Alas, it appears the “guillotine” (Fareed Zakaria) is already falling.  Not because of wrong-doing on the part of the current administration, but because some abysmally irresponsible members of the Republican Party created a “debt-ceiling crisis.”

When President Bill Clinton left office, there was a surplus.  However, a Republican administration filled the pockets of the rich, created two wars that impoverished the United States, and, as though this degree of harm did not suffice, elected officials have chosen to make America a colony:  a colony to its creditors.

Ladies and Gentlemen, if you do not send to “boot camp” those Republicans who dallied as the ship sank, expect trials and tribulations.

I fully endorse Lt. General Russel L. Honoré’s critique (CNN, August 2nd, 2011.)  The United States are “at risk” because their “elected leaders don’t share a common purpose.”  I am sure that opinion is not solely that of Russel L. Honoré.

This is the worst of scenarios.  The country is at war with itself.  As Fareed Zakaria commented, the US will have to curb its defence budget, but it will need soldiers to protect America from within.  The men and women who were willing to put their life and limbs at risk while serving their country are far more precious to America than dithering Republicans who cannot see the consequences of dallying on raising a debt ceiling that had to be raised.

So we have gone from a “Nero-played-the-violin-as-Rome-burned” scenario to the more ominous “let-them-eat-cake” narrative.  The United States are on the brink of a recession and elected leaders misled them all the way there.

President Obama had spelled out the programme: caring for the sick, improving the diet of Americans, improving education, improving public transportation:  fast commuter trains, bringing back jobs to America, eradicating poverty, cleaning the environment, returning former homeowners to the home they lost, saving the middle-class.  The United States were on the right track, a track that would require an army of workers and healthy leadership.

America has President Obama, the best possible leader, and it has great minds galore.  It also has Russel L. Honoré who is advocating that the nation put on “troop planes” and send to Camp Shelby, Mississipi, those elected officials who would have their constituents “eat cake” and have also destabilized world markets.

My fear is that such mindless leaders are probably impervious to any form of instruction.