AMERICAN POWER: PURSE FOR PEACE OPINION

Watching American power working, and listening to the cast of characters doing government business on television, shows one thing: they are not prime time players.

By that, I mean they don’t connect dots very convincingly.

Even my major news source, the blogging Bruce Linder, hasn’t hit this one yet, but I heard one person yesterday.

Maybe two people said the special words during the Wednesday afternoon job interviews.

Job interviews? Yes, job interviews. Sitting down to testify during an impeachment inquiry is indeed a job interview, but it is for a job they’ll never see.

With a question of American power extending support, tons of money, to nations at-risk, it’s worth taking a look at why:

WWII happened when two developed countries went off the rails and decided they knew how to help other nations better themselves.

Does that sound right?

Germany and Japan went ape-shit in conquering their neighbors and moving in. They needed more space, more resources, and knew where to find them: in someone else’s backyard.

The grizzly process and outcome are described in soft terms like “comfort women” and “occupation” instead of gang rape, murder, death camps, and other historical notes.

Participation in the Pacific and in Europe proved American power with a two-front war, the detail Germany failed to grasp with their invasion of Russia with troops stung out across Europe and North Africa.

The Allied Victory over Japan and Germany led to a huge infusion of foreign aid to both, with the Marshall Plan rebuilding Germany and General MacArthur in Japan.

American money poured into countries at risk of failing due to outside pressure. The USSR was busy taking over in Eastern Europe, with the Domino Theory in full swing in the Pacific.

War Business

Since then, we’ve had cold car, proxy war, hot war, never ending war; in other words, plenty of clients for American arms producers, and weapons companies, around the world.

Before you stop here and dismiss the writer for liberal bias, flower power foofoo, or head-in-the-ground simpleness, these are the words of a college educated American history grad, Army vet, non-profit worker with an interest in creating the chance for less blood flowing from strangers in strange lands.

The American power part of the peace equation is using economic aid to keep foreign nations from looking somewhere else for help.

I like the idea of America keeping peace more than any other nation’s attempt. But, the on-going wars with American soldiers, and airmen, and sailors, shooting it out is an on-going problem.

Following Money

Yesterday, Nov 20, 2019, one of the impeachment witnesses explained the importance of US aid to Ukraine: They’re fighting a war on their land against Russian supported soldiers. That’s the story in the hard news, and the American purse strings loosen up to the tune of $400 million dollars for them.

Four hundred million dollars is the amount said to have been withheld by Mr. Trump in exchange for an investigation announcement. When questioned, yesterdays’ witnesses explained the dangers of interrupting the money flow. They didn’t say logistics, or supply chain, which might come across as too mundane, but the message was clear: cash flow means Ukraine doesn’t lose its place in line with arms dealers.

Maintaining a place in the weapons line is important when the other side is first in their line; when the other side is a separatist force; when the other side has Russian financing.

Dots worth connecting:

• A nation working toward a stable democratic rule is challenged by opposition forces.
• American defensive aid comes to the rescue.
• A new appropriation includes offensive weapons.
• Raytheon has a new customer.

Javelin provides the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps and numerous international customers with a medium-range, “fire-and-forget” missile for use against a wide array of targets including armored vehicles, bunkers and caves. The system’s Command Launch Unit, or sight, performs surveillance, allowing a gunner to see the targets.

The weapon can be deployed from multiple platforms and used during the day, at night and in any kind of weather. The program has also demonstrated that Javelin can be fired from a remote launcher mounted on an unmanned ground vehicle.

Javelin has been used in Afghanistan and Iraq in more than 5,000 engagements. The system is scheduled to be in inventory until 2050.

People have moved from the public to private sector often enough that new rules try and limit their back and forth. The job interview the impeachment witnesses will never have is one to lobby congress for the arms industry.

Instead of collecting big money based on their access to members voting on U.S. aid, they will get the same kibble as other watchdogs; they see the American role in the world from a different perspective.