WHEN WE AWAKEN 3

"Some things are just average, other things are spellbinding!"


TO MY Nephew

"Whatever you do as a practice developing body, mind or spirit and however you develop emotional maturity it comes back to assist you at the oddest times; in particular when you have been given life for a long time. In a culture, childishly upset over aging, and obsessed with the illusion of staying young old age trips you up. There are peculiar benefits to a life well lived. The practices of life to stay fit in the four realms are best teaching us how we live.

It is fascinating this way of being. "- Gregory E. Woods, (Dawn Wolf), Keeper of Stories WHITE AS A RIGHT! I was recently watching a video clip of a British man, with images flashing of what his people were doing to people who looked like me of the darker hue, in recent times past in other countries. Black African countries they have conquered and subjugated. The combination was meant to disturb the viewer and his closer was meant to be a kumbaya moment.

The horror he described with emphasis on the images in the film is grim, but a white man with a British accent telling this burns within me. It stirs a rage, a collective one constantly felt in silence by our ancestors and those of us whose people suffered at their hands. It is the way he sits with authority and a measure of disgust and the simple minded appeal to the viewer about how we are one that burns into the soul of non-whites! Historically, whites skip all the steps to heal with a not so subtle a suggestion that we hold hands and let bygones be bygones.

It always comes out this way and it always leaves the rest of us happily lapping it up so we can avoid the long process needed to mend at the deep levels, or it burns with rage on the inside because we know that beast is never chained up and killed. He is always there. It is part of the staying power of Donald Trump! ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 12/24/18

Idiot, and fool in the White HOUSE.

Obama calls Trump's decision on Iran nuclear deal 'misguided'

WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, struck during Obama's presidency, was "misguided."

"I believe that the decision to put the JCPOA at risk without any Iranian violation of the deal is a serious mistake," Obama said in a statement, referring to the acronym for the agreement worked out by the United States, five other world powers and Iran.

Since leaving office in January 2017, Obama, a Democrat, has largely remained on the sidelines of the political debate, although he has criticized his Republican successor's efforts to undo some of his major policy achievements.

He has condemned Trump for pulling out of the Paris climate accord and for ending a program that shielded from deportation immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children. He also spoke out against Trump's effort to unravel the Obamacare healthcare program.

Obama said the Iran agreement significantly rolled back Tehran's nuclear program and was a model for a possible deal Trump hopes to negotiate with North Korea to eliminate Pyongyang's nuclear weapons.

"That is why today’s announcement is so misguided," Obama said.

"Walking away from the JCPOA turns our back on America’s closest allies, and an agreement that our country’s leading diplomats, scientists, and intelligence professionals negotiated," he said. 

[This is disturbing. What Americans don't know, or choose to forget is that the U.S. government has a long detailed history of not keeping agreements, of breaking treaties. There are over 300 treaties signed by the U.S. government with nations from the east to the west coast of what became the United States of America and they broke each one. There are no apologies from white Americans. Adamantly, they refuse to apologize because their sense of humanity does rest in humanity. It lives or comes from somewhere we know not... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5/9/18] 

a MESS, We're Screwed!

U.S. Diplomat’s Resignation Signals Wider Exodus From State Department
e Luce, Robbie Gramer | December 9, 2017, 1:29 PM

An award-winning U.S. diplomat who was seen as a rising star at the State Department has issued a scathing resignation letter, accusing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the Donald Trump administration of undercutting the State Department and damaging America’s influence in the world.

Elizabeth Shackelford, who most recently served as a political officer based in Nairobi for the U.S. mission to Somalia, wrote to Tillerson that she reluctantly had decided to quit because the administration had abandoned human rights as a priority and shown disdain for the State Department’s diplomatic work, according to her letter, obtained by Foreign Policy. 

“I have deep respect for the career Foreign and Civil Service staff who, despite the stinging disrespect this Administration has shown our profession, continue the struggle to keep our foreign policy on the positive trajectory necessary to avert global disaster in increasingly dangerous times,” Shackelford wrote in her Nov. 7 letter, which is published below. One phrase was redacted on Shackelford’s request. 

“With each passing day, however, this task grows more futile, driving the Department’s experienced and talented staff away in ever greater numbers,” she wrote. 

Her former colleagues said her departure — and the sentiments expressed in her letter — reflect a wider exodus of midcareer diplomats who have lost confidence in Tillerson’s management and the Trump administration’s approach toward diplomacy.

“She’s emblematic of what we’re losing across the board,” said one of Shackelford’s former State Department colleagues. “She is the best among us. We should not be losing the best among us. And that should concern people that we are,” the former colleague said.

In her letter, Shackelford said she was leaving with a “heavy heart” as she recognized the potential of the State Department’s mission. She said she was “shocked” when Tillerson appeared to cast doubt on the importance of human rights in remarks to department employees on May 3. 

Deception.

"From the outset, the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has incorrectly presumed the stupidity of Africans and others who are concerned about the continent. To answer accusations that the U.S. uses its military to ensure continuing imperialist domination of Africa, AFRICOM has stubbornly insisted that its sole objectives are to advise and support the armies of African government “partners” and to prov...ide humanitarian assistance. But we know the truth to be otherwise.

U.S. Army General Donald Bolduc shamelessly told NBC News: “America is not at war in Africa. But its partner forces are.” But even a soldier can recognize the farce. Former Green Beret Derek Gannon said: “[U.S. military involvement in Africa] is called Low Intensity Irregular Warfare, yet technically it’s not considered war by the Pentagon. But warfare is warfare to me.”

The U.S. maintains two facilities in Africa that qualify as military bases. However, according to NBC the U.S. increased the number of embassy-based military missions called “Offices of Security Cooperation” from nine in 2008 to 36 in 2016. Researchers say the U.S. military now has a presence in at least 49 African countries... by Mark P. Fancher 

WHAT DO WE STAND FOR?

Salma Hayek Jiménez (born September 2, 1966) is a Mexican and American film actress, director and producer. I have been unable to recover from the sensuous dance she did in the middle of the Tarantino film about vampires! Everything she did in that scene revolved in a continuous swirl not yet to have left me when her face comes on a screen. 

Salma Hayek in scene of a Tarentino movie.

Without delving into either Salma Hayek, or any other woman from Central America there are the questions about fairness to be answered beginning with: "Is it fair to be so wealthy a nation, and feel no connection with neighboring countries adversely affected by your military and economic policies?" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9/21/17

Rural home in Colombia.

Melanin Compromise

Light Skinned Women are African women.

Seated in a rattan chair proud!

Seen Johnson.

Being labeled 'light skinned' in the vernacular of Black Americans, historically, is either an indictment against those of the darker hue, or a vain appeal to whites to be accepted as white! The spirit of the distinction is racially based as a compromise to being African and being less in value than white women, who were not valued beyond chattel by white men! Being called light skinned was a compliment in the way that divided consciousness. It left some believing they were better than or less than, and somehow excused the fact of being African from the equation of identity. It was and is sabotage.

Blacks insisting on clinging to this manipulation do not own their own images; whites do. A problem of their freedom is their misperceptions of identity leading to an assortment of problematic thinking that renders powerless the truth of who they actually are, and as an exchange their souls and minds back into the mindset of being owned. Scientifically, they come to not know what melanin is, nor its distinction. Their belief in science reverses the natural order of things believing what is recessive is dominate. It doesn't matter to them the truth. What matters is impotence and fear. This is a crushing ideology, but heavily defended in daily life. 

All that is being said is Blacks in America do not see the African. Blacks see white to be seen by whites as equals, as co-creators in a democracy not made for them. The truth of Black power is in knowing. The strength of Black power are its truths. Why the collective does not own their own images is a riddle asking to be unraveled, but is rivaled by fear; fears of the white people. This is what white people know, and fear because if Black Americans became more than a color, and property, or mere symbols of the guilt whites own, and live by; white people would have no perception of power to believe is their power! The bondage here is two-fold shared by white people and Black people.  

In 1918, U.S. senator, Hiram Johnson said, "The first casualty of war is truth." From the moment white men accepted their Doctrine of Discovery as truth, and from God; they killed the truth of their nature, and became less human. This began the unique history of Europeans as slavers, and this demented perception of life became a way of life that led to the founding of America. In the midst of all the turmoil of comeuppance the Arab people are the most threatening to national security meaning national security is not the protection of the country, but security against the evitable karma of conquest and brutality. Killers cannot numb themselves enough from this eventuality and the U.S. is not exempt. What else protects us from recognizing these truths are the assumptions of supremacy and the fear of detection by righteousness.

But, the Arabs are clear. 

The last attacks on London by ISIS made it clear in the words they posted: "Kill the Civilians of the Crusaders. Run Over Them by Vehicles. Gain Benefit from Ramadhan." The American entertainment news did not dissect the text for viewers, and with this industry and the War Department's best interests at heart, viewers were aided by the overall lack of historical depth the American public is known for. I recognize that there are many reading this who will not know what word draws attention to the core issue of the wars between the Arabs and the Europeans! But, despite that the illusion of fighting for our freedom insists on being the national justification for what we do against others!  

What is denied by Black Americans is how African spirituality from throughout Western Africa via the slave trade evolved and survived within African women in the African Diaspora. It ranks them as the most profoundly beautiful among women in the world! This is salvation for a people. Nationally, this depth of insight and possibilities is outside the possibilities of not reconciling with others, but of being able to become human, to become whole.


Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 
June 9, 2017

2 dangers in the truth.

Black & white of a Black woman by Roland Dawson. 2016.

"The challenge and the beauty of this photograph is the gulp of air taken in that doesn't come out, and the inability to overcome from the feel of the image to speak coherently!" ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories [June 12, 2017] 

a Joke, a Fool in High Office.

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"Love your shoes. Boy, those shoes. Man!"

President Trump<http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=pMJKdIFVI6pghfX2HXfSzxRpdoyDWYNW/jSXUIvzWmNFWV+UYi0ZA/Tpf3K6+9f05UB/8a0fxZQluqFY4qqDdxmCqik/EORK9ylADy9EeaRVYHix+hMW5BqAhCi6s3CfIUEPGADHX3o7qDeq/4IgFcfM2jG9cAuvGxjPWpg6mNs=&campaign_id=129&instance_id=97658&segment_id=108371&user_id=eed9a11c99700d704e80da73773e1f54®i_id=64806203>, returning a compliment given by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, who had told Mr. Trump, "You are a unique personality that is capable of doing the impossible."

He and the speech are a joke and an insult to intelligence. The thinking that changing his tone, as the big bad bully, encircled and facing the leaders of the countries he has verbally attacked, signals changes is as disrespectful of people as anything else he has done in his life on earth. It is glaringly obvious to all except for his base and those who think they benefit from alliance with him, that he cares for people, or even understands his life, the world, and his words and his beliefs are clearly understood the world over.

We, the Brothers Four and our sister, Cynthia, grew up as children of a diplomat and probably know more about international affairs and how to build relationships with people unlike us, and have a firm grasp on interpersonal relationship skills than the president. It disgusts me, this man, but Mommy and Daddy sat me down in my early life and showed me over the years how to recognize and deal with men like this. Each of us in our own time learned these skill sets from our parents.

Trump, or any other redneck, is no surprise. He is a given in the society we live in, and people of the darker hue have had to develop skills to deal with people like this throughout our long history with the dichotomies of Euro-Americans. I pray, not for the president; he is attached to his lunacy. I pray for something else that may never come to past... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5/29/17

WE Dropped The Bomb!

America dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016. What a bloody end to Obama's reign
 by Medea Benjamin, 
co-founder of Codepink,
is the author of
"Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control."

"According to new figures, the US dropped nearly three bombs every hour, 24 hours a day. Dare we think how Donald Trump will continue this legacy?"


Most Americans would probably be astounded to realize that the president who has been painted by Washington pundits as a reluctant warrior has actually been a hawk. The Iran nuclear deal, a herculean achievement, and the opening of diplomatic relations with Cuba unfortunately stand alone as President Obama’s successful uses of diplomacy over hostility.

While candidate Obama came to office pledging to end George W Bush’s wars, he leaves office having been at war longer than any president in US history. He is also the only president to serve two complete terms with the nation at war.

President Obama did reduce the number of US soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, but he dramatically expanded the air wars and the use of special operations forces around the globe. In 2016, US special operators could be found in 70% of the world’s nations, 138 countries – a staggering jump of 130% since the days of the Bush administration.

Looking back at President Obama’s legacy, the Council on Foreign Relation’s Micah Zenko added up the defense department’s data on airstrikes and made a startling revelation: in 2016 alone, the Obama administration dropped at least 26,171 bombs. This means that every day last year, the US military blasted combatants or civilians overseas with 72 bombs; that’s three bombs every hour, 24 hours a day.

While most of these air attacks were in Syria and Iraq, US bombs also rained down on people in Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. That’s seven majority-Muslim countries.
One bombing technique that President Obama championed is drone strikes. As drone-warrior-in-chief, he spread the use of drones outside the declared battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, mainly to Pakistan and Yemen. Obama authorized over 10 times more drone strikes than George W Bush, and automatically painted all males of military age in these regions as combatants, making them fair game for remote controlled killing.

President Obama has claimed that his overseas military adventures are legal under the 2001 and 2003 authorizations for the use of military force passed by Congress to go after al-Qaida. But today’s wars have little or nothing to do with those who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001.

The twisted legal architecture the Obama administration has constructed to justify its interventions, especially extrajudicial drone killings with no geographic restrictions, will now be transferred into the erratic hands of Donald Trump.

What does the administration have to show for eight years of fighting on so many fronts? Terrorism has spread, no wars have been “won” and the Middle East is consumed by more chaos and divisions than when candidate Barack Obama declared his opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

While the switch from US troops on the ground to airstrikes and special forces has saved US lives, untold numbers of foreign lives have been snuffed out. We have no idea how many civilians have been killed in the massive bombings in Iraq and Syria, where the US military is often pursuing Isis in the middle of urban neighborhoods. We only sporadically hear about civilian killings in Afghanistan, such as the tragic bombing of the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz that left 42 dead and 37 wounded.

Pushed to release information about civilian deaths in drone strikes, in July 2016 the US government made the absurd claim it had killed, at most, 116 civilians in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya between 2009 and 2015. Journalists and human rights advocates said the numbers were ridiculously low and unverifiable, given that no names, dates, locations or others details were released. The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which has tracked drone strikes for years, said the true figure was six times higher.

Given that drones account for only a small portion of the munitions dropped in the past eight years, the numbers of civilians killed by Obama’s bombs could be in the thousands. But we can’t know for sure as the administration, and the mainstream media, has been virtually silent about the civilian toll of the administration’s failed interventions.

In May 2013, I interrupted President Obama during his foreign policy address at the National Defense University. I had just returned from visiting the families of innocent people killed by US drone attacks in Yemen and Pakistan, including the Rehman children who saw their grandmother blown to bits while in the field picking okra.

Speaking out on behalf of grieving families whose losses have never been acknowledged by the US government, I asked President Obama to apologize to them. As I was being dragged out, President Obama said: “The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to.”

Too bad he never did.

Policing War Tactics

Weapons instructors 'stage' an event ... staging is important for psychological warfare inside domestic territories. observes Mereana Taki (9.18.16)

You are dead on target on this point. Ever since the U.S. government flooded the nation's police departments with military weapons and Humvees, and tanks after 9/11 the policing has changed. There have been major shifts in how the public is perceived by the police. Replaced is the notion we are citizens. We have become potential terror threats. Subject, to severe scrutiny under these guises regular conversation and simple courtesy are replaced with abruptness, rude behavior and short nasty answers to questions. Because Americans after 9/11 significantly dummied down their intellectual processes all of this happened because dictatorial patriotism became the litmus test for citizenship.

The state of the country's mindset is in trouble under the mentality of living fearfully as if are consequences our acts of terrorism... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9.18.16

wHAT DO wE wANT fROM AFRICA?



Senegalese woman belongs to the Serer people who are the third largest ethnic group in the country.

Africa

U.S. Increases Antiterrorism Exercises With African Militaries

By HELENE COOPER MAY 26, 2016

ARUSHA, Tanzania — After a series of terrorist attacks on hotels and other tourist sites that raised concerns all across Africa, the United States has increased training exercises with militaries here, focusing on how to defend civilian targets on a continent that has become a significant battleground in the war against militant Islam.

 

In Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, United States Army troops simulated an elaborate hostage rescue with West African forces this month. The combined forces stormed a building, shot mock militants and secured the hostages.

 

In Kenya, American trainers funded by the State Department have been working with police commandos on how to respond to terrorist attacks like the Westgate shopping mall raid in 2013, when fighters with the Shabab, the local affiliate of Al Qaeda, killed 67 people and wounded 175 more.

 

And in Gabon next month, paratroopers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division — after crossing the Atlantic from their Fort Bragg, N.C., headquarters — are scheduled to jump out of a plane and straight into a joint exercise, part of an effort to train Central African militaries in elaborate raids, strikes and rescue missions.

 

The training effort between the American military and its African partners is a far cry from the days when the Pentagon viewed the continent as a place to avoid, fearing open-ended United Nations peacekeeping missions.

 

“In the past, Africa was seen through the peacekeeping lens,” said Jennifer Cooke, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

 

But now, she said, “the U.S. looks at Africa differently.”

 

“Some of the threats, whether it’s Al Shabab, ISIL, Boko Haram or AQIM, pose a more direct and sophisticated threat to African states, to European allies, and potentially to the United States,” she added.

 

Those four militant Islamist extremist groups — the Shabab in East Africa, the Islamic State affiliate in Libya, Boko Haram in Central and West Africa, and Al Qaeda in the Maghreb region of West Africa — are widely believed to be the terrorist organizations that pose the most direct threat to civilians across the continent.

 

At an African Land Forces Summit meeting here last week, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the Army chief of staff, urged his African counterparts to draw on their own experiences battling colonial European powers to fight the four terrorist groups.

“Many of you in this room are descendants of fighters who practiced guerrilla warfare against the French, the British, the colonial forces of Europe,” General Milley told senior military officials from 37 African countries. “Embedded in your armies is the knowledge of how to fight guerrilla warfare.”

But defending “soft targets” — military jargon for hotels, restaurants, movie theaters, shopping malls and other places where unarmed civilians congregate — is difficult for sophisticated militaries, let alone the continent’s fledging security forces.

 

American law restricts the Pentagon’s direct work with African police forces — that is done through the State Department — so the American military often finds itself struggling to make sure that its training is going to the people most likely to be charged with carrying out missions like rescuing hostages.

 

“It’s going to take time,” General Milley said during his speech at the Arusha meeting, “but we’re going to do this selectively, without abusing people.”...  more

Continue reading the main story




Senegalese commandos in American led training exercises.
photo by Sergey Ponomarev for New York Times. (2016)

 

contradict from right to left

Chicks On The Right

ATTENTION TOWNSPEOPLE! Yes, we are capitalist pigs, and therefore, we also have a store:http://www.cafepress.com/chicksonright

June 23, 2009

"You admit to being capitalistic pigs, sell t'shirts saying 'Let's outsource liberalism to India', ignoring how colonialism devastated India, ignore how capitalism's sense of entitlement has sent American jobs overseas to India, and you offer no solutions of substance; yet you are somehow encouraging the very people directly affected by the practices of dictatorial patriotism, and Capitalism further along in the notion it is OK not to know enough to change our predicament intelligently. 

Is that what you are saying? If so you aren't thinking, or helping. You are reacting and feeding, and breathing into the schizophrenia of fear affecting us all across the country! That is not fair. It is not responsible, or representative of the position you hold over people who do not have time to research the issues and facts asserting dominance over their lives. You are taking from them. It is mean, and coming from the mouths of two gorgeous white women the double whammy of the image and the message means something different to people of color irregardless of their social and economic standing!" 

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 11.13.13

The two Chicks On The Right with Jeb Bush
June 2, 2009

COLOR OF POLITICS

"When a man terrifies another man the reason why is within the terrified man; how is within the mind of the instigator." 
- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 
10.8.13

The fears of whites denied is the obvious contradictions the world has to recognize, and reckon with in their dealings with us as a global power now waning, but still strong. It is our collective tragedy, and the deep source of the contradictions around our projections into the world-at-large about freedom.

When Civil Rights leader, Dorothy I. Height spoke at Coretta Scott King's funeral she said, "The Black Man needs the White Man to help him with his fears, and the White Man needs the Black Man to help him with his guilt!" she spoke to the elephant in the room people the world over have to pay attention to with concern, but white America tends, or pretends to ignore. Not learning to overcome the mentality of supremacy, and its attendant fears our posturing as a world power, and a proponent for freedom is constantly wearing on the image and substance of what is magnificent and good about the ideals of America and Americans.

It saddens me the way many whites parade their fears and abnormal reactions to Black men and women in power with the backdrop of a history of slavery, conquering, and contradictory practices and policies that have come from many otherwise good hearts tainted by the unresolved questions to the core of whatever is American, and what is actually practiced in race relations. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10.8.13

slaves resting

REPUBLICAN PARTY

Latina actress Raquel Welch

Unearthing, and understanding the patterns, the structures that set the beliefs that conduct action from particular mindsets is more important to change than the definitive terms conservative or liberal, or fight to preserve old traditions or be free. This will lead to a better view of the energies that govern lawmakers, and the public emphasizing and exaggerating the importance of saying, "I am a Republican, or I am a Democrat." And being one or the other.

We can go back and forth with this, but within the Republican party's mindset was and still is a deep resistance to the basic commitment to do some of the basic things necessary to insure better futures for the coming generations. Deep within the ranks of the conservative consciousness there is a dogged insistence to be consistent in our inconsistencies. Cases in point: rebuilding the nation's infrastructure, shoring up defenses for economic calamity, creating and improving the social system's capacity to catch people who fall through the cracks, making the voting process honest, shucking the notion that people should pull themselves up by their own boot straps, or changing the philosophical conceptions of education to get the best out of most of our children!

During the Bush administration some of the country watched in horror as the Congress (both sides) allowed a weak president, much despised prior to 9/11/01, free reign to do whatever he wanted, and to spend what he wanted for the weakest of reasons. Without the benefit of intellectual discourse Congress took the country from surplus to debt and Iraq in an effort to avoid pursuing Osama bin Laden. Was that a triumph, or a coup?

There is a fundamental flaw in the thinking of the Republican party that is steeped in the Old South. It is no secret, and it is heavily defended with the language of liberal (free) thinkers easily because of the miseducation of a growing number of people from American schools... - Gregory E. Woods (2.12.13)

Sarah Palin

AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY: Syria

These Boots Are Made For Walking

by Timothy W. Higgins

Sept. 15, 2013

It's been a week where an inadvertent remark by Secretary of State John Kerry has done more for Middle East peace than his predecessor's entire tenure and Vladimir Putin is as busy as President Obama in making the case to the American people for how stability in the Syria is to be reached.

Russia and the US have apparently negotiated an agreement about dismantling the chemical weapons in Syria.  With its agreement, Syria will now become a signatory of UN prohibitions against using weapons that it never admitted that it had, and surrender them without actually admitting that it used them on its own citizens.  In return, President Obama will quietly withdraw a request for permission that he was never going to get from Congress for a response to their use; which no one wanted to look too closely at, lest they discover that some of them had come across the border from Iraq during one of the previous Administration's foreign policy escapades and have to admit that they were there in the first place.

According to statements being released by press secretaries and State Department representatives, no one need now fear that 'boots on the ground' will be required as a follow up to a never approved missile attack that was apparently designed to accomplish nothing other than blowing up $350 million of ordinance without making a regime change or inflicting a civilian casualty.  What a relief!  (What a load of crap!)

Wait a minute!  These are CHEMICAL WEAPONS whose components can only be destroyed properly by those with expert knowledge of such weaponry under the most exacting of conditions in specialized facilities through the use of tremendous heat.  Without delving too deeply into how the United States gained the singular expertise required for the destruction of such materials and the demolition of the sites that create them, I would suggest that anyone who believes that those with such proficiency are not in uniform may already be committing significant abuse where modern chemistry is concerned. 

As for their safe disposal ...  The last time I looked, the entire nation of Syria was a war zone occupied by multiple factions with no love for each other, let alone President Assad and his government.  (As for the US and its on again, off again support of regime change ... not so much.)  Now regardless of whether the agreeing parties yesterday also reached peace amongst the disparate factions involved with this conflict (they haven't) or is planning on imposing peace on the region by some means (no one's said so), someone's going to have to provide security, transport, and disposal of these materials while the fighting is still going on.  (Lest heaven forbid, they should fall into the wrong hands.)    

Regardless of what anyone in the Administration, Congress, or the Press is peddling these days; if this task is to be accomplished, a great number of US personnel are going to have to place themselves in harms way as part of this process.  Construction engineers are going to have to build a disposal facility in that part of the world.  (We probably have or had one in neighboring Iraq, but that nation's gone to hell under recent foreign policy and those facilities may no longer be operable.)  Security and transport will need to be provided from wherever the stockpiles have been most recently relocated (to protect them from our Tomahawk cruise missiles) to wherever the disposal and remission sites end up.  Ground forces will necessarily make up some part of that security if for no other reason than to protect convoys from IED's (improvised explosive devices) and suicide bombers; along with their requisite supply and logistics services.  Air cover will likewise need to be provided as part of that security, which because of the location means carrier deployment, use of Saudi air bases, or both.  Deployment of carriers will mean the further staging of a fleet of ships for support, logistics, and fleet protection.

Based on current intelligence estimates of the size of stockpiles in Syria and even assuming that the warring parties currently occupying the space allow us to proceed, it's likely that undertaking such an operation will require 'boots on the ground' for the rest of the decade at a minimum.  Up until now, the promise against such a condition is the only thing achieving bi-partisan support.  Strange that in the rush to celebrate this agreement, no one is talking about these unintended consequences of their success.  

It was Lee Hazlewood that wrote "These Boots Are Made For Walking"; that Nancy Sinatra (Frank's daughter) made famous in back in 1966.  It won't be go-go boots on the beach that we'll be talking about in 2013 and beyond however, but combat boots once again deployed to march the sand in Middle Eastern deployment. 

Update:
An earlier version of this was picked up and reprinted on the website of the