This week's blog is focused on an American issue, because I feel it is relevant. The next blog will be back to the fun Key West issues! I apologize to my friends outside the U.S. who look forward to the Key West Blog!
I don’t rant often, but here goes! I had watched a hearing
about a week and a half ago where Admirals and Generals of all branches of the
U.S. military were fielding questions from Congressmen regarding the budget
cuts which had not been finalized at that point. The bottom line was that with
the rate of training cut back, should the budget not be decided on, the state
of readiness of U.S. troops would be substantially hindered. To the point that
should next year’s budget be approved a year from now, it would take a year and
a half to bring the military back up to the state of readiness that we have
today. One of the congressmen asked the Marine General (sorry, I didn’t catch
names) where he thought the President stood on the issue. The General stated categorically
that in his conversations with the President, the President emphatically did
not want the budget cuts to happen.
Regretfully what happened was the budget was not reached and
consequently, we are cast in the direction of being at a far lesser state of
military readiness. According to all of the Admirals and Generals, this is not
an issue that is up for debate: It’s a fact.
What this amounts to is a byproduct of the secular partys we have today in
Washington D.C. When I was growing up Democrats and Republicans would argue
until they were blue in the face on the House and Senate floors. That’s no
different than it is today. However, what is different today than what was then
is the key to why something like this has happened.
In those former years Congressman X, a Democrat, and
Congressman Y, a Republican, would go out and play a round of golf, or perhaps
go out for a cocktail and work out their differences there. While they had a difference
of opinion, off the floor they were friends.
This doesn't happen today and the end result of it is that
our state of military readiness has been seriously compromised. We’re talking
about our national security. The bottom line is that our representatives in
Washington D.C. have put the interest of their party, ahead of national
security.
Myself, I fall somewhere in the middle of what the two
parties fundamentally stand for. There are things that the Democrats go for
that I’m all behind and things that the Republicans back that I side with.
However, if these people are so entrenched against each
other that they are willing to put national security at risk, it’s time for
them to step down because, fact of the matter: They are incapable of doing
their jobs, plain and simple.
I see it every day on Facebook, where certain people have,
not a difference of opinion, not a disagreement, but a down and out HATRED for,
not only the other party, but the individuals in it. Wherever hate is involved,
very bad things happen. In this case “Very
Bad” = Our national security has been very seriously compromised. That is the
degree that this has advanced to.
Bottom line, whomever is so secularized in Washington D.C.
that they view the other party as a disease and will not work with them, to the
point of compromising national security, sorry, but they have to go. Their
priorities are severely jaded. Likewise, anyone who is promoting hatred of a
party, or individuals, be it a congressman, senator, or the President, you need
to realize that these actions have helped escalate reducing Washington D.C. to
the point where we've compromised our national security for the next two and a
half years (one year down and a year and a half to recover).
As it stands now,
when the new budget kicks in, we’re two and a half years behind where we are
now as far as the state of military readiness. That’s a fact and it’s not going
to change. Now keep in mind that this is a time where we have potential powder kegs
such as Iran, or North Korea which could fly off the handle at any given
moment. If something were to happen and any U.S. forces are lost because of a
lack of readiness, the fault lies with the individuals in Washington D.C. as
well as all who support the isolationism and downright hatred between the
parties.
We’re Americans. We may not agree with each other, however
we are bound together with common goals. We’re two and a half years behind the
eight ball in a volatile world. All Americans need to work together as one for
the common goal of the country, not the goal of political parties.
It’s high time to cut the horse manure.
