Attempts to simultaneously serve National Security and also Special Interests, Lead to National Security Failures

My belief as of now, is that the level of damage caused to the USA and to the world by the USA national security policies, can be reduced dramatically, if the USA can accomplish the simple task, of changing over to a mindset in which government departments involved in USA national security activities, serve the national and secondarily the international security interests, as opposed to the current situation, featuring such departments attempting to simultaneously serve the national security interest, the energy industries special interest, the armaments industry special interest, the pet foreign nation special interest and the who knows what other special interest.

Suppose given government policies such as policy X and policy Z, can be given a numerical score Y, on a scale of 1 to 10, the Y score describing how much the policy benefits a given interest, with a 1 score meaning the policy has a dramatic negative effect on the given interest and a 10 score meaning the policy has a dramatic positive effect for the given interest.

Suppose policy X is scored as a 10 for national security interest, a 5 for the energy industry special interest, a 5 for the Armaments industry special interest, and a 5 for the pet foreign state special interest--total score: 25. Suppose policy Z is scored as 5 for the national security interest, 7 for the energy industry special interest, 7 for the armaments industry special interest, and 7 for the pet foreign state special interest--total score, 26.

In such a case when the government policies attempt to serve all these regular and special interests simultaneously, the policy X which is a 10 for national security scores at only 25 overall, while the policy Z, which scores a 5 on national security interest, scores a 26 overall, with the hypothetical result that policy Z, the policy that does nothing for national security, is instituted whereas policy X which scored 10 from the national security interest is not implemented.

It is incredible that a nation's adults can childishly descend to this level of being unable to put the national interest ahead of the special interest that they have financial interests in.

Philosophies that promote atheism, selfishness, and irresponsibility encourage persons with a financial stake in special interests to perpetually place their special interest on a pedestal above the national interest. Likewise government polices that encourage this kind of special interest treachery and selfishness, such as laws that demand that corporations obsess over their own short term profits, encourage the same.

A nation composed of adults should be able to solve the problem of special interest selfishness interfering with the national interest.

National security is a tough enough problem without adding in the complication wherein the government simultaneously tries to please special interests and serve the national security interest.

One of these days the special interest fat-cats are going to wake up to discover that they have ruined themselves and their own families, through their obsession with the promotion of their pet special interests as opposed to the national interest.

The world and the art of military science is in a constant state of flux due to influences such as advances in technology, changes in the world distribution of wealth, changes in world population compositions, changes in the conduct and personality of human beings, changes in terms of who has what military hardware, and migrations of persons.

A nation that gets its self set up to fight the DEF type of war, that plunges into a X type of war to satisfy the special interests that have been set up to benefit from an X type of war, will fall if it therefore plunges into an X type of war in a world that has changed to the point where the alternative Y approach is the reasonable approach as opposed to the X type of war.



@2006 David Virgil Hobbs