The View From Highland Ranch
By John McCormick
January 2003
Fixing the World
OK, some people say, if I'm so smart how come I haven't solved the current world situation? Of course most of what I know I've learned from Jack and he's not much of a diplomat, but I guess it's a fair question.
My answer would be that it can't be fixed. As that well-known pacifist and former five-star general, President Eisenhower, predicted in 1959, the fate of the "free" world has been hijacked by "the military industrial complex."
But here's how Jack tells me he would fix things if so many political contributions and gigantic political egos weren't tied up in controlling the rest of the world.
I'm translating freely here because Jack was busy with more domestic pursuits at the time (literally - he was chasing one of our open jennets around the barn), but I think this is the gist of what he has in mind.
First, let's just admit that we're after Insane Hussein because our national pride is tied to not letting him sell oil until he apologizes for being a nasty dictator hence the high oil prices. Bush can only save face by kicking Hussein out. Then we can declare victory and let the oil flow freely again.
The real strategy to get Hussein out is to keep up the pressure until one of his generals decides that he'd rather be a live U.S. puppet than a dead general.
You won't hear Bush mention that Hussein is in power because we wanted him to beat up Iran which we hated because they kicked out the puppet dictator we put in charge of their oil supply. We also supported Bin Laden and the Taliban against the U.S.S.R. Most of the missiles those wackos threaten our aircraft with have "Made in the U.S.A." stamped on them and new Chinese batteries installed.
North Korea?
They have two crude nuclear weapons which can hit South Korea or Japan. They could bomb China but it's simpler to just cut your throat with a dull saw blade than to threaten 1.2 billion people with a popgun.
We're paralyzed because we have 100,000+ military personnel at risk in the area. Jack wonders WHY?
Japan Inc. is essentially bankrupt. If they threatened us we could sink the home island under the Sea of Japan in a couple days, AND they hate our military, so why does Jack have to pay to protect them?
South Korea's even worse.
Jack says we should just bring the troops home, saving billion$, get our people out of harm's way, and build a couple more aircraft carriers.
Tell N. Korea we'll let Japan build nuclear weapons and they'd mess their Chairman Mao jackets faster than you can say enriched uranium. They don't want war. They want food and oil. They're just extortionists.
Let the Koreans fight it out themselves the way we did in our Civil War. People have to take responsibility for their own lives. What are we afraid of? That communism will take over the world again? Been there, done that. There are two communist countries left, N. Korea and Cuba. Neither one can even feed their people without outside help.
Yep, there's a lot you can learn from a Jack(ass) if you know how to listen, but probably not if he lives in Washington.
Copyright, 2003 John A. McCormick, Inc.
