Related Link » Stimulus: Military modernization need not apply
“After one year, the verdict is now in on the president’s ‘stimulus’ package. It was a monumental failure. The English language, rich as it is, is not adequate to describe the comprehensive foolishness of it. Suffice to say that it was a perfect expression of: the administration’s extreme ideology; its complete inexperience, both in the ways of Washington and the operation of a free-market economy; and its tone deafness to the desires of the American people. Here is one particularly shortsighted aspect of the stimulus: none of it was or will be spent on America’s defense industrial base. Yes, that’s correct. Defense is the most important function of the federal government, and in the face of growing dangers around the world, American power is undeniably [in] decline. Moreover, the one arguably successful example of Keynesian economics was the military buildup that finally ended the Depression. Yet the Obama Administration could not see its way clear to spend a dime of its 864 billion dollar stimulus bill on upgrading the equipment which our servicemen and women use to defend us. To be fair, only one president in our lifetime has truly understood the importance of American power. Ronald Reagan was fond of saying that ‘of the four wars that have happened in my lifetime, none occurred because America was too strong’. [...] The United States has been underfunding defense modernization ever since the Reagan Administration, but the situation has now reached a crisis. America’s military is too small, and its equipment is aging and technologically out of date. [...] America is nowhere near prepared for the growing danger of an attack using cyber or bioweapons, either by nation states or the terrorists. Iran is getting closer to nuclear status, and both Iran and North Korea are working to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile. And those are just the primary threats we face; they do not include important if secondary missions like protecting the sea lanes against piracy, fighting powerful drug cartels, or performing humanitarian missions in places like Haiti. [...] But if the ‘resource environment’ is constrained, it is only because so much money has been spent over the last year to so little effect. [...] There is zero chance that the Administration will rescind the rest of the stimulus package, saving the money for the future or redirecting it to the vital needs of American security. Decisions have consequences, but the consequences of this decision will not be visited upon the political authorities who have made it. It will be borne by the American people, whose security is increasingly at risk, and by the men and women of America’s armed forces, who will have to try to defend us with old and worn-out tools.” [emphasis added]
— By Former Sen. Jim Talent, 02/24/10 (TheDC)
 |
| The Obama Himself |
Anyone with a modicum of organizational skill understands that international leadership must be projected from atop a chain of command that affords a clear panoramic view of the global playing field. This is why Napoleon, among the greatest commanders of all time, directed his victories from the high ground while mounted on his horse for greater clarity of vision. And, incidentally, his Waterloo has been attributed by some to an eruption of hemorrhoids, which prevented him from mounting his horse, prompting his lament, "My kingdom for a whoopee cushion." But I digress ...
The President of the United States clearly must focus virtually all his attention on matters of global significance. And the most significant of all global matters is the preservation of America's position of global leadership. Any plan to accomplish this is by no means trivial. But one aspect of such a plan is obvious for all but the feloniously big-picture-challenged: get a clue about what it's about. What it is not, I repeat with more emphasis — not about is The Won, The One-ly, The Obama Himself.
Post #1,142 COITUS in Forest Blinded by Trees
No comments:
Post a Comment