Posted on 02/04/2015 1:52:33 PM PST by azcap
To retain its superpower status, the US needs to economize in an important way. This is to only use our military for activities that require a military. This means they will no longer do disaster recovery for the world, most peacekeeping, and far flung “trigger” missions.
To do this means to create a foreign based organization, somewhat modeled after the French Foreign Legion, having US officers in command, but with its ranks populated by the best fighters from around the world.
They would be trained and equipped just as light infantry, with the logistics, communications and transport provided by the US military. They would be “boots on the ground”, but without a multi-billion dollar commitment, for things like guard duty; protecting civilian populations from a hostile civilian majority; and also disaster relief to distribute aid directly to people instead of through a corrupt government.
All told, they might only cost a tenth of what deploying our forces would cost, money that could be used to keep our military in good working order.
Thank you. I actually thought JFK was a conservative because of his fiscal and military stances. What was the book? I would like to read it!
China is more like a homeowner’s association than a country. The real power rests not with the president but the red generals who “own” all production in their respective territories. The general’s children live like kings traveling the world selling sometimes forbidden technology manufactured in their dad’s territory. The central “government” can’t tell them not to sell, say, shoulder fired rockets to Hamas. This makes it impossible for China to have a single policy on how to handle, say, Iran or North Korea.
From Vietnam, to the 1965 Immigration Act, to homelessness (permanently emptying the mental hospitals in 1963 legislation) to unionizing government, to stealing the 1960 election and giving us LBJ, JFK was the end of America.
However, if there is one man who can take the most credit for the 1965 act, it is John F. Kennedy. Kennedy seems to have inherited the resentment his father Joseph felt as an outsider in Bostons WASP aristocracy. He voted against the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952, and supported various refugee acts throughout the 1950s.
In 1958 he wrote a book, A Nation of Immigrants, which attacked the quota system as illogical and without purpose, and the book served as Kennedys blueprint for immigration reform after he became president in 1960.
In the summer of 1963, Kennedy sent Congress a proposal calling for the elimination of the national origins quota system. He wanted immigrants admitted on the basis of family reunification and needed skills, without regard to national origin.
After his assassination in November, his brother Robert took up the cause of immigration reform, calling it JFKs legacy. In the forward to a revised edition of A Nation of Immigrants, issued in 1964 to gain support for the new law, he wrote, I know of no cause which President Kennedy championed more warmly than the improvement of our immigration policies. Sold as a memorial to JFK, there was very little opposition to what became known as the Immigration Act of 1965.
China has spread her military influence (ideology) in Pakistan to counterbalance India & Russia. China is busy in Africa, across the pacific and elsewhere - who is this fool?
“China is playing 100 year chess and we better hope that they make a big mistake somewhere along the way.”
China has a very narrow window to make a play. By 2030, the average age in China will be 50+. The idiot ChiComms aborted their future.
The No. 1 economic power in Asia by 2030 will be India, with half the population under the age of 30. The US would be wise to build economic, military and trade ties with the Indians.
The big problem is that China also has America’s factories.
There is nobody, out there anymore, for America.
This is a very serious issue. Nobody.
China and Iran will be happy to fill in the voids.
True, but is that ideological and political or is it just business? Is China really thirsting for world domination or are they making investments they think will pay off economically? Will we see China intervening militarily in Africa, the Middle East, the South Pacific and the Americas, or are they primarily concerned with their own quarter of the world? I don't know what the answers are, but his POV isn't totally absurd on its face and may contribute something to the discussion.
No, our borrowing costs are heavily subsidized by our military ability and capability.
... and we need a LOT of borrowed capital!
We cannot afford to stay out of other countries affairs because we need their capital to finance our welfare state.
We’re a superdebtor now and so we can’t quit being a superpower. “Guns or butter”? LOL! We have to make both.
Incredible! Laid the foundation for what we are seeing today.
Since you don’t seem bored yet, here are a couple of more factoids.
Democratic Party Platform of 1960 July 11, 1960
Immigration
“”We shall adjust our immigration, nationality and refugee policies to eliminate discrimination and to enable members of scattered families abroad to be united with relatives already in our midst.
The national-origins quota system of limiting immigration contradicts the rounding principles of this nation. It is inconsistent with our belief in the rights of man. This system was instituted after World War I as a policy of deliberate discrimination by a Republican Administration and Congress.
The revision of immigration and nationality laws we seek will implement our belief that enlightened immigration, naturalization and refugee policies and humane administration of them are important aspects of our foreign policy.
These laws will bring greater skills to our land, reunite families, permit the United States to meet its fair share of world programs of rescue and rehabilitation, and take advantage of immigration as an important factor in the growth of the American economy.
In this World Refugee Year it is our hope to achieve admission of our fair share of refugees. We will institute policies to alleviate suffering among the homeless wherever we are able to extend our aid.
We must remove the distinctions between native-born and naturalized citizens to assure full protection of our laws to all. There is no place in the United States for “second-class citizenship.”
The protections provided by due process, right of appeal, and statutes of limitation, can be extended to non-citizens without hampering the security of our nation.
We commend the Democratic Congress for the initial steps that have recently been taken toward liberalizing changes in immigration law. However, this should not be a piecemeal project and we are confident that a Democratic President in cooperation with Democratic Congresses will again implant a humanitarian and liberal spirit in our nation’s immigration and citizenship policies.””
Islam will have it’s day until it’s over for them in a big way.
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