The Inauguration Speech Barack Obama Did Not Make.

I was really excited for Barack Obama's re-election and inauguration and excited to see the prosperity and growth of the next four years.  Still, I felt his speech lacked some luster.  The following is the speech I would helped him right. 

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     The underlying foreign policy of the United States of America rests on a belief that by spreading democracy, opening markets and increasing complex interdependence, prosperity and peace will increase while wars and poverty end.   America cannot go at it alone, it has to have strong, unbreakable alliances with like-minded nations and professional cooperation with regional powers.

     America must prioritize its economic dominance by at times forcing its corporations to protect and tend to the national interest, maintaining its manufacturing base, its dominance of aero-space industries and technological innovation while encouraging and celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation.   It should prioritize trade with like-minded nations and allies practicing fair trade, caring for citizen needs, cooperating with the American government and advancing human rights.

      America needs to lead with noble virtue; tough, but just, magnanimous and honest in its guidance of the world towards a better tomorrow.   America needs to continue its fight against Al-Qaeda in a cost effective, humane way that is sufficiently vicious to defeat and destroy our enemies; particularly the nexus of terror groups, rogue leaders and wmds while rewarding and protecting the humanitarian aspirations and success of allied nations. 

       I have outlined our new strategy to combat Al-Qaeda and believe that routing out Al-Qaeda must persist to be a priority for the American Government.  I believe its even more important, however, that America maintains its economic edge over China and increases its support and collaboration with regional allies such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and India, but also nations such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. 

       America must check the influence of Iran and harshly curtail its support of terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah and aggressively prevent its acquisition of a nuclear weapon.  Still, America must recognize the powerful traditions of the Persian people and continue to search for common ground, prevent armed conflict and allow for its more benevolent investments in the region.

       America and Russia must get over recent set backs over Syria and build upon the motivation of the New Start treaties, find common ground on the mutual threat of Islamist terror groups and the prospective usage of WMDS by such groups while continuing improve trade and security relations.

      In the collapse of Assad’s regime in Syria, America cannot sit back on the sidelines allowing for biological and chemical weapons to be moved a short two hours drive to Hezbollah controlled Lebanon or to the Al-Qaeda aligned elements of Jihadist fighters in the region to dictate the new Syria that emerges in the aftermath.

     America must grow its CIA assets, but discipline their tactics away from torture, towards the effective management of intelligence cells and development of assets within the highest levels of rival groups.   Fighting Al-Qaeda across North Africa is going to demand better coordination between the State Department, the CIA and Special Forces to locate and execute enemy targets with guile and precision.  Understanding traditional Arab trade routes will allow us to identify the flow of arms, money and information, imbed assets within it to break up illicit supply chains and capture Al-Qaeda aligned terrorists with increasing focus on Libya, Nigeria, Algeria and Mali to complement ongoing efforts in Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan.  In the process, America's efforts to improve security will comfort investor security and allowing for growth in these fragile nations that can help eradicate the conditions which breed terrorism.

      Even in a high-tech, tightly interconnected globalized world, America cannot neglect traditional Industry and needs to maintain its edge in Energy, Steel, Manufacturing and Farming while continuing to innovate new technologies and provide for the world’s greatest universities.  

  America is inexcusably behind when it comes to elementary and high-school education.  It cannot afford to see children left behind.  America may need to lengthen school hours and the school year, but before doing so must also improve the quality of the education and usage of time in the classroom.   Multiculturalism has always posed an obstacle when it should be a cosmopolitan blessing, in a globalized economy America needs to graduate a higher percentage of bilingual students than any other nation in the world and in doing so cannot only guarantee its future global dominance, but also reduce internal wealth disparities along ethnic lines. Education needs to cover more real world subjects and activities while improving athletics, music and arts programs to complement science, math, history and literature. 

    There is so much talk about healthcare, but in truth, health can best be achieved by the individual taking care of their health.  Every individual consciously has the ability to exercise and eat healthy or not.  From a young age we must instill an ethic of health consciousness that lowers the costs of health care in the future.  Making Health Care Affordable reforms were a step in the right direction, but more legislation is needed to help curtail the inflation of health care costs and improve compliance.  Cost should not be a prohibitive or determining factor in health treatment.

America needs to shift away from consumer culture and become an entrepreneur and creator culture.   We should not be wondering what to buy next, we should be wondering what to build, invent and create next.   We should be conscientious in how we spend and how we expect companies to treat their employs, control quality, care for the environment and protect national interests.  

    If America wants to be the wealthy country it has been since WWI, it needs to get back to what made it wealthy, importing raw materials, exporting finished products with workers paid generous compensations to help bolster a strong and flourishing middle class.  America's economic success depends on these simple notions, and nobody can get around this obvious economic truth.

    For too long, the efforts of corporations to cut costs has driven production oversees causing unsustainable gaps in the economic ecosystem that effect the entire economic system and so as jaw bridge economics comes to an end, a return to traditional post World War II style economics is eminent.

Anti-government sentiment and political campaigns funded by corporations to elect officials into government legislative positions to sabotage the functionality of government will never win popular elections ever again and patience with their obstinate behavior is growing thin.  The actions of certain Republicans in Congress and leaders of multi-national corporations walk a thin line between organized crime and treason.  Legitimate businesses and business people should not be forced to compete with lawless enemies of our Republic.   America needs to remember that its market economic system is not the end all of its existence, that it also has a democratic political system and a legal system based on notions of common law.   We need to separate theological questions of why from the scientific questions of how and boldly embrace leadership roles within our communities and businesses to build upon the foundation laid by previous generations and create an exceptional nation of unrivaled greatness.  God Bless America!

The Necessity of Defending Democracy in Mali

The Necessity of Defending Democracy in Mali

   For intelligence insiders, national security experts and international security amateurs the Mali attacks are no surprise.  In Mali, we had the shinning light of Democracy, first see a coup d'etate by its Military leadership (primarily out of frustration on the part of the military with the president's unwillingness to provide the resources necessary to combat al-Qaeda and other Islamist rebels in the north), and then Al-Qaeda linked rebels grab a junk of territory in northern Mali twice the size of France while raping and pillaging the countryside, imposing Sharia law against the public's wishes, destroying world heritage sights and flogging uncovered women.  For the Alex Jones fans of the internet, looking for conspiracy motives and allowing for the manipulation of your paranoia to push an anti-governemnt, for profit sensationalist agenda disguised as journalism, just watch this youtube video by independent journalists  (http://youtu.be/Sj6e0fZqG-k) and take the time to listen to the testimonies of young women forced to flee their homes after having Islamist militias kidnap their teenage daughters and drag them to the woods where they were raped (as I listened to on public radio).  With my own ears I heard the pleas for support, military intervention and cries from these same women for weapons to go fight these turbaned and bearded lunatics themselves if necessary.  Military action is clearly justified.  The tougher question is whether to expose the military families I spend so much time with, worn our by years of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, to another conflict in a separate theater of war, albeit essentially the same enemy.  To defeat the international terrorist group Al-Qaeda, which has attacked American territory, troops and interests time and time again, action is necessary, however, to allow for heavy lifting from regional nations and France is certainly welcomed and tactful in terms of America's overall efforts to combat the rise of Islamist extremism.

    Posed with the awkward dilemma of either backing a military coup or allowing Islamists to continue gaining territory towards Timbuktu, the US had pulled its financial aid from Mali's military as rebel forces formerly backed and armed by Gaddafi continued their advance towards the city of Konna with around 900 armed militia men.  UN authorization had been approved for the regional African economic bloc, Ecowas to take action, but even as Secretary State Hillary Clinton visited Algeria and regional partners it seemed Nigeria was the only nation willing to take any significant action.  Cries for help continued to remain unanswered, and finally with trucks full of armed Islamist militias encroaching on key port cities as under-armed Malian forces retreated, calls for outside intervention from Mali's President were answered and the French Military has taken action, launching bombings, building up supplies and regional assets, while landing commandos to help drive back the Islamist militias from Konna.

   This is not going to be another Afghanistan, this is a winnable war that needs to be fought.  The free world cannot afford to stand by and allow for the establishment of terror states in free democracies.  The Malian government is not equipped, trained or resourced sufficiently to take on this threat on its own.  While America may not involve itself directly in the fighting, it needs to take an active role in supporting the humanitarian components of this mission and helping with the logistics, intelligence and transportation components of such a mission.  America needs to help provide drone and satellite surveillance, share intelligence and encourage dialogue between intel assets, along with providing refueling and transport equipment to add substance to Pentagon consultations and CIA counsel for all involved military parties.

    There is opportunity to improve operational coordination between Nigeria's military which will be heavily involved in the mission, along with our allies in France who could have a significant role in anything surrounding another one of its former colonies, Syria.  Algeria may not involve itself directly in the fighting, but if they could stack a troop presence at their border to prevent the escape of terrorists and narco-trafficers aligned with the Al-Qaeda linked insurgents as French, Nigerian and Malian troops squeeze them against the border the threat posed by Al-Qaeda and Ansar Dine can be eradicated.  While these Al-Qaeda linked groups may not have direct operational control from the core of Al-Qaeda, they directly wear their banner and have close correspondence with Al-Qaeda in Somalia at minimum, and as the history of Al-Qaeda dictates, would use rebel controlled territory to recruit, plan and train for future attacks on America and our European, North African and Middle Eastern allies including Israel and possibly France; so as Al-Qaeda has largely been decimated on the battlefield in Afghanistan, it has spread across North Africa and expanded its influence in Yemen.  This is not a pentagon manufactured boogie man, this a very real threat to Western Civilization, democracy and humanitarian interests everywhere that demands decisive action from the global security community.   Additionally, by taking a larger role in Mali's defense, western nations will have a stronger hand in demanding the restoration of power to the elected president and the holding of future free elections as outlined by the Malian constitution.

http://youtu.be/Sj6e0fZqG-k

About the author:
Theo Johnson is a Political Scientist from the University of California, Santa Barbara
currently working on a Master of Science in Homeland Security at San Diego State University.
Available by phone at (650) 787-7063
or by email at johnson.theo@gmail.com