For Jim Webb, Now is the Perfect "Time to Fight!"

First, I'd like to say how happy I am that we have someone like Jim Webb in the U.S. Senate at this time in our nation's history.  I'd also like to say thank you to Jim Webb for stepping up in 2006, thank you to all the volunteers who formed his "rag tag army," and thank you to the excellent and vastly underrated Webb campaign team that helped elect him. Without all that, we'd still have Senator Allen, and we certainly wouldn't have this most excellent book.

Now, the book. As expected, it's very well written, engaging, smart, erudite, forceful, and ready to rumble.  Can Jim Webb do things any other way?  :)  What's the book about, you might ask? It's kind of a mix -- some about his time in Vietnam, some about his campaign against George Allen and its despicable "Karl Rove politics," some about his ancestors, and a lot about his ideas on why we don't currently live in a "fair and just America," and how to get there.

Webb starts by talking about how honored he is to be in the U.S. Senate with 99 other "scorpions in a jar."  While acknowledging that "one should be very careful in deciding how and when to shake that jar," Webb also concluded, "The jar needs to be shaken." And, lucky for us, Webb's just the one to do the shaking! :)

In all seriousness - and this book is nothing if not deadly serious - Webb believes our country is in serious jeopardy and that it's time for a change, big time.  For those who believe that our constitution will be sufficient to protect us, Webb lays out a sobering case that the founding fathers -- as wise as they were -- could not foresee many of the developments, such as the rise of a permanent standing army and military-industrial complex, that threaten our nation today.  
Thus, in Webb's view, the constitution is a "living document," created by "people who represented the propertied interests of our country" at a time when cell phones, the internet, ICBM's, genetic engineering, leveraged buyouts, and much else that shapes our modern world was barely dreamed of.  As Webb writes, the "founding fathers had no sure way to predict the evolution and modernization of our society," which is why it's up to our leaders in all three branches of government to address the issues of the day.  So much for "framer's intent;" the fact is, on many issues relevant to today's world, the framers simply had no idea.

By the way, before I go any further: for those who claim that Webb is a "single-issue Senator" or whatever, this book should put that nonsense to rest once and for all.  Sure, Jim Webb is concerned about military, national security, foreign policy and veterans' issues (do all those count as "single issue," by the way? I don't THINK so!).  But if anything, this book strongly indicates that Webb cares as much or more about economic fairness and social justice issues, ranging from the "risk of developing a permanent underclass" to the risk that "without a true sense of societal fairness, the America we have created would in a short time unravel and disappear."

With regard to economic fairness and social justice, a few phrases really jumped out at me from Webb's book.

*"Today, our workers are at the mercy of cutthroat executives who are vastly overpaid.."

*"[A] huge portion of black America is still in crisis"

*"But what if there came a time when the country was divided so deeply along class lines that the very notions that we have come to accept as premises for our society were in jeopardy?"

*"[T]he American business community's lack of a sense of stewardship toward American workers is tearing apart the fabric of America as we have always defined her."

*"No aristocracy in history has decided to give up any portion of its power willingly."

*"If the Democratic Party was not going to insist on protecting the economic well-being of our workers, then who would?"

That's just a sampling, in order to give you a flavor of the type of language Webb uses in his book. In short, Webb calls 'em like he sees 'em, in all their beauty and all their ugliness (as Webb might say), and sometimes it's uncomfortable. But who ever said that shaking a jar of scorpions WOULD be comfortable?

Not surprisingly, some of the bluntest language Webb uses in the book relates to the war in Iraq in particular, and to our national security/foreign policy situation in general.  Take this, for instance:

The Bush Administration has been characterized by an adoration of the military option on the one hand and a lack of adroit diplomacy on the other.  In the international arena, its policies toward adversaries, real and potential, has bordered on adolescent behavior, but with grave, adult-world consequences.

Webb argues that "there can be no greater guarantee of long-term instability than for the Americans to remain in Iraq."  He says that the American people and Congress were "manipulated by the administration in a blatant power grab" from "the days just after the 9/11 attacks." He rips into the system of "mercenary soldiers" who operate in Iraq with no accountability for criminal behavior.  And, he concludes, the failure to deal with this situation "falls somewhere between incompetence and actionable negligence."

The book proceeds along these lines, including strong swipes at both major political parties on the economy, military, foreign policy, "tough on crime" policies, pretty much everything.  Webb saves some of his strongest venom, however, for his former party:

It is now the Republican Party that populated the Defense Department with a cast of unseemly true believers who propelled America into an unnecessary and strategically unsound war; the Republican Party that persisted in distorting the integrity of the military's officer corps by rewarding sycophancy and punishing honesty; the Republican Party that continually seeks to politicize military service for its own ends even as it uses their sacrifices as a political shielf against criticism for its failed policies.  And in that sense, it is now the Republican Party that most glaringly does not understand the true nature of military service.

Coming from Ronald Reagan's former Navy Secretary,  that's tough stuff right there. Of course, Republicans will attempt to write it off, probably by more "Karl Rove tactics" against Jim Webb, but the fact is, Webb is right and deep down they know it.

Finally, on another subject, Webb discusses an America that "has gone completely jail-happy," one in which "African Americans, who make up about 12 percent of our society, comprise more than half of all our prison inmates" -- largely for drug offenses.  On that last point, Webb says point blank that "the hugely expensive antidrug campaigns we are waging around the world are basically futile," that drug addiction "is a medical condition" that needs to be treated medically not criminally, and that "The time has come to stop locking up people for mere possession and use of marijuana."  Of course, it's hard to say these things if you're a politician, and Webb is well aware that the phrase "soft on crime" can "ruin one's reelection chances."  

Yet Webb speaks out anyway. And thank goodness he does, because conversations like these are sorely needed in this country, as are some serious, fundamental changes in the way we do business in a wide variety of areas.  As Webb writes, "[o]ur country is in the middle of a profound, many-headed crisis" which can be summarized as "Rome is slowly burning."  

Unfortunately, "[t]hose who do not want significant reform enjoy the emotional arguments that occupy untold hours of political commentary while keeping our citizens distracted from the issues that truly threaten our future."

Fortunately, we have Jim Webb in the Senate, ready to "get past these artificialities and focus on the long-term good of our country."  The question is, who will join him?

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