THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIV, Issue # 134, June 24, 2012
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
AMERICA'S FEARFUL FUTURE
By Alan Caruba
COULD WE BE LIVING IN THE LAST YEARS OF AMERICA'S INFLUENCE & POWER? COULD THE GREATEST CAPITALIST DEMOCRACY IN THE WORLD FALL
INTO RUIN? THE U.S.A. OPERATING IN A TENSE & TROUBLED WORLD -- THE WORLD TEETERING ON A NEW GREAT DEPRESSION -- FINANCIAL CRISIS --
MILITARY CONFLICTS -- CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY FACING ENEMIES & THREATS -- SOME ESSENTIAL & RAPID CHANGES THE U.S.A. NEEDS TO MAKE IN
ORDER TO AVOID NATIONAL COLLAPSE
FULL STORY:
It’s a cliché that nations and men repeat the same errors, stumbling into various crisises. The locations may change, but the patterns of history remain.
The world is teetering on a new Great Depression. Constitutional democracies are at risk. In the 1930s, there were an estimated two billion people worldwide. Today
there are seven billion people in the world; the pressures to feed them and meet their other needs have increased exponentially. It strains relations between nations
and within them.
In the U.S.A., the Great Depression began in 1929 and lasted until the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the U.S.A. into the conflict. World War
Two had begun in Europe, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and then invaded France in 1941. In Asia, the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931,
expanding further into China in 1937.
Over eighty years ago, the time was ripe for aggression by those with the will to pursue it. At the time, this will to conquer, control, and exploit was lacking in the
U.S.A., which had a long tradition of avoiding “foreign entanglements.” The military was hardly prepared. By contrast, the U.S.A. has acted since the end of World
War Two as the global policeman protecting the sea lanes and U.S. allies.
What America had, however, was an industrial base that was up to the task of becoming “an arsenal for democracy.” Today, our manufacturing base has been
hollowed out, with much of it outsourced to other nations or harmed by labor unions, excessive regulation, and trade policies that have left the U.S.A. at an economic
disadvantage.
China, by contrast, is largely self-sufficient and has built its energy production sector, while our manufacturing base, along with the ability to provide the energy it
requires, is being destroyed by Environmental Protection Agency regulations and Interior Department restrictions on new mining and drilling.
I cite this because, in my view, if not the official view of economists, the U.S.A. is in a Depression. Across the Atlantic, Europe is facing the collapse of its political
and financial union.
There are huge numbers of unemployed in the U.S.A., even if there are no soup lines, as existed in the 1930s. Much of the middle class has seen some forty percent
of its wealth disappear, mostly in the depreciation of the value of their homes. Many are on some form of government dole, whether it is food stamps or
unemployment compensation The U.S. debt is historic -- $15 trillion and climbing -- and could prove catastrophic.
The present times mirror earlier ones in which empires trembled and fell. Neither Russia nor China would be unhappy to see the greatest capitalist democracy in the
world fall into ruin.
Syria’s internal conflict bears an eerie resemblance to the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, when Spain fell under Fascist control, preceding World War Two. In
Syria, the United States, Europe, and their Arab allies are aligned against the dictatorship of Bashar Assad, while, on the other side, there is Russia, China, Iran and
Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy that controls Lebanon.
"Just as the League of Nations proved incapable of ensuring peace in the run-up to World War Two, so, too, the United Nations has no such capability today. It is
utterly corrupt and has its own agenda to impose itself on the world as a global government."
America has been weakened since the financial crisis of 2008, almost entirely the result of U.S. government housing programs, the pressure on banks to make bad
mortgage loans, and the resulting “bundling” and sale of “toxic assets” that undermined our largest financial institutions.
For the first time in our history, our credit rating has been downgraded. Several large banks have suffered a similar ranking. The Obama administration has
exacerbated the banks’ inability to recover by imposing excessive and likely unconstitutional regulation.
National security is at risk as well. These days the U.S. Air Force is flying a fleet of geriatric planes, some of which were manufactured in the 1950s. Our Navy has
the fewest number of ships since the end of World War Two. Our Army and Marines are worn out from a decade of non-stop fighting. The President has been
determined to reduce our nuclear arsenal.
On September 11, 2001, America entered a new era with the sneak attack on the Twin Towers, New York, N.Y. -- the result of the frenzy of Islamists, who may well
sense that they must either conquer the West or see Islam wither away as a failed system. As various Middle Eastern nations overthrew their dictators, the more
moderate, secular factions within them are at risk of being ruled by the most ruthless Mullahs who fear the loss of their power over the people.
Financial crisis. Military conflicts. Enemies of constitutional democracy. It has the look and feel of the 1930s and 1940s.
America needs to make some essential and rapid changes — making the U.S. central government smaller, revitalizing our military, protecting our borders against
massive illegal immigration, reforming “entitlement” programs, eliminating wasteful spending — or we could be living in the last years of its influence and power.
© Alan Caruba, 2012
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Fiscal Policy: Taxation, Government Spending, & the Public Debt
U.S. Military Defense & National Security
Military Weaponry & International Security
The United Nations, Its Agencies, & U.S. National Interests
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at Warning Signs, his popular blog -- and thereafter on dozens of other
websites and blogs. His monthly report on new books is posted at Bookviews.
A business and science writer, Caruba is the Founder of The National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information
about "scare campaigns" designed to influence public opinion and public policy.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity