Are We Fighting The Right Mission on the Right Battlefield?

Are We Fighting The Right Mission on the Right Battlefield?

Is 2008 the same as 1973? 

by Janice Moore

We call it the War on Iraq or the War on Terror or some other monikers that our esteemed and Machiavellian President has utilized to inspire us to the battle field.  But really, this is the War on Energy or even more succinct maybe the War on Resources.  And thus, the real question is “Are we fighting the right mission on the right battlefields” and “Do we have the right leadership who has the will to meet the mission”?

So let’s take a look here. 

The world economy is growing rapidly at around 5% per year in a lead-up to surging commodities prices. We, the United States, are engaged in a costly, unpopular, and unsuccessful war financed by large budget deficits and foreign borrowing. The Middle East is racked by turmoil and war. The dollar is in a free fall pushed off its strong-currency pedestal by overly expansionary U.S. monetary policy. The surge in commodity prices is dramatic. Oil markets have turned extremely tight mainly the mounting global demand has hit a limited supply. Oil prices have quadrupled. Food prices have also soared fueled by strong world demand, surging fertilizer prices, and massive climate shocks.  This was us in the early 70s.  Sound Familiar?  Here we go again.

Oil prices have roughly quintupled since 2002, once again the result of strong global demand running into limited global supply. World grain prices have doubled in the past year. Just as in 1972, the recent run-up in food prices is aggravated by climate shocks. Australia’s drought and Europe’s heat waves put a lid on grain production in 2005-06. Even the politics are strangely similar.

In both 1974 and 2008, an unpopular Republican President, battling historically low approval ratings, was distracted from serious macroeconomic policymaking.  We are lost folks and if we don’t take back our future, we are condemned to take a long time to find ourselves again.

So are we fighting the right mission right here right now and is it on the right battlefield?

I mean while we squander hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq, the U.S. government spends a mere $3 billion or so per year on all its energy research – around 36 hours of Pentagon spending! History tell s that it will be the new technologies, deployed quickly and on a global scale, that offer the real keys to energy and food security, and the chances for sustained economic development globally.

In the years ahead, technological development, with both public and private funding, must become a core part of our national economic and security arsenal.  Isn’t that the real mission and battlefields on which to be engaged in…..

I mean, we need a War on Energy and Resourses don’t we?  We need to fight it here at home with a genuine mission that is clearly stated to the people by a leader that challenges us, with faith in us, to meet the mission.  No Propaganda and  no lies making scapegoats out of small time dictators in far off places or condemning a whole group of oppressed people by mouthing off sophmoric high school mantras – err – soundbites e.g. “they hate our freedom” to get us, the people who want to believe, riled up just for a short term gain.

No, we americans actually hate being lied to and deceived.  We don’t like being scammed. What we really respect and what we really need is true and honest to goodness American real leadership and we the people will respond.  America is worth it.   America is worth the fight.  Our people are truly good at the core and truly have earned the right to be represented well and with great reverance. 

I mean, we just want our leaders to respect us and trust us.  To have faith in us and know that we care about our country enough that we will respectfully revolt against leaders that don’t respect our dignity and our right to be represented honestly and truthfully. It is a matter of morality for sure.  100%!   Our country is so worth it and our people are just super.  We just don’t want to be lied to anymore.  We want real leadership now! We want it, we need it, and we are ready for it.