All we need is freedom

View 697 Thursday, October 20, 2011

The headline is that Khadaffi is dead, ignominiously shot down while pleading for his life. So far as I know they didn’t take the body out and hang it upside down in a public square, but much of this is reminiscent of the death of Benito Mussolini – who was, oddly enough, the founder of the nation of Libya. Libya didn’t exist until the Italians formed it from the provinces of Tripolitania , Cyrenaica, and various interior Berber, Taureg, and other tribal groups in the province of Fezzan. The Italian marshal charged with unification was given carte blanche, and the unification wars were brutal. Under Mussolini the trains ran on time – actually there weren’t trains, but a Coast Road was built from Tripoli to the Egyptian border, modern factories such as a Fiat plant were built, and there were numerous showpiece public works such as cathedrals and the Marble Arch commemorating unification. Jewish enterprises thrived.

After World War II a Tripolitanian emir was proclaimed king of Libya. Foreign developers were invited in. The US built an important base and some of infrastructure needed to operate it. The king was overthrown by Colonel Qadaffi, who ruled until the Arab Spring uprisings and consequent NATO-backed rebellion. The US lost a significant imperial asset, Wheelus AFB in Libya, which was not only a primary SAC base but a major staging area for any US regional forces. US Libyan relations in the era of Qadaffi have been a roller coaster. We ended by supporting and partly financing the rebellion that killed him.

President Obama announced Qadaffi’s end in a statement that stopped short of claiming credit for the kill, but certainly didn’t deny it.

It is clear that Qaddafi would still be in control of at least part of Libya had not NATO intervened, and US activities were a vital part of that intervention. How much of a seat that gives us at the table when the time comes to pick the bones of Libya is not clear, nor is it clear that the fall of Khadafi will result in a political resolution and restoration of order without further fighting. NATO obviously holds the balance of power in Libya, and in the Imperial era this might have inspired conflicts among the Great Powers; but of course today there are few Great Powers. It will interesting to see how the new power struggles play out. But it’s more Europe’s business than ours. We’re broke. We may be a Great Power, but we’re a busted Great Power with $12 Trillion in debt to pay before we’re up to broke. We have our own recovery to manage. Rebuilding Libya is not our problem. Khadaffi is dead. Mission accomplished. Can we come home now?

It will be interesting to see how Obama’s advisors make use of this in the campaign.

(This is not a revision but a test)

 

It is that time of the year: KUSC is having its pledge drive. I time mine to coincide with theirs, so be prepared to be bombarded for a week with exhortations. I operate this place on the Public Radio Model – it is free, but if not enough donate, it will go away. So far it is healthy. It needs subscriptions and renewals to keep it that way. SUBSCRIBE NOW! RENEW NOW! Think how awful it would be if this place closed down! (Well, KUSC takes to saying that when subscriptions aren’t coming in fast enough so I thought I’d try.) Thanks!

 

Forgive The Debts!

The expected shakeout of the Occupy Wall Street movement continues. Given the great media sympathy for this movement, and the overt support it is receiving from local governments – ignoring permits and restrictions, visits by public officials, restrictions on police activities – the path this will take will be very different from the “Days of Rage” during the Viet Nam era. There is no conscription, and thus no great force driving educated middle class young men into the protest movement – and of course the big incentive of the Left in my undergraduate days, “free love”, is no longer very effective. It’s no longer exclusively the Marxist girls who wear wool stockings who proclaim a right to sexual equality. Actually, the Marxist girls of the 1950’s still used words like slut and public pump, and would have been horrified by the hookup culture. They wanted at least a pretense of commitment. But I digress.

One of the driving force demands of the OWS is “debt forgiveness.” While the demand is for all debts to be forgiven – this is the 99% demanding release from debt to the 1% — there is special attention to student loan debt which has resulted from the education bubble. The bubble was created by the continuous injection of money into the higher education system. That started with the GI Bill, and I was certainly a beneficiary of the Korean War GI Bill. I probably would have got through Memphis State College (as it was known in 1950, having been elevated from West Tennessee Normal School to Memphis State College a few years before) because I had enough connections in Memphis that I could manage to work my way through, and there was in essence no tuition for those who had completed the College Prep programs in high school. I might have got through and perhaps found a way into graduate school, but I might not: the GI Bill left me with some freedom of choice.

But over time more and more money has been injected into the University and College system. If they have the money they will spend it. Eventually the Iron Law governs, faculty, administrators, and staff get ever increasing raises and benefits, admission requirements fall, demand for more public money rises – well, you get the idea. Tuition rises. The answer to that is to inject more money in the form of loans. Unforgivable loans. Loans that will destroy social mobility, as everyone who doesn’t inherit a college education finds himself – herself – a bondswoman for life. But as tuition rises, fewer want to pay, so more and more students must be admitted regardless of qualifications. Public programs that were supposed to be restricted to the smart people who might become boffins have to be extended to everyone regardless of qualifications – or even of background. A program that was supposed to be for veterans is replaced by programs that must be available to all. Programs expand. Campuses multiply. The bubble continues.

And here we are.

The OWS won’t get what they want. There aren’t enough of them actually to storm the centers of power, and they haven’t the discipline to stay peaceful and orderly and build more and more public sympathy as did the veterans camped in Washington and the other occupants of Hoovervilles did in the early days of the Great Depression. They haven’t any consistent views of the world because their college educations are often worthless. They are shocked to discover that there is a real criminal element among them, and the criminals are quite content to be parasitic and feign whatever sentiment is popular on a given day.

I can feel a bit sorry for them. The Obama administration has not been kind to them, and has no concept of how to end the Second Great Depression. On the other hand, the Country Club Republicans and their rapacious allies calling themselves “compassionate conservatives” and “big government conservatives” went stark mad in a spree of needless war and exponentially rising spending. The OWS people have every right to be disgusted. They also have the right to be damned fools, but that’s not a right they ought to exercise.

For those contemplating a rebellion, I remind you again: good guys take responsibilities. Good guys clean up after themselves. Good guys look more than ten minutes into the future. Good guys can be fools too, but they don’t go seek folly.

If you want to go protest, look into the Tea Party. It’s got some dolts and asses and predators and a few dammed fools, but for the most part it believes in freedom, and understands that there isn’t a big government remedy for the mess we got into ourselves. There won’t be any big central action – a general strike, or rising up and erecting guillotines in the public squares, however momentarily attractive that notion may seem – none of that will save us. It took a while to dig this hole, and it will take a while to get out of it.

But we are not surrounded by ruins. Many of the tools of prosperity are in storage or even for sale on eBay (Art Robinson has managed to find a lot of equipment his Institute could never have afforded). We still have a capable work force with good work ethics even if many are now retired; they can still teach apprentices. We are not prostrate under the occupation of a foreign enemy. We have oil and coal and natural gas. There is no requirement that we continue to support an educational establishment that drains our substance while stupefying the bright kids we need to educate. We have all the elements for recovering and sustaining that recovery.

All we need is Freedom.

NATO’s air strikes were too much for Khadafi’s 40 car convoy. (I am told that Obama’s cavalcade is 42 vehicles including the Canadian made armored bus, but doubtless has some air cover assets as well; interesting that the President of the United States apparently needs an entourage/escort similar to that of an oil rich dictator.)  Given Qadaffi’s record of public trials and executions it is hard to conclude that he was dealt with unjustly.

Science fiction writers like to ramble about lessons from history. Are there any here? This is all first draft from here on: sheer speculation.

One lesson to be learned is, DO NOT LOSE if you are in the dictator business. The US will borrow money to furnish the Brits, French, and Italians with the means to kill you. Understand that, and be sure that you have the means for defending yourself. The more strategic your country the more important it will be to have defenses including personal defenses. Another lesson is, do not renounce your nukes. Get some. Get at least one and let it be known that it will detonate if you don’t talk to it at daily intervals.

Napoleon Bonaparte marched all over Europe, transferring many of the art treasures of Western Civilization to the Louvre. He carried liberation, meaning government by intendants general, to many places, ended the longest living republic in human history and looted it thoroughly, and led a Grande Armée into Russia in Winter, leaving much of it behind as he hurried to retreat. Yet Bonaparte was beloved by his troops and much of France. He’s got a bigger tomb than most any king. He died in exile. (He who has only seen an eagle caged has never seen an eagle.) For some indication of the emotions he could stir up long after his death, see Stendhal’s Red and the Black. Or as Van Loon suggests, listen to a great artist perform Di Beiden Grenadiere.  (In English. Jerome Hines.)

The radio is now telling me that Kadafi was put on display in a shopping mall. Still not strung up as Mussolini was.