What Is American Federalism Essay Example for Free

What Is American Federalism Essay According to Dye (2011), nations are not truly federal unless both national and subnational governments exercise separate and autonomous authority, both elect their own officials, and both tax their own citizens for the provision of public services (p. 263). American Federalism is just that. In the United States each state has their own government with elected officials, to go even further each town within these states also have their own elected officials. These officials govern these areas the way they see fit, however they each fall under the national government. Dye (2011) goes on to say that federalism requires the powers of the national and subnational governments to be guaranteed by a constitution that cannot be changed without the consent of both national and subnational populations (p. 263), this also is apparent in the United States as well. The founding fathers brought forth this federalist way in order to prevent one entity from having too much power, which in turn would allow the elites to rule over those less privileged and in turn them never having a voice. W/C: 176 When should we use Military Force? A President has a hard decision when it comes to deciding whether or not to use military force. When sending the military into any combat area lives are placed immediately at risk, those soldiers are ready and willing to defend their country however the President must be able to explain why the military is needed and justify why we have suffered wounded and lost lives. (Dye, 2011, p. 289) When deciding whether or not to use military force the president must consider several things. Is the use of military force going to protect vital interests? Does the President have the support of the American people and those in Congress? Is this force in support of important political objectives and lastly is this force in support of the war on terrorism? The commitment of US military force should be a last resort, after political, economic, and diplomatic efforts have been proven ineffective (Dye, 2011, p. 289). W/C: 153 What went wrong in Iraq? According to Dye (2011), The war in Iraq was a preemptive strike against terrorism, consistent with the declarations of the Bush administration about the necessity of fighting terrorists on their own ground rather than on American soil (p. 297). One of the biggest things that went wrong in Iraq was the limited number of troops originally sent in. The reason behind this was due in part to the vision of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to have a lean military force. (Dye, 2011, p. 97) Although the initial wave was able to take over and capture Baghdad, it was not enough to keep the are safe and free from insurgents. With the insurgents on the move the American military force was spread thin and they were not able to hold the cities they had once taken over. supply lines could not be defended and the insurgents quickly learned to plant IEDs-improvised explosive devices-along routes commonly used by the US troops. More casualties were inflicted by these devices than by any other means; the US did not have enough troops to guard supply routes (Dye, 2011, p. 99). Overall it seemed as though poor planning and lack of a vision from Donald Rumsfeld is what led to what went wrong in Iraq. W/C: 207 How do you fight Terrorism with Intelligence? In order to effectively and efficiently fight Terrorism with Intelligence is to have a strong Intelligence Community (IC) in place. According to Dye (2011), a proactive war on terrorism requires the collection, analysis, and dissemination of relevant foreign and domestic information to federal, state, and local government agencies, and to the American people (p. 13). It is up to the several components that make up the Intelligence Community to do just that, they must work together in order to form a cohesive unit and ensure that any information obtained is utilized in a way that will benefit the American people and US soil. In the world today the President relies on the Director of National Intelligence to coordinate and oversee all the functions within the IC, it is the DNI who reports directly to the president and is a member of the National Security Council, the presidents inner cabinet (Dye, 2011, p. 17). W/C: 151 What does it mean when we say the we are using American Troops for Nation Building? This statement comes along with the planning for postwar Iraq. One of the goals of the war was to uncover weapons of mass destruction, unfortunately these items were never found. During the planning phase for postwar Iraq the US had promised to help restore many things such as water, electricity and roads. Due to the US administrator for Iraq Paul Bremmer these things seemed to be out of reach as he began dismissing the entire Iraqi Army and pursued a policy of dismissing virtually all Iraqi managers and technicians (Dye, 2011, p. 299). Due to all of this the US had no choice to both recruit and train a new Army and police force that would serve Iraq, as well they were obliged to bring in contract workers, managers and technicians from the US to help restore all those things that were promised to the Iraqi people. Although the troops came in to fight a war in the end they were there it seemed to help rebuild the Nation.