As the old Nike footwear commercial once suggested, “Just Do It!”
So let’s get to the global conflagration now while the USA is still the preeminent world power and before more nuke weapons and delivery platforms are built. It’ll start with a withering assault of conventional and nuclear weapons throughout North Korea, Pakistan and Iran. The Russians and Chinese are sure to respond, maybe even the Indians. Sure there will be millions killed and maimed in the effort but this is a task that can’t be put off another day. Besides, US missile defense systems are up and ready to defend against any response by Iran, North Korea and Pakistan, and, of course Russia and China—at least that’s what advocates of missile defense claim. What’s not to believe?
The “Ends” for the Americans are clearly to deflate China and Russia’s ascendency on the world stage particularly in the sense that they both offer alternative models of Capitalism that challenge America’s patented blueprint for a Capitalist Republic and global empire.
In order to block the challengers’ meddling, American leaders in the political, military and economic sectors must ensure that the “Means,” the American instruments of national power, are used with precision and absent sentiment, particularly when manipulating human capital. Some of the “Means” include the following.
1.) Effective co-optation of Brazil, India and Turkey through diplomacy and economic instruments of national power. These countries will serve as wedges to be used to stymie Chinese and Russian advances in the diplomatic, economic and military arenas. Further, the USA, as it is doing now, must ally with Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, formerly a bitter foe. The USA will continue to align itself with wicked regimes like Saudi Arabia, an unfortunate but necessary evil (nearly all the alleged 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and funded by rogue Saudi money).
2.) Prevention of strategic and tactical military equivalence through increased spending on national security technology (cyber/information technology) at the expense of its civilian industrial sector. It must increase spending on joint US intelligence agency and corporate programs, and the development of human assets, to sabotage Russian and Chinese technology and their respective industrial bases.
3.) Bolster the US dollar as the world’s base currency. Arguably America’s most powerful instrument of national power is its financial strength/reach and the prowess of its financial firms (many staffed, as they should be, by US government operatives) to manipulate world markets.
4.) Indoctrinate the American public for constant war through US semi-official government-corporate media outlets such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CNN, FOX, CBS, CNN, ABC, and NBC. Thus far, the information operation campaign that is setting the stage for the destruction of Iran psychologically, economically and militarily is stunningly beautiful. For nearly 365 days, media cycles have included US-Israel-EU invasion scenarios, revisits of the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979, Iran sanction effects, and the American government’s insistence that the bar for negotiations with Iran over its nuclear power program be set so high as to fail.
5.) Discipline the American public for economic competition with the BRICs and for ongoing proxy wars (this includes continued expansion of presidential power, plus the merging of military and law enforcement functions domestically). As Chinese economists have noted, the American economy is overweight/bloated with too many social programs (Medicare, Social Security) and far too much overhead (generous hourly salaries for white collar proletariats and compensation for executives).
Americans do not save in anticipation of being cared for by the government. The per capita income of the USA is distorted by the inclusion of nebulous financial services accounting for nearly half of the $42K income. As the European Union is seeing the dismantling of its social programs, so too will the USA. Americans will sanction this reality with their votes in 2012 no matter whether they choose a Republican or Democrat. In short, more hours, less pay, fewer benefits, no collective bargaining for the masses. The money freed up by these necessary draconian measures will be used to reduce American debt and bolster national security budgets. Protests will be highly regulated and even prohibited in the new era of discipline.
Let all the Dogs of War out
From an American national security perspective, President Obama, and any other future American commander-in-chief, has little choice but to engage in aggressive foreign and domestic action in order to secure America’s many interests. As Obama stated in his National Security Strategy of the USA, “The United States will protect its people and advance our prosperity irrespective of the actions of any other nation . . .”
Believe it!
In this second decade of the 21st Century, the USA faces vexing challenges on virtually every front, particularly to its warring Capitalist Republic economic model. China’s Communist Confucian Capitalism offers an alternative as does Putin’s Centralized Capitalist model in Russia. American investors are bullish on China and Russia; money does not care about ideology, just returns. Wall Street was once bullish on Iran too.
Iran’s parliament, presidency, judicial branch, leader’s office and executive councils (all “elected”), offers a workable model of Theocratic Capitalist Democracy that challenges Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman dictatorial governing systems. Iran’s model is an affront to those countries and the USA. It is an interesting exercise to imagine a world where the USA and Iran had patched things up some years back. Who knows what the dynamic might be now? Iran back in the US sphere? There is some irony in that the USA will soon destroy a once stable Theocratic Capitalist Democracy but, when it comes to American national security, even the US Constitution can be redacted.
So in the dicey environment of 2012 and for the foreseeable future there should be no reason that American commanders-in-chief concern themselves with how history will view them. For that matter, what is the point of the title president? Any legacy, from the national security point of view, is already set. For example, CIC Obama’s legacy will either be that he prepared the USA well for the final war with Russia and China, or that he started a war with Iran that led to a global conflagration sooner rather than later.
Why wait any longer? The BRIC+T (Turkey) keep getting stronger and are posing a threat to the national security of the United States.
Tactical nuclear weapons must be used in the coming campaign. It is inconceivable that conventional ordnance will seriously damage the ongoing nuclear power/weapons programs of Iran, North Korea and Pakistan. US missile defense systems will shield the USA and its allies from any response from these nations.
It is uncertain whether US missile defense systems are up to the task of destroying incoming Chinese or Russian nuke missiles. Of further concern is the vulnerability of US aircraft carriers to land based missiles—decoy heavy—designed to destroy them.
Just do it.
John Stanton is a Virginia based writer specializing in national security matters. Reach him at cioran123@yahoo.com.
