Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

The US Government is trying to negotiate with the Republic of Iran to dissuade them from developing a nuclear bomb. This is a delicate negotiation, as the US and other world powers do not want any other countries added to the Nuclear Club. The current members are:

• United States of America
• Russia
• Great Britain
• China
• France
• India
• Pakistan
• Israel (Suspected; not confirmed nor acknowledged)
• North Korea

This delicate negotiation is likened to a “bull in a china shop”. At stake is more than just politics; rather this involves the most destructive weapons mankind has ever known; it is life-or-death … for the planet.

No pressure!

The President of the US is spearheading the negotiations…

Alas, his political opposition, the Republicans, have now thrown a “monkey wrench” into the plans. 47 Republican US Senators wrote a letter to “the leaders of Iran”; designed to derail any international agreement governing that country’s nuclear program. The Senators intent is for their advanced concurrence on any treaty negotiations; (the constitution call for Senate ratification of any Treaty, afterwards). Numerous leading Democrats — in Congress and the media — have since condemned this action with language of criminality, sedition and even treason in denouncing that letter.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, (a member of the President’s Party, the Democrats), said:

“Republicans are undermining our Commander-in-Chief while empowering the Ayatollahs.”

The New York Daily News put mugshot-like photos of four of the GOP signatories above the headline “TRAITORS.” The Washington Monthly’s Ed Kilgore called it “sedition in the name of patriotism.” The Washington Post’s Paul Waldman said it is “appalling” because it shows Republicans “can act as though Barack Obama isn’t even the President of the United States.”

This commentary asserts that from the American perspective, there is more involved in this issue than just politics. Rather there is a nefarious Big Business agenda. Because peace is bad for business. The “Military Industrial Complex” – see Appendix below – is lobbying, cheerleading and teasing both sides here for continued hostilities. There is too much money involved, as the US Department of Defense maintains an annual budget of $526.6 billion (2014), with a lot earmarked for supplies, artillery and weapon systems. These amounts are so big that the realities of Crony-Capitalism cannot be ignored. It can be argued that this is actually the primary driver in these Republican-Iran-Nuclear developments.

It is obvious from this review that one consequence of Crony-Capitalism is that it short-changes the future for immediate gains, or profits. This paradox has been a constant concern of the commentary for the promotion of this movement, the book and blogs for Go Lean…Caribbean, the concerted effort to elevate Caribbean society by rebooting the region’s economic, security and governing engines.

There is much for our region to learn in this discussion.

For starters, both sides in the American eco-system practice these same policies; it can be argued that what is “Good for the Goose; is Good for the Gander”. During the last decade when the party in power and party in opposition were reversed, the same strategy was employed; as reported here in the this news article:

1. Title: The Parties’ Role Reversal on ‘Interfering’ with the Commander-in-Chief’s Foreign Policy

Senate Republicans, obsessed as always with carrying out the agenda of the Israeli government and leading the U.S. into more militarism and war, yesterday wrote a letter to “the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran” designed to derail an international agreement governing that country’s nuclear program.
…
To see how thoroughly Democrats have adopted the GOP’s Bush-era authoritarian rhetoric about not “undermining the commander-in-chief,” and to see how craven is GOP behavior now on Iran, just look at what was being said in 2007 when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Syria and met with President Bashar Assad. The Bush administration was furious about that meeting because its strategy at the time was to isolate Assad as punishment for his alleged aid to Iraqi insurgents fighting against U.S. occupying forces, and the right-wing media and even mainstream media precincts attacked Pelosi in ways quite redolent of today’s attacks on the Senate Republicans over Iran.

In April, 2007, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by right-wing law professor Robert Turner, headlined “Illegal Diplomacy,” declaring that “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may well have committed a felony in traveling to Damascus this week, against the wishes of the president, to communicate on foreign-policy issues with Syrian President Bashar Assad.”

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/10/gop-2007-attacks-pelosi-interfering-bushs-syria-policy-v-todays-similar-dem-attacks-iran/

Despite the high stakes involved in the politics, the Big Business alignments are more shocking, and thus providing a lesson for the Caribbean region, aligning with the book Go Lean…Caribbean. This book asserts that America should not be looked to for leadership in Caribbean affairs. They have their own self-interest in mind, even at the disregard to threats for the whole planet; peace is bad for business.

Crony-Capitalists only focus on short-term benefits … and profits.

Just consider the “post-Letter” activities of one of the champions of the group of 47 Republican Senators, Tom Cotton of Arkansas. See the VIDEO here of his eloquent defense of this action on a daily morning TV news show:

VIDEO – Cotton on MSNBC: GOP Message to Iran About Nuclear Deal – http://youtu.be/RSbE26EPnZs

Published on Mar 10, 2015 – Sen. Tom Cotton joins MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss the letter sent to the Iranian leaders.

But within the same 24 hour news cycle, Senator Cotton is an honored speaker at an industry event for the Military Industrial Complex. This article here relates the story:

2. Title: Immediately After Launching Effort to Scuttle Iran Deal, Senator Tom Cotton to Meet with Defense Contractors

(Retrieved 03-11-2015: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/09/upon-launching-effort-scuttle-iran-deal-senator-tom-cotton-meets-defense-contractors/)

In an open letter organized by freshman Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., 47 Senate Republicans today warned the leaders of Iran that any nuclear deal reached with President Barack Obama could expire as soon as he leaves office.

Tomorrow, 24 hours later, Cotton will appear at an “Off the Record and strictly Non-Attribution” event with the National Defense Industrial Association, a lobbying and professional group for defense contractors.

The NDIA is composed of executives from major military businesses such as Northrop Grumman, L-3 Communications, ManTech International, Boeing, Oshkosh Defense and Booz Allen Hamilton, among other firms.

Cotton strongly advocates higher defense spending and a more aggressive foreign policy. As The New Republic’s David Ramsey noted, “Pick a topic — Syria, Iran, Russia, ISIS, drones, NSA snooping — and Cotton can be found at the hawkish outer edge of the debate … During his senate campaign, he told a tele-townhall that ISIS and Mexican drug cartels joining forces to attack Arkansas was an ‘urgent problem.’”

On Iran, Cotton has issued specific calls for military intervention. In December he said Congress should consider supplying Israel with B-52s and so-called “bunker-buster” bombs — both items manufactured by NDIA member Boeing — to be used for a possible strike against Iran.

Asked if Cotton will speak about his Iran letter tomorrow, Jimmy Thomas, NDIA Director of Legislative Policy, said, “[M]ost members … talk about everything from the budget to Iran … so it’s highly likely that he may address that in his remarks.” According to Thomas, the Cotton event was scheduled in January, “but certainly we bring people to the platform that have influence directly on our issues.”

This foregoing article relates that this is more an issue of Crony-Capitalism, than it is about negotiating for peace.

Just “follow the money” is a constant refrain among conspiracy theorists.  Many sources, including this Go Lean book and accompanying blogs, have reported on the “bad intent” in the American eco-system, associated with Crony-Capitalism.

This consideration aligns with the Go Lean book, which serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This empowerment effort represents a change for the region, calling on all 30 member-state governments in the region to confederate and provide their own solutions in the areas of economics, security and governance. The book is motivated for the Greater Good, not some adherence to a profit objective; so decisions in this regards should never be based on short-term benefits or lining the pockets of any particular special interest group.

The CU/Go Lean roadmap defines these 3 prime directives as follows:

• Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion GDP and create 2.2 million new jobs.
• Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines against “bad actors”.
• Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The negative community ethos of Crony-Capitalism is an example for the Caribbean to avoid in emulating American society. The book Go Lean…Caribbean asserts that the Caribbean region must do better; we must not allow the US to take the lead for our own nation-building, for American capitalistic interests tend to hijack policies intended for the Greater Good. This assessment is logical considering the realities of so many of these Big Corporate Bullies where public policy is set to benefit private parties. The subject of Big Defense, the Military Industrial Complex, is just another example; peace is bad for their business. Consider this chart of well-documented cases of bad corporate behavior:

The Go Lean book, and accompanying blog commentaries, go even deeper and hypothesize that American economic models are dysfunctional from the Caribbean perspective. The American wheels of commerce stages the Caribbean in a “parasite” role; imperiling regional industrialization even further. The foreign policy for the Caribbean is to incentivize consumption of American products, and serve as a playground for their leisure. Considering the military eligibility for citizens of US Territories, the US defense policy is to feed its military with as many territorial young men and woman as possible. Many sources report that on the average 1% of the American population serve in the military. (While some states, like Texas, register 2 – 3% engagement, many records numbers like .50%). On the other hand, the US Territories (PR, VI, Guam, Samoa) engage 10 – 12 percent of its population to the US Armed Forces. One report relates that since 1917, more than 200,000 American citizens from Puerto Rico have served in the Armed Forces, serving in every conflict since World War I.

“We are fodder for the cannons”! – an informal, derogatory term for combatants who are regarded or treated as expendable in the face of enemy fire.

One reason for a high military enrollment is the lack of jobs. While the Go Lean roadmap does not discourage the National Sacrifice ethos required for military enlistments, we do plan to facilitate job creation otherwise. We do not want to just be “fodder”!

The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on how to forge the elevation of the Caribbean region from a parasite role to the preferred role of protégé. We simply need our own security solutions for our own objectives. This point is made early in the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 & 13) with these statements:

x.   Whereas we are surrounded and allied to nations of larger proportions in land mass, populations, and treasuries, elements in their societies may have ill-intent in their pursuits, at the expense of the safety and security of our citizens. We must therefore appoint “new guards” to ensure our public safety and threats against our society, both domestic and foreign.

xvi.    Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes, including piracy and other forms of terrorism, can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

xxiii. Whereas many countries in our region are dependent OverseasTerritory of imperial powers, the systems of governance can be instituted on a regional and local basis, rather than requiring oversight or accountability from distant masters far removed from their subjects of administration. The Federation must facilitate success in autonomous rule by sharing tools, systems and teamwork within the geographical region.

The Go Lean book purports that the Caribbean can – and must – do better than Crony-Capitalism. The vision of the CU is a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean to do the heavy-lifting of optimizing economic-security-governing engines. While the region must provide “new guards” to ensure our homeland security, there is no agenda to build up a Military Industrial Complex in the Caribbean region. The Go Lean roadmap only calls for the installations of local security forces to remediate and mitigate regional threats and ensure public safety; not create a military-industrial eco-system. The Go Lean book details the community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to elevate Caribbean society, and make our homeland a better place to live, work, play:

While the US is the world’s largest Single Market economy and has the largest military establishment, we want to only model some of the American example. We would rather foster a business climate and Armed Forces to benefit the Greater Good, not just some special interest group. There are many Go Lean blog commentaries that have echoed this point, addressing the subject of the Caribbean avoiding American consequences of Crony-Capitalism. See sample here:

The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that many problems of the region are too big for any one member-state to solve alone, that there is the need for the technocracy of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation. The Go Lean roadmap calls for some integration of the regional member-states, a strategy of confederation with a tactic of separation-of-powers between CU federal agencies and member-states’ governments. This allows for a lot of autonomy … and abuse. We must therefore be on-guard – with transparency and accountability – against conspiracy or some special interest hijacking our Greater Good for private gains.

This concept of conspiracies to force some military action to support/grow the Military Industrial Complex sound more like fiction than fact. But, the details in this commentary are true and real. This is classic “life imitating art”; or is it “art imitating life”. Just consider the movies and TV shows based on the concept of shadowy conspiracy to get the US government (or European governments) to commit to military actions so as to enrich some conniving defense contractors. The following is a sample list:

These considerations are especially poignant for citizens of US Territories; though the entire region suffers from dysfunction. These “American citizens” are on the move; their Caribbean homelands is at near-Failed-State status; the abandonment factor is unbelievably high. According to one report, Florida is gaining a net 7,300 Puerto Ricans a year, far more than any other U.S. state. The Go Lean book posits that “if we leave well enough alone, things will not just get better on their own”. Much more is needed to reverse these trends; new remediation and new mitigation must be put in place. A better future must be guided, girded and navigated. This is among the heavy-lifting tasks for the Caribbean; this is the charge of the CU.

The people and governing institutions of all the Caribbean are hereby urged to take heed to the exhortations in this commentary; and also to learn more, and do more, by leaning-in to this Go Lean roadmap for Caribbean empowerment. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Appendix – Referenced Citations:

1. Those who serve: http://www.npr.org/2011/07/03/137536111/by-the-numbers-todays-military

2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/17/AR2007081702175.html

3. http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2005/11/who-bears-the-burden-demographic-characteristics-of-us-military-recruits-before-and-after-9-11

4. The military–industrial complex ^[1] comprises the policy and monetary relationships which exist between legislators, national armed forces, and the arms industry that supports them. These relationships include political contributions, political approval for military spending, lobbying to support bureaucracies, and oversight of the industry. It is a type of iron triangle. The term is most often used in reference to the system behind the military of the United States, where it gained popularity after its use in the farewell address of President Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 17, 1961,^[2] though the term is applicable to any country with a similarly developed infrastructure.^[3][4] The term is sometimes used more broadly to include the entire network of contracts and flows of money and resources among individuals as well as corporations and institutions of the defense contractors, The Pentagon, the Congress and executive branch.^[5] A similar thesis was originally expressed by Daniel Guérin, in his 1936 book Fascism and Big Business, about the fascist government support to heavy industry. It can be defined as, “an informal and changing coalition of groups with vested psychological, moral, and material interests in the continuous development and maintenance of high levels of weaponry, in preservation of colonial markets and in military-strategic conceptions of internal affairs.”^[6]