Intelligence

This is truly staggering.

You'd think, after reading it, that it was nothing short of a miracle that we have not been invaded by 16 different lands- friend and foe alike - and inundated with next gen Chinese nuclear missiles. Or at least that some such might occur in the future.

Well it hasn't, and I doubt it will.

Here's why:

Nobody wants the responsibility. Why be number 1 when you can be number 2 and have it better? The world is a mess, and no one looks to China to fix it. No one looks to Indonesia, and no one looks to Britain. They couldn't do it, and everybody knows it.

What's more, they're not even interested. Why all the headache of running the world when you can live off the fat (and oh how much fat!) of those who are doing it already.

America has provided, virtually free of cost, global threat protection, global disaster relief, global free trade, and an endless stream of technological improvements to the lives of ordinary people. No one has to kiss our ring. No one has to worship our God. They can do whatever they like, get paid for it, and get out of jail free whenever they seriously screw up. Not bad work, if you can get it. And everyone can.

The American ingenuity juggernaut is providing opium to the masses of every country in the world - through cell phones, PCs, video games, and Everybody Loves Raymond. Why would you want to destroy something that sedates and distracts your own people while asking nothing in return other than they pay you to make them?

And undermining America. . .what would that accomplish? The world is, by and large, united. It is a living organism that is absolutely required to make the cell phones that Putin and Medvedev conspire on. Russia can't rule the world on its own, and if the world united against Russia, there would not be enough local industry to sustain itself. So let the Americans do it.

We see something of the situation now- with the current flocking to the dollar. In the fat times, folks muttered about switching to the Euro, or that the dollar was in inexorable decline. But when the going got tough, everybody fled to big daddy greenbacks to protect them. Of course. Nobody else is a serious contender. Nobody wants the responsibility of shouldering the world economy in times of trouble.

Why would they when we can do it for them. We'll happy go upside down on our mortgages. We'll happily send our kids to lousy public schools so both parents can work crap jobs to barely scrape by. And we'll happily register appallingly low marks in personal happiness for a country awash in dough. No problem.

My question is- why the hell should we keep going?

Well, the answer, of course, is freedom. We cherish ours. Dearly. We would rather be free to fail than be shackled to succeed. That's the American dream. It's our core pique.

Most others on earth do not feel this way- George Bush's proclamations aside. They are happy to live in their parents' house for generations. They are happy not to move 40 times in a lifespan. They are happy to raise their children themselves. They are satisfied with tradition.

But we in this country are like madmen. Endlessly striving for something - what? You know what it is. I know what it is. It's in our blood. Or maybe it's just in the water (along with God knows what else). But it's what we do; it's who we are. We are history's winners- or more accurately, as rejects from all those other satisfied nations, its vindicated losers.

But we don't realize that the by-product of our endless striving generates enough energy (and wealth) to supply the whole rest of the world. Nobody wants as much as we do, and nobody sacrifices so much as we do to get it. We're sicker, fatter, and unhappier than any of our "number 2" nations. Why would they want to be us? Why *be* the cow when you can get the milk for a pretty decent price? (go dairy subsidies!)

If I had all those intelligence secrets, I would leave them in a drawer. Put them away. The only reason I wouldn't just burn them would be for that one day when the US might actually become sane. Otherwise, I'd let them have at. Keep on doin' what you're doin'. You're saving us the hassle, and we still get to get rich anyway. What? Not asking for anything in return? What's that you say? Brotherhood of mankind? I'll take two. Just as long as you're buying. . .