This plan must concentrate on the rebuilding of America's infrastructure. This infrastructure is rapidly deteriorating, it is ranked 23d among developed nations for its overall condition, a dismal assessment to say the least. Here's the point he must make. The roads, highways, bridges, waterways, the electrical grid system, the nation's rail trackage and other elements of the infrastructure need to be improved or rebuilt now. Waiting will accomplish nothing more than largely elevating the costs involved, so the investment must be made now.
This rebuilding program will employ millions of Americans, take them off the unemployment rolls and give them purchasing power that America badly needs to help this economy get untracked. He should send this very specific plan to Congress, initiate a massive communication effort to present it to the American people and then dare Republicans to reject it.
It's time for President Obama to be innovative, bold and aggressive. While I understand that he believes that compromise is the best way to get things done, he needs to finally realize that it will never work with this group of total obstructionists whose only objective is to destroy his presidency. It's time to use the power of his office, coupled with the power of the American people, to push the Republicans out of the way and get the job done for America.
Step 2: Mr. Obama should make an announcement to the American people in September that all U.S. troops and contractors will be withdrawn from Iraq by 12-31-2011; that the only personnel left in Iraq will be for security for the U.S. embassy. Mr. Obama is currently allowing his Secretary of Defense Panetta and other officials in his administration to put pressure on the Iraqi government to extend U.S. troop presence in that nation well into the future. He needs to make it clear to all of his advisers that these troops and contractors will be coming home; that they should immediately discontinue any more dialogue with the Iraqi government over this issue.
Step 3: He should then make a further announcement that all U.S. troops and contractors will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by 12-31-2012, again leaving only security personnel for the embassy. He must end all attempts by the military and government officials to continue a troop presence in that nation almost indefinitely. A very disturbing report on August 20 in the UK Telegraph reported that America and Afghanistan are close to signing a strategic pact which would allow thousands of United States troops to remain in the country until at least 2024.
If that report is factual, then this president better take immediate action to stop the process altogether because, if he allows any such agreement to be concluded, it would infuriate the American people and quite possibly be the end of his hopes for a second term. He cannot continue to let the Pentagon, the CIA and the generals control the nation's military functions as they seem to be doing; he is the Commander-in-Chief, he is in charge of policy, they are not. It's time he made that crystal clear to them.
We can be sure that just as soon as he makes the announcements about a jobs creation program and the troop withdrawals, two things will happen immediately. First these three bold initiatives would create a state of euphoria across America and Mr. Obama would see his approval ratings skyrocket. These aggressive, very necessary actions would show the American people that he is deserving of a second term and it would also be a crushing blow to the Republican candidates for president and Congress.
The immediate reaction to his announcements by his Republican opponents, the Pentagon, the defense industry and the many war hawks in Congress would be one of tremendous anger and extreme opposition. He would come under intense attack by all these groups who support and promote war; he would be accused of putting the nation at great risk, of being a weak president and one who is no longer fit to lead America.
These various elements of the Military-Industrial Complex want the U.S. to have a permanent presence in both the Middle East and Central Asia in order to control these key strategic areas of the world. As such they will do everything in their power to completely defeat any such any presidential plan that interferes with their objectives. Their agenda goes something like this: as the empire expands, and the more countries are invaded and occupied, the more insurgents are recruited, so the more military power must be used to defeat them. But not to worry about the monumental costs, for the U.S. taxpayer will take care of that.
President Obama would need to silence this assemblage of promoters of war by taking his case directly to the American people who would be ecstatic over his decisions. He would need to be fearless and refuse to be bullied by the war profiteers. If he would take these three steps prior to the election, I would say that the chances of his being elected to a second term would be a slam dunk. He would become an instant hero in the eyes of the American people and he would be destined for greatness in recorded history.
The only question and a critically important one: is he prepared to take such actions and take the fight to those very powerful elements of the Washington Establishment who profit immensely from the proliferation of these wars? These war mongers would swiftly react by enlisting the mighty power of Corporate America to energize their controlled media lackeys to bring him down and send him to a resounding defeat in the 2012 elections. Is he finally ready to take the gloves off and do battle?
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