Some Ideas

[flaco]

It is axiomatic that one of our current political problems is... rather than addressing our problems, our leaders seem intent mostly on calling each other names.

 

Am I the only to grieve over the paucity of solutions our leaders bring to current crises?

 

"I've got a plan," they all say.

 

Mainly, these have to do with dollars, and rarely do they address the issues.

 

Personally--and I know you'll all have a hard time believing this--I'm conservative on some issues--I believe in a balanced budget--and liberal on others.

 

Liberal in the sense of Liberty. In the sense that now retired Supreme Court Judge Sandra Day O'Connor was: O'Connor grew up on a ranch, and believed in individual liberty.

 

Most importantly, I'm pragmatic: If it works, that's fine with me.

 

In that spirit, I'll suggest two books we might learn from.

 

The first is by a West Point graduate, Andrew Bacevich: "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism."

 

I'll lift the review from the Washington Post, as it appears on Amazon:

 

"From The Washington Post

Reviewed by Robert G. Kaiser

 

This compact, meaty volume ought to be on the reading list of every candidate for national office -- House, Senate or the White House -- in November's elections. In an age of cant and baloney, Andrew Bacevich offers a bracing slap of reality. He confronts fundamental questions that Americans have been avoiding since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, first of all: What is the sole superpower's proper role in the world?

 

Bacevich is not running for office, so he is willing to speak bluntly to his countrymen about their selfishness, their hubris, their sanctimony and the grave problems they now face. He scolds a lot, but does so from an unusual position of authority. He is a West Point graduate who served his country as an Army officer for more than 20 years, retiring as a colonel with a reputation as one of the leading intellectuals in our armed services. A Catholic and self-described conservative, he earned a PhD from Princeton and taught at West Point and Johns Hopkins before joining the Boston University faculty in 1998 to teach history and international relations. His many articles and four previous books have made him a respected voice in debates on national security.

 

In this book Bacevich treats the writings of theologian and philosopher Reinhold Niebuhr as a kind of scripture. He calls Niebuhr, who died in 1971 at age 78, a "towering presence in American intellectual life from the 1930s through the 1960s" who "warned that what he called 'our dreams of managing history' -- born of a peculiar combination of arrogance and narcissism -- posed a potentially mortal threat to the United States." Repeatedly, Bacevich uses quotations from Niebuhr to remind us of the dangers of American hubris.

 

Bacevich describes an America beset by three crises: a crisis of profligacy, a crisis in politics and a crisis in the military. The profligacy is easily described: What was, even in the author's youth several decades ago, a thrifty society whose exports far outdistanced its imports has become a nation of debtors by every measure. Consumption has become the great American preoccupation, and consumption of imported oil the great chink in our national armor. When on Sept. 11, 2001, the United States suffered the most serious attack on its soil since 1812, our government responded by cutting taxes and urging citizens onward to more consumption. Bacevich quotes President Bush: "I encourage you all to go shopping more."

 

After 9/11, Bacevich writes, "most Americans subscribed to a limited-liability version of patriotism, one that emphasized the display of bumper stickers in preference to shouldering a rucksack."

 

Bacevich's political crisis involves more than just George W. Bush's failed presidency, though "his policies have done untold damage." Bacevich argues that the government the Founders envisaged no longer exists, replaced by an imperial presidency and a passive, incompetent Congress. "No one today seriously believes that the actions of the legislative branch are informed by a collective determination to promote the common good," he writes. "The chief . . . function of Congress is to ensure the reelection of its members."

 

In Bacevich's view, the modern American government is dominated by an "ideology of national security" that perverts the Constitution and common sense. It is based on presumptions about the universal appeal of democracy and America's role as democracy's great defender and promoter that just aren't true. And we ignore the ideology whenever it suits the government of the day, by supporting anti-democratic tyrants in important countries like Pakistan and Egypt, for example. The ideology "imposes no specific obligations" nor "mandates action in support of the ideals it celebrates," but can be used by an American president "to legitimate the exercise of American power."

 

Today politicians of all persuasions embrace this ideology. Bacevich quotes Sen. Barack Obama echoing "the Washington consensus" in a campaign speech that defined America's purposes "in cosmic terms" by endorsing a U.S. commitment to "the security and well-being of those who live beyond our borders" regardless of the circumstances.

 

Bacevich describes the military crisis with an insider's authority. He dissects an American military doctrine that wildly overstates the utility of armed force in politically delicate situations. He decries the mediocrity of America's four-star generals, with particular scorn for Gen. Tommy Franks, original commander of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He calls the all-volunteer Army, isolated from the society it is supposed to protect, "an imperial constabulary" that "has become an extension of the imperial presidency."

 

The heart of the matter, Bacevich argues, is that war can never be considered a useful political tool, because wars invariably produce unintended consequences: "War's essential nature is fixed, permanent, intractable, and irrepressible. War's constant companions are uncertainty and risk." New inventions cannot alter these facts, Bacevich writes. "Any notion that innovative techniques and new technologies will subject war to definitive human direction is simply whimsical," he writes, quoting Churchill approvingly: "The statesman who yields to war fever is no longer the master of policy, but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events."

 

Yet the United States is today engaged in multiple wars that both exceed the capacity of the all-volunteer force and are highly unlikely to achieve their political aims, Bacevich argues. War is not the answer to the challenges we face, he says, and "to persist in following that path is to invite inevitable overextension, bankruptcy and ruin."

 

The Limits of Power is a dense book but gracefully written and easy to read. It is chockablock with provocative ideas and stern judgments. Bacevich's brand of intellectual assuredness is rare in today's public debates. Many of our talking heads and commentators are cocksure, of course, but few combine confidence with knowledge and deep thought the way Bacevich does here.

 

Some of Bacevich's asides, however, are highly debatable -- that Richard M. Nixon and Mao Tse-tung together helped bring down the Soviet empire, for example. Bacevich is no globalist, and he treats trade as a sign of national weakness. One could provide a long list of objections of this kind, but quibbles cannot undermine Bacevich's big argument, which is elegant and powerful.

 

The end of the Cold War left the United States feeling omnipotent but without a utilitarian doctrine to guide its foreign policy. Instead, we have succumbed, again and again, to the military temptation. In Iraq we stumbled into a real disaster. If we cannot get our goals and our means into balance soon, our future will be a lot less fun than our past.

 

Bacevich is argumentative, and his case is not proven beyond a reasonable doubt, but at the end of this book, a serious reader has a difficult choice: to embrace Bacevich's general view or to construct a genuinely persuasive alternative. For many years our leaders have failed to do either. The price of their failure has been high and could go much higher. Bacevich knows a lot about the costs himself; his only son, Andrew John Bacevich, a first lieutenant in the Army, was killed in Iraq last year.

 

Candidates for office owe the voters their take on the big argument here: Do they think military power remains a tool of choice to help the United States make its way through the perils of the modern world? If so, can they explain why?

 

 

Copyright 2008, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved."

 

The second book I'll suggest is by that name anathema to all God-fearing right wingers, Thomas Friedman.

 

Friedman, of course, has won three Pulitzer Prizes, has credentials in Middle East Poltics and Finance, and has undoubtedly spent more time in the Middle East than most of our leaders.

 

I personally don't like the title of this book: "Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America."

 

Nothing is more certain to raise the hackles of the knee-jerk right than the word "Green".

 

Still, Friedman addresses more than a few of our contemporary ills, and offers solutions that others have successfully used.

 

Here's the publisher's blurb:

 

"Thomas L. Friedman’s phenomenal number-one bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see the world in a new way. In his brilliant, essential new book, Friedman takes a fresh and provocative look at two of the biggest challenges we face today: America’s surprising loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11; and the global environmental crisis, which is affecting everything from food to fuel to forests. In this groundbreaking account of where we stand now, he shows us how the solutions to these two big problems are linked--how we can restore the world and revive America at the same time.

 

Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the astonishing expansion of the world’s middle class through globalization have produced a planet that is “hot, flat, and crowded.” Already the earth is being affected in ways that threaten to make it dangerously unstable. In just a few years, it will be too late to fix things--unless the United States steps up now and takes the lead in a worldwide effort to replace our wasteful, inefficient energy practices with a strategy for clean energy, energy efficiency, and conservation that Friedman calls Code Green.

 

This is a great challenge, Friedman explains, but also a great opportunity, and one that America cannot afford to miss. Not only is American leadership the key to the healing of the earth; it is also our best strategy for the renewal of America.

 

In vivid, entertaining chapters, Friedman makes it clear that the green revolution we need is like no revolution the world has seen. It will be the biggest innovation project in American history; it will be hard, not easy; and it will change everything from what you put into your car to what you see on your electric bill. But the payoff for America will be more than just cleaner air. It will inspire Americans to something we haven’t seen in a long time--nation-building in America--by summoning the intelligence, creativity, boldness, and concern for the common good that are our nation’s greatest natural resources.

 

Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman: fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the challenge--and the promise--of the future."

 

I believe both of these books can contribute the kind of wisdom we need to address our current, seemingly overwhelming problems.

 

 

[Spiris]

flaco , I've been around this site for 2-3 years and I'm aware of your political views. I guess about the only thing we have in common is the love of firearms and shooting. I'm not surprised by your endorsement of the two authors that you suggest for reading, as they regurgitate the same crap that we have come to expect from the liberal elitists. The liberal view of the world suggests that we need to be cared for and they have the answer. In reality it's more like "do as I say, not as I do".

Our very existence as a country rests on winning the WAR on terrorism, that is a truth. Our economy rests solely on the price of energy, yet the liberals really do not want to tap our own resources to reduce dependence on foreign oil. They want us to cut back and conserve while they do not want to inconvenience themselves because of their elitist attitude. We middle class, as a rule, cannot afford a $40,000 solar grid array to reduce our electrical usage.

My real beef is their plans for the redistribution of wealth to satisfy their plans for a massive increase in government. The government cannot create jobs, it's the small and big businesses that do that. You know the proposed massive tax increase that's planned by the Democrat's candidate will cause more businesses to leave the country. Remember liberalism is socialism in camouflage.

Ah, global warming, many liberals blame the Evil USA for this phenomena. I'm more inclined to believe that we run in cycles of warming and cooling and this has been believed and proven by many scientists. Actually another "little ice age" is coming in the near future. But ALGORE has made a lot of money talking about it. What a joke he turned out to be. I thank God every day that George W. Bush was President on 9/11. He has protected this country in spite of the liberals. At least his legacy won't include oral in the Oval Office as is B. Clinton's.

I also think as you age, your views on life change and unless you have more money than brains, your liberal views, indoctrinated in your youth, will fade away. I confess that I actually voted for J. Carter, probably the worst President ever, but we live and learn.

 

Spiris

[FC]

Flaco's older than me.

I have a book too, "and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

America is fat, happy, and self-interested. This mess the result of "Me-ism". We have no need for the Creator, except in time of personal need.

"Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers." John Jay

 

The book of Proverbs says, "The good man sees the day of evil approaching and hides himself."