Civics 101 There are three branches of the U.S. government representedby the White House, the Capitol Hill, and the Pentagon. That's how I would have started SVES' 6thgrade classes in Social Studies in the last decade were I brave enough todescribe reality as I saw it. Thetextbook used the idealized Lincoln characterization of a government "ofthe people, by the people, and for the people", constitutionally structuredwith three branches of the executive, the legislative and the judiciary. "Tell that to the Marines," I said to my twoHonolulu nephews who beamed because they were both trained to be gung-ho Marineswith the U.S. Navy! To maintain theirbranch of the Armed Forces with their military cohorts, we allocate more thanfifty percent of the national budget; considerably more than the cost of thesocial nets we have in place for the marginalized and the elderly. Spying Big Brother overseeing every aspect of our lives depictedin Orwell's novel 1984 has becomealtogether too real. No amount ofmimicking President Ike's warning to beware of a powerful"military-industrial complex" can get us off the deja vu that we've been through this dystopian path before. The cost of a drone built by the mighty featsof engineering of defense contractors commercialized our native propensity todistrust the stranger, to the happy smirk of our stock markets. The liberal amongst us, at least, intendsonly to manage those who hold the oil in their land, which evidently belongs toUS! General Keith Alexander recently defended NSA's massivespying efforts before members of the US Congress on the aftermath of Snowden'srevelation of the extent of our snooping since we went on war footage againstterror, and the audacity of his claim that the enterprise made the nation safefrom terrorists indicates that the reality of the Ministry of Truth, the coreof disinformation, has become operational. On the other hand, we do live in terror since we woke up to the numberof loose guns legally held in our neighborhoods, and the number of killingssince Sandy Hook reveal what we've tried to deny, or, at least, hide in theColumbine incident: we are a trigger happy nation determined at the slightestprovocation against our comfort and pleasure to resort to violence! The military and the police have legitimate places in thefunctioning of a society. A disciplined militaryin the art of war can assume the role of protecting humanity from the gruesomeeffect of exploded extinction. We mightheed Sun Tzu's admonition that the point of war preparation is to avoid war! Increasingly becoming obsolete, as thecompetition among nation-states is under judgment by the reality that we alloccupy the same planet and the economic structures that regulate our financesneed not blur the distinction between greed and profit, it has become obviousthat the job of the military is to insure the survival of our specie with somesemblance of humanity and sanity. Still, Police work cannot deteriorate into a laboratorybranch where the latest in restraining gizmos, biological, mechanical, anddigital, are tried out on members of society. Our police departments have been harshly observed to be dumping groundof former military personnel whose major skill is following orders, unable tofit on roles in the productive trades and industries of the land that requirescritical intelligence. Three years ago, I journeyed to Dandong by the Yalu River throughthe iron mill town of Benzi (think Pittsburgof the 70s) where most of the ironworks, from gates to sewage manholes, aremade, and the skies stay smoggy all day! At the train station, ready to be hauled on rolling platforms, were 50-someanti-Sherman tanks reminiscent of old war footage from Rommel's rat-of-the-desertdays in North Africa. Photos of them nowaccompany accounts of the Uyghur region protests around Taklimakan desert. The solo protester in front of a tank inTiananmen Square in 1989 is iconic in protest land. The tanks are now stationed not too far fromthe Square as the latest Uyghur terrorist act of an exploding SUV at the gateof the Forbidden City where Mao's portrait reigns tightens security measures inthe city's primal visitors' destination. In our region, sabre rattling has become the high profilefunction of Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in frequent pronouncements. While it is understandable that Japan getsoff the "apologizing" stance it was forced to assume since WWIImilitary debacle, Abe need not be a mouthpiece of US military vigilance thatstill considers South Korea a branch of the Defense Department, and Japan'sDomestic Defense Forces its organized vigilantes in Far East Asia under the USMarine boot. Geologists clearlyrecognize the Senkaku/Daoyu islands as part of the Taiwan island group ratherthan the Ryukyus, and since we recognize Taiwan to be part of China, ergo,Daoyu is a part of Taiwan rather than Japan. But then, politics trump rationality any day. For foreign policy wonks, the aforementioned makes sense butthe transfer in 1970 of the Taiwan islands from a US weather station to Japan'ssovereignty, with the ardent protest of Zhou Enlai and China, had the added butunheralded datum: there is oil in them ocean shelves. That spins another tale. Oil Exploration 101, anyone? Jaime Vergara pinoypanda2031@aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!