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Contributor: solardog
Date: 2003-03-18 20:23:33
Since a Nation is many things, national security could also be referring to alot of different things,depending on the context of the discussion. Specifically, one could be referring to the security of a Nation as a People, or the security of the Nation as an Economy, or even the security of the Nation as its Resources, in other words, the security of its Nature. Between these three basic aspects of a Nation as a whole, there could be various sub-aspects, they would still fit some where into one or more of these three categories. Truly, it can be noted that these three distinguishable aspects of ‘what makes a Nation’ are closely interrelated, implying that each one of these aspects inherently affect the other. An analogy can assist our understanding of how these three aspects of a Nation work together as a living Whole, given that the People represent the Heart of a Nation, the Resources being the Roots of the Nation, and the Economy represents the Fruit of the Nation. Using this analogy, we can observe something about how these individual aspects work together in a sustainable way. The People are naturally the ‘Life-blood’ of what is generating the Fruits from the renewable Resources that are honored, respected and cherished above all, in order to assure Abundance for the Life-blood of future generations.
Currently, there exists a faction of our society that apparently upholds and believes that the undisputed number-one method of maintaining National Security translates into increasing the Defense (Military) Budget. ‘National Security’ and ‘increased Defense Budget’ have somehow become synonymous terms, one implying the other. The US government, as an example, is spending over one billion (that’s a thousand million) dollars every twenty-four hours into their Defense Budget, all in the name of this widely used, but unclear term, known as National Security.
Put simply, we are actively mining and harboring radioactive materials such as uranium and plutonium from the Earth, a practice which has been creating and directly maximizing the potential for one catastrophic disaster after another, regardless of how hard we try to contain or control it. This ongoing activity is extremely unhealthy for the Earth and its inhabitants, regardless of whether the expensive missiles hit their intended marks (as far away from ‘home’ as that might be). This is because the radioactive waste left over from the making of these weapons is to be consolidated and buried right ‘next door’, the Yucca Mountains of Nevada. This is a project that ‘could be’ completed as soon as 2048 (which is good a plan as any, I suppose). Yet it only deals with the currently existing amounts of nuclear/toxic waste, and does not include what we currently and further create, as the billion-dollar-a-day-plus Defense Budget rolls on.
What we do with this waste, need not be of concern to the average citizen, and we can always figure out later, or at least pawn off onto the next generations, how to deal with our garbage that has a four and half billion year ‘shelf-life’. This seems to be the attitude of our present-day leaders, “Figure it out later, go to War now”, and I cannot speak for the reader, but this honestly does very little for my own sense of security. We are Family, Ok? All of us, past present and future, is this understood? As we all know, war uses physical power, might, and intimidation as it means, and is sometimes the result between Nations threatening each others’ people, economy, and/or resources (Nature). The result of one Nation displaying its physical might, as we effectively noted during the Arms Race of the Cold War years, naturally leads to other Nations developing there own similar (or unique, yet effective) brands of weaponry or methods of attack. As one Nation increases its military strength, other Nations naturally are compelled to do the same, even if it means creating nuclear or otherwise ‘dirty weapons’, which in turn is creating a volatile situation for our entire planet. Therefore, we can clearly see (especially since the advent of nuclear-radiological/biological-chemical weapons), reflected in our present situation, the methods we have been employing in the name of National Security are NOT an effective means of maintaining the Security of a Nation, on an either temporary or long-term basis.
What is being tragically overlooked and thoroughly disrespected in our methods of maintaining National Security is the Nature and Resources of the Nation, even to the point of exhausting those precious Resources that are not renewable, and drastically polluting those resources that are renewable, such as Water and Air. Any effort to realistically maintain National Security must not overlook this aspect of the Nation as its’ Nature, because it truly is the Root aspect of any Nation. What we are currently Observing, is the priority/value system of our leaders and policy makers holding the Fruit (which naturally represents the Economy)of our Nation to be the most valuable aspect of the Nation (it certainly IS the most alluring and gratifying aspect) all for the well being and benefit of the People, to be assured. This ideology was recently exemplified by President George W. Bush (prior to September 11), when the Kyoto Protocol (an Environmental ‘treaty’) was coldly rejected for the expressed reason being that its’ implementation is a foreseen threat to the much more precious American Economy. In other words, our Economy is more important than protecting the Environment that sustains it. The effect that this priority system has on the Nation, which encourages the ongoing creation of ‘new products, drugs, toys, etc.’, is an even thirstier Economy, as the Resources continue to be degraded and/or run dry. With the help of our inflated Defense Budget, intended to provide National Security, we have been thoroughly ‘tearing out’ and poisoning our Resources, thereby seriously jeopardizing the very Heart of the Nation, as its living People, ever dependent on the Quality of Natural Resources.
This is the problem: Our government is allocating over a billion dollars a day to an undefined cause (National Security) using methods that are proven to be ineffective, in any case. Yet, if a portion of this enormous expenditure were directed toward the research and implementation of ‘alternative’/ Sustainable Energy sources, we would be doing exceedingly much for the Security of our Nation.
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