The great measure of a truly strong nation is its economic power. A strong military is valuable, but severely limited as we are seeing unfold in Iraq. The base failures of the campaign in Iraq are economic and social. Put simply: there are no jobs, there is no infrastructure and thus no real process of controlling and quelling civil unrest. And, given the social structure of the Iraqi populace (three opposed factions of Islam and tribal divisions on top of that) it’s not difficult to see why blunt force is limited in its ability, unless one is willing to institute programs that would duplicate those that were in place during the regime of Saddam Hussein. Not an option.
The problem is: Force is often met with force. The expectation is often that it will be met with passivity. Not entirely realistic to be sure. Overwhelming force is the only cure to such social, economic, religious and political chaos. But, again, not an option. The alteration of the ground campaign towards a more community based one (as in Anbar) is a step in the right direction. But, without basic economic stability in Iraq, it will be a drop in the bucket.
I’m old enough to remember the era of South American countries swelled with debt that they were unable to pay. In 1991 I made a trip to Ecuador (when the currency there was still nationalized and not the US dollar) and it was a sobering experience. Exchanging a mere $500 was nearly impossible. A group of us went to a bank in an affluent area and wanted to exchange a total of about $2000. We had to wait. We weren’t sure why. Then after about 30 minutes an armored car arrived with guards in black swat outfits, flak jackets and Uzi’s. They had our money. It was shocking and a bit embarrassing as we realized we had held up bank business. Thus, it’s of interest to note that the United States isn’t doing to well in the economic debt area either.
Go to Nationmaster.com, the latest statistics on current account balance and scroll down to the bottom to see which country is dead last in amount of debt owed to debt lent.
Now think about the fact that the US was 3 trillion dollars in the black prior to the Bush Administration.
If you are one of those people who voted for Bush because you wanted that tax refund, the bill is coming due. It was a genius way to win an election but screw the US economy. Not exactly a long term plan.
Are you ready to fork over what you owe? Didn’t think so.
(c/o Papa SNAFU Principle)
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