Working men and women in America are flat on their back and down for the count. Labor unions that opposed the Bush wars and the wasteful expenditures of US tax resources for them now won't oppose the same wars because they are run by a Democratic President who they voted for.
Meanwhile, the economy keeps weakening and the two wars and the sacrosanct defense budget suck money from a host of neglected domestic needs from jobs and job training programs; from infrastructure repair and maintenance; from investment in a lagging national education system; from a domestic Marshall Plan to encourage alternative energy applications across the nation.
Post-WWII American over-confidence, Bacevich writes, "has allowed Washington to postpone or ignore problems demanding attention here at home. Fixing Iraq or Afghanistan ends up taking precedence over fixing Cleveland and Detroit."
He makes the case that the solution to this disastrous situation can only come from the American people.
"When Americans demonstrate a willingness to engage seriously with others, combined with the courage to engage seriously with themselves, then real education just might begin."
A coalition of groups in Philadelphia are attempting to start that engagement and education process with a non-partisan Town Meeting For Jobs Not Wars in October. Hopefully, similar dialogues will break out across America.
Securing America and improving the lives of Americans has nothing to do with monitoring the books in places like Afghanistan for bribery and corruption. Expending more tax resources desperately needed here at home to keep the Afghan government we created honest is a misguided and futile effort.
When you recall how we dealt with Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon, the idea of American leaders "debating" whether or not to inform the "sovereign" puppet of Afghanistan of imminent raids to arrest members of his administration, you have to concede our policy has arrived at the stage of farce.
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