Loose political speeches have consequences.

 TALKING TOUGH IS USUALLY DONE BY THE WEAK

IF STRONG, TOUGH TALK IS UNNECESSARY

We are now living in the age of tough talk by political leaders, sadly mostly by U.S. political leaders. They feel it makes great sound bites and hopefully will go down in history to enhance their legacy. Real serious leaders do not need such talk and their legacy will ultimately be fashioned by the results of their polices not tough meaningless sound bites.

One example is the State of the Union on Jan.29. 2002, this is were George Bush 2 made his "Axis of Evil" speech. Where he labeled Iran, North Korea and Iraq as some conspiratorial actors who needed to be eliminated. At that time there was very little cooperation between these countries, they all had vastly different political systems and their conflicts with the rest of the world were all different. It made for good sound bite and was made when the narrative against Iraq and Saddam Hussein was already in motion. One year later Iraq was invaded and Iran and North Korea set out on their nuclear arms race in the anticipation that they were next.

While Iran and North Korea are still here 20 years later, the rhetoric and escalation of enemies continues. It seems that the more enemies the better.  

We are now on the verge of all out war with Russia, who for the last 30 years has not engaged in aggressive acts around the world, except for Ukraine were they have clearly stated that NATO expansion and hostile forces on their border is unacceptable. This mostly started in 2008 when U.S. adopted the policy of offering NATO membership to Ukraine and Georgia, another nice sound bite, but it was the start of far greater consequences. Up to this time Russia was not a threat to anyone, but maybe a growing economic competitor of the U.S. in Europe. It seemed the U.S. believed that western Europe needed to be dependent on the U.S. for energy and military protection. That seems to have been accomplished, but the end result is yet to be determined.

Now the narrative is that China, who undoubtedly is a serious economic competitor to the United States, is plotting military aggression against the United States. It seems we have been responding in building military bases  encircling  China.  In fact, the U.S. has 750 military bases worldwide in 80 countries. UK has 145, Russia around 36 and China 5. This accompanied by the escalating narrative will surely send China on a path of military expansion due to the expectation of the U.S. that we will be at war with China. An escalation that many would believe the U.S. will not be able to counter, being that China is now the manufacturing center of the world.

At the same time the U.S. economy is hamstrung by fossil fuel wars and regulation that has transformed the once great manufacturing giant of the world  into a dependent on imported good and materials. Mostly dependent on the very same counties we want to pick a fight with.

One has to wonder, do our leaders believe that just threatening out competitors will make them submit to out demands? Are they really anticipating engaging in War with these countries? Are they delusional or out of touch with reality? Do they believe that it is politically advantageous to have the populace feel threatened by enemies? 

Most of our adversaries in the last 30 years have been small countries dependent on military hardware from other countries, they were easy to overthrow and subjugate.  Today we are now talking tough with nations with the ability to set the world on fire and have the base to sustain a prolonged confrontation.

While it may be too late, it is time that the citizens of this country consider changing direction in our foreign policy. It is certain that our legacy will be judged by the results, not by good political sound bites.