Some of the best advice I ever heard was: if you want to get something really important done the first thing you must do is START! That's not happening in America today; we just can't seem to get untracked. When a candidate runs for political office it's routine to proclaim that "it's time for change" or "I stand for change." And, of course, we remember the Obama campaign when he promised to do just that if elected. He also said, "Hope and change are not just the rhetoric of a campaign for me." And he sealed that statement by also stating, "Yes we can."
After writing about his failure to follow through on his promise for change I have been challenged several times to clarify exactly what I mean and asked why I am unfairly criticizing our president for not making, or aggressively pursuing an agenda of change. Well, in the campaign, Mr. Obama was not very explicit about the exact changes he intended to make; however, he inspired us with his message and gave us hope that meaningful changes would follow. We're still waiting.
The facts indicate he still hasn't addressed the most pressing problems facing our nation. So, to be fair to him and to offer up constructive criticism and ideas, I will list those changes that I believe are necessary to keep America safe, to restore our economy and to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. Here are the changes that should be high on his domestic agenda:
*End the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan; bring the troops home under a specific timetable, not subject to events on the ground or pressures from the military.
*Reduce the $1 trillion annual Pentagon budget by and put $500 billion into critical domestic needs; not a stimulus but effective, lasting programs to employ U.S. workers.
*Reduce the more than 700 U.S. military installations in the world by 50%; bring the $ back to America and pump those billions into our collapsing education systems and other domestic needs.
*Rebuild the U.S. manufacturing sector; set up a system of generous tax credits for corporations who reverse outsourcing and a system of severe tax penalties for those who refuse to end the practice; set up a system of tariffs whereby we match tariffs with those nations who are using them against us (China, Korea, Japan, etc.).
*Overhaul the nation's transportation system to de-emphasize autos, trucks, and interstates; modernize it with high speed rail between cities and more rapid transit within cities.
*Set up a massive program to create alternate fuels and new sources of energy; reduce our addiction to oil; in effect, make this ambitious, comprehensive program the modern-day version of putting a man on the moon.
*Add a public option to the health care reform legislation that could have been legislated through the reconciliation process, but wasn't.
Of course, many of the usual naysayers, to whom change is anathema, will say that the changes I have outlined are unrealistic, impossible to achieve, and far too ambitious. To them I say this: that is the attitude that has, over past decades, brought on the problems and the crises that America faces today; shallow, obsolete thinking has no place in solving our critical problems.
Just imagine what America would be like if we had not spent the past nine years fighting senseless wars that have cost our nation over $1 trillion. We would not be experiencing the monumental problems that currently plague us and we would be headed in a completely different direction. Even at this dire point in time, there is nothing better than we can possibly due for our future generations than de-emphasizing war and using creativity and innovation to rebuild the foundations of America.
Yes we can - bring our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. All we need do is abandon the faulted, misguided policy and strategy that says that we need to use military force to maintain our expanding empire. We can make a clean and orderly withdrawal from those nations; it's time that we returned Iraq and Afghanistan to their people; and yes, I believe that we need to give them economic aid to repair the damage that we have inflicted. Better to use some of those billions for reconstruction as we did in Europe after World War II than continuing to use them for bullets and bombs.
Yes we can - cut the Pentagon budget in half and also reduce the number of America's worldwide military installations by 50% and we will not adversely affect the safety of the American people. The $1 trillion that the U.S. appropriates annually for the Pentagon is so large that it completely dwarfs the total military expenditures of all the combined industrialized nations of the world. We could cut it in half and America would be safe. That is, if we can find competent leaders who could properly restructure our military.
If we take these constructive actions, the Military-Industrial Complex and its many Pentagon-embedded defense contractors would lose many of their lucrative multi-billion dollar contracts and would have to convert many of their production facilities back to peaceful endeavors; that would fit perfectly with new government programs designed to develop new forms of energy, restore our manufacturing base, repair our crumbling infrastructure, overhaul our transportation system, substantially improve our education system and help our states to avoid bankruptcy.
If we withdraw our troops from foreign occupations and reduce our military empire across the globe, we could return to a time when diplomacy and negotiations were routinely used to settle differences with other nations. While that seems to be a lost art in the America of today, using mutual dialogue and cooperation rather than military confrontations and pre-emptive strikes, it could save a great deal of bloodshed and a lot of money. Of course we can - return to a more civilized approach to resolving problem situations with other nations.
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