Advice From the Past
Posted: Thursday, September 09, 2010
by Robert Bregman
A Nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Foreign policy is made not in reaction to the world, but rather in reaction to an image of the world in the minds of people making decisions. In the degree that the image is false, actually and philosophically false, no technician however proficient can make policy that is based on it sound.
Our country is being torn apart, at the midterm elections, by disagreements over everything from racism to the national debt. How can this divisiveness be stopped? How can the people of The United States of America get back on track? We aren't the only ones who have lost our way; the whole world is a mess of wars, poverty, debt and wasted opportunity.
What is needed right now is radical rethinking by world leaders. Most of our leaders are stuck in 18th century thinking about how one should work things out in the world. It's obvious that this strategy that comes from this old style thinking doesn't work in the digital world in which we all live. Iran , N.Korea, Darfu , Afghanistan , Iraq , Yemen , Somalia , Viet Nam , on and on the list of failures goes, and nothing changes. The UN goes tsk, tsk, naughty boys and girls. Everyone gets together and just wastes each others time. Oh, they all have a great time. They all eat and drink together, there are no enemies. They enjoy being in the greatest city in the world. They enjoy being diplomats, because they never have a sense of failure, for themselves, for their country, for the world. This type of thinking must stop. It's easy to say, but hard to do. It will take a cataclysmic shock or some thinking of possibilities that are real but unseen because our leaders refuse to learn or are too lazy to learn something new. Reread the first two quotes above, and read them again and again. Then think!
The United States is a super power, so what? How does it help to be a super power, who does it help to be a super power? Let the world look to China , India , Russia , Japan for help. Britain used to be a super power, France and Germany also, so what? Suppose that the United States stepped back from the distrustful world and said, "Goodbye folks, I'm taking a vacation. You take care of things while I'm away. ‘ So long it's been nice to know you'."
The U.S. would keep all its treaties and memberships intact, it would just resolve to stay out of all entanglements such as war and nation building. It would pull back. How many people are aware of the fact that the United States spends as much money on national defense as the whole rest of the world? When you add China , Russia , Iran , N. Korea , all countries together hardly spend what we do. To me that's some kind of insanity. It's no better than an alcoholic who is deeply in debt, begging people on the street for money to stay on a bender. The U.S. is on a weapons bender, not only for itself, but then selling arms to the rest of the world so that they can war amongst themselves and sometimes against us. And we are borrowing money from the rest of the world to do it. George Washington's farewell address said it best, here is an excerpt:
"40 It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it, for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is the best policy. I repeat it therefore; let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
41 Taking care always to be ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a
respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies."
Let's cut the war expense and start to pay down our debt. This super power is probably responsible for most of the world's aggression problems. Let's help the world by minding our own business. There is plenty to take care of at home, including our poor, our health and our debt.
The country voted for change, let's invest in it!
Bob Bregman is a graduate of the US Naval Academy, Class of '51. He is probably not the youngest author on SearchWarp (might be the oldest)
, just an old sea dog. He flew B-29's during the Korean conflict. He spent 25 years in Wall Street as a trader. He then went into the corporate world, a very ugly place. Cheating, lying, stealing and bribery were SOP from DuPont to Exxon. He retired in 1990 and went back to trading. Oiy! So then he went to selling computers, it was lonely trading. Selling was more fun. Then he sold Nissans, Hondas, and finally Fords. That was fun. Started to get old so he retired again. Now writing, because he's really irritated with his country's direction as personified by the Republicans & Tea Party horn blowing.
, just an old sea dog. He flew B-29's during the Korean conflict. He spent 25 years in Wall Street as a trader. He then went into the corporate world, a very ugly place. Cheating, lying, stealing and bribery were SOP from DuPont to Exxon. He retired in 1990 and went back to trading. Oiy! So then he went to selling computers, it was lonely trading. Selling was more fun. Then he sold Nissans, Hondas, and finally Fords. That was fun. Started to get old so he retired again. Now writing, because he's really irritated with his country's direction as personified by the Republicans & Tea Party horn blowing. This Article has been viewed 324 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)I think you have such a sane perspective. As I was reading your second paragraph I was thinking that perhaps America has already peaked, and is in the stage of the disintegration of an empire that over-reached itself, as Rome did.But maybe that's good in that it means that the rebuilding can start. Disintegration is scary to be part of and to watch, but it leads to voices like yours speaking out, to people reaching for values that have meaning.I love what you say about investing the change everybody voted for. That would be wonderful. I had so much faith in America when Obama was elected. I've been so surprised to see how reluctant people have been to get behind him and let him do the job he set out to do. I guess it's easy to vote for change, but it's a bit alarming to actually have to participate in it!In this age of instant gratification, nobody can soothe the hysterical mass of people who march around with signs that make them think, pardon the expression, that they are right. The people watching are too cowed by the crowd to speak up, they're not as organized. It's tough out there. It's tough for the president and on down through the ranks of the vast majority of folks who believe in a better life for everyone. They hear the siren call of the right wing, they are loud and they sound as if they know what they're talking about, but the right has no coherant program except for, NO! This too shall pass, please.
Ours is a nation divided and we don't change we will destroy it from within.Thanks for the comment, Linda. We've always been a divided nation. There are always groups of people who see things in black and white, and they are usually the loudest and most ignorant. So far we've been able to control that rabble, because the people don't really believe in revolution and our president and the armed forces don't believe in revolution either. We'll come to our senses as soon as the people get over the fear that's being inflamed by the tyrannical right; Murdoch's News Corp and his cohorts.
Divide and conquer! A combination of political, military and economic strategies that aim to gain and maintain power by breaking up larger concentrations of power into chunks that individually have less power than the one implementing the strategy. {Wiktionary}. A strategy used by the wealthy to control and maintain that wealth for many thousands of years now, because it works. The strategy used by the wealthy here that people have been willing to follow for the last 40 years, that has decimated the middle class, and left both the people and their government, that through corporate campaign financing, endorsed by the wealth controlled Supreme Court, helpless to do anything about without bloodletting revolt, used as a last resort for obvious reasons.Hi David,I must say that the right wing nuts are able to mobilize thier ranks much better than the left and center. They are financed differently. The Democrats have more money but they don't have dedicated media like the right. So their money goes to causes that don't create hysteria, like helping people and making life more tolerable for the poor. These things are never mentioned by the right. However, Obama may yet surprise. Harry Truman did.
There is too much emphasis on a nation alone we must look at ourselves as a united world and all work together.Good article Robert, thanks for sharing.David thanks for your comment. We do get a bit egocentric in America. Some people don't believe in humility or the principal of fairness. So what's new?Bob
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