Over Reaction?

Hallowed Earth

The National September 11 Memorial New York City. The Memorial is Located at the World Trade Centre site, on the former location of the Twin Towers destroyed during terrorist attacks. It's a Memorial to the near 3000 people killed not only in the attack on the Trade Centre Towers but also at The Pentagon, those on board Flight 93, and also those killed in 1993 when the North Tower of The World Centre was bombed.

The Memorial Park was officially opened one day after the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks, on the 12th of September 2012. The events of 9/11 have gone down in history as the  deadliest terrorist strike against the United States ever. 

During a recent visit to New York over the festive season, I made my way to the site of the Memorial to pay my respects. It's the second time I have visited the site of the former Twin Towers, last time I was here the park was still under construction, but just because I've been before my visit was no less mournful.

This brings me on to the subject of this weeks blog.

Several weeks ago, during a conversation with a Major in the Unites States Air Force, we somehow got on to the subject of 9/11. The Major told me that a British friend of his serving in the Royal Air Force had said to him , "America overreacted after the terrorist attacks of 9/11". The Major went on to say that, "only because I have a great deal of respect for this guy, I actually considered whether there was any truth in what he'd said".

The subject of 9/11 holds many emotional memories for everyone. For instance, everyone remembers where they were, what they were doing, and the feelings they had watching events unfold on news channels across the globe. And with this in mind, I offered no opinion on what he'd just said and simply chose to listen. 

I could see the Major was having difficulty formulating a response to the comments from his British friend, but after a short pause he simply said, "maybe we did, but we had to do something"

In the aftermath of 9/11 America and its Allies embarked on a, "War on Terror". This war was a military campaign designed to eliminate al-Qaeda and other militant organisations. Since this War began it's transformed into a political and idealogical struggle against militant Islamists and governments or regimes that support them.

We are now over ten years into this "War on Terror" and what that American said about overreaction got me thinking about the real cost of all these years of struggle.

The War in Iraq claimed the lives of around 5000 soldiers from around the world, and estimates for civilians deaths range from over 100,000 to just under 1,000,000. The numbers for civilian casualties includes, not only those killed as a direct result of the War but also those killed indirectly when displaced by the fighting.

The War in Afghanistan has claimed to date the lives of around 3500 soldiers from around the world and estimates for civilian deaths range from 14,000 to around 20,000. The numbers for civilian casualties in Afghanistan are widely recognised as being grossly underestimated but as its difficult to trace civilian deaths and the UN didn't start counting these deaths till 2007 this is the best estimate available.

The financial cost to the US and its Allies of both the Iraq and Afghanistan war is estimated to be in the region of 1.3 - 4 trillion dollars. 

When you visit a site like this, where such an awful and cruel atrocity was carried out you truly are treading on hallowed ground. To me it feels as if all the souls that perished here have somehow woven a sadness into the very fabric of the earth. 

Writing the last few sentences I can feel a heaviness in my heart and  sorrow washing over me once more. Thinking of my last visit, I am suddenly transported back to the Memorial, looking down at the names I notice what I first think is a very long name on the pool edge, only to be hit with the harsh realisation that the name belongs to a mother and her unborn child. 

With a lump in my throat I notice several more names of mothers with their unborn children,  it's at this moment that I had an epiphany and all those statistics above about the "War on Terror" seem to slowly ebb away.

Time is a healer which helps to numb the pain and sadness of such tragedies like 9/11. But time also makes us forget, and as a public we have short memories. We are constantly bombarded with negative images on television and so death and wanton killing seem common place which makes us lose sight of the value of life.

After over 10 years of fighting, all this loss of life and all that money spent, are we any safer globally?

Would you have acted any differently to the Americans without the gift of hindsight?

The answers to the above questions are up for conjecture.

What I do know is, the brave men and women who've lost their lives in the "War on terror", did so to preserve a way of life. They died so we can continue to enjoy the freedoms and liberties we take as a given, and this is true whether you agree or disagree with government policy decisions that took us to war. 

"More inhumanity (to man) has been done by himself than any other of nature's causes".

Samuel Von Pufendorf, 1673

The Gordian knot

I took the above picture in the Durham Museum Omaha several weeks ago, it struck me then as it still does now as a massively profound statement. The above quote was taken from a speech by Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the 22nd of September, 1936.

Franklin D Roosevelt is the only American president elected to more than two terms. He is credited with helping the American people regain faith in themselves and he led the United States during a time of world wide economic depression and total war.

His tenure of the United States saw him issue new and seeping programmes of reform: social security, heavier taxes on the wealthy, new controls over banking and public utilities, and an enormous relief package programme for the unemployed. 

Sound relevant to today?

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself".

Another thought provoking statement from Franklin D Rooselvelt, taken from his inaugural address, Saturday, March 4th, 1933. And this brings me nicely onto the subject of this weeks blog. 

A few months ago, I went down to the local shooting range, I hired a SIG Sauer P226, purchased a few hundred rounds of ammunition and 4 paper targets. As a British citizen this is a real novelty and I wouldn't have been able to do this without prior training but as I'm active military this wasn't necessary. 

I thought then of blogging about gun culture in America and over the passed few months I've had discussions with Americans on this subject, but the recent shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary school have further polarised my mind on American gun laws. 


During the many discussions about the differences between American and British cultures, the subject of guns has been brought up on several occasions. Americans find it plainly bizarre that we don't generally own guns in the UK, they can't understand why we have such draconian laws to restrict the sale of firearms.  

In Nebraska guns are widely owned and used for sport. Fathers take their sons out hunting from a young age, they teach them how to handle, use, service and store guns safely. Any animals killed during the hunt are butchered and shared between family and friends. It really is an innocent past time, it's taken from the early pioneer days but it seems to still have a relevance today in this part of America.  

The mid-west is one thing, but what would you hunt with a gun in down town Chicago?

There is a deep rooted fear in the American psyche and I can't seem to precisely pin point where it comes from but I assure you it's there. One possible source of this fear could be the media.

Every time you turn the TV on, no matter what news channel you watch, there is always something that's about to kill or injure you, in the most horrific manner you can't even imagine. It's either the end of the world, there's a super duper storm cell about to obliterate the Eastern Seaboard or a foreign underground revolutionary movement is about to over throw the government.

It's no wonder people are scared, if you hear it enough sooner or later you'll begin to believe it.


A lack of regulation in America makes it possible to buy an assault rifle from a weekend gun show without any background checks. It's also possible to buy hundreds of rounds of ammunition for that rifle over the counter from a supermarket. These weapons have only one purpose, people don't go hunting waterfowl armed with an AR-15 and a high capacity magazine. These weapons are used by soldiers and special forces to fight wars, what purpose can they possibly serve in a "civilised" society?

In fact, the United States ranks around 10th for fire-arm related deaths, that probably doesn't sound too bad until you look at the countries further up the rankings. Countries like, Mexico, Swaziland and Honduras. Would you say America is on a similar social and economic footing as these countries? 

Another argument I've heard on the news over here is that the UK has a much higher violent crime rate than America, and they claim this is because gun laws in Britain make it almost impossible to own a fire-arm. If you actually look at the figures and read the criteria for violent crime, you'll see that in the UK more types of crime are classified as violent, this makes the statistics skewed when compared directly to the ones from the states. 

Any talk of gun regulation in American is seen as a direct attack on peoples fundamental rights and more importantly their right to bear arms. And it's usually at this point that the second amendment raises it's ugly head. 
It reads;

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed".

The second amendment was adopted in 1791 along with the rest of the bill of rights. Do we still need militias, don't they usually perform coups and overthrow governments on the horn of Africa?

From what I've seen, you can break people down into three categories.

1. Right wing conspiracy theorists who say the right to bear arms ensures maintenance of a free state and prevents the Federal Government from overstepping the bounds of authority.  They say assault rifles protect American citizens from a tyrannical government, and by tyrannical they mean the one they elected. There is no reasoning with these people and they say the only way to protect yourself from guns and gun crime is to have more guns. They would like to see former police officers in nursery schools armed to the teeth with semi-automatic weapons and say this is the only way to protect children. 

2. The average American family man who wants to be armed just incase. There's no malice in this, he just wants to be able to protect his family in any possible situation. 

3. The liberal who thinks it's time to try something new. Sales of guns have been steadily increasing and so has the numbers of fire-arm related deaths and it's not difficult to spot the correlation. The liberal has looked at countries like the UK which pretty much banned guns after the Dunblane school massacre and since then gun related crime has fallen year on year. The liberal questions what message you're sending to future generations when they turn at school only to be greeted by a heavily armed security guard. 

This blog could go on and on, it's such an emotive debate on both sides and with so much at stake.

I'll leave you with the words from of an American Icon and a great forward thinker of the 20th century. Marion Robert Morrison. (aka John Wayne) 

"Life is hard, it's harder if you're stupid"

Pretty pictures

If you're thinking to yourself:

"I'm getting a bit tired of this cod-eye who knows everything about nothing and not too much about that (I've just plagiarised Henrys cat), prattling on in a sarcastic manner about his year in America, I'd much rather just see some pretty pictures"!

Well, if you click on any of the pictures featured in my blog, you'll be treated to a selection of thumb nails (on a laptop) or a full size picture (on an Ipad or any other generic tablet).

So you need not waste your time any more, simply look at some photos and sod off. 

Or if you're so bored that you've ironed your tea towels and hosed out your wheelie bin, then continue to read.  

But just incase your still undecided, here are some photos;

Pavement art.

Downtown Omaha.

So typical of Nebraska.

Durham museum Omaha.

For the ladies.

Downtown Omaha taken from the Iowa side of the river.

Yoga

Badlands

The Badlands National Park, located on the south western edge of the great plains in South Dakota. I took these shots a day after a blizzard hit the area and the temperature was hovering around -20 degrees C. This National Park preserves 242,756 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United States. 


If this area of South Dakota could speak it could surely spin an elaborate yarn. For 11,000 years it was used as hunting grounds for the Native Americans, it was the site for Ghost Dances which were intended to re-unite the dead with the living, it was around this area that the great clashes between Plains Indians and US military took place, and its last owner was the United States Airforce who used it as a bomb and gunnery range. It was also the back drop for the 1990 classic Dances With Wolves. 

And just in case you were wondering, it's the site of the re-introduction of the Black-Footed Ferret.

As I travel around America I am continually surprised by its rugged beauty and this leads me nicely onto the topic of this weeks blog.

You may or may not be aware that only 38% of Americans own a passport. To put this into context, 2 out of every 3 Americans can't even fly to Canada.

You may have read the above statistic and thought how backward it is that a civilised country has so few passports in circulation. 

You may have a smug grin on your face right now, you're probably quietly chuckling under your breath, and thinking how those silly introverted Americans are so simple.

Maybe your right.....Or maybe your wrong? 

Now I know I'm stating the obvious but America is HUGE! America is a federal constitutional republic consisting of 50 states and a federal district. The 50 states have a vast diversity that in some cases exceeds that of European countries.

The topographical features of North America include: mountain ranges, plateaus, plains, deserts, vast lakes and several oceans. Tax on fuel makes car ownership relatively cheap and they have a well maintained road network.  So you could say they have everything they need in their own backyard, and the means to see it. 

However, the US is surrounded by nearly 2000 miles of water, and this can make international air travel inaccessible for many. Americans get less annual holidays than we do in Europe, with around 2 weeks being average. Exchange rates for the dollar aren't great and the yanks usually come off worse.

In some cases, I think you could argue that the domestic media skews the perceptions of some Americans to other countries and cultures. I saw a piece on CNN a few months ago that made me cringe. The piece made great fan fair of a primary school where mothers had removed there children from an infant Yoga class, because they claimed it was "enforced hinduism". 

In Europe we have a competitive budget airline industry and more annual holidays. The distances between a multitude of countries are comparatively short, so we think nothing of flying around the continent for a short break. 

The British have travel woven into their DNA. We had an Empire to explore and we often travelled overseas to seek our fortune. 

However, in the UK we have a dickensian road and rail network. It's often quicker to fly to another country to escape the stresses of UK living than it is to drive to another county. Our "summers" are pretty much one day events, and the effects of global warming have left us in perpetual autumn. 

The strength of stirling works against us in our own country too. How often have you heard people say, it was cheaper to fly to the Costa Del Sol for a month than it was to spend the weekend in Minehead watching the redcoats perform cabaret at Butlins.

Is it possible that if we were happier with our own country we'd be less likely to leave at the drop of a hat?

Does the fact the majority of Americans don't travel internationally make them culturally inept?
Does a lack of travel mean Americans have a lesser understanding of other religions and creeds? 
Does a lack of travel mean Americans are less sceptical of politicians and their motives?

Are we as Europeans any wiser for all our jet-setting?

In a word.... No.


The people I've gotten to know in the 3 months I've spent here so far have blown all my preconceptions out of the water. The "real Americans" I've met have the same hopes and fears as everybody else, and they have the same issues with government regarding both foreign and domestic policy. A lack of foreign travel hasn't made them any less liberal than any Europeans I've met, nor has it made them any less globally aware. 

It seems Americans are extremely well catered for in their own country, this means they're less likely to seek pastures new. After all, this is the land of the free and the home of the brave... 

New conservatory?

Mount Rushmore

The shrine of democracy was created by Gutzon Borglum, carving started in 1927, took 14 years to complete and cost only 1 million dollars. Borglum was a political activist in the 1920s when America was prospering and he wanted to make Mount Rushmore a tourist attraction with national focus.

The four presidents were chosen because Borglum wanted the theme of the carving to span approximately 150 years.

1. George Washington is associated with the birth of a nation and the father of America.

2. Thomas Jefferson is know for a period of expansion in America with the Louisiana territory purchase.

3. Abraham Lincoln preserved the union after the civil war when America was torn apart.

4. Theodore Roosevelt was credited with economic development, taking America into a new century and making the country a world power.

If you've read my past blogs, I'm hoping you remember me discussing "The American Dream"? During a recent conversation, again with someone who I'd consider an average American family man, he made some very interesting statements.

Firstly, and excuse my "french". "Free society is fucking chaos".

This crude but maybe accurate sentence really got me thinking. Given the freedom to do whatever you want doesn't always lead to the best results. Whether that be the freedom to drive down the road in a car with 3 worn tyres, the freedom to publish slanderous or inflammatory material, the freedom to purchase fragmentation grenades from your local supermarket, or the freedom to sculpt something monumental from raw granite into the side of a mountain?

Is Mount Rushmore the epitome of being able to do as you will but within reason? Is this another example of how the, "within reason" part of the "American Dream", means different things to people from different countries, cultures or backgrounds?

What I do know is, it's hard enough to get planning permission for a 10 by 10 conservatory in the UK, but just imagine the uproar you'd create by trying to carve Tony Blairs face into a picture post card mountain scape in the Lake District.

The second thing he said during our conversation, and this is absolute poetry.  

"We went from Led Zeppelin to Justin Beiber, man, there's a problem".

There is no come back to this inspirational stroke of genius. 

He used this as an analogy to describe how kids growing up don't talk to each other anymore and rely on social media to communicate. Essentially, it's people in a room sharing pictures, messages and points of view with people in a room else where, who would do that...

Harvest Festival

Ed Zorinksy Lake

This is where I spent my Thanksgiving this year while in Omaha, it's the Ed Zorinsky Lake. It's another one of the beautiful open green spaces Nebraska has to offer. The park is public land, including 190 acres dedicated to wildlife management. The park is home to the Bauermeister Prairie, which houses 120 species of plants, birds and wildlife.


The park has two modern playgrounds, several playing fields, baseball diamonds, soccer field, "football field", hiking trails, cycling trails, barbecues and sheltered spaces. This park is pretty much the perfect place for a family to spend the day, you can even go fishing or boating on the lake using the boat ramp provided.

And this brings me nicely on to the subject of this weeks blog. 

Thanksgiving in America, pretty similar to the harvest festivals you may remember from your childhood, but as usual it has added US fan fair. Families and neighbours come together to share food, good times and in the olden days, to give thanks for a good harvest. It seems to have a neighbourly spirit only seen in the UK around Christmas time, but it doesn't have the consumerist related drive that Christmas does. 

Unfortunately, this utopian dream ends in spectacular fashion only 24 hours after the celebration of Thanksgiving. This pure and righteous day is superseded by what is know as "Black Friday"....

I can only describe "Black Friday", as full contact shopping! 

We've all seen those crazy people who camp out days before the boxing day sales back in the UK, they live on cardboard rations, enduring sub-zero temperatures all in the vain hope of getting the latest Davina McCall work out DVD for a knocked down price. Now, just for a second imagine arming them with knives, pepper spray and semi-automatic firearms. If you're imaging something resembling a post-apocolyptic scramble for survival, then you're getting close to the realisation of "Black Friday".

Don't believe me, just search "Black Friday" on YouTube.

The grey area

A friend of mine posed a question a few weeks ago and its been rattling around in my head since then. He simply wanted to know what exactly was "The American Dream"? My impression of what "The American Dream" is, goes a little something like this.

It's probably more of a romantic idea related to the early pioneers and settlers who shaped America when it was in its infancy. My idea of  "The American Dream", is about conquering the land, acquiring wealth, providing for your family and being able to do what you please to this end.

After a conversation with someone who I'd class as an average American family man, I discovered my idea of "The American Dream" isn't too far from his own, but with one key difference. He talked about being able to do what you wanted within reason. 

The "within reason" part is very important. It's knowing that, yes we can, but should we? With all its power, the "within reason" variable can have huge implications for a country of Americas stature. Maybe the grey area of ,"within reason" is why Americans can sometimes seem arrogant to the outside world. 

It reminds me of the words of that great 20th century philosopher know to many as, Spiderman.

"With great power comes great responsibility".

This picture was taken on the I 90, heading toward Rapid City. I think it's a great example of, yes we can, but should we?

It's not relevant to this post, I snapped it on a footpath. Enjoy!