Apple

I am a decorated veteran that served in every war zone and conflict this nation participated in from 1985 until 2007.  I despise, with all of my being, what the radicalized elements of Islam have wreaked upon the world.  I have absolutely, positively no issue with bombing, shooting, chasing, cornering and eliminating them.

I worry about it, being so willing to work the death and destruction of fellow human beings.  But, worried or not, I got no issue with doing the damn deed.  Us or them, and I am way more interested in it being them.

To do that, I think that all of the important and valuable things that America stands for are the basis for what makes us successful.  Our rights and freedoms, our liberties and our security are tied up in the prerogatives of being an American.

I don't often come to the defense of giant corporate interests, but I am going to come to Apple's defense.  They are being pressured, and sued, by the government to create a backdoor to unlock an iPhone used by a terrorist.  Apple claims that to do that, they have to create a tool that will unlock any and every iPhone, and they refuse to prevent the loss of security to everyone holding an iPhone.

I don't know about all of that, but the government should not be allowed to require a company to compromise its product and intellectual property.  If the brilliant, beautiful mind kind of spooky people the government employs for this stuff cannot get in that phone, then they don't get into it.  I believe Apple is right to refuse, and should fight to the Supreme Court to prevent what the government wants.

The terrorist who had the phone was the guy in California that went to a work function and shot a whole bunch of his coworkers.  The government has his phone, but can't break the security code.  So, they want Apple to do their dirty work for them.  The guy travelled overseas and brought back a foreign born wife/accomplice.  The government wants to know who he talked to, because they lost him, lost track of him and let a terrorist into a country in the company of a radicalized citizen.

That is still no reason to compromise the intellectual property of one of our most innovative and forward leaning companies.  That is still no reason to compromise the security of tens of millions of phones in American hands today.  That is still not enough to make me think the government deserves a golden ticket.

I mistrust the government, and it's use of intelligence gathering tools and information.  We have no reason to trust them.  I think the Patriot Act was a horrible infringement of basic American rights and principles.  I don't believe we found evidence of any of the things the government claimed were in Iraq, so I don't believe we should trust the statement that they used the information they gathered to keep us safer.

I would not trust my children to the keeping of Dick Cheney or George Bush Jr.  I don't think they are trustworthy.  They have earned that skepticism.  It might not be true for all of you reading this, but I truly did know people that died in Iraq, because Bush, Cheney and Powell lied to get us into the war.  I don't agree with much of anything from Trump's gaping maw, but in that, he is exactly right.  It is disgraceful to blame Clinton for 9/11, but not put blame on Bush for the loss of lives for no reason in Iraq.  I don't find Clinton responsible for 9/11.  He should have killed OBL, but then, Bush had the exact same opportunities and did not take them either.

So, there were plenty of chances to do the right things in the right ways, prior to a decade where we basically did the wrong things, in the wrong ways.  And, unless you have one or two of those ribbons I wore on my chest that say you served in theatre, don't start thinking I am just some disillusioned Democrat looking for a way to blame Bush for everything.  I am a guy that was part of the picture for a decade before 2003.  You can make all the claims you want for invading Afghanistan, and I might agree.  But, Iraq had zero capacity to harm us on American soil.  Now, Iraq is just a hotbed of radical terrorism with no central control to prevent exporting it.

Bush gave us ISIS, not Obama.  But, Obama had the opportunity to decapitate ISIS up front and did not do it.  Too much concern about what the rest of the region thinks and wants, when that has been a recipe for disaster for 50 years.  But, no amount of increased intelligence gathering or access to information has resulted in improvement in the war outcome.

We have the best military in the history of the world.  We have not failed to take, destroy, isolate, obliterate, or any other -ate we have been ordered to execute since Vietnam.  There is not a mission that the military cannot complete.  But, crappy leadership, that does not have military experience, personal integrity or basic honesty, keep us from exploiting legitimate military gains.  It keeps us from maintaining adequate coalitions and alliances.  It keeps us from finishing.  Finishing does not produce continued need for military spending and give always to Arab extortionists that are going bankrupt due to wold wide energy efficiency and improvement.  That does not play well with the foreign lobbyists that give so much money.

If you ask me, Apple is the heroic figure in this debate.  You cannot trust the illegitimate arm and illegal tactics of the government when it comes to information gathering.  If you think Obama is a traitor and a Muslim, but don't have the same suspicion of Bush and Cheney, you need to consider the evidence.  I am no fan of either.  But, Obama has killed more key terrorist on their own soil, than Bush did, even invading.  Obama has eliminated the massive terrorist recruiting tool that was the military presence on the ground.  Bush took us there, under fabricated pretense.  Bush left us there, for years after any clear military objective was identified.  Bush gave untold billions to the emirs, sheiks, khans and every other bearded extortionist that are now funding ISIS to levels never even considered by Al Qaeda.

There is plenty of blame to go around.  But, a lot of it will fall to us, if we stand by and let the most untrustworthy elements of the government get a golden ticket that unlock everything in hundreds of millions of Apple products all across the country.  Once Apple develops it, it is inevitable that the Russians, Indians and Chinese steal it.  Want some really cool virus issues with your Mac, your iPad, your iPod, your Apple Watch?  Just stand by and let this happen.

It is scary to give anything to a government that cannot even figure out which VA executives to put in jail for veterans dying waiting for care.  But, we will trust them to not inappropriately use our personal information?  It doesn't make sense, and it is not going to turn out any better than the Weapons of Mass Destruction claims did.   Just saying.

GLYASDI