It's Always The Economy

It's always the economy - - here, there and everywhere. At the simplest level, people seek financial security; they don't turn on each other when everyone is a participant in a social contract with a government that protects them from intruders and promotes the general welfare. It is only when governments fail in these endeavors that structures crumble and internal conflicts allow despots and foreign threats to create conditions in which raw power and fear are the determinants of individual lives.

Even tyrants survive if they keep order and provide at least some access to sources of income. Chaos and poverty foment strife and attract interlopers. Followers of terrorist groups don't always believe in ‘the cause' but may turn to such organizations for economic sustenance in the absence of more conventional support systems. Poppy growers in Afghanistan derive income by selling their crop to Al Qaeda and the Taliban whose drug trafficking funds their activities. Some advocate destruction of this source of terrorist revenue, but without a viable replacement crop, the economic plight of growers would confound efforts to solve other problems in the county.

In Iraq, without arguing the case for or against the war, the fact is we invaded a substantially sectarian country that had a trained army, a professional class and a cadre of skilled workers albeit under the control of a tyrannical leader. It is rarely acknowledged that Iraq's tyrant was a former ally in that the enemy of our enemy is our friend, as when Saddam Hussein, fought against our ‘enemy', Iran. In the shifting sands of Middle East loyalties, however, Saddam became a targeted foe, and the rest, as they say, is history.

But in the process of eliminating Saddam, we destroyed Iraq's institutions and infrastructure and unleashed simmering religious tensions. Our civilian managers sent the army off with weapons but no income, removed even middle-level Baathist Party clerical staff without finding adequate replacements and failed to keep order in the aftermath of military victory. The power vacuum created a social construct so unstable and violent the Iraqi people turned inward claiming parcels of political turf and attacking each other in a spate of self-destructive behavior that left the country in unmanageable disarray.

Then, instead of engaging skilled elements in the population to rebuild their country and draw a salary, we flooded Iraq with US contractors and their cadre of Blackwater defenders leaving an indigenous workforce largely idle. With many members of the professional class having fled the country, the deconstruction of Iraqi society provided a perfect opportunity for Al Qaeda and other insurgents to exert their influence. Eventually Sunnis in Anbar province expelled Al Qaeda in what has been called "the awakening" greatly encouraged by cash payments to local sheiks by the US.

Similar forces are at work in our own country although not of course under such extreme conditions. Our government has been so inattentive to the needs of so many that our economy has grown seriously out of balance. Job losses to cheaper venues abroad, corporate tax-dodges in the Caribbean, tax cuts that provide huge benefits to the already wealthy and an irrational immigration system have all contributed to a growing sense that government isn't serving ordinary Americans in any meaningful way.

That his staff is bloated with lobbyists and Bush retreads and that big oil supports his candidacy in a big way suggests we'd be in for more of the same Bush-style governance were John McCain to win the White House. His years in the Senate don't appear to have enhanced his understanding of today's national and international imperatives. Constant references to his support of the "surge" make this a singular talking point that obscures other shortcomings, and his rambling generalizations with respect to social programs and energy issues are further indications of how limited and insubstantial his overall vision is.

As Obama said in his speech on Monday, lack of a coherent energy policy has been a problem for more than thirty years. For twenty-six of those years, McCain has been in Congress. One might have expected by now he would be spearheading innovative solutions for energy and the country's pressing economic concerns. That isn't the case, however - - proof that experience in and of itself isn't necessarily meaningful experience.