Operation Market Garden was an attempt during the Second World War on the part of General Montgomery to find a deep water port in Holland for supplies for the advancing armies against the Germans. Supply routes were still coming from the beaches of Normandy and although they were performing above expectations, bad weather was settling in which threatened any advances on the part of the Allies. It was thought that if Holland could be recaptured the ports in that country could be utilized and then crossing over into Northern Germany would then allow the Allied Armies to travel into Germany and end the war by Christmas.
This was to be accomplished by a series of bridges that were to be captured by the largest Airborne assault of the war, perhaps ever or so it was at the time. The Bridges would be held by Airborne infantry, and then regular infantry units would follow thru, and pick up the Airborne troops, and proceed into Holland and defeat what was a weakened German Army, and onward into Germany.
The operation was a complete failure and a retreat had to be ordered. The German troops were much stronger than had been anticipated by the Allies, and the link up with regular infantry never took place. Montgomery had high hopes for this operation, and it brought into question his ability to lead and plan successful full scale operations of this magnitude.
President Obama visited Detroit yesterday for the Labor Day Holiday, and speaking to a crowd of thousands gave some insight into his speech that will be made to the nation on Thursday, and as I had predicated before, he talked about jobs, well..... public works jobs. In particular he made references to roads and bridges that he would like to propose spending money on. Money he does not have, nor can he obtain. His jobs programs are the same old tired worn out statist ideas, that go back to the " public works" projects Hitler proposed to the German people during the early 1930's. Hitler ( as the president currently is ) was devoid of any real economic education, although the Nazi Party had within it's party platform economic ideas, they were based on the statist notion of public works projects, funded by deficit spending, just as the President is proposing to the Nation today. There are certainly roads that need repair, and I am sure bridges that need repaired, but make work projects do not satisfy the market enough to provide real goods and services that are necessary for getting the economy going. It will make it worse. History has already proven the failures of this approach to economic downturns, from Mussolini, to Hitler, Roosevelt all the Centralist politicians pursuing the same platform, and for the same reason, tend to admire each others ignorance, however in the meantime, the average person suffers from the failed policies. We would be wise to overturn, and demand the end to such policies as a people.
The United States Government can no more predict the needs, or more importantly the wants of the individual consumer, and creating more debt to Foreign governments for public works projects " for there own sake " is extremely foolish, and dangerous to the Republic. Those debts at some point will have to be repaid, more than likely with devalued dollars, making the cost of living even more difficult for the citizens in later generations who will have to face those debts. There is no pump priming being done because we order more steel ( already in a shortage on the world market, that is why steel scrap prices are so high today ) or concrete. Those bridges and roads are going to have to be maintained, and the States, and Federal Government are not able to maintain what they have today, so building another bridge to no where in Alaska is not the best way to spend the public treasury, even though the intent is a good one. I too want to see more people able to work. This is not the way to do it, it is a method employed by some one who has no idea of What does make an economy work, that is the sad part, besides since when did a President have the power to do anything about the economy ? Other that is, than to misallocate the resources of the consumers desires, and insist on easy credit, and low interest rates which do nothing but disrupt the business cycle.
Let the President make his speech, it will amount to nothing more than a campaign speech anyway. He can have his night on television, and then we the people can get to work in demanding that Congress not spend more on public works for just the sake of doing so, and demand a cut in the spending in Washington. Anything else will just lead to more disaster for all of us.
