Gingrich is probably the smartest man in US politics and political activism – at least as far as real policies based on real world demands are concerned. His latest book, 'Real Change' is a synthesis of what his new organisation American Solutions [www.americansolutions.org] has been working on, to give policy makers some ideas to fix key problems in US society and politics. For anyone interested in fixing parts of America which do not work, this book is a good overview of what ails America and what can be done to fix it. As one may expect, it is government, the bureaucracy and the fantastical naive and bloody-minded faith in government, which is in need of real change. Gingrich outlines why that is.

Keynesians, the eco-cult fanatics, the race reductionists, the protectionists and the appeasement minded would of course, never read such a book. For these happy little Marxist minds, the warm blue blanket of the nanny state and creating clients out of citizens, is the main objective. Security, risk reduction, guaranteed incomes and jobs, and total safety are the primary concerns of these chattering trolls. These ideals are the root of the issues facing America and every other industrialised state for that matter. In order to break the current vicious and immature cycle of broken behavior and bankrupted systems, some real change as Gingrich outlines, is urgently needed.

Gingrich summarizes quite well and transparently, why government fails and what can be done to correct these failures. He discusses the key subject areas facing the US and then proposes some common-sensical and relevant options to change the system. Importantly he focuses on results – applying simple models and patterns to solve questions and then monitoring the outcomes. Metrics, and implementing concepts which actually work, are anathema to government and bureaucracies.

Some topics Gingrich discusses:

1. Iraq and Afghanistan

These ten pages on what went wrong in Iraq and also in Afghanistan [pp 107-118] are perhaps the most interesting in the book. Gingrich has over 30 years affiliation as a trainer and confidante of the military. From 2003 until the 2007 surge, Iraq as a policy was failing, and it was the fault not of the military personnel on the ground, but of the civilian and military bureaucracy outside the war zones.

As Gingrich relates: -In 2003 after a stunningly successful 3 week invasion, the Bush administration reduced Iraqi intelligence resources [which were vital to secure the country]. -Instead of using the Iraqi army to help police the country, the military bureaucracy disbanded the Iraqi armed forces. -The Iraqi adminstration under Paul Bremer did not learn from Afghanistan where you had to liberate and not occupy the country. Instead of using Iraqi's and an Iraqi bureaucracy to help stabilise and rebuild the country, the American administration acted as an occupier not a liberator. This directly gave rise to the insurgency and general malcontent in Iraq. -No civilian support in infrastructure, economics, health or energy was forthcoming. The State Department and the military bureaucracy had no plans nor any ideas about how to stabilise a failed state like Iraq. -Billions of dollars were spent in Iraq with no results and no metrics. The US bureaucracies totally failed in their objectives to help the military rebuild Iraq and to take active and productive roles in stabilising a failed state.

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