re cyrena

Thanks for the Washington archive links. It makes you question what he term “trusted ally” actually means. It also makes you wonder what all the espionage is about, considering how much technology is already shared. But spies will be spies, yes?
There is a mythology that surrounds certain policies, especially concerning the Middle East. Strangely, I am reminded of a cartoon album cover by the late Frank Zappa, Weasels Ripped MY Flesh?
Anyway, thank you for the articles. They are both funny and ghastly, at the same time.

Beerdoctor,

Thanks for the link on US Israel relations. Believe it or not, I was looking for the same thing, and came up with the same link. But, since I was running out of space, I posted the others instead, because they aren’t likely to come up in a search, but are definitely related. Still, the one you posted is definitely interesting and helpful.

I have a very minor warning about Wikipedia, and I want to make sure to clarify that it is minor. Overall, I find Wikipedia to be helpful, and specifically for anyone willing to follow it through all of the links, and do their own verifications. Many professors and related professionals discourage, (or even forbid) their students to use it, because in fact there are many factual errors in it. I think that’s foolish, and even authoritarian. There is much to be gained, and easily enough from it. But I (personally) do ask that they verify the information via other sources, and I think that helps in a way, to develop critical thinking. It’s just my philosophy to always have more than one view of anything.

So, in that spirit, I’ll share these links that I didn’t have time to get to before…

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September-October 2008, page 14
Lobby Watch
Israeli Spying on the United States
By Andrew I. Killgore

http://www.washington-report.org/archives/Sept_Oct_2008/0809014.html

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September-October 2008, pages 52-53
Israel and Judaism
AIPAC’s Role in the 2008 Election Coming Under Increasingly Critical Scrutiny
By Allan C. Brownfeld

http://www.washington-report.org/archives/Sept_Oct_2008/0809052.html

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September-October 2008, pages 34-35
United Nations Report
Playing Favorites
By Ian Williams

http://www.washington-report.org/archives/Sept_Oct_2008/0809034.html

Ian Williams is a free-lance journalist based at the UN, and is working on another book about U.N. – Haters in the U.S, and has a blog at http://www.deadlinepundit.blogspot.com

So, check him out sometimes. I really appreciate his work.

Note: as usual, the mainstream news link does not work (and Rupert Murdoch publication at that!) instead, just go to Google and type in: the ruin of the roman empire, and you will find the article I was trying to link. Peace.

re: Virginia 777

In James O’Donnell’s book, The Ruin of the Roman Empire, he points out that many of the so-called barbarians were more educated and civilized than their Roman counterparts. Of course the modern parallel is striking, where the U.S. has policies that makes villains of anyone who dares to disagree with them.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/083/2008/postopinion/postopbooks/the_ruin_of_the_roman_empire_126839.htm

I was reminded by someone who had lived through WW II - Germany had a broken economy too - that economy was “fixed” by its wars of pillage, which absconded the invaded country’s wealth.

Are we so far away from this?

Marshall K—Are you saying that Contractor supervisors are given bonuses which are justified by filling out forms for fake workers who ostensibly receive them?  And here I thought that the Bushites just kept the tens of billions of dollars that they’ve ripped off. 

Obviously I’m just a naive sentemental fool.  They are using part of the money to build up gunmen organs that increase the power of American warlords, just as the Iraqis and Afghans are doing.  When they are returned to the US after the inevitable defeats there, which will be called victories, or would-be victories if they weren’t Stabbed In The Back by Liberals, the warlordism of these countries, and possibly their dimemberment, can be transferred to the US.

This will occur as the legitimacy of the US government is lessened as it becaomes obvious to the population that it is in increasingly controlled by the capitalist ruling class.  Since the warlords and contractors are not subject to law, they will become like the Mercenaries in Jack London’s novel THE IRON HEEL.

This is one scenario that hasn’t been seriously considered yet as the US decays as a world power.

Greetings Fadel, and thanks for the feedback.

I know you’re correct about the fact that so much is unknown, but surprisingly, (or not) in the link that I posted from washingtonreports.org, they come up with about the same $12billion. (Nabih is the one who clued me in on that publication..remember him?)I’ve just received several new articles from him, but I think most can be accessed on line at:

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

Yes, you’re correct to chastise me for assuming any real transparency or legitimate Congressional recording in these areas. I guess it’s a bad habit, based on earlier education of how things are SUPPOSED to work. Of course I know better, but I keep having these re-lapses. Sometimes I go in the opposite direction and refuse to trust ANYTHING that ANYBODY says. (you see what these criminals have done to our collective and individual psyches).

Ok, I know you’re short on time, as am I these days. But when there’s a moment, I’ll try to post and/or send the links to the articles that I just received from Nabih. There are three that are particularly relevant, at least to me, as they should be to ANY US citizens..

~“AIPAC’s Role in the 2008 Election Coming Under Increasingly Critical Scrutiny”
-Allan C. Brownfeld

~“McCain, Lieberman and Iraq: ‘Till Death Do Us Part”
-Andrew I. Killgore

~“Will Iraqis Vote the U.S. Out of Iraq?”
-Rachelle Marshall

All are from The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. I’m particularly impressed with the lat author listed here: Rachelle Marshall. She is a free-lance editor living here in Standford, CA, and a member of the Jewish International Peace Union. I’ve always found her articles very balanced and informative, because of course the US main-stream media doesn’t provide any of this.

This particular article was especially interesting to me, (I guess Nabih knew that) because I’ve been ‘predicting’ for over 5 years, that the only way the Iraqis are ever going to get us out of their country is to MAKE US LEAVE!! Not such an easy chore since the first thing Dick Bush Bremer did was to disband what was left of the Iraqi military. BUT, they are their true strength now, and getting much, much, closer to VOTING us out!!

I must admit that both McCain and Obama have done their fair share of pandering. The difference is that McCain has been at it for over 20 years, and it is his ideology. (he’s crazy). Obama has been at it less than 2 years, and for him, it’s tactical and pragmatic. At least that’s my not always humble opinion.

I’m convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Obama intends to get us out of Iraq, if the Iraqis don’t throw us out first, and that counts for a lot with me.

By cyrena, September 30 at 12:44 am #
=================
Greeting Cyrena!

Since I am short on free time, please find a short concise answer to your questions:

1. Yes, I meant the first Presidential candidates’ DEBATES, rather than elections.

2. As to your exchange with “floydw” about the actual foreign aid package to Israel, I agree with you that the last disclosed figures on this is in the range of 3 billion (several years ago). However, this does not include the individual and institutional donations from Zionists and Christian Zionists whose contributions to Israel, which are tax-exempted and can run into several billions, making the figure of 12 billion suggested by “floydw” not far fetched. Any way, I disagree with you that you will be able to research for the actual figures on public records since much of the dealings with Israel are secret and are exempted from oversight. It seems to me that with all the disasters brought upon this country by successive administrations, both Republicans and Democrats, you still believe there is oversight and public accountability to warrant the disclosure of all their secret deals to the public!

3. As to what I said about both McCain and Obama signing on the latest weaponry shipment to Israel, I meant that either actually or figuratively. I know for sure that all weaponry sales to foreign countries are supposed to be approved and passed by Congress. Whether this latest shipment was submitted to the Congress for approval, there is no way for me to know and there is no way for you either at this time. Ten to twenty years in the future, when the top secret seal expires on records, historians might be able to find out. So, by omission or commission, and in light of both McCain’s and Obama’s open and unconditional support and pandering to the Zionists, these two politicians’ approval of any thing that favors Israel is indeed a given. And it’s worse in this cycle of elections than it ever was.

4. Finally, in everything related to Israel, the political-military-industrial complex’s support for Israel should be viewed in light of one or two of the following political maxims: “The Congress is an Israeli occupied territory” and / or “Israel is the 51st most favored state of the USA.”

Rob Johnson, former chief economist of the Senate Banking Committee, chimes in on the bailout package earlier today on DemocracyNow. RJ: “Why not get the taxpayers the same deal Warren Buffett secured for his shareholders?” Hey, good question!

If this is a genuine crisis, and the U.S. Treasury must act as a savior of last resort to ensure stability in global markets, why not get the same kind of deal Paulson would demand if he were investing his own money?

Create a U.S. taxpayer private equity fund and hire a Wall St. genius as executive and compensate him or her based on the performance of the fund.

I recommend the legendary investor, John C. Bogle, patriarch of the trillion-dollar Vanguard family of funds as chairman and CEO.  Some of you may enjoy listening to his recent interview on Radio Open Source (if you haven’t already) a candid capitalist indeed!

Excerpt from transcript of DemocracyNow! 9/30/2008

ROBERT JOHNSON: Right, but it’s small potatoes compared to $700 billion. You’ve got to go out and say, how do you protect the population with a $700 billion, with capital restructuring? How do you re-regulate so that the financial system serves the economy? You know, when I was a student, they used to say, there’s society, and it uses an economy to meet its social goals, and finance facilitates the economy. Well, what’s happened was the servants’ servants become the masters’ master. And I think we’ve got to—how do we say—re-invert that and put things back into place.

AMY GOODMAN: So, lay it out. Lay it out, the bill that Rob Johnson would write, you’re former chief economist of the Senate Banking Committee!

ROBERT JOHNSON: Right, right. $500 billion would be used to go into preferred stock injections run by bank examiners. $200 billion would go into recapitalization of the FDIC. $200 billion would be put towards mortgage relief. Many legal changes, some of which Bruce is more expert than I am, regarding the GSEs and changing the nature of the bankruptcy code. So, you’re essentially restructuring there. You’re re-regulating Wall Street. You’re penalizing Wall Street. And you’re giving the American people ownership of the stock in the financial system, which can be sold on the market over ten or fifteen years.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/30/bridge_loan_to_nowhere_house_rejects

http://www.radioopensource.org/candid-capitalist-john-bogle/

It would seem that this week has been consumed with nothing but talk about the melt down on Wall Street. I am happy to see that you are raising the alarm and blowing the whistle on this defense spending issue. How can this be? In the past weeks, when our nations financial markets have been in a tumult, Congress can overwhelmingly pass a huge new national defense budget. But, “there have been no signs of even the slightest urge to inquire into the relationship between our bloated military, our staggering weapons expenditures, our extravagantly expensive failed wars abroad, and the financial catastrophe on Wall Street”. The two, however, are inextricably linked with each other. Part of the reason that our nation faces this mountain of debt in the first place is because of the “War on Terrorism”. It would not be so difficult for the nation to bail out the adventurers and speculators on Wall Street if we had not spent, since as of June this year, over $646 billion to fund the war in Iraq. However, do you believe that the country as a whole would be as angry about this defense bill’s passage as you are? After all, many Americans simply accept the notion that the world’s largest military / world police force costs a ton of money to maintain. And after all, if they are maintaining the safety of Americans at home and abroad, is it not worth the price tag? I do agree that our nation’s elected leaders need to break their association with the size of the military spending budget and their patriotism. It is wrong to think that the larger the budget for defense spending, the more “respect” that our troops are shown when they are off fighting. Especially when you argue that all of the money spent is merely propping up an armed service that is using, for the most part, entirely outdated equipment and vehicles. I find your conclusion (the eventual bankruptcy of America) to be bleak and troublesome. I only hope for my and the nation’s sake that you are wrong.

re: cyrena

I was trying to find some U.S.-Israel facts about funding. But I found this instead, which you might find interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel-United_States_relations

Greetings Fadel!!

You know of course that I’m always delighted to read your posts, and you also know that I’m not a rabid Zionist, ready to jump at you for trying to answer what is a VERY LEGITIMATE question from floyd. And, I have a piece of trivia to add to your explanation on that as well.

But, before I do, I wanted to ask you about this particular part of your comments, just to make sure that I (and all of us I suppose) are clear on what you meant…

•  “As an aside, but would also help explain the issue you raised, is the news coming from Israel that it received from the U.S. very expensive and sophisticated radar system. Only an omniscient God would know how much this gift to Israel would cost the American tax-payer, along with the other sophisticated weaponry that goes unannounced and undisclosed. “…This happened on the wake of the first presidential election to which I am sure both McCain and Obama must have signed on… And this happened at a time of alarming national financial crises, but there will always tax-payer money for expensive gifts to Israel!..

I reproduced the entire paragraph, just so that the context would not be lost, but my question has to do with this part…

“This happened on the wake of the first presidential ELECTION, to which I am sure both McCain and Obama must have signed on…”
I’m trying to make sure that I understand this, (only because I’m not up to speed on this particular transaction with the radar and other stuff) and so I’m wondering if you meant the first Presidential candidates’ DEBATES, rather than elections.

If this is the case, then it would be worth checking to see if in fact both McCain and Obama really DID sign on. (you know how protective I am of Obama.) Now I have NO PROBLEMS with him or anyone else taking the ‘heat’ for something that they’ve done or failed to do, and I think they should provide explanations in either case. But you know me…I dislike ‘speculation’ and particularly when there is a record that can verify. (or at least there SHOULD be a record). So, we need to know who signed on, (or didn’t) to such an arrangement. Now I say that at the same time that I will indulge in a tad bit of ‘speculation’ myself. It could very well be that NOBODY ‘signed on to it, because that’s how things have been known to happen in the last 8 years of the Dick Bush Cheney dictatorship.

Meantime, I think your answer for floydw was pretty much right on the bullseye. I would have had the SAME question myself some years ago. In fact, I DID have that same question some years ago, but it came about from an entirely different experience.

As you (and some others) know, I spent 25 years in the commercial airline industry, and it was probably at least 20 years ago, when I first noted that passenger travel was particularly light during times when it would normally have been much heavier. I finally asked someone what was going on, and they looked at me like the ‘novice’ that I was, and explained that it was because of the Jewish Holiday. I was pretty amazed.

Now of course as you’ve made clear, in this mostly Christian country, we KNOW and prepare far in advance (in the industry) for the very heavily traveled holidays like Christmas, and Thanksgiving. Actually, Thanksgiving is ‘THE’ most heavily traveled holiday in the US for both air and ground traffic. It actually begins as early as the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, so the outbound traffic is spread over a few days. But nearly EVERYONE returns on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. For Christmas, it’s spread out slightly more, depending on which day of the week it falls on.

So, I wasn’t prepared during that first year or two, for when the airports became like GHOST TOWNS during the Jewish Holidays. But, that’s what happened. Gives one something to think about, eh?

By floydw, September 29 at 4:23 pm #
Thanks Fadel Abdallah.
I find this very intriguing, very revealing. Given that Israel is also the top recipient of U. S. foreign aide, 12 billion dollars annually, I believe. Am I mistaken? I could very well be.
Floydw…I’m glad you posted this response to Fadel, because it prompted me to check to see if I could actually find out HOW MUCH the US foreign aid to Israel actually is. For many years, it was in the area of 3billion annually. At least that’s the figure that had been stuck in my mind from long ago. But, I had no idea what it was now.

So, thanks to the Internet, we can now do a bit of checking, to actually find these things out. There are multiple links to this info, but as we know, we have to be cautious in what we actually come away with. The one I’ve posted below ‘appears’ to be pretty legitimate, and I’ve come to rely on this source for both related and non-related information. (a former poster to TD, and retired academic helps keep me up to date, and he routinely sends me articles from this source, so I trust it.)

Now of course it’s always a good idea to check various sources, if one wants to maintain a level of academic credibility. But for those without the time, I think this one is pretty thorough.

http://www.washington-report.org/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm

BTW…I agree with your analysis.

We live isolated by two oceans, half a world from Europe, Africa and Asia. To the north is a frozen prairie wasteland, to the south, a country the CIA has governed behind the scenes since its inception. We have not been invaded as a country since 1812. We have of course invaded other countries and their territories numerous times, conquering the Native Americans, Spanish, and Mexicans to annex territory and starting wars of aggression in inumerable other parts of the world. We have been involved in WW I only briefly and in WW II, to come to the aid of allies after an attack on a territory but for the most part our location has insulated us from the warfare that has ravaged the world for centuries.

Nonetheless, the US has a military budget that exceeds all of the rest of the world, combined, by over 25%. The US spends 10 times as much as the second-highest country. The US spends, since the fourth Reich seized power in the 2000 junta, enough money that if the dollars were laid end to end, the dollar bills would circle the earth. 20,000 times. Or put another way, reach Mars on its closest approach this years and back. Twice. Every year. For what?

For Abu Ghraib. For Iraq. For billion dollar bombers when there are strategic missiles enough to destroy mankind. For aircraft carriers when there are as many already as the entire rest of the world combined and 11 when no other country has more than two. For arms manufacturers and contracts that cost untold billions for junk. The US sent an army into Iraq without adequate weapons, armor and equipment while spending $600 billion that did not include $200 billion a year for that war.

If ANY effort had ever been made to trim military spending, we would not be in the precarious position we are today. We have developed a capitalist war-based economic model and it has led to enormous profits for manufacturers of arms, military equipment, and other paphernalia of death. Now, the whole house of cards is falling down and we continue an orgy of bomb and bullet buying on a scale that is beyond belief, while tax paying workers are told they must pay for bankers that fraudulently loaned money without collateral. This is the injustice of having a military dicatatorshilp like ours; the end justifies the means, and the worker is the little guy in this scheme. The arms corporate giants’ bottom line will emerge in the black as we may go hungry. The final injustice of the Bush legacy will be the theft of our children’s futures for money to kill with.

Thanks Fadel Abdallah.

I find this very intriguing, very revealing. Given that Israel is also the top recipient of U. S. foreign aide, 12 billion dollars annually, I believe. Am I mistaken? I could very well be.

Additionally, this may help to explain why congress continues to fund our irrational foreign policy in the middle east despite the overwhelming consensus on the part of Americans (nearly 70%) that we are on “the wrong track” and doing irreparable damage to our military and economy.

It may also shed some light on why the current administration continues its saber rattling towards Iran. And why both major party candidates are compelled to pander to Israeli interests.

And finally, why behavior that is characterized by most observers as blatant and unconscionable violations of human rights (“Apartheid” in Gaza), and naked, illegal aggression and violation of a sovereign state (bombing of Syria) are not only condoned, but endorsed and supported by the United States.

Ah, Mr. Johnson, good to see you on the pages of Truthdig again.

Actually, i think that the pay raise isn’t a bad thing, but my guess is that everyone will be getting a pay raise…not just the enlisted men/women. In fact, i’ll bet that the biggest raises go to the general staff of 3000+. (For reference, Ike’s general staff in WWII was 300.)

Big B raises an important point. It is possible to draw down an empire. The Dutch did it and the British did it (kind of). But those nations that don’t decide to draw down their empire generally fall very hard.

It is possible to support the troops and not support the empire. But i don’t see how it is possible to be a small government conservative that supports an enormous military.

By floydw, September 29 at 11:52 am #

Can anyone explain why a Jewish holiday would interfere with Senate business? making “a vote before Wednesday virtually impossible” [should the bailout-rescue legislation clear the house on a second try]?  Seems very curious to me, given the gravity of the situation and the market response. Why does the Senate observe this holiday?
========================
Yes floydw, I, like you, have been wondering about this issue since I also heard it on TV. I don’t have a formal or rational explanation to this, but I will attempt an educated one.

Jews in this country are estimated at 6-7 million. Obviously a very tiny minority in a population of 300 million people to warrant that the Congress take a day off for a Jewish holiday. We know that America is generally a Christian nation, and that’s why the long Christmas Holiday is established and accepted by all citizens, even non-Christians like me. Actually, Muslim population in America is is estimated at 6-7 million, equal to the Jewish population. Yet, there would possibly be riots in the streets if Muslims demanded one of their two major holidays to be formally observed along with Christmas.

So here my educated explanation: It’s recognized by some observers that the Congress is “an Israeli-occupied territory.” Jews in Congress are over represented in proportion to their actual numbers. I really don’t know the exact number of Jews who are in Congress, but when the actual number is known. However, the actual numbers of Jews in Congress, does not explain the power of their influence. Therefore, you have to look for the power of Jewish money and lobbying influence that influence the non-Jewish members of congress. Books have been written on this and I just would recommend two them. One by former congressman Paul Findly, titled “They Dare to Speak Out.” The other, which is more recent, titled “The Israel Lobby” by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt.

As an aside, but would also help explain the issue you raised, is the news coming from Israel that it received from the U.S. very expensive and sophisticated radar system. Only an omniscient God would know how much this gift to Israel would cost the American tax-payer, along with the other sophisticated weaponry that goes unannounced and undisclosed. This happened on the wake of the first presidential election to which I am sure both McCain and Obama must have signed on. And this happened at a time of alarming national financial crises, but there will always tax-payer money for expensive gifts to Israel!

I better stop here and wait for the reaction of the rabid Zionists on these threads who are going to jump at me for trying to answer your question!

How much would the national debt have to increase before the interest expense on national debt exceeds defense spending in the annual budget at current interest rates?

Can anyone explain why a Jewish holiday would interfere with Senate business? making “a vote before Wednesday virtually impossible” [should the bailout-rescue legislation clear the house on a second try]?  Seems very curious to me, given the gravity of the situation and the market response. Why does the Senate observe this holiday?

N.Y. Times:

…Should the [market rescue] measure somehow clear the House on a second try, the Senate is expected to vote later in the week. The Jewish holidays and potential procedural obstacles made a vote before Wednesday virtually impossible, but Senate vote-counters predicted that there was enough support in the chamber for the measure to pass.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/business/30bailout.html

Chalmers Johnson will speak the truth. Unfortunately it is a truth of no kind of good but of what our ‘leaders’ are doing to us to make us think that they are into some very serious labor to ‘help us all’. What is going on now is just as conniving as the military slipping through budgets that have no oversight or justification which really makes the ‘military industrial complex’ really live up to its name.
Now the elected persons in congress are pretending to save our economy with a bill that will pay out another unfathomable amount of money to compensate a bunch of incompetent money changers(really crooks) for a job ill done and just to tweak the people into accepting it or out right demanding it the vote is playing back and forth to keep a level of anxiety in the people and tweak the stock market to a point where the people in position are able to make out like bandits.
The whole thing is based on a false economy, one that is more apt to collapse at the drop of a hat than to remain stable for any amount of time, meaning that is how the crooked people really clean up. After all with most of our manufacturing base shipped offshore how can we have a good solid economy. Can’t help but think that this will go on for a couple of more days being part of the shock doctrine.

There is such a thing as a diversionary tactic.

Pelosi going on and on this weekend about how Congress was going to kill those nasty golden parachute practices was a diversionary tactic.
Golden parachutes are obscene for sure but the amount of monetary outlay they involve is next to nothing in this overall financial boondoggle called the bail-out.

Earmarks, McCain’s diversionary tactic amount to little more than a ‘rounding off’ of the giant federal budget - $18 billion, Obama’s number, is peanuts.

(I think it was J.P. Morgan who would periodically have his servant drive him through town as he threw brand new shiny dimes out of his carriage window to the grovelling masses in the streets.  Morgan’s way of diverting attention from the business practices he engaged in - which of course were the reason why people were grovelling for dimes in the first place.)

Being an old science fiction geek, i would like to share with you the premise behind the “foundation” series, written by Isaac Asimov. There was a great galactic empire that had flourished for nearly 10,000 years. But the huge, bloated empire had begun to falter. Not to most people at first, but one scientist had figured out that the empire was begining a long road to ruin. He tried to set forth a plan that was of course met with ridicule from the power elite. He tried to convince the leadership class that if they admitted the failing of the empire and at once began to work on a reorganization plan, that the impending fall from grace would not lead to thousands of years of barbarism.
He said this simple phrase before the powers that be, “the Empire is dying” Then he put forth a plan to fix it.

Many of us have our heads in the sand. We don’t want to admit that perhaps the american empire is in decline.

If it is, and all signs lead to that fact, and we refuse to plan for the best possible end, we could spiral into our own era of “barbarism”. The biggest problem with that end is that we just might take the whole planet with us! Just like Rome did.

In the novel “Foundation” the smart people eventually won out.

Unfortunatley, we all know that in this world, that happens very rarely.

Looking at the Media as voice of the powers that be, includes not saying anything, like the protests in Alaska against Palin.  Cover tidbits and not cover other topics.

Rubber stamp it through, crooks love the that money.

Where will Obama be on this one, does it not have to be rubber stamped by the Senate?

Bailout plan: dollars to estinguish burning dollars?

Enjoy the last days of imperial grandeur while we have it, dear friends; once everything collapses, the post-American age will be long and dreadful.

We once again do not learn from our history. The only way for a foreign war to break even, or be profitable, is to annex the conquered land. Rome lasted for nearly a thousand years because all conquered nations were pulled into the Roman fold not only as an economic partner, but as citizens as well. This policy of economic inclusion is what paid for the Roman empire’s expansion and massive military.

However, a system that relies on foreign conquest and a seemingly never ending flow of “booty” was doomed to fail for one glaring reason, what happens to your economy, your military, your infrastucture, when, as Alexander lamented, “there were no more worlds to conquer.” The romans learned that lesson by finding out, too late, that there was not enough “booty” too support the workings of a huge empire, especially a massive military. Smaller foreign armies eventually caused the split of the once great empire, who could not defend their endless borders primarily because they had stopped producing their own goods and had become wholly dependent on imports from the far reaches of the empire.

Does anyone think this story sounds familiar? It should, because we are in the middle of our own version right now. We have a bottomless pit of money for the military industrial complex. Well, not quite. We will just start up the printing press once again and pump out some more dollars, hoping beyond hope that some future prosperity will pay for our current military extavicancies.

Oh, I almost forgot, we have a huge portion of our population about to retire, about to dip into medicare. A financial system failing. Many of our big businesses, auto and airlines, are failing. Our infrastructure is collapsing. More and more people cannot afford to be sick. They can’t afford to drive to doctors anyway. Or heat their homes.

A physisist would call the moment we are leading up to a “critical mass”.
The reaction will either burn itself out, or explode.

Perhaps we should duck and cover!

Time to take a weedwacker to this.

No more military AID to foreign countries.
No more B-2’s, carriers, cruisers, destroyers.
No more Blackwater.
No more subs from Electric Boat (Sorry Lieberman).
Close most of those 761 military bases.

http://www.alternet.org/audits/97913/the_us_has_761_military_bases_across_the_planet,_and_we_simply_never_talk_about_it/#comments

This includes the gas to power all this, 10 million + gal per day.

Even 1/10th of the amount we pay for the non-productive MIC would make a profound impact on this nations infrastucture and alternative energy base.

“Did you hear the sport
On the TV holding forth
About war, nukes and victory
He was dreaming of course
But he runs the Air Force
And he’s talking about World War III

And there’s no hiding place down here
There’s no hiding place down here
I ran to the rocks to hide my face
The rocks said there’s no hiding place
There’s no hiding place down here.”

Re: troublesum

By the looks of it… my educated guess would be Obama’s been bought or threatened into his current positions.  Which translates as, a vote for Obama…is a nail in our coffin.  The same is true for McCain.

I don’t think it is a coincidence that the president who has had the highest military budgets is also the most anti-democratic.  Militarism and democracy do not go together.  We are on the brink of moral as well as financial bankruptcy - spiritual death as MLK put it.  Has Obama been bought by the MIC or is there a chance he will turn the country around before it is too late?

If you consider the unconscionable RAPE of our treasury and taxpayer dollars, between the MIC and Wall Street, who at times is hard to distinguish…remember this….

Patti Smith.

“I was dreaming in my dreaming
of an aspect bright and fair
and my sleeping it was broken
but my dream it lingered near
in the form of shining valleys
where the pure air recognized
and my senses newly opened
I awakened to the cry
that the people / have the power
to redeem / the work of fools
upon the meek / the graces shower
it’s decreed / the people rule

The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power

Vengeful aspects became suspect
and bending low as if to hear
and the armies ceased advancing
because the people had their ear
and the shepherds and the soldiers
lay beneath the stars
exchanging visions
and laying arms
to waste / in the dust
in the form of / shining valleys
where the pure air / recognized
and my senses / newly opened
I awakened / to the cry

Refrain

Where there were deserts
I saw fountains
like cream the waters rise
and we strolled there together
with none to laugh or criticize
and the leopard
and the lamb
lay together truly bound
I was hoping in my hoping
to recall what I had found
I was dreaming in my dreaming
god knows / a purer view
as I surrender to my sleeping
I commit my dream to you

Refrain

The power to dream / to rule
to wrestle the world from fools
it’s decreed the people rule
it’s decreed the people rule
LISTEN
I believe everything we dream
can come to pass through our union
we can turn the world around
we can turn the earth’s revolution
we have the power
People have the power ...

Then check out this…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztJAPh4XWYA&feature=related

And yet the policemen and women of this nation, the real “volunteer army” that protects us on a daily basis from real threats and dangers—continue to be paid like peons.  The nation’s teachers, whose work offers our best chance of a successful economy in the future, also continue to be paid like peons. Of course, there’s no money in teaching or police work to be made by any entity like the Military Industrial Complex, so there’s no political force behind change.  And the taxpayer continues to be willingly bent over the kitchen sink…

“On Wednesday, September 24th, right in the middle of the fight over billions of taxpayer dollars slated to bail out Wall Street, the House of Representatives passed a $612 billion defense authorization bill for 2009 without a murmur of public protest or any meaningful press comment at all.”

And that’s just the part of the iceberg above the water line.  On 9/10/01 Rumsfeld said the Pentagon had done some kind of audit and there was 3 trillion dollars missing.  The next day there was some kind of huge explosion in the audit department of the Pentagon and all those records went missing.  hmmmm….do I have that right?  And what of the cargo planes crammed with bales of $100 bills that were flown to Iraq and disappeared?

My person close to me has been a contract worker in the “war on terror” since the invasion of Afganistan.  His time has been mostly spent in Iraq, but he is now in Kuwait, overseeing a vehicle repair shop on a military base.  The funds for this operation are filtered through established foreign business people, or “sponsors”.  Envelopes stuffed with cash are handed out each month to the supervisors who fake work orders.  This is a very common practice, and one that would be difficult to say no to.  This is but a mere microcosm of what must be the incredible looting of our treasury on an hourly basis.  I was very disappointed during the debate that when asked how the candidates would adjust to their budgets to accomodate the 7 billion dollar wall street bailout, Obama did not even mention paring the waste, fraud, and massive bloat of the “defense” budget.

So good to read a voice of sanity in the midst of the usual pompous drivel characterizing the political-military-industrial establishment of both Republicans and Democrats.

Thanks Chalmers Johnson for reminding the ignorant and misinformed that it was the courage of the Afghans (1979-1989) which resulted in a humiliating Russian defeat, so demoralizing and costly that it contributed significantly to the disintegration of the former Soviet Union in 1991, contrary to the dubious claim that it was the notoriously stupid Reagan who brought down the Soviet Union.