this classy article can be found here
let me know what you think...
COMMENTARY: JOHN KELSO
Hullabaloo, kaboom kaboom: Aggie president takes over Defense Department
Sunday, November 12, 2006
If you hear a lot of bleating in the distance coming from the east, it's because the sheep in Iraq are nervous today. Why? Because President Bush has picked an Aggie big shot to serve as this nation's Defense secretary.
If asked to step into that ticklish position, most normal people would have told Bush to go chase himself. But Aggies aren't normal people. Aggies are the kind of folks who rise to the challenge. Only an Aggie would be, uh, foolhardy enough to accept this unpopular and difficult job.
So you've got to admire the guts of Robert Gates, who expects to step down as Texas A&M president to take over for Donald Rumsfeld, whose main duty had become traveling about the country so that people could holler insults at him from across the room. What was Gates thinking? Boy, is he in for it. If he thought the Army game was tough, wait till he has to deal with the Mahdi Army.
On the other hand, Corps of Cadets, Abu Ghraib: What's the difference?
Not that I'm saying Gates getting the head Defense job is a bad thing. Aggies and defense go hand and hand. Before Dennis Franchione came along, A&M had one.
Gates served as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency before he moved to Bryan-College Station in 2002 to become the head of the, uh, Central Unintelligence Agency.
Some people think that the way to handle the Iraq problem would be to divide up the country and give equal chunks of land to the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites. With an Aggie running the show, the fix might be to build a large bonfire and stick an outhouse on top.
Now, many may wonder if an Aggie leader is intellectually capable of dealing with the Iraqi situation, since most A&M graduates think Kurd has something to do with cheese. And, let's face it, putting an Aggie in charge of the war in Iraq could lead to the stockpiling of pitchforks and cloning the occasional companion animal.
But the job is a natural fit for Gates. Basically, A&M president and Defense secretary are the same darned position. When you're the head honcho at A&M, you're dealing with guys in burr haircuts, men who march and dudes who can really shine the heck out of a pair of shoes. When you're the boss at the Defense Department, you're dealing with guys in burr haircuts, men who march and dudes who can really shine the heck out of a pair of shoes. Plus, either job is a good one if you get the itch to make somebody drop and give you 20.
So Gates should love his new gig. And, you know, the restaurants in the Green Zone can't be a lot worse than the dining options in Bryan-College Station. Although I doubt if the Green Zone has a Dixie Chicken.
There are a lot of intellectual reasons why it's a good idea to have an Aggie in a spot that could reshape world history. A university where lofty thoughts are commonplace, A&M is the place where cutting-edge vegetable scientists developed the maroon carrot.
Plus, Aggies understand tribal hatred. I think most of them feel about the Teasips the way the Sunnis feel about the Shiites. So Robert Gates, get after it. You da man. Gig 'em.
John Kelso's column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 445-3606 or jkelso@statesman.com.
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2 comments:
is this guy a for real journalist? this article is an embarassment.
I took my old uncle to see the oklahoma at aggie game 2 weeks ago. it was my first major college game exposure and my first aggie 'experience'. the discipline and spirit in the crowd were impressive, but had no effect on the outcome of the game. there were no oklahoma delay of game, illegal procedure, or other penalties which one would usually associate with signal calling problems. is it the aggie temperament to continue doing the same thing, over and over, even though there is no point to it? why does each class rank have a different way of cheering? we were sitting in $85.00 seats on the 40 yard line 20 feet from Gov Perry, former Senator Phil Gramm, and former Alabama and A & M coach Gene Stallings, but could not see the game because the people in front of us were standing in their seats. we had to watch it on TV and the jumbo tron, which was impressive.
my experience at this 85,000 people event caused me to think, "Why do I do the things I do, automatically, without thinking?" Tradition, yes, habit, yes? But, really, machines are designed to automatically repeat cycles. Shouldn't people ask, "What's the point?"
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