The Pendulum ?
If the 19th and 20th Centuries were marked by 'Centralization' (the British Empire in the 1940's/50's & USSR-1990's as forerunners)
could the 21st Century be equally known for 'De-Centralization' ?
(especially in light of technological and transportation advances as well as 'free' trade policies and global threats ((warming atmosphere, viruses, militant islamism))
The British Empire and the USSR bankrupted themselves through militarism. Could the US follow suit?
A short list of the institutional failures in the US so far this Century:
2000 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
(however one feels about the outcome, one cannot argue that the process was 'competent')
ENRON/ARTHUR ANDERSON etc..
(the depth of the corruption (legal and illegal) of major US corporations revealed, but with little correction since either in law or morality)
9-11 CIA FBI NSA +
(turf wars, political correctness, lack of simple communications technology, etc. led to a vulnerability that cost thousands of lives and over a trillion $$$ impact to the US and World economy)
9-11 INS
(The incompetence of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service stands as a historic monument to the perils of political correctness and patronage)
The Iraq War CIA NSA OSP
(giving the Bush Administration the benefit of the doubt, the intelligence transmitted to the public to gain the support for the policy was in error and not subjected to the checks and balances within and outside the US Government)
The Iraq War-The US Establishment Media
(the checks and balances of an activist-oppositional media were absent in the runup to war)
the COLUMBIA SHUTTLE DISASTER
(the cost/reward ratio of unilateral space exploration clearly revealed by the failure of a few thousand dollars worth of foam and glue)
ABU GHRAIB -
(the single greatest wound to the psychology of the US public since the Kennedy assassination, and to the global reputation of US military forces and their civilian leadership)
MEMO-GATE - CBS NEWS RATHER/MAPES
(the grossest and most blatant attempt to use deception by a US Media institution to influence a US election in the television age)
THE IRAQ INSURGENCY -
(the failure to anticipate the manpower and diplomatic needs led to overstretch in men, material, and money)
AIPAC/PLAME/OSP/ROVE/LIBBY/CHENEY +
(after the excesses (numerically) of the US Govt's investigations into itself during the 1990's, the pendulum has swung to the other extreme, hence now the US Govt is unable to effectively investigate it's own conduct)
THE 9-11 COMMISSION -
'ABLE-DANGER's revelations reveal the probability that the only real purpose of the commission was to propose reforms of the intelligence sector at the behest of the executive branch for congress to rubberstamp
KATRINA / NEW ORLEANS + RITA -
(once again demonstrating the perils of political patronage in addition to the loss of competent administration when government agencies are consolidated)
SUMMATION
At what point will the US public's loss of confidence in their legal, political, financial, social, educational, and military institutions result in the demand for a reconstitution of power in the form of secession, disintegration, and decentralization?
I suspect only another Depression could provide the catalyst for such a reorganization. Thus, I believe that more WARS will continue to be the method by which the US Government forestalls the inevitable dissolution.
stephen h. smith
11sept2005
