If Republicans are truly fiscal conservatives as they
claim to be, then the best way to reduce the debt and
deficit would be to CUT the US military budget by at
least 50% (that would still make it the world’s biggest
spender on military - I won’t use the word ‘defense’ as
I don’t believe that the US army defends anyone except
corporations).

That would save the country $300 billion a year for
starters! Perhaps Republicans can put words into
actions for a change!

Remember Vietnam, it was Johnson that escalated the war and he was a part of the Communist Party Democrats.

Remember the war on Poverty from Johnson, more people are poorer today that ever, thanks to the communist party (Democrats)

They created the biggest crime family of all time the “Federal Reserve” they control everything,the communist created them, they alone allow governments to wage useless wars.  They created all the depressions.  They were instrumental in creating “Hitler” and friends. They just create all the fiat currency you want who cares, no one. 
The American people are no longer stupid, stupid is to intelligent for them. 

Why do you think they keep the crime families from the people? World Bank, the IMF they are all criminals. 

The end is nearer than you think, who will be the next Hitler like leader?

So be stupid.

Juan:  wake up!

Barack Obama has been nothing but the Pentagon’s puppet in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  He didn’t “get out” of Iraq (just redefined the combat brigades as noncombat) and he won’t “get out” of AfPak either.

If anything he’s expanding the war into the Pakistani tribal areas. 

Republicrats or Demopublicans, it doesn’t matter. The war will go on until the generals decide it’s time to stop.

The World would be safer still without a Republican party, period.

I guess we will now see whether the GOP evil Democrat angel crowd has been correct. Nut we already know that it will be, as it has been, business as usual…oh shouldn’t ‘Business’ be capitalized?

The democrats are 100% dedicated to prolonging murderous privatized US wars as long as possible; there is no difference regarding support for war between most democrats and republicans. Obama’s criminal surge in Afganistan has murdered many Afgani’s, and he should pay.

Wars R US

If Ron Paul had won the 2008 election, our troops would be home. Real Libertarians are non-interventionists. Although Rand Paul is not as “libertarian” as his father, I believe he is non-interventionist, and anti-war, IIRC.

And that Murkowski bitch lobbied the Alaskan Libertarian Party for the ballot position of the LP candidate, Fredrick “David” Haase. At first the LP flatly denied her. Then, Haase said he would let her have his place if she signed a binding contract to endorse Libertarian principles. She refused. The LP is the only party of principle, and the only anti-war party. Deal with it.

And BTW, how many Predator Drone strikes have there been in Pakistan and Yemen since Obama took office? How many American citizens have been targeted for assassination with no due process, or judicial review? How many prisoners are there in Gitmo - being tortured? Fuck Obama, and the Democratic Party. Same for the Republicans and the phony Tea Partiers.

Vote LP and say no to God and Country and War.

Do you really believe that Obama or anybody else is going to negotiate peace in the Middle East? That is just ridiculous. The US is and has been pro-Israel and is just as guilty as Israel for crimes against Palestine. Aid to Israel already is in the defense budget, whether officially or otherwise, and with or without Cantor getting his wishes. Obama, Democrats and Republicans alike are all beholden to Israel now as before.

Draw down troops? Fantastic thinking. The military industrial complex rules and is 100% independent of the distraction that are election results within the non-existent two-party system. The weapons makers have nothing to worry about no matter which puppets happen to dangle at the end of their strings.

Don’t forget this is the good ‘ol USA you’re writing about. War is what it does. Period. Professors of history know this.

A war with Iran would give an excuse for deficit spending that would stimulate the
economy, and for ignoring and cracking down on all sorts of dissent, not just anti-
war rhetoric.  But it is a war that cannot be won and would do to us what the
Afghan adventure did to the Soviets.  A horribly expensive and dangerous way to
defeat the military-industrial complex, but it would probably work.

Pulling out of Iraq and/or Afghanistan would provide the basis for a new back-
stab legend that the treasonous Dems cut and run rather than staying the course. 
I have a hunch that this rather than any hope of victory is why we are still fighting
there.  Given our inability to diminish the strength of the mindset to which
backstab legends appeal,  staying the course may keep something worse from
happening.

@ mdgr thanks for the link!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nick-turse/2014-or-bust-the-pentagon_b_347032.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2010/10/2010103175555761506.html

Eloquent and persuasive refutation of the author’s entire perspective from someone who should know.

Just think of it: I once assumed that Professor Cole was intelligent. Shame on me. Is he so caught up in being Obama’s cheerleader that he actually believes that The Pentagon is concerned about any of this? Read what Nick Turse discovered about their long range “strategic” plans. The pageant Presidency is exactly that: a pageant.

This article is garbage.  The Democrats have only escalated the military for the past 2 years.  The defense budget is larger than it ever was.

What an incredibly criminal waste of treasure blowing away villagers in mud huts with drones.

We have become the evil we set out to destroy.

Woodrow Wilson was a self-righteous ass, who also
promised what he did not deliver, got us into a
foreign war after he promised not to, at the behest
of the banks who love to lend nations money for war,
at interest.  Wilson also gave away the US Treasury
and the power to control our currency to a banking
cabal, allowing himself to be convinced that the
nastiest of men for the nastiest of reasons would
somehow ignore their personal gain and engage in
self-less acts of civic good. And didn’t he allow the
witch hunts of the Red Scare to get out of hand, even
encourage it?  A pathetic figure, a moral coward.  It
reminds me of… 

Wilson was not the first and certainly not the last
in a long line of betrayals of the public trust by
the elite’s suited hucksters with whatever letter
trails their name, or whatever circus tent they stand
in front of.  The ruling-class agenda is always the
same, and all their monkeys dance the same jig, sing
the same song: welfare and patronage for the rich,
austerity and freedom to starve to death for everyone
else, dissent a criminal offense, torture and
imprisonment and/or execution without trial
acceptable, accountability non-existent. 

A government as corrupt as ours is the problem, and
we will see both factions of the Business Party soon
welcoming the further restriction of civil liberties,
the continuation of domestic spying and monitoring, a
press that sees nothing but the bottom-line (always
the cost - to the elite, never the value to the
people), and the growth of private military and
prison (fascism) spending while social programs get
eviscerated.  The militarization of the United States
will be enthusiastically legislated, demanded by a
fear-steeped populace, ever alarmed by a dangerously
paranoid armed fundamentalist state. Intentionally
frightening its citizens is a despicable thing for
any government to do to its people. Borders are being
sealed.  Travel is begin restricted.  The social good
is a loss-leader. It doesn’t sell ads.

The question boils down to this:  Which brand would
you rather have in power: the Brown Shirts or the
Black Shirts? 

Personally, I’m with the Resistance.

I am sure when we finally go bankrupt fighting these worthless wars the terrorists will have finally learned their lesson.

And once again the editor of Truthdig—who recently said the two party system was bunk—adds another unabashed Democratic Party apologist to a list of regular contributors that, with the exception of Chris Hedges and David Sirota, includes mostly DNC/Vichy-sponsored apologists (Dionne, Robinson and now Mr. Cole).

Has anyone told the author of this rather fatuous article that Obama still holds veto power?

Has anyone told him that Reid and Pelosi voted to confirm every war budget that Bush ever proposed?

Has anyone told him ANYTHING at all about Obama’s real actions relative to Israel, Gaza, Afghanistan or Iran?

The author—and by extension, the editor of Truthdig—seems to be living in a fairy tale world fueled mostly by DNC rhetoric.

One step forward, two steps back. Way to go, Mr. Scheer.

The world would also be safer if they do not try to gut every environmental and
financial regulation, which is exactly what they will do. I am sorry to say, but the
republicans are just evil bastards. house speaker john boehmer, I shudder.

There isn’t much of a difference between who rules in this country, let’s be honest. Just look at the record of the Democrat-controll Congress during Bush’s last two years in office, they weren’t exactly putting the breaks on the wars. Obama’s “drawdown” is a fantasy anyway, just ask the Iraqis and Afghans taking a stroll where there’s an eye-view of the bases and Vatican-size embassies we have built and Obama is expanding.