It's truth-or-consequences time
By Paul Heise
Lebanon Daily News
In his State of the Union address, the president said in his opening
statement that we are in "one of the most consequential periods in
our history." And at the end of the speech he repeated the idea:
"We have been called to leadership in a period of consequences."
When a president repeats a phrase in a State of the Union address,
people are supposed to note it as a statement that will have, well,
consequences. No one seems to have picked up on it, maybe not even the
president. But then, "period of consequences" does not make a
really ringing rallying cry.
So let's ask just what a consequential period might entail. Are we in
one? Or is this just an attempt to bump up the legacy thing?
The dictionary says consequential means "having grave or important
consequences." To say we are in a period when our actions have grave
consequences suggests that our country, our way of life, our rule of
law or something basic to our stability is under threat.
Certain times have clearly been consequential. In the Revolutionary
War, England's king ignored reality while the Founding Fathers had to
face it every day. In the Civil War, many politicians ignored the
reality of slavery, and the consequence was the near-destruction of the
Union.
World War I was not, as it turned out, a consequential period because
we were never really threatened. But World War II was, because we
ignored the reality of fascism for too long. The Cold War, especially
during the Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy years, saw consequential
decisions to contain the Soviet Union. And they were smarter than to
follow Gen. Douglas MacArthur into China or allow Gen. Curtis LeMay to
nuke Cuba.
Any period can be turned into one of consequences if you ignore reality
and so make serious mistakes.
Is this one of the most consequential periods in our history? Not yet.
But it can get there if we ignore reality and do something really dumb.
So far we are ignoring reality and doing really dumb things with our
economy, with our military and with the environment.
We are ignoring the long-term consequences of tax cuts that are putting
us in hock to the Chinese even as the Defense Department's
Quadrennial Defense Review is pointing out that China is our only real
military threat.
We are ignoring the real problem of workers' falling real wages and
the tuition students can't afford as we give billions to businesses
to enhance their competitiveness.
We are ignoring the reality of the war in Iraq. Our military,
especially the reserves and National Guard, are being stretched close
to the limit. The cost of the war is never acknowledged even in the
official budget. After almost three years, we still haven't restored
the Iraq infrastructure to pre-war conditions, and politically the
country seems headed for an Iran-like theocracy.
We are ignoring the collateral damage, that is, dead civilians, in our
"precision strikes." This is a reality every day to the Iraqis and
Afghans. They believe in nurturing hurts and hates for generations and
even centuries. There are going to be consequences. Every lost relative
recruits another terrorist.
We are ignoring the real threats from terrorists to our chemical and
nuclear plants and to our transportation system. Instead, we go around
the world eavesdropping on telephones and kidnapping or assassinating
people.
We are ignoring the reality of global warming even as the scientists of
the world point out that we are reaching the point of no return. So we
talk about making our SUVs more fuel efficient. We can't handle a
natural disaster like Katrina. Just how bad will it get when the next
terrorist attack comes, and we don't have a weather-service warning,
period?
If this turns out to be one of the most consequential periods in our
history, it will not be because some bunch of bearded Bedouin fanatics
threatened our country. They are not and never have been a threat to
our stability.
If this becomes a consequential period, it will be because our response
to them is an intemperate war in Iraq that provokes all of Islam
against us or an environmental catastrophe that sets the whole world
against us.
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A resident of Mt. Gretna, Heise holds a Ph.D. in economics and is
professor emeritus of economics at Lebanon Valley College. His column
appears every other Thursday. He maintains a web log at weboped.com,
and he can also be reached at:
heise@lvc.edu
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