by David R. Remer PoliWatch.Org
These United States, under the Presidency of George W. Bush, with tremendous assistance of dire and challenging times not of his choosing or making, have taken the first major step down the slippery slope toward the end of a great civilization. As Rome bribed the barbarians, only to whet their greed for more, as ancient Greece with its wealth and democracy fell into complacency, apathy, and political expediency, as the Great British Empire upon which the sun never set lost its great dominion by spreading its power and reach too thin, we Americans are following all of these same paths toward diminishment, failure, and demise as a once great nation.
Most of the problems facing our nation are not of the President's making. Having said that, the solutions to these problems are nowhere to be found in this Administration. The questions require non-traditional answers. The problems require innovative thinking and creative solutions. Most of all, they require a deep and brilliant understanding of history. What we have for leadership in both the Whitehouse and the Congress, are politicians instead of statesmen, tacticians instead of problem solvers, and short sighted parochial viewpoints instead of long term learned and pragmatic policy priorities.
In current events are stories of bribing North Korea and Libya to conform to our will to stand down from their threatening postures. (The Libyan bribe is particularly interesting since, in stead of money and trade, the door is being opened for Libyan conquest beyond its own borders.) The Romans tried bribery, and the more they bribed, the more barbarian leaders came to threaten in order to be bribed. The more short term success Rome experienced with bribes, the further Rome expanded its reach into barbaric lands. Which in turn, led to more threats, more bribes, bigger threats, bigger bribes, and one day Rome could no longer provide an army large enough to maintain its presence throughout the empire. The empire declined into the dark ages. Note however, the decline began with the first bribe, a couple hundred years earlier. The decline began with a failed policy even as the empire was expanding its reach. What appeared to be a solution, proved to be the end of the empire in due course.
And like the great British Empire, the U.S. now has a military presence strung out around the globe. Our military is stretched so thin, that if an adversary were to launch a military attack upon our troops overseas other than in Iraq or Afghanistan, or commit a breach of treaty, the U.S. would have no choice but to withdraw from current engagements and, or, reinstate the draft. Withdrawing from current involvements would be tantamount to failed leadership, foresight and preparedness. It would also support international claims that the U.S. had gone too far in its invasion of Iraq. Reinstating the draft would result in Viet Nam era type demonstrations, and draft dodging, and demoralized troops who have no affinity nor respect for this Administration's policies or leadership.
Like Ancient Greece, the non-voting middle class are far too engrossed in their personal lives and pursuit of wealth, to afford the time to stay up on politics, policies, and the extremely tiresome task of trying to flesh out the truth from all of the political rhetoric, lying, misrepresentation, and mudslinging din. Like the middle class Greeks around 300 B.C., we pay our representatives, soldiers, and police to mind our interests for us. When the call rang out that the invasion was underway, the middle class said, "I paid my taxes, let the Spartans do what they were paid to do". Vastly overwhelmed in number, the Spartans fought and failed. They failed because their calls for assistance from the middle class merchants went unanswered. Our democracy now calls out to the vast middle class to get out and vote in order to save our democracy from what it has become, government of the few, by the few, and for the few. But the call goes unanswered as only half of potential voters respond.
America needs leadership with this kind of education. American needs leadership capable and willing to wrestle these problems with new techniques, ideas, and a pragmatism that leaves no room for idelology or traditional status quo rhetoric standing in the place of viable, workable and reasoned solutions. America needs leadership capable and willing to take on the really big problems whose solutions can only be found in action adhered to for decades. Three and one half billion people in this world live on $1.00 or less per day. The United States population is only 280 million. Want to fight terrorism? Address the needs of those 3.5 billion people who have nothing to lose and everything to gain by suicidal bombing of the seemingly uncaring well to do. At the very least, give them hope for their children's future. Addressing their needs will require decades of committed action to long term plans that are practical, possible, and motivating.
The best this Administration can come up with is war with oil rich nations, new trips to the Moon, more nuclear weapon research and development, space based strategic weapons hanging over the heads of the rest of the world's peoples, huge tax cuts to insure next years election, and huge deficits and national debt to become the inheritance of whomever should be so unlucky as to become president after George W. Bush leaves office. We must do better than this in selecting our leaders if we are going to avoid that irreversible first step toward the decline of our status as the greatest nation on earth.
