REALITY NOT RHETORIC

During the recent Republican presidential primary it was evident that America faces a new generation of challenges globally and here at home.

America has all it needs to face such challenges.  It has the technology.  It has the national wealth.  It also has the desire and passion of the American people.

What our nation needs is leadership.
Most Americans look at Washington and are appalled at the divisiveness, the bitterness, the smallness and disunity.

After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the US heard the cry “united we stand” but now America is a country with two foreign policies, one for each party.

Each party says it wants a strong America and a safe world.  As Ronald Reagan observed “Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because America was too strong.”

A strong America requires a strong military and a strong economy.  To preserve our economic prowess will require smaller government, lower taxes, better schools and healthcare, greater investment in technology, free trade.  But there is further action the US must take to build a safe world, with peace, prosperity, freedom and dignity.  This action will require real change.

While the US focuses on Afghanistan and Iraq, our nation must not forget the threat posed by radical Islam and its overreaching goal: To replace all modern Islamic states with a caliphate, destroy America and conquer the world.  It sounds insane and is just as insane as Hitler and Stalin were in their day.  The United States faces a different enemy and change will be needed to defeat it.

America needs a stronger military.  The US must modernize its military, address gaps in troop levels and ease the strain on our National Guard and reserves while continuing to give the best care to  wounded soldiers.

America must become energy independent.  America must actively produce as much energy as we use.  We must stop sending $1 billion a day to other nations some which are using the same money against us.
Ahmadinejad, Putin and Chavez are getting rich off people buying too much oil.  True energy independence will require employing technology to make energy use more efficient in our cars, our homes and in our businesses.  Energy independence will also require developing ample domestic sources of energy: more drilling offshore and in ANWR, nuclear power, renewable resources such as cellulose based ethanol (not the inefficient corn type), biodiesel, solar, wind and full exploitation of coal-solid and liquid.

This has to be a national priority. America should demand it from our politicians. Energy independence will be good for our national defense, for our foreign policy and for our economy.  It will be good for the world. A great nation like America must lead with energy innovation and technology and should be a model for the rest of the world.

These goals are within America’s grasp but it will take hard reality rather than the lofty, political rhetoric to realize them.

By Tom Castellani
Ridgefield, CT