"never assume ill-will, until you've ruled out sheer incompetence."

No matter how good anyone or group is, none are ten feet tall, to include Americans. Sometimes it seems as though some of our foreign enemies are taller than us, though. The thought of being beat out by our enemies, foreign and domestic, is both disdainful and embarrassing, if correct or even partially correct. Facing these types of questions takes one back a level of thought. Just who are these people discussing the subject and what are their qualifications to better inform we citizens? And one other level of thought leads to just who are these leaders and executives being discussed and reported on?

Just who are these people discussing the subject and what are their qualifications to better inform we citizens? Are these people just in a business with the goal of making money, in which case informing citizenry is of secondary importance, at best. Recently it even seems suicidal, that is much of the media types are publishing agendas that are slowly putting them out of business, usually at the young people’s jobs first. In all cases preceding, there is very little reporting and very little published that has subject matter expertise. The obvious example is the “reporter” who should know something about which they write on. If the reporter has not been in the military, the health care industry, or the border control business, just how can they write responsibly or not have the wool pulled over their eyes? It is especially galling to read articles about MRAP’s (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles or those that reengage the periodical debates about the best small arms weapons. Anyone with subject matter expertise can read between the lines that the naïve reporter has been sold a bill a goods by a member of the military industrial complex, and then dutifully published same.

This principle applies to what I call the health industrial complex, and the emerging border control complex. And one can extrapolate this principle to the entire federal bureaucracy. A year ago a member of the health industrial complex was lamenting to me that the cost cutting and cost controls were threatening his way of life, and his families’ well being. This year he is driving a Lexus as a family car, so I guess things worked out OK. Since his car is nicer than mine, I took all this as a symptom of something wrong in our Country that can be improved.

Just who are these leaders and executives being discussed and reported on? In general, they are us, we Americans. None of us wake up in the morning wanting to do a bad job. The obvious questions are one of the size of federal bureaucracy, and the ability of the federal government to recruit sharp people to lead and manage us. In the latter, there are many warning signs that the pool of sharp citizen politicians is shrinking mostly due to the politics of personal destruction practiced in D.C. In the former, the Iraq war conduct is a story in inter-agency lack of cooperation between bureaucratic D.C. agencies who apparently consider their agency and agenda more important than doing what the executive has directed. No amount of educated “with lack of adult experience” generation Y types can make this whole mess better. And still after 4 years of war in Iraq, there is still no one person in charge, though an active duty general following orders has been appointed in this name. In the old days, the President was this person.

Add in another chance to reform Congress to better serve our collective will by the 2006 elections, later amplified by the Democrats’ exploitation as exhibited by Speaker Pelosi, and it seems as American business as usual … just a new charlatan and liar. What a wasted opportunity.

Assuming any President, including our present President, can’t be an expert in every area, one expects him to appoint one person in charge in major areas such as Defense, Health, and Homeland Defense. In the old days, they were Secretaries. Maybe even make Iraq a separate category since each President has his own methods. But one also expects him to “knock heads” if what ever he decides doesn’t work together to accomplish the mission.

This is making federal bureaucracy work better than it seems to be doing today. Secretaries can be selected that naturally work together, and knock heads in their own turfs. In absence of this old style method, the Country needs a President who can “knocks heads” when need be. This type of person is not from any particular political party, or even an independent. This person is a National Interest driven patriot with competence.

We’ve got enough Americans who have failed us doing their bit. Nothing personal. But our Country’s future is at stake.