30 years of speeches, straight common senseI would normally give a book like this four stars because it is a collection of speeches entered into the Congressional Record over a 30-year period with no overview. I give it five stars because of the integrity and consistency of the author, and because he is the only person now running for President that has a completely serious book available for review.
I was disappointed that there was no strategic overview touching on each critical foreign policy region or each of the high-level threats to humanity such as depicited by the Earth Intelligence Network in support of the Transpartisan Policy Institute, but my disappointment is tempered by the realization that the author, in citing Thomas Jefferson on the dedication page, to wit: “Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship with All Nations–Engangling Alliances with None” (First Inaugural Address, 1801) makes it clear that it can indeed be “that simple.”
Throughout the book the author touches on truly fundamental themes:
1) Restoration of the Constitution as the fouindation for all Congressional and Executive policies, budgets, and decisions.
2) The importance of avoiding the cost of foreign adventures while investing in domestic needs for education, infrastructure, energy independence and so on.
3) The importance of having a currency backed by real wealth, not the fabricated wealth used by the banks to enrich themselves at our expense.
4) The importance of civil liberties, sound decision-making, and ethics
I'd like to see this honest man win and be President. His integrity and intelligence are absolute, something no other candidate can claim. However, unless he can pick a transpartisan Cabinet in advance of the election, and guide that Cabinet in producing a balanced budget that eliminates our multi-trillion unfunded future obligations, he will be no better than the others, and even at a disadvaantage, because voters hear platitudes. They need to see real policies with real budget numbers, or they will not see the difference between this author and the others in tangible terms they can appreciate.
See also:
Preparing America's Foreign Policy for the 21st Century
The Search for Security: A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Twenty-First Century
Modern Strategy
Uncomfortable Wars Revisited (International and Security Affairs Series)
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World
Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions
Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century
