MICHIGAN CITY – As we head into a weekend commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, ponder this question: Did Osama bin Laden win? He was killed by U.S. Special Forces a decade ago, his remains dumped into the Indian Ocean. But when you consider what his goals were when he attacked New York and Washington, he has achieved much of what he wanted. When al-Qaeda attacked, the U.S. was the only “super power” on the world stage, coming a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Today, there is a growing school of thought that we have now fallen behind China. America spent $6.4 trillion on what President George W. Bush described as the “War on Terror,” according to Brown University’s Costs of War Project. This includes President Bush’s “Axis of Evil” State of the Union address in 2002 when he expanded the U.S. assault on al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan to Iraq, Iran and North Korea. The Iraq War costs are pegged at about $2 trillion (coming to about $8,000 per U.S. taxpayer). The Costs of War Project estimates the U.S. spent $2.2 trillion in Afghanistan, including $837 billion on “warfighting” and $145 billion on Afghan reconstruction, the development of its national security forces that quit after 11 days this summer, as well as counter-narcotic efforts. There were 2,352 U.S. military members who were killed in Afghanistan, and the 20,000 who were wounded. In the Iraq War, 4,431 U.S. soldiers were killed and 31,944 were wounded. These human costs are incalculable, defying any dollar amount on a spread sheet.

MICHIGAN CITY – The people don't always get it right. From slavery, to the right of women and minorities to vote, from the way we've treated our mentally ill, to Jim Crow laws and school segregation, it took "leaders" to cut through prevailing opinion, gossip and innuendo, and forge evolving visionary policy creating a more perfect union. When it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic - the most lethal health sequence in Indiana history which has claimed more than 14,000 lives - the General Assembly moved at the behest of some of the people to crimp the power of our governor. Instead of waiting for this pandemic to end, comprehensively study responses and results, and then make policy changes, the General Assembly passed laws and overrode vetoes by Gov. Eric Holcomb to send public health mandates and restrictions into the hands of local units of government like county commissioners and school boards. So, how's that going? nHalf the Indiana population is fully vaccinated, leaving the other half exposed, and now the "end of the tunnel" forecasted by Gov. Eric Holcomb last March is now in its fourth surge, on course to surpass those of last fall and winter. It was wholly avoidable. According to state health officials, four of Indiana's 10 hospital districts are now above 100% of Intensive Care Unit beds occupied. According to the University of Washington's very credible health metrics evaluation site, another 6,000 Hoosiers will die between now and Dec. 1, with the daily death toll reaching 130 by mid-October. Our ICU nurses are overwhelmed and burned out, which is exacerbating a shortage of medical personnel. After shifts where they are the last human a doomed COVID patient sees, these ICU nurses drive past bars, restaurants and stadiums filled with unmasked people.

INDIANAPOLIS – I didn’t see this coming. I figured that most Hoosiers would jump at the chance to get the COVID vaccine; that the anti-vaxers made up only about 5 or 10% of the population, as any school administrator could confirm regarding those who don’t want to comply with RMM vaccine requirements that have been in place for decades. Ditto for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said today, “Honestly, it never occurred to me we would have difficulty getting people to take the vaccine.” But now at a time when the pandemic was supposed to be disappearing in the rearview mirror, Tuesday’s Indiana State Department of Health report showed 1,085 new cases, the first time it’s been over 1,000 since May 8. On Wednesday that grew to 1,248 cases with 12 deaths. The seven-day positivity rate, which runs a week behind, continues a month-long climb to 6.3%, the highest since Feb. 9, with some 15 counties over 10%. According to CDC stats as of Tuesday, only 58% of Hoosiers age 18 and up had received one dose of the vaccine which rank us 12th in the nation; only 54.9% had received both doses. In a state of 6.7 million people, less than three million have been vaccinated. 

INDIANAPOLIS – One of the most vivid moments of my fatherhood was sitting in the woods one hot early July day on the Gettysburg battleground between Devil’s Den and Little Round Top, watching my two sons climb up what became the most important strategic heights of the American Civil War and a turning point for civilization. Had the Union lost at Gettysburg, the political will of the North to continue would have evaporated. There would have likely been a United States of America, the Confederate States of America, the Republic of Texas and, perhaps, a half dozen other nations. There would have been nations with slavery, regional wars, and the accompanying Pandora's Box of atrocity and horror. While raising my sons, there were the normal parental concerns sending them off to war on a foreign battlefield, but up until now, the notion that they face a second American civil war seemed far-fetched. In the America we grew up in, the regional battles young Hoosiers waged against Alabama and Texas took place on football fields, basketball courts and baseball diamonds. Ominously, that is changing. When a significant portion of one of our two main political parties refuses to accept the results of a presidential election, that calls into doubt the fragile American experiment.

INDIANAPOLIS - After the City of Gary was hit with a cyber ransomware attack, it had to rebuild its servers. LaPorte County ended up paying cyber criminals $132,000 after it was hit with ransomware. Lake County government, Eastern Hancock schools and a hospital in Greenfield have been victims, as has the City of Carmel, and Lawrence County. Lawrence County officials, including the sheriff and county commissioners put out this statement: "On February 7, 2020, we discovered that certain systems and services within Lawrence County Government were rendered inoperable due to a ransomware event.  As soon as we became aware of this, we immediately took steps to secure our network and commenced an investigation to determine what happened. We are working with the appropriate state authorities to try to resolve this incident. In addition, leading third party experts have been engaged to assist with our response to this incident." Earlier this month, CNN's Jake Tapper asked U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm if cyber criminals had the capability to shut down the U.S. power grid. “Yeah, they do,” Granholm responded. “There are very malign actors who are trying, even as we speak. There are thousands of attacks on all aspects of the energy sector and the private sector generally. It’s happening all the time. This is why the private sector and the public sector have to work together."