POLITICAL GAMES, BUMPER STICKERS AND HYPERBOLE WON’T PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE
LEARNING TO LIVE ON THE ‘LEFT OVERS’
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER
Yesterday, my boss just got back to work after an extended illness. Discussions went to financing public works projects in various areas of Africa and how bond issues will all be running thru Europe. 4 hours earlier I was out in the Ohio blizzard picking up emergency rations, a cake, coke but at least not cigarettes. The well dressed couple in line infront of me were taking forever. They brought out first one credit card, then another, all declined. They ended up writing a check. The check, I would guess, represented money that didn’t pay the credit card bills, perhaps money that didn’t exist anymore.
In South Africa, alone, we have 5 million refugees from Zimbabwe and Mozambique overloading a countries “safety net” resources that aren’t 2% of America’s. Zimbabwe has a cholera epidemic and the worst economy on Earth along with the most unstable government. Yet I remember more from my trip to the store than the discussions of fixing the world.
HOW WE GOT HERE
Americans have been fixing the world for a long time. In 1898, we saved the Cubans, sort of, from Spanish oppression, only to put a mobster puppet in power. We made the world “safe for democracy” during WWI and invested millions to save Germany from Communism after that war only to end up fighting them again a few years later. The same millions became billions as we again saved them from Communism (this time the Communists were our allies) along with the rest of the world.
Two wars, Korea and Vietnam, cost us 100,000 killed officially and several hundred thousand “unofficial,” all dead saving people from oppression. Over the last 65 years, we have fought brush wars, insurrections, propped up dictators, built armies but also schools, hospitals, clinics and sent billions of dollars of food around the world.
In the last 20 years, we have fought 3 wars, one likely to go on for decades more, saving America from terrorists who hate us for reasons I am not taking the time to explain but suffice it to say, substantially of our own making. We are now flat broke, busted and besieged from all sides but spend more protecting countries that don’t care if we live or die, sacrificing our kids, our cash and utterly ignoring all sense of reality, be it world politics, economics or simple history.
WHERE “HERE” IS
We are the only military power left on Earth. The famed Russian army is a joke compared to ours. China is much the same. Europe’s armies are barely large enough to cover their minimal attempts to bolster our anti-terrorism wars and still have enough troops for a parade or two.
The reality that the oil and defense industry may drive global instability is nothing new. Our ability to ignore this underlying influence on policy is one of the greatest weaknesses of the American character. 5 words of political rhetoric from a small time draft dodging thief can override the warnings of our greatest historical figures. Truth, the real enemy our leaders seem to have defeated, perhaps the only one they are qualified to attack, is the only victory the claim of “Mission Accomplished” can be applied to.
NASTY ECONOMIC REALITY
Driving thru Europe, Turkey, Egypt, the UAE, not to speak of China, you will find the roads lined with gleaming new factories, most running 24 hours a day. You an see the same thing closer to home in and around Toronto or just south of the border in Mexico. Where you won’t find these new factories is here at home.
We have to work at Circuit City, Macy’s, Bombay or a hundred other low wage opportunities our ‘service economy’ has left us except even our service economy itself was empty rhetoric. We really have nothing left. Check the employment classifieds in your hometown paper.
WHO TO BLAME
The extremists and fools love blaming unions. In truth, the American unions, to the greatest extent, died years ago. Auto companies cut wages and benefits in half, outsourced 80% of jobs overseas or to non union “job shops.” So little of your American car is actually made in America by one of those overpaid union workers that you could probably carry the parts around in a shopping bag.
Medical costs, for years, have been the biggest drain on America’s economy, or at least the most visible. With the greatest medical technologies in the world available here, fewer and fewer Americans are receiving health care at the level of the typical citizen of Canada, the UK, France or Germany. I was just in the hospital in Dorchester, in the UK. The equipment was old but I saw a doctor in minutes and, even though I am an American citizen, there was absolutely no bill. The cost was “0”. The treatment was certainly better than the VA, by a long shot.
A few years ago, my wife needed a temporary crown on a tooth. We were staying with family in Germany at the time. It took 20 minutes to make an appointment, drive across town and get into the chair at the dentists office. The cost was $60.
LESSONS FROM EUROPE
Not everything in Europe is perfect. More money is invested in pay toilets in Germany than schools. I may not be wrong on this. A good friend living in Paris was forced to put her mother in a nursing home run by a the government and church. In America they would have gotten her out of bed and to the bathroom during the day. In France they put a diaper on everyone, no matter how mobile they are, and change it once a day. This is barbaric.
Stop on an exit on the German autobahn and look for a restaurant or hotel. You will find nothing. I just drove from Detroit to Toronto a bit ago. This is one of the most populated areas in Canada but there is nothing there, almost no gas stations and certainly no toilets. Nobody in their right mind would eat in Canada.
I stay with one of my friends in Zurich sometimes. He is former Army, a Vietnam veteran, who met a girl in the 60s there while stationed in Germany. In Switzerland he doesn’t even use a car. We based all travel, even errands on bus, street car and train schedules. You could get anywhere in minutes. Of course it is not free.
NO FREE LUNCH
Carrying a days meals around with you in a plastic bag while checking bus schedules might save thousands in gas and insurance but to most Americans would be unacceptable. The world we have built, with shopping centers, 24 hour grocery stores and parking 50 feet from the door is part of the charm of America.
A trip to a grocery store in Europe is a quick lesson. Buying fresh vegetables and fruit or meat, in many areas is impossible. Some regions, the south of France in particular, have great stores but most of Europe eats garbage and pays thru the nose for it. 90% of restaurants are a joke also. McDonalds is “fine dining” for may Europeans.
WORLD POLICEMAN
The realistic end of the road is the task the US has taken on as world policeman. Our friends in Europe, Russia and China are making billions in a world we are making safe for countries that love hating us.
There is simply no way we can keep troops all over the world to defend commercial interests that no longer exist. If our banking industry has collapsed, as we are told, then why do we have to have troops around the world to protect American business interests that no longer have money? We are already drowning in a glut of excess oil with prices plunging and world consumption dropping daily.
Without the non-existent threat of world communism and with the clear understanding that the war on terror was invention of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney, our current war against a few dozen radicals who hate America only because our visible face to the world are the thieves who have done more to destroy our own country than anything else, our current military adventures around the world, is, at best, ill conceived.
In reality, we know it was a game brought on by a government utterly out of control. Hubris.
While we have played, Germany, China, Japan, Russia and others have taken over the world. We are left with scraps.
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Gordon Duff is a Marine Vietnam veteran and regular contributor on political and social issues.
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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