Yes something is rotten in America.
Three things actually.
1 The Drug Industry has
created a criminal monopoly and an offsetting police state to play racket ball
with. The people know this and want it
ended but the politicians are somehow bought off although a couple have now
been heard from after leaving office.
2 The medical industry is
an out of control monopoly that has absorbed an excessive portion of the
national income while serving only two thirds of the population.
3 Feeding of both of
these has been a profoundly corrupt and gamed wall street financial industry
that threw off the regulatory shackles in 1998 and went bust in 2008 and
remains both unpunished and unchastened.
The medical industry and its enablers needs to discover competition, the
recreation drug needs to be nationalized and the financial industry needs to be
re regulated at the least.
The first step in the financial world will still be to rewrite the
foreclosure laws and to restart the housing industry.
Outside View: Something is rotten
by Harlan Ullman
Washington (UPI) Apr 11, 2012
To paraphrase Hamlet, "something
is rotten in the state of America."
This isn't a matter of American
decline -- a question that has been overrated and exaggerated. As global power
diffuses, absolute, as opposed to relative, U.S. power will decline.
Unfortunately, a certain malaise, to use a familiar phrase, may be much more
prevalent inside America.
The United States has been there
before and as recently as the 1970's. Vietnam, Watergate, the Arab oil embargo
following the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War, a series of congressional
inquiries, one of which declared the CIA to be a "rogue elephant,"
and what seemed to be the inexorable march of the Soviet Union to overtake the
United States as the globe's strongest power cast the nation down.
National morale was in tatters
and Americans viewed its once-treasured institutions -- from the White House,
Congress, the military and the media -- with contempt.
The U.S. economy was suffering
from a decade of war. Richard Nixon was forced from office. Congress would
rewrite its internal rules and effectively end seniority as the means for
selecting leadership as well as put in place the foundations for making a
super-majority of 60 Senate votes as the only way to assure the passage of
legislation.
And the military became a
"hollow force," an expression coined by former Chief of Staff of the
U.S. Army Gen. Edward "Shy" Meyer during the Carter administration.
Today is far different. The
Soviet Union is long gone. It will be some time, if ever, for another rival to
take its place. While it took more than 15 years to repair the damage Vietnam
imposed on the military (which gained redemption in the lightning quick 1991
Gulf War), a decade of conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq has taken its toll in
many ways that have still not fully come to light.
The economy may be recovering.
It is still fragile. But public enmity toward government and, most recently,
the two political parties is perhaps even lower than during Watergate and the
Vietnam War.
On Capitol Hill, both parties
truly despise each other. Mutual loathing has become the rule, not the
exception. It is unprecedented for one leader of the Senate to cite so publicly
as his party's first priority making the president a one-termer!
Members with long service and
great distinction and accomplishment cannot recall a time when relations were
as bitter. In a body where compromise is crucial to governance, the
consequences are clear. Government is broken and badly so.
This malaise has translated into
political campaigns and will worsen in the November election. Negative
campaigning works. And negative campaigning has been perversely refined into
attacking the strengths and not just the weaknesses of the opponent.
In 2000, the Bush campaign used
slanderous negative attacks in the South Carolina primary to discredit war hero
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., maliciously and falsely accusing him of fathering a
black child out of wedlock. In fact, McCain and his wife Cindy were so taken by
an orphan of color they encountered in Sri Lanka, that they adopted her --
proving the rule that no good deed goes unpunished.
In 2004, Sen. John Kerry,
D-Mass., had every reason to think his experiences in Vietnam where he was
awarded a Silver Star for valor would be an advantage. But he was
"Swift-boated," a vile term that slandered the courage of the many
sailors who served in those units in Vietnam, and false allegations and lies
about his record did significant damage to his campaign.
2012 could be among the nastiest
elections in our history.
As troubling is the future
health of the military and its psychological condition More than a decade of
war and multiple tours under the most stressful conditions have had huge impact
particularly on the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps that, along with Special
Forces, have borne the brunt of the stress and strain.
The long-term effects,
exacerbated by the concussive force of very large improvised explosive devices
on the brain, are also very worrying. Suicide rates, psychological
difficulties, abusive family behavior including increased divorces and other
social problems, an instance of which is the inexplicable killing of Afghan
civilians allegedly by an Army sergeant last month, are on the rise.
Recurrence of a future hollow
force similar to what happened in the late 1970s is probably not in the offing.
Instead, a psychically damaged force appears to be the risk. Unfortunately, the
depth and nature of these issues and their potential consequences are still in
the early stages of understanding. The full extent of what this means lacks
sufficient statistical and data analysis so far, making identification of
solutions and policies exceedingly difficult.
America has demonstrated
remarkable powers of recovery but it is impossible to deny that something is
wrong at home. Self-correction may not be automatic. Unless we are very lucky
or take effective, corrective action, something will remain very rotten in
America.
(Harlan Ullman is Chairman of
the Killowen Group, which advises leaders of government and business, and senior
adviser at Washington's Atlantic Council.)
(United Press International's
"Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who
specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not
necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of
creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)
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