Petraeus and the Trouble with Generals

Tom Ricks has an article in the current Atlantic Magazine on the widespread failure of American generals.  I am surprised that there has not been more discussion of it along with all the gossip about General Petraeus's romantic peccadillo's.  Ricks does not list Petraeus as one of his failed generals; Petraeus does not come in for the same criticism as Generals Franks and Sanchez, but by pulling himself down, Petraeus undercuts the status of the whole general officer corps.  In addition to Ricks deep criticism that many generals are incompetent to lead troops and fight a war, others are pointing to the perks that generals enjoy. 

Petraeus became an intellectual darling because of the success of his counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq.  But yesterday on one of the Sunday talk shows, some revisionist historian pointed out that his surge in Iraq happened to coincide with a Sunni tribe's decision to ally with the US and oppose the more radical Sunnis, that may have done more to quell the violence than the surge.  See this article in the Washington Quarterly. 

If the leading American general has no clothes (referring to the emperor tale, not his personal conduct) or feet of clay, what does that say about the rest of the generals and the American military establishment? 

Republican Senate Is The Problem

It's not clear who is responsible for the gridlock in Washington.  No doubt there is blame for all involved -- House, Senate, President, Republicans, and Democrats.  From my point of view, however, the main culprit is the Republican minority in the Senate.  This is because they are thwarting the will of the Democratic majority.  They are using parliamentary tricks, mainly the filibuster, to block majority rule, which I think goes against the Constitution.  If the Constitution wanted to require a 60% majority to pass any legislation in the Senate, it would have said so.  It already says that it requires a two-thirds majority to start the process to amend the Constitution.  It could have spelled out other times when a super majority was required; the fact that it did not, indicates that the founding fathers did not intend to require a super majority for conducting the ordinary business of the Senate. 

The Senate has imposed this new super majority requirement on itself.  The Democrats and the Republicans have both used it, but the Republicans have used it much more than the Democrats. 

The Republican use of he filibuster super majority bodes ill for the "fiscal cliff."  The Republicans can block any attempt to resolve the crisis that they do not like.  In a recent "60 Minutes" interview, Mitch McConnell indicated that he was not inclined to compromise.  He said that what the Democrats were doing in terms of running up debt, etc., was bad, and he would try to stop it.  That may be, but the problem is that doing nothing may be worse than doing what the Democrats want.  McConnell can try to limit tax increases and expand budget cuts, but that requires some kind of compromise.  If he lets the nation slide off the fiscal cliff, very few will benefit.  His extremely wealthy friends and supporters will suffer less than most; some will probably figure out how to make money from the disaster, but most people will suffer.  He is very short sighted to destroy America just to enrich a few of his friends and supporters. 

Private Equity Acquires the U.S.

I am somewhat worried that Romney's plan for America is similar to Bain Capital's private equity strategy.  He and his Republican partners will take over America, suck all the money out, and leave her a fragile, empty shell of what she used to be.  That's why Romney won't spell out his plan for how he will cut taxes 20% without reducing revenue.  He doesn't care about revenue to run the government; he just wants his money, along with that of his wealthy colleagues.  Big corporations benefit from government largess as much as, or maybe more than, the poor 47% that Romney despises as worthless, such as active duty soldiers who pay no taxes.  The rich get government subsidies both for their companies (e.g., government insurance for too-big-to-fail banks), and for themselves as executives (e.g., capital gains taxes), not to mention their companies that are almost entirely dependent on government funding (e.g., defense contractors). 

So Romney gets elected. cuts taxes, and privatizes everything now performed by the government, That's why he and the Republicans are so concerned about maintaining defense spending.  They don't care about the troops; it's the defense contractors that they are worried about.  They will privatize everything from air traffic control to diplomacy, and pay their fat-cat contractors much more than they pay government employees to provide the same services.  The government will go broke, but they will become richer in the bargain and move on to China or Africa, or wherever the next market victim is perceived to be. 

Since I am concerned about how influential Jews have become in the last 50 or so years, I anticipate that many will leave and go to Israel, taking their profits from America with them.  The Asians, another successful immigrant group, may do the same, taking their winnings back home to Asia. 

Jewish Takeover of America

The New York Times article on Mayor Bloomberg's PAC names three personal PACs of billionaires that have been very active in this presidential campaign -- George Soros on the left, the Koch brothers on the right, and now Bloomberg in the middle.  The Koch brothers are not Jewish, but they could easily have been replaced on the list by Sheldon Adelson, who is Jewish, and who has been one of the major supporters of conservative Republicans.  So, you have three obscenely rich Jews who are driving this election. 

I don't know the ancestry of all of them, except that I know Soros was born in Hungary and immigrated to the US.  It looks like from Wikipedia that Bloomberg's grandparents came to the US from Europe well before World War II.  Adelson, like Bloomberg, was born in Boston; his mother had immigrated from the UK.  So, of the three, only Soros is a post-WW II emigre. 

Of course, the candidates they are are supporting -- Obama and Romney -- are not Jewish, which shows there may still be some racial barriers for Jews.  Joe Lieberman did not do well when he ran for Vice President.  However, as a black and a Mormon, Obama and Romney do not represent the old, traditional WASP power structure, as George W. Bush did.  Furterhmore, there is lots of gentile money in the political game, fromt he Koch brothers, for example.  Nevertheless, the fact that the New York Times cites