Of spy balloons, experts and wars, it seems Americans have a lot to consider

I thought I saw one time a big balloon floating over Dargan, but then I discovered it was the moon, took another sip, and realized I was in love with that girl next to me.

In regard to that Chinese balloon, perhaps it was collecting information.

But there must be numerous satellites up high from nations that can count the white hairs on my head. In regard to that Chinese balloon, some say “just let the experts handle it."

But then others offer that these balloons have been here before. What did our experts do then?

Chinese companies not only own the Smithfield Ham operation, they provide us medications, athletic shoes and many other untold products. They would lose a lot of business over an unnecessary war. And I’m not certain either of our folk could survive avoiding all those products from China.

The next time you buy something made in the United States, compare your list to those Chinese-manufactured goods you buy today.

And when it comes to experts, have you ever considered the advice and expertise they've offered in regard to our nation’s problems? One should examine our experts’ win-loss record sometime.

If you did, you must be wondering by now about the resumes of some of those experts.

I remember vividly in 1966 there was a war raging in Southeast Asia, and I enlisted to help Uncle Sam. For sure, he must have had a good reason for going to war. After all, he had some very smart generals, didn’t he?

And then I discovered General Westmoreland. He was a fine general I guess, as he would record and announce the many enemy soldiers killed each week by our military. I was pleased to make his acquaintance.

But after 58,000-plus of our own soldiers’ deaths, our country determined that we should withdraw from that war, a loser. I have an autographed picture of Westmoreland in one of my storage boxes, and am now convinced that a lot of experts don’t know much about war, either.

From 1965 to 1973, more than $120 billion spent was for the Vietnam War. What did we get for our investment? Who were the experts that got us into this mess? Kennedy, Johnson, McNamara, military advisers?

And then there was President Carter in 1980 who depended on his military experts to prepare a plan to rescue 52 hostages from Iran. Operation Eagle Claw was the mission sanctioned by Carter to rescue the captives held by the Iranian students.

A date was established for the operation, but our military experts failed to factor in a large sand storm in that part of the world. Several helicopters were destroyed. The plan was a failure, and some of our dead soldiers were displayed by our enemy in that country.

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And I really don’t have to mention the expert advice in Afghanistan and Iraq, do I?

Afghanistan was a 20-year war and fiasco from the very beginning. We should have learned something when Russia gave up the ghost and left there with its tail between its legs in 1989.

What did we really accomplish for the sacrifice of American soldiers and money over those 20 years? 2,456 soldiers dead, some 20,000 wounded, and over $2 trillion spent on our occupation there.

As we left Afghanistan in disgrace, 13 Marines and a Navy corpsman were killed at the airfield during the evacuation, a parting exclamation mark to some expert’s strategy. What did we get for our sorrows? Are the same military experts who planned that war still working for us?

And what about our venture into Iraq to capture Saddam Hussein, meant to show the Iraqi people we mean business if they manufactured those weapons of mass destruction. Colin Powell, the honored military chief, admitted he might have misrepresented the facts a bit in that regard.

Some 4,431 American deaths and more than 30,000 were wounded in Iraq. The cost for that seven-year war, from 2003 from 2010, is estimated at more than $1 trillion.

Again, might I humbly ask you experts, what did we get for your advice?

Some experts, I’m beginning to think, should be fired.

It seems quite obvious that we don’t have enough experts available who make good decisions and obtain good results for our investments of American blood and dollars.

And as I am perhaps too quick to condemn our military experts, what of the political wisdom in formulating those decisions and involvement in foreign places?

Consider Ukraine and Taiwan.

Blood and dollars are getting scarcer.

Just ask some "wise" expert sometime, and they will tell you the same.

Feeling confident yet?

I’ll check back later.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Experts never seem to mind spending American blood and money