Wrapping Up the Threats

Posted Thursday, November 12, 2009, at 9:43 AM

Air travel, seaport and border threats are also real and should be added to the list. The answer to these threats might be military but just as important is their not-at-all-subtle connection to military spending--we have squandered so many of our resources in unnecessary wars that not enough money is available to properly deal with them.

For example, CNN reported in March of 2008 that air marshals were missing from almost all flights. One pilot was quoted in the article, "I would guess (they are on) less than one percent of all my flights." CNN followed up with an April story that said their training is a disgrace and that managers assigned some of the available marshals to short, no-risk flights to inflate reports on the number of protected flights.

Circumstances will cause additional problems in the future, including global warming, the increasing number of people living in huge cities, the widening gap between the haves and the have nots of the world, trade imbalances, and dwindling water and food supplies.

The way affected people, groups of people and nations react to them might create threats to America. But most can and should be addressed through non-military solutions plus the resources of wealthy countries--planning, because we have anticipated the problems, and aid, made possible by what should be be a tremendous savings in military costs.

Next, the solutions--Berkley Bedell.

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Berkley Bedell--Retirement from the U.S. Congress in 1987, neither dulled my interest in the well-being of the people of the United States nor my worries about our governance. I began work in 2006 on a book outlining the country's problems and offering solutions. Jim Frost--I share Berkley's concerns and in 2007 began the job of researching, editing and assisting with writing his book. By early 2009, after finally weathering George W. Bush and recognizing how much the past eight wasted years have set the world back, our focus changed. We had seen no meaningful progress in the efforts to stem the threat of nuclear weapons, reverse global warming, preserve natural resources, reduce military spending, fight disease and hunger, improve health care, deal with the increasing gulf between rich people and poor people, establish a workable economic system, or clean up the political process. For us, these three things became self-evident: First, the problems are global; the U.S. cannot by itself control or solve them. Second, the perfect storm of worldwide catastrophe is already upon us; what must be said cannot wait. Third, in seeking solutions, the problems must be put before as many people as possible as quickly as possible. This blog is the result. There will be much more. We invite you to participate.

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