David Kaiser, an history scholar --- on 'Where We Are Headed'!

 David Kaiser is a  respected historian whose published works have covered a broad range of  topics, from European Warfare to American League Baseball. Born in 1947,  the son of a diplomat, Kaiser spent his childhood in three capital cities:  Washington D.C. , Albany , New York , and Dakar , Senegal .. He attended  Harvard University , graduating there in 1969 with a B.A. in history. He  then spent several years more at Harvard, gaining a PhD in history, which  he obtained in 1976.. He served in the Army Reserve from 1970 to  1976
   

     He is a professor in  the Strategy and Policy Department of the United States Naval War College  . He has previously taught at Carnegie Mellon, Williams College and  Harvard University . Kaiser's latest book, The Road to Dallas, about the  Kennedy assassination, was just published by Harvard University  Press.
   

     History  Unfolding
     I am a student of  history. Professionally, I have written 15 books on history that have been  published in six languages, and I have studied history all my life. I have  come to think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not  believe it is simply a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit  crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large  gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus..
   

     Something of historic  proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels,  smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect  storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country  that has been evolving for about ten to fifteen years. The pace has  dramatically quickened in the past two.
   

     We demand and then  codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to  people we know they can never pay back? Why?
   

     We learned just days  ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by  anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000)  over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose  the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the  $700 billion we all argued about so strenuously just this past September.  Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to  us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government  of "we the people," who loaned our powers to our elected leaders.  Apparently not.
   

     We have spent two or  more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy... Why?
   

     We have intentionally  dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our  founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth  preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or  articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school  boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?
   

     We have now established  the precedent of protesting every close election (violently in California  over a proposition that is so controversial that it simply wants marriage  to remain defined as between one man and one woman. Did you ever think  such a thing possible just a decade ago?) We have corrupted our sacred  political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that  radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like  ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what  purpose?
   

     Now our mortgage  industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries  are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social  security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire  government.            Our education system is worse  than a joke (I teach college and I know precisely what I am talking about)  - the list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth.. It is  potentially 1929 x  ten...And we are at war with an enemy we cannot  even name for fear of offending people of the same religion, who, in turn,  cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the  opportunity to do so.
   

     And finally, we have  elected a man that no one really knows anything about, who has never run  so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla , Alaska ...  All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their  chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip            by drip, is unsettling if not  downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create  and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for  use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would never play that  for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant  daughter and $150,000 wardrobe are more important.)
   

     Mr.. Obama's winning  platform can be boiled down to one word: Change. Why?
   

     I have never been so  afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.
   

     This man campaigned on  bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his  professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along  philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces  into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And  when it comes, you will never see the same nation again.
   

     And that is only the  beginning..
   

     As a serious student of  history, I thought I would never come to experience what the ordinary,  moral German must have felt in the mid-1930s In those times, the "savior"  was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the  average German knew next to nothing. What they should have known was that  he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around  people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage  through great oratory. Conservative "losers" read it right now.
   

     And there were the  promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a  great speaker. And he smiled and frowned and waved a lot. And people, even  newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts"  would bully and beat them into submission. Which they did - regularly. And  then, he was duly elected to office, while a full-throttled economic  crisis bloomed at hand - the Great Depression. Slowly, but surely he  seized the controls of government power, person by person, department by  department, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The children of German citizens  were at first, encouraged to join a Youth Movement in his name where they  were taught exactly what to think. Later, they were required to do so. No  Jews of course,
   

     How did he get people  on his side? He did it by promising jobs to the jobless, money to the  money-less, and rewards for the military-industrial complex. He did it by  indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all,  better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in  the country, across Europe , and across the world. He did it with a  compliant media - did you know that? And he did this all in the name of  justice and .... . ... change. And the people surely got what they voted  for.
   

     If you think I am  exaggerating, look it up. It's all there in the history books.
   

     So read your history  books. Many people of conscience objected in 1933 and were shouted down,  called names, laughed at, and ridiculed. When Winston Churchill pointed  out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in  England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and  called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though. And the world came to  regret that he was not listened to.
   

     Do not forget that  Germany was the most educated, the most cultured country in Europe . It  was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and  universities. And yet, in less than six years (a shorter time span than  just two terms of the U. S. presidency) it was rounding up its own  citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against  parents, and neighbors against neighbors.. All with the best of  intentions, of course.. The road to Hell is paved with them.
   

     As a practical thinker,  one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either  believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make  me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from  across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my  eyes, having another latte, and ignoring what is transpiring around  me..
   

     I choose to believe the  evidence. No doubt some people will scoff at me, others laugh, or think I  am foolish, naive, or both. To some degree, perhaps I am. But I have never  been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I  believe-and why I believe it.
   

     I pray I am wrong. I do  not think I am. Perhaps the only hope is our vote in the next  elections.
   

     David  Kaiser
     Jamestown , Rhode Island
     United  States        
    
      By passing this along,  perhaps it will help to begin the awakening of America as to where we are  headed.