The Politics of Containment Will No Longer Work

Our leaders, and nation as a whole, could stand to follow the ways of physicians who believe in practicing a preventative approach when dealing with potential problems. Unfortunately, we increasingly see and evaluate leadership in terms of crisis management. All too often, the first goal of leaders is to get reelected. This results in them lulling us into a false sense of security and focuses their energies on containing problems rather than trying to prevent them in the first place. It is why today we have serious concerns facing us in the forms of Ebola, a serious water shortage, ISIS, and whether or not our own president is adequately protected.

In 1976, the first Ebola outbreak was recorded along the Ebola River in Africa and struck 318 people, killing 280. At the time, we learned this was a new and very deadly virus and breathed a sigh of relief that is was contained to a small portion of Africa.

There have since been other Ebola outbreaks, each striking primarily western Africa. In 1995, Ebola hit another 315 people and killed 254 in the process. Since the new millennium, there have been at least seven other Ebola outbreaks resulting in a death rate of over 75 percent. While each has been contained to the African continent, these outbreaks have always resulted in the worry of whether or not it might reach the United States.

Unfortunately, since the initial outbreak in 1976, not much has been done to combat the virus beyond keeping it from spreading. By identifying and isolating its victims, we have spent 38 years trying to contain it without making much progress in treating it. When you compare this to the progress made in fighting AIDS over the same period, you begin to see just how little progress has been made since 1976.

Some will argue that in 1976 we did not know enough about Ebola to do anything about it. What they fail to grasp is we knew enough about viruses at that time to know they could not be contained and they would eventually spread. That knowledge alone was enough to jump start our fight against AIDS. But because Ebola was contained in Africa, there was no urgency to combat it at the time.

However, now that Ebola has reached the United States and current estimates predict well over one million people world wide will die from this current outbreak, we now have a crisis on our hands. The fact that we waited nearly forty years to view it this way should outrage anyone who contracts Ebola or has a loved one who falls ill from it.

That the first Ebola outbreak happened at about the same time Americans faced an oil crisis at home resulting in gas shortages is more than just a coincidence. Today, we have made little progress on our crude oil dependency and continue to find ourselves at the mercy of oil producing nations for our energy needs. Little progress has been made in weaning ourselves from foreign supplied energy and if, or when, another oil crisis strikes, we are ill prepared to deal with it.

Today, in California, we are also in the midst of a horrible drought and water shortages are now at a crisis level. In 1976, when Ebola first broke out, our state was experiencing a terrible drought. Like today, wells dried up, agriculture suffered, lawns turned brown, and showering became a luxury. Unfortunately, since the end of that drought, and subsequent droughts that have followed, California has failed to keep pace with its population growth so today we are suffering through another water crisis.

Too often, state leaders tell us there was just no way to predict such a drought. The fact we have been able to trace a history of previous droughts, predict population growth, and estimate our future water needs seems irrelevant to them. Nor is it a fault of anyone that we have failed to build sufficient sources of back up water supplies or gray water collection systems to help meet our growing needs. We have; however, been able to find the funds to build an unneeded bullet train at the cost of billions of tax payers dollars even though it will never irrigate an inch of parched land.

Then there is ISIS. No, they were not around when Ebola first arrived in 1976. However, terrorism in the Middle East was and again, we chose containment over prevention. We learned nothing from the tragedy of the Munich Olympics in 1972 when terrorists murdered members of the Israeli Olympic team. Subsequent terrorist attacks that resulted in planes shot down, American hostages taken, and a failed attempt to bring down the twin towers by Al-Qaeda in the 1990's failed to wake us up. The attacks of 9/11 placed us in two wars and we all rejoiced when Bin Laden was hunted down and killed only to see our president take the view that ISIS was nothing more than a JV team.

The fact we continually practice the politics of containment, also known as the politics of dodging bullets, when we know it only leads to one crisis after another is inexcusable. And yet the very leaders who help cause these crisis' pat themselves on the backs for how well they handled them rather than doing what was needed to prevent them in the first place.

Next month marks 51 years since the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In that time, there have been two close assassination attempts made on Gerald Ford and another one that nearly cost us the life of Ronald Reagan. We have also seen numerous White House fence jumpers in the past but only until the most recent one made his way into the White House East Room that we have started to question the security of our president.

We can no longer afford to simply look at our problems and seek to merely contain the damage done by them. Containment only leads to larger crisis' down the road.

It is time we begin practicing preventative politics. In the long term, this is a much healthier approach because it requires forward thinking, proactive solutions, and most of all, leaders who seek to leave a positive lasting legacy for all the people rather than creating leaders who seek to do as little as possible.

Preventive politics would have resulted in a much better prepared medical plan to combat Ebola today. It would continue to keep it on the African continent by already having developed vaccines as a result of nearly 40 years of research and medical breakthroughs.

Preventative politics would have placed our nation on the fore front of alternative energy today and provided much needed jobs for Americans. It would no longer link our economy to the price of crude oil in the Middle East and give us more international political and economic leverage than we currently have.

Preventative politics would have resulted in scores of back up water construction projects throughout our state and resulted in plentiful jobs rather than seeing the Golden State become a welfare state. The central valley would not be a modern day dust bowl and all of California would enjoy plentiful water as we weather another drought.

Preventative politics would see us one step ahead of terrorists rather than scrambling to play catch up. It would see more people working at jobs to protect our borders, airports, embassies, and overseas interests rather than seeing the political finger pointing that goes on today.

Most of all, the politics of prevention would see cooperation between political parties which is far healthier than the politics we currently see played out. The politics of prevention is based on a premise that the best politics is looking out for our future rather than placing blame on the past.

Just like with the human body, our country is better served when it practices preventive care. It requires we demand whoever we vote for places their ego at the door and work with the opposition party rather than merely setting out to block their political progress.

We have tried containment long enough and look at where we are today. Perhaps it is time to rethink this failed approach and consider what we can accomplish through healthier means.