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Guest Post: A Roadmap For American Grand Strategy Part 1 (Of 3)
Submitted by William C. Martel of TheDiplomat.com,
In light of today's enormous domestic and international challenges, the United States today needs, more than ever, an effective grand strategy. Without one, the nation is in a dangerous state of drift.
In the aftermath of the recent U.S. presidential elections and in the midst of grueling battles over spending and deficit crises, American politics is highly polarized with the electorate and their policymakers deeply divided on domestic issues.
Turning to foreign policy, the picture is equally troubling. The United States struggles without a coherent grand strategy, while the American people, its friends and allies, and competitors wonder what principles guide Washington's foreign policy. What, they must ask, does the United States want to achieve in its foreign policy, and what leadership role does it seek to play in this rapidly evolving world order.
Worse, many fail to grasp that grand strategy involves far more than foreign and national security matters. Grand strategy is precisely about the broader, if often ignored, context of building and reinforcing the domestic political and economic foundations of American national power.
Knowing full well the serious challenges facing the United States, there is no more pressing problem for the nation than to develop a grand strategy that gives policymakers and the public a clear, positive, and bipartisan vision of the principles and ideas that guide U.S. foreign policy. This strategy must articulate a vision for the U.S. that is more than the sum of the challenges the nation faces.
To be effective, America’s new strategy must reinforce the domestic foundations of American power, reassure friends and allies that American foreign policy embraces a prudent balance between our principles and ideals, and avoid the twin perils of strategic overreach or neglect.
While the challenges are daunting, failure is not an option.
In a series of essays over the next several weeks, I will discuss the current void in American grand strategy at precisely the moment when the world faces increasingly dangerous sources of disorder. These essays will define the purposes American grand strategy should strive to achieve, as the nation deals with a new set of international challenges. Next, the series will outline the main principles that define a new grand strategy for the United States, and then discuss how to put those principles into practice. Lastly, this series proposes that despite great challenges, America nevertheless has the will and determination to move toward greater clarity of purpose in its foreign policy.
Why America Needs a Grand Strategy
Simply put, grand strategy is a broad set of principles, beliefs, or ideas that govern the decisions and actions of a nation’s policymakers with public support on foreign policy. The need for grand strategy is particularly acute in the case of the United States today. Its extraordinary power and influence make it more necessary than ever for American actions to be guided by a coherent grand strategy. The logic is inescapable: no nation can operate without a grand strategy. Without one, the nation faces a singular danger: when its policymakers are tempted to take actions without the guidance that a clear, purposeful strategic framework provides, we will see confusion, shifting policies, and “drift.”
The failure to define a grand strategy and the problems it causes are not new, but the challenge is more urgent than ever. With the end of the Cold War, scholars and policymakers failed to formulate a successor to the grand strategy of containment. Policymakers instead adopted policies that relied on the residue of containment or, more commonly, on piecemeal, ad-hoc solutions to problems. The danger is that adhering to the obsolete strategy of containment will contribute to foreign policy failures.
After the Cold War, policymakers believed the world was less dangerous. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, some held that communism’s collapse would unleash the “end of history.” This belief in a benevolent future masqueraded as hope that the world, guided by liberal democracy and free markets, would become a more peaceful, stable, and better place.
Despite challenges in Somalia, Bosnia, and Kosovo, the hopes for a more benign world lasted about a decade. This relative peace, shattered by 9/11, signaled the start of a struggle against extremism. During the last decade, the international community has floundered in the face of a seemingly never-ending stream of unexpected and destabilizing challenges. Many of these events have affirmed how desperately America needs a grand strategy to guide how it deals with unexpected geopolitical shifts and surprises.
Ideally, debates about grand strategy and how to address challenges should occur at a higher conceptual level. Sadly, however, largely tactical considerations have dominated such debates. When specific decisions and policies are unguided by bedrock principles of grand strategy, U.S. policies will feel more haphazard or random, which is a recipe for ineffective and, at times, self-defeating policies.
The United States lacks a strategic framework that defines its role in world, what the country seeks to achieve, and how to bring that role into balance with the nation’s resources and public will.
Above all else, Americans need to answer one basic question: what principles should govern U.S. policy in an increasingly unstable world?
While by no means a panacea, a grand strategy will help the United States understand what threats are inevitable, which ones really matter, and how to deal with them. Where states once faced singular ideological, political, or military threats, today’s problems flow from complex and overlapping sources of disorder. Furthermore, modern threats and challenges, ranging from rising great powers to unpredictable non-state actors, do not lend themselves to the simple guidance offered by earlier grand strategies. Unless American policies toward both current and future problems are governed by a grand strategy, U.S. policies will be disorderly, incoherent, and ineffective.
Sources of Disorder
Conditions in 2013 directly put at risk the peaceful and secure world American policymakers and the public historically hoped to build. These sources of disorder, often defined by unique circumstances, fall into several categories.
1. Great Powers
Foremost among these is the threat posed by other great powers to American interests and global stability. The rise of China undoubtedly is the most prominent example. Beijing’s growing economy, the world’s second largest, with its increasingly competent military and assertive foreign policy, signal China is a power to be reckoned with. States in Asia rightly worry about the consequences for security if China’s rise occurs in the face of America’s “drift.”
Second, Russia is resurgent with a government and politics creeping inexorably toward what many see as authoritarianism. This shift under President Vladimir Putin with his “cult of personality” gradually dominates Russian society. Putin’s increasingly strident rhetoric toward the United States, past predatory energy policies towards Europe and support for authoritarian governments in Iran and Syria are sources of growing concern for states in Eurasia. Seeing the rise of yet another anti-democratic leader, many in Russia and elsewhere fear another era of hostility.
2. Destabilizing “Middle” Powers
The sources of disorder include the expected but nonetheless demanding challenge of destabilizing middle powers. Hardly a new problem, these smaller states are not simply proxies for larger adversaries, but represent powerful sources of disorder on their own. Such states threaten the West by undermining peace and security.
A prominent case today is Iran. Tehran’s nuclear weapon and missile programs and often strident and reckless rhetoric, threaten Israel and the United States – and could provoke other states in the region to develop their own nuclear deterrent. America now faces the delicate task of balancing between the West’s dependence on Middle East oil and the consequences of a military attack against Iran’s nuclear industry, particularly if Tehran unleashed terror groups after such an attack. Washington’s failure to be exquisitely clear about its intentions only makes matters worse.
North Korea is the perpetually difficult case. It’s isolated and insular regime, inexperienced leader Kim Jong-un, active ballistic missile and nuclear weapon tests, moribund domestic economy, prolific international trade in illicit goods, and demonstrated aptitude for winning diplomatic concessions from the international community – all underscore Pyongyang’s ability to create disorder.
Next is Pakistan. With Afghanistan slowly unraveling as U.S. and NATO forces withdraw, Pakistan remains an immensely dangerous case. The West sees political instability, active support for extremist groups such as the Taliban in Afghanistan, and fears of its nuclear arsenal falling into the hands of extremists.
Lastly, the civil war in Syria, which easily could escalate into a crisis involving Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, remains a powerful source of disorder. Tens of thousands of civilians have died, while Russia and China largely insulate President Bashar al-Assad’s government from United Nation’s sanctions. Syria sits astride a region with the potential to become a flashpoint for war.
3. Authoritarian Axis Rising
A third source of disorder for American grand strategy is the rising “authoritarian axis.” This axis or bloc describes an imperfect but still tangible coordination between such great powers as China and Russia, and the destabilizing smaller states of Iran, North Korea, Syria, and others.
Its foremost members, China and Russia, continue to forge stronger bonds that strengthen their strategic partnership. Recent rumored defense purchases such as advanced fighter jets and near silent diesel electric submarines along with support for nations like Iran, Syria, and others all point to dangerous sources of disorder that no nation can afford to disregard.
Another recipient of significant coordination among the axis powers, Iran, is a deeply worrisome source of disorder. Its radical ideology and virulent hostility toward the U.S. and Israel may well end in confrontation. As it moves closer to acquiring nuclear weapons, Iran’s language and actions remain so provocative that the West cannot indefinitely ignore its threats to annihilate Israel.
North Korea, under its new leader Kim Jung-un, is a worrisome, if only slightly less dangerous, source of disorder. It routinely threatens its neighbors with careless and reckless language, while its military and elite draw most of the nation’s scarce resources. North Korea’s benefactor is China, which provides food and oil, but is unwilling to rein in its provocative behavior. Pyongyang’s recent long-range rocket and nuclear test make it clear the “hermit kingdom,” with its past behavior of sharing such dangerous technologies with Syria and Iran, has destabilizing consequences for Northeast Asia.
4. Unexpected sources of disorder
Grand strategy must deal not just with the expected sources of global disorder, but it must guide states so that they know how to deal with the eternally difficult problem of the less predictable or totally unexpected sources of disorder. These pose fundamental problems for societies and the international community.
America’s grand strategy must guide policymakers who deal with the normal ebbs and flows in world politics. While such political shifts are routine, these can have destabilizing consequences when policymakers are not acutely mindful of the risks posed by powerful and often unexpected “sources of disorder.”
Foremost is the resurgence of extremists in Afghanistan. With U.S. forces withdrawing and the Taliban still a force to be reckoned with, Afghanistan risks sliding back into violence and terrible repression. Accelerating its deterioration was the U.S. announcement that its forces would leave no later than 2014, with approximately half of U.S. forces being withdrawn this year. Where once the Taliban believed they were losing, their resurgence is a stark reminder that they are seemingly biding their time until the U.S./NATO withdrawal.
Second, despite hopes for democracy in the Middle East, the Arab Spring, once so promising, is spiraling into violence. Egypt teeters on the edge of chaos as President Morsi’s gamble to gain unchecked power accelerates political confrontation and draws the country toward civil war. Meanwhile, Libya is a breeding ground for extremists while events in Mali point to the rise of al Qaeda and growing instability. Violence in Syria, costing tens of thousands of lives, shows no signs of abating.
While U.S. policy once rightly encouraged the democratic “spring,” what is Washington’s strategy as we watch these societies descend into the chaos and all-too-familiar authoritarianism from the past?
Three, global trade and rapid technological change flatten power relationships between individuals, firms, and states. With globalization altering power, American policymakers need a grand strategy, using soft and hard power, to help them manage unexpected developments in the public and private sectors.
Fourth, American grand strategy must contend with the rise of new and unforeseen non-state actors whose ideas mobilize followers. Beyond its military and economic might, America’s “soft power” permits it to help shape a global community based on shared interests, universal values, and ideals. Working with non-governmental and civil-society actors, the United States must effectively communicate what values shape its foreign policy.
Policymakers also face the truly modern challenge of cyber warfare in the hands of non-state actors. Never before have non-state actors, groups, and movements possessed an instrument capable of inflicting such immense harm. One element of American grand strategy must consider how to deal with groups that could attack the physical and economic infrastructure of American society. Imagine if cyber hackers from an extremist organization cut off U.S. electric power during the winter, or hacked into the safety controls of a nuclear reactor. The old grand strategy, which focused on ideology and nuclear weapons, is irrelevant in the face of modern foreign and domestic challenges.
Policymakers also must contemplate self-generated sources of disorder. The United States, dangerously, has been adrift for more than two decades. A nation deeply divided politically faces the additional burden if it operates without a positive,reassuring, and bipartian strategy to guide its foreign policy. How can policymakers expend resources – the nation’s “blood and treasure” – when it is unclear why they are doing so and for what purposes? How can policymakers ask the public to support policies when people rightly wonder what, precisely, is the purpose of American foreign policy? Why should we, much less others, make sacrifices when the fundamental goals of American foreign policy are unknown?
An inert or decaying grand strategy, when facing powerful sources of global disorder, presents a truly serious problem. Can the United States effectively manage challenges from great powers, middle powers, authoritarian states acting in rough concert, and unexpected problems when it lacks a coherent, positive, and compelling vision for its grand strategy? Suffice it to say, the answer is no.
Ultimately, the sources of disorder and the inevitable crises that will be spawned will compel the United States to formulate a new grand strategy – one better aligned and more precisely attuned to the risks and opportunities we face. It is far better to do so now than to wait until a crisis strikes.
In the end, grand strategy is about much more than responding to problems. To be effective, it must embrace the fundamental reasons and motivations that shape how and why the United States engages in foreign policy.
Just as there can be no substitute for having a coherent and purposeful grand strategy, the failure to define one produces an immensely dangerous drift in foreign policy.
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Garbahj.
We need to cut government in half at all levels and get back to a free country with free markets.
Let other nations take care of themselves.
It's called sovereignty..., and civilization.
You may not be interested in war but war is interested in you. A nuke will destroy one of our harbors or city centers, a nuke of unknown origin, placed by fanatics, or maybe helped along by a power who may be looking at the planet as a zero sum game they would like to win. That is where we are headed.
The US has a grand strategy: "Steal everything not nailed down, destroy everything that is, kill anyone who gets in the way."
"Grand Strategy" got us into this mess in the first place.
To swap places with China is your ONLY option! Halve wages, living standard and become a saving/trade surplus nation. Do it by choice or be forced...your choice.
"You may not be interested in war but war is interested in you. A nuke will destroy one of our harbors or city centers, a nuke of unknown origin, placed by fanatics, or maybe helped along by a power who may be looking at the planet as a zero sum game they would like to win. That is where we are headed. "
You mean by " a power" or "unknown origin" the CIA?
Also, truthers will place their markers ahead of said event happening, and go live within a day with tinfoil alternative readings.
I blame the Boehner administration. Dude is sinister looking.
So this is part 1. Okay then ZH you can cancel part 2 & 3.
CLEARLY, few if any of you have read Holdren's White Paper (Ecoscience, 1977).
A world where the wealth of the West is forced across to the East in order to create a "Sustainable" future; where the First, Second & Third Worlds are levelled to each other in both the economy and standard of living. The Fourth and Fifth Worlds are cut-lose (allowed to die-off) or somehow crawl back up. This is the central ideology of Holdren's solution and where Agenda21 takes "Sustainable Development" from there-on-in.
Agenda21 is a Soft Treaty only until the GFC saga has been played-out. So expect the Global Warming issue to become a crescendo at about the same time as we start seeing a Global Financial collapse.
And how do you think a halving of wages and halving of standard of living across the Western World might become accomplished, hmmm? The United Nations asking you nicely? Hey, I've got an idea; how about we do it under the guise of a Global Financial Crisis and Global Environmental Threat.
Holdren's Ecoscience was published in 1977, then came a series of Global warming issues and the Earth Summit Rio 1992 (2012), and the in the midst of all this was Greenspan blowing Bubble after Bubble...now Bernanke...get the picture?
And what was the term quoted last month? "Global Warming: Like Weather on Steroids"
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/global-warming-climate-scientists-effect-weather-steroids/story?id=15534047
If you'd bothered to read just the critical 100 pages or so you'd have a idea as to what I'm alluding to.
If you understand Holdren's Ecoscience, then you'll understand that all the economic shit is just scenery along the path to Agenda21 and the emergence of the Global Monetary Monarchical Empire.
And after a few years on ZH all that comes to mind is....
Charlie Sheen, Platoon: "You just don't fucking get it man...you just don't fucking get it"
The Grand Strategy should be DEFAULT. Bankrupt China, bring down Wall Street, and clear our debt all in one go. That sounds like a plan I can get behind.
The USA will all become like Detroit thanks to obummer. Total corruption and destruction. Keep watching TV and Hollywood's shit you idiots because your viewership caused this and supports it. A nation of morons.
What AIPAC wants, AIPAC gets. Until that changes ...
Martel "The Hammer", GTF
How's this for a "grand strategy" ... leave people the fuck alone and let them live or die per their own decisions.
Because of obummer? Bullshit. It wasn't just his job, it was Bush's, Clinton's, Bush 1's...it's all been planned.
Don't go with the easy blame game Freddie.
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ahhhh there appears to be none
Goddamnmotherfuckingright you are. Is this wank a fellow at the CFR?
A centrally planned global military empire is as doomed to failure as a centrally planned economy. Just sayin'.
Diplomacy, especially democratic based diplomacy, develops into an increasingly obsolete and ineffective tool of policy when the represented country is financially weak. Frankly, money (not currency) is power, and it generates influence. Debt, on the other hand, is the cancer which affects the effectivness of diplomacy directly. If another "Grand Plan" in diplomacy is needed, then it should be concentrated first on eliminating the core threat to it's own efficiency. Speaking softly while carrying a big stick doesn't work if your stick is made out of balsa wood.
Couldn't agree more. Until the 9-11 perps are identified and apprehended, we're at risk for an even larger false flag attack.
Uh, you mean a false flag? They have Detroit all teed up on this one, with all of the "terrorists" that live there. If we were lucky, they would nuke D.C.
How do you even begin to respond to an article so full of a lack of understanding and neo-con ('right' or 'left' it doesnt matter) rhetoric ?
Baldrick had the same idea........."I have a cunning plan.."
K@
A plan so cunning that you could pin a tail on it and call it weasel....
This is just the sort of shit that gives imperialism a bad name.
What, me worry? On the latest sequestration "cuts" from the Bard of Murdock.
When morning came, I jumped from bed And ran to raise the shade. To my surprise, the sun was up; The light was not delayed. . I turned the tap to brush my teeth, And from it water flowed. To my surprise, it did the same For shower and commode. . I turned the knob to light my stove; To my surprise it lit. The broadcast stations for my tube Continued to transmit. . The scale on which I set my frame Responded with my weight. The roads on which I drove my car Did not disintegrate. . I’m almost very nearly close To entertaining doubt, Related to the narrative The White House has put out. . But just in case, to hedge my bets, I’ve sold my dog and cat, And used the proceeds from the sale To buy a foil hat.
New PNAC?
"Failure is not an option!"
Forward!
Many conspiracy historians link PNAC as the planning prelude to the US Government conspiracy false flag 9-11 attack, a false flag attack for the purpose of hoodwinking the public into supporting global conquest and destruction of all the enemies of the PTB.
Just today I happened to see a 16th century woodcut illustration of the esoteric Dr. Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombastus of Germany holding a book which was labeled PTB, and also marked with the word "Cabala". Some scholars think Paracelsus was part of the obscure esoteric background leading to the Rosicrucians and to Freemasonry and to a long history of subsequent worldwide conspiracy.
Or maybe PTB = Paracelsus Theophrastus Bombastus.
In any case, Just saying that Hoodwinking and Cabala go together.
Don't cross the memes!
Enslave the plebes.
Simple. Easy to remember. Super profitable.
Here's a "grand strategy":
1) Disband the federal government
2) Hang the bankers.
Problem solved.
One could run for office on that platform....
one could also get ones self droned for running on that platform :[]
Tell AIPAC to go back to Israel.
Disband the FEDERAL RESERVE.
Hang all of the dicks in DC on their precious cherry trees.
Guillotine the bankers on pay-per-view.
Fixed it for ya.
It's a start, but you'd need to figure out a way to maintain that artificially suppressed oil price which is the premise of your whole economy.
Exactly which US politicians do we expect to execute the Grand Plan?
<Queue crickets>
This is the plan and it's not exactly going to plan.
The US is picking a fight with Israel. Seriously...I've read this thing five times. Obama declared war on Israel without saying it's war...unbelievable.
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=305248
What's the upshot of this ... for either side?
Big ass nuke fight. Nobody is going to walk out smelling like roses on this.
Doubt it would go nuclear but if true, Zionists won't stand for it, BHO becomes the next JFK. Or the wookie can take the bullet as a warning and he can continue to do his masters' (ie Wall Streets') bidding (just so Biden can't come in.)
It would have to be cleared with elements within CIA. They wouldn't want Biden in (Netanyehoo would welcome it however.) A balance of interests makes Michelle the likely target.
I hope it doesn't come to any of that.
If it does, it'll be retribution nukes. There are no 'doves' anymore, just varying degrees of hawks. And people have been aching to try out their arsenals for 65 years. Shame just to let them rot in silos.
I would not believe it if I saw it. Obama, Bush and company went to the west wall and gave their allegience to Israel. It's all a dog & pony show.
If Ob really wanted to fuck Israel he would simply start talking to Iran and tell AIPAC in America to get the hell out. He hasn't.
Joe Biden, naturally.
America needs to go back to being the beacon of freedom of the world. Anything else is just rubbish.
If by beacon of freedom you mean haven of rent seekers, then I'm not sure we ever quit...
+100
America needs to go back to being the beacon of freedom of the world.
Ummm... you mean like 1776? That was a good moment.
I don't see it, though: The current batch of US overlords are WAY worse than King Geoirge.
And the subjects ... don't care.
And yet worse - the subjects are defending their ignorance.
Unfortunately, it wasn't all that long after 1776 that monied interests took America off the path that first inspired the nation. But, unlike most places in the world, at least there was that original spark. Maybe we'll rediscover it. Unfortunately, most major institutions today work hard to erase those foundations from our people's memory.
it wasn't all that long after 1776 that monied interests took America off the path that first inspired the nation. But, unlike most places in the world, at least there was that original spark.
Excellent comments.
FREEDOM from whaaaaat?
Free from one's own resources?
Free from one's own independent set of life of choices?
Free from one's own economy independence?
THE BEST OF AMERICA FOR THE WORLD is for the American own people to FIX their own economic & political problems, to FIX their own CORRUPT and the banksters oligarch heavily infested government, BASICALLY ALL THE USSA POLITICAL AND LEGAL INSTITUTIONS MUST HAVE COMPLETE OVERHAULS!!!
As the first gesture of such willingness and persistence to FIX the severely corrupted conditions, the American people may start with the disband of all lobby powers and agent of infiltrations in particular the joo AIPAC, and elimination of the FEDERAL RESERVE private bank!!
Such complete fixes/overhaul/revolution/whatsoever label will be the BEST CONTRIBUTION of the AMERIKA TO THE REST OF WORLD, for following up such GREAT FIXES, the world can fix and eliminate all the remaining infestation one by one. You remove the the core of the cancer, the rest is way much easier to tackle.
They don't want a grand strategy. They want a collapse followed by control. Know this. The answers are simple. The fact they do not employ them is pure proof of the desire for collapse.
Well Stated! Simple, elegant logic, something that's missing in today's economy...
DaddyO
Someone doesn't like the thought of collapse!
DaddyO
The author lost my interest with the statement about a strategy for 'building and reinforcing the domestic political and economic foundations of American national power.' Why does the author think that TPTB want to restore American power? Or even help the American people survive? The political, academic and financial elites just want to be part of the remaining 500,000,000. They care not a bit about the rest of us, not even 'the children'. I wrote my newly elected congresscritter and asked why she hasn't come out in favor of reducing spending until the deficit is zero. I pointed out that piling debt on the shoulders of 'the children' was close to criminal.
I'm going to be very careful about answering the front door from now on.
I didn't even read it cuz I knew by the title it was a crock of shit. My post is what is going to happen and saves you the 5-10 minutes.
I did read it. As soon as he demonized Iran for their arrogance toward the US and Israel I knew he was full of shit.
A full Harvard war machine bought and paid for shill for Zionism.
@ GeezerGeek
You'd better to watch out your SIDE DOOR as well!!!
‘CIA killed 9/11 author and his family in black ops hit’
A former US National Security Agency officer says the 9/11 investigative author PHILIP MARSHALL and HIS CHILDREN WERE KILLED in a “black ops hit” by the CIA, dismissing the suicide hypothesis.
Wayne Madsen said in a show organized by Kevin Barrett, a founder of The Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance, that he had reached the conclusion after a weeklong investigation.
Marshall was afraid of being silenced for his revelations about 9/11, Madsen said, noting that a SIDE DOOR the investigator never used was wide open when his dead body was found.
Along with Marshall, 14-year-old Micalia and her 17-year-old brother Alex were also found dead.
Madsen suggested that Marshall, who had observed many covert operations, had decided to shed light on mysterious issues in the last years of his life.
http://www.hangthebankers.com/cia-killed-911-author-and-his-family-in-bl...
Collapse and Control is the Grand Strategy.
It is why China was advanced and American industry was off-shored.
The feudalistic, centralized police state controlled China is the model for the New World Order.
Crush true liberalism (as that word was originally defined, which focuses on Liberty) by making the people bankrupt and dependent. The spark of 1776 must be extinguished Forever. The light of it must be erased from the collective memory.
It is why China was advanced and American industry was off-shored.
Just for you.. on drudge now.
http://freebeacon.com/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner-3/
it just gets better by the day
Yeah, HardAssets, that is immediatley what I thought of when I skimmed through this naive article. America already has a "grand strategy!" It is the one that international bankers have tricked it into following for more than a Century, at an exponentially accelerating rate. The REAL American grand strategy is being directed by the people that control the people that control the government of the USA. Unfortunately, that strategy is based on a promoting fantasy culture that does not come remotely close to serving the interests of the vast majority of the American people. Instead, the obvious grand strategy is REALLY to consolidate the globalized, privated fiat money system, and incidentally, destroy the American democratic republic on the way there.
It is plainly obvious that neither American foreign policy, nor American domestic policy, serve the majority of the American people, instead, the entire political system has become such runaway triumphantly crazy corruption, that the REAL grand strategy of America is to serve Zionists and banksters, and thereby destroy American, while using it a tool, in ways that will finish destroying it, while using it up, and grinding it down.
The REAL American grand strategy is a runaway system of legalized lies, backed by legalized violence, everywhere one looks, which is destroying the majority of Americans in every way one looks at it. That is why I agree that it looks plainly obvious to me that you are right, HardAssets, regarding your summary of what the REAL strategy is. In my view, it is clear that things like the events on 9/11/2001, and then during 2008, were both deliberate parts of a grand strategy of inside jobs, and false flag events, in order to trick Americans into going along with their own collective suicide.
Given how far advance that REAL grand strategy already is, suggestions such as those made in this article above were pathetic. While one might well superficially agree with some of the ideas, the REALITY is that America has already been committed to becoming an unfixable insane aslyum, which is so totally dominated by triumphant frauds, and huge lies throughout its mass media, that there are no reasonable hopes to fix any of that.
The shock doctrine, coming home...
So here we are:
Second, Russia is resurgent with a government and politics creeping inexorably toward what many see as authoritarianism. This shift under President Vladimir Putin with his “cult of personality” gradually dominates Russian society. Putin’s increasingly strident rhetoric toward the United States, past predatory energy policies towards Europe and support for authoritarian governments in Iran and Syria are sources of growing concern for states in Eurasia. Seeing the rise of yet another anti-democratic leader, many in Russia and elsewhere fear another era of hostility.
But this is not new Fulton speech cowboy!
Who is the predator? Putin's Russia didn't attack Iraq, Libya, and Syria and threatens to attack Iran.
Russia is also not the state playing games in Azerbaijan, NK ( Nagorno-Karabakh ), and Armenia.
It was his predecessors, however, that attacked Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland. Not to mention the millions of Russians that Putin's predecessors killed. He is no different from those predecessors at heart, but at least he recognizes the value of having some gold.
and a little oil and gas for those long cold EU winters.
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=305248
Not likely going forward. Israel is in big trouble.
Thanks for the link .. had not seen
longer story here
http://yeoldefalseflag.com/thread-report-obama-demands-timetable-for-wes...
You'd think this would have spilled over somewhere else other than 77 newspapers....most of them blogs.
Netanyahu replies, "Dear Schvatze-Goy, how about never? PS: Fuck you."
"So here we are"
Second, American Imperialism is resurgent with a government and politics creeping inexorably toward what many see as worldwide authoritarianism. This shift under Presidents Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and Obama towards a "unitary presidency” gradually dominates American society. Obama's increasingly strident rhetoric toward China, Russia, and Iran, past predatory energy policies towards the Middle East, and support for authoritarian governments in Israel, Egypt, Iraq, and Afghanistan are sources of growing concern for states in Eurasia. Seeing the rise of yet another sham democratic leader, many in America and elsewhere fear another era of expanding hostility.
RUSSIA FIGHTS US MISSILE SHIELD FROM SEA
http://www.voltairenet.org/article176487.html
The Pentagon is working to encircle Eurasia and to surround the Eurasian Triple Entente composed of China, Russia, and Iran. For every reaction, however, there is a counter-reaction. This Canadian-based sociologist and scholar argues that neither one of these three Eurasian powers will sit idly as passive US targets. Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran are all taking their own distinct counter-measures to oppose the Pentagon’s strategy of military encirclement.
The US global missile shield is a component of the Pentagon’s strategy to encircle Eurasia and these three powers. In the first instance, this military system is aimed at establishing the nuclear primacy of the US by neutralizing any Russian or Chinese nuclear response to a US or NATO attack. The global missile shield is aimed at preventing any reaction or nuclear “second strike” by the Russians and Chinese to a nuclear “first strike” by the Pentagon.
U.S.-NATO MISSILE SYSTEM: FIRST-STRIKE POTENTIAL AIMED AT RUSSIA
http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-nato-missile-system-first-strike-potent...
U.S. operational missile defense systems to be deployed in Romania and Poland in 2015 and 2018, respectively, are not designed to intercept potential ballistic missiles launched by Iran…The only purpose of the U.S. missile defense equipment deployed in Europe is to destroy Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Russia would also like to know in what maritime areas the U.S. plans to base long-range interceptors. ..Will the U.S. ground-based anti-ballistic missiles, to be deployed at the Deveselu base in Romania and near the Polish town of Redzikovo, be replaced with more capable ones, thus augmenting their capability to cancel out Russian nuclear deterrence forces?
TOWARDS A FRAMEWORK OF GLOBAL WARFARE?
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/towards-a-framework-of-global...
Washington’s most influential establishment think tank The Brookings Institution has called upon the Obama administration to implement what is tantamount to a framework of Global Warfare.
According to Brookings Michael E. O’Hanlon, the US should intervene simultaneously through direct military action in both the Middle East and Africa, in two major geopolitical hubs, namely Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The concept of waging simultaneous US led theater wars is nothing new. It is an integral part of US military doctrine. It was put forth in 2000 by the Project of the New American Century (PNAC), a neo-conservative think tank linked to the Defense-Intelligence establishment, the Republican Party and the powerful Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
The PNAC’s declared objective formulated in 2000 was to “Fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous theater wars” in different parts of the World.
Press Reset. Monetize the current $16 trillion of debt in one fell swoop, unilaterally restructure entitlements to cap it at amounts actually contributed and returns on investment. Land of the Fee, Home of the Grave.
The government can't afford "cap it at amounts actually contributed" much less "returns on investment"; they spent it already.
I would gladly except just a return of my money.
I got it! Disarm Americans and arm people throughout MENA. That's the ticket!
Joe Biden and John Kerry can carry out the grand strategy and TOTUS can work on his swing.
Who'll show up to work on the greens if the only man that can buy whiskey is the one taking the swing?
Good question. I will have to consider it carefully before replying, but can't decide if I should smoke more greens or drink more whiskey to properly understand it.
Smoke and a chaser to cool the BLUD FYRE!!!
Which swing would that be - his golf swing or his locker room 'swing'?
All of them.
The campaign contributions from the military industrial complex are needed by the politicians. Cooking up a new war here and there is par. Lobbyists now spending a billion dollars per day in D.C. to keep the machine fed.
The only change is in America's hip pocket.
@ Chippewa,
"Lobbyists now spending a billion dollars per day in D.C. to keep the machine fed."
Appreciate any source link to prop that figure ;)
Rodman to the Rescue!
If the Olympics had a category for ugliest sonofabitch....
I'm confused. It sounds as if you are saying that Hope and Change isn't enough................???
what bs. Politicians are not devided. They all want to coerce you and all want to take your money. The battle is as much fake as all star wrestling.
I had a feeling this article was going to be junk, wasn't disappointed:
"Tehran’s nuclear weapon and missile programs and often strident and reckless rhetoric, threaten Israel and the United States..."
Another junior varsity neocon turd writing garbage.
The lesser psychopath sucking up to the Alpha-male Psychopath.
Hopefully we'll be spared parts 2 and 3. 20 votes so far, average rating of "1". ZH isn't fertile ground for this type of transparent propaganda.
socalbeach :
"Hopefully we'll be spared parts 2 and 3. 20 votes so far, average rating of "1". ZH isn't fertile ground for this type of transparent propaganda."
up to 33 votes by now, lucky for this propaganda junk that ZH has no ZERO grading, otherwise it may read HUGE ZERO under 50+ votes ;) --> garbage in garbage out
EDIT: This kind of shit should well reside in those Ministry of Truth's megaphones such as HuffPo, WaPo, NYT, NPR, WSJ and their countless siblings
Junior varsity neocon gots a Harvard position.
"Nice" sounding but completely empty rhetoric.....
The grand strategy since 1971 has been do whatever is necessary to keep oil on the international market priced in USD....
@ Flakmeister, WELL SAID!!
Read on:
JIM WILLIE: GRITTY QUESTIONS ON THE HISTORIC COLLAPSE
"More than a crisis, it is more accurately described as a collapse of a corrupt inequitable monetary system, and a desperate defense by the major Western bankers to preserve their power over nations and their governments, alongside a vile vicious violent attempt by the United States to maintain its privilege as owner of the vast USDollar counterfeit machinery, as controller of vast banking pillars of paper columns, and as commander of a vast military."
...
4) WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE USGOVT-LED IRANIAN SANCTIONS ??
The real objection to Iran is that they sharply increased their non-US$ energy transactions over a year ago. That is regarded as financial terrorism, which entered the propaganda mill only to come out as some daft baseless story on nuclear development. Iran has thus followed the Iraq pathway to depart from the USDollar market, but Iran cannot be attacked like its neighbor since it has allies in China and Russia. They work to undermine the USDollar dominance. To brush the USDollar aside is to snuff the American Empire and to remove its full spectrum dominance by stripping the free money credit card. The significance of the Iranian sanctions by the USGovt can be described in chapters of volume, but described in simple terms. The sanctions have galvanized the efforts of Eastern nations to seek a non-US$ alternative in trade settlement that avoids the banks under Anglo-American control. By working to settle trade outside the reach of SWIFT bank rules, the Eastern nations led by China and the many Iranian trade partners have hastened their efforts to settle trade in unconventional ways that center on Gold as a means of payment, either directly or indirectly through hidden intermediaries. The United States did not shoot itself in the foot. The US shot itself in the face where the USDollar is imprinted, and in the chest where the USTBond is held in favor. The US acted to accelerate the rejection of the USDollar in global usage, and thus to quicken the pace of its lost global currency reserve status. The US has pushed itself down the path to the Third World.
...
8) WHAT HAVE BEEN THE OBJECTIVES FOR THE ARAB SPRING ??
Multiple motives appear at work. The goal has been to loosen the grip of power by Moslem autocrats, which would permit the replacement of more suitable pro-West leaders (puppets). The goal has been to loosen the lines to official government accounts, like the 144 tons of Libyan gold that still sits in London banks, which is much more integrated into their bank management schemes. The goal has been to destabilize the national fabrics, an old favorite game of the USGovt security agencies, since it tends to permit a climate conducive to their ploys. Imagine pitting your neighboring husband and wife against each other with false sexual dalliances, while setting fire to other neighboring houses, then robbing the neighborhood homes. But a backfire is in progress on three fronts. Egypt is on the verge of a banking breakdown which might expose the USTreasury Bond is unwanted in the global financial market, outside the big US bank control. Syria is leaning more heavily toward a Russian alliance. Their naval port will not be yielded. The presence of HezBollah is clear, with the Saudi assassination of Prince Bandar in September, in response to other Assad family hit squad actions. The big impact crater is likely to be the House of Saud itself, which is in great danger of falling. King Abdullah is teetering in health, if not comatose. With the fall of the Saudi regime will come the fall of the Petro-Dollar, thus the USDollar itself as global reserve.
...
http://www.silverdoctors.com/jim-willie-gritty-questions-on-the-historic...
A better Grand Strategy:
It is much more simple than that: End the FED!
If Americans had to pay for wars out of pocket (instead of borrowing/printing from the FED), all wars would be infrequent, brief and decisive.
Anyone who has said then what has already been fired in Government. There is no plan but a burn rate on sound intell from chasing whores and drunk operatives to a few who do give a fuck. Not a damn thing has changed but an article with the key word "strategy" and "power" ad infintum. If you miss the current view it is containment from Kenya to southern Mali Arc. Ask Stevens how much they cared for seven hours. Nazi's are what they are as Communist's as what they are. Taxpayers are being fucked by both at the same time here and there as Congress kisses the Bankers ass. 184-70-8242 Foreign Military Sales Trust Fund. This is an expense to help sell weapons to foreign governments. Why in the Hell does it cost the US taxpayer money to sell things to other countries.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/national/20120915-sequester/STAReport_sequester.pdf
USA has a grand strategy, laid down years ago by the famous KGB double agent Sphincter Hiss, Truman, Kissinger and every CFR traitor since 1948. Hiss is credited with creating the UN and copying verbatim the USSR constitution as its charter. You might remember what Kruschev had to say about it; see Golitsyn for Clinton's instructions. Or just go to the CFR website.
See you after the purge... maybe. Pay attention. Luck is a factor.
Sphincter Hiss = unintended consequence of tongue punching a fartbox
Treason #101: World Government Declared http://archive.org/download/WilliamCooperhourOfTheTimePart10/WilliamCoop...
http://archive.org/download/WilliamCooperhourOfTheTimePart10/
The American people are terrified of change and complexity, yet confronting these phenomena are what is required for civilization to advance. If we don't have the guts to rise above our primitive fears, we will no longer be leaders, but reflexive followers of the advances made by others.
Our grand strategy should be to lead the world in global initiatives. We created the global Internet; now we need to create a humane, liberal, and efficient global society that survives and thrives. We can't do this at gunpoint. We must do it by example and by generosity. Here is how we can establish this leadership:
1. Embrace and propagate the UN's universal declaration of human rights.
2. Declare global standards for all dimensions of environmental protection.
3. De-militarize to a realistic level of defense against actual threats.
4. Prepare for a world of drastically reduced human labor by creating a new social compact, guaranteeing a minimum standard of living for all.
5. Lead the drive to eliminate illiteracy worldwide
6. Provide clean water to drastically reduce water-borne illness worldwide
7. Establish global standards for stabilization and recovery of failed states
8. Create global norms for the regulation, and, when necessary, de-chartering of corporations
9. Devise and lead a global program for stabilization of the planetary population at a sustainable level
Sounds nice and utopian enough, but -- like all utopian ideologies -- does NOT deal with the nature of Human Nature. Sounds like more -- not less -- committees and orgs will be formed, fed and maintained.
As a species, we are too damn successful for our own good and that of the planet.
We don't need more centralism, we need less of it. We don't need more people, we need fewer of them. Especially those mooching/living off others. That which cannot be maintained naturally, should not be.
We need less devotion to ideology and more to reality and natural laws -- that includes earning one's living in a quid-pro-quo (this-for-that), i.e. value-for-value arrangement.
Look to the human body as a model on natural self-construction, self-organization and efficiency. All based on simple, natural principles. From the cellular level to organ level, to system level, to being level. Completely different architecture than ANYTHING conceived by politicians and bureaucrats. In part because these people know NOTHING about real math or real science, but live in their own cocoon (la-la land) of utopian, feudal or religious ideology.
In the sci-fi spoof/novel The Hitch-hiker's Guide To The Galaxy series, there was a section about some civilization deciding to rid itself of all civil servants and their type, and shipping them off to another planet. As I recall, the irony was, they ended up on Earth.
+1 for any Hitchhikers reference
I wish I coiuld give you more for that particular one.
You forgot one thing: to make those 9 feasible you have to kill off humanity. There is no way, given human nature, that those 9 ideas would work. It cannot be accomplished by example and generosity. Get real.
He is getting real. Have you heard about the Georgia Guidstones? Someone spent a lot of money to usher in a new age where there will be a lot less people to deal with.
You are Eraserhead
I can't believe it!
The REAL world operates according to the principles of organized crime. The UN, and similar groups, were created by professional liars and immaculate hypocrites, by the plutocrats, whose "wealth" came from their corrupting governments to give those plutocrats the power to legally counterfiet the money supply. The REALITY of the UN is that it is a place where professional liars are paid to agree with each other's lies, and to advance their interests by advocating more legalized lies be implemented. Everything that the UN says about "human rights" are merely more impossible ideals, which actually make the opposite happen in the real world, which is what was actually intended to happen.
Any REAL solutions have to emerge from the dominant organized crime gangs that control the world negotiating better dynamic equibria between themselves. However, with superficial mainstream morons being the vast majority of people, who are so easy to trick with the biggest bullies' bullshit, we are getting further and further away from admitting any of those REALITIES.
The ONLY grand strategies that are realistic are ones based on the almost infinitely paradoxical problems inherent in the murder systems doing real death controls. THOSE are the ways that the actual grand strategies got implemented in the past, and will be implemented in the foreseeable future. Therefore, our REAL problems are almost infinitely worse than such a superficial list of impossible goals, which make me assert that I can't believe it!
Step 1
Default
Step 2
New Money
Step 3
War with anyone who says shit about it
Know your audience: You are trying to sell Blue pills to a Red pill audience.
Mr. Martel, I predict a better fortune for you at one of those Think Tanks (Rand?) than on ZH. Good luck. Let us know how it goes.
grand strategy is nazi-speak for more wars of imperial aggression and more nazi rule domestically...thediplomat.com can go fuck itself.
uber neo-con edward lutwak used to speak about grand strategy in commentary until we had more wars and cia terrorism than anyone could ever catalog...
Here's grand strategy: Prop up items #1-4, sow disorder and destabilize foreign lands. Extract all resources, pollute, and impoverish them while establishing fortress America. While everybody else burns, dominate the world.
Works like a charm. I'm sure many powers complain, but they're bitching because they're just jealous. They'd do the same if you turned your back. If you dare...
Yes, JJ, until that strategy backfires, by causing world war, requiring martial law, and that all drives collapse into chaos, which becomes billions and trillions of times worse than any earlier collapses of previous civilizations!
Too much talkie and not enough pretty pictures.
Titties! More Titties!
Now that's America!
Oh my God...I think I saw Janet Jackson's titty!!
"Lick, slurp, nibble, flick..."
this is garbage
I'm psyched we have Parts 2 and 3 to look forward to...
/s
Where is LongSoupLine?? My mastery of profanity is nowhere near up to the task of commenting fully on this article. We need someone who is a master in the fine art of profanity.
worst`ed commentary i've ever read, period!
Grand Strategy... bullshit!? it is [has been?] our foreign policy over the last century that has got US in the , 'dunghole' were stuck in today!
let china become the new world power? who gives a fuck... really? we will still continue limping along as we are today with less headaches and a better sense of being. your a trilateralist... a phoney, that preaches grandios and altruistic 'good intentions' that has america on the path to hell!
these countries you humbly talk about were set up by our foreign policy from the beginning to serve only the 1% or less... that [those] being the oligarchy few that would sell out america for a communist/dictator/theocratic/fascist/socialistic wanna-be in a hong-kong nano-second!
you suck!!!
jmo
"Grand Strategy" --> it sounds like much as THE GRAND CHESSBOARD of Zbigniew Brzezinski ;)
Why are we being subjected to this neocon horseshit on Zerohedge, of all places? Grandiose crap, ignoring or obsccuring basically all the relevant issues.
Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness.
Easier to isolate the trouble makers after the shills come out and subtly re-enforce his ideas.
THe author sounds like he's auditioning to be PNAC's CFO - Chief Fellatio Officer
"Grand strategy" is just an euphemism for trying to make up new enemies, as a carrot for the own population to unite behind their great leaders.
For example the whole WOT since 9/11: just one sick joke. No clear mission objective, no identifiable targets, no final goal, therefore perpetual.
Exactly what career politicians love: unsolvable problems, so they can always push to try again or try something else without end.
Re "...no identifiable targets..."
Try looking in the mirror.
DRRRRRRRRRRRONE HIM!
As most people here see, the article just bull.
Our enemies are not the leaders of other nation states. They are too busy plundering their own peoples, our leaders are too busy plundering us.
When Mongols came, you took mom, the kids, and the family silver, and hid in the woods until they passed. But a Federal Reserve run amoke steals without mercy from every account and transaction, and never goes away.
"When Mongols came, you took mom, the kids, and the family silver, and hid in the woods until they passed."
The Russian and Ukrainian peasants tried this when the Red Army came. The Red Army burned the forests down and shot whoever came out.
The strength of America always stemmed from it's People, and primarily from the strength of it's families.
A war has been waged on the natural family, and even on the ideals of Parenting, morality, and ethics.
No grand plan or vision are going to set things right when the founding principles of the nation and it's families that exemplified them have been trampled.
Rather than rewarding people who work hard, are responsible, save, and contribute to the society - our "leaders" have chosen to reward greed, theft, and moral and societal turpitude.
This craven scribbler should take a triple dose of colon-blow and watch the loosechange911 and AE911Truth vids... by the time he shits his brains out... he just might have a glimmer of a clue...
Tylers: thanks for this website and allowing me to post here.That said, this article is a complete piece of shit.
No, I take that back, calling this article a complete piece of shit is to gravely and maliciously slander pieces of shit.
Shit can serve a useful purpose, neocons can't.
I'm sure some have clicked over to see who is this "craven scribbler", if I may borrow from loveyajimbo, but to save others some time, here:
William C. Martel is an Associate Professor of International Security Studies at The Fletcher School, Tufts University. He is the author of Victory in War: Foundations of Modern Strategy (Cambridge University Press, 2011). Martel currently is completing a book on grand strategy, conducts seminars at the U.S. Naval War College on ballistic missile defense, cyber, and space, and served as an advisor to the National Security Council on the review of U.S. National Space Policy (2008-2010)
No long soup line but..... who the fuck is this fucking war-mongering fucking neocon blow hard? and for fucks sake, he's working on a fucking series, there's more fucking shit to go? no fucking way. cut this fucker off now !
love ya zh.
The Tylers don't always include a /sarc tag, it's left to the reader to decide...
sine que`non... je ne sais`quoi-- that, only the mind of tyler can impress upon humorously? a subliminal freudian`slip,... predisposed for a allegorist's wild side, and steadfast in constructive ambiguity?!
It would be fitting if a thug develops a Grand Strategy to invade his home, shoot some of the occupants, and steal the valuables.
Kinda like the US does to other countries.
I had no need to 'click over' :)
And now,given that you have read some of Mr Martels history,you do not find this ( and hopefully parts 2 and 3 ) of interest ?
I found this 'insightful' to say the least,particularly when confronted with our current fiscal and geopolitical problems.
'Know Thy Enemy' perhaps.
I am quite sure that if our brethren at ZH had any idea as to the number of pHd numbnuts toiling night and day on these subject matters (subjugation, domination, organization, delocation, arbitrage, incarceration, population control, geo engineering, hydroengineering, psychology, advanced physics, advanced biology, computer modelling, futurcasting, and on and on and on) several of them would quite literally explode.
They are working these "problems" for their masters 24/7/365. They are "normal" people, making a good living trying to figure out the bestest, most benevolent way to impoverish and kill you.
Now that's some pirate shit.
This article is crap.
You can argue whether or not the number of U.S. foreign military bases is 700 or 900 depending on how you classify them,but one thing is for certain,the world's policeman is stoned cold broke.Another war will bankrupt the U.S.Just look at what it has done to every major city.Run down infrastructure,an ever expanding jail system that imprisons pot smokers and illegal immigrants costing taxpayers literally billions of dollars.The corrupt part of the jail system is the part that is private.Judges,cops,government agencies,politicians etc.all have interests and shares in their corrupt schemes of putting numbers away for a long time in order to help their pension plans.No different than Spain or Greece where corruption is engrained into society but in different ways.She's rotten to the core with it's own international intelligence agency(the CIA) being the biggest Coke and Heroin controller on the planet that sells it's product to the U.S. Mafia.The money doesn't go through General Accounting Office and is used to corrupt,payoff,bribe and overthrow foreign officials at all levels.That's how much it really stinks (like a fresh dog turd).All in order to return U.S. Dollars home and controlling counties economic activities so that they covert and trade their commodities into funny money.Got it finally Krugman?That's who you serve.
One of these ism's or one of the missing ism's such as communism, socialism, nazism, zionism or corporatism?
Two words:
Para
Graphs.
Thanks.
Sorry, I tried to fix it but time ran out on edit.
Got anymore of that meth dude?
"This relative peace, shattered by 9/11, signaled the start of a struggle against extremism."
Poor, poor peaceful America. Beset on all sides by foreign aggressors and extremists.
I can't say I read this entire article, but it smells like Neocon horseshit to me.
Nine-eleven was an inside job. End of story.
It is quite tedious to watch the knee-jerk denunciation of every thoughtful proposal by the nihilist/survivalist subculture on ZH. No matter what the issue, the answer is contempt for reason and recourse to selfishness and brutality. Somehow crudeness, distrust, and savagery have become the highest ideals of these disoriented members of the most complex high-technology society that has ever existed. The cell phone in the pocket of one of these primitives represents a triumph of advanced engineering, enlightened regulation, and global collaboration - all principles that are thoroughly denounced by the new troglodites.