A Look Back:

Often I wonder how we got where we are. The steps to getting anywhere are first you dream, then you plan, then you implement that plan. I am not the only person who thinks this way. Almost all rational people think this way. Very little happens with out a plan. Many may not have heard about The Project for the New American Century. The following will give you a sample:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=The+Project+for+the+New+American+Century&btnG=Search

Looking back we see many of the supporters of this plan are names from the Iraq War. These include Dick Cheney George W. Bush; Jeb Bush was also a PNAC signatory. Don Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz also signed this document. What the Wikipedia article presents is a brief look at the documents content and who supported the ideas put forward in the document.

If you have read some of the source documents included in the above URL then I think you can see the flaw in the plan. This flaw is only recently apparent. The flaw is of course that no country no matter how strong or willful can for long dominate the entire planet. Basically America’s war machine is fueled by imported oil. The folks in the Middle East have become all too aware of this reality. As they have the oil; and can control the price is it any wonder that America is hemorrhaging dollars at an unsustainable rate? American banks and monetary credit sources attempted to shore up this dollar flow by marketing securities that were essentially junk bonds. Suddenly American securities threatened to pollute the global credit markets.

America is facing an election which can select the course that America will follow for the next 4 years. Will we select the path of an American Empire? Is this the future that we wish for America? Do we as Americans wish to control the world? Quite obviously some American’s have this as a goal. Just as obviously many Americans reject this as a vision for the future. America is still a democracy. Your vote counts still. The future of America may be decided in the election of 2008.

Starting Over:

I was thinking about America yesterday and wondering what it is that seems to make America different from almost every other country in the world. Part of that difference is America’s ability to start over. Part of starting over is a desire to do things right this time. When America was founded the basic goal of the founders was to make a new country that had better policies than did Mother England. England of course did not see things quite the same way and so a revolutionary war followed.

The difference between a revolution and a rebellion is that no one ever heard of a successful rebellion. America was to learn this lesson all too well in the years 1860 to 1865. The American Civil war was the second great change and attempt at remaking America. In the process some of America was left behind and to this day there remain thoughts and traditions that continue to haunt America.

Early in the Twentieth Century the seeds of a new liberalism were planted by the first of the Roosevelt’s. Teddy Roosevelt responded to what he sensed correctly as the winds of change blowing across America. American workers desired a greater share of the wealth of America. Some would say they had no right to this. Some would also say that the Black American slave also had no right to expect freedom. Indeed much of the same mind set is shared by the people who oppose trade unionism and those that oppose civil liberties. Trade unionism propelled the American worker into the American middle class. Indeed it can be argued that there would be no middle class with out the unions.

Time has passed and the tides of fortune have again shifted. America must again change herself. Getting a grip on what changes need to be made and how to make those changes will occupy America for at least the next 20 years. How well we select the faltering first steps down this new path will be closely watched by the rest of the world. Our 232nd birthday was yesterday. I think it is past time for America to act in a more mature fashion. Don’t you?