It’s true that Americans are hungry for glory. Like Sam Iam suggested, but glory can be attained in other ways than the war. Remember how purposeful and right Americans felt when they helped with tsunami relief? By putting attention on poverty, we can satisfy the need for self-righteousness without killing people. Non-profits like the Borgen Project suggest that we can even make money by following through with the U.N. Millennium Goals. So Iraq has given us, a massive debt, doubt about ourselves, fear, and no sense of glory as we have yet to “win” and very clearly there is no win in sight. Helping the impoverished would allow Americans to feel great about themselves (important in such an egocentric society), grow economies, and help people.

Mr. Camp has long ago forgotten his constitutants feelings. He is now lock step with Bush, Chaney and the mongers in Washington. How sad. Party before common sense!

I think another look at Tom Tomorrow’s Sparky Penguin cartoon of last year would be apposite to illustrate your article!! 

It certainly spoke then for people like me, and, I think, still does:

http://www.workingforchange.com/comic.cfm?itemid=21935

Yes?

To: TriggerFinger
Got one for you. Jon Stewart has job security. He can’t be out sourced. That’s all that comes to mind.

As long as a majority of Republican voters believe they are profiting by corruption, they will continue to support corrupt political leaders. The fact that a majority of so called “Cultural Conservative” voters don’t profit economically from corruption illustrates their inability to rationally chose between their own economic self-interest and their atavistic impulses. Politicians who pander to their anti-Christian white supremacist ideology,
intolerance and love of militarism and authoritarianism will win their adoration until the end of our quasi-democratic state.

I have to say with some pride: “I told you dullards so!”

I remember the derision I received by my colleagues who were - and still are, mostly - in voceferous support of this crowd of cretins.

Now America is nothing but a joke on the world stage. Anyone who respects her only does so because of the irrational, criminal leadership, not because she is actually a “world leader” anymore.

It is hard to feel sorry for what is about to happen to this country because of its choices at the ballot boxes in 2000 and 2004. Kind of like you get what you pay for.

Listen up, America: You are about to start paying.

Where’s the awakening? Those with a brain knew by 9:30 AM on 9-11 that the stage was being set for their much desired global war. America was founded on racism and genocide. Just ask an Arapaho, or a Caddo, or a Cherokee, or a Seneca, or an Iriquois or a Havasupi. The divine right of manifest destiny keeps rearing its ugly head. An awakening would require the removal of most government officials, judges, corporations and the immediate subjugation of hate-based religion. Most will choose slumber.

#59736 Trigger finger, I’m a little fuzzy on this but I think he did sign a bill protecting the shoals or reefs or whatever off the northern coast (I think) of Hawaii.  The Clinton administration started that ball rolling but didn’t complete the job.  I was particularly struck at the time that the Bush administration would take the time off from the Great Iraqi War to do that.  As Martha Stewart would’ve said, “it was a good thing.” Of course, that’s been offset by other, non-environmentally friendly action the adm. has taken re: oil exploration in Alaska, SUV tax credits, etc., so it’s your call.

Someone asked did G.W.Bush did anything good for the country, I think it depends on two things are you those who benefited for the tax break and do you work for Haliburton, I find it a ironic that the ports were to be taken over by Doubi and then we find that Haliburton is moving some of its operations to Doubi I wonder if Dick “shotgun” Chaney knew about this happening, I think that he knows what is happening in his old company, and that policy is being set by that knowledge.

Margaret from Vancouver, Washington

Great article - reminds me of a quote from John Adams:

“The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.”

Not to change the subject or anything, but can anyone out there name just one intelligent, good or decent thing G.W. Bush has accomplished in 6 + years that was for the good of this country?

Just 1?
Come on, I’ve got a bet with my boss!

1._________________________________.

I used to view the opinion of EJ Dionne as rational and with some respect. Now I think he has gone off his rocker!

Tao Walker is right on and anyone that bothers to read Howard Zinn’s ‘A Peoples History Of The United States’ will understand exactly why.

Dionne appears to be trying to prep us for the next misadventure before this one has ground to its only possible conclusion. Disaster!

Fear not, Dionne, the current crop of wannabe presidents have their noses so far up AIPACS a** that we will surely be involved in more disasters in the mid east from now till doomsday (which might be sooner than even the rapture nuts would believe). The dollar is sinking like a rock and the US economy is being dragged into ruin by cash out home financing, credit card debt, and massive injections of liquidity into the banking system by the Fed., and Bushcos out of control war spending.

The commenter ‘Mite’ made the observation that ‘War Is A Racket’. That is the name of a very famous very short letter by a retired Marine General by the name of Smedly Butler. Mr Butler was in charge of taking the Marines in and killing off the populations of any country that did not submit to US business interests. Nothing has changed but the world has grown wise to the motives of US business and its military arm. Economic wars are as important as military ones and the neo cons have piddled away American economic strength. Good relations abroad are also very important and the neo cons have piddled those away as well. Its been a long time since I heard the term ‘freedom fries’.

Mr Dionne, I think its time you removed your head from your a** to take a long hard look at what is left of ‘American Exceptionalisim’. When was the last time we won a war, especially a war fought without allies? Do you think that Ike could have made a landing on Normandies beaches had not the Russian army already decimated Hitlers best divisions? I think not.

I believe that its time for America to get back to producing and exporting and competing with the rest of the world. If we are going to survive as a nation, we will have to. The age of imperialisim is long past and even all the Brits, with the exception of Blair, understand that!

“None of this means that American opinion has become isolationist”
What exactly is meant by isolationist? Is this term meant in some pejorative sense? Just because people feel that the US should mind it’s own business, does that make them dolts who should be ignored? What the hell are America’s vital interests? Iraq,Darfur,Timor,Kosovo,Israel? If America is threatened directly, that’s one thing, but this constant empire building and interventionism is ludicrous. Give me isolationism anytime!!!!!!!

Anyone who trusts the establishment is naive and/or brainwashed. What our country really needs is another psychedelic revolution like in the 1960s. Good old anti-brainwashing medicine !!

There is only TRUTH, say what you want, think what you want, there still is only TRUTH, and we all know what that is. From that comes the KARMA of your actions. So, what you put out comes back, nothing more and nothing less.
Its all coming back now and Bush/Cheney are about to find out the price of what they have done.
They are sad pathetic little boys you will pay dearly for their actions.

In agreement with TAO Walker…

It’s that old ‘American Exceptionalism’ again - but sadly, the rest of the world sees only 3:
exceptional arrogance, exceptional stupidity and exceptional hypocrisy.

I think most Americans didn’t give a flying rats ass about foreign policy before the Iraq war anymore than they care now. Most believe in a live and let live if anything. The Bu$h/Cheney/Neocon, I want to rule the world conspiracy fueled by the politics of fear and our spineless, useless Congress allowed them to try to make it happen. The politics of corporate greed is this administrations legacy - take what you want when you want it and screw anyone that gets in the way. Bu$h Inc. has fast tracked any influence we had in the world out of existence.

There’s still about 30% of Americans who just don’t get it and blindly follow this President off a cliff.  Maybe they’ll come around in the next 18 months, but I doubt it.

“......the first step toward rebuilding our country’s influence and power.”????  Abra-cadaver and ala-ka-sham....this is what passes for thoughtful commentary and cogent analysis here in these latter days? 

Real influence flows not from some self-righteous “awakening,” but from sustained (over generations) organic human integrity.  Americans haven’t even taken a “first step” yet in that direction.  All “power” is illusory (which is the real reason it corrupts), and anyone wanting to acquire and wield it is suffering from ultimately terminal delusions of genuinely grandiose dimensions.

The writer of this piece (consciously or not) continues to promote the myth of “American exceptionalism,” insisting it is only having been misguided by some less-than-trustworthy “leaders” that has got theamericanpeople into this virtual world o’ hurt they occupy so comatosely today.  Even Pogo Possum knew better than that.  It is in fact their long-term complicity in a privateering enterprise, a criminal conspiracy wrapped in the national symbol, that Americans can credit entirely for everything that ails them, as Americans, here and now.....everything. 

America’s “problems” are not out here in Indian Country, in Iraq or Iran or anywhere else.  It is the fatal flaws embedded deeply in their own national character that are the causes of their very considerable current difficulties.  It is the self-serving fable that makes up the real state-sponsored allamerican “religion,” with its surfeit of infantile and fantastic notions about Americans’ “god given” superiority, which has brought them as a people to the brink of national disintegration....and which, in their continuing unwillingness to come to grips with these faults, will certainly carry them completely over the edge one of these fine days.

In his interview with Scott Ritter, also put-up on this site today, Robert Scheer asked sort of off-handedly where are all the grown-ups.  Maybe some time and effort devoted to finding an answer to that question would be well worth it.  Mature human beings are sure not much in evidence these days on “the world stage.” It seems wise to wonder if the civilized peoples here would even have much of an idea what to look for anymore, at this late date in the ten-thousand-year chronicle of their institutionalized degradation. 

One thing is for damned sure, though.  If the domesticated nations do get lucky and actually turn-up some grown-ups, it’s bound to be in the very last place they’ll think to look.

“....influence and power,” indeed.  Time for a reality-check, America!

HokaHey!

The American sheeple, with not nearly enough exceptions, are nothing but ignorant, unthinking, “patriotic” drones who blindly believe and follow whatever their “leaders” tell them.

They fell for the 2000 selection.

They fell for the “official” fairy tale of 9/11 hook, line and sinker.

They fell for Iraq and the WMD sham.

They fell for The Constitution being decimated to make them “safe”.

They fell for every other lie the evil bush regime spewed.

And next they’ll fall for a second fake terror attack as the excuse to bomb Iran and start a third war.

I have no faith in the American sheeple to do anything but “listen to daddy and go to their room without supper”.

Please watch the Google videos: 9/11 Press for Truth, 9/11 Mysteries, Freedom to Fascism

Wake up! *Demand a new, TRUE 9/11 investigation.*

When people who are honestly mistaken learn the truth, they will either cease being mistaken, or cease being honest.
-- Anonymous

READ/LEARN the whole sordid TRUTH!
Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.

I should know; I was an EHM.

Entire Article: http://www.opednews.com/articles/
opedne_john_per_070315_john_perkins_3a_new_co.htm

As we plan the childrens future and ourselves, I try to expose the truth to all people in this world, and our country U.S.A. and we-the-people. A Fact: ‘Truth Will Set Us Free’- only if we allow it into your hearts and minds.

It is a fact that ‘War Is A Racket’ (search the title on the internet)and only a limited number profit from it. While we the peasents ‘Die, are disabled, and our lives destroyed.

I comment regularly on this site and ‘Alternet.org’ with facts reinforced with references. I direct you again to some of these.

(1)Books on Internet by Author: ‘Antony C. Sutton’
a)America’s Secret Establishment
b)Wall Street and The Bolshevik Revolution
c)Wall Street and The Rise of Hitler

(2)Book on Internet by Charlette T. Iserbyt
a)The Deliberate Dumbing Down Of America

(3)Book by William Cooper
a)Behold A Pale Horse (For Sale Only-if you can find it) http://www.lawfulpath.com ‘Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars’ from the book.

History people outside main stream press-media and educational systems will provide the truth only. Because these puppet masters that control this world control us.

God Bless us all…

Um, this administration’s not real hot on the dissent part, they prefer lackeys, toadies, unquestioning partisans, and above all, the willing cooperation of ignorant parties too meek to ask questions. Well, it’s past time for people to shed their meekness, and ask things like, “Why is the country sailing into deeper and deeper debt each year?” “Why has a war waged against a nonexistent army now run 4 years?” “Whose idea was it to forget to patrol the US/Mexico border?”
“Why is Bush still in office?”

Congress definitely has their work cut out for them, the question now is whether they’re up to the job, and the early indications are kind of disappointing, although it has been somewhat encouraging to hear some positive steps being taken toward improving public oversight. Sen. Hagel, the Republican, gave Sen. Lieberman a
good haircut on the issue of the war, if you haven’t seen it, look it up on Youtube etc.,
and I think we need more of that where lukewarm advocates of this or that basically get called on the carpet in front of their peers for taking the position(or non-position) that they’ve chosen. Thus is the nature of free and open debate, that views get challenged, that votes get taken, that representatives of voters and citizens do something besides craft new ways to enhance their states’ revenue flows, that the floor gets opened to dissenting opinions, in other words that we have a non-K-Street-dependent form of government, capable of fulfilling its’ constitutionally assigned role, independent of well-funded lobbyists.

Bush tends to be pro-globalization. I think a lot of people have generally come to the conclusion that his much-vaunted globalization isn’t ‘all that’, by any stretch of the imagination, and largely amounts to ways to perpetually obligate taxpayers to pay for just about whatever these clowns feel like slapping on the table in the name of that globalization pressure. Basically, in my view, Bush sucks, and so do the rest of the people in his administration, and pretty much any time you have politicians trying to tell you what to think instead of soliciting your views, well this is more or less what you end up with. Time will tell whether Congress has the collective moral fortitude to safeguard their functions from the influences of those who would generally try to buy a given and specific favorable legislative outcome on a given issue. Focusing on the Iraq war for a second, let’s ponder just HOW much that oil is worth...thus far, estimations of the wars’ costs range from 1/2 trillion up to 1.2 trillion dollars, and possibly beyond, depending on who you ask. My view on that is that the need for energy that is fulfilled by singly perpetuating the petroleum dependency model is itself suspect, and could at least be partially addressed by
low-cost national conservation initiatives. Certainly this is a more palatable approach to
providing the country with sufficient raw materials from which fuel etc. can be obtained than shipping arms and troops to bear them overseas for all perpetuity to seize more oilfields in other countries. There also does come the question of what happens when those oil bearing nations unify sufficiently to repel such attempts, which seems to largely be what we’re seeing now. Reform doesn’t have to hurt, but you do have to get started, and key phrases like ‘public accountability’, ‘balanced budget’
‘removal from public office’, ‘states rights’, ‘War Powers Act’, these and others need to be prominently reiterated. Words tend to shape our thinking, as Carlin famously pointed out, so the higher a quality of verbiage that gets used in describing the changes Congress should be working on, the higher a quality their results will likely tend to reflect.

Here are some words that should be on the “in” list for this administration:
“liars” “criminals” “corrupt” “unintelligent”
and those are all being nice

essenceofsmoke.blogspot.com

I wish I could share Mr. Dionne’s optimism, but I’m afraid his sentiments strike me as hopelessly naive at best, and wildly, unrealistically unhinged at worst.

In my view, when Americans hear the word “war” in the future, they will continue to reflexively, unthinkingly believe our actions are noble, righteous and unavoidable, while our “enemy” represents the most urgent, horrible threat in the history of humanity.

Americans love war. It makes them feel good about themselves. It satisfies a deep urge to fly the flag, put on a bumper sticker and puff out their chests with the kind of pride that comes with the knowledge that the good old U.S. of F**ckin’ A. is the baddest nation on the block, and can kick anyone’s ass, any time.

Another major appeal of war is that is a highly visible, tangible representation of American action. Compared to the visual thrill of laser tracers, daisy cutters and soldiers kicking in doors, photos and sound bites of diplomatic discussions seem downright sissy. Also, even though our “war on terror” must be a covert intelligence operation, those activities cannot be televised, so where’s the political mileage to be gained?

I would love to be proven wrong, and for Mr. Dionne to be correct. I just don’t see it, though

“Patriotic skeptics have heard it before. You reap what you sow.”

On the most recent “This American Life” (NPR out of Chicago), the topic was “proxy,” and a former Iraqi translator was interviewed.  He said that everything went south after the prison scandal.  He said that Iraqi’s believed nothing about US intentions after learning about the torture.  As a result of that scandal, over 200 Iraqi born translators were killed for working with the infidels.  (This man fled to Europe with his wife and small child after receiving an anonymous DVD of the beheading of a colleague).  Now, he says, the US is using non-native translators and so our forces are having difficulty communicating even with the Iraqis who want to communicate with our troops, as foreign-born translators don’t understand the culture or the differences in dialect. 

How any surge or even a delayed withdrawal can work in the face of such distrust and an overwhelming “US get out” sentiment by Iraqi’s I do not know.  It seems to me that few politicians want to have fingers pointed in their direction for not trying hard enough when the country collapses into civil war when our troops leave.  Well, civil war it is, and all we accomplish by staying there is to continue to heat up the region.

And to think that most of the politicians running for the presidency plan to keep a troop presence at the bases we constructed on land that we’ve confiscated--doing so will just insult to injury.  Intead of investing heavily in peace, we’re still determined to pursue our “strategic interests” militarily in the Middle East.  The stick before the carrot approach. Better, I think, to be invited to come back, then to presume dominion.

Contrary to the upbeat nature of this piece.  I’m afraid we’ll never learn.  We’re like bulls in a china shop; we wouldn’t recognize nuance if it was pointed out to us.

Bush embodies a deprived soul… an impoverished sense of self. He tried filling the void with cocaine, alcohol, religion, money and even power. But nothing satisfies. Now he’s trying to fill that hole with bodies.

Bush & Company systematically use psychological Projection to gain support from their base - mostly Projection Identifiers - numerous, easy prey in our celebrity struck, narcissistic society. The formula calls for some Patriotic Drama coated with select Drumbeat Themes all adorned with yummy Swirls of Denial. It’s ambrosial until you bite-in and taste that poisoned Black Hole center. But that’s the recipe for the Quagmire Cake we have today.

Unfortunately, it looks like we get to eat their cake and have it too. Question is, how many more slices are we willing to swallow¿

The Bush-Cheney administration and their cronies seem to have used very sophisticated propaganda, information operations and psychological operations on the American people and the international community.

Still, we should be more intelligent than to fall for the lies and deceptions of Bush-Cheney, the neocons, the chicken hawks, warmongers and the war profiteers. Many of us remember the Vietnam War when very similiar things happened.

Now is the time to find out the truth about what government officials, members of the media and others have been involved with. What did they know and when did they know it?

Let’s not let this war go on for another ten years. Let’s hope we can the honor of the United States and the American people.

For more on this:

‘Nam War, ‘Raq War: Similarities, Differences

By Steve Hammons
Columnist, PopulistAmerica.com
Populist Party of America
March 19, 2007

http://www.populistamerica.com/nam_war_raq_war

The conclusion is:

But those who spent the last four years hyping threats, underestimating costs, ignoring rational warnings, painting unrealistic futures and savaging their opponents have been discredited. This awakening is the first step toward rebuilding our country’s influence and power.

I have to disagree on that note. The discrediting is far from over. The disclosures are far from over, and so much more is coming.

Also, just replacing the Administration will not fix the problems faced by the people! It doesn’t restore our rights, or take care of the wounded, or even replace the ones already lost.

We are still on the downhill spiral, and darker days are coming. We can fix it, but not before all of the ugliness is exposed. If that’s not done, we end up with the same cycle starting all over again.