Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Here is one parallel.  At first it appeared to many that the U.S. had triumphed in the Iraq invasion.  Who can ever forget George Bush bedecked in a flight suit on that naval carrier near San Diego Harbor as he dramatically declared, "Mission Accomplished!" as the eyes of the world watched in shock and awe.

The mission was definitely not accomplished.  It had only begun.

Years later with sectarian slaughter raging, some estimates reveal that as many as 250,000 Iraqi civilians have died since Bush's initial shock and awe attack.  Some 2,500 U.S. service personnel have lost their lives while 15,000 others have been injured.  Bush's overstretch in Iraq parallels Roman Emperor Julian's fatal mistake.  

Egypt, Greece, Rome - the great empires of the ancient world all collapsed.  It wasn't only forces that brought about their collapse, but the corruption and inner decay and decadence that converged to achieve their ultimate downfall.

Could this be happening now in the U.S.A., once the world's economic leader?  During the 1940's and 1950's the auto industry stood at the number one pinnacle economically with the film industry a robust number two with 90 million Americans attending theaters  weekly.

In 2006 Ford and GM face billion dollar losses and are cutting their employees by around 75,000 workers.  The textile industry in the U.S.A. vanished years ago to what is conveniently called "outsourcing", the translation of which means jobs shipped off to China and India.

As for pensions, forget about them.  They have also vanished at scores of companies.  Two industries, however, are doing very well.  The war machine benefited by the $549 billon being spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The U.S.A. still ranks number one in the world in the sale of war materials.  As for the movie industry, Hollywood films are slipping down a slippery slope, having lost much of the older audiences by producing movies like Shrek and Pirates of the Caribbean.  

Films focusing on sex, which years ago would be classified as porno, are sprinkled with so many foul words it would make a sailor blush.  They have helped provide American youth with an extensive four-letter word vocabulary.

Arnold Toynbee, the famous British historian, warned that when a society focuses n death and sex organs it is a decadent, decaying society.  Between films and television's continuous display of sex in its crudest terms, we also have the crime thrillers.  In some shoot `em up epics one needs a calculator to keep up with the body count.

In the September 30 Seattle Times an article appeared about the latest local museum exhibit: "An exhibition of preserved human bodies poses no health risk to the public, the King County Medical Examiner concluded after the inspection of the show which opens today."

Any society that doesn't display proper respect for the dead is well on its way down the rocky road to total decadence and ultimate disaster.

Isn't watching the dead and the dying every night on the nightly news enough for even the most jaded, morbid minds?  Do we really need a museum featuring "bodies on exhibition" at a cost of $24.50 for adults and $16 for children?

In the same September 30 edition we read about a woman assaulted twice in Everett, Washington, a Seattle suburb:

"A woman was taken to the hospital Thursday after a group of teens near Mariner High School pulled her out of her car and assaulted her at two different times, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office.

"The woman, whose 10-month old son was in the back seat, was trying to pull into an apartment complex ... when she was blocked by a group of about 15 teens.

"The woman honked, which apparently upset the teens.  The teens assaulted her.

"Deputies arrived and identified two people thought to be responsible for the assault, Rich Niebusch said.  The woman was taken to a local hospital."

Yet another story from the same newspaper revealed an incident involving a boy from Cazenovia, Wisconsin, who pulled a Columbine inspired crime on his principal:

"A teenager who pried open his family's gun cabinet brought two weapons to school Friday and shot the principal to death after a struggle with adults and other students, authorities said.  Eric Hainstock, 15, was arrested and charged as an adult with murder."

The most revealing statement came at the end of the article:  "The custodian said the teen was a special education student who told him he was there to kill someone."

Time's September 25, 2006 issue had an article on pages 62 and 63 bearing the headline "Who Pays for Special Education?"  It went on to say, "Parents want the best for their disabled kids.  Public schools say they can't handle the cost."

In reading the article the cost factor stood out distinctly.  Annual tuition for such children was $135,000 at Boston's Higashi School to meet special education needs for such children.  The article explained what this type of assistance encompasses.  The goal of the Education for all Handicapped Children Act is this:

"It has been three decades since the Education for all Handicapped Children Act first guaranteed a free education tailored to meet the individual needs of students with disabilities."  

It is then further explained:  "But the numbers of kids receiving special education services for physical, cognitive, learning and other problems - has doubled since fiscal 1977 to an estimated 6.9 million (or roughly 11 percent of all students nationwide) and cash strapped school districts are struggling to find funding for these children, who on average, cost more than twice as much to educate as non-disabled students."

Another reason historians cite as contributing to the collapse of Rome was heavy immigration.  In the U.S.A. there were 100 millions citizens in 1915.  The nation's population was 200 million in 1967, but immigration soared and by 2006 there are now 300 million people in the U.S.A.

It is a well-known fact that immigrants populate faster than traditional American families.  This generates a colossal economic educational burden.  It costs $10,000 per student from grades 1 to 12.  Schools are overcrowded and teachers complain continuously that they are underpaid.

There are 42 million U.S. residents without health insurance.  Nevertheless, hospitals by law cannot refuse any patient services.  Add to the problem 11 million illegals going to emergency rooms.  This has resulted in the closing of many emergency rooms in Southern California.

Spanish speaking people demand that ballots be printed in their native language when they vote.  Some praise diversity, while others consider it a tower of Babel scenario with U.S. residents not understanding one another.

The $549 billion debt for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is something this generation and future generations will understand when they begin sweating to pay it off.  Will these points be highlighted by a future historian on why the U.S.A. collapsed like Rome over Iraq?