Ways to Reduce the Deficit and Debt

            The United States budget deficit and national debt problems remain a highly popular political issue, and while some economists, namely Paul Krugman (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/), assert that it is not as life-and-death as news outlets and politicians will have citizens to believe, it still garners much discussion.  With the 2013 budget deficit estimated at about nine-hundred billion dollars and the national debt hovering at about sixteen trillion dollars, there are numerous ways to address the problems.  Here are simply a few.

Chuck Hagel, Defense Secretary Redundancy, and Obama’s Leadership

            With Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta retiring this year, his post is yet another Cabinet position which President Obama must refill for his second term.  Obama’s choice, former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican, has begun his confirmation hearing this week and his statements illustrate a disappointing trend in the President Obama’s leadership methods and style.

The Iranian War

It is becoming increasingly hard to go three days without reading an article or seeing a news segment concerning Israel, Iran, and the possibility of a new Middle Eastern war for the United States.  The cause of this conflict is Iran’s burgeoning nuclear program and it government’s repeated threats and innuendos that Israel has no right to existence; something the Israeli government is not very agreeable with.  It is believed that Israel will attack Iran in one form or another, with or without American aid.  While many decry the possibility of another American war in the region—fittingly in the nation between the United States’ other two conflict zones—there is reason to believe that such a military involvement may turn out better than expected.

National Interest or Self-Determination?

            The history of the United States’ involvement in the political affairs of foreign nations is not an exceptionally long one.  For the first one hundred thirty years of American history, the nation largely kept to itself on the international stage; a policy known as isolationism.  The reasons for this self-induced isolation are multiple.  On one hand, the nation followed George Washington’s advice to avoid foreign entanglements, while on another the country had a literal ocean between it and the hotbed of political activity at the time—Europe.  Once the United States truly stepped onto the global stage in the aftermath of World War One, the nation’s outlook on foreign involvement began to evolve, culminating in the present-day struggle between national interest and self-determination. 

Guns, the N.R.A. and Domestic Mutually Assured Destruction

             As shooting deaths continue to compile since the Newtown tragedy, the debate over gun control rages on, nearly encompassing every aspect of American society.  While both sides have their points, the argument of the National Rifle Association’s chief executive officer, Wayne LaPierre, that “the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun” sounds awfully familiar to a policy employed by the United States during the Cold War—with success—but is generally looked unfavorably upon.

Instances of Space-Time Compression

            The concept of space-time compression has been of vital importance both to the trend of globalization and the emergence of what can be considered as global history.  This compression refers to increase in the spread of information across large areas in a speedy manner.  The spread of information—be it news events or intellectual thought—is a prominent and key factor in the integration of the modern world, an integration integral to global history.  The speed at which this information travels across borders, both political and geographic, has played a large role in this integration; this speed has not been constant throughout history, however.

The Buck Stops Somewhere Else

            Personal responsibility is dead.  Long live personal responsibility!

            I cannot speak for other nations, but America suffers from a debilitating lack of ability to take responsibility for its own failures and faults.  Every time something bad happens, all involved parties shift the blame to the other parties, yet when something goes right all parties claim the success for themselves.