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Well, Barack, We have a Problem...
By Patrick Kenji Takahashi (29May08)
...and only you will have the power to provide the solution. Why you? The United States is the most powerful nation, ever. Today, and for the next generation, no other country will be anywhere close to our military and economic dominance. You will have a once in a millennium opportunity to accomplish something monumentally extraordinary, while ameliorating the global economic mega-depression that some say will soon loom from the combined hammer of Peak Oil and Global Warming.
You worry that you have a more important task at hand, which is to become POTUS (President of the U.S.)? Yes, continue that effort, but you will become the 44th POTUS.
So, on to the more important challenge, creating that ultimate legacy for the benefit of Planet Earth and Humanity. As an aside, let me say that during the past year I published two books: SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth (http://SimpleSolutionsBook1.com) and SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity (http://SimpleSolutionsBook2.com). I mention this because those publications provide both the spur and solution for you, our Nation and the World.
Our society seems to have a fatal flaw: we can't expeditiously act to prevent potential cataclysms like Peak Oil and Global Warming (let's call this PO/GW). Yes, of course, we will eventually prevail, but, by my reckoning, only after decades of agony and turmoil. There has to be a better way.
Miracle of miracles. It turns out, ironically, that PO/GW is just the catalyst you need to empower you to take those remarkable steps. There are innumerable great things you can attempt to accomplish as the POTUS. What about something so supreme as ending wars...forever?
Let us speculate that early in your presidency your close advisors tell you, Mr. President, we have a problem. We have reached Peak Oil, and the $100+/barrel oil we have will soon zoom to over $200/barrel. It seems, also, that we can't shift to coal or other fossil fuels to manufacture a liquid fuel because, yikes, Global Warming is indeed real. It's kind of too late, and you can ascribe culpability to Bush the 43rd or Congress or oil executives, but, to be honest, the masses--you and me and others--are mostly to blame. Public will is totally lacking on energy policy.
Understanding that, you and you alone can immediately orchestrate a global Manhattan/Apollo effort to minimize the coming pain. We need to spend a trillion dollars over the next few years to stimulate industry to help us remediate the almost certain crisis. This is only a fraction of what we will squander on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, so the numbers are tolerable to take on this gallant mission.
So where do you find this kind of money? Ah, the Defense budget. You go to your very first G8 Nations Summit, by your declared emergency to be held at United Nations headquarters in New York City, and pronounce a Gorbachev-like bombshell: our country will reduce military spending by 10% this year, and will continue to do so for the next eight years. This scenario is described on page 65 of my Book 2. You say, we want every country to do the same, for this 10% solution is our best response to Peak Oil and Global Warming. At this stage, keep quiet about the "ending wars forever" part, as then, no one will take you too seriously.
China's knee-jerk reaction might well be, what, cut defense spending? We haven't had a chance yet to attain your level of capability. But, on afterthought, they will realize that they will only need to decrease their spending by $6 billion in Year One while the U.S. takes a $60 billion hit. Ten percent of the worldwide $1.2 trillion/year for war means that at least $120 billion/year will suddenly become available in the first year to overcome PO/GW. This accessible sum will drop to just under $100 billion in Year Two...and down to a little more than $50 billion by Year Eight. But, by Year 12, the world defense budget will have been reduced to $34 billion (a little more than 5% our current DOD budget), and almost a trillion dollars would have been allocated to overcome PO/GW. That will be the Year 2020, providing perfect vision for Planet Earth and Humanity.
This grand sum will go to the United Nations to administrate and dispense. Yes, I've worked with the UN, and it is about the worst organization to do anything, but there is no choice, it is the only international entity of any credibility available.
The so-called military-industrial complex will shift their effort to mass-producing more efficient wind energy conversion systems, developing the hydrogen jetliner, in time converting the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to methanol and otherwise insuring for the development of the sustainable infrastructure and necessary clean energy. Military personnel can initially be maintained to handle the few thousand terrorists, take on environmental tasks and the like. By 2020 there should one U.S. security force not more than 5% our current size.
There is every reason to believe that your 10% solution can continue forever to the point where there will be close to no military expenditures and, therefore, no chance for a major world war. Countries like Costa Rica, Iceland, Mauritius and Panama already have no defense budget. Are they threatened? Nope! Japan and China have had a chance to expand their economy because of a limited war account. The U.S spends almost $2000/person for defense while that of China is $45/citizen.
Triumphing over PO/GW will mean applying our tax dollars in a constructive manner. Better jobs will be created, greater support will be applied to education and the world economy will truly be boosted.
So, future President Obama, you will have a problem, but could the above scenario be an effective solution? You are the exact right person to save Planet Earth and Humanity. Simply go to my blog at http://PlanetEarthAndHumanity.blogspot.com, where some details are presented.
Ah, what a great country. Where else can a former public McKinley High School student provide advice to a Punahou graduate?
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Patrick Kenji Takahashi is a retired University of Hawaii professor and newly published author.
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Well, some of the comments are predictable, but thanks, 23000Days and Clairvaux , for your support. What I'm searching for, actually, are more effective solutions, if they exist. Aloha.
I think there is a lot of evidence for this at least getting a hearing. It's Ike's 'someday the people of the world will tell their leaders to get out of the way and they will make peace.' The more we understand the history of humanity being written by the warriers and the bankers, the better chance we have of cutting loose from it. As Jared Diamond showed in "Collapse", there comes a time when a civilization either gives up what is killing it, or dies. With all the issues facing us, we are at 'the urgency of now'. Either we dream outside the box, think outside the paradigm and act outside our achievements, or face a grim future.
The internet makes it possible. Already there are many working on these ideas. "Society's Breakthrough" "Escaping the Matrix" "Blessed Unrest" and very likely "The Uprising" explore new ideas and actual changes under way. When we are aware and willing to focus on more effective solutions, we will find them. In the likely event Obama is elected, we can start sending the word about these ideas. I doubt he is unaware of them. What will be needed is the critical mass of support.
Thanks for the post, I will be checking your blog soon : )
Dear GinnyinCO:
Hey, I like your attitude. We need more people like you. More so, there needs to be some systematic plan to get these innovative solutions to the staff of Senator Obama. I once worked for a U.S. Senator in D.C. and the member has too many things on this mind. If anyone out there in etherland can identify even one top level assistant on his team, that would be a good first step.
Mahalo and Aloha.
Sir: Your 10% solution is pretty damn good I think. I hope it catches Obama's attention.
I think that the United States has become the property of the corporatists(Excuse me for the Dobbs meme)to such an extent that there is nothing that Obama or any single politician can accomplish that will change the Titanic-like course we're on,short of revolution.
No, we can stop the corporations. There are two requirements:
Break up the corporate control of the media. The anti-trust laws and a Fairness Doctrine can do this.
And 100% public financing of all federal elections.
Let the man win before you tie the millstone around his neck.
With the media in the pockets of those who will lose out, the soundbites for this proposal can be easily imagined.
A more practical approach (for US politics) would be to create the program in the DOD secretly, so the hawks can't kill it. Handing it to the UN?... man, that is a doozy.
Yes, a first step will be to deal with the corporate media. We need to resurrect a Fairness Doctrine and apply the anti-trust laws. Then many things are possible.
Sure. Our military will serenely turn themselves into a bunch of garbage collectors and eco-drones.
Where the hell did you say you came from??
The military will do what the people of this country decide they should do.
Our military will turn themselves into better educated, more productive citizens, filling miriad new jobs in green and ancillary fields, and they'll love it! The military budget will simply be diverted to peaceful pursuits, but the money will still be spent. The real question is, will those soldiers have the oomph to improve themselves (with veterans grants) to fit into the new game.
Do you live near the university, redneck? Surely you don't attend.
It's a fabulous plan Mr. Takahashi!
The amount currently being spent on defense is obscene. It is the only way we can get the money we need. Creating peace and saving our beautiful little planet -- what a novel idea!
And the Utopian contingent is heard from. "End wars forever" has been argued for centuries. How do you counterbalance the profits gained via war? How do you eliminate sectarianism? Racism? Sheer insanity? Reducing the military budget and routing the funds to better pursuits makes sense to me. But if you think all war will disappear as soon as the G8 finishes beating their swords into plowshares, you need a reality check.
Well, one things for sure. If we don't even try, it definitely WON'T happen.
Your tired old cynicism is based on a pre-internet world. What's happening on HuffPost this very day is something quite new. I'm pretty sure this country will not be conned into anther Iraq anytime soon. That's a start.
Nice!
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