Bush will not be impeached because there is enough die hard Bush supporters in congress to defeat it...

Maybe after the other party wins veto proof majorities in the house and senate and president positions they will impeach the president and send to where he belongs... Jail!!!

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

Chalmers said: “world forces are gathering to stop us” How they would I’m not sure or if such forces actually exist but America’s reaction to them would be extreme and we’d all perish. Clearly, this Administration’s choice would be “victory” or nothing.

Chalmers said: “Even though large numbers of voters vaguely suspect that the failings of the political system itself led the country into its current crisis, most evidently expect the system to perform a course correction more or less automatically.”

That’s right, we live in a fantasy world; not a single candidate has promised to revive the system of checks and balances. When the Democrats held the majority in the 2006 elections there was a great hurrah but since then only token laws have been passed while the bread and circus act by both parties goes on.

There are a lot of movements out there from those who have awakened to dismantle this empire: the Lincoln Initiative, those pushing a Constitutional Convention under Article V, those wanting to shut down the Federal Reserve System, and a dozen others. But maybe America is just too big to get its act together. A country like Denmark or Norway would wake up faster but the US has so many dimensions to it, so many different people and interests. Maybe we will probably revert to our barbaric past, to bloody riots and hangings in the streets when the lights go out.

Robert Lightfoot

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

The basics are right but realistically it will take more pain to the body politic before the message gets through to the voters.

The Democrats just promise more of the same albeit with a nicer face.

Perhaps if a real anti war candidate was to run - Like Ron Paul. Then todays internet connected world all the money that the "lead" candidates like Hilary Clinton or Obama would not be able roll back the tide of support for such an anti imperialist candidate.

Anyone up for the challange I wonder?

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

That "empire thing" is just a smokescreen to hide your TRUE ILLS! The WOUND is still there, and now probobly BIGGER then ever before!

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

Great essay, a real piece of work. The "must" do items, reverse our stance in Iraq and fiscally at home will never happen.

Didn't you hear the applause for Romney, etc., last night when he said the prisons need to be doubled?

Makes me sick, but Americans have turned into self-centered redneck assholes.

When I was growing up, in late fifties, sixties, and early seventies, we wanted to be educated, sophisticated, aware of the world, and we wanted to grow out of our provincial roots.

But there has been a regression, and I wish someone could tell me why, and how it happened.

For the last many years, I think, provincialism, backward small thinking has taken hold everywhere. Even Hip-hop is a provincialism gone huge, for example.

Largely, this war and the way Bush operates reflects mainstream Amerika.

Nothing will change.

No one is going to revolt, not even if we have another depression.

Maybe part of our culture has grown mentally, the internet part, but the rest of Amerika is a bunch of self-centered lazy narrowminded uneducated rednecks.

Nothing will change.

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

I agree and see NO WAY of turning this situation around. US are our enemy and we WILL bite the dust. How did it happen? It came from the top. Yes, greed at the top! Very skillful brain washing with associated economic/educational manlpulations have turned US citizens into an army of marionettes.

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

When all the same elements in the Weimar Regime, before Nazi Germany, German corporate, capitalist olligarchy: the servile corrupted middle classes, themselves corrupting class ideologistst, apppeasing class whores, to the the class thugs, Brownshirts, Nazis, alongside the unemployed workers and lower middle classes, was in play, in crisis, the role of ideology and hisotry determined the crossroads between class despotism, class democracy, morphing into class tyranny, Class Empire of Western corporate fascism, or revolutionary democracy or socialism. This same set of extreme relations, exists today with the Corporate and State Police-fascist Powers make up the Corporate Fascism of Amerika, with its fascist foreign policies.

At the time Leon Trotsky, the exiled Russian revolutionary was writing profusely about the failures of ideology, strategy to fight this march towards Nazi Empire. Unlike Amerika, Germany had two working class parites, although both fatally corrupted by either internal class corruption, the appeasing social democrats, class whores, or by the external class corruption, class nationalism of the Stalinist parties, themselves corrupted, willingly, by bureaucrats, following the same appeasing fatal class strategies, appeasing class nationalism, of Western global capitalism. They both had their desired effect for the class nationalists, nazis, rednecks, whose two working class parties were divided, and who had no international stategy in place to stop the Nazi class Empire.

In Amerika we have the same class appeasing whores, class liberals, who routinely capitulate to the corporate and fascist imperial interests, and class thugs of the Republicans, Neocons, and Zionist fascists, cheerleading insane imperial wars, where Bolton and Cheney can Goosestep towards another Imperial war against Iran, while the so called "rock stars", the Corporate media designates, its class whores, Barack O Bama and Hillary Clinton, who grovel not only at the feet of AIPAC, the Israeli warmongering lobby in Amerika, but also servile to its own Class nationalism, imperialism.

The combined strategy and ideological tools that Trotsky exhorted and warned was needed, in his book, work: The Struggle against Fascism in Germany, was to get both the middle layers, and working classes to form an alliance, based on universal standards, not class standards, with their own parties based on social justice and democracy. The purpose of an uncorrupted class ideology, was to dismantle the corrupted middle layers, its link to Western capitalist oligarchy, the corrupt link which produces the class mechanism, between inherent wholesale corruption, servility by class hierarchies to Corporate thugs, and the reconstructing the universal link back to a fully developed, cohesive middle layered alliance between the workers and middle classes, to re-connect to the inherent universal center of such a middle edifice, instead of the right wing corrupting shift by oligarchy, that calls the universal center, moral center, and revolutionary classes the left, only because their center, class standards are all corrupted to the right.

The left is the true center of agency, universal morality, and actors which can fight this Class rot and criminality, providing it has not degenerated, by failed strategies, between internal class corruption or external class corruption, between isolated, national struggles, that are not based on international strategies, the very same framework that the Enlightenment, revolutionary liberals, before them, based their world outlook. Yes, folks, ideology, history, and strategies are the stuff between an end, permamently to 2000 years of class rule or another fascist, disaster on top of Vietnam, Iraq, and the Middle East. Will we learn???

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

One concrete lesson is that the lack of Congressional power in this latest escapade indicates the real need to move away from the Unitary Executive and begin to increase the powers of Congress. This includes proportional representation of parties, limiting Presidential warmaking powers, increasing civilian state disaster response corps to restrict size of the states' National Guards, increase reparations to Iraq through tax increases and pay for crimes by Hussein for crimes against the Kurds through oil royalties from US and Iraqi sources and campaign finance reform and abolishment of the Electoral College.

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

Really good article! But I would add that our movement to be the next big empire goes back 100 years. Reagan and this particular Bush have brought it to its disastrous climax!

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

The First History Lesson that is needed is for the people to understand the difference between a Democracy and a Republic. It isn't symantics, it is a valuable lesson. These two writers make the same fatal flaw as so many when they describe us as a democracy.

This is a Republic. Democracies allow a nation to be imperial. The Republic as set up under our Constitution and Bill of Rights does not. The problem is that today every politician and nearly every person operates and thinks like we are a democracy. The way the Senate is elected now is democracy not the original republic. The way our President's rule is democracy not the original republic.

It is fundamental that we go back and learn exactly why our founders adhored a democracy and founded us as a republic. Unless we stop this fatal error the empire will just continue to operate as it does now and nothing will change.

When I read supposed educated people's writings and they talk about "our democracy", I realize they don't know what they are talking about. Until we learn this history lesson and force our now democracy to go back to being a Republic, all that these writers have to say is mute, worthless rubbish because you have to cure the disease in order to restore the health.Democracy is the disease and the Republic is health.

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

Assume for a moment that George W. is what many detractors believe -- a presidential puppet with invisible strings pulled by someone on his White House staff. If so, who could the Oval Office Svengali be?

ANSWER: Shrub's side-talking sidekick, if course, not Karl Rove.

Look at Dick Cheney's background. Like Rove, he was a Vietnam War draft dodger but with loftier ambitions. Rather than a political guru, the future Veep wanted to be the man in charge, a leader.

Cheney had that chance by taking college ROTC at the University of Wyoming and becoming a commissioned Reserve officer, but there were two strikes against him.

First, he looked like a nerd with his big head (literally) and pudgy body. Perfect road kill material for drill sergeants at ROTC summer camp.

The second strike against Cheney was his lack of bravery. What better way to avoid risky military duty and get ahead in life following graduation then by becoming a politician? And so he did -- in Washington, D.C. -- after five draft deferments, flunking out of college once and getting two DUIs on his driving record. Ideal credentials for a Beltway insider.

Cheney's rise to power in Washington was both remarkable and intentional as his official White House biography shows. In 1969, while other men his age defended freedom in Southeast Asia, he ran for cover in the Nixon administration.

When Gerald Ford assumed the presidency in 1974, Cheney served on the transition team and later as Deputy Assistant to the President. In 1975, he was named White House Chief of Staff, a position he held throughout the remainder of Ford's term.

In 1977, Cheney was elected as Wyoming's congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives. His home state re-elected him five times. He also acted as Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee from 1981 to 1987 and was elected House Minority Whip in 1988.

Cheney later served as Secretary of Defense in the Bush 41 administration. The White House biography makes no mention of him running Halliburton where he obtained Defense Department business worth billions to the diversified oil company from the "single-source" no-bid contract system he created while DOD Secretary.

In 1997, to advance his rightwing extremist (neoconservative) philosophy and influence Congress and officials in the Clinton administration, Cheney joined 24 other prominent GOP hawks and formed the neocon front organization, Project for a New American Century (PNAC).

The other PNAC founders included fellow future Gulf War 2 architects Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Scooter Libby. Bush 43 is connected to PNAC through his brother, Jeb, an original member.

Also ignored in Cheney’s White House biography was his role on George W.s presidential campaign team during the 2000 GOP convention.

Assigned the task of selecting candidate Bush's running mate, Richard the Chicken-hearted picked himself, completing his self-propelled rise to power as America's REAL commander-in-chief. A dream come true, unfortunately for 29,000 U.S military personnel killed and wounded in the PNAC-promoted occupation of Iraq.

As tempting as impeachment is for President Bush, with time running out on his second term, Democrats in the House of Representatives should begin proceedings against Cheney and let history books hang his boss -- to swing slowly in disgrace for ad infinitum.

(Extracted from King-George.biz -- the only website with hardcopy proof of White House corruption.)

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

"Most of them can be traced to the militarism and imperialism that have led to the near-collapse of our Constitutional system of checks and balances."

IMHO The militarism and imperialism are just one more symptom of our underlying problem. Our problem is that we, the people, are not in control of our government. The corporate establishment is in control.

All other problems are secondary. How can the corporatocracy consider a war with Iran, which the majority of citzens don't support, while continuing a war in Iran that the citizens don't support? Because the citizens have no effect on the government.

Blaming Bush and voting him and his cronies out, will only buy the establishment four more years of control with the "Democrats in power". It will give the illusion of a victory for the people, while the corporate establishment remains in control.

Our both parties are servants of the corporatocracy. We won't be free until both paeries are servants of the people.
Bob Reichenbach,
Director, The Lincoln Initiative.

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

America has a golden opportunity in 2008. Dr. Ron Paul is running for the Republican Presidential nomination and his campaign is gaining momentum. He is slaughtering the so-called "front runners" in the debates and his discourse is miles above that of the fear-peddlers. Dr. Paul's suggestion that Islamic hatred towards America might have something to do with Western interventionalist (i.e. imperial) policies was countered by Guiliani spewing the same garbage of "they hate our freedom." One would think ol' Rudy was running for President of 9/11 (see www.theonion.com for some great satire)!!!

Most of the stuff published on Alternet is pure drivel. If you have not read the Constitution of the United States I suggest you do so. Dr. Paul wants to reset our government to a Constitutional Republic as outlined by the founding fathers. He wants to get rid of the Federal Reserve, income tax, inflation tax, the police state AND stop our imperialist policies! What he is proposing, and articluating his arguments for extremely effectively, is RADICAL CHANGE. You will not get that from Obama, Hillary, Edwards, Gore, et. al. You will get more of the same from those clowns, all of whom are bought and paid for.

The MSM is scared of Ron Paul and with good reason. They are censoring his debate success and smearing him every chance they get, especially FOX! The establishment is scared of Ron Paul and with good reason! Alternet progressives - your candidate is sitting on the other side of the room! Abortion, gun control, gay rights, and all of the other sacred cows need to go on the back burner for now. We must SAVE THE REPUBLIC before it is too late! Hold your noses and register as a Republican so you can vote in the primaries. Ron Paul in 2008!

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

The author doesn't go far enough, in my opinion, but this is an excellent start. Unfortunately, I have so little faith in my fellows that I can't imagine any popular uprising against the system. And since the Military Commissions Act it is obvious that we have already entered the tyranny of the late Roman Empire. As no candidate (a year and a half before the election! That's a sign of the last days in itself) has come out demanding the repeal of the Military Commissions Act and its concommitant horrors, the system obviously will not correct itself and cannot be depended on.

I suppose the only real hope we have is the complete collapse of our current economic system and the energy system it is based on (cheap oil). If the military doesn't have electricity or fuel, it wouldn't be able to run its computers to track the offending populace and might not be able to drop bombs on U.S. citizens or other countries.

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

This piece was a brilliant analysis of the decline of the American republic and emergence of the corrupt, militaristic, neofascist American Empire. But unfortunately, the steps that he recommends to reverse this process and restore integrity to our Constitutional system, while essential, are effectively impossible. The system has too much entropy to reverse its decay into self-propagating tyranny.

How do you "mobilize" the American public, when that public is brainwashed, 24/7, by a vast corporate media empire that is in very few hands, all in cahoots with the regime and with the Military Industrial Complex? Indeed, the vast majority of Americans, Internet notwithstanding, live inside a vast media bubble, a virtual reality created expressly to maintain the imperial status quo. Why else is the well-established fact that both the Kennedy assassination and 9/11 were inside jobs still ignored by the mass media, while anyone who alludes to this is treated with withering contempt and dismissal?

When a flower blooms and withers, nothing will bring back the bloom. The same, I fear, applies to the life-cycle of civilizations. There was a time, in the late 50s and early 60s, when it seemed as if we could truly reach our potential, a mighty, affluent, yet benevolent nation, universally admired, with a truly free press, and with a deep and abiding commitment to freedom, justice, and equal opportunity for all. Even then it was a dream, of course, but the dream was at least plausible--at least it was dreamable.

But as Eisenhower sagaciously warned us, the writing was already on the wall with the emerging Military-Industrial Complex, and when Kennedy threatened to reverse the rot by dissolving the CIA and withdrawing from Vietnam, they simply rubbed him out, along with his brother and Martin Luther King. The malignant gang that then seized power has expanded it ever since, with the brief respite of the Carter years, (when, for a short spell, the ideas of "human rights" and "energy conservation" were reintroduced into public discourse--only to be ridiculed mercilessly by the emerging Right-Wing punditocracy, and abandoned during the Reagan years) --and with the stolen elections of 2000 and 2004, the corporate/military takeover of America was complete. It has been all downhill from there, with increasing velocity.

So I fear that the true America is dead, (RIP--July 4, 1776 to December 12, 2000) while the zombie state of Corporate Amerika, despite declining public support, continues to murderously stalk the planet and pursue its brutal, hegemonic agenda. Nothing will stop this brutal empire now, except its own imminent inner collapse into chaos, random violence, evangelical hysteria, and cold-blooded tyranny, triggered by the peak and decline of world petroleum, economic decline due to mounting deficits, and ecological collapse due to global warming. Welcome to the future!

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

"...we will lose our democracy, and then it will not matter much what else we lose."

Oh Please. there are a hell of lot of things I care more about losing than about this plastic, fake democracy. Family, friends, job, money... Take away the fake demockracy and people would barely notice. The empire of the rich would still go on - that's the real power center anyway.

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

Plastic fake democracy? American empire? Please please people, realize you can leave. Go somewhere else where you criticize your government. Go ahead and make crude and rude comments about your president. It's not our fault if you end up in a mass grave.

If the USA really wanted an empire, then why didn't we keep it all when we had soldiers in just about every country in Europe at the conclusion of WWII. We occupied almost the entire far-east as well. Instead we came up with the Marshall Plan, and we built up and gave back the countries we just defeated. Just as we are trying to do in Iraq.

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

If you look at the British empire, it was only rolled back after massive attacks both from the Nazis (WWII) and the anti-imperialist forces across the empire. The British did not give up until they were forced to give it up.

I believe the US will never give up their current hegemonic role for the following reasons:

1) International bodies are effectively worthless and useless at guaranteeing global security
2) Countries like Iran and North Korea are hardly in the position of spreading goodwill around the world
3) The global economy still needs the US, no matter what China and Europe say
4) In history power is never given up willingly, it is taken

I say get ready for the ride because it will be a wild one. I always use my sister-in-law as a bellweather of mainstream opnion and response to global events. So, what has she been up to in the past six years? Well having kids, buying real estate, and reading gossip and celebrity magazines. She has serious attention deficit syndrome and can never hold a conversation on anything meaningful for more than a few minutes before starting to babble something about what she saw on the TV. She is totally disengaged from any movement, she has no interest in getting involved. She has never shown any courage or intelligence when it comes to pursuing stories (she is a journalist) and basically sees the media as a big show (she is blonde). And it is in her that rests our future God bless her. She is the norm, the average, the bedrock that makes sure everything will carry on as it does today.

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

Chalmers Johnson:
For the U.S., the decision to mount such a campaign of imperial liquidation may already come too late, given the vast and deeply entrenched interests of the military-industrial complex. To succeed, such an endeavor might virtually require a revolutionary mobilization of the American citizenry, one at least comparable to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Well, why not? The marches on Washington that the current anti-war movement has organized have been bigger than anything organized by the 60's civil rights movement. A large majority of Americans strongly oppose the war and want it over, the economic costs of the war are starting to be felt across the country, and the failure of Congress to act has millions of people looking for alternatives.

Isn't this the perfect moment to organize the " revolutionary mobilization of the American citizenry" that Johnson calls for?

And what do we see here, instead? Defeatism and depression. Some commenters here whine that the "Presidential candidates" haven't taken up our issues. When have politicians in general, let alone Presidential candidates, ever led the movement for social change? Did the civil rights activists of the 60's wait for Lyndon Johson to take up their cause?

Other commenters engage in lazy generalizations about how the American people are mindless consumerist automatons, unquestioningly swallowing the lies fed to them by their government. When I see comments like this, I wonder what planet the commenter is living on. How can people not see the enormous discontent, questioning and even rebellion that is brewing?

Here's a suggestion: before commenting, in this thread, or any other, think of the things a paid agent of the government might write: "reistance is futile", "nothing will ever change", etc. And then WRITE SOMETHING DIFFERENT.

We are the people we've been waiting for, so let's get busy.

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

Chalmers Johnson's assessment of the American empire and its impending demise is spot on. Face it, there are no politicians of either mainstream party, perhaps with the exception of Dennis Kucinich, willing to take on the military-aerospace-security-industry complex.

Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, the United States of America is doomed.

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

The comments on this article are exactly what America needs. Obviously at least a few of us have been paying attention to the mess that has been developing around us. The big question is. "What can we do to wake up the masses of consumerist morons?"

http://e-tabitha.com/WakeUp.htm

http://e-tabitha.com/timeline.htm

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

For those who believe in "development," no matter the cost, our empire of military bases provides enough international stability for international capitalists (including the Russians and Chinese) to hope to catch up to the US.

Johnson's diagnosis of the etiology of our current disease misses the point about how world leaders approve of the American empire. We had the cover story of being the good guy to expand it. Now that we have showed we are no more capable (American exceptionalism) of empire than every other dictatorship in human history, some criticism has begun to emerge--what's going on in South America is amazing, but very fragile.

We need a change. But that's the last thing that empires want. Their whole purpose is to resist change. So will the US begin to lead change or must we wait for the equivalent of the sacking and re-sacking of Rome?

Things will have to get a whole lot worse before Americans vote for change.

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

I don't accept the charicature of Americans promoted by many here, as "spoiled consumerist morons", but what if it were true?

Are people besotted with their own comfort going to go off and police the frontiers of a world empire? Of course not.

I live in a University town, and whenever I see a spoiled frat boy engaged in the single-minded pursuit of his own pleasure while others die thousands of miles away, I think: "Well, at least he's not going to sign up with the Marines."

In the end, that frat boy has exactly the same impact in the military machine as the most principled conscientious objector: whatever his reasons, he's depriving that machine of cannon fodder.

And, in the end, that's why we'll be forced to leave Iraq, and why we won't be the globe-straddling empire the neocons dream of. The army is in a state of near-collapse now, as tours of duty are progressively lengthened to make up for the shortage of recruits.

So, on that happy day when the last helicopter lifts off the roof of the US embassy in Baghdad, be sure to thank a frat boy.

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

Chalmers Johnson has done a great service to America by
pointing out in clear terms, with great intellectual integrity,
the insights gained in a career working in foreign policy at
the national level.

This is what intelligence really looks like.

No change can begin without the work of identifying issues
in clear and specific terms, and raising consciousness about
them.

This is really the first time that such a clear statement of the
scope of the international situation America has gotten itself
into has been put forward that I can remember.

The Bush administration has certainly called into question
the validity of the approach that has been in effect since
World War II.

If as a citizen, we look at this, and consider the connections
with Al Gore's work to raise consciousness about Climate
Change, the 30-year follow up to the 1972 work "Limits
to Growth" and other great attempts to grasp our global
circumstance, we see a set of large problems.

It isn't enough to say that these are too large for us to deal
with and we don't see how change on such a scale is possible.

The reason that people running for office don't address these
kinds of issues is because they feel that people's nervous
systems will just kind of go into shock and paralysis.

To become an activist in this area, you look for the small
opportunities to get a word in edgewise here and there for the
change in outlook needed to start steering the system in a
different direction.

Circumstances like rising oil prices provide an opportunity,
and there are others as well.

It is a wonderful thing that there are people like Chalmers
Johnson working to put a rigorous intellectual effort behind
career insights so they can be put before the public and
inform the debate.

He is right. We must change the way the system is reluctant
to address the Military-Industrial-Congressional complex or
we will lose the American Revolution. If that change takes
the next couple of generations, then so be it. Let the process
start. Raise Consciousness. Activate.

As Dylan Thomas wrote:
"Rage, rage against the dying of the light
Do no go gentle into that good night."

We are talking about the death of America here.

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

I've read all of Mr. Johnson's books and like a lot of what he writes. American militerism is a threat to democracy, not only around the world, but eventually in the United States itself. However, I don't agree with the central premise of this current article.

Chalmers Johnson believes/hopes that the United States can emulate Great Britain and voluntarily dismantle its empire in much the same way Britain did after the second world war. Unfortuanately I don't believe this idea and comparison is historically accurate. Britain didn't "voluntarily" turn its back on empire. Britain was forced to abandon empire because the empire and the country was bankrupt and exhausted by the emmense costs of desparately trying to hold on to the empire. There was no real choice here, Britain was forced to give up the empire after fighting two terrible wars against Germany over who would be the major power in Europe. Both the first and second world wars can be seen as "imperialist wars" about the fruits of empire. Britain's problem was, how to stop the rise of Germany, and it fought two wars over this. Perhaps this is the real lesson we should learn from Britain's experience? It's not as if the the cost of fighting Germany wasn't appriciated at the time. There were those in Britain who didn't want to fight Germany at the cost of losing the empire, only they lost out to those who believed it was possible to defeat Germany and save the empire - they were wrong. The Germans actually wanted to come to an accomodation with Britain at the start of the second world war. Basically the deal was this, give us a free hand in Europe and we'll let you keep your empire.

Britain may have been on the winning side in World War Two, but in reality Britain lost almost everything it was supposedly fighting for. One could argue that Britain chose to commit suicide rather than accept the rise of Germany. Are there any lessons the United States can learn from this?

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

"we will lose our democracy" What a joke! We lost our democracy years ago, G.W. Bush needs to be removed as the dictator he is, and give him the trial he deserves.

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

Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex
Dwight David Eisenhower warned us of this threat long ago.

from Chalmers:
"I believe that there is only one solution to the crisis we face. The American people must make the decision to dismantle both the empire that has been created in their name and the huge (still growing) military establishment that undergirds it."

I am in complete agreement with 99.9 percent of Chalmers Analysis.
It is in the best interest of all grassroots to the reestablishment of real democracy in this country.

PERHAPS THEN OTHER COUNTRYS WOULD LIKE TO TRY DEMOCRICY.

one man one vote

William Greybeard

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

We lost it once again when the Patriot Act was ratified in the early morning hours with nary a bit of scrutiny by most politicians OR the wider public. It was stripped from us later when Warner's "Defense Authorization Act" was rammed through congress. We lost it when our phones were illegally tapped, our electronic communications monitored and "terrorists" thrown down a hole in Cuba without so much as a glimpse of a fair trial on the horizon.


And the final reason we'll lose any remaining shred of, ahem, democracy is utter complacency. Americans have successfully been distracted by Bread and Circuses, i.e. "Paris Hilton Goes To Jail", "Who Is Lindsay Lohan Fucking Now?", and who could forget the Anna Nicole Smith Saga. The masses don't seem the least bit concerned that were in an $8.8 trillion hole, spending a currency that is literally devaluing by the minute while the stock market rockets towards 14K (in spite of an endless money pit of a war). I hate to say this, but from an economic standpoint, the only way the US can stay afloat is by securing (aka, submission through slaughter) Iraq and absconding with a trillion barrels of oil. That's not an endorsement by any means, but with a $12 trillion economy crafted from smoke and mirrors, BushCo has few remaining options.

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

I'm up for the challenge and support RON PAUL to lead us back to a civilized society. Come on people...back him all the way to the white house!

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

Of course catching bush in a sex scandal will not happen ... but would that cause him to be impeached? Let's see, stolen elections, 9/11 inside job, lies, torture, no wmd in Iraq, war profiteering, and so on do not seem to be reasons enough for impeachment. What will happen to America?

Aimee
DataOptions.com

PS: I believe the Democrats and the Republicans are the same. They have been pretending to have differences but have been on the same side all along. We've been scammed.

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

The real government is not Bush. It is the corporate-industrial-military system. And that will not change if the Democrats get back into power. What we need is Revolution.

This article did not even mention the Environment. The way things are going- there will not be much left to fight over soon.

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

Comments are informative and mostly the unfocused bleating of sheeple. Spyder asks: What can WE do?
Tielis says nihilistically: Just sigh as you sink into the quicksand. SteveB says march agressively.

I have no solution, just thoughts. Here's a start.

Congress is the seat of US power. Were this not true K Street wouldn't bother to bribe them. So, how can we fill congress with populists not self serving whores? My opinion is that only a new party can bring needed change and the party's gestation must be accompanied by "clean elections" which can come only after a battle royale. But that battleground will focus attention on the true conflict: corporations and military industrialism versus a common desire to renounce "empire" by those fighting for "constitutional governance".

How to start? Convene a gathering of foremost progressives organized by Truthdig and others with the objective to win the clean elections battle, to mull strategy for 2008 and beyond.
Not rocket science and probably more than a little naive but IT IS A START not a declaration of surrender.

Having fought two wars for Uncle and also fathered grandchildren I can't decide which was the greater crime.

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

Glancing at a nation which thinks nothing of letting its fellow citizens starve and die in murky water (New Orleans) and continues its foreign occupation(s) nonetheless, it's hard to believe the sickness can be reversed. I believe more Americans are awake than at any point since the mid 1970's, yet government has gotten so cojoined with big business that at this point, does it really matter if the citizens are awake or not? As far as being "awake", however, I wonder if we truly are when we on the one hand, protest the oil war Iraq while on the other hand, declare it out God-given right to consume (which incidentally, is why we're in Iraq).

Things are quite terrible if you know what's really going on and in my mind, it will take not document signing, but a revolution to change the current course. I doubt, however, that Americans have the stomachs nor nerves (or bodies and minds) to revolt against an oppressive system? After all, it is comfortable in the Empire...if you can afford it.

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

I thought about the use of the word morons when I made that post, and, in retrospect, I should not have been derogatory. I wish I really knew the answer to this problem, but I don't. Can you say that people are highly intelligent for spending their leisure time watching American Idol instead of PBS? Why can't we stop the madness? Why can't we stop clogging our freeways with solo drivers of SUV's? Why can't we vote for intelligent candidates, instead of the ones who best appeal to our selfish fears?

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

though we have beaten Germany and Japan during WWll, they have struck back with their engineering, such as Toyota, BMW, Dalimer Benz, and China, with their cheap labor.

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

italics are annoying

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

Fabulous article, but, as usual, preaching to the choir. All in America should hear his facts, arguments, but I fear the average American is too ignorant, will not read, comprehend, and have the guts to do some action. Which is so heart-breaking, because the true America was founded on revolution, and protected from disintegration by defending itself during the secession efforts of the Civil War. But now, I'm afraid, that we are only a nation of platitudes about our great military might, and a nation that tunes out on "American Idol" and other trash on TV. I don't mean that I have lost hope -- the eternal optimist and activist, because I'm so enthralled by the true American ideals, as they were originally conceived -- and I see so much concern and activism nowadays, as compared to the years past. I read some of the comments before I started writing, and Ron Paul was mentioned -- how about Mike Gravel? He speaks his mind, and it is for the American people and the American government, with checks and balances, as it was meant to perform. And there's always Bernie Sanders, whose total purpose is to fight for people -- the ONLY Senator who stood up to the FDA and the pharmaceuticals of all the wimps in the Senate. But would they be elected? -- No. American people are too scared of change, too scared of voting outside the major money candidates. I have reiterated so often, that, by demonstrating, lobbying, writing letters, I am a true American, exercising my citizen rights -- yet, many would consider me to be radical for doing those things. Wouldn't you like to be dictator for a day, and eliminate all the trash that exists in the government?

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

It's very good to see the information about the violence that US Soldiers exercise upon civilians.

It is often overlooked in the midst of the rhetoric of Support the troops, and how they embody the best of the Nation. How many times have I heard and read heroic descriptions of John McCain. Several vietnam vets I met over the years utterly despised the civilians they delat with.

I know it's only one poll but it's something.

I'm often puzzled by how Americans are so naive in their belief that soldiers are just good guys put into bad situations and not human beings with all the bagage of racism, sexism and nationalism that is so prevalent to mainstream US culture.

And these observations are directed at all ethnic groups and not just one group, because the patriotic slaughter of poor people in other countries is done by white, black and Latino soldiers alike.

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

I am a University of Minnesota professor studying the role of music in movements. If you would be willing to fill out a short, five-question survey on the topic, please go to http://www.tc.umn.edu/~pedeltmh/Survey/Welcome.html.

I thought those who would read this story might be interested.

Thank you!

Mark Pedelty
Associate Professor
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of Minnesota
(612) 625-6383
pedeltmh@umn.edu

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

It’s all very nice that there is a huge response to this essay. I have seen essays like this come and go over the years. I have also seen responses to this essays in years past to. We are all a bunch of talker and not doers. Do you really believe that this essay and all the responses will have any affect on the people who actually run this country? And please take the blinders off and stop drinking the Kool-Aid. The democrats and republicans who are in power are drinking from the same corporate trough and we do nothing about it. Why do you think we have continuous conflicts around the globe? The purveyors of death who are the arms dealers, oil merchants and global bankers have made unimaginable profits on the back of humanity. They will not give up there death grip on us because a few us write words of complaint. They have the power. They own us.
We in this country have been so entrained not to question this so called authority. We pay our taxes, if not the IRS will take your house away and garnish your wages. We watch WWF, NFL, NHL, NCAA, CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX while eating our MC Donald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, Krispy Kreme, Cheesecake Factory and drinking Coke, Pepsi, Starbucks and Red Bull. When we start feeling bad we take our TUMS to settle our stomachs. Taking PROZAC is now a family affair to make us feel happy continuously because the self medicated shopping spree to get the latest Apple Ipod, Nintendo Wii, razor cell phone or Ray Bans has started to wear off. We don’t want to face that we are wage slaves working longer hours for less and at the same time piling up the debt so we can buy crap that we don’t need and that doesn’t make us happy. Thank you Edward Bernays and Madison Avenue, we couldn’t feel this way without you. Please raise your hands if you like what this country has become. I thought so. The hard part is the doing part. The thirteen colonies did it. Gandhi did it…Martin Luther King did it… it won’t be easy but a big dose of courage is what is needed to get us started. Only you and I will be able to change what we have become. Who is with us…?

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

......I take issue with one point he makes. I think it's risky to go on perpetuating the myth that the American people didn't object to Bush's war because the press didn't give them enough information, the media fell down on the job, etc. I beg to differ; I and every last person in my email address book knew EXACTLY what Bush was doing and knew better than to rely on the silly TV news and NYT/WashPost palaver to tell us the truth. And we're just a bunch of midwesterners with Internet connections and bachelor's degrees from state schools - we're no pack of sophisticated intellectuals or juiced-in insiders.

What we WERE, however, was a pack of ordinary Americans committed to holding up our end of the bargain vis a vis "an informed electorate." WE were the real patriots; WE took the trouble to look past the MSM because we knew they were lying down on the job. So to Mr. Johnson, I pose this question: how come a whole bunch of us in this country knew very well, right from the get-go, what a cabal of lying, amoral, thieving SOBs BushCo comprised and knew what they were up to in spite of the MSM's abject failure? You really can't blame the media, at the end of the day, any more than you can blame Bush for this wretched state of affairs. If people would have gotten off their ass and done the work it takes to safeguard a democracy, neither the media nor the administration could have gotten away with their gimmicks. Yellow ribbons on cars are not a true measure of being a genuine, committed American citizen.

The fault always lies with the populace when an empire fails.

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

To gauge the mood of America consider the recent Republican debate in which Guilliani skewered Ron Paul when Paul simply tried to point out how American actions (ie, bombing Iraq, an ever expanding network of bases, etc.) could easily be seen as fueling terrorist sentiment. With massive crowd adulation, Guilliani pontificated how he saw Paul's argument as baseless. The fact that Guilliani could do this, plus his actions which are now being media portrated as demonstrating "presidential character," shows how far and how effectively the "terrorist card" can be played. Make no mistake about it, empire America will continue under Guilliani, as it will under Hillary. The "war on terrorism," is the ever present and ever transcending justification. The justification for Empire, for illegal wiretapping, for torture, for massive government incompetency, for a fruiltless and destabilizing war in Iraq. As for liberals "taking it to the streets," that sounds fine in written language, but look at the adulation Guilliani received. The "911 hero," again ready to "save the day." The population of America is, unfortunately, as ignorant as ever, as stupid as ever. They will label you a "terrorist," and ship you off to Guantanamo never, never, land, in a heartbeat. Freedom of speech is gone, if you have not noticed.

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

In reading this article, it made me smile somewhat because the author whio is a Progresive is making many of the same points that Pat Bucahan made in his book" America: A Republic NOT an Emprire"

The point I am making is that we all need to learn to coalesce on important matters like this and forget where we disagree. Many, many Blue Dog Democrats like myself voted for Buchahan in the past and would than be happy to vote for Ron Paul or others of whatever party that realize how the American Republic is being destroyed by the leaders of both the GOP and DP.

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

Good analysis; great suggestions. I would like to see more discussion on the "WHY" aspect of how we got into this mess. Incompetence only goes so far. Complicity and long-range planning go much farther. I think that "success" and "failure" in Iraq were never really anything more than PR props. We now speak of the so-called "failed" policy in Iraq and elsewhere... but certainly it has not been a failure for all. I wish there were a daily media spotlight on those who profit. Surely there are entities and indiviuals who stand to gain by things staying horribly botched up forever. Perpetual "failure" is worth so much money, in fact, that it's worth the eventuality of publicly admitting wrong; worth losing elections, even worth having a few scapegoats stand trial now and then (which, relatively speaking, has as much impact as the next-door-neighbor of a mob boss getting a jaywalking ticket).

Let's pay attention to the structures that have been created that will continue to generate profit regardless of any "outcome" of official policy in Iraq and elsewhere. This is when the spectre of a privatized military as described so well by Scahill really looms large.

Yes, there has been incompetence. But I think that profiteering on such a monumental scale is more often generated (and protected) through careful planning.

The best lesson of the Watergate Era still resonates: Follow the money.

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

Learn what Empire means. Have you ever heard of "corporate imperialism" and/or "economic imperialism". Never mind the military bases we have scattered throughout the world, much to the ire of many of those nations' people. Simply there because the leader is a US installed puppet, or in fear of us ousting them for a US installed puppet.

Once again, you let off a tirade based on ideas and concepts from a 1940's history book, with no update in world politics, foreign affairs, and global empires. Just because we don't fit under the definition of "Mother England's Empire", or the attempted "German Empire", it does not mean we are not an empire.

The bottom line...post after post, you advocate empire building, and you think we should be the "world police." So don't say that we not empire building, just because you advocate courses of action that would make us an "old-world" empire. You are frustrated that we are nor empire building as you would like, that does not mean we are not empire building.

You are so good at making everyone else look so smart. I only wish more republicans would openly spout as much nonsense as you do, than the entire party would be at Bush's approval rating level.

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

all web-sites like this and others have people...but no-one to oraganize around. All the thrid parties are fragmented special interest parties (other than Libertarians, but they love corporations too much). The only way is through mass-media attention...and that's hard to get for progressive ideas!!!!!!!!!

Colbert is where the challenge needs to go. I don't agree with him always, and very few progressives agree always, but damn it we need to put aside the small differences and let a new government that represents the people work those out...lets just get the new gov't in power!!!!.

He is a personality heard by millions...and an independent or third party candidate that got his support could actually get some attention.

Help us Stephen Colbert..you're our only hope....

Idea to get his attention...remember his Star Wars green Screen challenge. Any CG folks out there? We nee to send him one with the R2D2 "help me obi-wan kanobi you're my only hope" clip edited as above.

C'mon lets get his attention!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he loves nothong more than self-glorifiaction...so let's feed it!!!!!!!!!

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

A brilliant man with a good analysis, but he's an historian, not a critic. We have already lost our democracy, so the analysis is just a post mortem, not a call to action...If the head is rotten, the entire body is rotten, and surely no one could argue that Bush is not rotten: unprincipled, unconstitutional, immoral, unethical (and these are just the good things you can say about him). And Congress? Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rove (if it were possible), Gonzales--all impeachable and un-American...No, sorry Chalmers, it's already over. Live with it.

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

This is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. The juxtaposition of those two attributes is NO accident. It takes BRAVE people to be free. But not in the macho, "ours is bigger that yours", football hero, penis comparison "bravery" sense -- that is NOT bravery; that is bullying. It takes NO balls to be "brave" hiding behind nuclear weapons and attacking third world nations that have no navy, air force, and no means of counter invasion and I challenge anyone to prove otherwise.

When I was a youth this nation faced REAL threats to its existence; we lived everyday with the sure and certain knowledge that the ENTIRE nation was always less than 20 minutes away from nuclear annihilation. Yet we got on with our lives; built a sound economy; became the manufacturing and research and development center of the world; raised our families; and generally enjoyed life to the fullest.

Today's "American" is a fearful whiney child by comparison. Afraid of an old man in a cave leading a hand full of ignorant illiterate goat-herders and that has no navy, air force; ballistic missiles; no artillery; no tanks; and not a single combat infantry brigade. These whiney childish gutless idiots have brought this nation to a near standstill economically by diversion of almost all of our capital investment to military purposes. You want to know WHY the manufacturing jobs are leaving this nation? Why the housing market is collapsing? It is NOT the popular B.S. espoused by government economist intellectual whores. A la "cheap labor"; "international economic differentials", "evil foreign cartels", etc.

We have ALWAYS had to contend with "cheap labor" -- in fact, after WWII offshore labor was MANY TIMES cheaper than it is now; but we prevailed in the market because we offset offshore cheap labor with CAPITAL INVESTMENT that made our comparatively expensive domestic labor MORE PRODUCTIVE with better QUALITY goods and MORE INNOVATIVE -- it was NOT the "cheap labor" Japan, Korea or China that put a man on the moon, it was US!

But in the 1960's this nation started down the road of diverting capital investment from the private productive sector to the wasteful non-productive black hole of the military sector -- NOT to confront a REAL enemy like the Soviet Union; but, stupidly, to try and police the world by attacking a host of third world countries most of us had never heard of and did not even know existed. It is NO mystery to me that we have NOT achieved a single technological break through in this nation since the moon landing. It takes $$$ to innovate.

Within 4years of our Vietnam "adventure" the Japanese, who were NOT pissing away their investment capital on military fools errands, were able to challenge and undermine the USA consumer electronics industry -- TV sets, tape recorders, VHS, BETA recorders, radios, etc. all areas where we had formerly had an overwhelming lead fell to Japanese dominance. By 1970 the same had happened in the automotive industry. By the mid 1970's it was NOT only the Japanese; we had slipped so far that Korea, Taiwan, Germany, and even France were kicking our ass -- and continue to do so. In fact, there is NOT a single major industry left in which the USA dominates -- except, of course, weaponry. Surprise, surprise, we dominate where we invested our $$$, and LOST where did not; go figure?? Do you REALLY have to take off your other shoe to calculate THAT one??? DUH!!!

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

The losses resulting from this fiscal insanity are in the Trillions; and, worse, are ONGOING! If a foreign invader had attacked this nation and wiped out our electronic industry; destroyed Chrysler, Ford, GM, GE, RCA, IBM, Kodak, Bethlehem Steel, Allis Chalmers, our merchant marine and ship building industry; created millions of homeless citizens; destroyed the equity in our homes; and undermined our banking and financial service industries; everyone in the country would be red-eyed for revenge and would not rest until the perpetrators had been hunted down and hanged. But the ignorant American people watch their government daily pursue policies that have destroyed all that and more and think their problems are a religious cult 12,000 miles away because they are too damn dumb to realize the government is covering its ass by telling them the problem lies outside the country.

It is an OLD trick -- Hitler did it with the Jews; our government is doing it with the Muslims. The only difference is which middle-eastern religion is being blamed. When I was a youth I studied the weird beliefs and theories adopted by the German people that allowed them to accept the insane policies of the Nazis. At the time I thought the ONLY way people could have believed the tripe their Nazi government was pedaling was that the German people must have some kind of genetic mental defect. Now that I am in my 60's and I observe the crap swallowed whole everyday by the American populace I am not so smug.

The ONLY thing worse than cowardice is stupidity; and we certainly have THAT in abundance...

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

And let's fight for a REAL government by the people and for the people who voted for it and NOT the "special interest motherfuckers" !

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

C. Johnson’s work here as historian and CIA consultant has value but is deeply flawed by its basic premise. The limited hangout core of C. Johnson’s essay is essentially that of Seymour Hersh, Chomsky, etc, at the faux left…

“Unfortunately, none of the remedies proposed so far by American politicians or analysts addresses the root causes of the problem… But the war itself is the outcome of an imperial presidency and the abject failure of Congress... I also believe that unless we follow this path [dismantling “empire”], we will lose our democracy and then it will not matter much what else we lose.”

Seymour Hersh:

“He [GW Bush] can't deviate from his policy, and that's frightening when somebody has as much power as he does, and is as much a radical as he is, and is as committed to democracy -- whatever that means -- as he is in the Mideast.”

Democracy was officially hijacked in the west a hundred years ago.

ONE MORE TIME: GW Bush is the most obvious tinhorn puppet to occupy the White House since before President Wilson handled by corporate cartel con man “Colonel” Edward House. To state otherwise as Chalmers and Hersh do is a complete failure to confront the “root causes of the problem” that both claim to address.

Again, the root cause and control of any modern empire:

1] Illegal private control of the economy (therefore the nation’s stooge political organs) via a “Federal Reserve” Corp (not federal, no reserves) sham.

2] Control of private/public “education”

3] Control of a Mockingbird media front with its “leftwing” press chapter.

Empire is about Freedom to Fascism by and for monopoly money power and always has been. Put another way: government owned by organized corporate crime.


“The ruling class has the schools and press under its thumb. This enables it to sway the emotions of the masses.”
DOCTOR ALBERT EINSTEIN (Nobel Laureate and refugee from Nazi fascism. 1879-1955)

“The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson.”
PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (on oligarch rule in a letter to handler “Colonel” Edward M. House, confidence man for the cartel and founder of the Council on Foreign Relations. House also handled President Wilson in the foisting of a private and unconstitutional “Federal Reserve” Corporation sham with its IRS in 1913. FDR speaks of monopolists at cartel centers of New York & London that own the U.S. Government. 11/21/l933)

“Britain is the slave of an international financial bloc.”
BRITISH PRIME MINISTER DAVID LLOYD GEORGE (on the money cartel June 20, 1934)

“I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the world… a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”
PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON (on oligarch tyranny, three years after signing a “Federal Reserve Act” and its privately owned credit monopoly into law. Quote 1916)

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

An earlier post said that because of George W. Bush as President, the head of state was rotten, therefore so was the body.

I disagree. If we had truly lost our democracy and the body of the country were rotten, no one would be writing on Alternet or reading it.

The only hope for ensuring that America is a democracy rather than an empire is the wide range of civil society institutions our society possesses--media like this site, community groups, political clubs, environmental groups, professional and vocational associations, churches that do not tow the Religious Right party line, to name only a few. Not to mention the power of voters.

These grassroots forces are not unlimited, unfortunately, and the Right will take every opportunity possible to weaken or destroy them (i.e. unions and plaintiffs' lawyers) or co-opt them (when independent media gets bought out, for example).

The progressive grassroots must network and connect in order to build a democratic alliance--this is our only chance to defeat the imperialization of America.

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

cuz london is drowning and i live by the river.

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

It saddens me, as a newly sworn into American citizenship, that Americans - purposefully lulled into their dream of classless society - do not comprehend direct correlation between wealth and political power.

Naming American society "Democracy" or "Republic" is a smokescreen in both cases, with its roots going deeply back into the history of western civilization.

This model of wealth-determined political weight in a society was maticulously defined by Solon in ancient Greece, where only three politicaly relevant classes existed:

The first class, called Pentacosiomedimni, were alone eligible to the archonship and to all commands.

The second were called the knights or horsemen of the state, as possessing enough to enable them to keep a horse and perform military service in that capacity.

The third class, called the Zeugitae, formed the heavy-armed infantry, and were bound to serve, each with his full panoply.

Each of these three classes was entered in the public schedule as possessed of a taxable capital calculated with a certain reference to his annual income, but in a proportion diminishing according to the scale of that income - and a man paid taxes to the state according to the sum for which he stood rated in the schedule; so that this direct taxation acted really like a graduated income-tax.

Let me tire you:

The ratable property of the citizen belonging to the richest class (the Pentacosiomedimnus) was calculated and entered on the state schedule at a sum of capital equal to twelve times his annual income; that of the Hippeus, horseman or knight, at a sum equal to ten times his annual income: that of the Zeugite, at a sum equal to five times his annual income.
Thus a Pentacosiomedimnus, whose income was exactly 500 drachmas (the minimum qualification of his class), stood rated in the schedule for a taxable property of 6,000 drachmas or one talent, being twelve times his income - if his annual income were 1,000 drachmas, he would stand rated for 12,000 drachmas or two talents, being the same proportion of income to ratable capital. But when we pass to the second class, horsemen or knights, the proportion of the two is changed. The horseman possessing an income of just 300 drachmas (or 300 medimni) would stand rated for 3,000 drachmas, or ten times his real income, and so in the same proportion for any income above 300 and below 500. Again, in the third class, or below 300, the proportion is a second time altered - the Zeugite possessing exactly 200 drachmas of income was rated upon a still lower calculation, at 1,000 drachmas, or a sum equal to five times his income; and all incomes of this class (between 200 and 300 drachmas) would in like manner be multiplied by five in order to obtain the
amount of ratable capital. Upon these respective sums of schedule capital all direct taxation was levied. If the state required 1 per cent. of direct tax, the poorest Pentacosiomedimnus would pay (upon 6,000 drachmas) 60 drachmas;
the poorest Hippeus would pay (upon 3,000 drachmas) 30; the poorest Zeugite would pay (upon 1,000 drachmas) 10 drachmas. And thus this mode of assessment would operate like a graduated income-tax, looking at it in reference to the
three different classes - but as an equal income tax, looking at it in reference to the different individuals comprised in one and the same class.

Can you see now where our "founding fathers" found their model for defining American "democracy"? The rest is, as they say, history. We've been enjoing it ever since, and still are.

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

We often read of the comparisons with the war in Iraq and the Vietnem war. This excellent essay reveals the truth of American imperialism and it's ultimate fate. Ever thought just how Vietnam would've looked had the US kept away and let nature take it's course? Well Vietnam nowadays is thriving, it has status and a vibrant economy. And it is unified. If that country had been allowed to finish it's own internal war it would've been on a par with China today and quite possible years ahead. After all it even took on China militarily and sent em packing after the US had left. The lesson here is that when outsiders try to tinker in other countries internal affairs without remotely understanding their cultures or their peoples they will always run a risk of conflict and ultimately defeat.
The British Empire was as doomed to failure as each country grew it wanted run it's own affairs. In fact they did GB a big favour by taking on their own responsibilites. This also pleased the US as it was rather jealous of the power of the British Empire and wanted that very power.

There is no question that America is a great country and capable of more good than bad. However it's people being rather disparate, bringing a multitude of cultures makes it very difficult to hang together as one in opposition and therefore much easier to control. In much the same way as the British Empire suffered. However when a country is driven by uncertainty and even fear most folk will naturally keep quiet and get on with their lives. We can all see that the US has been hijacked by a force that was able to convert the media, government, judiciary using a combination of this fear, religion as it's base. I don't believe it was just coincidence that the 9/11 attack came only a few months into Bush's tenure. There has been unspeakable crimes committed throughout this Bush tenure and sadly many other western countries have fallen for this as well, the UK being the most noticeable.

Right now there is a cancer in the USA. This cancer must not only be removed but it will need long term therapy and changes in behavior to remove it. I regret to say it will take many years, there's no quick fix to this. But as with those who face addictions of sorts, first the people of the US must recognize that they carry the blame. They can kill but they can also cure. If they don't do anything they will face a bleak future and the world will lose a great power for good.

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

"One subject that the government, the military, and the news media try to avoid like the plague is the racist and murderous culture of rank-and-file American troops when operating abroad. Partly as a result of the background racism that is embedded in many Americans' mental make-up and the propaganda of American imperialism that is drummed into recruits during military training, they do not see assaults on unarmed "rag heads" or "hajis" as murder."

This is clearly false and the author is simply using a few examples of sadists in the military going nuts overseas as an indicator of the way the entire military operates.

"Equally important, we should rewrite all our Status of Forces Agreements -- those American-dictated "agreements" that exempt our troops based in foreign countries from local criminal laws, taxes, immigration controls, anti-pollution legislation, and anything else the American military can think of."

Troops overseas will either pay taxes to the U.S. or a foreign country - not both. Considering the pay of U.S. troops operates entirely dependent of the foreign country what grounds do they have to tax their income (which I assume you're referring to because all other crazy European taxes are paid). As far as everything else goes the troops overseas do pay taxes on gas, television (yes, there is a TV tax in Europe), etc.

Exempt from local criminal laws? Do you really believe that? Do you even check your facts before you get high on meth and rattle off this garbage and email it to the editor at Alternet for posting?

I love how the author's plan to solve all of America's problems is to disarm and hope all the bad people in the world go away. It's amusing that you genuinely believe the U.S. is the most evil nation on Earth at this time. Oh the irony in that is almost too delicious to stand. If America did as you wish and withdrew, disarmed, and played the isolationist game as it has in the past there would be war and geopolitical instability on a level not seen since WW2. That is what you are really asking for when you ask America to roll over and play dead for its many enemies around the world.

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

There hardly seems to be an English person who doesn't want to live elsewhere, largely because corruption at all levels goes unchecked. Crown immunity protects everyone in public life, including the police. When I moved here in 1986, it was like going back to pre-revolutionary times. However, this is an exciting opportunity for meaningful change (remember that when the majority is passive, a few determined people can make a big impression).

In the mid-1990s, I was able to get endorsements from some prominent people (including Prof Stephen Hawking) for an initiative to hold ex-ministers accountable by a grand jury for misuse of public office. Action for Justice (A4J) ads in national newspapers, supported by donations (always include a reply coupon!), raised public awareness.

In 1997, largely as a result of those ads, the UK's Committee on Standards in Public Life recommended the establishment of a statutory offense of misuse of public office to apply to everyone, including ministers and judges.

Lord Nolan, a top judge, set out the elements of the charge:

(1) Misuse can arise both as a result of actions taken and of failing to act.

(2) The neglect of duty must be wilful and not merely inadvertent. It must be culpable in the sense that it was without reasonable excuse or justification and of such degree so as to call for condemnation and punishment.

(3) The unifying factor would be the existence of some improper, dishonest or oppressive motive in the exercise or refusal to exercise some public function.

(4) The offence could include the exercise of a public function in a manner which involves dishonesty, as when some improper advantage is sought by the public official for himself or a third party.

(5) While evidence of an improper intention would be usual, it should be possible to prosecute also in the event of gross negligence.

In 1933 (after rioting in the streets of London), the UK parliament abolished the independent grand jury. A4J intends to bring it back so that the indictment of Tony Blair for misuse of office can be considered by representatives of the British people.

It is important that the selection of grand jurors be above reproach. This involves a verifiable template applied to the electoral register for inviting participation, a public draw of those willing to serve and a secure method to protect jurors' identities. It would cost practically nothing.

The drawing up of charges is going to be done by means of a blog. We progressives will use the principles of law without malice or intemperance. The exercise cannot put Blair behind bars, but it can educate, it can inform and it can inspire.

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

Anyone who seriously gives credence to a man named 'Chalmers' should be put on the slow boat to Madagascar

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

America is long down the path of violent revolution. Perhaps so far down the path that the end result is inevitable and unavoidable. On any type of social considerations, from work, to healthcare, to child welfare, to general justice, America ranks miserably. Tonight, in the richest nation in the world, over 12,000,000 people will go hungry, the vast majority children under the age of 5. Tomorrow night, the same thing. And the problem is getting worse, along with every other social abuse America fosters.

The state of American social structure is looking like the space needle. Broad at the bottom, a big bubble at the top and a long skinny tower holding it all up. America has is ever increasing poor, it's small but very rich elite, and the ever dwindling middle holding the whole thing up. Soon enough, there will be no middle left. A few will have made their way to the top but the rest will join the poor at the bottom. When there's no middle left, the top will fall down. Personally, it's a day I'm looking forward too but at the same time it's nothing I want to see happen.

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

The one thing that Americans have to get through their thick denying skulls is that it wasn't the work of foaming at the mouth Arabs that brought the twin towers down, but the coordinated effort of government and industry with the help of Saudi Arabia and others to get America involved in policing middle east oil in order to have some control over the oil market.

America more than any other country is absolutely dependent on oil, and still consume over 25% of world oil production. Without oil America unlike almost all other countries that still have some infrastructure that doesn’t depend on oil, goes back to the dark ages if oil supplies falter.

You might say then that this would justify using a horrendous tragedy in order to get Americans to engage Afghanistan and Iraq. Well these wars have cost outright more than 1 trillion dollars, which would buy outright 16,147,000,000 barrels of oil at the current price of a barrel of oil. In March 2003, that same money adjusted for inflation would have bought 32,683,000,000 barrels of oil, and on September 11, 2001, that same trillion dollars again adjusted for inflation would have bought 49,788,000,000 barrels of oil, as the price of a barrel of oil has quadrupled sine 9/11. At our current rate of consumption that would have satisfied America’s lust for oil for 2.13 years, 4.80 years and 7.53 years at the current cost of $61.93 per barrel of oil, the cost in March 2003 of $27.50 per barrel of oil and the cost on September 11, 2001 of $17.50, per barrel of oil respectively.

In other words, the Bush administration has squandered enormous amounts of American capital on an adventure that has devastated the Iraqi people and resulted in no net gain for the American people and probably a significant loss. When you consider that the protracted cost of the Iraq war will be closer to 3 trillion dollars, then at September 11, 2001 prices, America has lost the equivalent of 22.6 years of oil solely for the attempt to gain market advantage in an OPEC controlled world.

Had America invested that money directly in oil rather than have attempted to occupy Iraq it could effectively have over 20 years of surplus oil to invest in developing earth friendly energy alternatives instead of this insane liability it now faces in Iraq.

Had America invested that money in alternative energy production, in the words of a scientist who has been involved in the development of plasma fusion since the late 50’s, America would already have begun converting over to some form of fusion derived energy and thus would be in a position to lead the world forward inst4ead of it’s current position of having to defend itself against reprisals for it’s bad action.

The Bush administration’s policy was not only bad for the environment and global warming, but it was extremely bad for business as well, putting the United States at a decided disadvantage with respect to the economies of the rest of the world that will be able to much better cope with oil market disruptions.

Looking at the situation this way, exposes the real motive of the Bush administration. This administration was about opportunism, about the turn of a quick profit for those closely associated with his administration at the expense of the American people and of course the horribly mangled Iraqi people

For any candidate not to expose this criminal behavior for what it is suggests nothing more than complicity.

Any candidate who does not address these issues is courting an electorate that wishes only to hope that something positive will come out of the criminal policy of the last six and a half years.

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

is there any presidentcandidate who is left and/or progressive???
Hillary is not and Al Gore with all respect isnt either.
The dependence on oil as a mayor source of energy of the USA is frightening the whole world.
In 1925 a certain A.Hitler has written in his book "Mein Kampf"
"A modern industrial state has the right and the duty to have acess to basis commodities such as : grain, OIL, coal.
Even when this means war."
Nowadays we call this Realpolitics

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

Excellent article because of the broad analysis of Chalmers Johnson and the linked analysis of Andrew Bacevich.

The seminal point, of course, is the understanding of Empire first and foremost --- of which imperialist wars (like the oil-war in Iraq and soon the whole Middle East) are only symptoms.

The two key diagnostic and prescriptive points are addressed by Johnson himself, and his quotation of Noam Chomsky:

"I believe that there is only one solution to the crisis we face. The American people must make the decision to dismantle both the empire that has been created in their name and the huge (still growing) military establishment that undergirds it. It is a task at least comparable to that undertaken by the British government when, after World War II, it liquidated the British Empire. By doing so, Britain avoided the fate of the Roman Republic -- becoming a domestic tyranny and losing its democracy, as would have been required if it had continued to try to dominate much of the world by force."

Here Johnson clearly alludes to Hannah Arendt's famous warning that, "Empire abroad entails tyranny at home", as the reason that Britain expunged/liquidated its empire abroad to try to avoid tyranny at home.

Johnson's only reference and quotation of Chomsky rightly focuses on the funding and economics of Empire having to change ---- as this is the key to understanding, confronting, and prescribing a solution to the sorrows of cancerous, predatory, elitist Empire as a predominantly ‘economic’ pathology.

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

Beyond repair!

Behind the curtain
Is a shadow government
Run by Corpirate Mercenaries.
They’ve built the Crass Media
To
Condition and Control you
Their Faux Food Industry
Pumps you full of Drugs and Poison
The Health care system is a sham,
Horribly broken.
They've outsourced you.
Sent your job overseas
The next time you
Pick up the phone
and
Talk to Hassem
Ask him where he lives?
India anyone!
Where does it all lead to?
Stolen Elections
&
Fake Presidents.
Total dysfunction!
Incompetence from the top down
While
Colleges and Hospitals are closing
The
Prisons are being overfilled
Why?
Who is building them?
For what?
Wealth has turned into a weapon used against us
Instead of an education
There is incarceration
Greed is the disease
Destroying our Country
Infecting the planet.
Good rich guy
Bad rich Guy
They are all the same to me.
Social paths
Wealth is power
Power leads to corruption that
Circumvents the system
A broken, corrupt system is useless.
We are the Victims.
Follow the Money
It tells you everything:
When 99% of everything is owned by 1%
The Chosen few
Billionaires-R-Us.
What is left for you?
What are we fighting for?
How much is your blood worth?
A Crust of bread
A Crumb from their table?
What to do?
Kick them out.

Reboot!

Start over.

Create a new and better system.

Bring our government into the 21st century with us
Reinvent it!
Using the best and brightest amongst us.
To create
A Better System.
Using our common language.
Fix the mistakes.
Revitalize the best of what was with the best of what’s new!
Limit wealth,
Limit power.
Equalize the extremes
To
Benefit the many instead of the few.
We need a more transparent, inclusive, responsive, user friendly
Government.
NOW!

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

Leftists invariably call each other "brilliant" and "intellectual."
One Leftist lies and the next Leftist swears to it.

Now if in fact President Bush had committed "felonies" as this "brilliant essayist" so positively gushes, then it is incumbent on the Democrat majorities in the Senate and House to impeach him.

Keep in mind as terrorists do their best to destroy all things American, from our economy, to our very lives, Leftists, like this author, will continue to lobby on behalf of terrorists, who slice off innocent people's heads with butcher knives.

What can one expect from a bunch of Leftists who want to preserve some imaginary "right" to butcher innocent, unborn babies.

What an upside down world "progressives" (sic) live in when they defend the most heinous killers on earth, while demanding to always be allowed to butcher the most innocent.

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

Please consider

"What conservatism meant to Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower, or even Barry Goldwater, is radically different than what it means today in the Bush/Cheney world of phony-conservatism."

From the fora:

"Toward the end of his life, Barry Goldwater, the father of modern conservatism, had totally distanced himself fromthe movement that he, more than anyone, was so instrumental in bringing about." Note that HRClinton served Goldwater's campaign.

"...with The New Yorker magazine, Rove made clear that he didn't believe the center was a significant electoral factor and that, in any case, the 'center' moves to the party which states its ideas with greater force and resolution, which Bush proceeded to do, while Kerry struggled to define himself as standing for anything..."
When, in fact, John Kerry stood for the many, while Bush II, the few.

"Every racial minority -- with the possible exception of Cuban-Americans -- and non-union working class voters are under-mobilized, as are unmarried women and especially working class minorities: African-Americans reliably vote 90% for Democrats; Native Americans 80-90%; Latinos 55-65%; even Asian-Americans, whom Bill Clinton lost by 24 points, voted for Kerry in 2004 by a 17-point margin."

"Not explaining how hundreds of years of religious and sectarian conflict in a country cobbled together by European imperialists would make 'victory' impossible, Third Way wrote, 'The decision to go to war is a debate for historians..." Keep, though, in mind, that, not long ago, NYT expressed collaboration between Clinton/McCain. No offense!

Additionally, reference was made to millions and millions of dollars spent, by conservatives bent upon UNchecked globalization and accelerated aggressive warfare, to stifle any dissent. Millions and millions and millions!

Huge restaurant chains, for instance, imagining global profit taking, thru Trade Associations, support concepts of Unchecked globalization and accelerated agressive warfare.

Because that's what will get them
where they hope to be!
Damm the cost
to society!

Suggestion:
Visit an easily recognizable same-such restaurant. Choose a fine meal from its menu. Order something that is approximately 1/4 the cost. LEAVE the difference as a tip!
No, you don't have millions and millions and millions to bite; but you can sting!

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

CIA Blowback You should try to find the whole book (The Praetorian Guard), John Stockwell was the highest ranking CIA official ever to go public with the details of an operation- he ran our murderous operations in Angola when we helped South Africa invade... coupla million corpses, no big deal. He detailed the US role in a book called In Search Of Enemies.

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

of this capitalist-imperialist framework. People should check out the revolutionary works and leadership of Bob Avakian, chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party. He's bringing a re-envisioned communist vision and plan-to a world desperately in need!

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

With soldiers caught in wasting combat, each day that President Bush is not impeached, his adminisatan uses red blood to whitewash the truth. And, behind the whitewash, Bush is morally insane, intellectually incompetent, and guilty of the only human terror that has ever stalked the world: ignorance equipped with power. Since Bush and company will never say they are impotent for genuinely moral action, every direct and indirect manner of support he receives from Congress is defunct for anything, other than self-promotion. It is as if our representatives’ mantra is “God forbid that my legislative career should be sacrificed to spare the life of a solider; even if that life is being wasted on a bankrupt mission, borne from deception, sustained by corruption, and upheld by blatantly political and capitalistic expediencies”.

America’s government is in a state of moral paralysis; and because we are not represented by our representatives, we are no longer a government of the people, but a ship adrift. As Bush infects the world with the same diseased principles that he says he is fighting, he represents a kind of moral-Ebola. Truly, some habits are worse than others: Alcoholics ask for more drinks, junkies ask for more dope, but Bush asked for a surge and got it! Therefore, with compassion: Dear Mr. Bush, if you really love Jesus, stop crucifying the truth. And, Dear Congressmen: Stop making soldiers subservient to statements and votes geared to maintaining your careers over their lives! If for no other reason other than being sane enough to know that it is time to pull the plug on this stupidity, vote like a soldier in Iraq who wants and deserves to come home! Next, stop pretending that you have wisdom for peace, and look for folks that do! With all speed, now more than ever, do anything and everything to bring our children home. Then, hold to the fact that the only way to honor the life of a soldier who deserves to live is to let him. Therefore, with compassion, impeach every zombie of courage that maintains the Bush Adminisatan.

Sincerely,
Rev.,Prof., Gola Wolf Richards, www.MottoCitizens.com

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

"One recent survey by a school teacher on Okinawa found a third of his female high school students had been sexually molested by U.S. soldiers, a violation U.S. base officers have often dismissed as ‘flirting, because boys will be boys.’ "
YANKEE GO HOME

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

"The Bush administration announced on December 22 that it had cancelled a joint anti-terrorism exercise with the armed forces of the Philippines and that a US aid team assessing a typhoon-struck region was being withdrawn. Other aid was being suspended. Why the sanctions? Was manila guilty of flouting international law and indulging in gross human rights abuses involving illegal imprisonment and torture?
Or perhaps it had clandestinely constructed hundreds of nuclear weapons, like Israel.
Not quite. The reason for Washington's fury was that a US marine found guilty of rape by a manila court was being kept in a Philippines' jail rather than being handed over to the US"

so operating death squads under the mantra of "war on terra" is AOK with uncle sham, but apprehending a yank rapist is a crime that needed to be punished..........enough said for the much touted amerikkan values. [sic]

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

Anti-Imperilists, War Resisters:

Where’s everyone hiding?

Stop the Genocide of Iraqis and the Ecocide in Iraq!

Support the campaign: endorse the petition, discuss with friends and colleagues and post on your network.

War is Just a Racket: Take a Stand; Dismantle the War Machine; Demilitarize the World!

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

you leave it and go fight instead of sending someone else if you are such grand warriors

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

"The “conventional wisdom” says that fundamental change is unrealistic, even impossible. But in reality the most “unrealistic” thing in the world is to hope to touch things up around the edges, to put your trust in official channels and established authority, while things continually get worse. If a different—a better—world is possible, you’ve got to struggle to understand how and fight to bring it into being...

That demands leadership. And that is where Bob Avakian comes in."

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