Arrogance

Lost in thought and study, I have found it hard to take pen to paper and scratch out some thoughts. The mysteries of life spread out before me to guess at the right and wrong, endless debates on the world as it exists, or for my not so cleaver friends, or does not exist. These ideas that I have pushed to paper for my new degree have left me with a notion that is so arrogant that only an American could have come up with it. The idea is that it might be our obligation in the world when asked to help, to help with the idea that the American way is the most efficient, and prosperous. That we know best, was the hall mark of the Marshall Plan and the New Deal, both to be considered successful reconstruction efforts. That the American values are good for all is not a new idea. In fact tried and tested in the cold war, winning us the final victory in the end. Well that motto became ashes on our tongues as we realized how arrogant we must have been, how un sophisticated we were. “Democracy and free markets are not for everyone… we shouldn’t force it upon them, might does not make right….” Well, those in the world that have preached this for the last twenty years have won, I will get in trouble for even thinking that we can teach Americanism, or re-educate another society, or reprogram a region of the world. What does that mean, that I cant even bring it up as a topic, even though it is the only strategy that has proven successful. The irony is that when another group of people need help it is usually their own practices and issues that have sunk them to the point of desperation. And, then they ask for help in the form of gifts and money, and say that you Americans are the only ones that can help us please show us how. Yet when we try to show them how, they say it is not our way, just please make the check out to so and so and we will be fine. Our response should be, because you have done such a good job so far with your own resources, so I am going to give you mine so that you may make an even bigger mess. Well screw that, maybe what we need is some mean spirited idealist, the revolutionary like Washington and his band of friends that terrorized and propagandized the rest of the colonies into war.

Letter to the Legislature

To the Honorable Senators and Congressmen of the United States of America,

Our founding fathers struggle in the misbegotten event that has transform the world is now on the precipice that will either enter in the American slow decline and fall from preeminence; or the rise, not of the last super power, but, of the rightful leader of the free world. Any status quo will bind us to the first no different that standing on Hadrian’s Wall, we will have failed, the price of our power measured and filled.

Unfortunately for us, our forefathers in all of their wisdom never wished or dreamt of a world where the United States would be hailed as the “great savior,” nor as the “great Satan.” Let alone the title of the executive becoming “the leader of the free world.” Never would the possibility of competing with France or England as a hegemony, let alone dominating over Europe in the world community have crossed their minds.

Well for 50 years we have grasped these titles as they have been handed to us. The lessons of both Great Wars constantly echoing in our psyche, proving the fallacy of isolationism, have ensured our involvement in the world. So freely, and with such hope, we joined the world; in no small fashion we led it. We reshaped the world, rebuilt the European landscape and added one hundred more democracies to the stage. We altered the world with a healthy mix of altruistic interest based needs and a general benevolent good will. Our intentions grand, the desire to share our inalienable rights that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were universal.

As our great enemy crumbled into mediocrity, plagued by every diseases of a crippled empire, transforming into a democracy. We have seemed to have a relapse in thought. The peace dividend has become the sale of our very soul. And we have shirked away from our worldly responsibilities under some false pretense that American interests can be affected only at home and that the world has a different set of unalienable rights, this is a fare cry from the Cold War slogan of democracy for everyone.

Why would I give this simplified narrative of American influence and responsibility? Well because I see the door we are crossing through, I see the interconnected globalized world, I see offshoring and energy issues, I see Africa sucking in its last breath, and the Middle East floundering and incapable of stability and market, I see the quiet rise of china buying real-estate from the Caribbean to the central African states. I see the painful struggle of Russia to regain a foothold of influence, I see the need for a great American leader to once again push the world forward.

Leadership is not pandering or committee it is the forceful will over the begrudging complaints of the led. It is both inspiring and insightful, but at the same time acts without hesitation and carries people forward with a stick if need be.

Ask any high school football coach what he does when the player don’t want to play because it is tough or wet and cold. America needs to stand up and tell congress what they want from their leadership. Then elect the man or woman best capable of carrying it out, then shut up. I am not talking strategy or operations, and definitely not tactics… but grand strategy. Decide how much influence we want to have in the world, and then allow the experts to execute. The American people should have no say in staying or leaving Iraq, they should have all the say in the world over whether they would like a president that will lead the international community or let it go, as long as they know the cost of both. Either lead the world forward into globalization and the future, forever securing our interests abroad and at home or let slip the control of destiny and enjoy the slow acquiescence of our preeminence and let go of whatever control we may have of our interests abroad and focus on the home front, dooming us to decline. Either way we must allow our leaders to lead. The first choice will force the future leaders of America to fundamentally change the way our legislative, executive and judicial branches interact with each other. Or we will just maintain the status quo.

Allow our leaders to do their job… now show me a leader. Show me a man willing to take the steps necessary to achieve a future that is better than today. Now is the time and opportunity for the next George C. Marshall, now is the time for the next Franklin Roosevelt. Now is the time for great leaders to immerge and create the future that they envision

I beg of you, our nations elected officials who have at least gained the vote of the people, do what is right. Either engage the world in a unified voice of commitment or leave the world alone, because we are doing more harm than good with what the rest of the world sees as complete incompetence. As I breath air right now, I am not concerned about anything more than 100 hears because I know that even if we choose not to lead the world into the future my grand children will still live a life that is relatively superior to anywhere else on the earth, however if I cared about the future of the world and humanity and if life everywhere is to improve then it will require a leader from the only country left on the earth capable of carrying out the works that we currently perform every day.

Where have all the leaders gone, all that I see on TV is the petty politics that have constituted only the notion of winning. Maybe they do get it and their problem is that they can’t sell it to the American people. The politics of the day is to do two things, making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. “That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family and American values and character.” Or in the case of today you tell them that their children are dying for a cause that is someone else’s fault. Their share of the blame is prefaced with the quote “if… I knew then what I know now.” As an Infantry officer I would have been fired a dozen times, not for the mistakes of my past but for the excuses of the present.

This is my concern, this is my fear, and this is my anger. This is the fallacy of a system that even when our leaders want to do what’s right they cannot. That even if they see a better answer, if it is not absolutely perfect it will not stand up to the fight for the status quo. Working with the notion that you must use the system to change it; so they grow good at getting what they want and never achieve the dominance required to fix anything. They are trapped in the pre war Europe balance of power struggle that ended in ultimate failure.

I want to look at a leader and be inspired. I want to hear the voice of reason, I want to hear the voice of someone who can sell me a future worth fighting for and then execute it. I want governance that does not pander to the mob but dictates to the mob from some position of educated wisdom and enlightenment. Show me a warrior statesman, show me a philosopher businessman, and give me someone with experience and capability and a mind. Some one that is not afraid to go against the grain and not get elected, and I would make him king.

Thank you for your time

In the service of the United States of America.

Welcome to DC

A life of disordered thoughts in backlash from that of a disordered mind. Oh, how the Buddhist priests in New York are screaming, their lessons slowly erased from my mind as i struggle to move against the rising surf. Fear, frustration, anger, the natural progression from passive to aggressive in response. Each stage taking a clear measure of my capabilities and thoughts. The worlds own disorder has finally permeated through what i had unfortunately assumed was an impenetrable wall of self justification and purpose.

The DC area has taken its toll on my intellectual faculties. Knowing as a fact, of both education and experience, that the decisions made within the belt-way have direct impact on the rest of the world; unfortunately left me blind to the decision making process itself. Now living with in the confines of the center of world politics in both study and application; i find myself more afraid now than i did when pursuing military aims in foreign lands. 'Leader of the Free World' is my most favorite title placed on the Executive Branch's head. The implications of what this mean are so astounding that the world should have thought long and hard before this became vernacular, and before we unassumingly accepted. Titles and definitions, phrases and statements, legal and political, professional language is a necessity in the world at large to ensure the quality of goods. We should have known that a title explicitly implies compliance and acceptance of the role. So here is the rub, a nation based on laws, formed and executed by the dictates of the Constitution, has no strict or loose interpretation, implied or enumerated dictates of how to fulfill this new found roll. In fact the basic framework of a state for, of, and by the people was designed to never allow the fulfillment of this roll. Checks and balances and the idea that we just wanted to be left alone to trade with whom ever choose, laid the groundwork for an executive branch with almost no capabilities to lead the whole of the country let alone a host of nations.

This rant of governmental capabilities is my lesson learned as i now get a front row seat in watching the fall from grace of the American Statesmen, the politicization of the military, the end game justification in political maneuvering. At first i became afraid finding that this was the process that has sacrificed numerous lives on the alter of national interests, an alter that i stepped up to more than once and rested my hands upon. From fear, to frustration that there was no way that i could impact this process in a manner that would change anything more different than a butterfly landing on a tank. Frustration turning to anger in the realization that the best course is to maintain my position as an executer of policy, that our wrongs are the lesser of wrongs; even though i will loose my soul when i am no longer able to explain to others why i have laid another body upon our self built alter. Anger that the argument of the bureaucrats, will become mine, that the game must be played until you can make a difference. That to leave may do more harm than good, that my obligations have trapped me to this irreverent course. Anger of having to chew on pride, under the name 'good faith;' anger at the disappointment i feel to those whom the people of America have elected to lead them, not just to pander to them. Anger, that the voices that are heard are in no position to comment, and the voices that are hidden from the masses are the ones that should be discussed and listened to attentively.

So, i sit again at night in front of a computer, reading the emails from friends around the globe. They talk in clear, black and white statements of successes and failures according to measurements. Then they discuss in theory reasons and options, capabilities and intentions, reaching out to those who might posses an insight that will help them take another step forward. Theirs is a life that is content with the execution of policy, with out the entangling process of making the policy. For them and me, it is not the policy or justification, but how we get to the justification, the process. And here in this city of marble monuments dedicated to those whom have lead the unleadable through every hardship imaginable, i have found a body of politic incapable of leading.