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When in Trouble, When in Doubt, Run in Circles, Scream and Shout!

By Horace Coleman

The day I was finishing this piece a news item about Arizona said the state was borrowing funds from the federal government to pay unemployment compensation to its citizens. As former NFL announcer and football player Don Meredith used to sing (badly) when the outcome of a game had been decided before it ended, "The par-ty's ooh-ver!" Reality is hitting us all in the face, asking for his. Decades of out sourcing, off shoring, union busting and "contracting" workers have brought us to our knees. Two unpaid for wars haven't helped.

So much money has been sucked to the top that fat cat individuals and institutions forgot that overall national health depends on national consumer spending—not just their druthers. The price of a loaf of bread approaching the price of a gallon of gasoline was a strong hint we're on the way to insolvency. You can't spend it unless you have it. Unless you go into debt. You can't even do that if you're laid off or have low income. Or the Chinese stop buying the government's bonds.

The Scottish historian Niall Ferguson, now doing university teaching here, wrote a book called Colossus, The Rise and Fall of the American Empire. Ferguson believes in "liberal imperialism." "Liberal Imperialism," as I understand Ferguson, means US imperialism is good because the countries the US invades are better off for it because they become more prosperous and have better governments. His book is well documented, filled with charts, graphs, footnotes and a bibliography. All supporting his viewpoint, of course.

Meanwhile the citizens of Mouseville sit around trying to figure out how to bell real and imaginary cats of actual and feared viciousness, numbers and nearness. Without drafting anyone or recognizing the existence of maimed cat bellers. Many Americans seem to believe the old fast food ad slogan "Have it your way! Have it your way!!" Some think liberty and personal license are the same thing. The American dream has morphed into the American Hangover.

Ferguson's 302-page book ends with these words:

As Tony Blair put it succinctly in his address to Congress in July 2003, "All predominant power seems for a time invincible, but in fact it is transient." The question Americans must ask themselves is just how transient they wish their predominance to be. Though the barbarians have already knocked at the gates—once spectacularly—imperial decline in this case seems more likely to come, as it came to Gibbon's Rome, from within.

In other words, quoting BB King, you have to be about "Paying the cost to be the boss." It's as easy and often that people fail the government as it is for the government to fail the people. After all, when push comes to shove, they're one and the same.

After World War II we went to war in Korea. After Vietnam we showed our strength by taking on Grenada and Panama. We had a few "adventures" before the Gulf wars and the AfPAk war.

Ferguson sees three deficits in the American Empire: Economic, manpower and attention span. We're a debtor nation. We're people who would rather see it done than do it. We don't understand or venerate the actual past or learn the right lessons from it. To quote Ferguson, "Americans like security. But they like Social Security better than national security." It works best when America runs it? We're only safe if America runs the world?

Colin Powell's doctrine, by Ferguson, "...was that American forces should never fight other than from a position of overwhelming strength, with limited goals that could be swiftly attained while commanding public support." That's a far cry from the ancient Catholic concept of a "just war" or what you may have learned in the school yard or the street.

A pragmatist might say solve your problems at the lowest level of effort needed to meet your long term needs-not your whims or bad habits. You might win the "war" on terror but you can't defeat fear.

PS: I've heard ignorance and greed are also pretty tough.

Horace Coleman was an Air Force air traffic controller / intercept director in Vietnam (1967-68). He also served in Tactical Air Command, Pacific Air Command and North American Air Defense. He speaks at grade schools, high schools and churches and lives in Long Beach, CA.

Carol Trainer carrying VVAW flag at M20 demo in DC

Harold Trainer at M20 demo in DC