'Mad Dog' Mattis and his UK buddy make THE CLEAREST
assessment of the world now. Why. What is needed. And, the direction we must go if we want real
security while protecting human freedom and prosperity. A
profound dialogue worth every minute of your time -- if you are concerned about
our future, and our children's future.
MAY 1, 2020: Former
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis & Others Discuss Coronavirus Global Response
Intro: Former
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis joined the former director of the U.K.
Special Forces, Sir Graeme Lamb, in a discussion on the global
response to the coronavirus pandemic sponsored by the Yale University’s Jackson
Institute for Global Affairs. They discussed the global significance of the
pandemic, the importance of competent and decisive leadership in times of
crisis, the response from the U.S. and U.K., how militaries can play an
effective role, and the importance of global coordination amongst allies in
combatting global pandemics.
Their consensus
seems to be the need for governments to redefine national security.
The
only flaw I heard in their profound and frequent insights/comments was the fact
that this ‘need’ is nothing new. It was
the same conclusion reached in a 1980 bipartisan Presidential Commission on
World Hunger.
“In
the final analysis, unless Americans -- as citizens of an increasingly
interdependent world -- place far higher priority on overcoming world hunger,
its effects will no longer remain remote or unfamiliar. Nor can we wait until we reach the brink of
the precipice; the major actions required do not lend themselves to crisis
planning, patchwork management, or emergency financing... The hour is
late. Age-old forces of poverty, disease,
inequity, and hunger continue to challenge the world. Our humanity demands that we act upon these
challenges now...” Presidential
Commission on World Hunger, 1980.
Today we are experiencing these consequences. The
Commission warned about “diseases”, “international terrorism”, “war”,
“environmental problems” and “other human rights problems” (refugees, genocide,
human trafficking…). Each threatening
our lives, our freedoms and our prosperity.
Our failure to deal with them has fueled fear and generated populist
movements. Movements that are only making
things worse. It appears that only a
Movement of Movements of ‘we the people’ to fund and achieve the 17 Sustainable
Development Goals ASAP can prevent or preempt further catastrophic chaos. Talk of a new global Marshall plan (proposed
multiple times since 1980) is now a ‘self evident truth’. This or more inevitable threats will reach
our shores, our cities and our love ones.
The 1980
commission specifically warned that “The most
potentially explosive force in the world today is the frustrated desire of poor
people to attain a decent standard of living. The anger, despair and often
hatred that result represent real and persistent threats to international
order… Neither the cost to national
security of allowing malnutrition to spread nor the gain to be derived by a
genuine effort to resolve the problem can be predicted or measured in any
precise, mathematical way. Nor can monetary value be placed on avoiding the
chaos that will ensue unless the United States and the rest of the world begin
to develop a common institutional framework for meeting such other critical
global threats… Calculable or not, however, this combination of problems now
threatens the national security of all countries just as surely as advancing
armies or nuclear arsenals.”
It also stated
“that promoting economic development in general, and
overcoming hunger in particular, are tasks far more critical to the U.S.
national security than most policymakers acknowledge or even believe. Since the
advent of nuclear weapons most Americans have been conditioned to equate
national security with the strength of strategic military forces. The
Commission considers this prevailing belief to be a simplistic illusion. Armed
might represents merely the physical aspect of national security. Military
force is ultimately useless in the absence of the global security that only
coordinated international progress toward social justice can bring.”
Our failure to
take a universal human rights approach after 9-11 has cost the US twice as many
lives lost that day and as much as 6 trillion US tax dollars so far. The Covid-19 crisis has been estimate to cost
us that much in just 4 months, not to mention that in those same 4 months we
lost approximately 6 times the number American lives lost during the last 19
years fighting terrorism predominately with military force.
It should be a
self-evident truth that Covid-19 and most many threats we face today are
largely the result of ignoring this reports recommendations. Dozens of other prodigious, bipartisan
studies and reports have followed since then that clearly document the direct
and indirect links between world hunger, human rights violations, global
instability, and the growing array of other threats to our national
security. Affordable and achievable
targets with a comprehensive action plan can be found in the 17 Sustainable
Development Goals today. They offer an
action agenda to tackle the root causes of the growing chaos. What’s missing is the political will. The will to do what’s right -- and make an adequate local, national and global investment in
everyone’s freedom, security and prosperity.
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