By Eric Anschutz, December 2, 2009
Readers will recognize the title of this column as the title of Barack Obama’s highly acclaimed second book. It is a title apt for what I am about to say, so I beg the President’s indulgence for recycling it. And I ask him also to rethink “audacity†in the context of the crisis that besets today’s America.
I propose a major redirection of our policies to restore greatness to an America that most agree is currently headed in the wrong direction. In doing so, I know that the new direction I propose is not one that in the near term would be approved by our divided Congress, nor would it win majority support from our equally divided citizenry. I write, therefore, not in hope of immediate change, but rather to bring about serious discussion of how a fundamental revision of our policies could provide a basis for the rebuilding and reenergizing of our country.
I begin with a set of facts that define our nation’s current bleak situation. America’s national debt and negative trade balance have grown to proportions that place our long-term economic well-being in serious jeopardy. Our manufacturing base shrinks further with every passing year. Our urban centers are blighted by daily reports of crime and neglect. Our infrastructure is outdated, in disrepair and inadequate. Schools, especially those in the inner-cities, are too often staffed by under-qualified teachers, and far too often stressed by a student body beset by apathy and hostility. Our environment continues to be despoiled by effluents from fossil fuels; despite that, development and implementation of solar and wind technologies lags that of other nations. Health care in our country costs more than twice as much per capita as in Germany, Japan, France, England, Canada and Sweden, and by every measure produces results that rank well below that of every major country.
Our problems are not only domestic. We have in the last six decades suffered the massive financial burden and the horrendous human cost of wars in Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, and are now stuck in the quagmire of Afghanistan. Beyond the financial and human cost of war-fighting, our military forces are spread worldwide: we have troops in more than 100 countries; our Navy maintains flotillas on constant patrol in every ocean.
We know that the massive sums spent by our country on war and military force structure have depleted our domestic economy. Yet, for the last 60 years, America has been engaged in a virtual orgy of military spending – always in the name of national security. Done at first to build a bulwark against the encroachment of communism, it then morphed into defense against the “axis of evil†(North Korea, Iran and Iraq), and morphed again as defense against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Our annual military expenditure for these last six decades has every year exceeded the combined defense expenditures of every other country in the world.
Europeans and Asians have tacitly renounced war as an instrument of national policy. They do of course maintain some military forces (small and ill-equipped compared to ours), but their forces are kept within their boundaries, and are for self-defense. In recent years only Russia has moved militarily against its neighbors (Chechnya and Georgia). The USSR’s ill-advised aggression some 30 years ago in Afghanistan was a costly and bloody failure; they committed some 110,000 troops, suffered in excess of 13,000 deaths, and left in ignominious defeat after ten years of fighting. Following the 1989 demise of the Soviet Union, it is only the United States that continues to maintain a policy of projecting military power across the globe. Iran, by the way, has never been the aggressor in a military action – nor has modern China.
I propose a fundamental change to our military policies. “National Security†should be redefined to include economic strength, first-rate education, world-class health care available to all, the state of our infrastructure, and energy systems based increasingly on non-carbon energy sources. Military power will always continue to be an important component of national security, but we need to reduce the level of military expenditures by ending our wars, withdrawing our forces to bases within our borders, and dedicating our military wholly to defense of our homeland.
Our only enemies today are religious zealots in a far-off place. Defense against that threat must be focused on better intelligence gathering and better policing of our harbors and borders. Our generals are united in concluding that defeating them militarily is a losing game. We need to win hearts and minds by the example of a thriving America, and with a “Marshall Plan†for the Middle East.
My proposed policy redirection must not be seen as advocating that we turn our back to the world. I do not propose isolationist policies. Indeed, I propose grater involvement than ever with other countries. We need to join with our Asian and European and African friends in a new “Alliance for World Peace and Security.†We need to participate in worldwide diplomacy and in international partnerships aimed at global security, defined to include global domestic well-being.
The Chinese, who have for the past decade been aggressively negotiating trade and partnership arrangements all across Africa and Asia, have defined their foreign policy as one of non-interference and non-intervention in the affairs of other nations. Domestically, China lags on health care and attention to the environment; it is, however, undertaking massive infrastructure, economic and education programs. Many Chinese kids are learning English in elementary school, and math and science education are strong across the nation. China is now constructing a network of high-speed rail lines, covering 10,000 miles across that country. 13 of China’s biggest cities are scheduled to have all-electric bus fleets within five years. A new company, said to employ 10,000 engineers, has been created in China to develop electric car batteries. Ironically, US financier Warren Buffet is a major investor in that company.
I urge you, Mr. President, to rethink “audacity†in the context of the crisis that besets today’s America. We require new policies designed to restore America to greatness.