America Is Already Great! However, We Still Have Much Work to Do

                                     By Michael Smook

(A.) Preface:

This essay was written before the Republican and Democrat National Conventions. It will be posted shortly as an Internet – Blog several months prior to the November (’16) national elections. It is my hope that most of what I have written will remain relevant once a new President and Congress are ready to go to work early next year.

The political process we are going through now in the United State can be contentious and painful at times. However, life-in general and in-particular the political process involving a democratically-government are not for the faint-hearted. However, at its best, politics is the art of the possible. That’s why I am hopeful for the future.

(B.) Introduction:

There is a politician who has been telling the American people for some time that he will “Make America Great Again!” and that you should vote for him for President of the United States in the upcoming election in order to fix what he considers to be what’s wrong with our country. With the recent terrorist attacks in the United States, Europe and Asia and the Brexit vote in favor of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union (EU) trading block, this politician thrives on adverse circumstances and is trying to instill fear in American voters who might be persuaded to vote for a modern BT Barnum who seems to arrive at easy answers and has no tolerance of any kind of contrary opinions.

On a good day, he is angry, antagonistic, caustic, abrasive and vindictive. It seems that the term, emotional intelligence, left him some time ago. He also wants to build a wall along the border of one our largest trading partners, threaten United States companies who relocate to this neighboring country and impose tariffs on imports our largest trading partners. Without much thought, he’s stated a preference once about America paying off our national debt at fifty cents on the dollar. Many economists believe that such unorthodox actions could cause collateral damage causing a world-wide recession. Also, the outcome of this misadventure could undo our nation’s two hundred forty years of credit-worthiness. Let’s all take a collective deep breath and think things through together.

In this essay, I will outline next steps we can take together in order to improve our country by expanding and strengthening the middle class through rebuilding infrastructure and expanding trade with other nations so we can all grow and prosper together. In addition, I want to take this opportunity to write about the need in the United States for building bridges across the ideological divide. America needs to be engaged in a world in an ongoing, methodical and sustainable way enabled by policies in a world where commerce from nation-states continues to be rapidly integrated.

Seeking easy answers and making false choices is a serious mistake. Also, more talk about demonizing more than one and a half billion people of a particular monotheistic religious faith who are neither Christians nor Jews is another and more specific false choice. At the end of this essay and the timeframe we are working through, I am hopeful that we will start to make the right decisions based upon enlighten self-interest and not out-of-fear. As the late-Abraham Lincoln might say at this time, we need to channel, “The better angels of our nature.”

(C.) America Is Relatively Prosperous, But Many Do Not Feel It: Where Do We Go from Here?

America is arguably the greatest country in the world. I say arguably because I haven’t lived elsewhere. Even if we are the second greatest nation, we have much to be thankful for. America is a unified country of approximately three hundred twenty-three million people. We represent 5% of the earth’s population and 25% of its economic output. America’s farming production is the bread-basket to the world even though its farmers are a small percentage of the work force. Our cutting-edge information technology (IT) products, pharmaceutical industry and entertainment companies possess a brand which is the envy among all nations including our allies and competitors.

The remainder of the world which encompasses 95% of our planet’s population and looks to America’s involvement in so many ways including diplomatically, politically, economically, culturally as well as for our intelligence and military prowess. Also, America is a land of opportunity and of possibilities to many non-Americans. Even our adversaries look to engage America to ensure peace and prosperity. Our nation’s White House, Capitol Hill Congressional Building as well as The Statue of Liberty along with our Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore and bucolic national parks represent buildings, statues and natural beauty which are symbolic of these ideals.

Many people from developing countries want to come to America work, live and create a new life on their own or with their families where the freedom of religion, speech, political affiliation and freedom of speech are guaranteed by our constitution. I believe that our country is an imperfect and ongoing experiment as we all strive for a better, kinder and gentler world where we work to expand and strengthen the middle class for those citizens who have been left behind and are struggling.

It makes logical sense that if more citizens benefit from a system with greater equity, opportunity and justice (market and social), there will be greater social harmony and a measure of happiness. In order to move in this direction, I believe that policies should adhere to a utilitarian principle to benefit the greatest good for the greatest number as the correct default to lean towards in public policy.

As stated in a previous blog articles, I believe that the market system which represents 75% of our economy even at its most robust does not help many of those that are left behind. In a presidential election year, we need to take stock of the good that has taken place since the founding of the United States as well as especially what’s been accomplished in the past 10-20 years.

I often think of the words of George Santayana who once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This sentence represents a challenge and an opportunity. The tricky part is that there can be an ongoing argument as to how to interpret history so that our country can move ahead. Now, we are in a time of a seven-year economic recovery. Many Americans feel left out which is why so many people voted for Trump and Sanders in the Republican and Democrat Presidential Primaries. The major question voters are asking is, “Where do we go from here?”

 

My thinking about why many primary voters are unhappy wanders in more than one direction. First, the Great Recession of 2008-09 which President Obama inherited could have been far worse. In 2016, the President and Democrats do not get much credit even from supporters for saving our nation from financial ruin. I presume that in the future, historians will give him high marks for how he handled this situation. But at this time, many of the voters today seem to feel uncomfortable about the economy and sense social disharmony.

With the upcoming election, I’m also thinking that President’s legacy and the 2016 election is something to build on but not a referendum for the status quo. The American people are calling for change and the candidates running for president are listening. Possible answers to the question of which direction should change take place and how do we go about this will be covered in this essay.

(D.) The Most Consequential Election in Our Nation’s History in 1864 Affects Us Even Today

In order to discuss the present and look to the future, it’s very helpful to write about our most consequential election in American history which was one hundred and fifty-two years ago in 1864. If not for the political leadership of a war-time President, Abraham Lincoln, and the effective efforts of his generals, Grant, Sherman and Sheridan, as strategists and battlefield commanders and the brave fighting and sacrifices of our federal soldiers and sailors, George McClellan, a failed general and the Democrat candidate for President, would have won the election, sued for peace with the south and the United States would have been divided into two or more countries. So arguably our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln, could have easily been a failed or minor presidency. And, how the world may have been changed many years ahead by World Wars (I and II) and the Cold War is open to debate by historians, pundits and fiction writers?

In those days, there was no polling. Prior the unions’ successful efforts in August and September of 1984, many newspapers throughout the union were reporting that the war was a failure, our generals were butchers, our union soldiers and sailors were ineffective and our president was clueless and feckless. It was at this point, our President was able turn history around in the right direction by appointing generals who knew how to effectively wage a new kind of war on a large scale with conventional armies and navies and with the required logistics to supply our brave fighters with the latest state-of-the-art weapons and materials necessary to be decisively victorious.

These efforts were greatly assisted by the north’s great industrial might and by effective efforts by Lincoln’s Secretaries of War, Edwin Stanton, and the Navy, Gideon Welles, who were able to supply our soldiers and sailors with the means to be successful. And in addition, let’s not forget the men and women who stayed behind to work in the factories and the farms in order to produce the required goods and to grow the crops in order to feed our fighters, raise and educate their children and the women who worked on the battle fields as tireless nurses.

In this war, the margin between victory and defeat was narrow. It was not preordained that the north was going to automatically win this war and unify our nation. This war reflects unfinished business not reconciled during the American Revolution where states with and without slaves were both permitted to be part of our new nation. The politics of the first eighty-five years of American history were in summary an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile these differences.

Many Americans have unfortunately at times taken the past efforts to unify our nation for granted because this history has been largely forgotten. The relevancy of the Civil War as a major turning point in American history is still important even today. If we now hope to go on to discuss the present economic, social and political situation in the United States today, we need to understand how the past sped American history on a certain trajectory.

All is not lost. There still are opportunities to change our country for the better. That’s why I hope that we can wisely chart a course to ensure America’s growth and prosperity. I wouldn’t be writing this essay if I did not believe that step-by-step progressive change was possible.

(E.) After Effects of the War Between the States:

After the Civil War, the southern states were permitted to rejoin the United States. Thus, the country was now unified. The slaves were given freedom from their political and legal status and male slaves were given the right to vote. However, after twelve years of a period known as Reconstruction, things changed significantly for the worse.  During this time, a masked vigilante group known as the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) primarily composed of former Confederate officers and enlisted men launched a lawless reign of terror against Blacks in the south and border states and were permitted to get away with criminal acts of murder and destruction of property by local authorities. The KKK was able to be so bold, unlawful, immoral and audacious because the federal government pulled its troops out of the south now that supposed normalization took place. No legal authority was deputized by authorities at different levels of government to effectively stop the KKK after Reconstruction ended.

From the end of Reconstruction and over the next ninety years, southern states implemented a policy of separate but equal which is often referred to as The Jim Crow Laws. Thus, many Black Americans were treated as second class citizens and relegated to work as tenant farmers on land in the rural south that were once plantations. They were no longer physically enslaved, but instead they remain economic slaves. The United States Supreme Court in one of its worst decisions endorsed these policies through its Plessy Vs Ferguson decision.  Southern state and local governments found ways to greatly minimize the Black vote at the ballot box through physical intimidation, literacy tests and poll taxes. With power devolving from the federal government to the states, a case can be made which articulates that although the north won the war and preserved our nation’s union, the south won the peace at least for the next ninety years.

In the 1960s, we saw some change for the better with the federal government passing laws known as the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965.  These new laws were reinforced by the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the 14^th Amendment which were passed into law following the Civil War but never effectively implemented until a century later.  The assassination of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) served as a catalyst along with the civil rights movement lead by Martin Luther King, Jr., which was assisted by the agenda of the new President, Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ). Johnson was originally a Senator from Texas before he moved onto Washington, DC, as Vice President and later President. Both of these men, Johnson and King, were the principal agents of change which made this legislation possible.

In the 1960s, we saw a new breed of more open minded and progressive southern governors elected into office such as Jimmy Carter in the 1960s and 70s and Bill Clinton in the 1980s and 90s. During this timeframe, separate but equal was gradually eliminated and Blacks were able to vote in greater numbers. In the new twenty first century, the social disharmony erupted with increasing frequency reflected in incidents between police (both Black and White) and Black citizens throughout our nation in Minnesota, Maryland, Texas and Missouri. These incidents represent a sense to me that there is unfinished business going back to the time of the civil war and hundreds of years before then.

In my way of thinking, part of this problem requires a balancing in the change in policies requiring an improvement in the economic lives of Black citizens as well as all American citizens. I believe that I can say with an honest conviction that both Black-Lives-Matter and All-Lives-Matter. I think that one of the issues that will continue to be discussed now that we have presumptive nominees of both the Democrat and Republic Party is a plan to legislate a jobs bill and greater federal funding of trade schools and public colleges. It is politically a good idea to unify all people behind an employment opportunities program. This initiative cannot be viewed as a bill favoring any one particular group. It must be seen as “An American Rebuilding Project” which revitalizes our country, education citizenry and puts people back to work.

I do not presume that an economic approach will resolve all of the aftereffects of hundreds of years of slavery, the civil war and all the rest. However, I believe, it’s an effective start.  Borrowing from an old Chinese proverb, I recall the following. If we are embarked on a journey of a thousand miles, we need to start with the first step.

(F.) Some Voters Are Angry and What Two Politicians Are Advocating About in Their “Stump” Speeches:

The numbers which reflect the past seven years of recovery look good in terms of a reduction of the nation’s unemployment rate, a declining annual federal budget deficit, the strength of the United States dollar, a cost reduction of gasoline per gallon at the pump and a successful (bull) stock market on Wall Street all reflects good news.  Some of the policies offered by the Presidential candidates are false choices which may seem popular and are directed towards anxious and eager voters who are open to listening about a quick fix.

The Republican presumptive nominee, Donald J. Trump, a self-proclaimed billionaire paradoxically remains popular with white, non-Hispanic, non-college educated voters who want to build a wall along the US-Mexican border and ask the Mexicans to pay for it. Secondly, he wants to deport twelve million undocumented immigrants who remain in legal limbo because the federal government has been hindered by inaction of the Congress and the judgement of the United States Supreme Court in its recent decision. Thirdly, Trump seems to feel that he can enforce tariffs on Chinese made goods shipped to the United States for trade without any adverse repercussions between both countries. In addition, Trump believes that a large tax cut is a good idea to stimulate the economy even though many economists believe that Trump’s Plan will explode the annual budget deficit by an additional ten trillion dollars over the next ten years.

Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont who is very popular with young voters and wants to break up the banks who he blames as having ripped-off the American people. Secondly, Sanders wants to roll back the Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare by possibly improving it or replacing it with Medicare. Thirdly, Mr. Sanders wants to make public college available at no-cost to all Americans. In addition, Senator Sanders wants all Americans to have a livable minimal wage at fifteen dollars per hour. What Sanders would be able to accomplish as President if Republicans retain one or both houses of Congress is open to question?

(G.) The “Big Lie Theory” and “The Tyranny of the Majority” Can Cause Terrible Excesses in a Democracy:

Some voters are angry, fearful and want change. In a symbolic sense, it feels like the voters are being treated like hungry animals and the politicians in their speeches and proposals are throwing words and ideas which is symbolic “red or raw meat” to them. Some politicians can feel voter uncertainty, anxiousness and are exploiting it to their advantage. Americans are not being asked to pull together for a sense of shared sacrifice. One politician promises tax cuts which we might not be able to afford. Another promises benefits without specifying how to pay for them. The politicians I am thinking of are not asking for additional sacrifice from the voters who can contribute in a way similar to John F. Kennedy’s vision. JFK said in his inaugural address, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Is both a combination of patriotism and self-sacrifice now passé?

I think that Bernie Sanders can be a force for good. However, I don’t agree with everything that Sanders stands for and he can be a little over the top and shrill in his rhetoric. But, he is not a threat to the American way of life. However, I’m getting a bad feeling about Trump and shortly, I’ll explain why.

I know that this process although part of our democratic election campaign where the people decide seems to be borrowing from authoritarian government’s use of “The Big Lie Theory”. What this thinking is about is that if you use mass communication technology and tell a lie often and convincing enough with distorted information falsely attributed to be facts which are at best misinformation but at worst lies, people will eventually accept it as the truth. What some politicians are doing is playing upon people’s fears and desires for quick painless fixes.

Coupled with “The Big Lie Theory” is another idea known as “The Tyranny of the Majority”.  Alexis de Tocqueville was a politician, diplomat and scholar who visited the United States in the 1820s and 30s. In his travels, de Tocqueville observed and later wrote in, “Democracy in America”, that people in a democracy sometimes do not act in the responsible way and made life difficult for other people who may be hold a differing and minority point-of-view. Thus, an uncompromising and unforgiving majority or a plurality of citizens can make life difficult for a minority which holds contrary points-of-view.

The most glaring example of the combining of “The Big Lie Theory” and “The Tyranny of the Majority” occurred in American history during the McCarthy era. Senator Joseph McCarthy, the junior senator from Wisconsin, in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s misused his power in the United State Senate because he claimed on television, radio and through newspapers and magazines and the Senate floor that the United States’ State Department was riddled with communists in a world-wide international conspiracy to cause a revolution to overturn our democratically elected government. These American citizens where thought to be agents of a foreign government, the Soviet Union, who were frequently referred to as “fellow travelers”, “fifth columnists” or “traitors”.

During this timeframe in the other chamber of Congress, the House of Representatives, through its House on Un-Americans Activities (HUAC) Committee focused on the entertainment industry, specifically Hollywood, and interviewed Studio Heads, Producers, Directors, Screen Writers and Actors. One particular group who resisted Congresses bullying became known as the “The Hollywood Ten” . These American citizens were compelled to name names of people who may have once belonged to organizations who this committee identified as being members of subversive or communist groups who were considered to be a threat to our nation’s way-of-life. At great risk to their careers and sources of income, some people fought back stating that they were loyal Americans but refused to comply with Congresses’ misuse of its power citing their constitutional protection under the First Amendment’s “Freedom of Speech” provision.

In one poignant moment, during a Congressional Inquisition, a famed Academy Award winning screen writer, Ring Lardner, Jr., said in defiance of the committee, “I could answer your question and tell you exactly you what you want to know. But if I did, I would hate myself in the morning”. Lardner did serve nearly ten months in prison for contempt of Congress. In order to find work and circumvent the blacklist, Lardner had to relocate to Mexico, New York and Great Britain under a different name in order to find work in exchange for reduced compensation until the blacklist was lifted and he was able to return to career in Hollywood.

In retrospect, Lardner and his contemporaries did not commit a crime. They were persecuted.  These individuals were loyal American citizens as well as symbols and victim of America at its worst. In particular, Lardner suffered in different ways for a long period of time. However, he eventually rejoined Hollywood working in America without compromising his principles and was rewarded for this outstanding screen writing with a second Academy Award for his screen writing.  

After the HUAC Committee Hearings, Joseph McCarthy emerged. McCarthy had the power to subpoena witnesses to testify under oath of law. But, he was also a symbol and catalyst for negative change. The excuse for loyalty oaths for law abiding citizens and terminating people from their jobs without cause had to do with a climate of fear which spread throughout our nation relating to Soviet Union domination over Central Europe following WWII and the loss of six hundred million Chinese to the communists in a civil war half way around the world in 1949. On the home front, adding to the public’s fear was the publicity caused by two American citizens, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were tried, convicted and executed for selling America’s nuclear secrets to the Soviets.

For a period of time, McCarthy gained power because the American people were afraid and many Americans were quietly supportive of his efforts. Eventually, the American people and the politicians in Washington, DC, came to their senses. McCarthy lost power, shortly started to fade from history and unfortunately soon passed away.

(H.) False Choices Which May Sound Good to Some but May Also Cause Problems:

Bernie Sanders in his stump speech frequently criticizes the big banks as ripping off citizens with loyalty only to profits through Wall Street and working against the powerless represented as Main Street. In interviews over many months, I have noted that Sanders has not commented whether he feels that the Obama Administration’s Dodd-Frank legislation and newly created Consumer Protection Board have adequately reigned in Wall Street and the banks too big to fail since the 2008/09 recession. Nor has Senator Sanders explained in detail how he will break up the big banks and how this change in America’s financial services industry will ensure prosperity of our overall national economy and individual lives?

In addition, Sanders talks about major changes in the Affordable Care Act. Sanders wants an expansion in universal health care. He also calls for universal public college education paid for by the federal government. Sanders has not explained how these major pieces of social legislation will be paid for? Perhaps his answer is to “Tax the banks?” Sanders has not explained whether his agenda will or will not increase the federal government’s annual budget deficit nor its effect on the national economy. He has also not explained what he will do if he were to win the Democrat nomination and the United States Congress remains under a Republican majority?

Trump temporarily has rewritten the “play-book” on running for President at least as a Republican. It seems everything conventional politics says, “not-to-do”, Trump is doing. He has insulted Women, Muslims and Mexicans. With primary voters, this way of running his campaign hasn’t hindered him yet. It all seems counter-intuitive. However, if you believe the national polls, it looks like the presidential race will be close. Hilary Clinton who will Donald Trump’s opponent has polled high negative numbers by many likely voters exceeded only by Trump which seems give her a slight edge at least for now.

It seems to me that Trump has been successful thus far in conveying a message whereby he states that other trading partners weren’t playing fair and that unless terms are renegotiated favorably to the United States, he would have the United States bluff walking out and thus jeopardize long standing economic, diplomatic, political, military, environmental and intelligence understandings. By merging his stump speech about international trade supposedly affecting the United States economy in an adverse sort of way, Trump criticizes national economic policy between America, other countries and long standing trade agreements. As part of his speeches and ad-hoc comments when talking about international commerce, Trump also uses nativist rhetoric about untrustworthy fifth columnists that are the undoing of America.

Many of Trump’s suggestions are impractical and might have unintended consequences. Trump talks about deporting twelve million undocumented immigrants. Many of these residents are from Mexico. I do not see their stay as harm to the American economy. I believe that attempting to try to deport these undocumented immigrants en-masse if it were possible would be a disruptive measure and might have unintended consequences for starters in the service, construction and agricultural industries.

Further discussion about strengthening our borders and revising immigration policy is certainly an acceptable topic of conversation and part of the continuing conversation in American politics and government. However, political consensus about realistically creating a legal pathway to worker permits, residencies &/or citizenship requires a serious ongoing conversation, some compromise and realistic and workable options.

At the same time Trump calls for unrealistic mass deportations, he also campaigns about Mexican rapists and criminals coming across our borders. His rhetoric amounts to outright slander and scare tactics which bring out the worst in politics and the voters who choose to side with Trump’s false choices. The campaign pledge to build a wall between Mexico and the United States further inflames the rhetoric and is not conducive to productive negotiations with our Mexican neighbor. The demonizing of Mexicans is an attempt to try to make political points and re-engineer or possibly destroy the North American Free Trade (NAFTA) Agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada.

The recent uproar by especially Indiana voters over the announcement that The Carrier Air Conditioning Company was planning to leave the State of Indiana and the United States for Mexico to restart its manufacturing operations is an unfortunate part of America’s trade relations with Mexico and our free market capitalistic system. America’s population is more than two hundred million citizens larger than Mexico. The US economy is more than fifteen times greater than Mexico. The fifty billion dollar US trade deficit with Mexico is an abstraction. Americans for example come out ahead when Ford automobiles are assembled in Mexico instead of the United States.

If voters are looking for a greater effort from the government to make a difference that’s okay for those who have strong feelings and opinions and then want to direct their energies to the federal government to provide assistance.  However, talking about punishing Mexico is a false approach to managing the United States relations with Mexico.  I have an answer to the wrong-headed Trump policies which the Republican nominee proposes which I’ll discuss with you shortly.

I believe in the marketplace, but it cannot solve all of society’s social problems. Sometimes, capitalism falls short of meeting people’s needs and causes pain to citizens. With the economic system we live within, there are winners and losers. That’s the way the system works. However, if we fall short of a broad-based prosperity in the marketplace, I think that effective governmental action can help make the difference by creating an atmosphere of equity, opportunity and justice.

(I.) How Can America Make Better Choices?

The American free market capitalist system is the envy of the world. What are the largest companies in the world who are also based in America which are relatively new and which are changing the way commerce is conducted throughout the world? I’m thinking about Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Uber, Twitter, Netflix, Drop-Box, Hulu, Tesla Motors/Space X and Microsoft for starters. In addition to IT, we are strong in pharmaceuticals, medicine, transportation, financial services and much more. The private and the non-profit sectors comprise 75% of America’s economy. In terms of gross domestic product (GDP) which is tabulating the total cost of goods and services generated within a country during a calendar year, the United States economy is far larger than China’s and yet China’s total population is four times larger than the United States.

I don’t think that we can solely rely on the private sector to ensure continue economic growth as well as expanding and strengthening the middle class to give people greater equity, opportunity and justice. Heroic and supplemental governmental efforts may not change the hearts and minds of people? However, if more Americans feel that they have a stake in the system, we will be able to minimize disharmony, rebuild America and start the process of enhancing greater cohesiveness even between people who disagree in terms of politics and economics.

I believe that the next President should outline what categories of infrastructure projects can be initiated during the first administration over a four-year timeframe.  For starters, I’m thinking that it’s in America’s best interests to start rebuilding and repairing roads, bridges, sewage and water systems. Additional infrastructure initiatives could also include the nationwide electrical grid, mass transportation, internet band-width and energy. We need to collectively lean forward, listen closely and pull together to ensure that our country has a plan to energize the economy and at times I see government’s partnering with the private sector.

In the twentieth century, it was the federal government which in terms of job growth and affordable energy creation was able to build the Hoover Dam, the Tennessee Valley (TVA) Authority, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and provide tax incentives to help grow businesses including renewable energy (solar energy and wind farms). If the United States wishes to remain the last best hope for the world not just over the next few decades, but over the next one, two or three hundred years, it needs to remain focused on its economic health as well as to be prepared to reduce the potentially adverse after effects of climate change by focusing on newly required and important green technologies. If America retains its fiscal prowess, everything good which we stand will flow from that.

I think that what we are talking about is enlightened shared or self-interest. There will be good times and challenging times. I’m channeling my inner-biblical, Old Testament, Joseph who was imprisoned in Egypt and perhaps destined remain incarcerated for his lifetime or to be executed? Instead when told of the Pharaoh’s challenging dreams about seven fat cows and seven lean cows, Joseph was given an opportunity to meet with this empire’s supreme leader.  Joseph advised the Pharaoh to prepare his kingdom for future famine. In his response, the Pharaoh made Joseph his Prime Minister and together they were able to direct the people to store sufficient food for the times in which famine challenged the land of Egypt. Moving from times of antiquity to modern history, economics and all the rest, what we know is that even in countries with the most robust economies and the best financial plans we will still face times of recession.

I believe that effective governmental action can help maximize growth which is ongoing, sustainable and environmentally sound. In borrowing from the words of Ben Franklin, “We either hang together or surely we will hang separately.” What we strive for where I work, we can also wish for our entire country. At my job, we say, it’s all about teamwork and communication.  I believe that the same philosophy applies to the United States.

It’s often been said that, “Charity begins at home.” It’s understandable that many individuals and families are challenged enough in their lives whereby finding a good paying job and maintaining it, buying a home, parenting children through adulthood, going on an occasional vacation and saving for our children’s college and retirement keeps us busy enough. Perhaps if people are more prosperous, they will take a greater interest in the world around them with our country engaged in economic trading alliances as well as taking an interest in political, social and diplomatic relations with 95% of the world which is not American?

Someone near and dear to me once asked me, “Why should I care with what’s going on in the world?” I gave a quick and simple reply which is I think is truthful, helpful, succinct and on target. I said, “Well if the President implements a great economic plan with good fortune, we will see our retirement funds tied in with Wall Street continue to grow. We might also see lower inflation so that our income will buy more of the things we need to live our lives.” I also said that in a similar way, the chief executive in charge of operating the municipal government we both work for (our Mayor) will benefit us if he does a good job and with some good luck in terms of the quality of the life we live. Lastly under these circumstances, we might receive timelier cost of living raises? So, I can envision that initiatives at the federal, state and local levels, the public sector, can help make a difference.

(J.) Before We Can Understand the World Today, We First Need to Look at The Past Following WW II:

After ISIS emerged with attacks against civilian targets in Belgium and France later killing many innocent people in the United States, Africa and throughout Asia, a friend first called me on the phone and asked me, “What should we do?” I said America should not act impulsively and at the same time that the United States and its allies might continue to be engaged in countering this threat for some time. I added that we need to think comprehensively and collaboratively with policies involving economic, political and diplomatic, intelligence and military alliances in a similar way that we managed competition and at times war in response to the world-wide communist insurgency during a period of time known as The Cold War.

For example, shortly after the end of World War II, both Greece and Turkey were both faced with communist aggression both from within and from outside its borders which threatened to overthrow the existing governments. As an interim measure, the United Stated provided military aid in the form of weapons to our friends and allies. This policy was referred to as “The Truman Doctrine”. In addition, the United States decided to offer economic aid to help Western European allies to prevent mass starvation and to help get devastated industries off the ground so that they could be rebuilt because of the destruction caused by WWII.  This initiative was referred to as “The Marshall Plan” after America’s Secretary of State George Marshall.  On a short term basis, these polices were effective.

Shortly thereafter, it became apparent that the competition between the United States and its allies to protect its citizenry with new and enhanced policies and programs in order to engage our adversaries on an extended basis. A major influence on how to use American power was outlined in an essay in the 1940s post-WWII which advocated by a man who was an intellectual, an academic, a statesman and a diplomat. His name was George Kennan. Kennan believed that western democracies could best engage the communists by what became known as the “Containment Theory”. This overriding principle advocated that the West needed to counter the Soviet and their allies not in only military and intelligence terms but through economic programs as well as politics and diplomacy.

 At the same time, the United States helped create a military alliance with our allies which included the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany and other western industrialized nations. This military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) Organization, was created to counter the Soviets’ Warsaw Pact military alliance which included Central European communist countries. NATO helped keep the peace in the European continent and ensured the absence of conflict in this part of the world. As a Roman Military History once wrote, “If you come in peace, prepare for war.” We did prepare our allies and our homeland and it worked in a competition against our competitors and adversaries.

 The United States also encouraged our European allies to join together as an economic alliance to become the United States of Europe. First through trade agreements and then the establishment of a European Union, institutions were created which helped strengthen Western European nations as a block while still retaining each nation’s individual identity and independence. Over time, this transition eventually led to the inclusion of Central European nations who no longer were subject to Russian domination and communism. Most recently, we have seen the introduction of a common currency known as “The Euro” replacing each EU nations’ local currency.

The United States also played a major role in creating financial institutions known as The World Bank and a second source of economic assistance known as the International Monetary (IMF) Fund. The IMF which is usually directed by a European was created primarily to help western democracies strengthen their economies. The IMF specializes in statistical analyses, currency exchange rate issues, budgetary matters and now short term loans to developing nations.

The World Bank who’s director is appointed by the United States was established to provide targeted aid in the form of loans to new, non-aligned, nations known as the developing world or third world nations. The idea behind creating these sources of economic aid was that the international communist insurgency might sound seductive to some western industrialized and many new nations. These developing world countries were once colonies of western democracies and counter-measures were needed by the US to ensure alliances with new neutral nations by promoting economic growth in a capitalist system where political leaders could come to power in new nations through democratic elections.

In the timeframe post WW II, the United States, its allies and the United Nations, worked to ensure that these new nations would be directed toward economic growth through the green revolution in food production. World Bank loans helped get new industries in the third world off-the- ground helped enhance economic growth. Also, a new successful and popular policy of micro-loans from local financial institutions was established to help raise many of its citizens, by growing cottage industries, to transition families from extreme poverty to poverty and eventual prosperity within developing nations.

The thinking was that by growing the economies of third world nations with financial aid from the west, it would be possible to be able to find a way to provide for individuals and families with housing, food, clothing, education, health care and systems to ensure sustainable farming and food production, clean drinking water and sewage treatment systems. With all this in place, then peace in the developing world and the creation of new alliances would be possible while successfully competing with communism. It was felt under the “Containment Theory’ that this was a battle America could win.

Regarding my friend’s initial phone call and my comments in the preceding paragraphs, I just gave my readers a more detailed answer of past American actions to counter communism and protect the homeland and our allies and to reach out to new nations. Now, the world has changed, over the past 50-60 years. In 2016 and in the future, it may now be necessary for new thinking to fight this merging battle with ISIS and al-Qaeda with different policies, programs and tactics? To try a new approach, may require new funding and a revised overall plan channeling the kind of thinking which helped our policy makers implement the original “The Containment Theory.”

(K.) The End of the Cold War and The Multi-Polar World We Are Now Living In:

It been now twenty-five years since the Soviet Empire disintegrated due to the fact that the Soviet economic model was inefficient, unproductive and not competitive with the United States and the West. Parts of the Soviet Empire on its southern tier have become independent and have maintained both good relations with both the United States and the new nation now once again called Russia. The Soviet’s Central European satellite nations have withdrawn from the Warsaw Pact which no longer remains an arm of Soviet or Russian military and economic might.  Countries like Poland and Hungry have paid-off massive national debts, have robust private economic sectors which are part of the free-enterprise-system and have joined Western Europeans in order to be part of the European Union economic and trading block.

These former Soviet satellites, based upon hundreds of years’ experiences, are fearful of Russia and readily want the United States to follow through with confidence building measures. The United States through NATO participates in war games with the involvement of Central European nations and pre-positions tanks, other weapons and supplies within these nations and at their request which is why many have joined this alliance. So, economic prosperity, politics/diplomacy as well as military might and intelligence capabilities go hand-in-hand in maintaining the new status quo on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and now within Central Europe.

(L.) Let’s Look at the What’s Going On Now, Pull It All Together and Develop A Calm Rational Plan to Manage America’s Place In the Post-Cold War:

In the post-Cold War digitalized world, the paradoxes and complexities are ongoing. The world is getting smaller and smaller. Information travels across the globe literally in seconds. In addition, our economies are integrated and this interdependence creates the need for cooperation at the same time there is competition. Everyone and that includes individuals as well as nations and alliances have work to do because adjustments in these ever-changing times must be made for the world to go forward and for the need for enhanced growth and prosperity for all.

(L.1.) What Can the United States Do to Manage Its Relationship with China?

Crises and challenges need to be looked at as much as possible from a cost effective, historical, dispassionate and sustainable point of view. Every country I can think of throughout our world has work to do. For example, China which is now being talked about in the way that we looked at Japan in the late 1970s and early 1980s is thought of to be an economic powerhouse.  When not too long ago, the Chinese Shanghai Stock Market started to implode, those in the western press took a more in-depth analysis of the Chinese Achilles Heel which is a euphemism for the Chinese systems’ weaknesses. With unprecedented growth in the Chinese economy, what I was reading in Time Magazine was about the communist leadership’s underlying fear that if the economy stopped its robust economic growth, how would people through this country react?

Would an ongoing recession cause fissures in the social harmony among those in power in the communist party, the government, the private sector, the military, the intelligence community and in law enforcement throughout the country at the local, regional and national levels? Would the underlying agreement between those in power especially the communist party and the private sector be jeopardized because of problematic social disharmony in ways far greater than ever before and not easily answered by brutal suppression such as the Tiananmen Square episode of thirty-five years ago?

We have our own share of challenges in the United States. But as an American, I don’t envy what the Chinese face even with their often robust economy. It seems to me that China needs to maintain ongoing economic growth including the closing down of unprofitable businesses subsidized by the central government’s national bank including the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) while transitioning to greater freedom of expression and democracy, combating global warming and moving on to clean energy technologies and facing a population imbalance propelled by thirty-five years of the one child only rule.

In addition, a second demographic imbalance in China relates to the fact that there are greater numbers of males to females resulting from a social issue where newborn males are preferred over females. To compound this problem, the use of modern technological capabilities through use of sonograms and abortions allow some families to have the more highly prized males as their one allotted child.

America is needed because of its national security interests in its pivot to Asia through projection of its navy as China continues to build aircraft carriers, create artificial islands for deploying its air power, temporarily erecting oil drilling platforms in Vietnam’s territorial waters to satisfy its need for energy resources while enhancing Chinese presence in this region of the world. America benefits from ongoing trade with our Pacific Ocean allies in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Canada and Latin America as well as trading partners close-by in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Singapore and a new economic relationship with Vietnam.

I’m hopeful that in the lame-duck Congress, this legislature approves Obama’s Trans-Pacific (TPP) Partnership Trade Agreement will help America increase its economic engagement in this part of the world. If there is room for compromise in environmental, legal and labor provisions of this agreement which won’t undermine five or more years of negotiations, then hopefully the Congress and the President hopefully can reach an effective compromise.

China has also established a financial institution, The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, that some economists believe will rival the World Bank and the IMF in its importance. China may have created this institution because it will enhance its world-wide political influence and economic power? It’s possible that China’s leadership collectively felt left out of its participation with the World Bank and the IMF? I think that the new President at some point in the first administration, starting in 2017, should consider United States participation in the Chinese new world-wide lending bank and also encourage Japanese to join us.

 I think that it’s better to be at the negotiating table and involved in managing the investment bank’s policy, programs, contributions, collaboration and distribution of loans and grants. The goal is not to win or beat China in some imaginary race. The necessity is for America to meet its national security interests to enhance its economic prosperity while at the same time managing its relationship with China, cooperating with its allies and improving its relationship with a new trading partner, Vietnam, which wants American engagement.

Although the North Korean nuclear issue at times feels like an uncontrollable situation, it’s in the best interests of China, America and other parties in the neighborhood to engage North Korea to restrain its hostile and militaristic behavior. China is the one country with the greatest leverage to control its neighbor and ally under new and untested leadership.

(L.2.) The Middle East, Russia, the European Union/NATO, the United Kingdom and China Are All Connected: How to Manage Problematic Situations and Move Forward to Beneficial and Ongoing Outcomes:

The title of this section is rather ambitious. Shortly, I will describe how the post-industrial world is all connected and how we in the United States can move forward to beneficial outcomes. My goal is to provide my readers with relevant information and insightful observations with an economy of words. But before I do so, I want to tell you a sports metaphor that will relate to what’s going on in the world today.

(L.3.) Ain’t We Amazing? “It Was A Team Effort”:

In 1962, The New York Mets were permitted to enter major league baseball’s National League as a new franchise team as a way for the City of New York to be compensated for the 1958 loss of both the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants in a move to the West Coast cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. In its first season, the Mets were without a stadium. Shea Stadium and later Citi-Field were not yet built. So, the Mets rented space at the former home of the now departed New York Giants at the Polo Grounds in North Manhattan. In order to help the Mets off to a strong start, they hired former New York Yankees manager, Casey Stengel, who had previously lead the Yankees to seven World Series Championships and ten American League Pennant teams over twelve seasons between 1949 and 1960 and he would eventually be inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

The Mets unfortunately had one of the worst regular season records in modern baseball history in its first season in 1962. At the end of the last game of the regular season, the starting pitcher Roger Craig approached Casey Stengel in the team’s locker room and said, “I didn’t pitch well today. I could have performed better. I let the team down.” With an overall record of forty wins and one hundred and twenty loses, Stengel knew that one outstanding game at the end of the long losing inaugural season game was not going to change much. Stengel in order to assuage the concerns of his starting pitcher and with a little bit of humor told Craig the following, “Don’t worry son. It’s not your fault. It was a team effort.”

Within seven years, the Mets were able to perform a near-miracle and greatly improve their ball club and in spectacular fashion upset the highly favored Baltimore Orioles and won the prized World Series of 1969. To Mets fans throughout its home borough of Queens as well as all-over the City and State of New York, this team was known to as “The Amazing Mets”. What I can tell you as a baseball fan, as an observer of current events and history and an Internet-Blogger, I know a few truths which I will share with you.

 For example, I know that things seem to stay the same in the world we live-in. However, in reality they are almost always changing. I’m also aware that minor miracles are possible. In addition, from time-to-time and when things work out in baseball or in most other aspects of life, it frequently is a team effort which makes a difference. Lastly, let me simply state that in most successful team-efforts chance favors the well-prepared plan, team and individuals.

Finally, I caution my fellow Americans who may vote differently than me, be careful what you wish for because with great power as voters you may get what you want and then you might have to deal with uncomfortable and unprofitable consequences. Lastly, I caution my readers to “Think Brexit.” Take a deep breath and clear your mind and think again.

For example, if you were British, many of you may change your mind, call for a do-over, vote again and then “Remain” in the EU.  It may not be as exciting but it’s a better arrangement for many nations and citizens (men or women on the street) and the need for a greater good.

(L.4.) Let’s Take An Illuminating But Concise Look at the Last Hundred Years in World History:

During the past one hundred years, the world has gone through two hugely destructive World Wars (I and II), between the major industrialized nations and the worlds most populated nation China and its neighbors Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea. Secondly after WWI, Russia went through a revolution with the Communists, led by Bolsheviks’ also known as the Red Army, winning against the Russian White Army and created a new empire known as the Soviet Union. Under communist ideology, the Soviet Union possessed a messianic vision of world revolution and conquest under its merged political, military and economic ideology.

The United States and its allies tried to counter these efforts through the creation of the NATO military alliance and economic agreements. Thirdly, China went through a civil war where the Communists defeated the Nationalists who were led by an ineffective warlord who set up his base of power and a new nation on the Island of Taiwan.

At the end of WWI, the Ottoman Empire led by the Turks crumbled with the Arab nations reaching near independence with a temporary British and French military and civilian authority filling of the power vacuum as part of each nations colonial empire. The twenty-two Arab nations eventually found full independence with some of these countries reaching great wealth because of the world’s need for energy in particular oil. The twenty-two Arab nations have overall fallen short as successful nations and now face insurgences with two non-nation entities known as ISIS and al-Qaeda that possess toxic philosophies, advanced through its war crimes falsely justified in the name of Islam, the Prophet (Muhammed) and G-d (Allah) himself. Both groups commit murder, rely on terror and now control parts of Iraq, Syria and Libya which is largely financed from oil expropriated from Kirkuk, Iraq, and through sham-charities operating throughout the Muslim World.

The predominant religion in this part of the world is Islam. People who belong to this religion of 1.6 billion people are called Muslims. 85% of all Muslims are members of a group who refer to themselves as Sunnis whose holiest sites are in Saudi Arabia’s cities known as Mecca and Medina. The remainder of the world’s Muslims call themselves Shiites with the largest population in Persian Iran. When people in the United States and throughout the west think of Muslims, they think of Arabs. But, only 20% of all Muslims are Arabs. The most populated Muslim countries in the world are non-Arab nations including Turkey, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines, China and Russia.

Middle Eastern countries have had problems which have held it back for a variety of reasons. First, the twenty-two independent Arab nations have never really made a complete and successful change to democracy; Secondly, those Arab nations even with great amounts of oil wealth have not yet successfully made the transition to a post-industrial economy which has held the Arab world back in terms of prosperity except of a few citizens. Thirdly in many Arab societies, women have not been granted the same rights as men in terms of education and jobs in the world of work.  So by men not allowing women to fully participate, Arab societies are unnecessarily eliminating half their adult brainpower and limiting economic growth to those who could be most helpful. Lastly, the larger Muslim world has been unable to reconcile differences between its two main branches, Sunnis and Shiites, which has led to disharmony including warfare between and within nations. All of the above have played a role in the problems caused by the creation of al-Qaeda and ISIS and permitted these terrorist organizations to grow.

(M.1.) Concluding Thoughts - Part 1 -The Cold War and Post 9/11:

On September 11^th, 2001, a terrible act of war was committed against the United States by a group of twenty-one young men who were al-Qaeda terrorists and succeeded in hijacking two airplanes fully loaded with jet fuel and crashed each plane into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) which was located at a juxtaposition between the center of municipal government and the financial center (Wall Street). Why did a group affiliated within the Middle East attack the financial capital of the United States (New York City) and attempt other attacks including at our nation’s Pentagon which serves as the planning and operational control center of America’s military and defense operations? The answer raised by these questions has multiple answers and the solution(s) are elusive.

Approximately, 3,400 innocent people, mostly American citizens, died on this day because one murderous group had a homicidal agenda and a strong disagreement with the United States. I have cited several limitations of the countries of the Middle East and the frustration of many citizens with their governments’ inability to solve problems. In addition, the West including Europe and the United States along with Russia have all played a role in shaping the political and economic status of this area of Asia and Africa known as the Middle East. Quoting from my sports metaphor and a Hall of Fame manager and I agree that the problems of the Middle East, “Were a team effort.” So as we shortly conclude this essay, I am not looking to affix the blame, I am seeking to help solve the problem.

For some time, especially from 1948 to 1967, many people throughout the Middle East and the western industrialized world stated that the core issue which needed to be resolved before peace could be established in this part of the world was the Arab and Israel conflict. After Israel won the Six Day War in biblical-like fashion, Jerusalem was controlled by the Israel and the Kingdom of Jordan no longer ruled the West Bank. Israel now controlled this land.

It was at that time, the Arab League changed responsibility for future rulership of the West Bank bordering Israel to a non-nation group known as the Palestinian Liberation (PLO) Organization. Therefore, in terms of any future negotiation to end a conflict which was won by Israel in a defensive war to save itself from destruction, Yasser Arafat leader of the PLO and not King Hussein ruler of Jordan was empowered to have a seat at the negotiating table.

Talks for a final peace treaty to end all conflicts came breathtakingly close to being concluded in the year 2000 where the PLO’s Chairman and now new Palestinian Authority President, Yasser Arafat, spoke with the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, with United States President, Bill Clinton, serving as the moderator. From what I have read, it’s been recorded that Arafat was able to achieve 90% of his demands being accommodated in negotiations but he simply walked away. Since then despite subsequent attempts by new US Presidents as well as Palestinian and Israeli leaders to reinvigorate the peace process, these efforts have fallen far short of a comprehensive and permanent peace treaty. To complicate matters even further, the Palestinian leaders has been split in two and reconciliation between Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority which is in control over the West Bank are still enemies after an election and a civil war which resulted in a Hamas victory and rule over Gaza.

The center-left peace camp led by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni in Israel has on repeated occasions narrowly lost parliamentary elections because of its inability to find coalition partners to equal a majority in its parliament (Knesset). The conservative, center-right, government led by Likud’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has become more inflexible in its position. From the present Israeli government’s perspective, its openness has been exploited by the Arab side. For example, when Israel withdrew from Gaza, Hamas and another group, Islamic Jihad, frequently directed rockets attacks against Israel’s military and civilian population. Secondly, once Israel withdrew from a twenty-mile swath of land in Lebanon south of this nation’s Litani River a powerful local Shiite militia known as Hezbollah has launched rocket attacks throughout Israel. Thirdly during this timeframe, the Palestinian leadership turned a blind-eye to a leaderless revolt over Israeli rule of the West Bank called the Intifada (I and II), Israel has temporarily suppressed these attacks. However, there is no clear military winner and the ongoing conflict and controversy continues between Arabs and Israel. Did the Arabs believe that Israeli withdrawals from other territories’ show weakness? Perhaps?

For the purpose of this conversation, I will arguably state that a turning point in modern Middle East history was (and is) Israel’s victory in the Six Day War. In June of 1967, the Syrian, Jordanian and Egyptian armies were an existential threat to Israel’s very survival by massing its armies on Israel’s borders and attempting to surround Israel through a naval blockade in both the Gulf of Aqaba and the Mediterranean Sea. Israel’s surprise preemptive air strike led by its use of French Mirage jet fighter planes led to an overwhelming victory. Since this war, Israel’s desire to hold on to the West Bank stems from a strong national security and military priority. Secondly, Israeli citizens have legally purchased land formerly owned by Arab (and Muslim) Palestinians. 

Israel has problems reconciling its challenging rule of the West Bank. There are pluses and minuses to the current Israeli position. It is my opinion that the minuses out-weigh the pluses. What I am about to advocate I believe is the best way forward for both Israel and Arab nations.

In military terms, the West Bank gives Israel a comfortable buffer in the event that a war breaks out. If a new and full-scale conflict were to occur, the country could not easily be split in half if the Israeli military withdrew to the pre-1967 war borders also referred to as “The Green Line”. There is also an ethical question which has never been completely addressed by the State of Israel which needs to be discussed in this essay. It’s my interpretation that if Israel feels a right to have rulership over the land but does not make Palestinians’ Israeli citizens or permit them to be citizens of a new nation named Palestine, Israel has a problematic issue to resolve.

It appears to some people in western democracies feel that Palestinians are being treated as second-class citizens with no right to vote while at the same time Israel claims legal and security authority over part of the land of the West Bank. Consistent ethnics would give Israel responsibilities over both the people as well as the land. The status quo continues this inconsistency. If Israel were an authoritarian state “where might makes right” and ethics be damned rather than remaining as a democracy and a country of laws, then the morality of majority rules resulting in who has sovereignty over  the West Bank might recede in importance?

The whole basis for negotiations over the past twenty years has been the goal of there ultimately being a two-state solution with one nation remaining as Israel and the second new nation being called Palestine. So in effect with a significant population of Palestinian Arabs who are mostly Muslim, there is a strong desire to build an independent nation. With the birth rate of Palestinian Arabs growing at a higher rate than the Jews of Israel’s, the demographic factor presents another challenge and a new existential threat to Israel. What if both Israel and Palestinian Arabs one day said, “We no longer want a country of our own. We want to join with Israel and be once nation where all Arabs inside of Greater Israel would have the same rights as Jews.”

Keeping this one-state hypothetical solution in mind, the nation of Israel in a newly configured democracy might be renamed Israel-Palestine and would demographically be approximately 50% Jewish and 50% Arab and Muslim. Thus Israel, would no longer be a country with a Jewish majority. So if Israel can find a way of extracting itself from all or most of the West Bank, a permanent peace could be achieved with Palestine which constitutes the West Bank. At some time in the future, perhaps somehow a peace can be achieved with Gaza and Hamas to join the new Palestinian nation?

Thus, a negotiated peace is easier said than done. I won’t try to negotiate with both parties nor advocate who is right and who is wrong. I simply feel that now that Israel’s existential right to exist is not under the immediate military threat that it once was. Now or sometime soon is the time to take an opportunity for Israel to try to take bold action to try to find a final peace with the Palestinian leadership. If the center-right led by the Likud and its partners with Netanyahu as the leader cannot do the job, perhaps the center-left lead by Labor, Herzog and Livni should be given an opportunity?

The Middle East is ablaze in war in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen with non-nation terrorists, ISIS and al-Qaeda, both fielding armies with Persian Iran directly opposing these terrorists especially through its support of its alliance with the Hezbollah militia. To further add to the confusion, the West considers Hezbollah to also be a terrorist group. It may sound counter-intuitive to some. However, I believe that now is the time for Israel to make a concerted effort to achieve a final peace with the Palestinian Authority even though previous and recent attempts have exhausted both parties. And now, I will tell you why?

The negotiating tactics on both sides with the United States as an intermediary have been discussed for some time and already written at great length by other experts on all sides of this issue. There is nothing new I could add to enhance the political negotiations. However, I can think of economic and diplomatic incentives which might create advantages to both sides and might readily bring the newly created Palestinian State and its neighbor, Israel, into agreement with a permanent peace and create a template for others to follow.  

For starters, there are unexploited reservoirs of natural gas and oil off the shore of the Gaza Strip. If Israel, Egypt, the Arab League, United States, the Palestinian Authority and perhaps the Russians, the European Union and the big oil companies could provide assistance in developing the extraction of these natural resources, the funds generated if spent wisely could be used to rebuild war-torn Gaza and provide economic aid to businesses and individuals in the West Bank and Palestinian communities throughout the Middle East.

Secondly in terms of water management and sewage treatment systems, Israel is a world leader in conservation, processing of waste water and desalinization. Each year, a greater and greater percentage of Israel’s water supply comes from water than was once brackish sea water and now is now used for agriculture to grow crops. So if there is a continuation of regional draught, Israel is ready, even more-so than its neighbors, to meet these kinds of challenges.

Thirdly, Israel is also a world leader when it comes to its information technology (IT) sector as well as desert farming through its drip irrigation method which allows an economical use of water in growing crops on the edge of the Negev desert. In 1975-76 when I visited Israel for ten days, I witnessed this miracle of modern technology and farming. Imagine if Israel could share this technology with its neighbors?

If all interested parties including the Palestinians (West Bank & Gaza) and Israel can agree to a permanent peace and stop all forms of warfare, I think that loans and grants coming from wealthy post-industrialized nations and some of the wealthier Arab nations would be considered a good Middle East investment.  Israel would be more than willing to share its technology with Palestine, Jordan and other Arab nations. Down the road, the twenty-two existing nations which comprise the Arab League and the newly created State of Palestine along with Israel could create their own economic trading block to rival the United States, the European Union, Russia, China and Japan. This trading block would allow Israel to share its technology prowess with its Arab neighbors which would remarkably bring together 4,000 years’ of history to the biblical descendants of the children of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar who are the patriarch and matriarchs of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. When you think about it regarding people of monotheistic faiths, we’re all cousins.

In conclusion of this section, let me state the following why I think an economic alliance between Arabs and Israel is possible. George Bernard Shaw and Robert F. Kennedy on different occasions both once said, “You see things that are and say, “Why?”” I dream things that never were and say, ‘Why not?” Not too long ago, I thought that the Palestinian-Israel conflict was not the key to what’s going wrong in the Middle East and surrounding lands. I told myself, “The Middle East has far too many problems. The crucial differences are not just between Arab nations and Israel”. 

However, after some deliberation, I’ve decided to walk-back this thinking and I can see it being a template for peace to extend throughout the Arab and Muslim world and with Israel. With a Middle East Common Market, the problems caused by Syrian immigration mass exodus causing collateral instability to European nations, a plethora of other problems in the Arab world and the United Kingdom’s hasty and ill-advised vote to leave the European Union might be relieved and eventually be reversed? So in my way of thinking, dreaming positive and progressive thoughts as well acting to heal this part of the world is a good thing.

My change of thinking reveals the possibility and the importance of a historical event in the Middle East which could trigger a wave of positive events. I am thinking of positive events which can change people’s mind-set as well as bring peace and prosperity not only to the Middle East but also to be of great value to the world.  Therefore, in borrowing the words of the late Baseball Hall of Fame manager, Casey Stengel, I see the possibility of a “team effort” among allies and, perhaps, adversaries which can help heal the world.

I am sixty-one years old. With recent deaths of cherished members of my family who were in their late eighties and early nineties and thinking about my future, it’s important for me to see a way where we can help make the world a better place it was when I leave it than when I was born and came into it. We owe it to our children and future grandchildren to make efforts to make the United States and other nations a kinder, gentler and more prosperous reality.

(M.2.) Concluding Thoughts - Part II:

If my readers may be frustrated because it feels like in the multi-polar world we live in, it all seems so disorderly and on the verge of falling apart in concluding this essay, I will try to assuage the concerns of all. Please don’t be too discouraged. We have arrived at this place in history because we all played a role. If we got into it the current situation, we can get out of it.

Digitalization has brought the world closer together. However, at the same time in many countries people have coalesced into tribal-way of thinking, it seems that in Europe, Asia and Africa, some countries are in the verge of splitting in two or three. The people in these nations feel that they are losing out in the competition for global trade. The easy answers are creating tariffs on foreign trade and/or building a wall to keep undesirables out.

Perhaps part of the problem is that in the economics of today’s world, events have moved at such rapid pace and adversely affected displaced workers? Part of the remedy lies somewhere with government programs providing job retraining, housing, health care and income assistance in order to help displaced workers to sustain their families and as individuals?

After all the United Kingdom has been through between WWI & II and the Cold War as America’s and Europe’s reliable ally in combat and in commerce, through NATO and its role in international finance and trade, its participation as a member of the European Union was (and is) a great achievement in European and in world history. The US, UK and the EU are a source for prosperity and a validation that the economic system in the West is worth continuing. Free-market capitalism modified with social programs was (and is) the right model as compared to the communist system which threatened to overwhelm Europe for forty-five years.

What will happen to the United Kingdom? Will it determine that a hastily arranged plebiscite should be put aside until a later time and reaffirm that it will remain in the world’s largest trading block? The EU’s combined gross domestic product (GDP) is nearly as great as the United States.  Will the UK instead devolve with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as England reaching separate trading arrangements with the EU? Will other nations within Europe also decide to split apart? For example, Catalonia will be holding a vote to determine if it should leave or remain as part of Spain in the future? Democracies do not always proceed on a straightforward progressive path. I hope Europe stays united. With unity, there is strength and a chance to ensure greater prosperity for all.

We should be thankful that we live in the nation that we do. We eliminated the possibility of America’s disunion forever one hundred fifty-one years ago when the civil war ended. Thank G-d for Lincoln’s political leadership and the efforts of his fighting generals Grant, Sheridan and Sherman.

In the succeeding years, it has not always been pleasant for many people living in America. We still have disharmony and unfinished political, economic and social issues to work through. But, we have the means to improve the United States if we are unified. In addition, if we plan ahead and pull together in terms of an overall purpose whereby we improve our country and grow our economy, I am optimistic for America’s future. Throughout this process, we need to create greater incentives for equity, opportunity and justice as well as expand and strengthen the middle class to include those Americans who need a leg-up and not just a hand-out.

This essay aligns American domestic policy with foreign affairs because it’s all connected. We live in an interdependent world. It was said by one esteemed commentator , Oliver Wendell Homes a United States Supreme Court Justice,  in an objective appraisal mixed with a little bit of humor said that perhaps one of our greatest Presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), had “A second rate intellect and a first rate temperament”. At this crucial time in American history we need cool calm FDR-like leadership reflecting our nation’s overall disposition not just at the Presidential-level but also among other leaders as well as men and women in all-walks-of-like. We need to sort things out, make smart decisions on policies and programs as well as rationally and cohesively move forward together as a nation.