Comments on Belmont Club "The secret letter"

There are three possibilities (always).
1) The Administration knows what it is doing and this will prove to be a brilliant beginning of a realignment in which Iran is defanged, the Europeans and the Russians focus on cooperative development and the Chinese meekly accept their role as labor to underwrite the development of the planet. Please stop laughing as it is necessary to list the option. Given that in the 15 weeks since the election Obama and company have proven to be to incompetent to hit the floor with a fork we can safely discount this answer.

2) This represents the random musings that substitute for professional policy by a bunch of 3rd graders who are in so deep over their head that they have no clue about what to do. We could be entertained by the coming food fights if it were not for the fact that millions of people might be killed and everything civilized that humanity spent 3,000 years building could be destroyed. While the risks are great it is always possible that the God who watches over fools, drunks and the United States will once again bring our ship safe into harbor as the world round us explodes.

3) The third option is that Obama is consciously seeking to destroy Western Civilization and is acting at the behest of domestic traitors and foreign interests.

We must pray that door number 2 is the correct choice.

Rather than post on the old thread I will try to tie the two themes together. Why is there so much tolerance for incompetent fantasists that Option two people can take charge or provide a cover for Option three to expose us to an enemy? The answer is in the empowerment of the "Giant Leeches" described in the last thread.

Safeguarding the Republic from these people would take a few simple steps. The 17th Amendment should be repealed. Constitutional safeguards to ensure that the eligibility and record of candidates for the Presidency, or Vice-Presidency, are verified and certified. The Electoral College should be established on a more regular basis with members elected by the state legislatures for extended terms at least 6 months before a Presidential Election, and some such as the State's heads of the executive, legislative and judicial branches, holding the office of Elector ex officio. The franchise to vote should be withdrawn from persons convicted of a felony or adjudged incompetent in a formal hearing or who derives the majority of their sustenance from the government. By that last I would mean that employees of the Federal government should not be given the vote for US Representatives or State Assemblymen and State employees should not vote at the State level. My only exception for this would be for all enlisted members of the Armed Forces and in addition for officers called to active duty for up to 3 years or during a declared war.

This would lead to the rapid defunding of most of the jobs that support the Giant Leech class. Perhaps a couple of million functionally unemployable people would have to dealt with. My suggestion is that they be used as agricultural labor, placed on power generating treadmills and health club bicycles or be offered subsidized egress to less demanding places. Obviously my expectation is that the vast majority would be able to channel their efforts into more productive activity. Strong efforts should be made to reach out to their children and see to it that the values that support independence and productivity are inculcated. Part of this will be doable with programs like Junior Achievement in an educational system that has been freed from the national teacher's union and part could be fostered by a limited 6 months program of universal military training after the 17th birthday and for every potential immigrant.

@blert,
Regarding his plan for "A treaty corridor through Baluchistan towards Kandahar... and Indian mountain troops romping the Kush…
For your plan, or Holbrooke's if you portray him faithfully, to work it would mean that the Pakistani urban elites, the old aristocracy and the military Officer Corps would all have to accept that their coreligionists in the hills are a greater threat than the Indians. That would result in two Pakistans, one an occupied hinterland of Pashtuns subject to all the rigors of 19th century missionary pacification of aborigines and a mixed ethnic rump along the Indus valley and sea coast that would be a protectorate of the Indians and Americans. Would that prove to be a more productive, democratic and peaceful long term settlement? Probably but given that the moslems currently in India are not reconciled to their loss of domination over the majority hindus the acceptance of such a role by the Pakistanis is unlikely.