MWD - Revised Blog

           In Fahrenheit 451 Montag says that “ We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while”, after thinking about this a bit I think that it’s a very true statement. Emotions are what makes us human, if we didn’t feel anger towards certain things then we there would not be much passion in the world. One of the things that tends to bother me is the treatment of dogs and in particular the treatment of Military War Dogs (The original site on my blog is not working so this was the next best source). When veterans retire from service they are treated with great respect and this should be the same for Military War Dogs.
           Well the other day I was reading an article (here is the site to look at the article) about military war dogs and how they get retired. Retired police dogs are seen as heroes and get to retire with a comfortable life, usually with their handler, and are respected for the job they have done. This is not the same for military war dogs or “MWD’s”. MWD’s after completing their service are not retired in the luxury of their handler or given any special treatment after possibly saving hundreds of lives. They get put through a series of tests to decide whether they are “adoptable” and if they fail the test they are just euthanized. When I was reading this I was disgusted, how can the military do this to them after the dangerous job they have performed. Police dogs are not put through a series of tests and are not euthanized for failing. I think the military needs to come up with a better solution. I understand that most military handlers cannot keep a MWD due to the fact that the majority of these handlers are single and live in the barracks, which is basically a big apartment building with nothing but studios, but what if they stop the testing and instead screen adopters and find homes for all of the dogs, not just the ones that pass the test.
          This issue is not something that gets brought to the attention of people very often, but it needs to. While I was in the Marine Corps I remember a video that was on YouTube of a Marine that threw a puppy off of a cliff. This put the Marine Corps in the spotlight and it made national news. My Gunny had to have a talk with us about animal abuse after this, well what about the issue of our own war dogs not being treated right. To me this is just as disgusting as that video, I was going to add the video to this blog but decided against it because it is graphic and I dont want the Marine Corps tied to this aweful video fake or not. I hope that something changes soon about this but until then its going to be something that I am bothered by.

Military War Dogs

            In Fahrenheit 451 Montag says that “ We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while”, after thinking about this a bit I think that it’s a very true statement. Emotions are what makes us human, if we didn’t feel anger towards certain things then we there would not be much passion in the world. One of the things that tends to bother me is the treatment of dogs and in particular the treatment of military war dogs. When veterans retire from service they are treated with great respect and this should be the same for military war dogs.
            Well the other day I was reading an article about military war dogs and how they get retired. Retired police dogs are seen as heroes and get to retire with a comfortable life, usually with their handler, and are respected for the job they have done. This is not the same for military war dogs or “MWD’s”. MWD’s after completing their service are not retired in the luxury of their handler or given any special treatment after possibly saving hundreds of lives. They get put through a series of tests to decide whether they are “adoptable” and if they fail the test they are just euthanized. When I was reading this I was disgusted, how can the military do this to them after the dangerous job they have performed. Police dogs are not put through a series of tests and are not euthanized for failing. I think the military needs to come up with a better solution. I understand that most military handlers cannot keep a MWD due to the fact that the majority of these handlers are single and live in the barracks, which is basically a big apartment building with nothing but studios, but what if they stop the testing and instead screen adopters and find homes for all of the dogs, not just the ones that pass the test.
           This issue is not something that gets brought to the attention of people very often, but it needs to. While I was in the Marine Corps I remember a video that was on YouTube of a Marine that threw a puppy off of a cliff. This put the Marine Corps in the spotlight and it made national news. My Gunny had to have a talk with us about animal abuse after this, well what about the issue of our own war dogs not being treated right. To me this is just as disgusting as that video. I hope that something changes soon about this but until then its going to be something that I am bothered by.

Those who know how

The reason that those who know how work for those that know why is because those that know why can see the bigger picture. The people that know why can see all the pieces of something that must be done. Great leadership doesn’t require a technical knowledge of what is being done, it requires a person to think about what is going on and how it is going to benefit the whole. I think that it relates a great deal to critical thinking, management must think critically about what is going on so that they can solve the problem whatever that might be. Thinking critically brings new ideas to fix the problem at hand and those that know why are the ones that are thinking critically. They do not zoom into one aspect of a situation. Here are some reason’s why: critical thinkers look at ends and objectives, sources and quality of information, what is behind the concepts that are in use and what the outcome of those concepts are. This is why critical thinking is now required in college degrees. People need to think critically about situations they are in so that they can resolve these situations in the best possible way. In the incident command system the incident commander must think critically as emergency operations are being conducted. He has to keep in mind what is going on in the big picture. There are numerous responsibilities of the IC and he must think about situations as they come up but he must also think of stuff that could happen. If he sends people into an incident he has to weigh the risk that is involved and do his best to think of all possible outcomes. That is why so many people work under him, he can see the big picture of what is being done. He knows why they are performing tasks and the people under him know how to perform those tasks.

"Patriotic" Are you kidding me!

The question was: Given that the U.S. economy is based on consumer spending, is it patriotic to shop?. This is almost insulting to me, a former Marine, because the economy has nothing to do with patriotism. I feel that the only thing the economy has to do with is our money. It has nothing to do with our beliefs. I am sure some people feel that it might be patriotic because obviously the question was asked but if you want to feel patriotic then support the troops, don’t worry about whether or not we should be doing what we are! There are lots of people in the military that are stuck overseas doing stuff they do not believe in but that does not excuse them from the fact that officials decided they need to be over there and that they still must fight and perform no matter what is decided in an air conditioned room here in the United States. Personally I have been to Iraq and I have seen some of the good we are doing there, I used to walk across a soccer field that Saddam’s son Uday tortered their national team! If you dont believe me then read it here . This may not be about the question but that is because this question is, to me, ridiculous! If you want to go out and buy some shoes because it is “patriotic” you need to grow up and take a look at what is really going on in the world besides what is going on with the stocks you happen to have. How about asking a more relative question like “will spending money shopping help our economy”? I obviously will be covering this question on our third blog assignment. I think that people need to look outside their little bubble and not ask questions like this one!

first blog

Ummm, I have never blogged before so I am not sure what to do but, and it makes me feel like a teenage girl but anyways I hope I can figure this out and get a decent grade.