How Did America Become A Paper Tiger?

Paper Tiger definition: n, nation, etc., that has the appearance of power but is actually weak and ineffectual.

That description perfectly describes our country today. Global chaos reigns today, Nations are crumbling, others are going bankrupt, radical Islamists are waging deadly battles and instead of facing these dire developments, this administration, that represents the world's remaining super power, blusters and throws out empty threats to hostile forces. It first establishes a red line that Syria must cross before we take action and when that line was crossed, it simply redefined the red line.

One of our ambassadors and three others State employees are brutally murdered and the White House stonewalls all inquiries and calls reasonable questions about the incident political posturing by Republicans. We suffer a devastating homeland attack in Boston, the first since 9/11/2001 and later learn how preventable it was if we had a Homeland Security Agency and an FBI that actually did their jobs. How did this great nation get to such a level of governmental incompetence and spinelessness?

It's understandable that the nation's paranoia level is ratcheting up dramatically.

People are heading for the hills because they feel that there are puppet masters controlling their lives and taking away their freedoms and the means to defend themselves. They point to the secrecy of the Bilderberg Group - that meets annually at a billionaires' lair to perhaps plot global incidents. They watch films like 'Zeitgeist' that documents conspiracy theory-based ideas from the crucifixion to 9/11 and nod their heads in agreement that someone is pulling strings. Best selling novels about The Illuminati, the Masons, the Skull and Bones and other groups feed the mistrust. Those not inclined to take up survival options cave in to their despair and the suicide rate is at an old-time high.

I do not share their suspicions but I can't dismiss the fact that there are people making billions off the disorder around the world and it's not whom we're being led to believe is responsible. It's become routine to blame the oil companies and evil corporations for most of the machinations behind the world turmoil but the only way to unveil the real villains is to follow the money. It's not George Bush. He may be wealthy but he's no billionaire.

When crises erupt around the world, stock markets crash but the cunning somehow bet short and make billions. Either they are omniscient or somehow manipulating the crisis. It takes money to buy arms, explosives, travel documents, airplane tickets, identities and other resources to foment violence and overturn stable governments. It takes money to finance campaigns to place compliant politicians in office that will pass legislation to benefit their sponsors.

Mr. Smith went to Washington and found that the long termers in Congress stayed there thanks to big money. It takes money to pay big salaries to media personalities who distort the news or simply ignore news that the public needs to know for its own national security.

Jay Leno used to have a segment on the Tonight Show that spotlighted the ignorance of college students who didn't know simple facts, e.g. "Who's the Vice President of the U.S.?" I wish he would ask them whether they know what happened in Benghazi or "What is the 'Fast and Furious' scandal"? Meanwhile our president is in Mexico trashing his government with this statement: "most of the guns used to commit violence here in Mexico come from the United States." Not only is this not true, he failed to mention that some of those guns came from our own ATF and the Department of Justice in the 'Fast and Furious' scheme which failed to track the guns it gave to drug smugglers.

We have an Attorney General, Eric Holder, who may well be the worst one in our history due to his failure to respect the Constitution. He's been quoted as saying that "people need to be brainwashed into thinking negatively about guns." Forget about the Second Amendment, folks, while he's in charge.

We had a former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who's being groomed to run for president who neglected to provide good security for the consulates in the Middle East in spite of having been warned of potential danger on 9/11/2012. Rumors claim that the Libyan militia group that the State Department hired to defend its embattled diplomatic mission in Benghazi had clear al-Qaida sympathies, and had prominently displayed the al-Qaida flag on a Facebook page for months before the deadly attack.

Sounds unbelievable but don't expect to get a straight answer from the White House.

Sharp questions at a press briefing annoyed Obama spokesman, Jay Carney, who expressed how tiresome these queries are when he said, "Benghazi happened a long time ago." For the past eight months survivors of the Benghazi attack have not been able to tell their story. Why? Because it conflicts with the original tripe the White House threw out about an anti-Muslim video causing the attack when it knew full well it was Al Qaeda related.

Fast forward to the Boston marathon bombings that killed three people, wounded and mutilated hundreds and we learn that the bombers were on a terrorist watch list which apparently means nothing if you're on an FBI protected group - the Muslims. Our most important law enforcement institution has been radicalized but no one in Congress cares except a few Republicans and they don't count.

We have a Vice President who seems to have trouble remembering if he's a Veep or the Prez or what city he's in; a president who doesn't appear to be all that concerned about red lines, WMDs, the economy, but does know how to croon an Al Green tune. We have the secretary of Homeland Security who regards domestic terrorists more of a threat to us than foreign jihadists. Yet she acknowledged to a Senate panel Tuesday that her department was aware of Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev's trip to Russia in 2012. The FBI lost track of him because his name was misspelled on a flight manifest.

Who puts these people in office? Not me. I vote for a person based on his/her record and competence regardless of party affiliation. However, there is a large segment of voters who insist that they will never vote for a Republican because the Democrats are for the people and the Republicans are evil who only care about making money. Who put that chip in their brains? Who passed out the Kool-Aid?

I do not despair because while there might very well be godless billionaires responsible for some of the world's disharmony, we live in a country blessed by God with a Constitution that if upheld can help us survive all attacks. There are also God-fearing billionaires that love this country and will use their resources to save it.

Is it any wonder that half the staff of the LA Times threatened to quit if the ultra-conservative, tea party funders, the Koch brothers, succeed in buying the paper and seven others including the Chicago Tribune? These reporters and the unions, both wings of the Democrat Party, are terrified of losing their power to brainwash the public.

Conspiracy buffs need to cherish and desire the unvarnished truth not feed into the deliberate fear-mongering by the mainstream media. Their goal is to stifle informed participation in creating good government by the election of worthy representatives.

It is to all our benefit that we utilize the tools our Founding Fathers gave us to repair our broken government and replace this paper tiger for a real one with teeth.

Alicia Colon resides in New York City and can be reached at aliciav.colon@gmail.com and at www.aliciacolon.com