This is the truth, nothing but the truth, and the whole truth, with a waterboard as my witness!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The commanding heights of the New American Century

PNAC had a "new american century" and as many mass movements it was short-lived and evoked a hegellian counter-swing that constitutes the result of the event. To understand that phenomenon one must read Eric Hoffer The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements.

That said the Commanding Heights are as follows after you watch this introduction. I'm going to do five total in five days.



As an economist I'm surprised that we are trying to spur supply side spending and stave off deflation and not addressing some important commanding heights.

One of these commanding heights is a navy that we will need to ensure that commerce is facilitated. This would require possibly 50 DDG-993 KIDD-class destroyers. The commanding Height value is that these ships would create jobs, be able to arbitrate disputes in the arctic ocean over resources, return the US to a stance where we could respond to 3 national security events at the same time, and are required to meet the challenge of piracy and an increasingly larger number of shuttle tankers as large megafields are replaced with more smaller fields dispursed through out the globe. In addition these vessels require steel, and as a national security requirement we as a nation need to create some jobs and get into the business of melting old steel and creating new steel from it. I can envision the first Hyperion small scale nuclear reactor to power a new state of the art steel mill as a matter of national security, and doing so in 4 years. Make no mistake about it, seventy percent of the earth is water and that is where the pirates and the assymetric threats have been historically to nations. No nation has been a strong nation when they lost the commanding height's of the sea. To create jobs, to create a product as a result of the effort to stave of deflation, this nation as a matter of national security and to maintain the commanding heights must commit to shipbuilding for the purposes of national defense and safe transport of commerce. Logistically we need to be able to ensure that commerce is uninterupted in a time of national security.

As a nation we should name one destroyer of a new class for each of the states, keep 5 in drydock under continual improvement, and three groups of 15 ready deployed off of this nations coasts to be deployable globally in one week. These craft should also have pod type capability for peace time missions such as hospital ships and water to shore water and power generation. These vessels should be the image of peace first and foremost and be employed on a zero tolerance of piracy upon international trade.

We need the jobs, we need the ships, we need to melt down the old heavy US autos rusting accross America in a state of the art steel mill and get down to the business of creating jobs, meeting national defense, and staving off deflation while keeping commerce and logistical lanes open.

This is a commanding hieght of a high priority.

No comments: