Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, September 1, 2017
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
OUR VIEW
Tip of the hat;
kick in the pants
A tip of the hat to the transportation bill, which Governor Kate
Brown has been showing from Malheur County to the heart of Portland
all week.
It’s hard in this era of urban/rural divide
and political polarization for a statewide
bill-signing tour to be cheered both in
Oregon’s farthest eastern expanse and its
northwesterly metropolis.
But the bill itself— while not perfect —
is a good reminder that Oregon’s legislative
chambers can work together, in a bipartisan
fashion, to achieve something that benefits
a majority of Oregonians.
Every Oregonian has a gripe about the
bill, which isn’t always a bad sign. That means everyone gave a little and got
a little, too.
Kudos to Gov. Brown for doing what her predecessors could not, and
members of both parties in the Oregon Legislature for doing their part, too.
Residents from the coast to Wallowa Lake will benefit from it.
A tip of the hat to Heppner, the family of Robert Kilkenny and shoe
giant Nike, who have worked to outfit Heppner High School athletes
with the coolest, most-cutting edge
jerseys on the planet.
The customized jerseys are based on
Nike’s Vapor Untouchable template, which
you’ll see on most NFL and college football
fields this year and, oh yeah, on a small one
in Morrow County.
As we reported in the sports section
earlier this week, it’s not just the powerful,
successful football team who gets to
show off their new duds. Volleyball, girls
basketball and cross country are among the
sports that received new jerseys, shoes and equipment.
Much of the credit for the initiative goes to the Robert Kilkenny, who
passed away last year. Robert was a massive Heppner fan and a community
staple. The Nike jerseys include a three-leafed clover with the letters “BB”
inside of it — honoring “Bad Bob,” as he was known.
A tip of the hat to the city of Pendleton for taking a proactive
approach to its housing problems by
hosting a summit on the issue.
Earlier this week, the city brought
together buyers and sellers, insiders and
outsiders, bankers and Realtors, and the
all-important developers. It’s a smart idea
to try to light a fire under people with a
stake in the game, as Pendleton suffers with
population stagnation and decades lacking
economic growth.
A lack of housing is hampering that
growth, and action is needed to help
stimulate the economy and the local population.
Time will tell if developers plunk down money and/or landowners decide
now is the time to sell. But the city did what it could do to get that process
going and get people in the private sector thinking about Pendleton housing.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of publisher
Kathryn Brown, managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, and opinion page editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
YOUR VIEWS
Move the railroad south if
you’re blowing that horn
What is going on with this stupid
railroad? I was always told that the city
of Pendleton had an agreement with
Union Pacific not to blow their horns
in town unless somebody or something
was on the tracks.
But at one or two o’clock in the
morning that’s bull, because there is
nobody on the track.
When the train is going east out
to Mission, he tones the horn down
so you barely hear it, but when he
goes through town he raises the dead.
Maybe we should call our senators
and congressmen and have the tracks
moved 40 or 50 miles to the south of
town and allow no railroad tracks go
though any town.
Wake up, folks, somebody’s blowing
smoke up somebody. But not me.
There is no reason for those horns to be
blowing constantly. The engineers are
just being jerks about this and when it
wakes up little children at 11 p.m. or
midnight it’s time that things change.
Joe Dunagan
Pendleton
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public
issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website.
The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns
about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of
private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include
the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not
be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to managing
editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email
editor@eastoregonian.com.
OTHER VIEWS
Many shades of the U.S. at war
I
’m just back from visiting all of our
The skill involved to get the landing
key air bases in Iraq, Afghanistan
right — all in about five seconds — is
and along the Persian Gulf, and I
stunning. “It’s like a wrestling match”
find myself wrestling with two stark
in the cockpit to get the plane down,
contrasts: the contrast between what
explained the pilot driving our chase
is happening there in the air and what
car. Such skill comes only from
is happening on the ground, and
hours of practice, study and trust
the contrast between the decency of
building, which comes only from
the U.S. military personnel fighting
Thomas being committed to a cause larger than
this war and how unworthy Donald
Friedman yourself.
Trump — who has become our divider
One of the things you learn when
Comment
in chief — is to be their commander
you travel with the Air Force is how
in chief.
reliant we have become on RPAs —
The first contrast was summed up in two
remotely piloted aircraft, like MQ-9 Reapers
wall-size digital maps at our Kuwait-based
— for killing enemies and for surveillance. I
command center for the war on ISIS. One
stayed up late one night to watch two pilots
map displays every military aircraft the
at their controls in a small computer-packed
U.S. has in the skies over Syria and Iraq (as
shed at Kandahar air base, remotely bringing
well as Russian, Syrian and Iranian aircraft)
Reapers in for a landing.
pounding ISIS targets. There are little symbols
The cliché is that this has turned the
for B-52s, U-2s, F-16s, F-22s, F-15s, MQ-9
war into an impersonal video game, often
Reapers and jet refuelers. It is a giant aerial
conducted by people 8,000 miles from the
armada, a flying killer symphony orchestrated battle. Indeed, many of the Reapers operating
by the U.S. Air Force.
here are flown by airmen at Creech Air Force
The other map uses different colors to
Base outside of Las Vegas. But in some ways
depict the disposition of
they’re actually emotionally
forces on the ground.
closer to the fight.
It looks like a broken
Gen. James B. Hecker,
kaleidoscope. Our U.S.
who used to command the
military briefer explained:
RPA pilots at Creech and
Purple is for Syrian regime
is now the senior air war
forces and their Russian,
commander in Afghanistan,
Hezbollah and Iranian
explained to me that when
allies; light green shows
you are flying an F-15 over a
Syrian Kurds and dark
target, you drop your bombs
green Iraqi Kurds; light blue
from miles above using
represents “disciplined”
laser-guided coordinates and
Iraqi Shiite militias, while
then fly off. Often you never
the “undisciplined” ones are
see the actual blast, let alone
another shade. Pro-Turkish
any human casualties.
Sunni militias have their own
If you are an RPA pilot
color, as do the pro-American Syrian Sunni
sitting outside Las Vegas and operating a
militias. ISIS fighters are another color, and
Reaper over Afghanistan or ISIS-controlled
the official Iraqi security forces are a different
Syria, said Hecker, “you will sometimes do
one still.
circles around someone’s family compound
As our briefer noted dryly: “Not everyone
for three weeks at a time. During that time
here has exactly the same endgame in mind.”
you’ll try to establish the patterns of life of the
This is our war in the Middle East today
target individual or group: When do they wake
in two maps: “Star Wars” meets “Game of
up? When do they go to bed? When do they
Thrones.”
go to the bathroom outside? During that time
You can’t look at these two screens without you get emotionally involved with their whole
thinking about the power that comes from
life — whether it is the dad playing soccer
our ability to make one out of many — or the
with the kids or flying kites with his daughter
power that is lost to a society like Syria or Iraq or kissing his wife.”
that needs an iron fist to make its many into
But then one day you’ll see Dad get on
one, and when that fist is removed, how the
a motor scooter and place a roadside bomb
society fractures into small shards.
aimed at killing U.S. soldiers. “So you take
So you can’t help but get upset seeing
out Dad” using a precision-guided missile
our own president deliberately dividing our
fired from a Reaper, said Hecker. And then, if
country between his tribe and the rest of us — you’re back at Creech, “you get in your car, go
undermining what truly makes America great. home, kiss your wife and maybe play soccer
Fortunately, though, you also can’t help
with your son, knowing that the guy you were
but be buoyed by the young men and women
watching for three weeks, and just took out,
you meet visiting our key air bases in the war
will never do that again with his wife and kids.
effort. They remind you what America is on its But if you didn’t do it, some American mom
best days — still resistant to Trump’s divisive
would not be welcoming her husband home.”
dog whistles.
So, “it’s not a video game,” concluded
You’re standing on the tarmac at Al Udeid
Hecker, shaking his head. Indeed, he said,
Air Base in Qatar and the heat index is 140
there has been enough post-traumatic stress
degrees and the only thing the maintenance
among Reaper pilots that the Air Force
crew members of a B-52 want to tell you is
instituted a rule that anytime one shoots
how they’ve kept this plane running for 573
someone remotely “they have to see either
straight missions, without missing one for
a therapist, an operational psychologist or a
service repairs.
chaplain to be sure they’re OK.”
You’re standing outside the mess hall at
This is real war, and its effect on people —
Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan, and the
hunter and hunted — is profound.
Lutheran Air Force chaplain is telling you
Finally, you’re sitting at breakfast in
about his preparations to make sure the dozen
the mess hall at Al Udeid and watching a
or so Jewish service members at the base will
raven-haired Air Force servicewoman at the
have everything they need for the High Holy
next table quietly saying grace over her tray
Days.
of cereal and fruit. Her colleagues around her
You’re sitting in the cockpit of a C-130
are as diverse as the colors on that Syrian map.
as the woman pilot from the Minnesota Air
But they’re all on the same team, bound not
National Guard does a complex corkscrew
by race, religion, tribe or sect, but by a simple
— aptly known as a “puker landing” — into
Air Force credo: “Integrity first; service before
Baghdad, while her all-male crew carefully
self; excellence in all we do.”
executes her orders.
For a moment you wonder, How crazy is it
You’re talking to the young man piloting
that you have to come to Qatar, Kuwait, Kabul
an F-22 stealth fighter who is describing how
and Kandahar to see the best of America and
careful he has to be when he engages Russian
America at its best?
or Syrian fighter jets. The stealth technology
But then you remember: America produced
of his plane is so good he is basically invisible these people. Their ethos is both latent and
to the Syrians and Russians until he pops up
present throughout our society. We just need
right on their tail.
to inspire more of it. And now more than
His rules of engagement, he says, dictate
ever, because other forces are latent, too, and
that if they are not threatening him, he warn
ominously surfacing — by permission of our
them by radio that he’s behind them. “They
president — like white supremacy.
just can’t see us,” he told me, “and you don’t
Precisely because we have a president
want to spook the herd.”
with no moral authority, we need parents and
You’re on the tarmac at Al Dhafra air base
principals, mayors and teachers, to be our
in the United Arab Emirates going 90 mph in a “commanders in chief” — for the next 3 1/2
Dodge Charger, following right behind a U-2
years — to inspire and scale the best of what
spy plane as it lands, helping to “catch” it. The is in our society, what’s so clearly on display
U-2 pilot is in a spacesuit — he flies above
in these far-flung military outposts. Indeed, we
70,000 feet — and has little peripheral vision
need it now as much as the Middle Easterners
or ability to look downward. So a chase car
do.
carries another pilot, who tells the U-2 pilot by
■
radio how many feet he is off the ground so he
Thomas Friedman, a New York Times
knows exactly when to stall the engines and
columnist, was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes
hit the runway gently, balancing delicately on
for international reporting in Beirut and Israel
his plane’s two tiny wheels.
and one for commentary.
This is our war
in the Middle
East today
in two maps:
“Star Wars”
meets “Game
of Thrones.”