President Reagan’s Program to Secure U.S. Leadership Indefinitely: Project Socrates

By Ervin Ackman

Michael Sekora, a brilliant physicist and intelligence officer under Ronald Reagan, created and directed Reagan’s Project Socrates to insure US superpower status indefinitely. The story of Project Socrates exposes the best and worst of our government and its leaders. On the one hand are the dedicated, tireless patriots of Team Socrates ushering in the next major leap of humankind, Automated Innovation. On the other side are the government bureaucrats bent on maintaining the status quo at any expense.
Our shift from technology to finance-based planning after WWII has resulted in a slow but quickening decline in competitiveness, the single most important factor in survival, economic growth and prosperity. It would seem obvious given where we are today an almost insurmountable debt, huge trade deficits, industry after industry being lost, scarcity of jobs (and those that are created are lower paying) that what we are doing does not work. It is ironic that the status quo our leadership in all sectors, social, economic and political holds onto is a flawed system driven by finance-based planning. But even though the status quo has not worked for fifty years we continue down that road pushing even harder expecting better results.
Team Socrates built a system capable of exposing and countering competitor strategies enabling us to dominate any market, commercial or military, at will. Adversaries as well as allies quickly became aware of the power of Socrates. Pressures from a few allies, particularly Japan, played a part in ending Socrates as a government program.
Socrates was not just another “cool idea”. Socrates was developed, hostiles vetted it and it was deployed with incredible success to help President Reagan achieve one of his highest priorities, bringing down the Soviet Union. And it was done without firing a shot. Socrates enabled the US to make giant leaps in military and commercial capability with astonishing speed. In the end though, newly elected president, George H. W. Bush immediately scuttled the program and set the US back on track for decline as the sole superpower economically and militarily.
But we are not at the end of the incredible story of Project Socrates, the solution that would propel the US and the world to heights never imagined. Upon leaving the government during the fiasco with President Bush, Sekora continued in the private sector to refine the system that may be our only salvation as China proceeds toward their objective of world domination.
While other countries are working hard to replicate Socrates Automated Innovation, none have succeeded thus far. But Socrates style Automated Innovation will come to pass in the near future and it is absolutely essential that the US leads the Automated Innovation Revolution. If we fail we will be just another second rate country at the mercy of those countries that emerge as leaders.
In every sector of US society, government, industry, capital markets and academia, we seem to be on automatic in a death spiral. Our leaders are vacant of solutions continuing to do those things that caused the problem in the first place and actually speed up the demise. For reasons discussed in this book, our leaders may not be capable of awakening in time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ervin Ackman
• Release date: Oct 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9780615903743

Ervin Ackman

Ervin Ackman is an international business and government advisor specializing in economic growth and competitive strategies. He and his wife Donna live in Austin, Texas. They have two adult children and two grand children also residing in Texas.Ervin Ackman is author of a book about “President Reagan’s Program to Secure U.S. Leadership Indefinitely: Project Socrates.” He met Michael Sekora, the main character of the book, several years ago and developed a friendship around their common concern over the future of America. Michael Sekora introduced Mr. Ackman to Project Socrates, which Sekora had created and directed under President Reagan. This book, about Sekora and Project Socrates, is his first but he is already planning the next. In the next book a new group of leaders naturally emerge to guide the world through the transformation to the “automated innovation age.” He refers to this new leadership group as the “second founders” to guide us through our country’s inevitable transformation for survival. Both books are non-fiction.Throughout his career he has brought innovation to organizations stuck in conventional routines that only maintain status quo in a world where constant advancement is essential for survival. His work has touched everything from sales organization structure, to HR talent acquisition and development, large system integration, fundamentals of successful teams, organization restructuring and organization change management. He admits that in every case, traditionalists have been a challenge through their resistance, at any cost, to letting go of elaborate and complicated but obsolete systems.But it was not until he met Michael Sekora several years ago that he was able to consolidate and apply his work around what he refers to as, the fundamental foundation for all we do – the ability to systematically acquire and utilize technology. The timing was perfect to address the now rapidly developing crisis, which his gut had been signaling for a long time. The downward spiral of the US had to be reversed and Sekora had the only viable solution. The great country we have been blessed with has been literally operating on borrowed time and fundamental change was about to happen – ready or not. The only question was, would we manage the transformation to our benefit or would we allow it to evolve at the mercy of painful natural processes?He never intended to write a book about it, but as his friendship with Sekora developed his recordings of the history and background of President Reagan’s Project Socrates and its creator, Michael Sekora, began to take shape in the form of a book. The book is a message that must be heard and acted upon if the US is to survive. If writing a book will help, he believes it is the least he can do but plans to do much more.

Book preview

President Reagan’s Program to Secure U.S. Leadership Indefinitely: Project Socrates

How All Americans Can Participate and Reap the Benefits

By Ervin Ackman

Copyright ©2013 by Ervin Ackman

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment and may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Prologue

Thank you for reading this book. It is essential reading for all who watch in wonder as a once great nation declines. That part of it is not unique as societies throughout history go about a predictable cycle from birth, peak, downfall and demise. The story of Project Socrates illustrates the genius in humanity, capable of changing that cycle, but stymied by a seemingly built-in predisposition toward self-destruction. In net, we tend to move forward, but this resistant counterforce unduly prolongs the process and makes it unnecessarily painful.

Learn how a team of US patriots led by a young intelligence officer and physicist, Michael Sekora, developed and deployed the system they called Socrates to save their declining country.

Against all odds in a hostile environment of vicious US government officials bent on protecting their personal political interests, Sekora and the Socrates team would usher in the next evolutionary step for mankind, the Automated Innovation Revolution.

See how one key supporter, President Ronald Reagan, saw the power of Project Socrates and set the process in place through executive order that would permanently establish the US as the single superpower with ability to out-compete all competitors, commercially and militarily, in any market or battleground, at will.

But Reagan issued that executive order late in his second term. The incoming Bush administration immediately rescinded it, and Socrates, as Reagan and Sekora envisioned it, was all but finished.

Understand how Sekora kept the vision alive and is once again leading Operation US Forward with Socrates Generation-3 system at the center that will take on all competitors and adversaries to power US and allies’ economic growth, job creation, foreign trade, and national defense to unimaginable heights.

Socrates Generation-3 provides the way to win the fight over world hunger, eradicate diseases, solve the world’s energy problems, avoid wars, and uplift all of humankind.

What will anger Americans most and disappoint our allies who have depended on us for leadership, is the fact that the tailspin in which we find ourselves today, is a prolonged and unnecessarily painful process that would have been avoided if President Bush had only executed Reagan’s order.

Table of Contents

Prologue

A Brief Primer

Synopsis

Key Terms and Definitions

Planning

Finance-Based Planning

Technology-Based Planning

Competitive Advantage

Competitiveness

Technology

Strategy

Technologyspace

Technology Strategy

Technology Acquisition and Utilization

Maneuvering in the Technologyspace

Cross-Pollination

Why This Book Exists

Overview by Michael Sekora

The Leadership Vacuum

Insights from August, 2013 Washington DC Meetings

The First Meeting with Sekora

America Sleeps

Chapter 1

The Man Behind Socrates

In the Beginning

Sekora’s Early Years

How It All Began

Putting it All Together

Chapter 2

How Socrates Works

The Opportunity of a Lifetime

The Mission

The Research

What is Socrates?

The Solution Required Major Shifts in Thinking

The Heart of the Solution – Technologyspace

Socrates Disrupts Conventional Thinking, Methods and Tools

The Greater Challenge of US Survival – Change and Transformation

Chapter 3

The History of Socrates

Vintage Socrates

Challenges to Project Socrates

Why Was So Much Effort Put Into Destroying Socrates?

Chapter 4

Establishing the Need for Change

Old Practices Will Never Work Again (if they ever worked at all)

Basic Operational Beliefs Must Change

The Heart of the Problem – Finance-based Planning

US Planners are Primitive Hunters and Gatherers of Technology

The Threat

Are We Prepared for the Economic War Already Underway?

Chapter 5

How We Can Implement Technology-Based Planning Now

Technology-Based Planning from an Art to a Science

Solution Must Precisely Fit the Need

The Commission

The Proper Foundation for Change

We Have the Capability to Change

The Magnitude of the Transformation

Solution Implementation

The Change Management Process

Ongoing Support and Reinforcement

Symbiotic Deployment for Operation US Forward

Conclusion

Where is Socrates Today?

US Operations

Foreign Operations

The Fiasco over Industrial Policy

The Challenge of Change and Transformation

About the Author

Appendix One

Project Socrates Ten Findings

Appendix Two

Advanced Manufacturing Program Summary Recommendation

Appendix Three

Senator Jeff Bingaman Legislation 1989

Appendix Four

Congressman Frank Wolf Legislation 2010

Appendix Five

National Industrial Policy Illustration

Appendix Six

Sekora’s Fortune 100 Client List

Appendix Seven

Lifecycle of a Nation

Bibliography

Table of Figures

Figure 1: US approach to R&D

Figure 2: Societal evolution and technology

Figure 3: China’s global acquisitions

Figure 4: Symbiotic Deployment

A Brief Primer

Synopsis

President Reagan’s Project Socrates did not start with a high level planning session in the Oval Office. There was no gathering of those at the very top in a secret bunker to construct an elaborate plan and grandiose solution to a world crisis that was in fact developing. Like most major breakthroughs throughout history it began with an irritation in the way things work, or do not work, which just happened to involve the right people at the right time.

Project Socrates was born in this way. From a skunk works deep inside the US intelligence community gaining support along the way as it was applied to top priority projects producing results beyond anyone’s expectations except, of course, those of its creator Michael Sekora.

As Project Socrates gained visibility in support of the highest priority projects of the President, it earned the support of President Reagan and key members of his staff. By the end of his second term the recognized value of Project Socrates had grown to the point where President Reagan drafted an executive order creating a separate agency that would establish System Socrates as a permanent national asset for use by all public and private US institutions. In this capacity System Socrates would serve as the basis for achieving and sustaining worldwide competitive advantage indefinitely, in every industry, education institution, across all capital markets and government agencies.

Through this act the US would secure world leadership, for as far out as anyone could see, economically, in foreign trade, job creation and for national security. The US leap in industrial capability, human intellectual development, world finance and national defense would be the model for the rest of the world. That vision continued to expand as the true capabilities of System Socrates were realized through its application.

But the incoming President, George H. Bush would scuttle Reagan’s order and return us to our spiral downward.

This book is about the Story of Project Socrates and the efforts of Michael Sekora, his supporters, and resistors as well, and the teams that have worked to resurrect System Socrates for US survival. But before we get into the story it is important that we are communicating from the same understanding of terms and concepts. The following will help set that stage.

Key Terms and Definitions

Project Socrates opened the door and provided a system to manage the source of human survival, growth and advancement: technology. Based on our understanding of how the universe works, as dictated by the laws of physics, the US would now be capable of systematic development, management and manipulation of all world past, present and future technologies. With this capability the US would lead the next major leap for humankind. The program to develop, test and deploy the system was named Project Socrates.

With this breakthrough Project Socrates challenged the antiquated and obsolete conventional beliefs and practices of planning and decision-making in the US. Basic concepts like strategy, technology and competitive advantage had been distorted by the inherent imprecisions of US style planning and decision-making based on economics and finance. Sekora and team found it difficult to carry on constructive discussions as terms for basic organization concepts had different meanings depending upon the situation. In briefings Sekora would go around the table and ask for a definition of an important concept like strategy for example. If there were ten people in the room he would get ten different answers. This situation could not continue if Team Socrates hoped to convey an accurate understanding of Project Socrates and the technology-based planning solution.

Project Socrates was a major breakthrough at the foundation level of planning and decision-making. Socrates’ in-depth research and subsequent military and commercial actual performance results concluded that the natural foundation for all decision-making was technology-based planning as opposed to conventional planning and decision-making based in finance and economics. In just about every case conventional definitions simply did not fit with their true definitions for accurate decision-making as required in technology-based planning. As a result the conventional definition of terms and subsequent uses of basic concepts clashed with the application of these concepts in Socrates.

As Socrates was introduced to new audiences these clashes in definitions became an obstacle when discussing planning, decision-making and the Socrates solution. The Socrates team determined that they would have to re-established precise, accurate meanings of basic concepts. These refined definitions would come from the in-depth research conducted in Project Socrates and would be precise, accurate and unbiased. The resulting definitions were regularly presented in documentation and at the beginning of briefings that followed. Below is a list of some of those key terms and their meanings as used in Socrates. Having these definition of terms will make it easier to follow the story of Project Socrates.

Planning

Planning is the process of organizing activities to accomplish an objective. A simple action plan lays out the specific tasks in logical sequence, establishes a due date for completion of each task, and assigns responsibility. Some planning processes require resource loading consisting of people, material, equipment and knowhow.

Planning is the starting point for decision-making at every level from the individual solving a problem or setting goals to nations making decisions on economic growth or national security. A plan is a guideline and like the concept of strategy, is flexible to effectively adjust as conditions evolve. This is why the concept is most accurately practiced as an ongoing process, i.e., planning.

In the planning process two forces drive execution. First is the critical path to the targeted objective and second are the action steps along the way required to adjust as actual events unfold. On the other hand, precisely following step-by-step execution of a static plan document is ineffective, as the dynamics of the competitive environment in which we live quickly make the static plan obsolete.

Planning is the essence of individual and organization management. Planning from the proper foundation is also the essence of the Socrates solution.

Finance-Based Planning

Finance-based planning is planning from a financial basis or foundation. Finance-based planning is used interchangeably with economic-based planning in this book to describe the foundation for all planning as practiced in US institutions and organizations. Finance-based planning is the term generally used in business and the term, economic-based planning, is more commonly used in government. But the basis for each is monetary.

Since Socrates was originally deployed in government to address national defense during the Cold War and economic development during a recession, both under President Reagan, the Socrates team was initially biased toward using the term economic-based planning to describe the traditional planning approach. But as the system was deployed in both industry and government, traditional planners and decision-makers related better to the term finance-based planning. Both economic and/or finance-based planning describe US conventional planning methods for decision-making.

Finance/economic-based planning is taught in all US universities as the accepted basis for planning, decision-making and measuring performance. In finance-based planning the objective is to use funds most efficiently to achieve financial objectives, i.e., profit and ROI. All actions to achieve the objective then are driven by financial manipulation. The driving principle in finance-based planning is efficient allocation of funds to carry out organization strategy, guide decision-making and measure performance.

Technology-Based Planning

Technology-based planning is the natural foundation for planning and decision-making throughout history. The US practiced technology-based planning throughout its formative years until the end of WWII. In technology-based planning the objective is to achieve and sustain competitive advantage, which in turn delivers financial results. The driving principle in technology-based planning is to satisfy customer needs better than competitors through superior acquisition and utilization of technology. The capability to generate competitive advantage dictates performance. Performance can be measured in various ways including traditional market and financial indicators.

Competitive Advantage

Competitive advantage is simply the capability to acquire and utilize technology that satisfies one or more customer needs better than a competitor.

Competitiveness

Competitiveness is the degree to which an entity, individual, organization, institution or nation is capable of satisfying needs. The needs can be those of an individual customer, a group of customers or, on a national level, the social, economic and political needs of a country.

Degree of competitiveness is another measurement, in addition to the traditional financial measures, that can be evaluated by assessing competitive advantage actually achieved in satisfying a particular customer need better than other competitors through the use of technology.

Technology

The correct definition of technology is any application of science to accomplish a function. The science can be hard or soft, leading edge or well established. The function can be very critical, highly visible or it can be mundane.

Defining technology in its broadest sense opens up literally all technology, present and future, low-, mid- and high-tech that exists in the universe. This definition may seem obvious but the Socrates team encountered many instances in which otherwise very bright people understood technology in a limited way. For example, to some technology consisted only of information technology (IT). To others it was only breakthrough technology.

The use of the broadest definition of technology in Socrates removes the limits of technology-based planning capability to address all planning in every situation.

Over the past thirty years Sekora has had a standing challenge to anyone who can provide an example of competitive advantage being acquired that did not involve technology. As in Socrates where technology is defined in its broadest sense, the challenge is in tact.

Strategy

Strategy is a critical concept in all planning and decision-making so it had to be accurately understood in Socrates. But the Socrates team found that the concept of strategy was perhaps the most misunderstood by US leaders. Like all Socrates definitions, strategy was thoroughly researched. Focusing on the area where strategy has been most studied and used throughout history the Socrates team examined, end-to-end, the over 2,500-year history of military science. The following definition of strategy was the result and has served Socrates well for thirty years. Below are the definition, definition breakdown and examples of what strategy is not.[¹]

Definition

a coherent set of concrete action items for offensively and/or defensively acquiring and utilizing a limited resource more effectively than a rival organization to bring about a specific objective relative to a rival organization

Breakdown of the Definition of Strategy

Coherent: Coherency of actions required to exploit the resources with the required level of efficiency.

Set: A set of maneuvers (i.e., action items) is required to exploit the required range of resources. It is a myth that there is one winning maneuver or in technology-based planning, one magical technology that will provide competitive advantage.

Concrete action items: You cannot win unless you have concrete action items for the exploitation of the resources. You cannot win by thinking good thoughts – vision statements.

Offensively and/or defensively: To most effectively exploit the resources you must use them both offensively and defensively.

Acquiring and utilizing: The exploitation of the resource to accomplish the objective entails both the acquisition and utilization of the resource.

Limited resource: If the resource you require to accomplish the objective is not limited, there is no competition and there is no need for strategy.

Rival organization: To be effective, the strategy must take the rival organization into consideration, although the organization might not be an organization in the traditional sense. For example, in defeating cancer, the disease is the rival.

Specific objective: You can have no strategy without a specific objective at which to aim.

What Strategy is not

Not long-range planning – Time scale does not define planning as being strategic. Planning is strategic when it addresses the effective acquisition and utilization of a limited resource.

Not centralized planning – You can execute strategic planning in a highly centralized fashion (e.g., Soviet Union’s planning), you can execute it on a an individual basis (e.g., Sony’s planning)

The centralized or decentralized nature of the planning process does not make it strategic. To be most effective the strategic planning of various functions within an organization should be similar enough in method and structure so that it can be interconnected (e.g., Sony’s grand strategies were works of art).

Not building consensus – Reaching a consensus within an organization for a plan addresses the method of validating or engaging the plan and is not the plan itself.

Not a vision statement – A vision statement can be a goal to shoot for or it can be a neat idea to motivate the troops but it is not a strategy. For example: "Our strategy is to be the best car company in the world or Our strategy is: The customer is job one"

A strategy is a coherent set of concrete action items for the acquisition and utilization of a limited resource. How we acquire and utilize the various resources to be the best car company in the world is more about strategy.

Not identifying trends – Some maintain that a strategy is the identification of a trend and then exploiting it by riding the trend (e.g., getting ahead of the S-curve in a technology). For example, "What is the next ‘big thing’ in digital convergence?" Supporters of trend strategy maintain that the strategic planning process is just a means of identifying a trend that one can exploit.

Not a mystical way of gaining a competitive advantage – Reading Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Musashi’s A Book of Five Rings, or Napoleon’s Maxims and contemplating lines like: "All warfare is based on deception" translates to Our strategy is deception. "Always follow through with your stroke" translates to Our strategy is to follow through. "Cavalry must follow up the victory" translates to Deliver as promised; leave nothing undone. These represent key concepts of strategy but they are not a strategy in and of themselves.

Not solely inward looking – US companies tend to be highly inward focused in their planning. Road mapping and Six Sigma for example look inward to develop objectives and to determine what resources they have to accomplish their objective. In contrast, strategic planning is a balance of inward and outward focus.

Not a target list – Some maintain that a strategy is a shopping list of targets or hot lists of products to produce, services to provide, most effective customer needs to focus on satisfying or the next winning technologies to acquire and utilize.

Technologyspace

"The technologyspace is the complete universe of all technologies present and future based on the laws of physics" – Sekora

Technologyspace is at the heart of Socrates solution, where all competition takes place and where technology strategy is planned and executed.

Technology Strategy

Technology strategy is a coherent set of offensive and defensive maneuvers to acquire and utilize technology more effectively than competitors to satisfy one or more customer needs in order to gain and sustain competitive advantage.

Socrates is based on ten findings, (see Appendix One), which were the result of the most in-depth study ever done on competitiveness. In all competition throughout the world, technology was the source of competitive advantage. Socrates concluded that technology strategy, technology being the source of all competitive advantage, is in fact, competitive strategy.

Technology strategy is planned and executed in the technologyspace. As technology strategy is equal to competitive strategy the two terms are interchangeable throughout the book. Readers are reminded of this at various times as in traditional finance-based planning, most familiar to readers, the two terms are considered separate and unequal.

Technology Acquisition and Utilization

Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage is no more or less than the superior ability to acquire and utilize technology to satisfy needs. The phrase technology acquisition and utilization is used throughout the book to precisely and consistently reference this system function critical to executing technology strategy. Consistent use of the phrase in reference to this function eliminates ambiguity throughout the book.

Maneuvering in the Technologyspace

Technology strategies are a series of maneuvers (set of action items) conducted in the technologyspace to acquire and utilize the technologies of the world for competitive advantage. Maneuvers in the technologyspace carry out the technology strategy. The last five of the ten Socrates findings are about maneuvering in the technologyspace.

The findings concluded that maneuvering in the technologyspace is the same as maneuvering on a military battlefield. As a result, the science of military strategy was researched, organized, structured and digitized in Socrates to enable a computer generated set of specific offensive and defensive maneuvers to achieve and sustain competitive advantage.

Cross-Pollination

Cross-pollination is the integration of two or more technologies to create a new technology that satisfies customer needs better than competition. The technology can be low-, mid- or high-tech and the function the technology is applied to can be mundane or highly sophisticated. What is important in successful innovation is that it increases product or service capability to satisfy needs better than competing products and services.

Technology cross-pollination is the underpinning for innovation and is used this way in Socrates when discussing innovation.

Why This Book Exists

Overview by Michael Sekora

The story of Project Socrates exposes the best and worst of our government and its leaders. On the one hand are the dedicated, tireless patriots of Team Socrates ushering in the next major leap of humankind, Automated Innovation. On the other side are the government bureaucrats bent on maintaining the status quo at any expense.

Our shift from technology to finance-based planning after WWII has resulted in a slow but quickening decline in competitiveness, the single most important factor in survival, economic growth and prosperity. It would seem obvious given where we are today an almost insurmountable debt, huge trade deficits, industry after industry being lost, scarcity of jobs (and those that are created are lower paying) that what we are doing does not work. It is ironic that the status quo our leadership in all sectors, social, economic and political holds onto is a flawed system driven by finance-based planning. But even though the status quo has not worked for fifty years we continue down that road pushing even harder expecting better results.

Team Socrates built a system capable of exposing and countering competitor strategies enabling us to dominate any market, commercial or military, at will. Adversaries as well as allies quickly became aware of the power of Socrates. Pressures from a few allies, particularly Japan, played a part in ending Socrates as a government program.

Socrates was not just another cool idea. We developed Socrates, hostiles vetted it and we deployed Socrates with incredible success to help President Reagan achieve one of his highest priorities, bringing down the Soviet Union. And we did it without firing a shot. Socrates enabled the US to make giant leaps in military and commercial capability with astonishing speed. But in the end, George H. W. Bush, scuttled the program during his presidency and set the US back on track for decline as the sole superpower economically and militarily.

Michael Sekora – April 2013

But as of this writing, we are not at the end of the incredible story of Project Socrates, the solution that would propel the US and the world to heights never imagined. Upon leaving the government during the fiasco with President Bush, Sekora continued in the private sector to refine the system that may be our only salvation as China proceeds toward their objective of world domination.

While other countries are working hard to replicate Socrates Automated Innovation, none have succeeded thus far. But Socrates style Automated Innovation will come to pass in the near future and it is absolutely essential that the US, as the world’s lone force of good, leads the Automated Innovation Revolution. If we fail we will be just another second rate country at the mercy of those countries that emerge as economic and military leaders.

The Leadership Vacuum

When whole societies stumble, the role of leadership is to find solutions, rally resources and fix the problems. When great societies ultimately fail though, in some twisted way, it is also leadership that leads the way to demise.

In every sector of US society, government, industry, capital markets and academia, we seem to be on automatic in a death spiral. Our leaders are vacant of solutions continuing to do those things that caused the problem in the first place and actually speed up the demise. For reasons discussed in this book, our leaders may not be capable of awakening in time.

Since the exposure by Michael Sekora and subsequent development of the solution in 1983, the problem that began some sixty years ago has continued to eat away at our great nation. The leadership vacuum is the cause that enables the problem to metastasize. Finally, because of the a void and in some cases outright hostility of leadership, the problem’s symptoms have fiercely developed to a point that we can no longer ignore.

This book must be read and serve as an alarm for all or we may continue on automatic decline and miss the chance of a lifetime.

Insights from August, 2013 Washington DC Meetings

In August 2013 Michael Sekora and I went to Washington DC for several meetings including the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the Congressional Committee on Science, Space and Technology, the Department of Energy and the US Business and Industry Council (USBIC).

Our purpose varied slightly for each meeting but the overall theme was to provide an update on our Operation US Forward progress. Overall they received us extremely well, and our visit could advance the cause for America.

Usually our representatives in Washington receive visitors expecting them to ask for help in the form of money or political favors but our visits were different and they favorably acknowledged that fact. We purposely made it clear that Operation US Forward was already progressing very well and we were not looking for Washington’s help. Rather we were there to provide them with a solution. For us this visit was perhaps the final outreach of many over the years, to engage the leadership of Washington.

Where we achieved our purpose of evaluating Washington leadership, what we took away was an overall not so pleasing impression. The points below are how Sekora summed up our conclusions of our experience in DC in August of 2013:

1. There is no question or argument about the demise of the US and the