USA going the way of Soviet Union?

Dear editor,

The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The United States, as we know it, is collapsing now in its own way – in a financial meltdown and an impending economic catastrophe. Government intervention to rescue the banking system is now the only possible recourse, says U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. In other words, socialism for capitalists is the way to go. And capitalism for workers.

The cause of the fall of these two powers is the same: unsustainable military spending.

The Soviet Union cracked because its economy was not strong enough to keep up with military spending during the Cold War.

The U.S., with 5 percent of the world’s population, has been spending as much as the rest of the world on its military – most of it borrowed money after President George W. Bush’s tax cuts. Permanent war in Iraq and Afghanistan has become a bottomless pit.

The culture of debt has spread from the fiscal chaos in the U.S. government into Wall Street and Main Street. The ideologically motivated Bush-Cheney regime has been obliterating the vestiges of regulations enacted during the Great Depression that served as a firewall for many years. Weighed down by debt, the system cracked.

And now, caught with its pants down, the conservative movement has panicked and turned to the government for a solution. An unthinkable change is now under way in the USA: mountains of private debt are to be nationalized as soon as the powers that be figure out how to control this process without contamination by some massive fraud.

Media attention is now focused on obscuring the connection between the war and the financial meltdown now under way. We still have use for war heroes, besides baseball heroes, for self-exaltation. Anglo-Saxon pride won’t allow the establishment to acknowledge the connection and bring the troops home right away. 

But if “the surge” has succeeded as claimed by the Bush Administration, why are we still in Iraq? As for Afghanistan, it was a losing proposition even before it started.  Throughout history, no one has been able to conquer that country. The British had their lesson there in the 19th century, although they tactfully are humoring Uncle Sam by sending some token troops now.

Meanwhile, the stampede toward the taxpayer bailout of Wall Street is causing another upsurge in oil prices and a dollar dive in anticipation of runaway inflation, while the Federal Reserve Bank’s activism in bailout proceedings and money “infusion” in all directions is seen as an indication that the central bank has abdicated its primary role of safeguarding the value of the U.S. currency.

Cooler heads realize that, despite the ongoing rush for some imaginary “solution,” the country cannot avoid taking some tough medicine – including a severe economic slump – for the damage done by the Bush era and the resulting financial chicanery and meltdown.

Boris Danik

North Caldwell, New Jersey, USA