A Bankrupt Superpower
The Collapse of American Power
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

...The fact of the matter is that the US is bankrupt. David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the US and head of the Government Accountability Office, in his December 17, 2007, report to the US Congress on the financial statements of the US government noted that “the federal government did not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting (including safeguarding assets) and compliance with significant laws and regulations as of September 30, 2007.” In everyday language, the US government cannot pass an audit.
Moreover, the GAO report pointed out that the accrued liabilities of the federal government “totaled approximately $53 trillion as of September 30, 2007.” No funds have been set aside against this mind boggling liability.

Just so the reader understands, $53 trillion is $53,000 billion.

Frustrated by speaking to deaf ears, Walker recently resigned as head of the Government Accountability Office….

Full Story:

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts03182008.html

The excrement just hasn’t hit the, proverbial, circulating receptacle yet!

For a pocket full of gold coins, these conceited empty souls clearly betray their true desires with the words that fall from their mouths and resonate in our ears.

In the words of John McCain: F—- You!
In the words of Dick Cheney: So What!
In the words of a xenophobic god, crusader GW Bush: If you’re not with us, you’re a terrorist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU

In the words of Hillary Clinton: Experience as Usual (Who loves McCain more than she does her own and to prove it, is willing to destroy the village in order to save it.)

The crusading divider, Bush-co, seeks to advance and maintain a psychologically implanted ‘global war on terror’, a war for profit, plunder and empire.

Peace, Best Wishes and Hope

A Bankrupt Superpower
The Collapse of American Power
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
...The fact of the matter is that the US is bankrupt. David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the US and head of the Government Accountability Office, in his December 17, 2007, report to the US Congress on the financial statements of the US government noted that “the federal government did not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting (including safeguarding assets) and compliance with significant laws and regulations as of September 30, 2007.” In everyday language, the US government cannot pass an audit.
Moreover, the GAO report pointed out that the accrued liabilities of the federal government “totaled approximately $53 trillion as of September 30, 2007.” No funds have been set aside against this mind boggling liability.
Just so the reader understands, $53 trillion is $53,000 billion.
Frustrated by speaking to deaf ears, Walker recently resigned as head of the Government Accountability Office….
Full Story:
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts03182008.html
The excrement just hasn’t hit the, proverbial, circulating receptacle yet!
For a pocket full of gold coins, these conceited empty souls clearly betray their true desires with the words that fall from their mouths and resonate in our ears.

In the words of John McCain: F—- You!
In the words of Dick Cheney: So What!
In the words of a xenophobic god, crusader GW Bush: If you’re not with us, you’re a terrorist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU

In the words of Hillary Clinton: Experience as Usual (Who loves McCain more than she does her own and to prove it, is willing to destroy the village in order to save it.)

The crusading divider, Bush-co, seeks to advance and maintain a psychologically implanted ‘global war on terror’, a war for profit, plunder and empire.

Peace, Best Wishes and Hope

If you thought George Bush was bad when it comes to the use of military force, wait till you see John McCain. He believes this. His advisers believe this. He’s surrounded himself with people who believe it. And I’ll take him at his word.” McCain is Bush on steroids!

Not surprisingly, the center of McCain’s foreign policy is the Middle East. “He’s bought into the completely fallacious notion that we’re in a global struggle of us-versus-them. He calls it the ‘transcendental threat…of extreme Islam,” says Daalder. “But it’s a silly argument to think that this is either an ideological or a material struggle on a par with the ones against Nazi Germany or Soviet Communism.” For McCain, the Iraq War, the conflict with Iran, the Arab-Israeli dispute, the war in Afghanistan, the Pakistani crisis and the lack of democracy in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are all rolled up into one “transcendent” ball of wax.

More than any other politician, McCain is identified with the Iraq War. From the mid-1990s on, he and his advisers were staunch supporters of ‘regime change’. Scheunemann helped write the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998, which funded Ahmad Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress; joined Bill Kristol’s Project for the New American Century; and helped create the neoconservative Committee for the Liberation of Iraq in 2002, with White House support. Together with Joe Lieberman, Sam Brownback and a handful of other senators, McCain emerged as a major cheerleader for the war. Like his fellow neocons, McCain touted what proved to be faked intelligence on the threat posed by Iraq. Echoing Vice President Cheney, McCain said on the eve of the war, “There’s no doubt in my mind, once Saddam is gone, that we will be welcomed as liberators.”

Following ‘shock-n-awe’, five years and counting later; millions slaughtered; millions displaced and the flower patches have been turned into burned out cinders.

Peace, Best Wishes

The ultimate quetion before America[ns] must be: what is the [US} Constitutional way to address/treat “the folks who brought You Iraq”.

One possibly naive way would be for all Americans to vote to petition the US Supreme Court on rendering a decision as to whether the decision and actions that have provided the results so far in Iraq specifically were fabricated and that the decision makers committed a fraud on the citizens of the USA…. thereby violating the principle of the government by the people for the people.

[Since obviously the Congress/Senate by the their inaction is almost comatose}

If such a venue is not seriously considered the issue of whether to stay or not stay in Iraq is alike to deciding whether one should have a cancerous growth removed or awate its inevitable end.

While those responsible for the cancerous growth move on to places such as the South of France, Pataguay, Australia, Israel, Dubai and other exotic locales.

Did the original $2billion include the nearly $1billion US Embassy, and the new US Capitol of Baghdad…the “Green Zone”?

And why or how Marshall, do you expect a giant problem to explode after we leave? Do you think anything could explode MORE than it has with us there?

No, I think your problem is no different than Dick Cheney’s or John McCain’s..you all have squandered all of the money on Iraq, planning to own and operate it as a neo-Colonial possession, with ALL of it’s oil. AND…that hasn’t happened yet, nor is it going to, unless you kill each and every remaining Iraqi in their land.

So when you talk about costs of leaving outstripping the costs of staying, you’re certainly not counting human life as a ‘cost’ (of course you Cheney types wouldn’t) and you’re figuring that the US has already spent such huge amounts of our money, (not to mention the trillions that we owe the rest of the world) and so it would just kill ya’ll to leave without getting the prize that you went there for to begin with.

That’s why Cheney is back over there now, and why Johnnie McSame was there too. They call it talking the Iraqis into ‘political reconciliation’ which is code for beating the shit out of them to sign over their oil.

That’s what the ‘surge’ was supposed to do. It was supposed to subdue them enough to force them to sign it over, and they still won’t do it. It was supposed to cage up the remaining Iraqis that have not been able to escape to neighboring countries into ethnically divided enclaves. The enclaves are surrounding by thick cement walls with barbed wire on the top of them, with one way in and out, (though they don’t really wanna let them out) with US controlled checkpoints. 

Now of course they never expected to have to go through all of this trouble, and spend all of this money to get to the oil. The Iraqis were expected to just hand it over, like any other helpless country would do after being invaded by the military superpower. If only those Iraqis had just done what they were supposed to do, the original $2billion would have done the trick, and it would have been $2billion stolen from them anyway.

So, tell us again, what gigantic problem is going to explode IF WE LEAVE, when there wasn’t a problem with ‘explosions’ until we got there?

No, the answer is that you and your brothers in crime (Dick Bush and the neoconners) keep throwing bad money after bad money, (kind of like an addicted gambler who just can’t leave the table) and besides, most of it is being laundered right back into the same corporate pockets anyway.

How would Halliburton and all of the others survive if we were to pick up and leave, and especially before the top prize had been accomplished?

Finally Marshall…in case you didn’t know it…the US is BANKRUPT!!

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts03182008.html

We can’t ever pay off the debts we owe the rest of the world. Do you think China and the others are gonna keep giving us money?

Get real. It’s time to leave the table. The house is kicking you out.

Your welcome Marshall.

“those overblown Masterminds” aren’t stupid. They’ve figured out how to make a great deal of money, and gain a great deal of power while doing next to nothing. I’d say that’s pretty smart. Not nice maybe, but smart.

Perhaps if those overblown Masterminds [who are largely non-producers] had to quit doing our thinking, because they were to busy trying to figure out how to work for a living, we could all learn how to use a little common sense and do our own thinking. I mean we’d have to, wouldn’t we?

What a wonderful world that could be!

•  “Now, had I been “smart” I could have made a few thousand dollars on that deal! …On second thought, self-respect and being able to sleep good are far more important than money. [some might disagree]..”
•  “So maybe that curse is a blessing”
Louise,
Take it from me…It IS a blessing. Self-respect is worth more than any amount of money in the world. Respect for others is worth just as much.
The common sense thing…yeah, I know what you mean when you say that it can sometimes seem like a curse. My experience is that it seems like a curse when one is attempting to exercise it in an environment of irrationality and the lack of reason or anything close to logic.

Now at times like that, (all too frequent now) it can be downright frustrating. It’s like trying to communicate in a foreign language or something. It comes down to being a sane person in the midst of insanity. Now THAT is frustrating.

But the moral question/issue is actually far easier.  (well, for some people) Like… you knew immediately that you had to get a new broker. I don’t know how much common sense is required to ‘just do the RIGHT THING’.

Is that a ‘learned thing’? I should know, since I’ve certainly spent enough time contemplating it. But, I don’t think there’s an answer. Because you know, people like GW and Dick Cheney probably sleep JUST FINE. One of them is very stupid, (and lacking in any measure of common sense) and the other is very smart. Both are without a moral compass, and both have gaping holes in their souls, leaking toxic and hazardous material everywhere they breathe.

Anyway, I think the curse really is a blessing for you. I managed to figure that out for myself as well.

(P.S…If you had been ‘smart’ you would have been leaking toxicity as well.)

That’s one giant grab-bag of complex masterminding in your conspiracy, I’ll give you that.  All that, and it only took some common sense to figure it out.  Makes those overblown Masterminds seem pretty stupid, eh?  Now that that’s settled, we can all get on with our sorry lives.  Thanks for that!

Thanks!

But I’m not. I’m just cursed with an abundance of common sense! I say cursed, because it often puts me at odds with my own best interests.

For example, on the last Bush [daddy] go-around, when I was a Real Estate Agent, I decided to quit when my broker demanded I find a “creative” way to get some unqualified folks into their dream home. When I pointed out to do so could lead them to bankruptcy, he told me, “That’s not your problem.” And suggested maybe I better find a different broker.

I moved on to do other things, and that broker found an agent who helped those folks get their dream home. Which they ultimately lost following their bankruptcy.

[I completely forgot to mention the Real Estate Brokers who share responsibility for bogus mortgages that led to the sub-prime meltdown! Duh ...]

Now, had I been “smart” I could have made a few thousand dollars on that deal!

On second thought, self-respect and being able to sleep good are far more important than money. [some might disagree]

So maybe that curse is a blessing.

I dunno Louise…

On this…

”... And you don’t have to be an economic Guru to figure that out…”

I think you ARE and economic Guru!! Anybody who could explain the con as well as you just have, (in terms that the average American can understand) is definitely an economic Guru in my book!!

Thanks..

Marshall, March 21 at 10:13 am #

“The rise in oil prices is only partially attributable to Iraq, the rest being things like demand and refinery capacity ... any economist which would blame the subprime mess on Iraq should hang up their shingle for good, because that just makes no sense.  Subprime problem was the result of laxness during prosperity;
*

I disagree.

The rise in oil prices is largely because of run-away speculation on oil futures, which far exceeds the impact of supply and demand, or the availability of refineries. The oil industry shuts down excess refineries to avoid spending money on maintenance and upgrade.

The sub-prime mess is NOT because of a laxness during prosperity, because there never was any prosperity. That was an illusion created to distract us from the reasons for war. Profit to the few from the many.

The goal is to make more money from the people. The obstacles to that goal are the people who spend the money, that make it possible to make more money. So rules must be relaxed to create the illusion that the people will make more money.

They see no possible negative consequence, for their actions, because there never is a negative consequence. [The Bush example]

In other words, when the rapacious who manipulate the Market find a way to rip you off, you can be sure they will!

And if politicians relax the rules to make it easier and those politicians are complicit, there will be a bail-out before the risk of exposure.

Which brings us to the subprime mess, because the people that brought you the war in Iraq also brought you the relaxed rules and the cuts in interest rates that created the subprime mess.

And neither would be hurting so intensely were it not for Bush’s war for profit, which has to be run on borrowed money which depreciates every dollar we spend. It’s the machine that drives the greed which drives the machine.

Borrow to give the wealthy a tax break, to encourage reckless investment and speculation.

Borrow to start a war for profit.

Cut interest rates to create the illusion of prosperity and distract from the war for profit.

Pass a Bankruptcy Bill making sure credit card debt cant be forgiven.

Give open-ended contracts to private corp’s to supply the war for profit, without accountability.

Give tax immunity to those who already get a tax break, so they can increase their profit and drive up their stock value.

Allow bankers who commit mortgage fraud, made easier by reduced interest rates and relaxed oversight, to bundle those mortgages and sell them as investments. Which have value based on future equity that has no value because the mortgages were overvalued, because of the reduced interest rates.

In other words, create a ponzi scheme that makes short term profit on the backs of the consumers who can no longer meet the payments, often because of credit card debt.
And when the bill comes due, bail-out the “banksters.”

So yes, the war for profit, the subprime collapse, the falling dollar, the rising cost of oil, the lack of oversite on Wall Street and the republican administration are all intimately linked. And you don’t have to be an economic Guru to figure that out.

Do I think John McCain suffered psychologically from his imprisonment and torture? Absolutely.  Do I think he would start a war with Vietnam? Very unlikely.

But I think it is important to place his behavior in context.  He was shot down on his 23rd bombing mission.  So he likely killed more people—men, women and children—in those 22 successful bombing runs than all the terrorists of 9/11.  His experience being tortured was surely horrific.  But his experience delivering death from the sky was even more horrific and, as I learned in my studies of Vietnam (and he didn’t), morally unjustified.  If our experience with foreign invaders on 9/11 taught us anything it should be how hard it is to forgive those who do such seemingly unjustified atrocities.

His flip-flopping on the use of torture reveals how ready he is to compromise his values to win political support.  Worse than not being a straight shooter, he is not a straight thinker—as every day’s news informs us.

Your Article leaves out a few things…
Especially LIFE?
life is more important than your money.
think about it.
Comments anyone?

If Mccain DOES become President,
I wonder, would he wage War on his Captors and on the Nation that Held him as Prisoner of WAR?
I know I probably would.
What are your thoughts?
anybody?  Jay Saul?

You can’t compare the $2B to $2Trillion for a few reasons.  The $2B estimated the cost of the rebuilding of Iraq and didn’t include some of the big costs that are part of the $2 trillion, like tending to wounded vets and, oh, that war in Afghanistan (which I assume the author supports).  And did that $2B include the cost of keeping bases in Iraq indefinitely (a la Europe), which was almost certainly the intention from the start?  No.  But the $2 trillion does.

The rise in oil prices is only partially attributable to Iraq, the rest being things like demand and refinery capacity.  And though you don’t cite any actual names, any economist which would blame the subprime mess on Iraq should hang up their shingle for good, because that just makes no sense.  Subprime problem was the result of laxness during prosperity; so are you blaming the prosperity on the Iraq war?

Also, the current estimates don’t include figures for economic windfalls like those from the defense industry as a result of the war.  Not that this would ever be a reason to wage war - of course it’s not.  But it is an economic effect.

Finally, to those who believe the answer to this war bill is to just up and leave, the costs of doing so would far outstrip the costs of staying once we’re forced to return to deal with the giant problem that would explode after we left.

McCain is either ignorant of or unable to process that history, which makes his “experience” worthless.

I’ll agree with that.
Christopher Rudisaile sfc ret(1976-1997)
a few medals, none like yours though.
sorry for your wounds.
0% disabilities
just (re)tired.

Great comments! But why do we have to make simple crime so complicated? Criminals are criminals. They do bad things because they want to. They do bad things because they can. They never stop until they’re stopped.

Why John McCain lusts after the position of “god-father” of this criminal enterprise is beyond me. But the simple fact that he does indicates a great void in the space between his ears. And that alone should cause one to ponder the wisdom of putting this empty shell in charge.

Jaman Jman, March 20 at 11:22 am #

“John McCain, on the other hand, flew over Vietnam dropping bombs on people, was shot down and spent the rest of his time, 5.5 years, in a prison.  That experience and the understanding of the history and people of Vietnam can correctly be compared to an Afghan fighter captured on the battlefield and sent to Guantanimo.  That Afghani fighter has as much knowledge about the USA as McCain had about Vietnam when he left.”

***

Thanks for sharing your experience, and that wise observation!

***

God?FreeDumb?, March 20 at 9:34 am #
“Meanwhile…”

“Read this, From cnn…
# Story Highlights
# 12 U.S. troops have been electrocuted in Iraq; one died in January while showering”

[The CNN link has expired. Here’s a link for those who want to read it:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=4489783&page=1 ]

***

Thanks for posting this, God?FreeDumb? I know for a fact we have troops who are trained and skilled in various engineering fields, including proper installation of electrical service.

When I read about the most recent electrocution [why haven’t we read about the others?] the first thing that came to mind was “private contractors.”

I suspect when this nightmare is over and the criminals are finally arrested and brought to justice we will be shocked to discover how much destruction, and how many deaths and injury’s in Iraq were actually caused by “private contractors.”

The Crime Family’s “hit” men!

***

SamSnedegar, March 20 at 7:40 am #
Re: wrong question

“I’d love to have some intelligent person prove me wrong in my assessment of why we went to and stay in Iraq, but so far, no intelligent person has made an argument.”

***

This is neither proof nor argument. But, based on history’s record of thousands of years of mans predictable bad behavior, I’d like to make an observation. An observation, leading to a possible answer.

An answer so simple, it’s almost embarrassing.

Criminals do what criminals do because they can. If a criminal can invade the home of a little old man who cant walk, let alone protect himself, are they going to invade the home of the guy with the arsenal, down the street? Of course not. They’re going to go after the little old man who cant protect himself. The prize is the same. Both homes are chuck full of treasure.

Why did the republicans attack Iraq? Because they could.

Why do they stay there? Because they can.

Why doesn’t anyone do anything about it? Because nobody’s figured out yet, to stop a criminal in the act of their crime requires overt action.

“Please quit ... pretty please ...” just doesn’t do it. Besides, the republicans hold the hostages. Our government. Our treasury. Our military. And the Iraqi people.

But, why do the criminals do the crime in the first place? That’s the real question!

Why do we have laws and prisons and police and courts? Because criminals LIKE to do crime, and they do, because they can!

So, am I calling ALL republicans criminals? No, just the ones in Washington D.C., the ones who follow their orders, and the ones who support their criminal empire. Which, come to think of it, is just about all of them.

The largest single organized “Crime Family” in the history of this nation!

And keep in mind that the US military is the 35th largest consumer of oil on the planet…rated amongst nation-states.  However, the DoD’s official consumptions statistics don’t include all the recruiters cars and the like.  Furthermore, consumption figures do not include oil procured on site…that is, troops stationed in a place like Kuwait get their oil from Kuwait, as part of the stationing agreement.

Realistically, the DoD’s petroleum consumption is much higher than stated.

DennisD,

First, thanks for the prompt, (I need prompts for the stuff I try to put together in a journalistic mode). And,  you’ve given me…all of us really, and excellent one here…

•  “…The real question is when will the American people have had enough to stop it. What’s it going to take. Is there anyone left who doesn’t know who the real enemy is.”..

I think this is a very important question, because I’m relatively certain, that not enough Americans DO know what or who the real enemy is, and that is exactly WHY this has continued for as long as it has.

So, what it’s ‘going to take’ I believe, is for MORE Americans to understand who the real enemy is, which can help us understand WHY, and HOW this has been allowed to occur. It’s not just ‘one thing’ nor is it a simplistic consideration.

Those who read and contribute to these blogs probably DO have a far better idea than most people do, about who the real enemy is. Even with that, many of us don’t know why or how this has come to be. In reality, those of us who DO engage in these discussions do NOT yet represent any huge number of Americans. Doesn’t mean everybody else out there is stupid, but I think we have to accept that there and millions and millions of Americans who really aren’t tuned into the complexities, for whatever the reasons…many of them perfectly legitimate and understandable reasons.

Not all people have access to the Internet or alternative media, and even those WHO DO, don’t necessarily USE it for the purposes of keeping track of, or otherwise even considering anything other than what the MSM presents. And, the MSM has acted very much like a state operated vehicle for propaganda, more so than we may be aware of.

As a result, probably MOST Americans, (and I’m talking about those who DO stay ‘tuned-in’ at least to MSM) really are NOT aware of the real enemy, because the enemy is not particularly easy to pinpoint.

That’s one of the reasons why I posted earlier, the link to an excellent piece by William Rivers Pitt, entitled WHY?

It explains not just WHY, but HOW! How Iraq came to be a vehicle, an opportunity to perpetrate a much larger movement, to the extent that we have moved from being an open society, (democracy being the form of government) to a closed society, same as any others that have been designated as authoritarian states. As a general rule, the movement from an open society to a one party rule or dictatorship, (such as Cheney has established under the principle of the Unitary Executive) is NOT necessarily ‘visible’ to all, as it occurs.

So really, we DON’T all know yet, but I’d like to hope that we don’t all find out before it’s far too late to reverse the damage.

Anyway, here’s the link again…since Pitt says it far better than I could come close to.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031908R.shtml

“Its just too bad that J Mcsane didnt die from Electrocution while POW.”—God?FreeDumb?

It is too bad you cannot control your own expressions of insanity.

It’s called ‘Peak Oil’ and by virtue of necessity, a very large military beast requires very large pools of oil from which to drink as it scours the planet and attempts to justify the carnage it leaves within its wake.

We could have broken this cycle of madness in 1972, but greed stood in the way and now it is too late.

Peace, Best Wishes and Hope

I am an expert on the Vietnam War.  I spent 6 months in the jungle fighting with the 1st Air Cav in 1969, was wounded and then spent 6 months as a combat correspondent for that unit—I saw more of that war than most.  John McCain, on the other hand, flew over Vietnam dropping bombs on people, was shot down and spent the rest of his time, 5.5 years, in a prison.  That experience and the understanding of the history and people of Vietnam can correctly be compared to an Afghan fighter captured on the battlefield and sent to Guantanimo.  That Afghani fighter has as much knowledge about the USA as McCain had about Vietnam when he left.
When I went back to college in 1983—without the GI Bill—I studied the history of Vietnam and the Vietnam War.  Evidently Senator McCain was too busy to really attempt to understand that history or those people.  We should never have been in that war and would never have succeeded in stopping those historically nationalistic people from, as they have for thousands of years, driving the foreign invaders out.  McCain is either ignorant of or unable to process that history, which makes his “experience” worthless.
Jay Saul, CSE
Tucson
3 Bronze Stars and The Purple Heart
60% disabled vet

Read this, From cnn…
# Story Highlights
# 12 U.S. troops have been electrocuted in Iraq; one died in January while showering
http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/

Its just too bad that J Mcsane didnt die from Electrocution while POW.

read the story. KBR(Halliburton) is involved once again

SamSneddegar,

Not to disagree with you entirely…but there is more..
  Why?

  By William Rivers Pitt
  t r u t h o u t | Columnist
  Wednesday 19 March 2008
Politics is the art of controlling your environment.
- Hunter S. Thompson

Why?

  Mainly, because the motivations behind the invasion and occupation of Iraq came down to power, payback and greed, which makes this entire calamity just another ghastly page within the oldest book in humanity’s bloody history.

  Vice President Dick Cheney is, by far and away, the most powerful man in the present administration. He is still bitter from watching the slow annihilation of Richard Nixon, his first boss in Washington, at the hands of a Democrat-dominated US Congress fueled by broad and vocal support from an outraged public. Nixon was Cheney’s archetype, the Unitary Executive version 1.0, who tried to raze the separation of powers doctrine to the ground by brazenly declaring the Presidency to be beyond any legal limitations, beyond any meddling intruders sniffing for secrets in the name of oversight, and thus vested with the same absolute authority once claimed by the Stuart kings of old.

  Yet that Nixonian leviathan collapsed and came to grief before the Legislature, the Judiciary, and the rule of constitutional law. Cheney was a man thwarted, and so he would brood on that defeat for many long years, and would bide his time. Few people, not even his closest Republican colleagues, were aware of the stone-fisted authoritarian lurking behind that bland conservative facade.

.... “Cheney’s muscular views on presidential power, then and now, offer one answer to the question raised often by former colleagues in recent years: What happened to the careful, mainstream conservative they once thought they understood?”

  What happened? Opportunity happened, at long last, George W. Bush and 9/11 and a manufactured state of permanent war happened. Over these last five years, virtually every invocation of the ever-expanding powers laid claim by Executive privilege, every ignored Congressional subpoena, every assertion of confidentiality or national security to block even meager attempts to scrutinize White House activities, every summary termination of a US attorney who refused administration orders to cripple offending Democrats with baseless abuses of prosecutorial discretion, every refusal to obey black-letter laws requiring the release of administration documents even to the harmless librarians at the National Archives, every signing statement that eviscerates another duly-passed bill from Congress, every attempt to stack the Justice Department and the federal court system with devoted yes-men whose only qualification is their total loyalty to and complete Judicial protection of the administration, with neither heed nor concern paid to whatever laws or freedoms or principles are rubbished by the process, every one of these lethal attacks upon America’s constitutional infrastructure have been committed under the ill-defined and therefore limitless legal prerogatives afforded to American presidents “during a time of war.”

  Why?

  Because war in Iraq presented Dick Cheney with the means to fulfill his decades-old ambition: to invest the Executive branch with unprecedented and unlimited power, to settle a few festering scores with that nettlesome Legislature, and to cash in on the spoils of supremacy by rerouting every available dollar out of the Treasury and into tax-sheltered coffers of like-minded comrades in the oil and warfare industries, comrades who eagerly joined in the plunder and have happily fattened their fortunes with money that now might as well be in the same place as your lap once you stand up. Somewhere, nowhere, and all the way gone.”

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031908R.shtml

If you had something positive to say anent our oil adventure, I’d try to explain what you dismiss as ridiculous, but why bother with a fake name meaning (to some) ‘diseased?’

I’d love to have some intelligent person prove me wrong in my assessment of why we went to and stay in Iraq, but so far, no intelligent person has made an argument.

That is the most ridiculous statement I’ve read in some time. 0% validity. 0% practicality.

It is no longer a question of whether we stay in Iraq or not; of course we stay—-because that is where the oil is.

The riding question is about how much MORE oil we have to steal to survive economically. Easiest target would be Kuwait; Saddam took it, and so will we. Next will be the Emirates, maybe one at a time, perhaps all together . . . then in time we will also take over Saudi Arabia and stop pretending that we let their diplomats have some say about their oil.

Iraq was the starting point and will never comprise the end of our mideast thieving.