interesting times

This is an interesting week for America, homeland security- wise. The Secret Service has erected a giant security bubble over Savannah and Sea Island for the G8, and all of the world leaders and their staff who are assembled there are planning to jet to DC on Friday to attend Reagan's funeral - a move that's sure to generate some pre-planning jitters for the agencies tasked with protecting them.

Anti-globalist anarchist groups are protesting on both coasts this week- at a biotech conference in San Francisco and at the G8 meetings near Savannah.

A global military exercise has begun- something called Summer Pulse '04 - that is planned to continue through August. Since late last week, nearly all of our aircraft carriers, each capable of launching up to 75 aircraft, are making their way across the world's oceans, each accompanied by a large contingent of battleships.

There are plans to engage in war games with the allies in the South Pacific; carriers will patrol- and intimidate- the oil-rich nations on the coast of West Africa; and there will be a strong presence of force, as always, in the already crowded waters of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Summer Pulse '04 is meant to demonstrate to the world that we can quickly mobilize and deploy our naval forces then cover the world by sea and by air. (As if the world really needed another "demonstration of force" from the United States right now.)

TO RECAP:

European, Asian, Arab and African world leaders are meeting at the G8, many of them traveling to D.C. on Friday to join in the fifth day of Reagan funeral activities- a private ceremony at National Cathedral for family, politicians and world leaders.

Reagan's body will return once more to California for its sixth and final day of burial after its exhausting journey back and forth across the country- from the library in California to the Capital Rotunda and back.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, nearly the entire nuclear-powered naval fleet has been deployed- affecting domestic activities in such security hot zones as Kings Bay, San Diego and Norfolk- while we continue to fight our two foreign wars (of occupation? liberation? intimidation?) in at least two countries.

And the newest and most powerful aircraft carrier, the Ronald Reagan, is now in route, on its 12,000 mile journey to its new permanent home- from Norfolk to San Diego via Africa.

Ceremonies are planned for its arrival in San Diego near the end of July- to coincide with the start of the Democratic Convention in Boston. It is unclear at this time if Reagan's body will be in attendance.

Many opportunities for mischief - or for error.

Just another week in these interesting times.

glassfrequency