Picking Up the Pieces

At the end of the third Reich as Russian armies surrounded Berlin and the Allies were approaching from the west both Herman Goering and Hienrich Himmler were both plotting to supplant Hitler. Was it power mad insanity? Were they such poor students of history? Did they not know that any leader that takes over after losing a war will have a tough time of it? At best he will have to face an angry constituency asking pointed questions and at worst face the hangman’s noose. I use the example of Germany only because it is both famous and historically recent but it is the same the world over.

History is full of examples, Germany in 1918, Russia after the October revolution the list fills pages of history books. For there is no greater case of buyer’s remorse in the world than in nations who have bought into a war and lost, they have spent the money and drank the wine and filled themselves at the banquet. Now the bills are due the parties over and no one wants to help clean up.

America had such an experience in Vietnam the public turned against the body bags and bills and forced the sword from the warlord’s hand. America suffered a loss of prestige but the world did not end as had been predicted. For in true Nixsonian fashion America had slipped away from the table and ducked out the back door. We declared peace with honor and left the Vietnamese to do the dishes. America was only able to escape the pains by virtue of it’s position as the most powerful economy and number one creditor nation in the world. It could hide the financial losses and carry on as if nothing had happened the scarring was only political and temporary.

If, and never has the question of if loomed larger on the horizon, America can make it until the next Presidential election the next President will be forced to drink from the cup of reality. That the prize has eluded us and is unattainable; Iraq’s oil wealth will belong to someone else and that there is no graceful or delicate way to escape from the debacle. The carnage must stop, not that the powerful lose sleep over the little people bleeding and dying but it is the coin of the realm itself that is dying.

If it were just a question of poor peoples blood the war would be fought eternally but America is no longer the number one creditor nation in the world. We are no longer the number one manufacturing economy in the world and the world is growing tired of taking our markers. We are no longer rich; we have cored and hollowed out our economy making pools of wealth and oceans of poor. We are no longer exempt from financial realities that the less rarified countries have always had to live with.
But the wizards have woven an elaborate spell; they have taken the blue chip dollar and by casting incantations turned it into a toad. A toad that the princes of central banks must continue to kiss as a prince, for if anyone acknowledges that it is indeed a lowly toad must also acknowledge that they have a central bank full of lowly toads. And they must continue to pucker up or to invite disaster upon themselves, a worldwide pyramid scheme.

Through importation of Chinese goods the declining value of the dollar is disguised from the American public. But no con is perfect the public suspects something but they can’t put their finger on it. The wizards of Wall Street and the media sirens of sagacity mystify them. The offer of Murdock’s News Corp. to buy Dow Jones causes barely a blip on the radar as the synergy is missed by the masses just another of Merlin’s illusions. Explain this one Mr. Wizard, the price of crude oil has doubled and the price at the pump has tripled in six years, is it greedy oil companies? Or could it be the darker prospect that the currency has lost a third of its value?

Shh! Bad oil companies for sure! With the aire heights of the stock market Mr. Wizard, are the stock gains in paper higher than the depreciated value in cash? Is foreign investment in America driven by the desire to purchase good investments or by the desire to unload the worthless paper? What will we sell them when they have bought everything America can sell at the global yard sale?

The cup of reality is a bitter wine; the Army is depleted as one year of active service equals five years of wear and tear in peacetime. Just the Army estimates to bring the equipment back to pre invasion levels would cost one hundred twenty five billion dollars over and above what is already budgeted. For Merlin has covered his tracks and hidden most of the losses and the Army is just the cheap stuff. The Navy and Air force with weapons systems in the billions of dollars face the same stark challenges.

To be more exact the leadership, the next President will be forced to face these questions.
The reclamation of our economy of our military and even our place in the world, for the uniter has untied almost the whole world against us he has replaced imaginary enemies with real ones. We have lost our position of leadership in the world; we are no longer the patriarchs in the family of nations we are now the drunken uncle who must be tolerated and watched closely.

Our infrastructure and educational system are crumbling from cronyism and neglect and it is only the tip of the iceberg not just eight years of bogus political appointees but eight years of civil services employees hired more out of party loyalties than qualifications. After all aren’t the majority of this clan not Reagan’s retreads? Do I even need to mention the judiciary? Can the next President repair the rot with all the rot built in to the structure or must the whole structure crash as it did in 1929?

The mists of Merlin’s spells are only beginning to clear most are still beguiled by the grand illusion. As the smoke clears the public will discover that we cannot bury our mistakes in the Iraqi sand box that our mistakes might well bury us. As yet we as a nation have not reached this point but we will it is inescapable. Perhaps that’s why the candidates appear so poor and ineffectual maybe we know in the back of our minds that the next President is going to have a mess to clean up unrivaled in our history. Why would anyone want the job of cleaning up after the little horn of the beast? Is it power mad insanity? Are they such poor students of history? Do they not know that any leader that takes over after losing a war will have a tough time of it? A mess that could take a generation or more? Just picking up the pieces.