Open-minded musings

"It's a fashion thing"

One thing I neglected to say in my last rant: when it comes to Iraq—and indeed the wider war on terror—people need to stop looking for the one momentous event that will turn the tide, pointing us at last toward the victory every decent American seeks, one of stability, reconciliation and rule of law over vicious and wanton bloodletting.

This ain't your granddaddy's war. And it ain't your daddy's war.

This war, almost in spite of itself, is much more subtle. Real progress can't be measured by battles won, just as real setbacks can't be measured by suicide explosions in Baghdad.

What initially struck me while skimming the revised US Army counter- insurgency manual is how much of it reads like it was written by the Peace Corps. I mean, yeah, military force is still essential, especially when dealing with the likes of hate-mongering tribal militias, al Qaeda, Syria and Iran.

But this war is just as much about winning hearts and minds. Such victories will never be as overtly sensational or immediate in their impact as car bombings and IEDs. But they are nonetheless crucial to the outcome. And for that reason alone worth fighting for. The key is patience, something that appears to be in regrettably short supply with the American public.

While the mainstream media continue to flaunt their perpetual one-note damnation of Bush and his “quagmire,” encouraging news breaks beneath their radar. Over at punditreview.com, Michael Yon, reporting from Mosul, Iraq, says the Iraqi army—at least those units he has observed firsthand—are fighting with more confidence. And morale grows. He adds the latest fad among the Iraqi soldiers he's seen is to sew American flags into their uniforms. Yon, a former Green Beret, calls it a "fashion thing." I call it a bright spot on a depressingly rendered canvas. And one worth acknowledging.

Out of this world?

People who read my posts regularly know I have an interest in UFOs. I had a rather dramatic sighting on Long Island in 1989, and I am quite certain that what I saw was someone else's technology.

It's a shame that in the field known as "ufology" the many eccentrics, attention seekers and New Age nut jobs routinely drown out the voices of those researchers doing quality work. Anyone with the patience to wade through the BS will find much empirical evidence has accumulated since at least the 1950s to support the hypothesis that the earth is being visited by extraterrestrial life forms.

This week I was finally able to look into what appears to be a rather dramatic sighting of a disc-shaped object over Chicago’s O’Hare Airport last November 7.

Here’s a link to the original news story as it broke in the Chicago Tribune on New Year’s Day 2007. The story also contains a link to a Chicago-area TV interview with Jon Hilkevitch, the Trib’s transportation columnist, who broke the story.

The UFO sighting occurred at around 4:30 PM on a Tuesday afternoon when clouds hung at about 1,900 feet. A flying disc estimated by witnesses to be anywhere from 6 to 24 feet in diameter was spotted hovering at about 1,500 feet over Concourse C of the United Airlines terminal.

According to Hilkevitch’s account:

All the witnesses to the O'Hare event, who included at least several pilots, said they are certain based on the disc's appearance and flight characteristics that it was not an airplane, helicopter, weather balloon or any other craft known to man.

United personnel informed pilots of a United plane on the ground near Gate C17 of the sighting, Hilkevitch reported, adding:

…[O]ne of the pilots reportedly opened a windscreen in the cockpit to get a better view of the object…

The object was seen to suddenly accelerate straight up through the solid overcast skies…

"It was like somebody punched a hole in the sky," said one United employee.

Witnesses said they had a hard time visually tracking the object as it streaked through the dense clouds.

It left behind an open hole of clear air in the cloud layer, the witnesses said, adding that the hole disappeared within a few minutes.

The United employees interviewed by the Tribune spoke on condition of anonymity.

The fact that many of the witnesses—airline pilots, mechanics, supervisors, even baggage handlers—are professionals who know aircraft make this sighting particularly intriguing.

The FAA maintains the sighting was the result of weather conditions creating some kind of optical illusion. I say, tell that to the many witnesses who continue to come forward. What kind of optical illusion is observed by many before taking off at a high rate of speed and punching a hole in the clouds?

Pictures of the event are said to exist. If this is true, it's only a matter of time before they wind up on the Internet. I'll continue to research the story and report updates.

If the Trib story piques your interest, check this out. It’s video of a local newscaster—in fact the same local newscaster who originally interviews Hilkevitch—chatting with someone off-camera about the sighting, the global interest it generated and story updates, and doing a follow-up interview with Hilkevitch.

Finally, what doesn’t anger some Muslims these days?