Why We Are Where We Are: Neo-conservatives, Immigration and Economic Strength

or Sunday musings after reading the paper.

From a book review of Why We Lost "A General's Inside Account of the Iraq & Afghanistan Wars by Daniel Bolger.

"Since there aren't enough soldiers - "having outsourced defense to the willing" the American people stay on the sidelines - the generals asked for more time and more money.  This meant sending the same troops back again and again, perhaps a bit better equipped than the last time.  With stubbornness  supplanting purpose, the military persisted, "in the vain hope that something might somehow improve.""

"Toward what end?  Bolger reduces the problem to knowing whom to kill.  "Defining the enemy defined the war," he writes.  But who is the enemy?  Again and again, he poses that question, eventually concluding, whether in frustration or despair, that the enemy is "everyone".  But if all the Iraqi's and all Afghans are the enemy, then American failure extends well beyond matters of generalship."

That is a lesson I fear the neo-conservatives have not learned.  The Muslim world is going through a tortured self-evaluation that has been long put off now that ISIS is rampaging across a landscape with divided loyalties from the Shia regimes.  ISIS is really not all that different from the Wahhabi Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, a violent, puritanical, non pluralistic government.

From Thomas Friedman's column this morning.

“People are attracted to moderate religion because they are moderates to begin with,” argues Hamidaddin. “People are attracted to extreme black-and-white religious ideologies” because the warped social and economic context they live in produces an attraction to holistic black-and-white solutions.” (It is one reason Pakistani Muslims tend to be more radical than Indian Muslims.)

Yes, religious reform would help, added Hamidaddin. But “it was the complete deterioration of the economic, security and political situation [in Iraq and Syria] that demanded a clear black-and-white interpretation of the world. It takes the right [government] policies to counteract that.” 


Sunni Islam must defeat ISIS.  Shia and Sunni Islam must work together to form the government policies that will encourage young men to believe they have a stake in an orderly society.

Which brings me back to the U.S.A.  Since Day 1 of the Obama Administration, Mitch McConnell has made it his stated objective to make the Obama Administration a failure.  After 6 years, I think Obama has had enough and decided to spend his last two years fighting back with every power the President has.  And it is ironic, that Justice Scalia has spent much of his legal career defending the right of the President to do such things.  Justice Scalia believes the constitution authorizes a strong Presidency when it comes to matters of National Defense.

And what is more important in today's world than having a strong economy.  Nothing, because economic strength is how we won the Cold War, WWII, and the North, the Civil War.  And a working immigration system is key to the United States economy.  Freedom in politics and dynamism in the economy draw talented and motivated people to work here.  In doing so, they create jobs and kill other jobs.  Globalization has created tremendous wealth in the United States but at the same time laid waste to rural industrial America as factories there closed.  There is nothing more complicated than the global economy, so I will get to my point.  11 million illegal immigrants cannot be deported without sending the economy into a recession.  You cannot shrink the labor force by 4%, shrink the consumption of the U.S. by 3%, shrink the demand for housing by 3% or 4% and not send the economy into a recession.  We already have a budget deficit that is too large for this level of employment, need to reduce debt to meet the baby boomer demand on entitlements, and have used up  the marginal strength of monetary policy.  So, we cannot afford any attacks on economic strength and having a solution to immigration reform is essential.  Immigrants are generally younger and help provide a solution to the baby boomer future draw on Medicare and Social Security.

Yet, I do not believe that cutting off negotiation with the GOP on this issue is a sound way to proceed.    And despite Justice's Scalia's belief in the power of the Presidency, I think immigration is like abortion, a lasting sound solution can only be created through the legislative process, not the actions of a President, the beneficiaries of which, could see these policies reversed by a future President.

I know President Obama cannot be optimistic that the GOP led Congress will vote for anything he supports, but he has to try that first.  Otherwise, we will have both parties following a torch the earth policy and that is not good for the country in any manner.

My only other comment is that usually I follow sports so that I am not too furious about asinine politics, but the NY teams are so awful there is no hope there.  I can only hope that Derrick Rose somehow starts not having leg injuries and the Chicago Bulls have a lot of success.  Last year, my Alma Mater Dutchmen found hockey success winning the NCAA Division 1 Frozen Four, but this year they are the target of motivated opposition and losing a lot of 1 goal games.  Success is fleeting in this competitive world.  That is also an apt way to view political/economic policy.  The U.S. still has a competitive advantage in the world and I just hope that the Political War in D.C. doesn't squander it permanently.  I do believe there is value on almost every issue in taking something from the Democrats and something from the Republicans to solve problems like Immigration, Tax Reform, the access to and cost of health care, putting entitlements on a sound financial footing.  These are real problems that effect employment and full employment is how you get a strong economy.