CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, July 19, 2010

Obama and the Tale of the Trojan Horse

During the presidential campaign of 2008, this writer never thought Barak Hussein Obama or John Sidney McCain were “Manchurian Candidates” in the sense of John Condon’s 1959 novel. Recall, The Manchurian Candidate was about an American POW being brainwashed to be a sleeper agent for the purpose of clearing the way for a covert communist to become President of the United States.

Granted, McCain did spend over five years in a communist prison camp. Granted, Obama was mentored (according to his own words and associations) by the communists: Frank Davis and Saul Alinsky; by the Pentagon bomber, William Ayers; and by the race-baiting, America-hating, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

While McCain’s post Hanoi-Hilton behavior may seem goofy to some, he remains intensely patriotic. The better analogy for Mr. Obama comes from Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian Barbara W. Tuchman’s non-fiction work: The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam. She ponders how supposedly rational men can make irrational decisions despite obvious evidence that they are about to do something really stupid.

Mrs. Tuchman wrote: “All human experience is in the tale of Troy, first put into epic form by Homer [No, not Simpson] who lived between 850 and 800 B.C.” The Trojan Horse gained entrance to the Fortress of Troy because the opinion leaders of Troy (read today’s mainstream media) decided, out of fear of offending the Gods of cultural correctness, to dismantle Troy’s main gate and roll the Greek gift-horse inside.

During the night, the Trojans, thinking they had beaten the Greeks and were free to spend their Bill Clinton-like “peace dividend” on wine, women and song, were slaughtered by 30 Athenian Special Forces-types who were hidden inside the Trojan Horse. Also, there was the usual “mole,” who signaled the Greek Army to come back to Troy and join in the slaughter.

By analogy, Obama plays the role of the Greek general who devised the Trojan Horse. His Special Forces are the 30 or so key appointees who are helping Obama spend the nation into unsustainable debt. Also, there were those who read Candidate Obama’s two autobiographies and recognized the Marxist-Leninist belief system of Candidate Obama’s mentors. They argued it would be folly to allow Candidate Obama (mostly, on the basis of political/racial correctness), to roll his entourage through the gates of the White House. Like Cassandra, they were not believed.

In his 1964 book, From Colonialism to Communism, former North Vietnamese communist official, Huong Van Chi, revealed how Ho Chi Minh (after exterminating the upper class that had “collaborated” with French colonialism), saddled the remaining common folk with crushing debt, making them beholden to and fearful of the central communist regime. Those who resisted the confiscation of their land, via Uncle Ho’s heavy taxation, were made to confess theirs “crimes” and executed.

Today’s massive federal debt and the redistribution of wealth via taxes that will hit after January 1, 2011, could be analogous to what happened to the people of North Vietnam. The good news is: much of the Obamessiahs’ socialization of medicine and commerce can be reversed by legislation. The bad news is: the massive debt already incurred cannot be undone by congressional action.

Those who bought our trillions of dollars of debt (largely, the Red Chinese in the form of U.S. Bonds and U.S. Treasury Bills) can rightfully demand full payment. But the U.S does not have the money to cover its indebtedness to foreign powers and/or to private investors unless it confiscates the money from its citizens in the form of higher taxes. Unlike U.S. Bonds or U.S. Treasury Bills, taxes do not have to be paid back. The party in power simply takes them.

What happens if the U.S cannot honor its debt and declares bankruptcy? The entire international monetary system collapses. Maybe we would be happier just watching Homer Simpson.

Syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, studied at Harvard’s JFK School of Government. Dr. Hamilton is a former assistant professor of political science and history at Nebraska Wesleyan University.

©2010 William Hamilton.

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com