Yes, I saw the Brits leaving Basra, KDelphi; good for them, though bad when one thinks they’ll probably be going to Afghanistan next.

Absolutely right, this country can still be a healthy and wealthy one if only it ends its empire of its own accord and reverts to the non-interventionism of its Founders. And if there’s anyone around to write post-mortems after the American Empire is done, they’ll be writing about what should’ve been done here and what oughtn’t to have been done there to keep the imperial dream alive, and no one (outside, perhaps, the Ludwig von Mises Institute) will be willing to admit that the whole imperial adventure from 1898 onwards had been a huge mistake, one the USA should NOT have enmarked upon.

Well, Ben Franklin said it best—“Experience keeps a dear school but fools will learn in no other.”

Paul_GA—I am afraid it will come to huge , major swatches of extreme inner city and rural poverty…

did you see, yestrday, where the British troops were leaving Iraq?? Yes, they left…our troops just standing there, the UK troops telling them to please turn the electricity back on… (sortve like “dont forget to turn the light out??) I am glad that they are going, and, I wish we were, but, it was rather sad, all the same…

The US can be strong, health and wealthy…but we have to give up on Empire…thats what I think…

How I wish we WOULD give it up voluntarily, KDelphi, but the Elites are so much in love with the Status Quo. They think the present economic morass and twin quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan are just blips on the radar screen, and that nothing can stop the USA from being the greatest country on the earth, fated to grow bigger and more powerful with scarcely a pause for breath.

I would suggest they’ll one day be disabused of that illusion ... the hard way.

Paul_GA—I fear that you are right..some say that the UK didnt voluntarily give up Empire…I guess that that is true…maybe they never would have…it had to be taken from them.

Does not bode well for us…the thought , oh well….I suggest we give it up ourselves…

Aye, there’s the rub, KDelphi—“falling graciously”. Arguably, the British “fell graciously”, but only after wearing themselves out in two world wars.

In our case, I fear, we *will* go out with a bang ... followed by a soft, sad whimper.

mandinka—You are astounding! There are many interpretations of the Constitution, but, at least I know who the fricking president of the USSR was when Reagan was president of the uS!! I hardly chided you about it, you ole grouchass!You need to learn not to exagerrate and YOU need to get a memory test.

Mandinka warrior indeed…all you have to say is how moronic everything I say is. You prove nothing and youre a boring person to argue with.

LOL! OK, I’m ignorant and moronic…

delly your ignorance of the constitution really shows. do some homework before returning your infantile responses are tiring

mandinka—The Constitution provides for a “well-armed malitia”.
You honestly think that the Founders envisioned the US spending 10x what the rest of the world does on nukes? Bullshit.

You dont even know who was president when the “Berlin Wall fell” (it didnt fall—it was brought down by dictatorship—-and things are going so well there now…Yankee go home!)

The “war on poverty” has continued—-as the “war on the poor”, with tax phobics, the “war on terror” and the “war on drugs”...

Paul_GA—Yes, but, most Empires fell more graciously than we will..we seem to be determined to “go out with a bang” and take as many with us as possible.Especially our own citizens, who are now, I am told , just “consumers”...

I expect, Mandinka, that the Elites in Mordor-on-the-Potomac and Isengard-on-the-Hudson will sooner slit their own throats before they’ll surrender so much as a smidgen of the power they’ve gained over the rest of the country these long years since this country ceased to be a republic and began emulating the empires of old.

I agree the cold war is over and since it is there is no reason to continue the war on poverty and all the other outdated social nonsense. The constitution only requires the government to provide for national defense so lets go back to our roots

KDelphi, that’s *exactly* what the Cold-War generation needs to do—get over the Cold War; it’s over, it’s done. Sadly, except for a few of us (like yours truly) they never have, and so this country is on the road to Ruin through Imperial Overstretch.

All good things have to come to an end; bad things, too.

mandinka—Umm, Gorbachev?? You think?? Most of those people are dead now, unless of course you want to pay for all the war crimes you ancestors may have committed…reparations,,,hmmmm…who said that Nixon or Ike??

The Cold War generation needs to ...well, get over the “cold war”....you can only ride that “fear of socialism” horse for so long…time marches on…the US did nothing to “tear down this wall”.(Was that Ike or Nixon?)he USSR was a dictatorship that collapsed under its own weight. Get over US exceptionalism.

I might take you more seriously if you werent so histrionic and prone to exagerration—”
the most moronic statement youve ever heard”?? Really? After Dubby??

I wouldnt say that your statement was THE most moronic statement I’ve ever heard…...

Excuse me, Mandinka, but I thought it was, “Mr. GORBACHEV, tear down this wall.”

Anyway, that was then, this is now.

delly, EU owes us nothing.. that is with out question the most moronic statement I ever heard. Ever hear of Normandy, North Africa, Verdun, Bosnia, Berlin Airlift??? Mr Kruchief tear down that wall. The EU owes its very existence to our largeness money and blood, but they and your ilk would never think of repaying a debt owed. If we just were paid for rebuilding Europe after WW2 all the Europeans would have to their names is the shit on their shoes

mandinka—this is completely your opinion (that you want Europeans to pay up, that it was wrong to touch the queen).

Why dont you go live in a monarchy? The queen had no probloem with it, and, besides, who gives a rat’s ass what the queen thinks. (bloody , greedy anglos)I am no fan of Pres. Obama, and I’m not going to defend him. The EU owes the uS exactly nothing. If we pulled all of our bases out tomorrow, the PEOPLE of these countries would be more than glad. We just make them targets.

This is the Bush/Obama war. If you are waiting for NATO (which should be disbanded), you will wait a very long time. They see the folly of this war, whereas most ‘Merkins are too stupid.

Do I expect the Europeans to supply you bet. Barack said he knew where bin laden was in Dec and that he was going to get his new European allies to support our efforts. After demeaning our country and his wife slapping the back of the queen. This knucklehead came back and said the EU now loves us ohhhh by the way afghanistan is our problem so sorry.
Its a reflection of what happens when a novice thinks he can fix foreign policy

I could give the opinions of experts, like, that colonialism almost killed the entire continent, but, I have a feeling you are going to tell me something different.

So what exactly is YOUR suggestion? How do we get along better in the uS? You dont want to hear anything, you just want to argue. I dont.

So, you want a bunch of EU troops in Af-Pak, or what?? I dont see your point…

delly, glad you mentioned South Africa they were at 1 time a net exporter of food and minerals. now they import their economy continues to perform at a rate that is below where it was with apartheid. Can you guess why??

mandinka, April 26 at 6:25 pm #

“delphi, homogeneous means that they look like us. There is not a single EU country with 13% blacks and 14% Hispanics. when people act like you look like you you more willing to help out.” (I know what the WORD “
homogeneous” means)

I just do not know if this is true—got any stats? Because all of South Africa should be getting along just peachy!
“but when those 25% named above commit 80% of the crime 805 of all social spending the majority tires of being treated as suckers. Compare NO and Katrina and what has happened subsequently in midwest and texas, no riots looting killing etc.” Are you talking about Europe or the uS or what??

I agree with you completely about NO—it was a bigger disaster for this country than 9/11—because, so much of the tragedy couldve been prevented.

“Where have I been in Europe you ask, every country multiple times why does that make a difference?/”

Yes, it does. Because, if you havent been there lately, you wouldnt know the state of social programs, nor the standard of living. They have a little trouble with radical Muslims, but, they have trouble with radical ANY religion—-they are just not a religious bunch~! And, if that kind of homogeneity makes people more peaceful (they seem to be) I am all for it. I think it has more to do with religious zeal than race.

So has heterogeniety made the uS less or more racist, do you think?

If there is some evidence that people do empathize more with those who look like them, whether its relligion, race, sex or class, what is to be done about it? I am certainly not advocating helping poor whites out more than poor blacks or Latinos. It is just that Democrats seem inclined to do none of the above. True, the Dems dont care about your race—-if youre poor, they just dont care.

This country desperately needs to return to its past non-interventionistic stance; otherwise, we’re on our collective way, wherever we are politically, to National Ruin, through the town of Imperial Overstretch.

DWIGHTBAKER

Another thing mr. baker, you just can’t accept constructive criticism. I tried to point out some either erronous information in a comment or bad articulation and now you attack me for doing so. Proves you don’t read or preview what you say and you definitely did not try to look for what I was talking about.
““If you had more to say than just cut me down, that would be a good thing to do.  I work all the time for US, we are drowning in delusions and dilemmas and some of you including you sometimes want to be like a wild dog and turn on the ones in your own pack.”“
I suspect you to be a disruptor of this site by your multiple overlengthy and in a lot cases unintelligible comments. And that ‘work all the time for US’- doing what? Oh, don’t answer. I have other better things to do.

delphi, homogeneous means that they look like us. There is not a single EU country with 13% blacks and 14% Hispanics. when people act like you look like you you more willing to help out. but when those 25% named above commit 80% of the crime 805 of all social spending the majority tires of being treated as suckers. Compare NO and Katrina and what has happened subsequently in midwest and texas, no riots looting killing etc.
Where have I been in Europe you ask, every country multiple times why does that make a difference?/

mandinka—If you think that not imposing a horribly broken neo-liberal foreign policy around the world is cowardly, than you are a coward. And a fool.

I dont see what “homoegeneous” has to do with spending. They have a proportionally represented govt (we dont) They tax rich people. They also protect their products. An unregulated “free mtk” cant do that. They are having problem, but, you dont see people in the stereet much ,because they have a social safety net to fall back on. We dont.

Where have you visited in Europe?

DWIGHTBAKER

What the…?

By DWIGHTBAKER, April 26 at 2:03 pm

Mr.baker, you become more incoherent whenever I catch a glance of your overly long winded diatribes that are more clutter now that you are passing on information that at the least makes one believe you are in possession of the facts. Your huge amount of chatter may also be the cause of the difficulty of accessing Truthdig. If you don’t at least articulate believable information then don’t comment at all. I leave it to you to spot your errors on the information you write.

Yep they use more of their money for social programs because their population is homogeneous and have a common history and language. As they allow more foreigners into their country race riots are breaking out and their social fabric is degenerating. Wait their spending will drop. As to experiencing 2 wars all they have learned is the US has deep pockets so no matter how bad they fail they know we will always be there. Amazing that when they had a problem in their own backyard Bosnia they refused to send 1 troop or plane until the US had ended the conflict. the EU is a group of cowards but is always running their mouth on how to fix our country

mandinka—“dear delphi non = NONE, NADA of the commitments are for combat troops. As usual France is sending there crack munitions.. all of there arms come in with a sign “never used dropped only once”.
Unfortunately you reinterpreted the data to make you feel good.” If they are not combat troops—GOOD! The article didnt state “combat troops”. you reinterpreted what i said to make you feel good..or something like that…so the M-16s are going to fire blanks, or what?? The EU never intended there to be combat forces in this “war on terror”—but many ended up having to shoot back. The EU should not sacrifice its social safety net for uS wars of Empire…neither should the uS, but, we always will.

WHY would that “make me feel good”, if I am against the uS in the war, the EU in the “war”—against everybody “in the war”. I have no idea what you mean…

dear delphi non = NONE, NADA of the commitments are for combat troops. As usual France is sending there crack munitions.. all of there arms come in with a sign “never used dropped only once”.
Unfortunately you reinterpreted the data to make you feel good.

Kipling happens to be one of my favorite poets, KDelphi, and ever since the Soviet war in Afghanistan, that verse has been in my mind.

mandinka—did you read the article?? Small point, but, you really should…“had much of a reply—65 men with two F-16s promised by Belgium; 12 trainers and a small troop contingent (probably from the gendarmerie) for the elections in Afghanistan next month, with a larger French contribution to the new, combined European Gendarmerie Force that has already dispatched 300 to 400 men and women, all to improve Afghanistan’s own national police, so far without conspicuous success.”
WHAT “money and production”??

The reason the EU has more money to spend on its own people, is that they have a drastically smaller military budget. One reason that they have a smaller budget, is that Europe learned, from two WW’s , that almost killed of its male population, that they were sick to death of it—literally. The govts and multi-natls of the EU might still grudgingly want out military bases around, to protect corporate interests, but most of the people of Europe think that it just make them a target…

Damn! Paul_GA beat me to it! lol Does anyone else seem to remember that Pres. Putin sent Dubby a copy of that poem , prior to the “invasion”? (we were already in Afghanistan, so , not really an invasion…we’re here, we’re there we’re everywhere)...)

Perhaps unfortunately, the uS seems determined not to take its place in the universe of failed Empires, and, save its own people. It seems determined to (blow someone else up) with a bang.

All independant military abservers agree that the US can’t win in the Afpak war.  But if Obama can prevent a loss until after his next election, he won’t be attacked for losing it. So he has Zionist, cheerleader and military-industrial support for keeping the blood flowing until after the next election.

It’s not under Obama’s management its HIS war and he’s said it numerous times. Funny though after bashing this country and telling everyone how great they are he didn’t get 1 troop for the war. The like me like me scenario has never worked. All Europe has ever wanted is our money and production and this empty suit falls for it. I guess that’s what you get when someone’s education was based on affirmative action and Saudi oil money

I think Pfaff has run out of things to say that are meaningful so he’s just out there throwing red meat to “The Contingent”.

It’s so sad when left-wingers start to Hannity their analysis.

And why are they doing that, Prole? Because they’re full of hubris—they think the USA can do anything. They have no Plan B in case the USA does implode, as Samosamo describes, and the money spigot is turned off.

“The Europeans don’t have a dog in the fight against the Taliban” - and presumably Michael Vick doesn’t either - but someone else far more influential in “institutionalized foreign policy opinion” making in Washington, now seems committed “to making overseas contingency operations a permanent feature of American life”. The same someone that was behind the Iraq debacle and a lot of other American foreign policy follies, in fact. Yes, the only nominal ‘ally’ whose opinion i.e. orders really count, the terrorist Jewish State. Israel’s “Racist in Chief” and new foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman gave an interview to his hometown newspaper in Russia this week in which he spelled things out quite explicitly: “Pakistan is nuclear and unstable, and Afghanistan is faced with a potential Taliban takeover, and the combination form a contiguous area of radicalism ruled in the spirit of Bin Laden,” Lieberman told Russian daily ‘Moskovskiy Komosolets’. “I do not think that this makes anyone in China, Russia or the US happy… These countries (Pakistan and Afghanistan) are a threat not only to Israel, but to the global order as a whole.” Further, “Iran is not Israel’s biggest strategic threat, rather Afghanistan and Pakistan are,” he declared. The strategic threat coming from Iraq was ranked as the third most important issue of concern for the racist Jewish state by the Israeli foreign minister. So once again it all fits, the U.S. dog being wagged by its zionist tail. AIPAC stooge Obama has his marching orders from the elders of zion and here we go again. “Bad enough that the United States is humiliated once again in a useless war” for Israel’s benefit but at least the European’s don’t have to be jerked around by jingoistic Jews. “The allies are justified in taking a pass.” After all this is “contributing to the existing hatred of” not just “non-Westerners toward Washington” but many principled Westerners themselves, too. Where is the prescient Charles Lindbergh when you need him? He was ahead of his time. He tried to warn us about intervention in foreign wars. Fascism has come to Amerika at last, not in the person of great American patriots and populists like Lindy and Huey Long but in the sinister guise of zionazis like Avigdor Lieberman; imported not from fascist Germany but from fascist Israel.

What is it that makes obama think he needs to keep america in the imperial empire wars at the cost of losing america by implosion? I am not so ignorant as to think there are none that are telling obama what to do. Hell, even w & dick were following orders and that stench is strongest from the corporate sector.

Why, it is obvious, since they have offshored all our jobs hollowed out our manufacturing base just to end the ‘high’ cost of labor so these oh so patriotic american corporations can maintain an unsustainable ponzi scheme of investing. And add to that cost cutting, the move offshore to keep from paying taxes because what is left of america’s workers will provide that.

The heart of this is the corporation’s lobbyists paying bribes to our complicit electorate. Regulate both of those areas and there might just be chance of real relief for this country. Breaking up the conservative owned and controlled mainstream media would be another major priority. The problem there, though, is hoping the aloof electorate would work for those that elected them to office.

I am not sure what europe’s thinking is but the decision to let america handle its own collapse of its empire is a correct one and their handling of criminals against their states is done way better that america’s corporate world will allow, where we still have to fight an insane war against ‘terrorists’. Obama is corporate!

Afghanistan is the “Graveyard of Empires”, they say; it may yet be the graveyard of the American empire, too. As Kipling wrote:

“When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Just roll to your rifle and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier.”

The United States government in their foreign policy seems to determined to continue what was foolishly started by the British, in the heady days of empire. Now it is the Anglo-American war against the “white man’s burden” as they use to say, and now a newly elected U.S. President is attempting to cajole the European countries into joining their murderous folly. This is where the rubber actually hits the road. With the glaring example of France’s mistreatment of Algeria, most of the European troubles with the Islamic world stem from the Middle East, not Afghanistan, Pakistan or India, where England cut its colonial teeth, and now first cousin Obama claims to want to take the fight right to their own backyard. Good luck to that. Maybe Obama’s much touted faith will carry his mission through, where the godless Soviet Union, miserably failed.