6 Signs That the American Empire Is Coming to an Early End

As the banksters leveraged bad debt America has leveraged bad decisions.

Reagan put the process in overdrive with tax cuts for the wealthy, huge deficit spending on the military and enabled the outsourcing of America's productive capacity. Under Reagan we went from the biggest creditor nation in the world to the biggest debtor nation in the world and we never looked back.


Reagan then appointed Greenspan to run Reaganomics allowing financial institutions to begin the Quadrillion dollar Ponzi Scheme we find ourselves being extorted by for trillions of dollars.


Bush was the final straw both domestically and internationally. This process of America's demise was foreseen by Eisenhower in his farewell speech as the Military Industrial Complex and was well entrenched as documemted by Chalmers Johnson in his trilogy ending with the book Nemesis .Bush pushed the fast forward button ... he blew up the Federal budget, he emasculated the military and he permanently alienated much of the world.

No there's nothing really new here. Alternet has been covering America's demise very thoroughly. I am surprised that Klare thinks this is news. But it is probably news to Obama ... Someone should tell him really soon that we are beyond broke ... we are hopelessly in debt that we can't write off.

Amazing is that with Klare's familiarity with Peak Oil that it wasn't even mentioned ... Get ready for The Long Emergency ...

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

We've certainly made our mark. America has started more wars and gutted more economies than any nation in history.

With all that blood and suffering to our credit, we're sure to have a bright future. The laws of karma won't apply to us.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Reagan Revolution says it all and I have been hailing a similar mantra for the past 28 years.

The Gross Ignorance of the Reagan administrations supporting Freedom Fighter's Saddam Hussein, Osma Bin Laden and Al-CIAda, who are now Public Enemy #1. Wasting Trillions of $'s on the farce war of Terror in the process.

"Peace Dividend"? Of wasting more $'s on Star Wars systems that still can't hit targets without pre-trajectory information, the Reagan Doctrine of "Peace Through Strength" obviously had nothing to do with the collapse of the former U.S.S.R., with Russia's bitch slapping of Georgia last year.

The failure to not follow through on the Carter Energy Policy, having the U.S. already operating on a grid of mass transit using 2nd-3rd generation of alternative fuels.

Yep, them Reagan tax-reductions and saber rattling have made secure endless generations of debt-slaves of tax paying American citizen's.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

9/11, patriot/homeland insecurity, Iraq/Afgn, theft/torture, a profound and diabolic consolidation/redistribution of wealth - crimes all committed in broad daylight and choreographed by an MSM monster whose job it is distract/distort and manipulate in high def. resolution.

Enjoy the fraud

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Hard to have an empire when everyone is sick. Look what they did with the swine flu vaccines. Read this link:

http://americaspeaksink.com/2009/10/swine-flu-what-to-do/

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Who is this Klare anyway?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

In reality, the day of reconing is very near. Once the BRIC countries decide who gets to be the recipients of the coveted title of 'world reserve currency', the USA is finished financially, and by extention, diplomatically and militarially. China has been seeking alternatives to the dollar and is actively trying to find a way to dump its dollar reserves without nuking its own economy in the process, as is saudi arabia, russia and most of the other fed-up nations with a hint of finantial wisdom. Right now, all of them have chained themselves to the anchor of the US dollar and its bullshit make-nothing do-nothing economy (or as Deek likes to say, make-shit eat-shit economy). In the interest of their own financial solvency, they HAVE to dump the US dollar or else they go down with the ship. I would bet on us being done by the end of Obama's presidency or before, and many people online (and not just the right-wing fuckwits) are saying it might be less than a year- or two at most- before the BRIC nations tell us all to go collectively fuck ourselves (not that I blame them, even though I'm an unfortunate US citizen). Once that happens, we'll be something akin to a sub-Saharan nation whose governership will likely be akin to Mugabe's (maybe we already are?) Zimbabwe, and we'll-meaning the people in this nation- be well and truly on our own.

One way or the other folks, its over or soon will be. Good riddance.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

George W. Bush made our beds, now we have to lie in them for the next hundred years. There were some bad Roman emperors, Nero, Caligula, etc., but they weren't as bad as George W. Bush.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Honestly, I look forward to america's ordinary-ness. There's still a few problems, though.

The next change that must occur is defunding Israel: the last american stronghold in the Middle East is Israel, the source of much trouble and aggravation. It's time for Israel to sort out its problems with Palestinians and find a lasting solution for peace.

On the flip side, the rise of a Chinese empire (I don't see India as too much of a threat since they lack the resources of China) is much more disturbing, considering they haven't yet adopted environmental standards, worker's rights or even human rights.

With over a billion people to climb the social and economic ladder, China is already polluting the planet at a rate near the U.S.. They can keep half of the population in poverty and still create a middle class of gluttonous consumers that rivals any ever seen in history.

India will be the global superpower in outsourcing, there only exploitable "natural resource." I say this only half-jokingly. However, with a rising Indian middle class, we'll smell the same stench of pollution that comes from China. Not good!

My point is this, economic imperialism is THE problem of the 21st century. It should be stopped everywhere. How do we get there?

Peace

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

.....and of the Constitution have been orchestrated ruthlessly and masterfully by the banksters, Mossad, CIA Nazis, Saudis and others who conspired to orchestrate 9/11 and who conspired in the collapse of the US Dollar.

The American experiment in human freedom is too dangerous in unseating control of the real evildoers (Rothschilds, Goldmans, Lehmans, Madoffs, Kissingers, Bushes--and the rest of the neocon robber class mafia).

And the dumbed-down Americans are allowing this theft of their labors and of our freedoms to occur in broad daylight--with the assistance of MSM and even of AlterNet Zionists.

Watch CORE OF CORRUPTION for free on Google Videos HERE

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Supporting regimes that accept U.S. military aid like Afpak are good investments. They help keep our trillion dollar defense complex functioning. The Islamic threat will never end and the U.S. military will always be needed in the region. Defense related industries and their employees will continue protecting Americans until the end of time.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Michael Klare has it wrong --- just as Paul Kennedy did over 20 years ago in his "Rise and Fall of the Great Powers"

Both Klare and Kennedy were caught in a Nation-state-centric view of Empire.

Kennedy's great work on the "Great Powers" (ie. EMPIRES) was sub-titled, "Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000", and Kennedy understood that the world and Empires that ruled the world before 1500 had been preceded by an era of Church-Centric and pre-Nation-State-Centric EMPIRE control.

However, neither Kennedy nor Klare fully appreciated that the era of EMPIRE succeeding that of Nation-State Empires (ie. succeeding 2000) would evolve to a world of Corporate EMPIRE (singular) that would exist beyond the concept of nation-states.

Today, what has irreversibly begun, below the radar of most people, is that epical change from the last nation-state-centric Empire (American Empire) to the 21st century Global Corporate/Financial Empire --- merely posing behind the death-mask of American Empire.

For most people this change from America as a "Great Power" (Kennedy's term) or EMPIRE (Klare's term) is very unsettling for two reasons; that most Americans never thought of their/'our' supposedly democratic Republic as an Empire, and for the few Americans (like Klare, Chalmers Johnson, Chomsky, Kolko, etc.) who recognized that America was acting as an Empire, most of them mistook it as an 'American Empire' (ie. a nation-state-centric Empire that was 'American' in nature).

However, the 21st century ruling-elite global corporate/financial EMPIRE that now exists (and is the proximate cause of all the world's sorrows) is really not the 'American Empire', but is really controlling the carcass of the former nation-state called America, and which many still think of as 'our country'.

But as David Suskind perfectly captured in his “One Percent Doctrine” when he recounted that, “The (Bush) aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

So we have not reached “The End of History” as Francis Fukuyama claimed in 1992 with ‘free-market democracy’ (and which G.W. Bush perverted into “the world’s greatest capitalist democracy” --- whatever that perverted moron meant by that oxymoron), but rather history has played a bad joke on us and continued to metastasize into this cancerous tumor of Corporate Empire as our gift for the 21st century.

Although a postmortem on America the country, and America the body-snatched carcass of this new Global Corporate Empire may seem both ghoulish and irrelevant now that the train has left the station, for those interested in how this slight of hand was performed by the evolving Corporate Empire, here is the very sophisticated deception that the new EMPIRE employed:

http://www.opednews.com/populum

/diarymanage.php?submit=view&did=14698


Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

dictatorship!

Resist!!!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

But of course, any news watchers over the last five years have known this.

At the moment China being inextricably tied to the US dollar is the only thing keeping us financially afloat, no matter what the Middle East thinks. We have been the lifeblood and lifeline of this once weak(er) nation, the host to their leech. Now that they no longer need us or our devaluing dollar, and we have outstretched ourselves beyond any reasonable means, our future is not in our hands. Not unless and until we revoke the means by which China, and India, have rose to their current preeminence; remove the laws allowing companies to bypass US taxes to outsource cheaply and to fund other countries middle classes while our own go jobless and broke. Instead of FUNDING all these basically useless programs to 'get Americans back to work', change the laws that allowed this in the first place, and tax the companies who refuse to relocate back to this country.

A simple, if political, fix.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

First of all, it seems to me that lots and lots of people like to come off as eager to see America's decline, or are losing their minds over some things that are silly. First of all, technology has made it so that more people can live better lives, and much of that technology has become cheap enough that great portions of the world might be living better, and improving at rates faster than most other points in history. That's not a bad thing. As for all that worry about Russia, the Soviet Union collapsed, they took time to recover and now they are doing better. Good for them. Why am I supposed to be worried about that? Its not as if they've been constant supporters of US foreign policy in the past, so what's changed? Foreign people living good is a good thing, whether it be China, India, or whoever. The Olympics are going to S. America. Cool. They beat out Chicago. Is the US supposed to throw a tissy and make demands? All those other points are moot in comparison to the real issue, and that is gradual erosion of America from within, with our silly and dumb pc multiculturalism (more like monoculturalism since all people are to be mall people), and dumb people arguing over politics. They are all bought. We are a managed society, no different than anybody else. With concentrations of power wielding all that science, this is the only way it shall be, until the next stoneage. Toodles.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

All empires must die, it's a fact that those blow-hard chicken-hawks must face! This nation was warned by Eisenhower, yet there were too many that sought both power and their own short term financial gains that didn't heed the warning. That successive Administrations abused the weight of their office, and mis-used the Military as their own private G.I. Joe force has also compounded the discord the rest of the world feels toward the US.

This feeling of "unstoppable, unshakable, we are the world empire" which led to the attacks on this nation in 2001, and were preyed upon by the Bush mis-Administration and it's "hawks" are the very reasons that the rest of the world is mobilizing without the US. These attitudes haven't diminished, don't believe it look at Darth Chaney and his belligerent attitude and those that would defend a saner strategy!

Unless we as a nation recognize that "WE" are not "THE WORLD", and the Corporate Oligarchy of this nation stop brutalizing other peoples in other nations for their own private gain, this nation and her people will indeed be left behind. Until we all face that fact, and stop the mendacity and denial we are all condemned.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

No doubt about it, its time to get over it, thats for sure!

RT
Ultimate Anonymity

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

...empires fall.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

It had to happen for a number of reasons. First American Corporations sent millions of our jobs to other nations for reasons of profit. They ( and we ) place profit ahead of national pride and national security or of the well being of our own working class. Those other nations are not to blame for becoming more powerful...after all we helped them to grow in the first place.

Second, we decided to wage wars as the attacker, helping to destroy our former reputation as a world leader in peace. You can't claim that title any longer when you are the invader. Yet we try to cling to that title after years of battle only to ruin our credibility. People don't trust us like they used to.

We now reap what we have sewn.

The good news, for future generations at least, is that if we ever attain one world economy and become one world people, the incentives for war should vanish along with our differences.


We just need to figure out how to get rid of or combine all religions so dogma does not rise to undo any chance of a unified peace.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

As a former Navy member, I had the opportunity to observe American civilians visiting foreign nations. What I saw and heard nearly turned my stomach, and I've got a STRONG stomach.
It seems our good citizens have nothing better to do than compare everything and everybody foreign in a most unfavorable light, smug in their belief that we're superior in every way.
This unthinking, mean spirited ignorance is all the more appaling when it takes place in nations which have not only done us no harm, but go out of their way to extend a welcoming hand, only to be rudely rebuffed at every turn.
About the ONLY things we should be considered to be preeminent in is our bellicose foreign policies and our MEDIOCRITY as a people.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

As long as we have enough nukes to cook every major city we will be players. Empire is not defined by a million man standing army, empire is defined by the ability to destroy a million man army. Living within an empire does ensure happiness - there is evidence of the opposite. The US will remain an "empire" and US citizens will remain miserable. So it goes.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Other countries will appalled at the results of the 2000 election. The Bush/Cheney abuses of power didn't reassure them either. We need to improve our international reputation by protecting our Constitution and enforcing our Federal Laws, especially our Anti-Torture Laws.

We voters have a heavy responsibility.
To protect our grandchildren's future security WE Must force our Democrats to Prosecute! Now!

We must find the courage to make them enforce our Federal Laws, especially torture.

Please
SIGN the PETITION
demanding prosecution at

ANGRYVOTERS.Org

And Please share this Url with all your friends and
Ask them to sign the petitions.

.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

but is it all that wrong to be just an ordinary country? I am a dyed-in-the-wool, cry-when-I-hear "Born in the USA", Patriot. Not the Bush type Patriot, but a real, "I am Proud to Be An American" Patriot. I do not cower from our enemies, as Bush and the Republicans would have me do. But, I am also someone who is fed up with being the policeman of the world - a position that inevitably led to the empirical actions of this nation over the last 40 years. I am also fed up with our nation not being able to feed itself or be energy independent because we spent so much time feeding the rest of the world and supplying them with oil from our fields, only to have the very nations that we supported turn on us and call us names that are better suited to brothels than nations. I am fed up with being the world's banker - Hey, Mexico the next time you want us to shore up your peso, go jump in the Pacific! - and then find that we are in debt up to our eyeballs because of globalization and sending our jobs overseas to appease Corporate America and the GOP Greed Machine!

Yes, I am looking forward to being just an ordinary country. One where we have jobs and homes for our people. One where we can feed ourselves healthy food in a sustainable agriculture way. One where we have decent affordable health care. One where we have clean air and water. One where are children are taught to think and not just memorize. One where we have plenty of clean energy to power our nation. One where our productivity will pay our international debts.

But, mostly, I am anxious to have a nation of people who know that we are responsible to each other in how we govern ourselves and interact with the rest of world. Call this protectionist, or xenopobic or idealistic, if you will. But being an ordinary country would allow us to do all these things, and more.

Empire building is expensive and futile. Empires fall and are not rebuilt. Ordinary countries can survive and they can thrive, both politically and economically. Being ordinary does not diminish our national pride. Being ordinary does not diminish our ability to be decent human beings. Being ordinary does reduce the level of animosity that others feel towards our nation, which would keep us safer. Being ordinary does force us to look inward and fix what is wrong in this nation. Being ordinary allows us to build a future for our children and to encourage their ingenuity and creativity to be better artists, scientists, writers, doctors, lawyers, activists, farmers, teachers, and all those things that have suffered as the result of our pursuit of greed and power.

Being ordinary may not be a bad thing for the United States. In fact, it may be our saving grace, if we let it be. That is up to us and how we choose those we choose to lead us.

Let Freedom Ring.Community

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The world is going to be a very different place by 2025. I think that everyone will be much better off when the United State is just one more nation among many. We used to be such a country, before World War II. That conflict destroyed most of the Europeans' and Asians' public and private infrastructure, leaving us to pick up the pieces, become everyone's daddy warbucks, and the world's policeman. I think we need to become a lot more like Switzerland. Quiet, taking very good care of ourselves within our own borders, raising the bar to citizenship, and staying out of others' disputes. Won't that be interesting?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

"nobody loves you when you're down and out."

#@!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Our biggest product here the the good old US of A is bullshit. Two of the biggest centers for producing this crap are Wall St. and Washington DC.
We produce so much bullshit that we can export it to other countries.
Most countries believed and wanted our bullshit, but not any more.
We are done, but somehow the bullshit artists are still trying to sell this stuff.
God help us all.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Then the empire part will take over fully. Then the corporate theocrats will get their full empire and do what they want to get the resources they need from whom ever they can extort or subjugate to get it.

The Dominionists have their plan and economic ruin is part of it. [They failed in 1934 and intend to succeed this time.] To bring down one organization so they can build their own on its ruins like some Dark Phoenix of Evil. That is why since 1980 they have let loose the Dogs of Economic Chaos to wreck havoc upon it. They will come in as our only savior to avoid living in a place of savage desolation much like "The Road" or in a theocratic dictatorship akin to "The Handmaid's Tale" as our only two choices. Most will take the latter over the former anytime---just as they planned.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Maybe the world doesn't need or want a superpower anymore. Maybe after our obsession with power is forcibly ended, we can focus on other things like taking care of our citizens and educating our children. Nationalism has become a religion in a sense and I believe a bad one. Most countries these days could be compared to a bunch of self-serving people in a family. Instead of working together for a common good we cannot see past our own wants and needs. This does not work in a family and it won’t work in the world either. I don't see this all as such a bad thing. Evil is not sustainable... it always fails. I noticed the article really didn't mention the role of the UN. My hope is to see the UN take more of an active role in the future. Maybe the peoples of the world can actually work together for peace. Now there is a crazy idea :) If other countries attempt to pursue the course of dominance the United States did, they will fail as well and much more rapidly I think. Unfortunately, this may be the case in the coming years but I truly believe at some point soon (maybe this century) most if not all countries will learn that on the world stage the only way to get anywhere will be to work together. Slowly the world is coming to equality. Good will win in the end.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

with many of your points in the article I take umbrage with the idea that US world hegemoney was planned to be anything but beneficial to the US. It had nothing whatsoever to do with securing the rest of the world. The proof is in the pudding so to speak. It is only the US that was supposed to benefit from its garrisons. They were to protect the homeland (we're fighting them over there so we won't be fighting them at home). The rest of the world unfortunately was the battleground for US security. That policy was ripe for blowback and it came with 911. No longer were so may third world countries and fringe religious groups willing to just lie down and die from US military operations. They are now quite able to stand up and fight back. What a shock that was to the US government but even then it could have been handled and managed except that the most incompetent and unethical president of the modern era happened to be in the Whitehouse at the worst possible time. As a result you have the mess the world is in today.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

We're too much in love with our possessions, our cars, our STUFF. Some people have had to do without luxuries for the first time since they came into the workforce. They don't like it.

Many of the disruptive, non-sense-making Republicans in Congress are on the bad side of seventy. Sooner or later, they're going to be out. The aforementioned lifestyle slaves, as well as the former middle-class falling to poor unemployed, will have to come to a meeting of the minds in terms of who gets back into those chairs.

If we succeed in putting some good minds in there, maybe we can actually pass decent laws against what's bad about a global economy, protect workers, stop the greed in the financial quarter, re-vamp the way we think about manufacturing and industry and pull right on through. It's not such a big agenda, once we're free of those people in Congress who are already dead but won't lie down.

And yes. We're probably going to have to take off the great big black hat. It used to be white, but that was almost before I was born.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

"...the moment when the United States ceased to be the planet's preeminent power and was forced to behave like another major player in a world of many competing great powers"

The moment was when Bush said "nukular" for the first time on television.
It's the education, stupid!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

We have the world's best university and many of the world's brightest people, but our average educational achievement is abominably low. (We are tied with Thailand in math.) We rank in the 20s and 30s behind the oriental countries and many others. Our selfishness makes us unwilling to pay for what we get so we borrow trillions of dollars while the value of our dollar is rapidly decreasing. We bring in educated immigrants which is a plus. But our illegals are way undereducated and drain our resources. We make war and borrow for our bullets. But we think we are invinceable.
I think that the free ebook series 'In Search of Utopia' (http://andgulliverreturns.info) takes us to task in our un-thought-out values (Book 4) and our psychological motivations (Book 6). As historians clearly see--civilizations die from within. Bread and circuses don't indicate progress, only laziness.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

And it would be good if the countries of the world did not follow our example of trying to continue the age of national strategic interests but instead begin thinking in terms global interdependence in a wholistic world where the environmental stresses are the same for us all.

While at the same time realizing that localization is also important for survival and cultural differences require protection and respect versus a global melting pot.

That war is a failed paradigm for our world and must be abandoned as an easy answer and that all of the ancient hatreds between peoples from past wars have to be acknowledged and defused with mutual understanding for the human suffering that has been caused.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The destruction of the dollar and American "empire" may weaken the federal government and bring more power back to the states. The states are far more colorful and inventive then the federal government. Currently in the USA we have almost no choices at the federal level with the two parties so tightly controlled. The basic idea of democracy is that the people have a choice of who represents them. In the USA we only have 2 choices that are virtually identical except for a few highly publicized issues. An N of 2 is the absolute minimum required to have a choice. Its hard to know if we really have that in the USA. I say this because the large and vast majority of my taxes are paid to the federal government. No real choice and all that money is bad news. I hope the parties get broken up during the fall and choice returns to the citizens of the USA. We need a new churning of ideas and new parties to have any hope of a bright new future. Hopefully it happens without loss of life. The citizens of the USA have been excellent at churning the idea mill without too much death in the past and I hope it extends to the future. I like the idea of parliamentary coalition style governments running the show. Maybe folks in our country will ask for a more diverse government.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Of course it should have been Dick Cheney, but maybe that will happen next week


http://www.ibmemployee.com/

Extract

Highlights—October 24, 2009

* I, Cringely: No Joy in Mudville. By Bob Cringely. Excerpts: I have no idea whether IBM senior vice-president Bob Moffat is guilty of insider trading or not, though that’s what he was arrested for yesterday. What I do know is that Moffat’s job since 2005 has been as the architect of IBM’s project called LEAN, which is intended to adjust Big Blue’s global labor force to maximize profitability. I’ve written quite a bit about LEAN, much to the consternation of IBM, characterizing it in large part as a way to replace expensive older American workers with younger and cheaper workers in India and Argentina while cleverly dodging U.S. age discrimination and possibly other civil rights laws. Whatever the legality of LEAN it is downright mean and shows little respect for the people who made IBM what it is today.

What does it say, then, when the architect of LEAN is arrested for alleged insider trading?

The good news, I guess, is that he was caught. The rest of the news is bad. If Moffat is guilty as charged then it shows serious ethical and moral lapses at the very top of IBM (Moffat has been mentioned as a possible successor to IBM CEO Sam Palmisano). Even if he is proved innocent Moffat is still guilty of poor judgment in his choice of friends and of being a blabbermouth. Since Moffat is being charged, in part, with insider trading of IBM’s own shares, then LEAN itself should probably come under some scrutiny as a possible tool for generating insider profits.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Boy those PNAC guys sure got WRONG !!!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

will america be still alive
as the rest of the world are now on top
soliders say when will our bleeding stop
over in the middle east
where the goat slay the great beast
republicans don't know what to do
they are just bo-hoo-hoo
they forget reganomics caused it
bush help start NAFTA, then clinton finished it too
as he managed to save us a trillion dollars
then came george w. bush, to be like father
stole the election, then 9/11 blew on in

then he invaded afghanisistan, and then iraq
then he set his eyes on iran
as he blew the budget thru
what's obama to do

so as the year 2025
will america be alive
as the rest blow us by
reganomics allowed it to die
as we keep selling our debt
approaching twilight the promise is kept
as america get sweaped up in the waves
like ancient rome, it will all fade away

in the year 2025.......

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

What I find completely shocking, is Ordinary, Intelligent People in the US and UK, have been so completely brainwashed with Governments artificial War on Terror, that they now find TORTURE Acceptable.

Whilst the German Nation was Brainwashed by The Hitler NAZI's to Exterminate Jews, I never believed that this could happen on such a scale in my own country.

Hardly ANYONE has even complained.

Craig Murray is Someone who has..

How a Torture Protest Killed a Career

Extract

I had only been there for a week or two when I went to a show trial of an al-Qaeda terrorist they had caught. It was a big event put on partly for the benefit of the American embassy to demonstrate the strength of the U.S.-Uzbek alliance against terrorism.

When I got there, to call the trial unconvincing would be an underestimate. There was one moment when this old man [who] had given evidence that his nephew was a member of al-Qaeda and had personally met Osama bin Laden. And like everybody else in that court he was absolutely terrified.

But suddenly as he was giving his evidence, he seemed from somewhere to find an inner strength. He was a very old man but he stood taller and said in a stronger voice, he said, “This is not true. This is not true. They tortured my children in front of me until I signed this. I had never heard of al-Qaeda or Osama bin Laden.”

He was then hustled out of the court and we never did find out what had happened to him. He was almost certainly killed. But as it happens I was within touching distance of him when he said that and I can’t explain it. It’s not entirely rational. But you could just feel it was true. You could tell he was speaking the truth when he said that.

And that made me start to call into doubt the whole question of the narrative about al-Qaeda in Uzbekistan and the alliance in the war on terror.

Boiled to Death

Something which took that doubt over the top happened about a week later. The West -- because Uzbekistan was our great ally in the war on terror – had shown no interest in the human rights situation at all. In fact, the opposite, going out of its way to support the dictatorship.

So the fact that I seemed to be interested and seemed to be sympathetic came as something of a shock and people [in Uzbekistan] started to come to me.

One of the people who came to me was an old lady, a widow in her 60s whose son had been killed in Jaslyk prison and she brought me photos of the corpse of her son. It had been given back to her in a sealed casket and she’d been ordered not to open the casket but to bury it the next morning, which actually Muslims would do anyway. They always bury a body immediately.

But she disobeyed the instructions not to open the casket. She was a very old lady but very determined. She got the casket open and the body out onto the table and took detailed photos of the body before resealing the casket and burying it. These photos she now brought to me.

I sent them on to the chief pathologist at the University of Glasgow, who actually now by coincidence is the chief pathologist for the United Kingdom. There were a number of photos and he did a detailed report on the body. He said from the photographs the man’s fingernails had been pulled out while he was still alive. Then he had been boiled alive. That was the cause of death, immersion in boiling liquid.

Mutilation of the genitals was common. Suffocation was common, usually by putting a gas mask on people and blocking the air vents until they suffocated. Rape was common, rape with objects, rape with bottles, anal rape, homosexual rape, heterosexual rape, and mutilation of children in front of their parents.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

"What you can't change, accept."

The Western country that practices that proverb best is the Netherlands. They have a political philosophy, gedogen, which is a pragmatic acceptance without condoning of almost all human behaviors so that there is a web of community that values the society and will respond as a unit to extreme crisis. Its origin was simple geography. One-third of the Netherlands is below sea level and if the dikes leak, all Dutch citizens have to respond quickly and effectively.

In most Dutch-English dictionaries, gedogen is translated as tolerence, a very poor representation of its realistic definition.

America has a unique social contract that no other nation has ever had. To wit, I, as a citizen, voluntarily give up the right to violently overthrow the government and in return, the government recognizes certain inalienable individual rights from our Creator, rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Furthermore, these rights take priority not only over the government but also the majority.

This unique social contract, combined with a national political philosophy of gedogen, and maybe a little of the Canadian Constitution with emphasis on peace, order, and good government, is what we need to sail the seas of the new worlds, not just economic but ecological.

In the future, we can stand out in respect, global interconnectedness and liberty. This is how America can be part of the future web of complexity.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The U.S. is a country with the embers of greatness.

1. Our nation is an ancient democratic socialist country with deep roots. Our forefathers invented the public library. They invented free public education. FDR invented national health care and Truman forced it upon Germany and Japan at the point of a gun.

2. In our roots is practical inventiveness. Experts promised us in the 1970s that Japanese computer R&D spending would swamp the US with foreign technological breakthroughs. The students in every country in the world were beating American students at math at the time. So, did the Japanese march on to computer victory?

The great Japanese technological crush didn't happen. Every one of the smartest Japanes students passed all of their wonderful tests, but then their Japanese overworked deadbrains didn't invent anything, ever, in their lifetimes. It turns out that America had something or other that Japan didn't have. Was it scientific integrity? Was it a sense of democratic citizenship that led inventors (and others) to do the right thing for people? Was it a willingness for ordinary people to take risks? I think it was that the American educational system was so backwards that it didn't beat the curiosity out of its students with a baseball bat. We may not have equation-parroting geniuses (or, in China's case, factory workers who were just handed college diplomas so they'd count as engineers), but we have a bunch of people who don't take no for an intellectual answer.

Now, what's wrong with America? Oh yeah, the crooks have raped the environment and killed millions of Americans with cancer toxins and heart attack goo. Some of the rest of us are pretty fat, some diabetic, and so on. The country has by far the world's most wacky prison system and by far the world's most wacky health care system, neither of which apparently will be fixed for a few election cycles. They've also stolen the national treasury. They've stolen the world's best army to do whatever they want with it.

We will now be told, hey, your people have no money whatsoever but you have by far the world's strongest army, so lets go out and steal some other people's money with our army! I suppose it's a tempting offer that the morons among us will like. It worked for the Vikings, for a while. It didn't exactly work in Iraq, but there's always Iran and the poppy fields of Afghanistan.

Crooks trump dreams. We're not an ordinary nation, we're a poor nation, a developing nation, a nation full of living dead people, that's what we're becoming.

Be the brave person that your forefathers would expect you to be. Fix your government. Fix your environment.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I appreciate many of the comments above. My own may need to be fractionated somewhat to spell out some of the advantageous things I think we still have to offer the planet:

1. Bushwater

We have a huge amount of good temperate-zone land either with trees on it or, solving the water crisis, able to bear trees, gobbling up CO2 and storing water which is breathed out to form rain. Despite alarms, we have enough taxpayer money to hire hundreds of millions of foreigners to help our own underemployed, ex-offenders, students, interns etc. clip, shred and pulverize trillions of dead branches to be deposited in gullies, streambeds, ravines etc. and seeded with fast-growing species including industrial hemp and the threatened Western Shaky Quaky SpadeLeaf Watertree (aspen, cottonwood etc.) whose roots will stop the runoff. Removing those biofuels from forest lands on a grand scale will prevent fires now costing billions each year, which is why we can afford it. We can form a consortium with other fire- and drought-ridden nations such as Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, and form a seasonal worker transport program (Hemigration) with carpentry facilities and instruction onboard ship whereby workers continue to earn their wage during travel time.

2. Statehood for Israel et al.

The United States can and should gobble up some suburbs, clients, aid-recipients etc. with which we share mutual needs and spirituality, including Israel (it would be renamed New Israel and get about as many Congressbodies as New Germany, oops sorry Jewsy, and they have a guy named Lieberman who can run for Senate); Liberia (they are us anyway, remember?); P.R. (a new capital should be built in the center of the island and named Peoria, capital of P.R.-- "will it play in Peoria?"); South Ireland (there are more Irish here than there anyway); Taiwan (they have Type-A executives over there, and it aint much further than Hawaii); Eritria (another place to plant trees), all the time practicing Peaceful Coexistence with the UN.

3. United Superprimates

A joint inter-species commonwealth should be planned and gradually built up with chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans. They have four hands (because of the two additional chromosomes) and can climb trees more efficiently than we can, thus if trained and equipped with belts carrying anvil pruner, ratchet pruner, saw and hatchet they can remove deadwood from hundred-foot high forest monarchs, earning an honest living. By year 2222 the present ape population of less than 400,000 can be brought up to a respectable 400,000,000. Some experts even think some long-lost intermediate species can be reconstituted, adding to the creative richness of primate society.

4. Birthcontrol for beefcattle

The stupid planet-threatening custom of eating cow and maintaining a huge herd of 1.2 billion oversized slave animals must be abandoned. Reducing this herd to under 50 million will provide lebensraum and food provision for at least 10 billion more primates. The remaining bovine populations would be renamed oxen and given jobs to do like hauling the municipal recycling wagons, guided by a 6-year-old human sitting on top with a computer. Bovine fetuses would be rigorously tested for work intelligence and only the top 1% allowed to survive beyond day of birth. Similar programs for other livestock animals.
The "Marbleburial Cowardbully" nation, USA, with 4.5% of world human population, has over 8% of world cattle and buys much additional beef; this must end. Meat will be provided by cloning fish liver in tanks in huge formerly bureaucratic buildings such as the "Willis Tower".

Let's get started with those, and by next week someone can surely add more dangerous ideas about what to do to dismantle the vampire empire in the nick of time.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Sorry, but you missed the point. Everything you say is just wishful thinking. The fact remains that America is the country with the most nuclear weapons, the only country ever to have used them, and the only country that will ever likely use them, willingly to destroy the entire globe, if necessary.

You don't need money if you've got the guns. The only thing that could end America's preeminence in violence and destruction is a violent destruction of the country's military and nuclear weapons--and there's no one around now or in the foreseeable future who could do that. End of wishful thinking.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

This doesn't really matter. Like some twisted parasite, the multinational corporate Trilateral/CFR monster we birthed will exist beyond America's dominance. We have a small chance to fight back for our country here, and take back the fuel that will catalyst, but if we let Obama squeeze the last money we have and soothe us into accepting the corporate fascist changes to our system that Bush started, it will rise from our ashes.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

May the Evil Empire Rest in Peace.

Ronnie Wright
World Change Cafe

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Virtually everything Klare has to say is NONSENSE!!

Except......

The currency issues are real. Countries withdrawing from using dollars as their reserve would have a devastating impact on the economy......so, why wait for them to do that?

Start managing our federal government for the benefit of the USA ONLY.

withdraw from the idiotic Vietnam twins...known as Iraq and Afghanistan NOW!!!!!!!!!!! They will never embrace democracy, and it is not our responsibility to see that they do. Let them write their own destiny without spilling American blood and American dollars.

Pull out of 50% of the military bases we currently have, with a true focus on preserving our ability to protect America.

End illegal immigration and end the NEW WORLD ORDER CRAP!!!!!!!!!

I believe Obama Care was planned to fail. Imagine people sitting around and discussing a national healthcare program. What better way to kill the whole idea than by determining that the IRS would be the ENFORCER.

The Dems will not vote for it....why....because gridlock gets you re-elected, and voting for something so outrageous as having the IRS as ENFORCER, voting for something that will have the majority of people with private healthcare have their companies abandoning their programs and opt to pay the penalty will only result in the Dems losing in mass...big time. The Dems know this, and they know gridlock is better than making a decision that will destroy your entire party.

The question remains, which president will do a better job of destroying his own party...Bush or Obama? If the Dems support Obama, and I believe they will use every excuse not to, and blame the GOP in the process, they will stand a better chance of getting re-elected, and that is their primary MO.

We need to scale back government spending, big time. Iraq and Afghanistan are huge savings. Germany, Japan and Korea are huge savings.

And if Brazil is such a powerhouse, time to end buffering their economy with USA dollars. Same is true for Israel and Egypt, and about 20 other countries. And I am not suggesting becoming an isolationist nation, but we AMERICANS certainly can retrench and let the rest of the world find their own way.

End foreign oil dependence by having a long term program to become totally self sufficient for our oil while at the same time implement a program comparable to the 1960s space program for developing alternative sources of energy, all with the intent of making the USA totally self sufficient.

Put a moratorium on ecology as it pertains to drilling for oil. We can still have a clean environment policy, but we drill, and we drill, and we end dependence on friendly nations like Venezuela, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, etc. It is a matter of NATIONAL SECURITY that we become totally independent for our oil, for a set period of time while developing alternative sources of energy.

If we embraced this one change, the dollar would soar, and there would be no more discussion of our decline. However, if we continue down the road of NEW WORLD ORDER, which both Bushs are proponents of, Clinton and Obama are proponents of, then we lose sovereignty, we lose many things, and are betrayed by our leaders.

Are there any leaders remaining at the federal level? I wonder.

AMERICA FIRST, AMERICANS FIRST. WAKE UP AMERICA. WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

An old (I mean early to mid-'60s) Peanuts strip had Linus complaining about being told by his teacher that he had "potential" and the obligation that put him under. The last panel has him yelling, "There's no heavier burden than a great potential!!!" There's no greater relief than being relieved of that burden, being recognized as just another kid.

Now that it's becoming more increasingly apparent that the United States is just an ordinary (albeit large) nation - substandard by comparison with so many other industrialized nations in so many ways: health care, quality of life, infant mortality, the level of our national dialogue - we can now sit back and bask in the memory of our past greatness, a time when the women were strong, the men were good looking and everything was way above average. We can feel releived that once we no longer have to pretend it's so, we can forgo the burden of our potential.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

draw the biggest yawn from his audience. These are like old myths about bad america the evil empire ....
China... over a billion people to still lift out of peverty. A country with a horrific human rights record. Where men unashamedly exploit other men. Sure you have windows of democracy cum consumerism in Beijing and Shanghai and Shenzen and hangzhou. But this all window dressing. The vast majority of people still live in utter misery. Just above the breadline.
Water shortages in the North, reduced agricultural output, mega evironmental pressure.Corruption in every level of society so entrenched people there do not even know it is there any more....Over 70 000 major riots repressed by the military per year we never heaar about unless we care to get informed. No free media and the list can go on but we need to review India... the other so called giant. Ever wandered the atreets of Calcutta or Kolkatta? The garbage-strewn alleyways crawling with bits of human beings, beggars clutching at your feet, children maimed at birth to become beggars and resold to organized crime? Have you heard about modern day slavery in quarries? Hundreds of thousands of girl fetuses thrown into huge piles of rotting decaying human remnants? The child trafficking, the girl trafficking... This the new giant? Of course we can talk about Brazil and Russia...
The point is america for all its past criminal record, its huge debt and its moronic ideology still has the biggest gun and will have for the foreseeable future...

If there is any hope for the US it is to look at "socialist" Europe with its socialist social organization based on solidarity, common good and very very old, mr rumsfeld, values that are based on the suffering of the past wars. If europeans can overcome their last tribal-nationalistic atavisms, this is where there is a glimpse.
America has the potential to reinvent itself because it has inherited some of these values but these changes will occur as a result of great national debates where the rednecks will have to be educated, the Pickens and other cowboys will have to be stopped through legal means, the bible clenching crowds will have to light a bonfire and then only then...
Butfor goodness sake Mr Klare.. stop these simplistic and dangerous ramblings of yours...

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I am sure there is apprehension in the inner circles of the Jewish state. The Zionist elite and the pro military, pro war Jews who stood to benefit handsomely from the US taxpayer's free handouts are sure to be nervous now.

As the author stated, the US dominance has taken a nose dive and not unlike it's Soviet counter part has caught even its own intelligence circles by surprise just as did the fall of the Soviet Empire and the Berlin wall in 1991 which the CIA had no clue about.

Will the Jewish state finally stop selling it's sole for money by using American economic and military clout to strong arm the Europeans and even some US firms to pay billions of dollars in exchange for the honor of the dead Jews of WWII?
Well the Jewish state finally realize that it cannot remain a super power in the middle east and continue to demand the humiliation, abuse and expulsion of the Palestinians from their homeland and the total destruction of Islam? Will they stop comparing themselves to the American settlers of the Indian lands?

I certainly hope that the economic demise and the crumbling of the US empire is a blessing in disguise which will finally bring about a lasting peace in the middle east and everywhere else around the world in our lifetimes.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Deserve to lead the free world?. We as a people act like we've gone crazy. Two wars against a peole that didn't attack us. The only industralized country without public healthcare. Don't get me started on our level of education. We really don't want to lead. Where would we lead? into the latrine? You make the call.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The sooner we accept that the era of American empire has ended, the sooner we can use our considerable remaining resources to repair the considerable damage our reach for world dominance has caused here and abroad, but especially here.
That reach is primarily responsible for the yawning gap between our richest and poorest citizens and most of the resulting social pathology that plagues us today. It also consumed the bulk of the resources that could have otherwise built a more equitable society.
We now have the opportunity to build such a society, one that I have been struggling for over three decades as a disability activist, one that I dream of as I turn 76 and my young son turns four.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

This article starts with mention of the CIA. Perhaps we should keep in mind that they contributed more than their fair share to destroying the U.S. republic through such merry escapades as introducing crack cocaine into the inner cities to fund their illegal projects. Thanks a lot, guys!

I suppose tonight I'm grouchier than usual. I sit here sick with a sore throat & laryngitis, but because I was downsized out of my job of 22 years, I am unemployed and without health insurance. I understand that if I lived in France, I would have healthcare and the doctor would come to my house to see me. Tomorrow, if I am not on the mend and if I have the strength I may go to the hospital emergency room for treatment and request they waive the cost because I'm indigent. 35 years of working my rear-end off and paying taxes so I could wind-up begging for help, "hat-in-hand" as the old saying goes. Thank goodness "prosperity is just around the corner" (We have President Obama's promise on that).

I hope and pray that, just maybe, after the U.S. becomes an ordinary nation we citizens can get universal healthcare, retirement, vacations, daycare and free education for our children and grandchildren, etc. like all the other developed countries. Then again, probably not, because our new Chinese masters aren't going to allow it.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Now, America is now going upward despite of the crisis we had. They need to concentrate more on how to change the way they act to the government. Lets hope there will no chaos to America.

Good Luck Guys..

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

American peasants work in factories for 50 cents an hour to manufacture goods for China and India.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

the cia predicted Holland would be swallowed by the sea in 2015.
with 2000 years of experience our engineers and professionals were amused reading all the bullshit and lack of expertise.
Nowadays dutch companies repair levees in New Orleans. sometimes they wondere who decided to make on certain places these dykes.

George Orwell wrote in 1948 the book "1984"
the world in 3 big groups always fighting.
We thaught he predicted the future of a socialistic world.
It is worse; USA is socialistic for the rich and the bankers.
To survive;
If the janitor at Walmart stops dreaming he once will be the CEO and demands good salary and health care NOW.
USA is the greatest thing for mankind if the madness of the Capitalisme ends.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

our country is done for because the majority of its people are stupid and they want socialism/communism. go back in history and tell me if any socialist/communist country has succeeded. also what was the standard of living like for those people. the american dream is gone because people are to lazy and stupid to put in the hard work.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The rise of a Chinese empire (I don't see India as too much of a threat since they lack the resources of China) is much more disturbing, considering they haven't yet adopted environmental standards, worker's rights or even human rights.
I do not agree with you about what you said.you should go to China to find what it looks like.You should know more about one thing.And then what you said is convincing.Everthing should be on the base of facts. MTS Video Converter

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I agree that US dominance is waning, but the symptoms given in the article are not very pertinent ones - with the exception of the threat to the US dollar's reserve currency status.

The summer olympics didn't go to Chicago? Well, they usually don't go to the US. Even so, the US has hosted them far more often than anyone else.

Moscow and Beijing aren't following Washington's orders when it comes to Iran? That's new? Memorable even? Name me an instance when they did follow the US's orders. Preferably, from the 1945-1990 period.

Allies aren't lining up to fight in Afghanistan? Well, who lined up to fight in Vietnam?

I don't see much here that's changed. If anything, the US faces a lower threat, and less political competition, from foreign rivals than at any time in its history, with the exception of the short period after the fall of the Berlin Wall and before the election of George W Bush.

However, I do think that people who analyze the US's role, and who worry about its dominance, tend to forget that much of the world accepted that dominance voluntarily, out of trust that the US would live up to certain standards. This was in my opinion more important than trade or weapons. And the situation has changed radically. Today the loss of trust in the US's intentions and morality is the main reason US dominance is fading: people see no reason any more to accept US leadership, if it's not forced down their throats.

A second reason for the US's decline is the squeezing of its middle class. A country with only rich and poor is not a role model for anyone, nor a very interesting market.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I'm getting boxes popping up on alternet repeatedly for ad downloads. I click on both the "clear" box and the red dot. The ads download anyway. Anyone else having this happen? It happens nowhere else.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

MR. KLARE,


RE #3

IRAN IS HEADING FOR NUCLEAR ARMAMENT

When you have no will, and you have given up the leverage that Russia could have provided, “discussion” will now prove futile. Current strategy will allow Iran to continue apace the development of its nuclear weapons.

Obama gave up a powerful element when he backed off the Europe based missile shield without concessions from Putin.

OBAMA'S BLUNDER ON IRAN

Additional sanctions will achieve nothing other than hurt Iranians who will “blame” the West.

-------

RE #5

QUIT AFGHANISTAN – But not easily

The beautiful and delicate poppy that now paints the landscapes of Afghanistan with vibrant colors, has long been the symbol for sacrifice. The aesthetic is as soothing to the sense of sight, as it is exasperating to the conscience.

POPPY FIELDS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

Drastic action is required, … on the way out.

------------

You shouldn't discount American entrepreneurial spirit. Even bad government from the White House and Congress cannot destroy it, and neither can the pillaging from the likes of Goldman Sachs and their minions in the Admin.

Such spirit will continue to lead the world into the foreseeable future. It also cannot be found in either Beijing or Moscow, ... but keep looking. while you underestimate America.

Just remember that America is NOT ITS GOVERNMENT.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

that we stop telling other people how to live their lives and attend to the needs of our own people.
Our greatest might was never military, but our example of fairness, justice, and the fruitful lives of our people.
That is why we cannot win these wars the hearts and minds around the world.
We get no help from other countries, because we have turned our backs on our own people and our values.
Instead, we like to sap the life blood from the workers and the soil of our great lands, and try to do the same to all other countries.
Good foreign diplomacy starts with us being diplomatic to the least of our society. That is the gauge seen by the world. When we return to our values, the nations of the world will know that we will be fair with the least of them. Greatness can return.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]