America; a Country That Lost its Moral and Ethical Compass!

Mr. Barack Obama, may God/Allah (oops, did I say Allah, sorry) and all deities help you and guide you. You need all of the help you can get, as you assume the leadership of the US on January 20th, 2009. Not only you are taking the helm of a country on the edge of financial and economic collapse but you also taking over a country that after 8 years of George W. Bush and 35 years of the “Right Nation” has lost its ethical and moral compass.

I am sure you and millions of Americans and hundred of millions around the world are mindful and understand the collapse of Wall Street and the entire financial sector and the immanent collapse of the American auto industry and soon the collapse of the credit cards industry are not a result of economic and market conditions as we are led by our business and financial leaders and but as a direct result of business and political leaders losing their ethical and moral compass.

The collapse of the mortgage industry has nothing to do with market conditions and economics. It has every thing to do with the greed, incompetence and absence of moral values and business ethics. Wall Street and executives of both Fannie and Freddie sought to maximize short term profits for themselves and their shareholders while pushing for and promoting predatory lending and sub-prime and marketing “products” that are nothing but trash, knowing well this practice is nothing more than “bonzy” scheme and will soon collapse. Wall Street in its greed was coming up with more and more risky financial instruments and products that with the blessing of the Federal Reserve and Congressional leadership contributed directly to the collapse of the market. Yet because Wall Street and the entire mortgage industry have no scruples went ahead, only to leave tax payers hold the bag. If in fact these executives were following the market rules and proper business practice none of this would have happened.

No one can convince me and the American public those executives at US automotive industry not only failed to learn from the energy crisis of the early seventies, but did not know the consequences of building poor quality cars that rattles and break down often. The same is true of failing to understand the consequences of an ever expanding and costlier network of dealership and having too many models and too many divisions. Any idiot or a fool knows that one could never sustain a business with poor quality product and poor service. Even the Chinese who are new at market conditions knew this when they executed the man in charge of quality control for export. I never know what these executives where doing while getting paid tens of millions in compensations?

It is too bad that America’s business leaders are trying to justify their ethical and moral laps by putting the blame on market and market conditions. They were and are getting paid tens of millions to think of market conditions and changing economies and to plan for it, yet their greed and lack of business scruples blinded the reality of what is out there and their lack of any business ethics contributed to the collapse of companies they manage and ran. $50 Billions simply did not disappear because Bernard Madoff was doing the right job for his clients. This has noting to do with market conditions, but it has every thing to do with being a crook and the absence of an honest and good cop.

As we look beyond Wall Street and the auto industry, and look at our own government and how it operates, and look at our Congress and how it operates, we see the absence of moral and ethical practices and values every where we turn around. It is no accident that over $10 Billions of “unfinished “contracts are out there within the Department of Home Land Security. It is no accident that over $10 Billions simply disappeared or wasted in the aftermath of Katrina. It is no wonder that over $100 Billion, yes over $100 Billions wasted, lost or disappeared on the reconstruction of Iraq. Tens of billions of dollars were fleeced from the Pentagon budget. These things do not happen because of bad market conditions. They happen because someone responsible out there did not do their job right. It happened because the contractor was less than honest. It happens because our government under George Bush not only nurtured incompetence but nurtured corruptions and lies as well. Bush and his now discredit NeoCons lied all the way to Baghdad.

It is not an accident that our political leaders from the guy occupying the White House to the leaders of the Justice Department and Defense Department think and believe harsh interrogation measures, torture, subcontract tortures to Middle East countries, indefinite detention, denial of rights to counsel is Ok and morally and legally right and part of our American values. It is not an accident that our president with the consent and approval of Congress think it is Ok to spy on people and invade their privacy without strict control and supervisions of an independent judiciary. It is not an accident that our government and our congressional leaders think it is OK to pass legislation that targets certain ethnic and religious group and actively engage in racial profiling and call it of all things the “Patriot Act”. These things happens because our political leaders from the Oval Office to the lone soldier in Abu-Greib thought it was Ok to do all of these things under our new and revised standard of morality and ethics of the “Right Nation”. Donald Rumsfeld thought there was nothing wrong with the looting the Iraqi museums and ministries immediately with the arrival of our troops in Baghdad even made fun of it.

It is not no accident that we not only we murder hundreds of thousands in our wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, and murder over 4,300 of our finest men and women, but waste some $700 billions of our hard earned tax dollars and simply say’ mistakes were made” and the “the war was not managed right”. Because those who are in charge have lied, have no scruples and no sense of honesty and decency and have lost their moral and ethical compass. And worse no one is held accountable for these moral and ethical lapses let alone for their incompetence and stupidity. Some even earned the highest honors by our nation.


Every where we go in every town and every city, there is a contractor, some business executives, some lobbyist is cheating and engaging in briberies, breach of trust, that some government official or elected official is taking bribes and overlooking the fleecing of government and tax payers. We have become nations of thieves and crooks.


However putting the country back on the right economic track is easy compared to putting the country, our business executives, and our political leaders back on the right track of moral and ethical standards is not that easy. This will require more than just simply throwing money, and more debt money on the problem. It requires presidential leadership setting the standards for moral and ethical values at every level of government. Every one in America must be re-educated and re-introduced to the basic American values and ethics that made this country a great nation. The damage done by George Bush and the “Right Nation” will take a long a time to repair and heal.


All of these things happened not by accident but by design, deliberate design. Total failure by our business and political leaders to put a standard, a reference of moral and ethical values and incorporate it in all business and political decisions. Yes, Mr. Obama you will need all of the help you can get from all of the gods out there including Allah. Our nation is not only in economic ruins, but lost its moral and ethical compass.

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Special Note: I hope that invoking the word “Allah” in this posting does not rattle the minds and provoke the anger of Michael Chertoff, Michael B. Mukasey and the Islamophobists Steve Emerson, and Daniel Pipes.