We need to acknowledge that the US is not exceptional, and that it has to be part of the community of nations. We can no longer rule a “new world order” as “the sole surviving superpower.” That way lies the fate of the Roman Empire.
We need to bring the troops home—not just from Iraq and Afghanistan, but from all 800 of the places we have them stationed around the globe. We need to make reefs of our aircraft battle groups, and new forests of our many, many airfields and military bases.
We need to put the hundreds of thousands of men and women who unproductively march around in ugly desert uniforms to productive work as teachers, scientists, technicians, builders, healthcare workers and reforestation workers.
We need to take the trillion dollars a year we annually blow on the military and start putting it into our education system, our health system, our retirement system and, most critically, into R&D on ways to save the planet from climate disaster.
There is probably still time to pull the US out of a permanent dive into third-class nationhood, but not much. Especially if the idiots currently at the wheel are allowed to make things worse by attacking Iran.
We can start by demanding that the current candidates for President and Congress stop their lies. None of them can bring about any “change” in America, or rescue the country from its growing crisis, without slashing our absurd military budget, and without ending the con game called “globalization” that is hollowing out the economy.
If we don’t demand that kind of honesty of our political class, we have only ourselves to blame for the wreckage that will ensue.
If you want to see what it’s going to look like if we continue down our present path, take a trip to Rome and walk through the ruins of the Forum. Those structures went from gleaming marble to piles of bricks in a matter of decades, during which Rome went from the capital of a pan-European empire to a fetid swamp (much like a post-collapse Washington would be). But a word of warning. If you go to Rome, bring a sleeping bag and a lunch pail. Your dollar will not get you a hotel room or pay for lunch at even a run-of-the-mill eatery these days, so plan on camping and eating from the grocery store while there.
________________ DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist and columnist. His latest book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006 and now available in paperback. His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net
Dave Lindorff, a columnist for Counterpunch, is author of several recent books ("This Can't Be Happening! Resisting the Disintegration of American Democracy" and "Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Penalty Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal"). His latest book, coauthored with Barbara Olshanshky, is "The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office (St. Martin's Press, May 2006). His writing is available at http://www.thiscantbehappening.net
People have voted for fiscal responsibility when given the chance. (Remember the popularity of Ross Perot's charts?)
The problem is rather (1) that our elections are being stolen, regardless of whom we vote for, and (2) that politicians promise fiscal responsibility, then borrow like crazy when they get into office. Reagan and Bush II both ran on platforms of fiscal conservatism, then spent oodles of money on military adventures while cutting taxes.
by
Josh Mitteldorf (17 articles, 52 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 37 comments)
on Monday, March 10, 2008 at 3:49:35 PM
Voters are willfully ignorant. Not that many voted for Perot, and besides, he was a nutcase too--just fiscally honest.
More to the point, if politicians say they'll be fiscally straightforward, and then don't do it on taking office, they should be ousted at the first opportunity, not returned ot office. Yet incumbency is almost guaranteed for life in Congress, and it's the rare president who is turned out before a second term, regardless of the lies.
Look at Bush.
by
Dave Lindorff (341 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 157 comments)
on Monday, March 10, 2008 at 4:05:50 PM
The relationship between the voters & the leaders is complex
-- but the voters aren't blameless. For instance, take the general attitude of "American exceptionalism" that Lindorff indirectly refers to above. Voters are at some level aware (despite the best efforts of the media to blind them to it) that unbelievable sums of money have been spent on building a military apparatus to rule the world. It's true that the voters have been propagandized since birth to think it's basically OK for the US to rule the world -- since we're so "uniquely special & wonderful." At some point, holding a view like that becomes at least partly the responsibility not just of the propagandizers, but of those who docilely swallow the propaganda.
by
Richard Mynick (2 articles, 3 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 1168 comments)
on Monday, March 10, 2008 at 4:08:35 PM
Mr. Lindorff's point about school's as holding pens plays a far more significant role in the electorate and its inability to discern than we imagine. We can thank Reagan's administration, of course, but Clinton could have done things differently and didn't. In fact, he fueled this inferno of futility. First, the eighties created this delusion of dramatic disparity between Asian, European, and American students performance in math and science. A slight difference did exist at the time, but nothing serious. Since "A Nation at Risk" and Clinton's everyone-can-go-to-college cottage industry for developmental Math, Reading, and English, however, our students have developed the critical faculties of the third chimpanzee (my apologies to chimps). I teach college. Most of my students simply can't reason. It has been this way for twenty years.
Fortunately, my students today no longer come to me with the same apathy as those in the previous generation. And it is these students, and many others in their generation, who might indeed rescue us from ourselves. I know it is easy to be cynical today - hell, my whole adult political life has been Nixon's legacy, Reagan, Clinton, and Bush. But it takes a real despair to believe there is no hope and no difference between Obama and Clinton.
Why write about what needs to be changed, what needs to be addressed, if your only solution is a magic bus?
by
brian edwards (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments)
on Monday, March 10, 2008 at 9:00:15 PM
So terribly true -- all of it. All the underlying attitudes
& policies that led to this disaster should be thoroughly discredited. There are also a lot of politicians & Wall St swindlers (among many others) who should be going to jail.
Looked at with a bit of historical perspective, the US was able to get away with horrifically short-sighted, stupid, destructive & invalid policies for a long time. But this latest fiasco -- the "mortgage & credit" crisis -- is going to be seen in retrospect as the trigger that pushed everything over the edge, because it required a sudden huge drop in interest rates to save the big banks. And this is what is destroying the dollar.
You're right, too, in saying "Well, fellow Americans, we are finally going to get our just rewards." Going along passively with stupid corrupt & tyrannical leaders, for so long, must eventually have some responsibility attached to it. This is going to be that time.
by
Richard Mynick (2 articles, 3 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 1168 comments)
on Monday, March 10, 2008 at 3:59:14 PM
Of course our economy is in the tank, and it is not necessarily the fault of the electorate on fiscal matters. The fault of the electorate that they voted for some idiot who promised no abortions and hatred for gays, yes.
It is my pet conspiracy theory (my only sanity is that I know I could be wrong) is that our current fiscal crisis has been planned by Bush, et al, for some time. Read the Executive Orders and Legislation that allows martial law to be declared for an economic crisis, but doesn't define who will decide when the crisis is great enough.
No -- I don't sleep well at night.
by
Shirley Bianchi (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 94 comments)
on Monday, March 10, 2008 at 5:43:28 PM
... from having recently been to France, Switzerland and Italy. The Euro isnt doing those people who are using it any good (as usual, the Swiss will probably be OK regardless, the Swiss Franc is pretty close in value to the US dollar). I was very surprised to find this out. Food prices have risen 48% in France in the last three months, which more than qualifies as hyperinflation. Many in France are complaining that they havent had a substantial raise since they switched to the Euro. Even if you come from the standpoint of making an average French wage in Euros, food prices there are astronomical. Ireland is seeing serious problems with inflation. Other EU countries are seeing serious economic problems as well.
Whatever this horrific economic situation is that is affecting us here in the US is going to be global.
by
Steven Leser (210 articles, 44 quicklinks, 32 diaries, 1382 comments)
on Monday, March 10, 2008 at 6:54:32 PM
The American society is seriously ill with a cancerous malignancy. The symptoms of the disease are, as you mention, lying politicians, gullible voters, an overstretched army, a declining economy, a withering dollar, ruinous wars abroad,etc. What is the name of the disease that is killing the patient ? It is the almighty Federal Reserve. This is the core and the root of the problem that you should have addressed.
And while we are at it, where is your honesty when it comes to 9/11? How many times have you called for an honest investigation into the Big Lie? You speak of charlatan politicians...who lured us into this disaster, the Liar-In-Chief. Then, you admit that you have been buying a lie. Yes indeed you have been buying the Big Lie and you are still buying it and are selling it to us as if we were chumps. For how long do you think you can fool us with the official fairytale of 19 Muslim Arab hijackers armed with boxcutters who hate our freedom bullshit? It is written on the wall that 9/11 was an inside job. As long as you buy into the official lie you are in no position to criticize the gullible voters. Because these gullible voters are creations of dishonest journalists like you and your boss Mr Alex Cockburn at CounterPunch. Now, away with your article which is nothing but an exercise in intellectual masturbation aimed at confusing the audience rather than helping them find an answer to the dilemma..
by
ramsheyi (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 460 comments)
on Monday, March 10, 2008 at 8:19:43 PM
Oh, baloney. The article isn't about 9-11, & no one
in the thread is even talking about it. There happen to be other things in today's world that are plenty worth discussing, besides 9-11. Many of these things were well worth discussing before 9-11 ever happened.
Some 9-11 researchers do good work, & raise points deserving of serious attention. However, what you are doing here is just the counterproductive & infantile slinging of ca-ca. Do you think David Ray Griffin or Peter Phillips would rudely barge into a thread like this, to attack Dave Lindorff (who has not made a big deal out of 9-11 one way or the other; and who is generally an outstanding progressive & honest journalist) on an article that had nothing to do with 9-11? You're not campaigning for truth -- you're just trying to use 9-11 as a weapon that lets you bash people, while letting you feel a puffed-up sense of self-righteousness at the same time.
You display your ignorance by writing, "As long as you buy into the official lie you are in no position to criticize the gullible voters. Because these gullible voters are creations of dishonest journalists like you and your boss Mr Alex Cockburn at CounterPunch." // Lindorff (unlike Cockburn) never said he bought into the official story -- and even if he did, it wouldn't matter, because theories about 9-11 are not the end-all and be-all of the world's hierarchy of truth. If a reader read nothing but Lindorff and Cockburn, that reader would be way ahead of where you are.
by
Richard Mynick (2 articles, 3 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 1168 comments)
on Monday, March 10, 2008 at 10:19:53 PM
and I have to call you on it. A mass murder, unprecedented in US history remains officially explained but unsolved. A clear and profound demonstration of government power and resourses brought to bear by key, high-level officials in pursuit of dark, stunning agendas.
Not since the conspiracy of lies that involved the US in Vietnam for over 10 years has a better example of the true power mechanism in America revealed it's agenda, than in the events of 911.
Societal cohesion through a widely perceived and common enemy, facts be damned, our overlords manufacture our consent and manage the bewildered herd.
Examine any or all of the following:
Wall street investors, put options. A massive spike of last minute trades routed through the WTC computer centers hours and minutes before strikes
Collapse of WTC7 when every vertical column fails simultaeniously
Hard realities about the economic viability - and major, upcoming and legally required renovations to the WTC twin towers
Unexplained, unaddressed and secretive rennovations at various areas of each tower in the months prior to 911
Mysterious, extensive construction and power black out at WTC towers the weekend before 911, mostly throughout the nights - video cameras don't function
Pronounced, unmistakable pre-impact flashes at the point of airliner contact on both WTC towers
Each tower was struck precisely into a large, highly secure and crutial computer center
FAA chief Norman Mineta's key testimony that sharply contradicted Cheney's version of the events at the command center ommited from the 911 Commission's report
Bush and Cheney appear before the Commission together, not sworn, no transscript or notes are allowed nor is a disclosure to the public
Pentagon's world class missile defense systems absent on 911
The missing 2.3 trillion dollars that the pentagon couldn't account for just days before the attacks - forgotten, undiscussed, a non factor
All potential intercept fighters flying at less than half speed
Numerous video tapes showing the pentagon impact confiscated - and remain classified
No airliner seats or luggage at the impact point of the pentagon. Large, mysterious and sealed conatiners whisked from the site - the entire three acre area covered by gravel and dirt the next day
Marvin Bush, brother of the president
Prior removal of annti-terrorism czar Richard Clark from the inner circle
The entire US intelligence system blinking red as never in history
Unprecedented warnings from a number of foreign intelligence agencies, including Russia
Anti terror funding significantly cut by the Bush administration in the months prior to 911
The "bin Laden determined to strike on US soil " DPB
PNAC, objectives, motives, proposals and key members
Plan to attack and occupy Iraq on the presiden't desk months before the 911 attacks
Vice president Cheney's May 8, 2001 appointment to head all US air defense operations
The Oct 10 scheduled military war games were moved up to Sept 11, 2001 - why and by whom?
An FAA manager destroyed, (and scattered), the records of the false radar blips and other details that were ostensibly part of the war drills on the morning of 911 - he never interviewed nor mentioned by the 911 Commission
Countless persons in and around the WTC towers independently describing numerous and massive post impact explosions, several from the tower's basement areas and 20 minutes or more after the initial strikes
Unusual and vigorous clean up and destruction of evidence at the largest crime scene in American history - much of the steel sold and quickly shipped to China
Numerous puddles of once molten steel in the remains of the towers. Unexplained, intense fires far exceeding the temperatures of those fueled by jet fuel in the towers
The "dancing Jews"
Bush/bin Laden family ties
Bush/Saudi connections
The FBI's thwarting of investigations into at least 2 of the future suicide pilot's training at flight schools
The close associations of many of the hijackers with official US government agencies
The magic passport
Missing, unfound, vanished or destroyed airliner black boxes at the WTC towers
The 911 Commission conclusion that "..the financing of the 911 suicide hijack operation is of little consequence..."
Not one of the alledged hijacker's names appears on any of the flight's passenger lists
Six to ten of the alledged hijackers are alive and working, most in the middle east
Each of these central points and aspects of the 911 attacks gives pause to any sensible person seeking the truth. Taken in tandem, a stunning sequence of miraculous coincidences accompanied equally stunning unexplained, ignored and supressed ineptitude throughout US air defenses, namely, command and control.
The US government is a powerful, dangerous and remarkably vulnerable machine under the control of faceless conspiators with hidden motives that would scare the socks off of most of us. Politicians high and low are either willing or reluctant co-conspirators - or temporay and inconvenient obstacles to be dealt with.
But the power of the American myth lives on.
by
Michael McCoy (4 articles, 1 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 264 comments)
on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 4:32:00 AM
9/11 is and will be the central issue because we have a living proof of the Establishment's gangsterism. The day the behind the scene instigators/masterminds are exposed and their modus operandi blown up into pulic's conscience, then the answer to every other mystery- political corruption, economic woes, stock market swindles,wars of agression- becomes self evident as the mother of all these crimes is the same. Then real change can become meaningful and achievable.Those is journalistic business who either mislead us intentionally into believing the official lie or have themselves bought into it are just traitors and participants in the crime.
An honest investigation is therefore called for
by
ramsheyi (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 460 comments)
on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 6:51:17 AM
You are so right, people deserve the government we get...if the people don't wake up and demand change, we will go the way of the Roman empire, I have no doubt about it. I just don't know where that leaves people like us. There's just nowhere to go...
by
Judy Ramsey (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 82 comments)
on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 12:50:29 PM
12 comments
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