FACTS BEARING ON THE PROBLEM:
We-the-People and our government have a number of on-going issues that fall into the “crisis” category that are negatively impacting our every-day lives and have the potential to take this nation down. Here are ten for example:
- Education is a national disaster; but fixable and with no new cost to taxpayers and saves hundreds of billions of dollars.
- Race relations are not what they could/should be; but can be easily fixed.
- Illegal immigration is costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and is a potential threat to our national security; but fixable with no new cost to taxpayers and will save hundreds of billions of dollars.
- Take off your rose-collared glasses, voter fraud is alive, well and threatening the 2024 election just 10 months from now. It can be easily fixed with no new cost to taxpayer and can save hundreds of billions of dollars.
- The out-of-control federal bureaucracy and the resulting regulation-nation is a threat to our foundational cornerstone of liberty- for-all; but fixable with no new cost to taxpayers and can save hundreds of billions of dollars.
- Our $34 trillion national debt, increasing by billions per day, is a threat to our future but can be fixed without increasing taxes.
- Congress, as an operational entity, is a disoriented, disgusting, dysfunctional disaster. It also can be fixed with standards and new procedures that will save hundreds of billions of federal dollars.
- Redefining terms for Congress and term limits should be a priority but it isn’t. It will save billions in campaign financing and increase efficiency and competence of Congress.
- Our most recent generations of young Americans are too uneducated and too dysfunctional. We need a period of awakening for our young adults leading to more productive lives through Universal Service for All; doable with some new federal funding offset with elimination of other needless spending. Pays dividends back to America for future generations.
- World aggression (Russia/Ukraine, Hamas/Israel, ongoing Middle East terrorism, China threat to Taiwan, etc.) need not happen. World peace forever is doable with no new taxes but with specific new and innovative savings of hundreds of billions of federal spending dollars.
NOW:
Every day, with the ongoing campaigns, candidates across the nation are identifying to the voters some or all of the above ten crisis issues. But, have you heard any of them articulate workable, affordable, detailed solutions? No? Neither have I.
WHY? There has for, decades, been an election-year document known as the Republican Campaign Platform,” which is supposed to outline the Republican Party’s official principles, policy stances, and priorities.” THE LAST REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN PLATFORM WAS PUBLISHED JULY, 2016. Where the hell is the Republican National Committee and what are they doing? The purpose of the series of essays, starting with this one, is to produce solutions to a top-ten list of crises that our Republicans can campaign on, agree on, focus on win on and use to transform America.
MY THESIS:
There are viable solutions to each of these ten national and world problems and they all have some things in common.
- They can become or are already a national crisis of major proportions.
- They can all be fixed with little or no cost to taxpayers and in most cases, there will be savings of hundreds of billions of dollars per year going forward.
- Detailed planning and execution for each can begin one year from now, 20 January, 2025, inauguration day.
- Serious candidates for high offices can and should begin campaigning now on the details of the concepts of operation for each crisis issue; who, what, when, where, why and how.
Bottom line for my theses; if we fix the systems, we can transform America. But only if the Republicans win big in November, 2024.
INTENT: My intent is to influence the outcome of the 2024 campaign by providing to all Republican candidates a brief concept of operations outlines
for each crisis area that can be used to convince voters that, if elected, they will attempt to fix the systems and thereby transform America.
THE BOOK:
There is a book, Fix the Systems, Transform America, for sale available on Amazon, $11.99. And yes, I get a royalty for every book sold. The truth is, I don’t give a damn about the payments; but I do give a damn about this once-great country as I watch it deteriorate into big government control that is crumbling one of our greatest Constitutional gifts, Liberty. Without liberty, there is no will. Without will our nation may be soon irretrievably lost. I intend to publish a series of essays that will provide candidates with a brief outline explaining the concept of operations to fix the ten crises.
PART ONE is:
WORLD PEACE FOREVER (see Chapter 8 in the book for a more detailed discussion)
BACKGROUND:
The United Nations formed in 1945 has as its mission to, “maintain international peace and security.” The bottom line is that the UN has been and will continue to be a very expensive absolute failure. Why?
When the UN was formed, the founders provided for one unusual organizational element, the Security Council. It consists of five permanent members (US, UK, France, China, Russia) and ten temporary members chosen from the general membership who rotate in and out of the Security Council each year. Under the UN Charter, the Security Council also has primary responsibility for, “maintenance for international peace and security.” It also continues to be a miserable failure.
Why does the UN continuously fail to keep world peace and why can’t it be fixed? All major issues, especially those dealing with conflicts, flow out of the Security Council. For any affirmative action from the Security Council there must be a majority of the 15-members which includes ALL five of the permanent members voting in favor of an action. Any one of the five permanent members can veto and kill any measure. In today’s world, China and Russia have the power to negatively control all major issues associated with the 193-member organization.
Given the reality of the UN and Security Council, there will unlikely ever be a chance for world peace without forming another organization specifically designed for that purpose, peace. It is also unlikely a new organization will become a reality without the U.S. president’s leadership.
The key elements of the Concept of Operations for world peace are as follows:
- The next U.S. president can take the lead in pulling together a new, single-mission (world peace) organization named United for World Peace. Their only mission will be to insure continuous international peace and security.
- It must be clear to the nations of the world that this is not a move by the U.S. to take control of world security. United for World Peace will eventually have a small headquarters somewhere in the world headed by an elected Secretary General from any member nation for a 6-year term.
- The United for World Peace mission is to build and sustain a combined military force called the International Deterrent Force, IDF. The “D” does NOT represent defense; the IDF will be first and foremost a continuous powerful deterrent force and when needed the world’s preeminent, massive, offensive force.
- The U.S. president will seek to sign on at least 150 nations under the concept that has been completely successful over the past 75 years in NATO, “an attack against one is an attack against all.”
- There should be two small military planning headquarters with the senior commander located in Europe with the deputy commander in Asia.
- The responsibility of the Commander is to first identify all the elements necessary for a world-class, never-fail deterrent force that can, if necessarily, instantly become a rapid-response offensive force capable of defeating any nation’s military.
- In consultation with each United for World Peace member, deterrent/deployable force elements will be designated for every member nation. First of all, the U.S. will provide its massive force-deployment air assets while other nations provide light and heavy divisions, tactical air, naval forces, special operations elements, etc. etc. Not all nations have military forces but they have doctors, nurses, truck drivers, logistics elements, air fields, ports, etc.
- Every IDF participant will keep its force fully combat ready and rapidly deployable anywhere in the world within a 7-day period.
- Every nation will fund its own deployable force contribution.
- The IDF headquarters will maintain a robust intel-processing element linked to the intel gathering capabilities of all IDF member nations.
IDF READINESS CONDITIONS:
All contributing nations will exist in a state of one of four IDF readiness conditions, REDCONs.
REDCON 1: Normal peacetime condition. A completed plan will be in-place in every member nation. Readiness standards will be in force for every IDF element.
REDCON 2: The Secretary General and IDF Commander, having identified a potential threat to any member nation, will tailor a force for deployment and place them on 24-hour alert.
REDCON 3: All personnel and equipment for the designated units will move to assembly areas. Deployment aircraft will move to their first pick-up airfields.
REDCON 4: Deployment of all designated deterrence elements to the target area and prepare to initiate an overwhelming counter offensive.
Why would countries sign up to be a United for World Peace member? Here is a starter list of answers as to why such an organization is needed now and why it would be an easy sell.
For years the world has tolerated Hamas terrorists periodically launching hundreds or thousands of rockets into Israeli civilian communities. The Ukraine invasion by Russia could have been nipped in the bud and never become a conflict. Middle East countries and Israel are fearful of the hegemony intentions of a nuclear-equipped Iran but powerless individually to stop it. South Korea and Japan are very nervous about North Korea’s aggressive offensive missile and nuclear programs. Taiwan is fearful of a China invasion. Europe is fearful of Russian aggression. Former Soviet Republics are fearful that they may be next on Putin’s list. The Baltic countries and Finland are fearful of Russia, India is in a constant state of unrest over China’s border incursions. Who knows what the next move may be in Latin America? African border disputes are a recurring concern. Nations’ support for terrorist activities threatens the world. Aggressors who could/would use cyber-attacks to inflict humanitarian and economic disaster on another nation is a growing threat.
It is not unrealistic to believe that at least 150 nations could be convinced to sign on, especially since the U.S. has some leverage by providing annual monetary, military and/or humanitarian aid to many of the UN member nations.
Think back in time to December 2021 when Russia was massing an invasion force on Ukraine’s border. The United for World Peace Secretary General and the IDF Commander could have traveled to Moscow, met with Putin and delivered the following message. An IDF offensive force sufficient to destroy your military massed on the Ukraine border has been elevated to IDF REDCON 3 level and are moving to initial assembly areas as we speak. You have 24 hours to begin the continuous redeployment of every element near the Ukraine border. If you are not doing so in 24 hours, we will go to IDF REDCON 4 and initiate offensive air/land/sea operations against you.
The Secretary General and IDF Commander visit China and inform Xi Jinping that, he must never again threaten Taiwan with air and sea offensive demonstrations, the likes of which they have been conducting over the past months. A massive IDF naval strike force capable of total control of the South China Sea has been put on 24-hour alert to deploy. When/if deployed they will completely blockade all shipping into China to include the 10-12 million barrels of crude oil per day that you need to sustain your country. Additionally, missiles will be in place to take out the oil and gas pipelines supplying you from Russia.
And, so it goes around the world with visits to North Koea, Iran, individual terrorist organizations and any other bad actor contemplating a cross-border operation against any United for World Peace member nation.
BOTTOM LINE:
A selling point for this United for World Peace concept is that there was an existing proof of concept in being for decades. In 1922 Russia completed assembly of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR. For most of the post-World War II period the USSR was a conventional, biological and nuclear threat to North Atlantic nations until the USSR collapsed in 1991.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO deterrent force was formed immediately after WW II with 12nations, now 31. The overwhelming deterrent message to the USSR was NATO’s promise that, “an attack against one nation is an attack against all.” The NATO force consisting of combined elements from all NATO member nations was kept at a high state of combat readiness, Deterrence in force worked against the USSR for four decades and the same concept of operations will work against any and all future wannabe aggressors worldwide.
CONCLUSIONS:
The existence of an IDF would eliminate redundant military elements in excess of the IDF needs thereby reducing world-wide defense spending by trillions of dollars.
Any potential aggressor can instantly be facing a combined 150-or-greater-nation force.
With world peace assurances in place, the next step could be a world without nuclear weapons, chemical weapons or biological weapons.
U.S. presidents have for decades been referred to as “the leader of the free world.” But that is currently in name only. Here is an opportunity for the next U.S. president to lead the world towards sustained world peace. He or she must make it a number one, non-political priority.
From Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, “There is a tide in the affairs of men, when taken at the flood leads one to fortune.” Ukraine and Gaza are our 21st Century “flood.” There will never be a more appropriate time than now to pursue a solution for future world peace
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Back to my thesis: there are at least ten very visible crisis situations that are negatively impacting America and We-the-People today. They are all solvable.
This year’s Republican candidates are talking about some of the problems but not about the solutions. They need to lead the voters through the whole process of identifying the problem, defining the problem, articulating the solution by explaining to them the who, what, when, where, why and how. Get specific about who in the administration will have the lead on each concept of operations.
This essay, World Peace was an illustration to Republican candidates that for our current crop of crisis issues there is a concept of operations to solve it and at the same time reduce spending.
There is currently a lot of discussion about the New World Order. Well, here is a new twist on The New World Order, call it World Peace.
My intent, over the next few days is to present the outlines of a concept of operation to solve the other nine crisis issues.
My hope is that any of you who can communicate with Republicans candidates for Governor, Congress or the presidency will forward this series of essays to them. Thank you.
Coming soon, PART TWO, IMMIGRATION, what the voters are telling us is their number one concern.
Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of two books, Vision to Execution and Fix the Systems, Transform America as well as the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.