Slice and dice:

Monday-April 4, 2011 Slice and Dice: I love this term. I looked up the meaning and I got a few definitions and yet a few differing originations of the term. However, for today’s discussion let’s just stick to the basics of what slice and dice is. When we slice and dice, we divide an object. Usually, it is a fruit or vegetable. When a piece of fruit or vegetable is divided it multiplies or when a piece of food is divided, it is usually being prepared to cook so that it can be eaten. The question is are we doing the slicing and dicing or is our enemy doing the slicing and dicing? Are our efforts around the world and domestically following what the menu calls for and who will be better at cooking the small pieces that remain on the chopping block? Last Monday, the President told us at 7:30 pm, non prime time, that he had stopped Moammar Qadaffi’s military forces dead in their tracks and that NATO would take command of the coalition in Libya. One week later, NATO has taken command later than they had announced and Qadaffi has reversed his retreat and now it is the Rebels who are on retreat. No matter how you slice and dice it, someone is either lying or is possibly devoid of the facts or just doesn’t know what the facts are. I would really like to eliminate the lying part, because there have been more lies told in the last two years and no matter how you slice and dice it, we have forgotten what truth is all about in this country. So let’s concentrate on being devoid of the facts and more importantly not knowing what the facts are. No matter how you slice or dice it, time is now on Qadaffi’s side and like most in that part of the world the ability to postpone and delay what we would consider possible or even inevitable outcomes is something that they are capable of capitalizing on and are now able to play the delay game over. What is really going on is that the perceived people’s wish in Libya of creating a parliamentary democracy is becoming questionable and might not even have been a possibility from the outset. Finding rebel leaders we can trust is one thing, but knowing for a fact that there are rebels we can trust is becoming more unclear by the day. The president said that most of the rebel leaders are lawyers and doctors. How can he know this? And if they are what difference does that mean if these rebels cannot be trusted or if they are against coalition interests. Having the U.S pull back from an active military posture is sending a signal that we either don’t care or that we are unable to do what it takes to get Qadaffi out, if that in fact is the mission. At this point, no matter how you slice it and dice it, Qadaffi is still in and his son might now be in a better position to step into the void that would be created in the event that Moammar steps down. No matter how you slice it or dice it, our policy of containment or our way of dealing with that part of the world must now change. If you take this troubled region and slice up the various portions into small pieces you will now find that Iran, Syria, Yemen, Egypt and now Libya have to be treated differently. If we are to effectively encourage a regime change or even various types of reform, we must realize that these terms mean different things to different people in that region. When you slice it and dice it, some are now realizing that our relationship with these countries is different. Syria is not Iran, Iran is not Syria. Libya is not the same now as Iran and Syria is now much different than Libya. It is complicated, but no matter how you slice it and dice it, these are all small parts now laying on the chopping block of history. Many say that Libya is not essential to the United States. That may be true, but will it be true in a year from now? The Libyan war is now being considered the war that isn’t a war. Many are now seeing the drift that the United State has taken from that of being an aggressor to that of being a protector. If we are now a protector shouldn’t that mean that we should be taking a more hardened stance against the tyranny that exists in this part of the world? Not so when you become a protector, you then pick and choose your battles. When you slice it and dice it, if you pick the battles that you want to fight, you must then be prepared to go the distance. So far this administration has sliced and diced its policy options and has decided that they will just get lucky. Last Monday, when the president said Qadaffi has been halted, he spoke out of turn and got ahead of himself, because he picked the time and their place to play his trump card and it turned out that lady luck was not on our side. When you slice it and dice it, lady luck is not diplomacy. Diplomacy is only achieved when your foreign policy is used in conjunction with strength and is equal to that of your mission. Today, Qadaffi has rejected all the calls for a cease fire. Today, he is still in control. If we had wanted to be a protector, the U.S. should have demonstrated, without question, what this new role would mean to the region. When you slice it and dice it, nothing has changed since before the protection started. When you slice it and dice it, it becomes apparent that we have been devoid of the facts and still do not know what the facts are. When you slice it and dice it, our country does have boots on the ground and when we do get the facts we should act upon those facts and bring an end to this war that isn’t a war. According to the biased media, the war in Libya has now been moved to the 2nd page. Speaking of the press, when you slice it and dice it, some in the press are biased. It has been reported by many news organizations that General Electric made 14 billion dollars in profit. That’s great, but it has not been reported by NBC that GE did not pay any U.S. income tax on that profit. NBC is owned by GE and its CEO Jeffery Immelt is a close confidant of the President. When you slice it and dice it, NBC has been very favorable in reporting anything that this administration has done. I wrote many months ago about the dangers of, as I termed it then, the new Corporate Industrial Complex. When you slice it and dice it, this American corporation is getting away with millions, and that is not chump change. One of the many origins of the term slice and dice I found was: “Home Slice means good friend or buddy.” You see - when you do slice it and dice it, we find the answer! Gregory C. Dildilian Founder and Executive Director Pinecone Conservatives A footnote: On today’s date, in 1818, Congress decided that our flag would carry 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars. I am sure there was some slicing and dicing done in this decision, but that was when our flag truly meant good friend and buddy to all that wanted to wave the flag.