After the excitement and tension, not to mention disappointment, in the France vs. England Six Nations rugby match, I watched a little bit of what might be termed the liberal political podcasts available to me on YouTube. There I learned something about one of the first incidents when the conflict started. Evidence is growing that outdated US intelligence was likely to blame for the attack on a school in southern Iran which killed more than 170 people, most of them children. But in the early hours of the near two-week conflict, an elementary school was hit, and outdated US intelligence was likely to blame, NBC News has said. It is now being sad that intelligence that was ten years out-of-date was probably the root case of the disaster. But it was another aspect to the story which really caught my attention. After operations in both Iraq and the Afghanistan, the American military well understood that killing scores of civilians, even as so called ‘collateral damage’, is not a good idea. Therefore, a specialised unit was formed, the intention of which was to try to minimise the civilian deaths occasioned by the conflict to be called the ‘Civilian Harm and Response’ plan. On Feb. 20, 2025, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced, per guidance from the Department of Government Efficiency, an 8 percent reduction to programs not related to 17 priority items he has identified to spare from the downsizing efforts. He emphasised that the department is particularly looking to cut ‘non-lethal programs.’ In accordance with the emphasis on lethality, the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Plan and its associated Center for Excellence have been tagged for elimination. Consistent with Secretary Hegseth’s complaints about overly restrictive rules of engagement, it is possible that the program may be seen by the new administration as a ‘woke’ project that makes the United States soft in war, one that ties the hands of combatant commanders and interferes with U.S. lethality. The TV clip that I saw last night indicated that the unit has lost about 80% of its core staff and had this unit been up to strength and working as intended, then the whole tragic error might not have occurred. So here we can see a direct link between cutting a much needed service and devoting the funds to a muscular form of conflict. When faced with news of the incident, Trump tried to blame the Iranians themselves even thought they do possess any Tomahawk missiles. After this original attempt to deny responsibly failed, Trump lied again and indicated that he knew nothing about the incident. I wonder if another level of explanation will be forced out of Trump’s mouth in the days and weeks ahead. My son and daughter-in-law called around early and we had a light lunch together although we will share a bigger Chinese meal tonight. Before they arrived, I had been to church and had a pleasant coffee and biscuits with some fellow parishioners. Then I picked up my copy of the Sunday newspaper and made a trip round my local Asda, picking up some of the kinds of supplies which are missing from my normal shopping venue.
After a light lunch, we settled down to watch a drama ‘whodunnit’ on ITV whilst simultaneously carrying out conversations about the ways in which universities are preparing their students for a very different world compared to that of their parents. We are now witnessing a generation of students whose school life was disrupted by COVID after which we had the financial and energy crisis following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Often when we are at leisure, we discuss and compare notes about the ways in which we interpreted our various roles whilst we still employed in the education sector but in my own case this was over 18 years ago and things have changed so rapidly. Students are carrying a huge burden of debt around their shoulders when they graduate and many are forced back to living in the parental home whilst jobs seem increasingly hard to get. A feature of the modern employment scene is that employers do not feel able to make long term commitments to staff any more and hence there is a proliferation of short term contracts. Since we have the end of winter well within our sights, despite a current cold snap, I am taking the opportunity of participating in some U3A (University of the Third Age) activities. In a couple of week’s time, I shall be part of a coach trip to see Jodrell Bank in Cheshire and some of the associated science museums. In the afternoon, the trip takes on a tour of some of the historic buildings of Nantwich in Cheshire and all of this is in about ten days time. I have also joined two other groups and will attend them in week or so. One of them is a Conversational Spanish course and this will be interesting (or perhaps a little disturbing when I discover how my Spanish has deteriorated due to not having been in Spain for about six years now.) Another group that I have joined is a Classical Musical Appreciation group and I have no idea how this will actually pan out. It is being held in a private house so I imagine the group will be quite small. Whether we just listen to music or whether we form a discussion group around it, I shall discover. I may or may turn up to an Easter fair associated with the Horse and Donkey sanctuary which is to be held in a local village hall again in a couple of weeks time. The principal event to which I have to look forward is a five-day tour of some of Scottish lochs but this pleasure will infold in early April. The small and specialised company that runs this holiday seems to have a good reputation and the company owns the hotels so again, this will be an interesting new experience for me. I have recently received an invitation to go and meet up wit a U3A member with whom I exchanged some business cards weeks ago and we have agreed to meet in a local coffee bar. If all of this sounds like a whirl of social activities, it is certainly the case that I am seeing which of the various groups on offer seems to offer an interesting experience given that I wish to go out and make/sustain social contacts each day of the week so long as I am capable of it. No doubt, I will find some activities much more rewarding than others but it is a case of ‘suck it and see’ before I settle down into a somewhat less frenetic pattern.