1944 AND 2009

This morning I watched the current White House Press Secretary at work.
And then I went out to mow the lawn.

I was disturbed. The mowing helped. Thoughts occurred.

Below are a few of them.

One of the lessons I tried to impart to my history/political science students for over thirty years was that history often is not what actually happened, but rather it is what we say happened – and that the importance of what we say happened depends upon our drawing the correct conclusions from those sayings.

Importance indeed.

For incorrect conclusions often are as important as incorrect ones, for just the opposite reasons.

To the point: on the Day called D, the United States, with Allies, carried out the greatest amphibious assault in history while at the same time conducting major operations, again with Allies, against another enemy at the other side of the world.

Both undertakings ended in complete and utter victory for the United States and Allies and complete and utter defeat for the two major enemies.

Within a couple of years of these feats, the US, to use a British term, virtually demobbed itself: mothballing ships; scrapping planes; dumping vehicles in the sea; sending millions of troops home to become teachers, builders, husbands and fathers, etc.

Against the advice of some Allies, of some geopoliticians who knew better, the US packed up and went home, hoping to take up where it left off before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the event which catapulted a most reluctant United States into WW2.

The record is clear: the US, prior to WW2, was anything but an aggrandizing, imperial power.
The Government, the people, were quite busy taking care of business at home.

The US is a most reluctant conqueror.

Is.

Has been.

It may not always be so.

The United States has the ability to be quite the opposite if it is willing to pay the price.
And it is not immune to the influence of geopolitical necessity.

Geopolitics is a sophisticated science. It is not understood by lots of people.
But that does not mean it is not real.

Gravity is not understood either.

One tenet of that science is that nations seek to defend themselves – to increase defenses as threats increase.

The US is no exception to this fundamental rule.

Great powers will eventually do whatever it takes to survive.

The US mistakenly demobbed from 1945-1950.

External threats convinced H.S. Truman; Ronald Reagan; President Bush and again President Bush, to revive the internationally comatose United States.

Presidents Carter and Clinton did not understand what was going on.

b.o. certainly does not appear to understand.
He was elected by people who have no understanding of what is going on whatsoever.

The people who elected him believe that the US has caused many of the diplomatic problems in the world; that the US can solve them by reversing traditional ways of dealing with international thugs and maniacs; and that U.S. military power is not nearly as important for U.S. and world security as it really is.

They do not know that the world and the US are forever intertwined – that N Korea and Iran and China and the US are locked together as in a ring – that the US cannot avoid certain responses to what they feel bound to do.

What the enemy states are undertaking is opposition to the US in a variety of ways, some of which can be, these days, thanks to science, most unpleasant indeed.

N Korea and Iran and China are the destablilzers of the world we all occupy.
They want to engage the US in a hostile fashion– that is their political necessity – unless the US gives them reasons not to do so.

Reasons they cannot refuse to honor.

b.o. and his advisors seem to need to learn this.

You should not be surprised that advisors can be ignorant.

b.o. has not proven that he is a great leader. It is possible that he is only a good politician – a Chicago politician no less.

Maybe he is only good at getting elected, at promising things to voters, to his constituencies.

And his constituencies are flagrantly, flamingly, ignorant.

All of them need to climb on the learning curve before it is too late.

We at The Study hope that they do their homework.

For we have a worry: it is possible that the bad guys will attack the US. It is possible that they are aware of an important maxim of politics and intrigue:

If you are going to strike a king, you had better do a good job, or he will kill you.

Our fear is that the bad buys know this and will do a real number on the US.

This is what Bush and Cheney worried about.
They were familiar with the maxim.

We fear that b.o. is not yet on the same track. His electorate certainly is not.