National Interests Quotes
Jefferson was of the opinion that a central bank was unconstitutional and that it was a great economic danger to the nation, a view also held later by President Andrew Jackson.
He used the “united nations” as a general description as the UN had not been created or named yet, However, as this quotation demonstrates, the President was already thinking about a UN idea, but as a realist, he explained that the great powers had to come to some agreement of interests. Actually China and France, at the time, would go along with whatever the United States and Britain wanted to do and had a great common interest, and there was already a strong association of interests between Britain and America. Russia was to be the problem and a complete common interest was never to be, but there was enough to get the United Nations started.
There was huge pressure on the central government to decentralize as they held all the power in Indonesian society. However, if they devolved power to the Provinces (States), many of them could be large enough and independent enough to secede and become an independent country as East Timor had done. So the Indonesian power structure bypassed the Provincial governments and devolved power directly to the local governments, none of which was independent enough to go it alone. The desired objective was met—no more secessions. However, there was no one to worry about regional and national issues and problems as the politicians who had power were all local. The country was becoming non-functional in many ways.
Not understanding this point has been the cause of much difficulty for military leaders from the war of 1812 through the Iraq war, the success or failure of the effort depended on a successful peace.
