Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(October 2004)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
Comparison of State of the Nation, now and possibly
in the future:
Up
until now I haven’t made any significant comments in
this newsletter about the United States economy,
the enormous National Deficit, the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, and the current security of the people
of America, perhaps it is time to take a look at the
current state of the nation under President Bush and
his Republican Administration before switching to the
plan for America currently being publicised by his
challenger Senator John Kerry.
The current state of the Nation under President Bush
and his Republican Party Administration:
-
 President
Bush, as part of his political agenda continues to
say that America’s economy is
strong and that we are rapidly recovering from the
recession due to the tax relief programs that he
initiated which he states are creating jobs. He fails
to state that a high percentage of the jobs that
are currently being made available are in the service
industry, such as fast food and coffee shop establishments,
which pay minimum wages. The well paying jobs have
rapidly disappeared from the civil sector due to
the outsourcing of jobs to India, China, Eastern
Europe, Mexico etc.
The companies outsourcing American
jobs have been praised by President Bush for their
entrepreneurship although he fails to mention that
these companies get favourable tax allowances.
I
recently paid a short weekend visit to the small
coastal town of Seal Beach, California, which is
located about thirty miles north of where we live,
and during a walk on the pier Sheena and I were astonished
to see the line up off-shore of at least twenty huge
container ships, which appeared as large in size
as aircraft carriers.
Long Beach Harbour is a major port of entry for the import of foreign automobiles
and other consumer goods from Far Eastern countries - so you can see in the
next paragraph how this can be construed as a major item in the generation
of such a large deficit in our balance of payments.
-
American involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan
wars.
President Bush and his Republican colleagues
started a war against the people of Iraq, (incidentally
fully supported in Congress by the Democrats), based
totally upon mis-information with no prepared plan
as to how America was going to stabilise Iraq after
the war was won.
This has caused the deaths of many young Americans and has been partially responsible
for the spiralling American economic national debt situation.
 President Bush
in his obvious desire to avenge the 11th of September terrorist actions upon
American soil, still maintains that his unilateral declaration to conduct a
war against Iraq under the premise of installing democracy into this Muslim
nation was the right thing to do. Even though it was never proven that Iraq
had any Al Quaeda terrorist connections at that time and were not involved
in terrorist acts against the United States and its people, and also that it
was well known that the terrorist acts were committed by Al Quaeda Muslim terrorists
trained in Afghanistan and financed by Osama Bin Laden, (with possible financial
contributions coming from Saudi Arabian sources), the Bush Administration still
made Iraq its #1 target. Two years or more after President Bush declared the
war in Iraq to be over, anarchy and chaos reigns with no degree of control
or security, and the killings of both Americans, Iraqis, and other nationals
are increasing daily. Law and order and political stability is at its worst
since the country was under the power of Saddam Hussein,
The forgotten war in Afghanistan, and the apparent lack of knowledge as to
the whereabouts of the elusive Osama bin Laden, appears to have taken a back
seat to the war in Iraq - well, it never did appear to take priority in
the Bush plan to rid the world of terrorism - and as I watched a recent TV
news flash of the release of thousands of Taliban supporters from prison it
occurred to me that we were back to square one in this particular hot bed of
terrorism.
-
Are we safer now from terrorist actions:
I’m sorry to say that America’s wars
with Iraq and Afghanistan have only exacerbated the
Muslim desire to attack America and kill Americans,
and the land of the free which Americans have always prided themselves on
being is rapidly disappearing into oblivion.
America has placed all kinds
of restrictions upon the general public especially upon people using air
transportation but is leaving what appear to be large gaping holes in the
protection of very vulnerable sites, which for obvious reasons I do not intend
to discuss. I will say however that the Container ships discussed in a previous
paragraph are by reason of their abundance, and being in plain sight, would
seem to me to be pretty obvious targets for terrorists.
Comment: I have tried to be as brief as I possibly could with respect to what
I currently consider to be four of the most important concerns that the American
people should have with respect to the state of the nation under the current
President, and honestly I have tried my hardest to think of any good things
this President has done for the people of this nation but words fail me.
The future state of the Nation as seen by the Presidential
contender Senator John Kerry:
-
 Senator
John Kerry, and his running mate John Edwards, have
put forward a "Plan for America",
which they say is a plan to stand up for American
values and build an America that is strong at home
and respected throughout the world.
It is their belief
that America can have a strong economy based upon
the generation of good paying jobs, a health care
plan that reduces costs, an energy plan that frees
us from dependency upon Middle East oil interests,
and they believe that they can be instrumental in
strengthening America’s
military and forge strong alliances with sovereign
nations that will keep America safe and secure.
Comment:
What a monumental task they are facing, (if they
are successful in getting into the White House),
when we consider the current situation of a world
in turmoil. Before I go into some of the details
of the plan I would like to point out that promises
made are not always promises kept as it takes a great
deal of political power to achieve the passing of
any law or bill in both the House or the Senate of
the United States Congress.
This of course is very much dependent upon which particular
party has the majority of seats. (i.e.: number of votes).
By the way I would suggest that they change the wording
from, "A health care plan that reduces costs." to "An
affordable health care plan with reduced costs for all Americans".
Presidential
candidate John Kerry’s Democratic
platform in the, "Plan for America", includes
ideas for the following major tasks: National Security,
Economy and Jobs, Health Care, Energy Independence, Homeland
Security, Education, Environment, plus a number of other
items.
To give equal time to the Presidential candidate
and his running mate, we will take a brief closer
look at four out of the seven items quoted on the proposed
agenda: National Security, Economy and Jobs, Health Care,
and Homeland Security.
I promise not to bog you down
with details and just give you some of the salient points.
-
National Security
 John Kerry and John Edwards, (John Kerry’s
running mate), have made statements saying that they
believe in an America that is respected and not feared,
and will try to forge alliances based upon respect.
They go on to say that the world of today faces three major challenges,
above and beyond all others, namely: a) To win the war against terrorism,
b) To stop the spread of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, c)
To promote democracy, freedom, and opportunity around the world.
Comment: Brave words, but I would suggest that reviving respect for
America’s
and its citizens through out the world would be a better policy and should
be given a higher priority than "promoting democracy", especially
in a rapidly increasing Muslim world population where there is an abundant
amount of opposition to democracy.
One must acknowledge that words alone
will not accomplish success in their postured beliefs, as such beliefs
need substance and method, and that would appear to be sadly
lacking currently in their agenda material.
-
Economy and jobs:
As a future President, John
Kerry states that he will reduce taxes for middle
class Americans, and will cut taxes for businesses
that create jobs here in America instead of seeking
cheap labour by moving the jobs overseas.
He promises to cut the deficit in half during his first four years in office.
He says that he will end corporate welfare schemes for higher echelon executives.
He promises to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and impose
a cap on spending by making Washington live within a budget.
Comment: Admirable sentiments and first class ideals, but once again one must
remember that once in office political promises are not always fulfilled for
a variety of reasons or excuses.
-
Health Care: (See my comments under the paragraph
entitled: "The inadequacy
of America’s
health care system").
The candidates state that they have a plan to reduce medical premiums and
curtail the spiralling health care costs of this nation, by cutting waste.
They also should state that they would try to get rid of the on-going tremendous
amount of fraud that exists in, and has always existed in, the Medicare
system.
They also suggest that one principal aim will be to lower the cost of prescription
drugs and give all Americans access to a range of affordable high quality
medical care plans, which are available to members of Congress.
Comment:
Once again I applaud the admirable principles put forward as guidelines
for a better health care system for "the huddled masses".
But
of course the means for providing such care is conveniently side lined,
although the plan does include a method of reducing financial costs currently
being wasted upon the immense bureaucratic paperwork system
and the administrative process. The Kerry-Edwards plan
apparently will aim at harnessing American ingenuity
in an effort to produce a plan to cut the tremendous
waste within the current Medicare system. This will save
billions of dollars whilst still ensuring good health
care and patient privacy.
-
Homeland Security:
John Edwards whilst admitting
that some progress has been made to make America
secure since the 11 th of September 2001 terrorist
attacks on American soil, he reiterated the facts
that there are many loopholes which require immediate
action. They quote for instance that America’s
intelligence services still remain fragmented and sadly
lacking in coordination, which allowed terrorist factions
to freely enter the country. Our borders, seaports, airports,
chemical and nuclear facilities, are still not fully
secure from terrorist attacks.
The Kerry/Edwards plan is to tighten security in all the areas mentioned.
Comment:
We certainly need to close the current security loopholes - but with a government
that currently is more or less equally divided, the hope of making any serious
headway in improving any of the deficiencies that we have in American society
will be very hard to come by.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these
newsletters. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
|
