The U.S. literally had to beg the Chinese to take a stand against the recent North Korean violence against the South. The come and go violent actions of North Korea play havoc with the peaceful nations in the region and consistently taunt both U.S. and South Korean troops in attempts to instigate situations that could start a hot war. A North and South war would cause better than one million refugees from the North to cross China's border. This is a situation the Chinese do not want at this time. It is presntly concerned about the discontent in their own population due the government slowing down its economy. It is a situation the U.S. should take advantage of as best it can.

One way to take advantage of the situation is to assure the Chinese that if they cannot effectively engage the North there will be a war assuring their borders will be crossed and that the U.S. will have to halt trade with China until the conflict has come to a conclusion. Such a proposition will most likely make the Chinese government mad as a hornet at the U.S. but it will get them to sit on North Korea and most likely stop the violent escalation of the conflict. When the conflict is over the U.S. can congratulate the Chinese for getting the North move in more peaceful circles. It will also draw China into the peace keeping process of socializing with the rest of the world. When the Chinese realize that the world sees their actions as that of a responsible nation they will be happy to be in the club and the blackmail by the U.S. will be seen as a cost of doing business on the world stage.

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There seem to be many theories about why North Korea does what it does when it breaks the rules on this thing or that. With each new outbreak of outrageous behavior there come a multitude of reasons for the specific disruption they cause. Watching this situation closely for many years I am assured that almost all of the reasoning put forth over that time period is and was incorrect then and now. The North Korean plan for the last fifty years has been to move the stick slowly forward. They see the process as an inch by inch progression of wins for their goal. Their goal is to reunite with the South making their rule the only power for the whole peninsula. They will stop at nothing to achieve their goal. They will risk much to move the stick forward but these are calculated moves that wait for the appropriate moment before being launched.

If one goes back in the history of this conflict it is easy to see that each eruption comes about when the South, U.S. and the rest of the world has taken their eye off the ball. In this case the world is worried about economics and the U.S. has had a change in government and the U.S. President has had his bid for a trade agreement openly thwarted by the President of South Korea. When the world is distracted the North Koreans execute an element of their plan. With all the other things is this world going on their interruption gets quick attention and then is handled, over time, with out the necessity for retaliation. The other nations of the world will not take the same level of risk that the North has on each occasion. North Korean strategy is to move their goal forward and to ratchet the level of conflict up a little bit each time. It is almost like taking the annual flu shot to inoculate the world for the next move over the next year.

This is a process that can not be stopped with talks, embargos, or United Nation sanctions because it is a problem that has been allowed to go too far for too long. What is needed now is a series of retaliatory strikes against military objectives and the major heads of government for North Korea. Taking out military centers, cripple the North's standing army at the DMZ, targeting the heads of state, and cripple what ever we can relative to their nuclear development. The acts of this declaration of war need to be activated without previous notice to China. Notification to China should be made at the time the first bombs drop on North Korean Targets. This must be a multi pronged attack with a second, third, and fourth back up series of multi level attacks. We must disable the nerve and communication centers of the North and put their troops stationed at the DMZ into self destructive chaos. A swift series of profound strikes that are over in a few hours with back up strikes waiting in the wings to destroy any counter strikes.

This will not make more friends for the U.S. around the world but it will bring scared respect. If you cannot make friends then a body of the scared, with respect as to what you can do to them as well as others, is the next best thing. There comes a day when one cowers in their boots or decides "today is a good day to die" and picks up the club and prepares to beat the bully down. For the U.S. it has come to this in many places but taking out the North Korean bully most likely will be the first and last fight for a very long time. The U.S. has to become the crazy man in the eyes of the world. Wise men know that you leave the crazy man alone because one never knows what he will do.

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Sometimes I just cannot help myself when it comes to saying I told you so. I have written to people in the government, Senators and Congress people with little thoughtful return response. It seems that they believe I do not know what I am talking about and they have all the answers. The return letters are polite and sort of say why do you not just go away. I know North Korea is a complicated issue and I also know that South Korea has taken advantage if the U.S. for more than fifty years. South Korea's president seemed so self indulgent when he publicly refused a trade agreement with the U.S. The Refusal was because the Koreans felt they should get a better deal when the deal offered to them was a good agreement.

My first response was to pull all U.S. troops out of the DMZ at the 38th parallel. Bring them back far enough that the North could come across the DMZ with out much of a problem. With out our troops on station the North Koreans would consider an attack. The South knows that if there is a breech of the border or the DMZ the U.S. has been there to help. At this point in time the South feels it can tell the North that it will attack them if the breaches of peace occur once again. The issue here is the South is not only pledging its blood it is pledging the blood of U.S. military personnel. Perhaps it is time to tell the South that a new trade agreement is the price for us providing back up and military support to their bold jesters of retaliation.

It is time for those who wish to use the muscle of the U.S. to bolster their defenses postures to understand there is a price for our participation. The cost of our support could easily be converted to saved dollars if we wish to withdraw from anywhere in the world. Every nation in the world understands our military reach and for those who benefit from that reach there should be quite a bit more compensation than is presently being received. This is the time for President Obama to call the president of South Korea and start the conversation with "about that trade agreement, I think we need to discuss that first before we talk about your defense". I bet you that will get the South Korean Presenent's attention in a heart beat. I guess we will have to see.

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To everyone across the board I would like to wish all a very safe, happy and wonderful Thanksgiving. This is the time to take a time out from all the doom and gloom and enjoy to the fullest this wonderful holiday. It makes no difference how each of us view this day because it is a day when all people, if they wish, can come together and enjoy the best moments of the past year. It is time to enjoy and relax so if you can please do so.

Happy Thanksgiving

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At one time The U.S. had a vision of itself with unshakeable confidence. The U.S. understood who it was as a nation and what principles it stood for. We were not trying to make the rest of the world like us we were trying to do good deeds and move the entire world forward so at the end of each year the entire planet would be just a little better off. We knew who we were and we were not afraid to declare it. We took care of ourselves but we took care of the world also. We could see our future and even showed the world that we could define the future when we planned to and then walked on the moon. The future was ours to win or to loose and we have fumbled the ball. It seems that is what happens to people and nations when they try to make everyone like them instead of getting people and other nations to like them because they have done the right things.

What we need now is to move back to the future. To simplify that thought we merely need to return to the thinking that we can accomplish anything we, as a nation, put our mind to. There are people and nations that need a sure back hand from the GOOD OLD U.S.A. without any excuses for our actions. The time to try to win friends with a measured response to everything perpetrated against Americans and our Country has to end now. Just two weeks ago South Korea publicly refused to sign a trade treaty with the U.S. but they are expecting the U.S. to back them up with our military as North Korea fires rockets and artillery against one of their islands as we speak. That is because we are expected to be nice based on the fact that we have already given so much all over the world. Yet, there is little thankfulness given to the U.S. from most nations but the expectations are great as to the help we should provide.

As we move back to the future we must move to make the world America in a sense. The world can not and should not be the same as us but the spirit of cooperation and fair play needs to be passed on to all other countries. People can become our friends but we do not have to go out and pursue their friendship. What we have to do is be a friend and mentor to those who wish help but we will not provide financial aid. We can help support and even establish new world financial institutions to help those in need. However, financial aid should not be ours to give and those should never be our intentions ever again. We must stand on our own two feet ever strong and powerful and then we can help others to do the same. Back to the future is but a thought away. We, as a nation, simply need to decide this is the course of action we will take from this point on.

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There are many philosophies on being good and how man should treat men and they are all wrapped up in religion. The religion is to how the philosophy plays out. They are all good and in general they all come to the same conclusion that man should treat man with respect, honor and fairness. To be part of the religion it, is in one way or another, a requirement to be good and to treat others fairly and with respect. The dogma of these religions go on and on about the goodness that should come about. It just seems to take so long for people to go through the process and then show their good side to the other person.

Now it could be that most people need to get up a good head of steam to get their good side out front. If this is the case then I heartily agree that these special protocols should be practiced once put in place. I do believe that most people have to go the way they go and most anything else will not get them to the right place. The only thing I would suggest is that those who find it hard to wind up to force their good side out might want to try a short cut to that end.

The short cut is simply take a vow of kindness to everyone you meet. The premise is simple, if we address the beginning of all our interactions with other people every day based on kindness it will take much less energy to reach the same end as any process to show our good side. Kindness is a philosophy that brings out all the good things in people on both sides of the engagement. There is little cost in time or energy and the results will be mind bending if you practice a philosophy of kindness.

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We, as a country, are in an economic hole and it is getting deeper. We are in competition with countries, namely China, where the cost of labor kills the efforts of the U.S. to effectively compete. The efforts by the U.S. companies so far have been to join in with sending jobs out of the country or just eliminating the jobs altogether and buying the products from other countries. Then these same people complain about unfair competition and the quality of the product they receive form foreign producers. The main reason the companies take product from other countries is because they choose not to be competitive and take the simple way out to find profits. The issue here is that in the long run all manufacturing will leave the U.S. if our companies cannot find CEO's and Board Members who have the courage to find the new ways to be competitive. The new ways does mean investing money which is more about what the CEO's and Board Members prefer not to do.

Not spending capital to improve the productivity of workers is the reason so many jobs have left the U.S. In the long run it is easier to buy and resell a product than it is to compete within the manufacturing environment and sell against competition. These companies keep looking at these problems with a jaundiced eye. What they need to do is take a fresh look at the problem and the most practical solutions available. This can only happen if we find some courageous CEO types who can change the minds of board members and together begin to spend money on becoming more productive by individual product than any foreign producer can imagine.

The process is simple and really does not take that much of a capital outlay. To start with decide on a single product that you already make and work on how to produce that
product ten times faster or more. It is the speed that kills the competition not anything else. The cost of materials is generally the same from country to country. The manufacturing facilities are already available. The cost of labor is different. To equalize the labor cost the facility with the higher labor rate must work faster and at a rate of production that will attain or beat the lowest rate. Once that is attained with the first product start to move on to the second product and accomplish the same approach on the tasks arriving at the same end results. Creating automation that moves this quickly will cost money but the payback is quick because of the volume that can be sold. This is part of the process of recapturing market share on a single product. The idea is to do this with all your products and own the market for those items.

It sounds simple and it is but it takes time to make the full turnaround. It is an investment in the future of each company that will participate. It is also the investment in the future of this country as a stable producer and competitor of tangible products to the world. In addition, it is the way to keep the U.S. competitive world wide as long as companies continue to innovate and change with the needs of the world and its customers.

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Common curtsy is something we are all taught as children. It is a way of getting along and showing respect of the other person instead of passing as silent strangers in the night. Acknowledging the other individual with a smile and a nod or perhaps a smile and a pleasant good morning are social norms of acceptable interaction between all individuals. These are simple actions providing the other person their space and acknowledging their presence in a respectful and non foreboding manner. These common curtsies have come into being as a way for people to show civility and respect for each other even when they are strangers. Another very common curtsy is saying thank you to individuals for doing something nice for you.

Thank you is used in so many ways but it always means the same thing or at least it is supposed to. In many ways it is a term which has been used so much that it has lost its meaning to many people. Thank You, is supposed to be a sincere declaration of appreciation for something done for you as an individual. The problem is that these words are used so much that they have in many instances lost their meaning. People say thank you all of the time but do not mean it. Such a comment is not sincere nor is it stated in a way that is respectful. When stated this way it conveys an action that indicates the statement was made because it was obligatory not as a sincere sign of thankfulness. We as individuals must always say thank you when it is proper to do so but it must be an honest statement and it must be meant. To make that statement with out being truly thankful is more than wrong. That failure is something to be ashamed of because the utterance of Thank You, if not felt by the individual saying it, is hypocritical and is ultimately useless to both individuals. Always say what you mean and mean what you say.



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Now that the voting public has made its stand and voted in a reversed Congress and a very split Senate the question is what does the voter do about gridlock? The gridlock that will exist for the next two years is the sole fault of the voter. When one reads this they may dislike what I say but the truth is the next two years will be difficult at best because of the voters that turned people out of office just to show them a lesson. Voters had a right to be mad but they also had the responsibility to listen to what the politicians were saying and not saying.

Almost all of the Tea Party candidates talked about change and how they were going to cut the budget and the big spending but they would never say how they would accomplish these tasks. The reason they did not speak of the actions they would take, when they achieved office, was simply they either did not know what was truly to be done or they knew the discussion would make them look the same as the people they were trying to oust from office. Therefore, they were either stupid or liars, which is just what the voters thought they were riding themselves of when they voted for these candidates. On most any other race card Tea Party candidates would come up as no shows or also ran contenders. The problem is now we are stuck with many of these individuals, although some will cancel themselves out quickly, for the next two years which means nothing important gets done.

What they did not tell the voters was that to fix the financial problems of this country there will have to be some changes in Social Security, Medicare, Taxes, and money earmarked for your home town. In polls taken just the other day, when voters were asked how felt about the possible changes, they responded nearly three to one against changes. The problems we have cannot be fixed just by cutting new spending. What we need is some new thinking and a belt tightening all across the board until we get out of this financial hole and find jobs for the unemployed and housing for what may soon be the foreclosed homeless. We have now come to a point where no matter who wants to do good the new gridlock, brought to us by our angry and unthinking voter, will keep it from happening.

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The U.S. Government and the people who live within its boarders have spent the last thirty years talking about energy dependence and have done nothing about the problem. Those in power in the Government, all levels, places, and things, have a lot of mouth but there is little brain or substance to back up the words they speak. There is no plan proposed or even on the drawing board within any of the agencies or bureaucratic levels of this government. The cost of energy in the long run is causing financial worries in this country. The second part of that issue is the greater need for oil based energy breaches our security because the supply comes from outside our boarders. That means that our defenses could be shut down due to the lack of available oil at any given time. Those in the government who point to the Strategic Reserve know full well that is only a ninety day supply at best.

The time has come for the people to stop complaining about the price of energy and spend their complaining time and energy forcing the government to set up plans and programs to find the replacement for oil. Hold it one second, before anyone starts to talk about solar, wind, and natural gas, let me say that such programs may see us through for a short time but they will not carry the full load. We, as a nation, will come up energy short with these new projects and that is because the government has not planned for these programs nor have they effectively funded what they have sort of planned for.

The government needs to work with industry to develop some long range plans that are then backed up by funding. Because this is a security some of the funding should come from the military budget. That puts pressure on the military to drive for plans and move the projects along. This approach would allow the military to build security into the energy infrastructure and at the same time move projects forward more quickly so the generals can get their full budget back sooner rather than later. The people need to want thses programs. The business community should embrace such programs because it means research money and assisted funding from the government to support the programs which will become business entities as the programs evolve and begin to supply new energy to the nation.

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The government and business are always talking about getting things going and that the business community needs to get out there and grow business and create jobs. The government indicates they provide incentives but that is a statement that is a little less than true. Incentives must be big enough to make people want to move in the direction the incentive points them. However if the incentive is not big or strong enough the incentive fails to stimulate. The not big and not strong enough incentives are just what the government gives out.

If the government wants to move the country in a specific direction or wants the scientific community to develop a new something, what ever it may be, then it must provide real incentives. We are talking about incentives that will assist those communities of business, science or what ever to jump at the chance to make things happen. What we presently see is a process where the politicians can say they created incentives but the incentives are so short of the mark no one rises to the challenge. It looks good on paper but in the long run it just wastes time and continues to put us further behind the eight ball as a nation.

With a new Congress coming into session in the next few months it is time for all of us to pick up a pen and write to our congressperson and tell them to get on the ball. Tell them what you think should be funded with incentives and why. My thought here is if we send enough letters to enough congress people they may see something they like and will set a few things in motion. We just need one to click because we must remember what they say "Monkey see, monkey do". I think that line says it all.

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There is no doubt that China Will be a match for the U.S. within the next twenty years. Many people think that ten years is the time frame but I beg to differ. China has already started to test its power around the Pacific Basin and has to some degree drawn back or in other instances turned away from what appeared as its objective. This is called testing the fences which is a method of sending trial balloons up to test the response to an approach or an issue. The moves were made all over the world but most of them were in the Pacific Basin. The testing was disguised as business transactions with China purchasing raw materials and establishing long term agreements with businesses in, and with, other countries.

The first encounters were what seemed as good faith business relationships. However, it did not take long for the businesses and the countries, where these negotiations took place, to begin to worry as to the end game in China's plan. There were questions asked, by the businesses and the countries those businesses operated from, which the Chinese did not respond well to. Instead of answering the questions and or providing answers they turned away from any further near term pursuit of additional business arrangements. There was a promise to return with answers at a later date. The questions remained unanswered and the relationships remain as they were.

This started people and countries talking as to what was going on. It was all done back door but it came to light a week ago when a number of the countries in the Pacific Basin asked the U.S. for a greater presence in the area, as a sort of cop on the beat, to watch China. It seems that people remember the approach the Japanese used to secure raw material in the 1920's and 1930's. That was a time of Japanese expansion in the Pacific when business contracts and countries became targets for the Imperial Japanese Empire and Army. Those actions, calumniating in the Pacific portion of World War II are still remembered well today. Some believe that the Chinese seem to be using the same plan and approach as did the Japanese, to be able to assure the availability of materials to sustain their growth.

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It seems the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives makes them beat their chests and declare how they will beat down the health care bill currently in place. They stand in front of us and declare they received a mandate from the people to do so. With out getting into a detailed argument that thinking is just plain wishful thinking. First of all the message and mandate sent by the people in the election two weeks ago was that they wanted change in the spending and wasteful practices of government. Many people complained about healthcare because the Republicans made it an issue, with a lot of false messages, from the very beginning but never introduced a plan of their own or even tried to correct the structure while it was still being prepared. Their game plan was to make it an issue for the election which they did.

The problem for them is the people saw jobs as the big issue and polling shows that 54% of the population is in favor of the present healthcare bill. Not because they like the bill but because they understand a healthcare bill is needed and necessary for our country. To attempt to repeal the law now will not happen without a new bill in place otherwise there will be hell to pay. Anyone now in line for coverage will scream louder than ever if that coverage is pulled by a new bill without immediate replacement of a new form of coverage leaving no one or sector of the population behind.

At the same time I myself feel the health care bill, as it currently exists, needs to be reworked to a considerable degree and in particular pulling back the concessions made to the drug companies and the health care providers. Drug companies need to provide products at a cost that is consistent throughout this country and the world. Yes, I would like to help the rest of the world but I also want the charity to begin at home. I have given many seminars and taught many subjects over the years but I always tell each class that you can not help and care for others if you can not care for yourself. There should be no need in this country, for healthcare products and services, first before we try to save the world. The time has come for the health care issue to be realigned and resettled but not removed or replaced with a promise of a better program to come in the future which, as we all know, will then never happen.

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A flat world in the view of the international trade represents a world where all countries have the same level of technology and there are no trade barriers. It means that each country is on the same even footing as every other country with its technology. It also represents the ideology that there are no trade barriers from nation to nation or that every nation sees every other nation as a most favored nation. What a dream. That world will not exist for a long time to come if ever. The technology of the world is flattening out somewhat. However, the technologies available to the wealthy nations are still head and shoulders above what the African and South American Nations can rise to just as an example. Then there are the trade issues which must be addressed.

Countries capable of providing cheap labor will have outside tariffs placed on their products. This is to keep the products of other countries, functioning in a less competitive mode, artificially priced low so they do not loose trade to the nations with cheap labor and therefore cheap products. The problem is there will always be a nation with cheap labor relative to other nations. In the long run flatness is based on productivity which can be more competitive than any other labor force in that one product. If this assumption is correct than trade barriers can go away if everyone produces only one thing better than anyone else can. Each concentrates on the products they can produce best and sells it to everyone who wishes to buy it. If everyone does the same, by selecting and producing products they can provide best and cheapest, there would be no need for trade barriers or treaties.

The problem is we are a long way from that day and therefore flat is relative to the highest mountain in our view.

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It seems kind of strange that the Presidents Asia tour culminating with the G20 meeting has been less than successful. He is getting negative response from China on the currency issue and most of the other countries at the meeting have complained about the U.S. current monetary moves. The final touch was put in place by South Korea refusing a trade treaty agreement stating it had issues with the U.S. in numerous areas. The President was truly blind sided by this action and it seems as the announcements were made there was no place for the President to hide. These shots were taken after a number of countries quietly petitioned the U.S. to upgrade its presence in the Pacific Rim to counter the aggressive behavior of displayed by China over the last several months.

The time has come for the U.S. to revisit the relationship it has with many of the countries that have voiced these negative opinions or who have requested an added U.S. military presence to make their countries safer. The first place to look is South Korea which receives substantial aid in the form of a U.S. military presence in their country s well as current a trade agreement which has enabled them to grow economically via special treatment from the U.S. for the last fifty years. None of the other countries pay for the protection we provide and in reality many receive economic assistance on an annual basis from the good old U.S. Of A. Somehow these countries feel that these requests should be automatically fulfilled because, in their minds, it seems to be a right they have earned.

Let me state for the record that, in my opinion, any rights any country feels they have or are owed to them by the U.S. should be summarily canceled by congress in one giant motion. We as a country need to suspend all payments of any type to any country unless it is a direct debt. Then congress should pass a law that says we do not provide protection unless we receive a quarterly payment in gold for the service. And for the other countries who receive so much from us but feel they have reason to complain The U.S. should reconsider deployment of its troops around he globe.

The first consideration would be to remove the troops from the border that separates North and South Korea. Then Over the next six months withdraw all U.S. troops from South Korea. The next step would be to remove all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan as quickly as possible. As we leave Afghanistan we should eliminate any and all fields where poppies are grown assuring in the process that no such crops can ever be grown in those fields again. In round numbers these moves would save the U.S. at approximately 500 Billion dollars a year. Such a form of fiscal savings will put the U.S. in a better place for future negotiations and start this nation on the road to a new form of international competitiveness. All that money would help build a new and much more competitive America.

Over the next weeks and months I will expand on these thoughts in detail.

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We have all been looking for the government to set the wheels in motion that would start the creation of jobs. The problem with that scenario is that Congress is the biggest obstructer of job creation there is. We have money and we can spend it to create jobs but instead the congress comes up with ways to limit the spending. The administration wanted to set up research centers in about twelve sites around the country. These sites were to work on energy projects and development. Some of the concepts were new solar power methods, battery technology, a replacement for current fuels and more. Congress would only approve eight sites and it limited the sites to twelve million dollars. That money is to set up labs and create new approaches and hire appropriate staff. Such a meager amount would not set up one facility for even a year.

At the same time congress was working out ways to fund projects that would benefit individual congressmen and their home states. The projects were not to find new ways to solve our problems but merely to pump money into the states of the congressmen so they could save jobs. The point here is that that are trying to show their voters that they did something for them when the election come around. In reality what they did accomplished nothing but did save a few jobs. My question to these Congressmen is what happens then these jobs cannot be saved because we do not have an energy replacement for oil and gas. Perhaps at that moment they will realize that spending a bit more on research would create jobs of the future that will not go away anytime soon.

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India has been pushing to gain a permanent seat on the UN security counsel for some time. China was the last country to be given a permanent seat and that was just a few years ago. The reasoning for China to receive a seat was the size of its population. It was reasoned that an emerging country that possesses twenty percent of the world population should be entitled to a bigger say in the matters of the world. Remember that China is also a nuclear power. If we use these measurements as the criteria for entrance to a permanent seat on the security counsel India measures up. It is a country with a one billion plus population and also a nuclear power with a broadening emergence onto the world stage.

During the Presidents recent trip this particular conversation came up. From the U.S. point of view there is no reason for India not to have a permanent seat. But the U.S. does not control the rules of the UN or the security counsel. It will take some maneuvering by the U.S. over the next twenty four months to convince the members of the security counsel that the admission of India would be a good thing. The problem is this is where the politics come into play.

The big objection would come from China with support from Russia. China sees India as a competitor down the road and also maintains a close material based strategic relationship with Pakistan. China does not like messy relationships so a vote against India's entrance to a permanent seat is obvious. Russia and China may not be able to block the seat with just two votes. If there is a feeling in the general assembly that India should not receive a permanent seat the security counsel would most likely vote against it.

However, there is always a rotating seat that once a year changes hands on the security counsel. Each year a different country with out a permanent seat on the counsel gets to chair the security counsel. That chair receives a full vote for the one year period of service. It is in the best interest of India to wait until there is a new chair in place that would be favorable to India before pressing the petition. In the mean time the U.S. can start to press for general movement toward India's seating on the counsel. It ia a slow process.

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The President's trip to India confirms what we all knew about the U.S. and India Relations. There is no feud and there is real friendship between the two nations. India is now in a position to place its population in the work force working with the U. S. in an exchange of larger volumes of two way trade. The dynamics of India's growth will spill over to the west in the form of increased trade and greater opportunities for western business. The economic growth expected in India will not be as strong as that in China. However, the process will yield greater benefits from India for the U. S. than we can expect from China over the next ten years.

China wants to be a shining world power, and in a matter of speaking, so does India. The difference here is that China is in a rush while India wishes to build a little slower but at a steady and sustainable pace. It wants to build up trade and set friendships that are long lasting and not based on doing what is immediately necessary to fill a need. This is just the opposite of the Chinese approach. At the same time it wants friendship with the U.S. as a cushion against the potential and aggressive moves seen over the last six months by China in the Pacific Rim.

India is even looking the other way when it comes to Pakistan. The dislike the two nations have for each other is problematic for the U.S. The approach India is taking in this matter is to use the U.S. as a secondary conduit to Pakistan in an attempt at back door peace. Even though India does not believe Pakistan will ever be a real friend there is hope that a reasonable Pakistani Government can be achieved with the help of U.S. actions in Pakistan. These are all issues that have yet to start to play out but the Indian government has been up front with its desired assistance from the U.S.

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The sale of arms to nations that do not have the capability to build these arms themselves is not a way to broker peace. The Middle East is a hot bed area of nations whose populations hate each other. Even the countries we think get along have a strong dislike for each other. They are friendly today because they have found a common enemy. Were that enemy to go away these so called partner nations would turn on each other. There would be blood in the streets within days after the focal enemy was out of the picture. The heads of countries all over the world know this to be true but they still turn a blind eye when it comes to making money by selling these violent nations the arms they ask for.

The United States is one of the largest manufacturers of these arms. In the U.S. arms manufacturing and distribution are a big business that makes big money and pays large dividends to its stockholders. This business and its profita are strongly supported by the people and the government. In the end the arms sales provide jobs for this country and enables the government to pay for the friendship of other nations by allowing the supply of arms to safely make it to their boarders. In return for the arms the recipients provide ash payments and friendship to the U.S. and in many instances pretend to do its bidding. We as a nation and a government never stop to think of the possibility of these, so called friendly, nations sandbagging our actions by providing information to our enemies if it serves their needs to do so.

Peace is generally an agreed upon condition which cannot be purchased. People want to live in peace or they do not and the providing of guns to each side does not level the playing field. With the sale of arms to the Middle East we are not buying peace we are rewarding both sides for not fighting. There will be a day when one side or the other will feel there is nothing left to gain or lose and will strike their opponent. When one supplies the weapons to these nations they will have failed to buy peace but they will have, in the long run, purchased a war.

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Every place one looks there is evidence of growth. Most of the growth we see is due to the expansion of the human population. Humans need space to live and they have the unique ability to create space for living and work almost in a demand fashion. They cut down trees, move the earth, cut through the rock and change the direction of water flows. All of these things are done to accommodate life as they choose to live it. As Americans we set the standard for such high disregard of nature and the land around us. We never seem to see the land and creatures as a precious gift but more as obstacles to be overcome and subjugated to meet the demand of our will and desires. That high disregard has now spread all over the world and is, in many cases, reaping the negative rewards of such previous disregard.

The deforestation of Haiti and the daily shrinking of the Amazon region are just examples of what is happening all over the world. We as Americans seem horrified when we see the video of mud slides in Haiti due to the loss of trees that used to keep the mud in place. As Americans we complain when we see the Amazon basin loose ground to builders knowing full well that the forest most likely holds the keys to the cures of many diseases. Unfortunately as the forest goes so goes the chances of some new medications and an ancient way of life. We as Americans have taught the rest of the world, by our example, how to disregard and remove anything if it stands in the way of making money. If we do not find the path for adjusting our culture of satisfying our unreasonable desires for more of everything we face a world as barren as the treeless land of Haiti in our not too distant future.

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As I prepare to change what I write about in the future I have thought about what people have been thinking about their futures. The answer is that people do not think much about their futures. They do think about what they want in the material sense but not about what their future holds or will truly be like in the time in front of us. Most everything we think on relative to the future is quite short term. I would say that 90 to 95% of all thoughts of the future are within a range of four weeks out at best.

Few people are thinking about where their future will be in five years. It seems not many really want to think that far ahead let alone plan that far out. The problem with short term thinking is it tends to make our decisions choppy and unrealistic. In the long run the short term planning starts to close down the options that are in front of us because there is no consistency in the long term planning. This is not a problem that can be solved over night because the short term thinking is a habit. The only way to start to change is to stop and start to think about where you and your family will be in five or ten years. Starting the thinking process will get the long term thinking ball rolling.

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Every one knows that I was in the hospital in the end Of August. Here it is the first week of November and the ten weeks have passed me by in the blink of an eye. I did a little writing until the middle of September and then I decided to take some time off to get back on my feet. I am not back to where I want to be but I am back and ready to write. There will however be a change in the topics I will write about.

It seems that the time I spent away from the key board for the last several weeks has allowed me to clear my head and also spend time to evaluate what is going on in the world and in this country. What I have found out is that over the past two years I have failed to write about and comment on topics that no one else is discussing and perhaps they are the most important things to create a dialogue on. When I went back into my files over the last two years I found that time had passed me by. I did not write the important stuff that no one else wants to touch. I cannot figure out where the time went. The one thing I can tell each and every one of my readers, as well as to all of my new readers, that I will not make that mistake again. In a few days the Red Dragon will be back with important thoughts and stories for all to consider. It is time to slow down and talk about really important issues and that is what we will do.

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