A Country of Clay Feet
Never had a country been as successful as the United States Never has a country attributed to itself such nobility of purpose. Deservedly so, I always thought That was until a businessman named Donald Trump became President. Then, politicians whom I thought were, for the most part well intentioned persons revealed themselves as as scurrilous weasels. in both parties. I decided to to put an area that I was already researching to the test. I wanted to compare that which was told to you and I about non partisan issues and how much we of the public were lied to.Here's,vastly abbreviated, what I discovered.First a bit of perspective.A lot of our efforts by our officers, could earn more money in the private sector. They went into public service especially in Intelligence They legitimately cared more about human lives.When they signed on, it was likely true when they were young and idealistic. The police state plays on that.I t uses the do-gooders as cut-outs, in essence.They believe they are serving the public good, but in reality they line the pockets of of a different master altogether at a cost that is measurable in human lives.The figures are nine hundred and ninety American nonmilitary contractors lost in the foggy name of of national security since 2007 plus another one hundred and seventy four foreign nationals killed doing our bidding. They berate Trump for diverting funds, but yet under Obama those figures don't include the cancer patients who lost their chance to live when ten million dollars was diverted from Columbia Presbyterian's research clinic to bribe a Ministry of Health official in Azerbaijan who had influence on assigning off-shore oil well rights in the Caspian Sea.
There are at least two deaths per day as a consequence of U.S. covert actions in Africa . Russia has never been able to accomplish as much. The lowness of character that has been exemplified in recent months by Democrats and to a lesser extent by anti-Trump Republicans.Is an example of the true character of American politicians.The two examples I cited, I discovered on my way to researching other things. I can only imagine what I would find if I was looking more specifically for such examples.
There are at least two deaths per day as a consequence of U.S. covert actions in Africa . Russia has never been able to accomplish as much. The lowness of character that has been exemplified in recent months by Democrats and to a lesser extent by anti-Trump Republicans.Is an example of the true character of American politicians.The two examples I cited, I discovered on my way to researching other things. I can only imagine what I would find if I was looking more specifically for such examples.
Their job is to find any and all bad deeds, extra-financial dealings, etc (Joe Bidens son and his deal in China come FLYING to mind).
And make sure that:
1) They are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law
2) All ill-gotten gains are stripped/removed, plus a 50% penalty as a warning
3) Nobody goes into politics to come out with more power or money!
All elected Representatives to Congress (both Senators and Representatives) shall draw their salaries and maintenance from their respective States. All staff members to such elected Representatives are similarly beholden to their respective States for their salaries and maintenance. States are also required to audit all Representatives and Staff positions and present the audit findings to their respective State Legislatures at least biannually.
And the punishment for such behavior shall be death!
Honestly, there should be a massive punishment for that level of partisanship.
My wife is from former Yugoslavia. In her country, it is common that the newly elected party sues, and attacks the previous parties players... Scaring people away from politics.
She marveled art how America wasn't like that... Until she noticed it has become shockingly similar in the age of Trump! Once you go passed that point, there is no coming back, because the party that takes the high road will be decimated by the other party when their turn comes!
I think your wife would have some marvelous observations to share. Having grown up in a war-torn wreck like that nation has been for the past 80 years, I admire her greatly for simply surviving! I wish the two of you many happy years together!
Now, because of his ability to goat a rile them, we can now see them as they really are!
That's the real art of the deal...
Rush said he now believed there were RINOs who would actually vote for $hillary "to keep their fiefdoms."
Power is supposed to flow from the people to the government. The people are supposed to be the "boss". The boss finds out things are messed up at work, and employees emerge to tell you the core of the problem is someone else's lowness of character. Politically-minded employees may fall all over themselves flattering the boss and belittling other people. The boss's job is not take sides in the office politics. It's to build structures that get people back on track, ideally structures that are not dependent on having a good person in a key job.
So when I read over a ten years 990 nonmilitary contractors and 174 foreigners were killed in foggy undeclared wars, I think how do we build structures so the next ten years look different. The obvious answer is to state clearly in the Constitution that Congress has the power to declare war, but that answer is not working. We still think of it as a fact of life that America has to provide security for the world and that some criminals are actually "soldiers" at "war" with us, giving us license to operate outside the law.
I do not think one person, even the greatest person imaginable, can do it. It's like how ewv convinced me that no one amazing document could do it. The people have to remember at least part of the philosophy behind the Constitution.
As to whether they are actual soldiers rather than contractors, that's completely a CYA thing for politicians. They are trading money (mercenary wages) for public sympathy and optics ("no soldiers were killed").
"We still think of it as a fact of life that America has to provide security for the world and that some criminals are actually "soldiers" at "war" with us, giving us license to operate outside the law."
And therein lies two separate and distinct problems. George Washington warned against "entangling alliances" with other nations throughout the world which would drag us into armed conflicts. He was prescient in a way I doubt anyone anticipated. The second problem is the advent of asymmetrical warfare - especially that dealing with non-State actors like terrorist groups. Our governmental system wasn't designed with these types of warfare in mind (which to a degree is what the War Powers act was designed for). What we need is something to bridge the gap, but I don't know what that would look like.
These items aside, I think the bigger problem lies in the nature of war itself: ideas. One of the reasons many third-world nations hate (and no, that is not too strong a word) the United States is because we represent the notion of freedom AND we have been successful as a large result of that. No other nation has become a world superpower so quickly and maintained that power and why? Because the United States has to this point embraced the key principles in the Declaration of Independence. The biggest problem I see growing in the United States is that alluded to in Sun Tzu's Art of War: the problem of not knowing one's self. Far too many - especially on the left - have divorced themselves from the principles in the Declaration of Independence: principles which have not only made us great but upheld a banner of liberty for all. These individuals - rather than seeking out and affiliating themselves with nations to their liking - have instead sought to fundamentally alter the United States to seek after principles which are self-destructive, elitist, and illusionary. When the People of the United States are fighting for freedom - both of themselves and others - they are a force no other nation on earth can stop. Without that moral basis, however, we become weak like everyone else. That is partially what is being alluded to in that a document can not save us. It requires individual choice and effort to adhere to the principles of freedom.
"the advent of asymmetrical warfare"
I actually do not think asymmetric warfare is new. It goes back to the American Revolution and even Sun Tzu. I also think a lot of supposed asymmetric warfare is criminals or the mentally ill seeking to aggrandize themselves. Congress has the power to declare war, and we have a criminal justice system to prosecute thugs.
I think of the War Powers act as being a response to nuclear weapons, not asymmetric warfare. (I know you said only to a degree.) The theory, I thought, was the president needed to credibly be able to command an immediate response to a nuclear attack or an immediate threat of nuclear attack.
I strongly agree with the tenor of your comment. I believe US is losing its original values and becoming decadent like Rome.
Your two rules are like our main two rules for our kids: no hitting and no stealing.
The other problem is that Congress has to know who they are and have the backbone to decry evil. They lost that long ago. And we should have a code which deals with non-state actors taken under wartime premises.
"I think of the War Powers act as being a response to nuclear weapons, not asymmetric warfare. (I know you said only to a degree.)"
I agree, which is why I don't think it is necessarily suited to dealing with terrorists.
Reading them, it makes me think we should be having a reasoned debate about who does declare war, what is modern warfare, and what specific steps are we going to take the next time someone carries out a sneak attack. Do we give up more freedoms? Do we use it as a chance to sweep it all up, related or not and attack countries? Do we treat it as a common crime, even if it's backed by state powers like Iran? Do we admit aloud Congress won't declare war and create some war-powers committee or something? Reasonable people will disagree, but we should have the reasoned discussion now, not in the heat of the moment.
The boldness of politicians when it comes to their own enrichment is beyond imagination.
The are perfectly aware that they will get away with criminal activity otherwise they'd not be doing it. Let's face it: how many are being prosecuted even for crime we KNOW they committed?
I have issue only with your sentence "Russia has never been able to accomplish as much."
I guarantee you that Russia has accomplished as much and even more. Only takes a revisiting of history.