contrast, the case against Amanda was a travesty of justice, for - its lack of evidence; the soap opera Italian system of justice; the prosecutor's conduct better fitting a Godfather movie, complete with his contrived sexual demonic motive; the court's intimidation of the Knox family for an interview with a British newspaper; and letting a drifter off the hook though there was physical evidence linking him to the crime. The drifter fled to Germany where he was convicted of sexual assault and conspiracy in the throat slashing murder of Amanda's British roommate, Meredith Kercher. 

The loss of a young woman and the imprisonment of another, should be more than an Italian drama.

If “face saving,” as Eagan contends, is really more important in Italy than life and justice, for the record, my father is Sicilian, not Italian.  

The surge in the Afghanistan War: And what then?

The war in Afghanistan:  a commentary 

by Mike Marcellino

A child is crying outside as I write this.

Don't know what to make of it, except I thought that a lot of children and other folks in the world are crying today.

How are you today?

I’m rather overwhelmed by thoughts of war, and have tomorrow night's radio show staring in the face.

Personally, I am rather ticked, thinking of reality of pouring 30,000 more US troops, plus 10,000 from other NATO countries into Afghanistan.

As I journalist I'm working on the story. I've found some very interesting facts and aspects that I think's been overlooked.

So here's my commentary prospect, off the cuff, riddled with past and recently acquired information stuffed into my Swiss cheese brain.

One simple question -

When, and it's only a question of when, U.S. and NATO forces pack their bags and leave Afghanistan?

And, what then?

Seems to boil down to what level of death and destruction the American people are willing to tolerate.

When the people, you know the “people,” the ones that actually fight America's wars. Call them “Joe six pack” if you like, reach their breaking point, they'll end the war, just like what they did with Vietnam. They'll end if and any politician who resists that tide will follow along or be swept away, out of office.

Like the TET offensive in Vietnam, all it will take to have a million people in DC is some terrible scenes on TV, like the ones on our screens during the 10 years of the nation's first television war and our longest war. Scenes like a dozen Viet Cong taking over the US Embassy in Saigon for a few minutes till they were wasted by U. S. troops, or and Afghan general on CNN shooting some Taliban guy point blank in the head with a 45, just like what happened in TET.

Remember there's nothing like the smell of napalm in the morning. It, it smells, “like victory” as that cool actor who's name always is missing, oh, Robert Du val. Now I know I'm on top of my game today. Anyway, the wars in Afghanistan and Vietnam reminds of instant replay, like on football.

How many people know, or even remember, that the Viet Cong, insurgents, our primary enemy in the Vietnam War, were wiped off the face of the earth during the TET offensive - a surprise attack by the combined forces of the VC and NVA (North Vietnamese Army), tens of thousands all across the country on the day of the cease fire for the Vietnamese New Year. Most all of the soldiers of the of South Vietnam (ARVN), the country we propped up for two decades or more, were at home bringing in the New Year. Can't image there was much to celebrate.

I wasn't on R & R surfing Bondi Beach that TET, I can tell you that. I was in a bunker at night out on the perimeter of a base camp at the tip of the Iron Triangle, a VC stronghold we never took, in charge of myself and two or three other GIs, because I had three stripes. Technically one stripe as I was a “specialist five” not a buck sergeant. I served in the United States Army as a combat correspondent and photojournalist for a year minus a seven day drop.

For the only time in a year, a call came in on the radio, soldiers affectionately called “a prick 29.” A voice I didn't know, someone in charge I guess, told me that 5,000 NVA regulars were headed for our base and I was on the perimeter. He said nothing more and I began to wonder if I could find the two wires and set the claymores off around the bunker. And wondered how well I could fire the l60 caliber light machine gun I'd never used.

Pounded by U. S. air strikes and artillery and the Big Red One, the First Infantry Division, the one Clint Eastwood was in, the North Vietnamese force overran the provincial capital instead. A lot of folks were killed, most of the civilians and I gave blood the next day in a hospital where an awfully pretty Philippine nurse I knew was a nurse.

America infantrymen, called “grunts,” artillerymen and jet fighter pilots kick the enemy's. And, all over South Vietnam our troops won every battle, decimating the entire Diet Cong, tens of thousands of “insurgents.” Funny, we never called them “insurgents” in Vietnam, that civil war.

We lost, though we won, perhaps one of America's most unequivocal military victories. And yet, we lost. The American people decided they had enough, enough of horror on their televisions, enough of death and destruction, enough of their sons and loved ones coming home in body bags.

Trouble is how many Americans actually know now what happened forty years ago in the rice paddies, mountains and jungles of South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos? How many really knew what happened then? I know there's some today with short memories, or prefer to short memories. Reality may not fit into their political agenda or scheme to win riches like rice and oil, power and control.

Well, at least we don't have to deal with the “domino theory” where if South Vietnam would fall to the communists other countries in Southeast Asia and other sort of free countries all over the world would follow.

No, now we have a 21st Century version of the Crusades and of course, a lot of oil in South Asia and not to mention Iran and Israel and nukes. Is our thinking really that clouded?

Tonight President Obama appears to be following the course of LBJ, President Johnson, for those who may not recognize LBJ. Sadly, look what happened to that strong-willed Texan. He died a broken man, agonizing over the Vietnam War, what might have been, or was it the more than 58,000 dead Americans, hundreds of thousands with lifelong wounds with hundreds of thousands more wandering the streets of America, many eaten away with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Well, I have my own theory without dominoes.

What would happen if we rounded up all the Taliban leaders, and as many fighters as we could and kind of throw a big and talk, play some music? You laugh? That I know of as far back as the Civil War, and in the world wars enemies shared coffee over a fire, even sang Christmas carols together, at night too dark to fight. I'm not aware of U. S. troops in Vietnam getting together with the VC or NVA, however. A sign of the changing times. You'd have to ask our troops in Afghanistan about that, though we trained and supplied many of the insurgents, like the leader of the Taliban, to fight the Russians back in the 1980s. 

My plan would be to keep the dinner going until we found a way to stop the war dead, or agree to stop fighting, at least until we got together for dinner again.

Does that sound impossible? No more so than the likelihood of victory on our present course. And, I thought the American people had elected a new president because he had some new ideas, maybe some peaceful ones, of ways to end wars and stop staring them.

Does anyone really think the Afghan army and police will hold on to their country once we leave? Do you really think the army and police of a country where three quarters of the people, most living in villages can win the hearts and minds?

Do you really think we can succeed when the Russians failed? Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet leader at the time of their war in Afghanistan, does think so and he was quoted as such a few days ago.

After the last of U. S. combat troops left South Vietnam in 1973, did the South Vietnamese government survive? No. In 1975, the South Vietnamese Army folded their tents in face of an offensive by the North Vietnamese Army. Soldiers and politicians were the first to run and most of the only ones to get aboard the last U. S. helicopter out. I can still picture the television footage of that last chopper with people clinging to the skids.

Even one of our friends in Afghanistan, a warlord general turned politician, recently said flatly that the presence of US and NATO forces actually diminishes the will of Afghans to fight against the Taliban.

Afghans think it is now the war of the United States and NATO. Well, it is, isn't it? The real point is it's no the Afghans' war any more. So, it's not really about the Afghan people then, is it?

Making matters worse, the Taliban and other insurgency forces are killing Afghan civilians as a terror tactic to defeat the U. S. and NATO. And, their strategy is working. People believe, and it's hard to argue the point, that the insurgents will stop killing them, or at least not as much, when U. S. and NATO leave.

Now there's a military matter I must include. To an extent our soldiers don't have to aggressively fight the insurgents. We need to bring security to the cities and villages. Now this isn't easy mind you, especially in house to house fighting. Remember, the scenes on television from battles in Baghdad and Fallujah in the Iraq War? That kind of fighting is bloody awful.

And then there is the main Taliban, insurgent strategy – bombs, roadside, everywhere. Enough said. Then, war is hell.

If their present, illegally elected democratic government falls, will the Afghan people live in some degree of oppression? Yes. But ask yourself, how are they living now?

We'd be better off sending in 40,000 plows, rather than troops.

What would the Taliban do if we just started rebuilding, doing good things? At least other than defending ourselves. We'd be the “good guys” wouldn't we. Or at least we'd look more them.

What would the Taliban do if we started to relate to them as human beings, though one's we don't like and disagree with, rather than monsters?

Remember the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s? Many of the same insurgents, including the current leader of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, who defeated the Soviet Union were our friends against the Russians. Sounds rather twisted, doesn't it? Omar, a really tough guy, lost an eye defeating the Soviet Army. Just for the record, he's already quoted as saying we can't win.

How would the Afghan people react to a different course, activating my theory, of course?

How would the world react to a peace offensive, something never done before?

How would the world react if we started marching to the drumbeats of Gandhi and King, the spirits of Jesus, Buddha and Muhammed?

Maybe then, we'd have God on our side.

What would the Taliban do then?

Would it be better or worse?

It looks like we'll never find out.


Copyright by Mike Marcellino 2009

"Asterisks after innocence"

"My Girls" Vietnam War, 1968
photo by Mike Marcellino

 Copyright 2009

Asterisks after innocence
by mike marcellino

Living
in forgotten times
shot, struck down
nine eleven
seven eleven
mortars
rockets
IEDs
fire balls
in the tallest towers
a thirty-eight stub nose
or
nine millimeter
in the corner store
asterisks after innocence.

Living
in forgotten times
shot,
struck down
by Viet Cong
terrorists
Audie Murphy -
Wha'd you say?
Hey hey,
Don't you know,
Barry Bonds
was once Willie Mays
asterisks after innocence.

Living in forgotten times
shot,
struck down
by armies
of good people -
Muslims
Germans
The NVA
Special Forces of The USA.
Shot, struck down
mothers
children
fathers
grandparents.
Shot,
struck down
listening to
dictators
democrats
deciders.
Asterisks after innocence
living
in forgotten times.

Copyright Mike Marcellino, 2008

Reflections on "Asterisks"


Perhaps it's the times - wars, collapse of our financial system and housing values, a deep recession.
Perhaps it's what a few people wrote in response to a column I wrote about the growing crisis of hunger in America.


Perhaps for both reasons, or no reason at all, I dug out a poetry song I wrote in early 2008, nearly two years ago. The piece was recorded by my first band, Split Peace, before my entry on Facebook and ReverbNation. I recorded and performed "Asterisks"  with Abe Olvido, a multimedia artist and sound innovator, in Cleveland.


This September, we formed a new folk band when, after a decade absence, I returned to a place I love, St. Augustine, Florida to visit an Army buddy, Tomas Texino, a musician and writer.  Working together, with Tomas, playing mandolin and guitar and composing the music, we recorded four songs, three new and one old, "Bondi beach."  Later, I traveled to visit music friends in Brooklyn, New York and there musician Randall Leddy joined with me, playing guitar and composing "Flatbush," about the West Indian neighborhood the Dutch founded in the 1500s.
  
Our new band is simply called Mike Marcellino and in nine weeks ranks in the top 10% of Folk Artists on ReverbNation's New York City, National and Global charts.

(The band's now has reached as high as #19 Top Folk Artists in New York City and is currently at #28. Our listeners come from virtually every state and many other countries, from England, Ireland and Australia to Germany, China, South Korea and Russia, among many others.)


Not sure what all this means, if anything, but I love to body surf and have learned to tolerate a wetsuit now that the Atlantic water's down to 65 degrees.

From time to time, I'll share past poetry songs and recordings, like "Asterisks," along with new ones.

"Asterisks" seems like such a long time ago, as so much has happened in the world since the late winter of 2008. I decided to post it here, now. Somehow the song seems more meaningful now than ever.

Postscript: Hard to image it's been nearly three years since I wrote this backstory about "Asterisk's after innocence."  It's a powerful song, even to the writer.  

A lot has happened in three years, but we've fallen on the New York City folk charts to #42.  But, as i think Iris Dement once said, "It's not a race."  Or maybe a lot of us said that. (I grew tired trying to keep up with the Internet world.)

I again offer this song to you as our children are so so important to our world.  We must love and care for them.  They should not go wanting and have a chance to be happy. 

If you'd like to listen to "Asterisks" go to the music box at the top of my blog here.  Let's us know what you think about it.  That would mean a lot, hearing from you all. - Mike

"Bondi beach," surf Aborigines call "water over rocks"

Bondi Beach, New South Wales, Australia ( Photo by Duncan Rawlinson)

Bondi beach: a story and song
A song of a Yank surfer on a flight from Vietnam to Australia to survive big waves at a place Aborigines call "water over rocks"

A new recording by folk poetry band Mike Marcellino

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Mike - lyrics, vocal
Tomas Texino - guitar, drum, composition, production
Recorded in St. Augustine Florida, November 20, 2009

Bondi beach
by Mike Marcellino

From an old French

airfield,

Tan Son Nhat,

a khaki clad

Yank surfer

flew

four thousand miles

a mission of redemption

to New South Wales

into the water over rocks

the Aborigines

call

Bondi beach.

A mate’s long board

overhead,

dinged

water logged,

the Yank surfer

twisted

by ever strong winds

made his way

down

into the water over rocks

the Aborigines 

call

Bondi beach.

Flat

on

his long board

arms

cutting

the surf,

the lone

silent rider

left in his wake, rice paddies

and triple canopy jungles,

kept head of rip currents

and deadly bull sharks

into the water over rocks

the Aborigines 

call

Bondi beach.

For the seventh wave

he waited, the Yank

surfer

took off

all out

the twelve foot high

wave

crashed

over head,

sent the long board

flying

like an arrow,

driving him

deep

into the water over rocks

the Aborigines

call

Bondi beach.

Bondi beach, Copyright Mike Marcellino, 2008, 2009

Growing hunger in America called "a catastrophe"

Hunger in America
A commentary by Mike Marcellino

"USDA: Number of Americans going hungry increases" the headline read.

Another neglected headline. That thought compelled me to bring attention to this story by Associated Press writer Henry M. Jackson.

WASHINGTON – More than one in seven American households struggled to put enough food on the table in 2008, the highest rate since the Agriculture Department began tracking food security levels in 1995.

That's about 49 million people, or 14.6 percent of U.S. households. The numbers are a significant increase from 2007, when 11.1 percent of U.S. households suffered from what USDA classifies as "food insecurity" — not having enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle.

Researchers blamed the increase in hunger on a lack of money and other resources.

Later in the article, an expert expresses his shock at the plight of too many of America's children.

"What should really shock us is that almost one in four children in our country lives on the brink of hunger," said David Beckmann, the President of Bread of the World, an advocacy organization.

How long are we going to neglect our children while waging wars in the Middle East when we can't even identify how we can win or what our objective is?  If we can't set a good example at home, how can we continue to try to shape the rest of the world in our image?

This is not just a government problem; this is a problem that all Americans should start solving.

In addition, three of four of 17 to 25 year olds do not meet standards for military service due to obesity, other health matters, drugs and alcohol problems, criminal records or the lack of high school diplomas.

We can't sit by and expect the government to do something about this; our government should have addressed this long ago.

Ask yourself - "What is our nation's future?"

When will we realize that in a democracy "we" are the government.  Looking for political scapegoats in red or blue alone won't do it.  It is time for Americans to start looking beyond themselves, be unselfish, roll up their sleeves and save their country.

The solutions to America's problems begin at home.

Link to the entire article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091116/ap_on_bi_ge/us_hunger_report;_ylt=AmqNWHK3W9KbIFroCjEd5Les0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTMyZzFtaDljBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMTE2L3VzX2h1bmdlcl9yZXBvcnQEY3BvcwM2BHBvcwMzBHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGsDdXNkYW51bWJlcm9m

 Copyright Mike Marcellino 2009

The making of music

A band of brothers
by Mike Marcellino

Eight weeks ago, a writing and musical journey began when I again hooked up with an old Army buddy, Tomas Texino.  We served in the Vietnam War together.  Tomas makes a mandolin sing, plays guitar, writes fascinating and funny stories about bluegrass music and whatever else he feels like, like stuff about Rozz Savage rowing around the world and playin' a one-on-one game of basketball against his buddy Bill Monroe shootin' at a hoop that comes outa the trunk of Bill's Cadillac.

My friend played in a cool bluegrass band, "Salt Run," for many years out of St. Augustine, Florida. Never forget our time together as far up in he mountains in Virginia as you can get, for the Carter Family Memorial Concert years ago.

This September, I found Tomas once again after a 10 year absence and we began to see what we could do with some of the poetry songs I'd written.

Well, out came "Amelia Earhart, soft silver wings" about the fearless aviator, just in time for the release of "Amelia," starring Hilary Swank.  I didn't know about the film, but got a MySpace message from her cousin, saying she liked the piece and that she isn't biased and thinks Hilary will win another Academy Award.

Haven't seen "Amelia" yet.  Was waiting for my special invite to a private screening.  The film kinda got ripped up by most critics, but then that's why they call them critics.

Tomas played mandolin on the song, composed it, threw in a bass. Singer songwriter David Dowling was on his guitar for the recording at a house in St. Augustine.  We had dinner together; it was a beautiful night overlooking America's oldest city the Spanish settled in the 1600s.  That recording night was priceless.

Along the way I got back to my first love - surfing.  Body surfed nearly every day for five weeks.  Caught one four foot wave and shot right out the curl.

Then Tomas and I did another piece, "Las Cruces," about living on a tiny horse ranch in the desert hills in southeast New Mexico, near the border.  It brought me back to wandering the streets of Juarez, Mexico, just a few months after getting out of Vietnam and the Army.  I had served as a combat correspondent and photojournalist and met Tomas as he worked helping refugees build a new life and a new village.  They called it "civic action" back then.  I think we need a lot more "civic action" and a lot less killing in places like Afghanistan, Iraq and the streets and Army bases in America.

To record "Flatbush" with musician Randall Leddy I left the surf and  hopped a train to New York City.  Randall's father served in the Special Forces in the U.S. Army.   "Flatbush" is about a writer's view of life in the West Indian neighborhood in Brooklyn.  Special thanks goes to Randall's wife, Stacy Rock, a very talented, emerging singer songwriter.  Yes, that's her read name and she comes from a small  town in the middle of Montana.  Now she's making passionate, music in New York, mixing her classical background with pop,, rock  and folk.

On the way to Brooklyn, I had sort of a homecoming in Baltimore were I was "born and early raised" (a phrase from a song I wrote, "Full moon Baltimore" recorded by my first band, Split Pea/ce in Cleveland).  I performed a solo gig without music at the Baltimore Hostel for a poetry series, "Last Sunday, Last Rights," put on by Pat King, the go to guy for Outsider Writers, a writers' cooperative I've been a part of the past couple of years.  After all these years, I discovered the original "Washington Monument" isn't in DC but in Baltimore.

When I got back down to Florida, limping as my left calf kept freezing up, Tomas and I finished work on our band's fourth song, the hardest one to do - "The Walls of Fire."

In "The Walls of Fire" I traced the sacrifice and courage of American soldiers from the Civil War through World War II, Korea, Vietnam  Iraq and Afghanistan.  We started on it before my trip to New York City but it sounded just too sad.

Tomas figured that Irish tin whistles were just the sound to turn horror into a band of brothers tackling anything and everything thrown at them.  Mandolin and a drum are also in the piece.

Now, I'm wonderin' just what's going on.  In eight weeks, the Mike Marcellino Band has reached 64 among the Top Folk Artist in New York City on the ReverbNation charts.  Not sure what that means, except there are 400,000 bands on that music site and we also rose to 654 in the United States and 965 in the world.

We reached a milestone today, recording the 9000th play on our MySpace music site.

We appreciate people listening and reading the lyrics.

We released "The Walls of Fire" on Veterans Day.  It's an important piece to us, taking us back to 1968 when we served together in Vietnam.  Not sure how we survived; just lucky.  Many of our brothers in arms didn't.

Looking down the road, we hope to put out our first CD, play some paid gigs. No matter what happens with the band, I'll be getting a surf board by spring.

A national award winning newspaper reporter and congressional and mayor aide, I now have my sights set on being a rock star.  Trouble is my eyesight is fading.

We do appreciate people listening to our music and especially their comments.  We hope you'll continue, some day buy a CD or pay a few bucks to hear us play.

After the release of "The Walls of Fire" on Veterans Day I was surprised to get a comment on ReverbNation from a musician, Destination Dawn from Ocala, Florida.

Later I found that "DD" is the Top Alternative Artists in the world on ReverbNation with tens of thousands of fans.  She wrote this about our band -


("Flatbush") Cool spoken word!!!Great music and interesting revelations!!! 


("The Walls of Fire") has great background music and effects that befit the deep revealing words. You have an intriguing style. 


Wishing you all the best and much continued success with all your endeavors!!!
Much Love, 
DD


Hope DD doesn't mind that I included her last sentence.  Her comments are both very sweet and quite encouraging.  


Didn't ask her if she makes any money from her music though.


By the way, thanks to the modern techie miracles I finally figured out, you may listen to Mike Marcellino  right on the ReverbNation Widget on my Networked Blog, "The Point of the Whole Thing."  


Here I thought a "widget" had something to do with croquet.

Band of brothers, by Mike Marcellino, copyright 2009