What the U.S. could be doing instead of messing around in Iraq and Afghanistan

[Lydia Leftcoast]

This morning, I got into a conversation with a German immigrant at the Y swimming pool. She said she was from Munich, and I mentioned that I had been there once as a teenager but that my main memory of it was that everything had been torn up and under construction in preparation for the 1972 Olympics.

"If you went back now," she said, "you'd find it all torn up again." (She goes back at least once a year.)

She explained that Germany is upgrading its infrastructure with an emphasis on making the country more environmentally friendly. She thinks that Europe as a whole is leaving the U.S. behind in this respect.

I mentioned that Japan is looking toward the future, too. Based on my translation projects, I know that Japan, despite its economic problems, is expanding its Shinkansen "bullet train" system and has several interesting pilot projects going for meeting the needs of its aging society and keeping the elderly mobile and out of institutions for as long as possible. One mid-sized city called a town meeting of seniors and asked them how the city's infrastructure needed to be changed to meet their needs.

Since I can't travel now (financial reasons), I've been reading travel guidebooks a lot. Asian countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea appear to be fully committed to upgrading their infrastructures and creating state-of-the-art transit and rail systems.

I am reminded of the time Reagan justified his then-unprecedented military buildup by saying that he was trying to get the USSR to spend themselves into bankruptcy. From what I heard from people who visited the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s, the military hardware paraded through Red Square on May Day was amazing, but the everyday infrastructure was downright shabby and shoddy.

Well guess what! It looks as if our own government is trying to make us go the way of the Soviet Union.

[thetonka]

1. Just because it works over in the EU and Japan

Doesn't mean it will be just as much of a success here in the US.

We need to lead, not follow. We need to innovate, not comply. We need to find solutions that satisfy OUR needs, not apply their solutions just because they use them.

We have the potential to become the leading country in technology, and efficiency. We will never achieve or maintain a leading role if all we do is play the catch up game with countries whose needs, resources, and social and economic make ups are different than ours.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. But I see no indication that anyone is even "finding solution that satisfy OUR needs"

All the energy seems to be going into the military and into financial wheeler-dealing.

Our infrastructure is BEYOND decaying. I saw my first article warning about decaying infrastructure in the 1970s.

No, we don't have to follow Europe or Japan (although we shouldn't reject them with the "Not Invented Here" syndrome) exactly, but we have to get cracking on analyzing exactly what our problems are and getting to work on them.

Besides, what is wrong with updating infrastructure and retrofitting communities to match anticipated demographics? Are you afraid that it will cost money that could better be spent in capturing Middle Eastern oil fields and subsidizing cushy lifestyles for corporate executives and political cronies?

[Cal33]

5. And on top of it all, the Neocons are trying to bring down

our nation still further by blocking whatever the Democrats are
trying to do to build up the country. Their hope is that when
the entire nation is down, it will be so much easier for them to
take it over.

[thetonka]

8. Agreed

I'm just tired of hearing the tired argument that "They do this so we must do it to".

As an example, while public transportation would help out immensely in this country copying the same public transportation they have in Europe and Japan just won't work. We have a LOT more area here and things are significantly more spread out. Some big cities can benefit from PT similar to Europe, like NY and Boston, but the models that will deliver the benefits are not universal. What works in NY will not work in LA. In Fact, what works in SF will not work in LA.

Also the idea that public transportation will solve all our solutions misses the final mile. We have a considerable amount of this country that can not be supplied by light rail or heavy rail. Ignoring the significance of medium and heavy duty trucks in this country is foolish and guaranteed to result in failure.

We HAVE to have a multitude of solutions, and we can. IMHO the first thing that needs to happen before we can solve our transportation and energy needs and problems in this country is we need to abandoned the idea that one size fits all and decentralize things. We can not expect one solution to be successful in LA, NY, Boston, Miami, Seattle, SF, Omaha, Bismarck, or any number of small towns in this country.

At this point I have no hope, both sides are too set in their narrow sighted desire to find problems for their solutions. We need to work together towards accepted common goals.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. One solution could be to "unspread" our development

The one-acre lots of suburbia were not laid out by Nature, nor were strip malls. The foreclosure crisis and the uncompleted subdivisions are an opportunity to get suburbia right this time.

I've long maintained that we could spend some of our war money retrofitting suburbia for non-automotive transportation. This could be feet and bicycles as well as public transit. Just for instance.

But the important thing is that these other countries are making specific plans instead of just drifting. They have a vision for what they want their societies to look like in the future, and they're working on it.

I translate a lot of corporate puff pieces from Japan, but what is striking is the space that they devote to environmental initiatives. They brag about fewer carbon emissions than the previous year, more use of recycled and repurposed materials, reducing the number of truck runs and/or converting their trucks to non-gasoline engines, eliminating the use of one hazardous chemical after another, inventing industrial processes that don't require the use of water, turning their own abandoned industrial sites into parks and donating them to the community, etc. They'll devote a full page to each of these topics in their reports to shareholders. This has been true of every corporate report that I've translated in the past ten or fifteen years. Somehow, whether through government decree or talking among themselves, they have realized that they have to be careful with their small chain of islands to keep it livable.

We don't have Japan's particular demographic imbalance, but we have our own problems of children growing up in poverty. What are we doing about this? Where is the national conversation about this? Where are the community initiatives in which municipal governments go to poor people and ask, "What are your dreams for your children and what are the obstacles to achieving those?"

[thetonka]

11. On big problem

"But the important thing is that these other countries are making specific plans instead of just drifting. They have a vision for what they want their societies to look like in the future, and they're working on it."

We will never have one vision of what we want "our" society to look like in this country. We are far too diverse, which IMHO is a good thing. Trying to shove everyone into the same little mold is doomed to fail.

We have to find a diverse collection of solutions, and foster the prosperity of that diversity even if some of those solutions are not supported by all in this country. Not everyone wants to live in suburbia, or the big city, or any city. We can find solutions that will ensure a prosperous and safe future for all AND guarantee the diversity and individuality of the people is maintained.

This can not happen in a vacuum driven by myopic ideology.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. Fine, but I still don't see the effort

Everyone's into protecting their turf.

Meanwhile, today's NY Times has an article about how Portugal (Portugal!) is getting 45% of its electrical power from clean energy sources.

Here's an example of what the Obama administration could do: Ask each state government to do an honest assessment of its worst current problems and potential future problems and brainstorm about plans of action. Then withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq and use the money saved to fund those plans.

So far, the Obama administration's approach has been excessively scattershot and timid.

[thetonka]

13. Completely agree

My points were not to disagree with you, just to point out that it is not a simple issue in this country. Would be a lot simpler if they put some effort towards it.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

2. K&R

[bvar22]

4. I agree.

The money wasted on death and destruction in the Middle East is an obscene, immoral, crying shame. :cry:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. It makes me ashamed to be an American

but proud that I participated in all the antiwar marches in Portland.

[LWolf]

6. It sure looks that way.

:(

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. Yup, I think that The Shock Doctrine is turning into a prophecy for the U.S.

:-(