National Security: The Unspoken Elements

For as long as I can remember, the term “national security” carried with it the implication that national defense and intelligence gathering were the cornerstones of our nation’s safety. While maintaining a strong, informed, well equipped and ready military provides a certain level of security, I submit that there are a significant number of lesser considered elements which together comprise a larger slice of the national security pie.

Looking at those other elements as a representation of the state of the human condition, the word that most describes the near-perfect existence is “autonomy” — the ability for each and all to provide for ourselves.

While the words freedom, liberty and independence are, to a certain degree, acceptable synonyms, they do not necessarily consider essential components such as food, energy, a stable economy and currency, manufacturing capacity and the 2nd Amendment ... as prerequisites to being secure as both individuals and as a nation.

Conversely, when it becomes necessary—as either one person or an entire nation—to depend upon foreign sources for any of those elements (e.g., U. S. Gov’t supplies of ammo during Iraqi Fredom were insufficient), the term “security” becomes relative to the degree of dependency.

In other words, as the need to turn to outside providers for our nation’s commerce and life sustaining products and services grows, the higher our degree of dependence; or, stated yet another way, the further we drift away from the highly desired condition of being autonomous.

Definition; autonomy: 1 : the quality or state of being self-governing; especially : the right of self-government 2 : self-directing freedom and especially moral independence 3 : a self-governing state

Within the above definition is the quality that autonomy is dependent upon a moral component. When considering morality, the words truth, justice, and the fixed standards of right and wrong are applied.

It must, therefore, be concluded that the omission of those components—all essential to a more complete idea of what comprises national security—cannot but lead to a distorted picture and, as a result, the promulgation of misguided past, present and future national security designs. The resultant immoral outcome is expressed as America’s pathetically weak national security posture; while serving as a somber reminder that every government action, regardless how seemingly benign, will all too frequently give rise to lasting, life altering consequences.

Further breaking down our national security concerns, the following are a few of the more critical elements to consider.

Energy

Oil is the elemental, naturally occurring resource that has most contributed to socioeconomic human advancement. It lubricates our machinery, powers most vehicles and provides energy for both home and industry. As currently deployed, the production and transmission of electric energy is a complex logistic application. But it is a system rife with vulnerabilities — especially considering that the critical production phase is largely dependent on foreign oil.

Another critical weakness in the execution of energy delivery is the centralized method of production that relies upon massive, complex, and all too frequently overloaded “power grids” to carry energy to the consumer (Witness the frequent black/brown outs in the Northeast corridor).

Food

There is a lesser known but equally perilous anomaly found within the manner in which our food is grown, processed and delivered to the consumer. Multinational agribusinesses have created a model for industry consolidation and ultimate monopoly through a patent holding process designed to ensure that they eventually become the sole producers of agriculture seeds — mostly accomplished with the approval and assistance of the USDA (U. S. Department of Agriculture).

The key element in this process is the scientific alteration of plant DNA; resulting in many of America’s domestically grown food products becoming a genetically modified organism (GMO). Food crops currently altered include corn, rice, canola, sugar beet, flax, radish and soybeans. Between 1997 and 2010, the land hosting GMO crops has increased from 4.2 million acres to 365 million acres. The result is that GMO constitute more than a 90 percent market share of seed production and sales for many critical crops.

Manufacturing & Jobs

The label “Made in the USA” has become virtually non-existent. The list of critical industries that have moved off-shore is long and the resulting affects felt deeply. Steel and special machine tools, industrial machines, small and large appliances, textiles, clothing, shoes, hand tools, hardware, electronics and toys are mostly manufactured abroad.

Most critical is the loss of industry specific corporate knowledge; e.g., the specific details and particulars that constitute the how, what, where and when important tasks are accomplished.

Conclusion

When industries consolidate domestically or move off shore, millions of opportunities are lost in both the entrepreneurial and job creating sectors of the economy.

As relates to national defense, however, the costs could prove fatal; for the logistics of re-supply—in an all-out war—could, in the worst of all circumstances, find our defense mechanisms dependent on our sworn enemy. When also considering the centralization of energy and food production and distribution, it cannot be but concluded that our nation’s national defense posture is inexplicably weak and unconscionably immoral.