Who Stole the American Dream?
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16 A more realistic “moderate” estimate … would be Ibid. Here, I have given original Eisenhower Study Group estimate. Also, see Daniel Trotta, “Cost of War at Least $3.7 Trillion and Counting,” Reuters, June 29, 2011.
17 Fired his top economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey, “What the Iraq War Will Cost the U.S.,” CNNMoney.com/Fortune, January 11, 2008, http://money.cnn.com; Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, media stakeout, transcript, U.S. Department of Defense, January 19, 2003, http://www.defense.gov; Bruce Bartlett, “The Cost of War,” Forbes.com, November 26, 2009, http://www.forbes.com.
18 Pentagon estimated the Afghan war James Dao, “The War Budget: U.S. Is Expecting to Spend $1 Billion a Month on War,” The New York Times, November 12, 2001.
19 “History shows that wars” Bartlett, “Cost of War.”
20 Unfunded wars drag on William A. Niskanen and Benjamin Friedman, comment on Senator Al Franken’s pay for war resolution, November 4, 2006, http://www.franken.senate.gov.
21 “The mission is” President George W. Bush, remarks, “Welcoming Aid Workers Rescued from Afghanistan,” November 26, 20001, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov.
22 “Some very important lessons in Vietnam” President George W. Bush, press conference, October 11, 2001, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov.
23 “Our military should be used to fight” President George W. Bush, roundtable interview with foreign press, July 17, 2001, Briefing Room, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov.
24 “We know that true peace” President George W. Bush, “President Outlines War Effort,” Virginia Military Institute, April 17, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov.
25 Al-Qaeda and its Arab recruits General David McKiernan, briefing for Vice President–Elect Joseph Biden, December 2008, cited in Woodward, Obama’s Wars, 71.
26 “The mistaken mission creep in Afghanistan” Robert Blackwill, quoted in David Sanger, “Rethinking the Afghanistan War’s What-Ifs,” The New York Times Magazine, July 31, 2010.
27 “No matter how long it takes” President George W. Bush, speech, Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, December 15, 2008, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov.
28 Obama committed twenty-one thousand more troops Obama, “New Strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
29 Failure to send in more troops General Stanley A. McChrystal, memo, “Commander’s Initial Assessment,” NATO International Security Assistance Force, Afghanistan, August 30, 2009, http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/Assessment_Redacted_092109.pdf.
30 Wanted defeat written into Obama’s official orders Woodward, Obama’s Wars, 144–45.
31 A bone of contention in “President Obama’s Final Orders for Afghanistan Pakistan Strategy, or Terms Sheet,” November 29, 2009, in Woodward, Obama’s Wars, 385–86.
32 Obama did agree Obama, “The Way Forward.”
33 “Inflicted enormous losses” Joshua Partlow, “In Letter, Petraeus Offers Optimistic Assessment of Afghan War,” The Washington Post, January 26, 2011.
34 “Very hard, but it is doable” Carlotta Gall, “Petraeus Confident as He Leaves Afghanistan,” The New York Times, July 11, 2011.
35 Pregnant parallels Rufus Phillips, “Déjà Vu All Over Again: Are We Repeating Vietnam?” World Affairs, September–October 2010, http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org.
36 “It rhymes” Mark Twain, in Kurt Andersen, Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America (New York: Random House, 2009), 25.
37 But the Afghan government Phillips, “Déjà Vu.”
38 Ambassador Richard Holbrooke Richard Holbrooke, interview, December 15, 2009.
39 The war is more political than military Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry, classified cable to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, November 6, 2009; Eric Schmitt, “U.S. Envoy’s Cables Show Worries on Afghan Plans,” The New York Times, January 26, 2010.
40 Disillusioned with Karzai Elisabeth Bumiller and Mark Landler, “U.S. Envoy Urges Caution on Forces for Afghanistan,” The New York Times, November 12, 2009.
41 Crooked Afghan cops T. Christian Miller, ProPublica, Mark Hosenball and Ron Moreau, Newsweek, “$6 Billion Later, Afghan Cops Aren’t Ready to Serve,” March 20, 2010, http://www.propublica.org.
42 Desertions and resignations “U.S. General Cites Goals to Train Afghan Forces,” The New York Times, August 23, 2010.
43 “Rapidly growing systemic homicide threat” Matthew Rosenberg, “Afghan Soldiers Step Up Killings of Allied Forces,” The New York Times, January 20, 2012.
44 U.S. Marines urinating on the dead bodies Graham Bowley and Matthew Rosenberg, “Video Inflames a Delicate Moment for U.S. in Afghanistan,” The New York Times, January 12, 2012.
45 NATO forces mistakenly burned Korans Sangar Rahimi and Alissa J. Rubin, “Koran Burning in NATO Error Incites Afghans,” The New York Times, February 22, 2012.
46 Two dozen Afghans Alissa J. Rubin and Sharifullah Sahak, “Koran Burnings Resume in Afghanistan Despite U.S. Apology,” The New York Times, February 25, 2012.
47 Two U.S. advisory officers were killed Matthew Rosenberg and Thom Shanker, “Afghan Uproar Casts Shadows on U.S. Pullout,” The New York Times, February 27, 2012.
48 President Karzai responded to widespread Rod Nordland and Matthew Rosenberg, “Karzai Calls on U.S. to Pull Back as Taliban Cancels Talks,” The New York Times, March 15, 2012.
49 “Under the spell of the Taliban” Ray Rivera, “Afghan Army Attracts Few Where Fear Reigns,” The New York Times, September 6, 2011.
50 “50 percent of the people” Partlow, “In Letter, Petraeus Offers Optimistic Assessment.”
51 “The Taliban are coming back” Jill Abramson, “Mission Unfinished,” The New York Times, Sunday section, “The Reckoning,” September 11, 2011.
52 “We have never once gotten it right” Robert M. Gates, speech at U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY, February 25, 2011 (emphasis added), http://www.defense.gov.
53 “Empire of Bases” that Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2004), 151–85; Chalmers Johnson, “America’s Empire of Bases: Militarism, Secrecy and the End of the Republic,” TomDispatch.com, January 15, 2004, http://www.tomdispatch.com.
54 More than 580,000 personnel The Pentagon listed 406,518 military personnel: “Department of Defense: Active Duty Military Personnel Strengths by Regional Area and by Country (309a),” Statistical Information Analysis Division, U.S. Department of Defense, September 30, 2011, http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/MILITARY/history/hst1109.pdf. In addition, the Pentagon reported 175,045 defense contractors: “Contractor Support of U.S. Operations in the USCENTCOM Area of Responsibility, Iraq, and Afghanistan,” October 17, 2011, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, U.S. Department of Defense, http://www.acq.osd.mil/log/PS/docs/5A_paper/5A_October_2011_final.doc.
55 Listed 611 U.S. overseas The Pentagon’s official report lists 611 overseas bases, but just like the defense budget, which did not include appropriations for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the base structure report does not include bases and military installations in war zones. “Base Structure Report: Fiscal Year 2011 Baseline,” Office of Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Installations and Environment, U.S. Department of Defense, http://www.acq.osd.mil/ie/download/bsr/bsr2011baseline.pdf.
56 Hot war zones—then 411 in Afghanistan Nick Turse, “Empire of Bases 2.0,” CBS News Opinion, January 10, 2011, http:www.cbsnews.com.
57 “No other military in world history” Tom Kane, “Global U.S. Troop Deployment, 1950–2005,” 10, Heritage Foundation, May 24, 2006, http://www.heritage.org.
&nb
sp; 58 Simply maintaining those bases Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Dorothy Robyn, cited in Christine Anh and Sukjong Hong, “Bring War Dollars Home by Shutting Down Bases,” Institute for Policy Studies, March 31, 2011, http://www.ips-dc.org.
59 “There was no corner of the known world” Joseph Schumpeter, Imperialism and Social Classes: Two Essays (Cleveland: Meridian Books, 1951), 51.
60 Rumsfeld made plans to bring seventy thousand troops home Donald H. Rumsfeld, testimony, Senate Armed Services Committee, September 23, 2004, http://www.defense.gov.
61 “America stands alone” President William Clinton, Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 1997, http://www.gpo.gov.
62 “The survival of liberty” President George W. Bush, Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 2005, http://www.whitehouse.gov.
63 In its defense doctrine Preble, Power Problem, 29.
64 “America has underwritten global security” Obama, “The Way Forward.” 370 “America cannot act alone” President Barack Obama, Nobel Prize speech, Oslo, Norway, December 10, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov.
65 With a monopoly of atomic weapons Kennedy, Great Powers, 357–59.
66 “Reagan severed the connection” Andrew J. Bacevich, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2008), 28–30, 36–40.
67 The nation’s pre-recession global trade deficits Census Bureau, “Trade in Goods with World, Seasonally Adjusted,” accessed April 11, 2012, shows U.S. global trade deficit of $808.8 billion in 2007 and $828.0 billion in 2006, http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c0004.html.
68 A doubling of the overall defense budget Thomas Christie and Pierre M. Sprey, letter to Erskine Bowles, co-chair, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, November 15, 2010; Winslow Wheeler, “Ignorance Is Not Bliss,” Defense Monitor, March 2011, www.cdi.org.
69 To nearly $1 trillion a year Winslow Wheeler, “U.S. Security Total Budget,” Center for Defense Information, email, August 22, 2011, http://www.cdi.org.
70 Calculated that U.S. defense spending Preble, Power Problem; Christie and Sprey, letter to Erskine Bowles.
71 “It has been a common dilemma” Kennedy, Great Powers, 533.
72 America’s challenge Ibid., 514–15.
73 “To amass military power” Eisenhower, State of the Union Address, February 2, 1953.
74 “We pay for a single destroyer” President Dwight Eisenhower, “The Chance for Peace,” speech to American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953.
75 “Instead of fighting this war” Barack Obama, campaign speech, Charleston, WV, March 20, 2008, http://www.cfr.org.
76 “That is enough” Hillary Clinton, campaign speech, George Washington University, Washington, DC, March 15, 2008, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu.
77 “Afghanistan is no longer a war” Leslie Gelb, “Mission Accomplished,” The Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2011.
78 The Arc of Danger Congressional Research Service, “State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs: FY2012 Budget and Appropriations,” November 23, 2011, fpc.state.gov; Walter Pincus, “U.S. Military Presence Will Continue in Iraq,” The Washington Post, November 21, 2011; Daniel Froomkin, “Massive U.S. Embassy Will Expand Further as Soldiers Leave,” Huff-Post World, September 16, 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com.
79 “The smallest footprint necessary” Thom Shanker and Charlie Savage, “After Bin Laden, U.S. Reassesses Afghan Strategy,” The New York Times, May 10, 2011.
CHAPTER 21: RECLAIMING THE DREAM
1 “A free people ought” Alfred E. Eckes, Jr., Opening America’s Market: U.S. Foreign Trade Policy Since 1776 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992), 2.
2 “Today, our most important task” Susan Hockfield, “Manufacturing a Recovery,” The New York Times, August 29, 2011.
3 “The social contract” Leslie H. Gelb, “What Germany’s Economy Can Teach Obama,” The Daily Beast, June 5, 2011, http://www.thedailybeast.com.
4 A dramatic increase Two-thirds of Americans see “sharp conflicts” between rich and poor, a jump of nearly 20 percent in just two years. See “Rising Share of Americans See Conflict Between Rich and Poor,” Pew Research Center.
5 Advocating a comeback for manufacturing Michael A. Fletcher and David Nakamura, “For Factories, 2012 Brings a Happier Tune,” The Washington Post, February 16, 2012.
6 A domestic Marshall Plan Horizon Project, “Report and Recommendations.”
7 “Job creation must be the number one objective” Grove, “How America Can Create Jobs.” Grove was co-founder of Intel in 1979, CEO 1987–1997, and chairman 1997–1998.
8 Spence has documented how global competition Michael Spence and Sandile Hlatshwayo, “The Evolving Structure of the American Economy and the Employment Challenge,” working paper, Council on Foreign Relations, March 2011, 1, 4–5, 12–13, 31–32. http://www.cfr.org.
9 America needs “to devote public funding” Michael Spence, “The Impact of Globalization on Income and Employment: The Downside of Integrating Markets,” Foreign Affairs 90, no. 4 (July–August 2011).
10 “They should promote such manufactories” George Washington, cited in Eckes, Opening America’s Market, 2.
11 “Manufactures are now as necessary” Thomas Jefferson, letter to Benjamin Austin, January 1, 1816, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, vol. vi, edited by H. A. Washington. (New York: Riker, Thorne & Co., Washington: Taylor & Maury, 1855), 520–23. http://books.google.com/books?id=NDg-AAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA520&ots=w3Damr1zCP&dq=To%20Benjamin%20Austin%2C%20Esq.Monticello%2C%20January%209%2C%201816&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false.
12 American history is replete with examples For a broad, detailed discussion, see Prestowitz, Betrayal of American Prosperity, 50–61, 76–78.
13 In 1842, Congress awarded Samuel F. B. Morse Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, “House History: Electronic Technology in the House of Representatives: ‘What Hath God Wrought’: House of Representatives and the Telegraph.” http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/technology/telegraph.aspx.
14 Reagan administration put political pressure on Clyde Prestowitz, email, December 10, 2011.
15 To create “precompetitive” technologies Prestowitz, Betrayal of American Prosperity, 103–09.
16 So there was ample precedent “Obama Advisor Bloom to Depart,” The Wall Street Journal, August 9, 2011.
17 “Virtually everything Jobs has developed” Prestowitz, Betrayal of American Prosperity, 287.
18 “We invented products and then made them” Susan Hockfield, “Manufacturing a Recovery,” The New York Times, August 11, 2011.
19 “We broke the chain of experience” Grove, “How America Can Create Jobs.”
20 The German economy has grown faster David Leonhardt, “The German Example,” The New York Times, June 8, 2011; Robert Reich, “The Limping Middle Class,” The New York Times, Sunday Review, September 4, 2011.
21 Germany generated $2 trillion in trade surpluses German Office of Federal Statistics, “Foreign Trade Data,” Statistisches Bundesamt, Deutschland, 2011, http://www.destatis.de.
22 The United States racked up $6 trillion in trade deficits U.S. Census Bureau, “U.S. Trade in Goods and Services, Balance of Payment Basis,” Foreign Trade Division, June 9, 2011, www.census.gov.
23 The German model shows Steven Rattner, “The Secrets of Germany’s Success,” Foreign Affairs 90, no. 4 (July–August 2011).
24 Marquee brands and precision machine tools Census Bureau, “U.S. Trade”; and German Office of Federal Statistics, “Foreign Trade Data.” 387 “It’s because we stuck to manufacturing” Marcus Walker, “Is Germany Turning into the Strong Silent Type?” The Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2011.
25 “The soc
ial contract” Gelb, “What Germany’s Economy Can Teach Obama.”
26 “German unions also agreed” Harold Meyerson, “Two Cheers for Germany,” The Washington Post, June 28, 2011; Nicholas Kulish, “Defying Others, Germany Finds Economic Success,” The New York Times, August 13, 2010; John Schmitt, “Labor Market Policy in the Great Recession: Some Lessons from Denmark and Germany,” Center for Economic and Policy Research, May 2011, http://www.cepr.net.
27 German companies shortened everyone’s workweek Rattner, “Germany’s Success.”
28 A long-term structural jobs problem Horizon Project, “Report and Recommendations.”
29 Modernize America’s outdated transportation networks Building America’s Future Educational Fund, “Falling Apart and Falling Behind: Transportation Infrastructure Report 2011,” 5, www.bafuture.org.
30 Backing from such traditional political adversaries Office of Senator John F. Kerry, “U.S. Chamber, AFL-CIO Urge Infrastructure Bank, BUILD Act Creates Jobs, Strengthens Competitiveness,” March 15, 2011, http://kerry.senate.gov.
31 The United States has fallen from No. 1 World Economic Forum, “The Global Competitiveness Report 2011,” table 6, http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GCR_2010–11.pdf.
32 An estimated cost of $115 billion Building America’s Future, “Falling Apart,” 11, 16–35.
33 It will “never be cheaper” Daniel Alpert, Robert Hockett, and Nouriel Roubini, “The Way Forward,” New America Foundation, October 2011, 15–16, http://www.newamerica.net.
34 A win-win for all sides Ibid., 17–18.
35 Put five million young people to work Leo Hindery, Jr., and Leo W. Gerard, “A Vision for Economic Renewal: An American Jobs Agenda,” Huffington Post, July 22, 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com.
36 A “gathering storm” National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine, Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2007); Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5 (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2010), 2, 5.