Nailing the Paper Tiger

Paper Tiger define: The nature of a person or organization that appears powerful but is actually powerless and ineffectual -“he reminded Mao that the Paper Tiger has Nuclear Teeth.” Wordweb

Today there are many who use the phrase ‘Paper Tiger’. Wordweb above gives the definition as something or someone who appears powerful but is actually powerless and ineffective. According to that description I could say that the US Congress is certainly in the running for the Paper Tiger of the decade. Of course, this is where people will tend to blame either Republican or Democrat according to their own party line favorite. This is the one thing that Americans have in excess. That is politics. As a matter of fact our favorite pastime is Politics. This being the season of another election I have to go through multitudes of diatribes from people seeking office. Every one of them promising something and blaming the other for things, they did wrong.

Moreover, if we look at the congress on the national level with their results answer me this. What have our politicians done lately that really mattered? Can you tell me any legislation that will make a lasting difference? I can certainly note one thing yet to be taken care of. The immigration issues have not been solved. Along with this is the border security. While we are at it, lets toss in those suitcase nuc’s that disappeared from Russia’s arsenal along time ago. The other night on Fox news they showed a guy on an elephant crossing the border from Mexico into the USA. If they can do that, then what are the chances the suitcase nuc’s made it across?

Furthermore, the ‘Paper Tiger’ phrase is not just applied to our congress. Most recently H. Tomas Hayden mentioned it in his article “US, A Paper Tiger” on Military.com. A former high-ranking military man, Hayden said that “the Iranians must think that the USA is a paper tiger”. This is due to the fact that the Iranians keep pushing and America can seem to do nothing about it. In another Paper Tiger episode a Washington Times Op-ed piece titled “Paper Tiger” made the inference to Israel when they said “Due to political indecision and ineffective military policies, Israel failed to perform as expected”. Still, another Paper Tiger can be seen in the United Nations in their efforts to resolve crisis around the world. Most recently we find North Korea in the news. The North Koreans can relate to Iran. No matter what America or the UN seems to do, the North Koreans still move ahead as they please. From their point of view, the Korean war is still going on. From America’s standpoint, the war ended long ago. The difference in opinions is what stands in the way of resolving the issue. Thus, we find ‘Paper Tiger’ again. This time, for the inability to really solve issues. While America or the UN seem strong and the ‘most powerful’ of all governing bodies. In fact, they are as a ‘Paper Tiger’ with little ability to resolve the issues permanently.

Moving forward geo-politically by nailing the Paper Tiger. The only way to nail the ‘Paper Tiger’ is to solve the issue. If we move forward with actions that bring results, then we can see less ‘Paper Tiger’ episodes. We must pass resolutions in the United Nations with a political reality that gets results? In the same token, why even have sessions of congress in America if it cannot take care of emergencies like the Border security and immigration issues? We need to move forward by getting rid of all the double-speak and posturing that goes on. Now moving forward to solve issues or to Nail the Paper Tiger, doesn’t mean to go to war all the time. We cannot solve issues by merely killing people. We cannot make all nations a democracy like ours. Nor can we force them to be free and open societies like ours. So too, our congress needs to build itself into a machine that doesn’t posture, pay off big contributors by legislative action, or pour efforts into pork barrel add-ons. Congress and the President must work together or we will find ourselves in a worse situation.

There is no doubt the political situation in the world is unsettling. There are many ‘Paper Tigers’ in the world. The situation that should worry us is when our nation and its children are facing so many enemies. At no time in history has it been so important to retain our own security, safety, and morals. We must stand up at this time and understand how we are seen in the world and why. Nailing the ‘Paper Tiger’ is the most important thing we can do.