American Supremacy

I've read some other blogs and done a fair amount of thinking and reading about the future of this country and how we got into the economic and cultural state we are currently in.  The first reaction is to protect ourselves by seeking distance from dependence on others and becoming more self reliant.  I'm right there with the group of Americans that believe we need to be less dependent on Government, grocery stores and the electric company.  I was in Iraq when Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans.  It was an eye opening experience.  People died.  Lots of people.  Government from the ward and city level, state of Louisiana level and federal level all failed.  In the crisis local first responders were unable to respond.  Law enforcement from New Orleans and outside the city seized privately owned firearms from people who had no other means to protect themselves from roving bands of criminals who took what they wanted from the helpless.  The Governor of Louisiana failed to react in time, she failed to decide to send assistance and to ask for federal assistance.  The only entity that provided support quickly and to its full capacity was the Louisiana National Guard.  The National Guard Bureau, the national level HQ for the Guard, reacted quickly and arranged support from numerous other state Guard units, but not until after the Governor got around to asking for help, days later after lots of people had died and the situation was extremely bad.  Those folks who were stuck in the city with no food, clean water and electricity were on their own.  Grocery stores were quickly emptied of food.  Looting was rampant.  Vehicles were flooded, there was little fuel available for those that were running and it went fast.  Price gauging was occurring.  People were fighting for what few life sustaining assets were available.  As I said earlier, there were roving bands of armed, opportunistic thugs.  Some were brazen enough to engage law enforcement and National Guard troops in shoot outs.  When federal "help" arrived it came with Blackwater security contractors.  The same ones who were over-employed in Iraq and Afghanistan and freely engaged in shooting innocents and making the situation worse for those of us who were trying to help establish a working civil government and defeat the insurgents and Al Qaida.  Seeing them on the streets of New Orleans had me seething. 

The nation, as a whole, is not in danger of Katrina-like natural disasters, but disaster is disaster.  Economic disaster, I predict, would look a lot like Katrina.  Military disaster would too. 

American supremacy is the key to continued prosperity and security.  I mean economic and military supremacy, not some cultural/racial/"we're better than you" kind of supremacy.  American economic supremacy means that the USA stays at the top of the world's economic pyramid, a position currently threatened by China.  What a change from the late part of the last century when the USA was the unquestioned economic superpower and no communist entity could ever hope to aspire to our level of economic stability and market dominance.  Economic supremacy is key to military supremacy and both are the bedrock of security.

In the past two decades we have seen the erosion of American economic supremacy.  This is where I get on my soap box.  Throughout human history successful societies have been agricultural societies.  The American economy must be based in economically healthy, sustainable agriculture.  America is an agricultural powerhouse.  I would go as far as to say we are the probably the world's preeminent agricultural producer, producing surpluses of meat and grain that feeds the global market.  Russia produces a lot of grain, but their methods are feeble.  America actually exports rice to Asia.  Many of us on-line tend to disdain the grocery stores and large "industrial" farms.  As a result of large agricultural success in this country the average American of today relies on the grocery store to receive the produce of American (and foreign) farms.  We do not have to rely on growing our own food.  At least, not right now.  That is a positive thing, not a negative thing.  Maintaining the level of economic security that allows us to be lazy enough to buy our food instead of growing our own in something many, many people on Earth envy us for.  Even those advanced, industrialized nations in Europe and Asia that have similar convenience do not have the total security that we have been blessed with.  We may all curse the big oil companies but the fact is Russia is not turning off our winter heat to make a political point.  Germany lives in fear of that.  Energy security is a real issue for them.  Their politics reflect it.  We don't have that problem, yet.  I believe that having a piece a land on which I can grow food is part of my family's rainy day survival plan.  What does that mean?  It means I am learning to be self reliant while I have the luxury of being reliant on the grocery store and the electric company.  I am learning which breeds of chickens are best for my homestead.  Which are the best dual purpose birds that lay in cold weather.  I am learning what vegetables grow best in my garden, which keep best and longest and what I can grow in the off season.  I have learned how to heat and cook with wood.  I am planning to provide my own basics: clean water, healthy food and personal security.  Why? Because history has proven that the government will fail us, the grocery stores will fail us and the people beyond our circle of trust will fail us.  In the mean time we are blessed with the best economy on earth, even with our high unemployment rate, high foreclosure rate and artificial inflation.

Sustaining our agricultural supremacy means sustaining the industries that produce the tools and transportation that keep our agricultural base supreme. Keeping America supreme means owning our own industrial assets that allow us to build the tools and infrastructure to keep our economy on top.  Sending industry to foreign countries to take advantage of lower wages and a lack of union manipulation is the wrong answer.  Moving industry to locales inside the USA where the industrial base can take advantage of lower wages and lack of unions is the right answer.  I hate the labor unions, but they serve a purpose.  I see them as nothing more than a socialist irritant to big business, one that has become an industry all to itself, irrevocably tied to the political left and bereft of their original purpose, which was to protect the American worker from being exploited by the robber barons of early 20th century industry.  Without them, however, and the threat of activism (strikes) and legal action to protect the American worker, we would continue to have the economic exploitation of our dark industrial past.  Unfortunately the AFL-CIO = The Democratic Party, and that makes them part of the problem, but no other non-government entity exists to protect the American worker, and we can expect the governmental organizations to fail.  I believe workers would pressure the unions to get real about wages and benefits when their Detroit based auto-worker jobs are threatened by moving to Arkansas or Mississippi to escape the unions' exploitation of the industry.  The bottom line is America needs to own our industrial base, not be reliant on foreign governments and workers for our economic security.  Industry leaders must be interested in long term sustainability of the critical industries and be more willing to forgo the multimillion dollar bonuses for individuals at the top.  Long term economic security means long term industrial supremacy.  We are losing that one.  America needs to own the global steel industry and we don't.  That is a problem.

American military supremacy is key to long term security.  Being able to produce the aircraft, ships and weapons to project American might against global threats means having the industrial base to manufacture those tools.  Being able to feed the workers that produce the tools that can project American might means having the world's supreme agricultural base.  History has proven that stronger nations will exploit weaker nations.  This is one of the things that makes America so great - we don't exploit weaker nations, we protect them.  If we exploited weaker nations we would own this entire hemisphere and nothing could stop us.  Personal security for me and my family is provided by us.  Because we are Americans we have the God given right to own firearms.  Should the economic situation deteriorate to such a level that we had to defend ourselves against individuals or small groups intent on doing us harm we would be well situated for defending our family and home.  Being a combat veteran, I pray we never see those days in this country.