In the last two decades the U.S. has reacted to the 911 tragedy by creating a behemoth machine that cannot and will not continue.
It Knows Only Killing – Has Little Understanding of Foreign Cultural Factors – Spawns New Versions of Our Old Enemies – Creates a Dangerous Outgrowth of Technology Exporting It for Profit and Defies Financial Control
Knows Only Killing
This outrageous explosion of watch listing—of monitoring people and racking and stacking them on lists, assigning them numbers… assigning them death sentences without notice, on a worldwide battlefield—it was, from the very first instance, wrong,” the source of the documents told the Intercept. “We’re allowing this to happen. And by ‘we,’ I mean every American citizen who has access to this information now, but continues to do nothing about it.”
She Kills People From 7,850 Miles Away
Has Little Understanding of Foreign Cultural Factors in Nation Building
Our government has not considered the risks, the indigenous cultural impact, the expense and the sacrifices required to sustain the nation building that must occur after we invade countries in pursuit of perceived enemies and place the burden of governance on military personnel who are not equipped to deal with it or manage USAID contractors who have profit motives in mind and corruption as a regular practice.
Risks, Expenses and Sacrifices in Nation Building
Spawns New Versions of Our Old Enemies
An observer of our military actions over the last two decades in the Middle East could in no way have predicted the splintered, irrational, “Turn-Your-Back-And-You-Have-Two-New-Enemies”, scenario the US faces today. Perhaps a look back over our shoulder, examining cause and effect relationships along the road is in order.
Cause and Effect Relationships in the Middle East Creates a Dangerous Outgrowth of Technology in the Military Industrial Complex and Then Exports It for Profit
The United States remains the leading arms exporter increasing sales by 23 percent, with the country’s share of the global arms trade at 31 percent.
Very smart people in the Pentagon believed that connecting sensitive networks, expensive equipment, and powerful weapons to the open Internet was a swell idea.
This ubiquitous connectivity among devices and objects — what we now call the “Internet of Things” — would allow them to collect performance data to help design new weapons, monitor equipment remotely, and realize myriad other benefits. The risks were less assiduously cataloged.
That strategy has spread huge vulnerabilities across the Defense Department, its networks, and much of what the defense industry has spent the last several decades creating.
Defies Financial Control With Dire Consequences for the Nation’s Economic Future
A law passed in 1994 initially set the deadline for 1997, but the Pentagon’s books were in such disarray that it blew past that date. Then, in 2010, Congress told the Pentagon to comply by 2017.
The next year, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pledged that the department would by 2014 be ready for a partial account of its finances – a much less detailed accounting than requested of the military services — but the department missed that deadline too.
The Above Machine Cannot and Will Not Continue. The debt is too great a burden for generations of tax payers. It is too risky in terms of technology that has fallen fall into enemy hands, either through the “Internet of Things” or by blunders in export management. It will be replaced by domestic and foreign relations programs that emphasize global human progress and economic development in lieu of threats. The result will rely on uplifting, cooperative efforts among nations in lieu of killing. The globe has become too small to operate the Military Industrial Machine and the resources that have fueled it will be redirected. There simply is no other way. The change will be brought about in the following manner: Facing geopolitical and economic realities, stopping war interventions and investing in relationships within and without our country by offering mutual collaboration. Ceasing to dwell on threat and building long term infrastructure, education and international development. The threats will melt away. Investing for the long term at the stock holder, company and national levels based on a strategy dealing with both present day and long term challenges in education, communication and society value transitions. Electing a Congress and an Administration that knows how to strike a balance between long and short term actions. Letting them know what we think regularly by communicating with them. Knowing that most cultures and societies in upheaval today are watching our national model and choosing whether to support it, ignore it or attack it. The Dire Necessity for U.S. Long Term Strategic Vision
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