“LONG PEACE!”

“LONG PEACE!”

(Jerusalem Post, Daily Mailer, Caroline Glick)

(Political Science Quarterly, Joseph S. Nye Jr. Lyman Abbott)

(John J. Lalor, Daily Telegraph, Patrick P. Cronin, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Ah yes, Camelot, the Arthurian City of King Arthur, a dream, I guess, of President Kennedy back in his abbreviated term in office. Unlike a majority of the U.S. population, I never shared the mystique of the Kennedy family or the presidency of John F. Kennedy. Of course his assassination was a tragic moment in American history, but I was unsure of the impact during his regime, and in the years since I have come to understand that many of his political programs were little more than business as usual at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

I’m thinking that many in the U.S. don’t even understand what the Long Peace or Pax Americana even means, I know that I didn’t when I first heard those two words, Pax Americana, so I looked them up. This was long before easy access to computers, and laptops weren’t even a consideration, I used the dictionary, my trusty Webster Dictionary to be precise.

In it, it states that “Latin for American Peace” a term applied to the historical concept of relative peace in the Western Hemisphere and later the Western world resulting from the preponderance of power enjoyed by the United States beginning around the 20^th century. Although the term finds its primary utility in the latter half of the 20^th century, it has been used in various places and eras, like post Civil War America, and between the two World Wars.

Today the term is primarily used in its modern connotations to refer to peace among great powers established after World War II in 1945, and is also called the long peace. In the modern sense, the term has come to indicate the military and economic position of the United States in relation to other nations. The connotation here, in the present time is referenced to Pax Romana, of the Roman Empire, the Pax Britannica of the British Empire, and the Pax Mongolica of the Mongol Empire.

WE’VE COME A LONG WAY BABY

Our world intentions are many and varied, there are things that we desire…..that none of us knows anything about, rather it’s a situation that has been laid out by some quasi governmental agency that say’s it’s doing the peoples work. I read someplace that many of the programs that the United States has undertaken, with regards to foreign policy will actually take until the 2080’s and beyond. In other words some of the programs initiated today won’t even come to fruition until after my kids, kids are dead…..and people complain about Social Security…..get right outta town!

The first articulation of a Pax Americana occurred after the end of the American Civil War with reference to the peaceful nature of the North American geographical region, and was abeyant at the commencement of the First World War. Its emergence was concurrent with the development of the idea of American exceptionalism. This view holds that the United States occupies a special niche among developed nations.

This concept originates from Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political thinking historian and author who asserted that the then 50 year old United States held a special place among nations because it was a country of immigrants and the first modern democracy. From the establishment of the United States after the American Revolution until the Spanish-American War, the foreign policy of the country had a regional, instead of a global focus.

Thus, according to scholars, authors, and historians, the United States with the exception of the War of 1812, the American Civil War, and before the Spanish-American war of 1898, was unfettered in its raise to a nation of immense economic and military powers. It figures that, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first time the phrase appeared in print was in August 1894; “The true cause of exultation is the universal outburst of patriotism in support of the prompt and courageous action of President Cleveland in maintaining the supremacy of law throughout the length and breadth of the land, in establishing the Pax Americana.”

Yes, the United States is steeped in the old holier than thou attitude cloaked in that Pax Americana attitude…..the one where the U.S. frees the down-trodden and lifts those less fortunate. However before this attitude would be forged, and put into play, the U.S. needed to flex its military might, and did so first in the Kingdom of Hawaii, in 1894 by establishing a Provisional Government and then a republic. It would take until 1898, but in the end, it was aloha to the King of the Hawaiian Islands.

Of course then there was the Spanish-American War in 1898 that was little more than a tune-up for World War I. However it is important to understand what the ejection of Spain from the Americas played, by the military action against Spain, the U.S. was the undisputed power of the entire region. The influence was complete, as the United States extended their authority into Southeast Asia and Oceania. There was little capital investment within the Philippines and Puerto Rico, these outposts were, however strategic in expanding trade with Latin America and Asia, particularly China. The acts of the last couple of years of the 19^th century, and the start of the 20^th century demonstrated that United States would spread its version of Pax Americana in ever increasing areas of the globe.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO GRADUATION

As they say, “the best laid plans can go asunder,” to an extent, that’s what has happened with this Pax Americana experiment. You see a Pax Americana, an attitude of elitisms is hard to maintain, the powers that be, some six or seven decades ago had no idea that there’d be IPods, or PC’s, or that information would be almost instantaneous. It’s why people don’t label the attitudes and desires of Americans.

There are movements afoot that stress keeping the status-quo, change can be, for these people, a problem. Let me lay a couple of figures on you with regards to one of the most sacred of deities for Pax Americana…..it’s simple, yet necessary…..WAR, you got to have war, there is absolutely no other way to nurture the idea of elitism.

Lockheed Martin has a contract with the Pentagon to manufacture 2,443 F-35 single seat fighters at an overall cost of $857 billion projected over a 55 year period. The program which included research, some ground  testing, and the production of 100 planes at a cost of $153.1 million is lauded as the most advanced fighter in the history of air force history.

Sadly there aren’t…..at the present, anybody to use the weapon on, not Russia, not China, and not North Korea…..we either aren’t at war with these people, or they don’t have any such weapon. In other words, there is $857 billion dollars that is tied up in a weapon to fight nobody with. And the program is behind schedule, and has a cost overrun of more than $166 million dollars.

Then we have ABM Government Services, a $45,000,000 contract for operation, maintenance, and repair and minor construction medical research and material command laboratory facilities. Northrop Grumman Technical Services, a $36,294,099 contract for logistics services and engineering support for the Hunter Unmanned Aircraft System.

Randolph Engineering will be eating at the public tax payer’s trough to the tune of $33,381,996…..for various optical frames and accessories…..I wear glasses, wonder if I’m eligible? ”Here’s a good one,” Affordable Engineering Services, a $20,832,874 contract for air vehicle modification and instrumentation efforts.

And finally Pond & Company, Norcross, Georgia, $9,999,900 for indefinite-delivery/indefinite quality contract for cathodic protection and corrosion controls. The sites and the service dates are yet to be determined, but there’s an end date, January, 12, 2017.

Let’s all face the fact of the issue of maintaining a Pax Americana, the one overriding fact of the fact is the fact that the Pax costs way too much. These dreamers and schemers have priced themselves out of the business…..they just don’t know it…..yet.

Stay plugged in people…..so we don’t get collectively PLUGGED.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!