Blogger-SMS | Déjà Vu ~ Times

Cruz-control?

Some have been referring to Senator Ted Cruz as a true, Right-wing “Cruz Missile” destined to decimate the intransigent, left-wing liberals and their BIG government. For the record, here is a definition of cruise missile.

A cruise missile is a guided missile, the major portion of whose flight path to its target … is conducted at approximately constant velocity; that relies on the dynamic reaction of air for lift, and upon propulsion forces to balance drag. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy. Modern cruise missiles can travel at supersonic or high subsonic speeds, are self-navigating, and can fly on a non-ballistic, extremely low altitude trajectory. They are distinct from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in that they are used only as weapons and not for reconnaissance. In a cruise missile, the warhead is integrated into the vehicle and the vehicle is always sacrificed in the mission.

Cruise missile designs fundamentally derive from the German V-1 of World War II. Advances in transistor and computer technology have contributed to self-correcting avionic and aeronautical designs that allow missiles to be guided in flight, as opposed to only at launch. These advances developed into guided missiles and guided bombs, and later into the modern cruise missile. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruise_missile : bold emphasis mine)

When one listens to his words, Ted Cruz does seem guided (at times) by many good principles, and he also seems gifted (at times) with traits of leadership, intelligence, conviction, and self-confidence. YET somehow, the déjà vu of similarly-gifted, historical leaders parades in memory, so here is a prediction from the too frequent déjà vu of history. Will we, within the coming decade, review these (bolded) words:

guided
air for lift
propulsion forces
large warhead
supersonic
subsonic
self-navigating
low altitude
used only as weapons
self-correcting

and ask ourselves if “seeing, we chose to see not and hearing, we chose to hear not” what was coming?

What is the repeating history of the rich, powerful, and intelligent who self-navigate? And what is the frequent fate of that self-navigation? Desolation?

Again, just asking that we proceed with caution; that we don’t forget history; that we pay attention to the symbolic warnings contained in these “cruise missile” words.

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* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz (Junior U.S. Republican Senator from Texas, elected in 2013.)