Isilion

Will no one rid us of this pestilence?

With Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea threatened by American hegemonic belligerence, it is not difficult to imagine a scenario that would terminate all pretense of American power: For example, instead of waiting to be attacked, Iran uses its Chinese and Russian anti-ship missiles, against which the US reportedly has poor means of defense, and sinks every ship in the American carrier strike forces that have been foolishly massed in the Persian Gulf, simultaneously taking out the Saudi oil fields and the Green Zone in Baghdad, the headquarters of the US occupation. Shi’ite militias break the US supply lines from Kuwait, and Iranian troops destroy the dispersed US forces in Iraq before they can be concentrated to battle strength.

Simultaneously, North Korea crosses the demilitarized zone and takes South Korea, China seizes Taiwan and dumps a trillion dollars of US Treasury bonds on the market. Russia goes on full nuclear alert and cuts off all natural gas to Europe.

What would the Bush regime do? Wet its pants? Push the button and end the world?

If America really had dangerous enemies, surely the enemies would collude to take advantage of a dramatically over-extended delusional regime that, blinded by its own arrogance and hubris, issues gratuitous threats and lives by Mao’s doctrine that power comes out of the barrel of a gun.

There are other less dramatic scenarios. Why does the US assume that only it can initiate aggression, boycotts, freezes on financial assets of other countries and bans on foreign banks from participation in the international banking system? If the rest of the world were to tire of American aggression or to develop a moral conscience, it would be easy to organize a boycott of America and to ban US banks from participating in the international banking system. Such a boycott would be especially effective at the present time with the balance sheets of US banks impaired by subprime derivatives and the US government dependent on foreign loans in order to finance its day-to-day activities.

Sooner or later it will occur to other countries that putting up with America is a habit that they don’t need to continue.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts244.html

In last Sunday’s New York Times (March 23, 2008), Paul Berman wrote, “Extremist movements have been growing bigger and wilder for more than three decades [now. During] that period, America has tried pretty much everything from a policy point of view. Our presidents have been satanic (Richard Nixon), angelic (Jimmy Carter), a sleepy idiot savant (Ronald Reagan), a cagey realist (George H.W. Bush), wonderfully charming (Bill Clinton), and famously otherwise (George W. Bush). And each president’s Middle Eastern policy has conformed to his character” [emphasis added].

America has tried everything? Is he kidding? When was minding our own business — nonintervention — tried? Clearly, by “everything,” Berman means every style of imperialism. But why should we imagine that any form of imperialism will discredit violent radicals? Such thinking is typical of the U.S.-centric ideas voiced by most pundits and politicians.

More…

Why are we determined to follow a foreign policy of empire building and preemption which is unbecoming of a constitutional republic?

Those on the right should recall that the traditional conservative position of non-intervention was their position for most of the 20th Century – and they benefited politically from the wars carelessly entered into by the left. Seven years ago the right benefited politically by condemning the illegal intervention in Kosovo and Somalia. At the time conservatives were outraged over the failed policy of nation building.

It’s important to recall that the left, in 2003, offered little opposition to the preemptive war in Iraq, and many are now not willing to stop it by defunding it or work to prevent an attack on Iran.

The catch-all phrase, “War on Terrorism,” in all honesty, has no more meaning than if one wants to wage a war against criminal gangsterism. Terrorism is a tactic. You can’t have a war against a tactic. It’s deliberately vague and nondefinable to justify and permit perpetual war anywhere, and under any circumstances. Don’t forget: the Iraqis and Saddam Hussein had absolutely nothing to do with any terrorist attack against us including that on 9/11.

Special interests and the demented philosophy of conquest have driven most wars throughout all of history. Rarely has the cause of liberty, as it was in our own revolution, been the driving force. In recent decades our policies have been driven by neoconservative empire radicalism, profiteering in the military industrial complex, misplaced do-good internationalism, mercantilistic notions regarding the need to control natural resources, and blind loyalty to various governments in the Middle East.

For all the misinformation given the American people to justify our invasion, such as our need for national security, enforcing UN resolutions, removing a dictator, establishing a democracy, protecting our oil, the argument has been reduced to this: If we leave now Iraq will be left in a mess – implying the implausible that if we stay it won’t be a mess.

Since it could go badly when we leave, that blame must be placed on those who took us there, not on those of us who now insist that Americans no longer need be killed or maimed and that Americans no longer need to kill any more Iraqis. We’ve had enough of both!

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I understand, however, that many antiwar conservatives and libertarians – myself among them – could never bring themselves to actually vote for Obama, never mind recommend that others do so. Yet that doesn’t mean I can’t root for him, which is quite a different matter. In rooting for Obama, I’m rooting for the growth and development of a political insurgency against the Powers That Be, a phenomenon that goes beyond Obama and signifies a new era of political tumult centered around foreign policy issues.

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Yeah, but I’m still going to write in Ron Paul.

And they are still not listening.

Sigh.

Running a deficit of hundreds of billions of dollars per year in order to fund our misadventure is unsustainable. Eventually those debts must be repaid, but this country is in such poor financial shape that when our creditors come knocking, we will have little with which to pay them. Our imperial system of military bases set up in protectorate states around the world is completely dependent on the continuing willingness of foreigners to finance our deficits. When the credit dries up we will find ourselves in a dire situation. Americans will suffer under a combination of confiscatory taxation, double-digit inflation, and the sale of massive amounts of land and capital goods to our foreign creditors.

The continuation of the war in Iraq will end in disaster for this country. Parallels between the Roman empire and our own are numerous, although our decline and fall will happen far quicker than that of Rome. The current financial crisis has awakened some to the perils that await us, but solutions that address the root of the problem and seek to fix it are nowhere to be found. There must be a sea change in the attitudes and thinking of Americans and their leaders. The welfare-warfare state must be abolished, respect for private property and individual liberties restored, and we must return to the limited-government ideals of our Founding Fathers. Any other course will doom our nation to the dustbin of history.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul437.html

The day will come when Americans will say “Wow, I could’ve had a Ron Paul.”

I’m beginning to suspect Glenn Greenwald is among the best if not the best journalist and commentator on the Left being published today…

What they are defending — today’s U.S. — is not merely good. It’s not even great. It’s not even the greatest thing there is on the Earth right now. No — it’s much more grand than that: it’s the Greatest Country ever to exist on the Earth in all of human history. That’s what they’re defending; that’s the magnitude of the burden they bear, the incomparable importance of the crusade they lead.

Conversely, the Enemy they are facing down (from a safe distance) is not merely threatening or evil or scary or formidable. No, it’s much, much more than that. This is the greatest Enemy that exists on the planet, the most cunning and nefarious and evil force the world has ever seen — not just now, but for all of human history. There is nothing remotely like the depravity and power of this particular Enemy — and there never has been. Ever. Everything these faux-warriors face and defend is superlative; there has never, ever been a war like the one they are waging. None of the old rules apply. This is all unique, unknown, the first and most important of its kind.

What’s most confounding about all of this is that they completely evade the most basic instruments of self-evaluation. All they have to do is look back and realize that every generation, in every country, has been plagued by factions suffering from the same self-glorifying delusions — that they alone are the Brave Warriors willing to engage in the Most Important Battle for Civilization Ever. None of it’s new.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/02/17/steyn/index.html

In a very fundamental way, there are really only two candidates running for president this year: Ron Paul, and all the others.

This is because there are really only two issues at stake.

The first issue is our out-of-control foreign policy. America is embroiled in shooting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We spend more on our military than nearly the rest of the world combined. We have troops stationed in over a hundred foreign countries. Manic interventionism has stretched our military to the breaking point, and has ruined our nation’s reputation.

The second issue is our impending economic implosion. Our government, which has shed the last vestiges of constitutional restraint, has made a myriad of promises that it cannot keep. Our outstanding obligations to fund social security, government health care programs, and everything else under the sun are rapidly bankrupting our nation. To maintain these Ponzi schemes, the Fed is debasing our currency and igniting an ugly bout of hyperinflation.

Our predicament is severe and profound. We must immediately begin to shed our overseas obligations and put our domestic house in order. Otherwise, we will find ourselves reenacting the collapse of the Soviet Union right here at home.

Ron Paul is the only candidate who is willing to address these issues. He is the only one who is willing to speak frankly with the American people about our predicament and the painful actions which must be taken to prevent a real catastrophe.

And rather than offering solutions, Obama, McCain, Clinton and Romney, (and the other political hacks running for president) are not even willing to talk honestly about the problems.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/latulippe/latulippe82.html

Sgt. Carter, you are a patriot.

Having never signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty nor allowed international inspectors to examine its clandestine programs, WMD state progresses in long range delivery capabilities.

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The U.S. state is breaking eggs hither and yon, but where’s the bloody omelette? Americans now face terrorist threats in many parts of the world when they go abroad, the “blowback” from various U.S. interventions; national-security outlays, all military-related things being included, of a trillion dollars a year loaded onto American taxpayers; unprecedented revulsion against Americans and their government around the world; oil selling at close to $100 a barrel; and political leaders who look forward with equanimity to keeping U.S. forces in Iraq for another hundred years. Thanks a lot, fellas. We couldn’t have done it without you.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/higgs/higgs72.html

Please, do not allow George Bush
(or Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or John McCain or Rudy Giuliani)
to kill this green and pleasant land

Or these lovely children

Or these beautiful women

Or these devout Jews

Or these faithful Christians

Or these bowlers

Or these skiers

Or any of these peaceful people

Don’t believe the lies.
http://www.photoactivistsforpeace.org/videos.html

Look at the truth.
http://www.photoactivistsforpeace.org/gallery/main.php

Remember how they reacted to September 11th

Don’t Iraqify Iran

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

One of my guilty pleasures is my Live Journal. In a recent discussion of political things a fellow eljayer mused on her changing ideals and posited that “we need nationalized health care.”

I asked her to reconcile that with this (9 minutes, and worth it):

Her response was:

Every civilized nation on the planet has nationalized health care except us. How do they do it? (That’s rhetorical, though I suppose you can answer it if you like.)

And no, I have not sat through that entire youtube thing.

p.s. Bush ran this country into the fiscal ground.

I did my best, and I can only hope either she or her other readers will grasp the gravity of the situation.

Every civilized nation on the planet does not spend between six hundred billion to one trillion dollars a year, depending on who’s doing the counting, maintaining over 700 military bases in more than 130 countries with a nine trillion dollar debt and over fifty trillion dollars in unfunded future obligations.

You really should watch the youtube thingy. Whatever you might think of Glenn Beck, the other guy is the Comptroller General of the United States. He is doing a very courageous thing in trying to get people to pay attention. He also addresses the nationalized health care issue head on.

p.s. Woodrow Wilson started this train wreak in 1913, but it really kicked into gear when Richard Nixon abandoned the gold standard in 1971. In his own pitiful way George Bush is trying every trick he can think of to stave off the inevitable.

Source: U.S. Dept, of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI	Source: U.S. Treasury, Bureau of the Public Debt
Note: These charts only go up to 2001. I couldn’t find any pretty graphics of the current numbers.

It is, I suppose, understandable that the one presidential candidate who talks about this situation is dismissed as kook. For the rest, the splendor of the imperial purple and the adulation of the mob is simply too irresistible.

As I was posting this here she replied:

Enh. We’ll all be dead soon.

But more seriously..every dog has its day. Maybe the US day is coming to a close…at least for our ‘glory days’.

I can’t spend my time worrying about things I have zero control of.

p.s. I’m not an economist. I have no way to really evaluate this. I’ve seen other arguments suggesting that wheeee…you can deficit spend all day long. It made no sense to me. But a very smart person I know finds it sound so there must be something compelling about it.

To which I could only reply with this:

I wonder what happened in May of 2007 to cause the uptick in Republicans? And why even more in November and December?

Source: Rasmussen Reports*

Do you suppose it might have had something to do with this?
May 15, 2007

Then this?
November 6th

And this?
December 17th

*In their commentary on December’s increase Rasmussen attributes it to Americans suddenly loving the War in Iraq now that “surge” is working. Funny, I have a hard time believing that, especially since Rasmussen says George Bush’s popularity is still tanking. They love the decision, but not the Decider? Yeah, right.

The Washington Post is reporting that the U.S. military presence in Pakistan will be increasing in 2008.

U.S. Troops to Head to Pakistan

Beginning early next year, U.S. Special Forces are expected to vastly expand their presence in Pakistan, as part of an effort to train and support indigenous counter-insurgency forces and clandestine counterterrorism units, according to defense officials involved with the planning.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2007/12/musharrafs_woes_have_opened_a.html

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

From a post on RonPaulFourms.com

What an amazing picture.
You never see that on tv.
“Katherine Cathey was expecting a phone call from her husband, Marine 2nd. Lt. Jim Cathey, so she could tell him if their baby would be a boy or a girl. Instead, she got a knock at the door — the knock every military family dreads. When his body finally arrived at the airport in the Marine’s hometown of Reno, Katherine never wanted to leave his side. ‘You take for granted the last night you spend with them,’ she said. ‘I think I took it for granted. This was the last night I’ll have to sleep next to him.’ She said about her all night vigil by Jim’s casket the night before his burial. “

The night before the burial of her husband’s body, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body for the last time. The Marines made a bed for her, tucking in the sheets below the flag. Before she fell asleep, she opened her laptop computer and played songs that reminded her of ‘Cat,’ and one of the Marines asked if she wanted them to continue standing watch as she slept. “I think it would be kind of nice if you kept doing it,” she said. “I think that’s what he would have wanted.”
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=60048

If your heart can stand it.

Countering the propaganda against Iran with photos of real people, places, events that show the opposite of what the media wants us to fear.

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Apparently, the simple logic behind Ron Paul’s argument against non-intervention is way over-the-heads of the other candidates. Whether or not the U.S. wins every battle in Iraq really is inconsequential in terms how successful the geopolitical agenda is. For those who didn’t pay careful attention to what I just wrote, I wasn’t diminishing the consequences in terms of blood and treasure. What I am saying is that the U.S. can win every battle, but still not achieve military victory.

Unfortunately for Senator McCain, he must not be aware that this is an occupation. It is fairly hard to win an occupation. It is the occupation itself that fuels the insurgency, and no matter how many battles the U.S. wins, as long as the battles never end, military victory will be elusive.

There is yet another fallacy in McCain’s thinking: Conflating a military victory with success. In other words, even if the U.S. were to achieve a military victory, what do We-the-People win?

Today, we are less free than ever before. We have less economic opportunity than ever before. These are corollaries of being on a perpetual war footing. The natural consequence of empire is destruction of liberty and wealth.

That there are people throughout the world who wish to kill Americans has never been in dispute. But this is the wrong answer to the two questions that need to be answered.

Why does this threat exist? If it is due to a lack of intervention abroad, then why isn’t every other country throughout the world at war for the same reason? Burkina Faso doesn’t have a huge security-industrial complex, nor does she have troops all over the globe, yet her fate isn’t imperiled. Seriously. Pursuant to neoconservative orthodoxy, non-intervention itself creates the conditions for intervention, which means every country not at war should be at war.*

What is the most efficient way to deal with the threat? How does invading and occupying foreign territory do anything to curtail the threat of asymmetrical warfare, i.e., terrorism? That there are terrorists across the globe does not excuse the occupation of Iraq, nor does it make Iraq a mission worth finishing.

Only Ron Paul answers the above two questions with sense. Ron Paul is the cure to the insanity.

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=44163

*Emphasis added by me.

At some point I suppose I shall have to cease just quoting other people and perhaps say something myself. But not today.

Will no one stop these madmen?

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Hammer time:

If, on the basis of their rejection of the neocon stand on Iraq you think that people like George Will, Pat Buchanan, Andrew Bacevitch, the late David Hackworth, Kevin Phillips, Paul Craig Roberts, Charley Reese, Joe Sobran, Robert Novak, and Ron Paul are, or were, liberal America haters who want nothing more than to have Democrats run the country, you’re an idiot. If you don’t think that these guys and others on the right who agree with them on Iraq are so motivated, you’re misleading the listeners you claim to be faithfully informing. If you aren’t aware that such prominent Founders as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams strongly warned against our country messing around in the internal affairs of other nations, you’re ignorant. If you are aware that they opposed such interference in the affairs of other nations and reject their position, you’ve neglected to inform your listeners of the Founder’s views and explained why it’s conservative to reject them. If you’ve never heard of General Butler, that’s understandable, since the militarists you worship aren’t inclined to publicize the war-is-a-racket philosophy he acquired through hard-earned experience. If you are aware of what he wrote years back and you can still cheerlead for what’s going on in Iraq today, you’re disgusting. Many of us are on to you, Sean. You’re far from being a Great American.

Read it here.
Digg it here.

Ooh, that’s gonna leave a mark. Or rather, it would if Hannity ever read it.