HP here
Just had trouble for some reason getting on line, plus to busy floating around the pool with a drink in my hand.
110 bn is lots of money thats for sure. 375 million Americans so each one would have to put out 294 bucks each.

Russia will not put missiles in CUBA and CUBA has said so in the news already.
America is wrong simple as that, I hope the removal of these missiles goes smoothly but I can see the WH go insane and try to push the point.

It worked for "I Kare", but now the new comment is at the top of the page instead of the bottom. ___ That's Okay.

Checking to see if the new comment system works here.

This missle deal in Poland is perhaps more dangerus than the sabre rattling in Iran? Connie Rice sure talked tough to Putin and the Russians today. Nothing like good diplomacy.

Now the Russians have an excuse to plant missiles in Cuba or nearby, the oligarchy has a new enemy to frighten and control us and their "defense" corporations have another Cold War to profit from.

Typical US double standard: Russia supplies missiles to Cuba = bad. US supplies missiles to Poland = good.

Our self-centered nation would go nuts if the Russians supplied "defensive" weapons to Cuba. Why do we expect them to do otherwise?

Here's the wisdom that everybody should follow, from Blaise Pascal, French, 1623-62. "All the unhappiness of man stems from one thing only: that he is incapable of staying quietly in his room."
______________________________

Hmmm, bottle-- I would have written it, "All the unhappiness of man stems from one thing only: that he is not permitted to stay quietly in his room."

But that's me. ;)

Wonder where ~Halliburton~ fits in on any construction and service contracts?

I see Bush's "Connie" just signed the deal to enact the missile program in Poland that wiil insure our security ~Hollowpoint~. All is well.

Maybe Putin will return and visit Crawford and "buddy buddy" up with Bush again?

Or, perhaps Putin will visit Poland?

hollowpoint-where did you go?

110 billion dollars, lets see, that could have paid for free health care for the entire american public, not to mention college for all college age young adults for these past 8 years...that is real national security!

Low road John McCain has said that Barack Obama doesn't have enough character to be president. He is saying, in other words, that he, McCain, has character. But nobody who says they have character ever does have any, and there is evidence everywhere on this point of who has character and who doesn't.

It could be, however, that I differ from both candidates on the subject of America's place in the world. Although I've never thought of myself as isolationist, I don't think we should have soldiers or spies permanently stationed in other countries, period. Nor can I see impotent and so-called "missile defense" system in Central Europe as anything but endlessly expensive provocation of Russia same as the Kennedy-era rockets in Cuba to us.

As the one-note Condoleeza Rice has in her glass-shattering voice constantly scolded Russia for occupying Georgia, she has seemed oblivious to all such realities including our own occupation of Iraq. Isn't she supposed to be a professor? Is she incapable of drawing the connection?

We have plenty of challenges and problems at home.

Here's the wisdom that everybody should follow, from Blaise Pascal, French, 1623-62. "All the unhappiness of man stems from one thing only: that he is incapable of staying quietly in his room."

Hollow Point - on another thread about corruption in licensing windmills in upstate NY you said "I own a farm and want a windmill on my property today". In this thread you say "myself and family moved the hell out. I would suggest you do the same.". So then what does NY State windmill policy have to do with your farm?

And I do not appreciate being told that I should get out of my country if I have criticisms.

jcl*****
trouble is the Gov of most countries in the world have never been transparent. When it comes to America it probably ranks up there in the top 100. I have no way of confirming that number as no one has the numbers in front of them who would ever say something public. So what you are asking is impossible to prove be it military or cop cars in NY it will never happen. Still good points you posted

MY point about missiles in Poland is who is the say ( until it is to late) that offensive missiles be put in place for so called defensive? I feel that is why Russia is so pissed off at the whole aggressive position America has taken.

PS if you don't like how the gov spends your money then change the gov in your so called free election that has been stolen in 2000 and 2004. I also feel America is NOT a democracy anymore and that is why myself and family moved the hell out. I would suggest you do the same.

The problem with missile defence is even more basic: The speed of a missile is so great that by the time a launch is detected and someone says, "Gee, is that a missile? Maybe we should shoot it down." The thing is already over it's target.
The engineers working on this stuff admit in interviews that it's all a pipe dream but the pay is good so if some fool want's to write the checks life is good.

Such cruelty, the E.U. not allowing another war over Georgia (at least not yet). Don't you know that humans love war, love killing, love raping and pillaging?

They've been doing it non-stop for ten thousand years and they're still going strong.

We're only dressed-up savages don't you know?

P.S.Check my blog 'Dangerouscreation' if you don't believe me.

At this year's Hay Festival of Ideas in Wales, George Monbiot attempted to arrest invited speaker John Bolton and to turn him over to the International Criminal Court to be tried for war crimes. He was quietly ushered out of the hall, stopping the arrest. The US media paid little or no attention to what should have been front-page news world-wide: "British Citizen First in World to Attempt Arrest of Any American War Criminal."

Re: The missiles. In spite of huge public opposition, Poland agreed to them after Bush/Rice et al. assured that we would provide all necessary military support and, of course, financial aid. Ergo, a permanent military presence in yet another country.

Ray of Hope: The 2009 defense funding act says both Poland and the Czech Republic must accept our siting this equipment in their countries AND, more importantly, not a penny is to be spent until the Department of Defense has proven to Congress's satisfaction that the missiles actually work.

The bill has yet to be voted upon in the Senate, just in case you'd like to fax a copy of Monbiot's article to him/her.

My thanks to Mr. Monbiot who possesses an unflinchingly clear understanding of the reason(s) we are where we find ourselves.

We are ruled (literally speaking) by corporate interest representatives who are either truly ignorant, or criminals for hire, or both.

There is no justice to be had in a nationstate controlled by criminal interests.

There never was anything remotely resembling "democracy" in a nationstate that still, deliberately and with malicious intent, classifies human beings according to their skin pigmentation, current spiritual ideologies, or material affluence.

The only thing that is going to save this nationstate, this planet, is an armed and dedicated revolt against the criminal regime that is truly global, for there can never be a basis for faith in rational discourse with known pathological liars and mass murderers for private profit.

All talk is mere subterfuge and all of you know very well that the MSM is a tool of the enemy of the planet and it´s people. Again, for the service of the genuinely ignorant concept of "private material affluence".

Face the facts:

The vast majority of the well educated and the intellectually "gifted", all across the planet, are using their skills to keep you in a feudal state of bondage. They are not using their abilities to further the interests of humanity or life on the planet as we know it;

THIS is the reason for our life threatening situation, with no solution in sight other than more of the same.

The enemy is banking heavily on the fact that the vast majority of you are too deluded, too indoctrinated, too overfed, to even care about such things as the future of the planet...or your own childrens futures...let alone rise up.

Thanks again, Mr. Monbiot. Stay well.

The only thing that stinks about this article is that MIT weapons professor Theodore Postol has published these very same arguments 8 years ago. That's the overarching scandal that facts like these - cold, hard, irrefutable facts - rarely make it into the main stream and into the general public's consciousness (the existence of which we'll generously postulate for argument's sake).
Shit. The danger of nuclear war is increasing tremendously. I'm tempted to become a criminal, enrich myself, and spend time in whorehouses. Sex won't be the same if you and your partner have radiation poisoning.

Senile Old McCain recently maniacally proclaimed that 'we are all Georgians now'... in other words, we would now be at war with Russia. Well, hello, world war three.

Speak for yourself McCain. What a freaking warmonger McInsane is, what a total tool of the Military Industrial Complex, what a numbskull. Does McCain really think he is qualified to be president? If he does, that thought alone disqualifies him as being of sound judgement. And if he becomes president, he will be able to use the American military to wreak his psychotic rage-revenge and his well-documented temper on the unsuspecting world.

The missile system for Poland is part of the NeoCon war plan for Earth. Poland has become another pawn in their game for global domination. They think Russia will bow to economic imperialism as it did in the 1990s. Reference Naomi Klein's SHOCK DOCTRINE to understand that during that time the Western politico-corporate elites and unfettered capitalism did massive damage to the Russian people and Russian society when they were at their most open. Why should it be surprising that Russia is now mistrustful of Western aims anymore?

During that same period, Russia lost a submarine (yes, that one) through being torpedoed by an American hunter-killer sub in a panic, and Putin helped cover this mistake up so the world would not know. This is not the act of a warmonger. If the incident had been reversed and an American submarine had been mistakenly sunk by a Russian sub, I can imagine the reaction of the NeoCons in power in the US today. Goodbye, world.

The 600-pound gorillas, the rulers of this US of A, think they can shit wherever they want. And they whine that they are totally innocent when they are caught doing so, and take no responsiblity for their stinking turds, but instead blame anyone else, usually the handy 'liberals' or 'leftists' or 'democrats'... but sometimes 'russkies' or 'reds' or 'ragheads' or 'eye-ranians'.

For an elaboration on the core issues of Monbiot's article, and on the insanity of placing so-called "anti"-ballistic missiles in Poland, as well as the mindset of the NeoCon Bushite McCain, see the following article, regarding the idiocy of American foreign policy of corpo-fascism.

The Mindlessness is Total
Are You Ready for Nuclear War?
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Pervez Musharraf, the puppet installed by the US to rule Pakistan in the interest of US hegemony, resigned August 18 to avoid impeachment. Karl Rove and the Diebold electronic voting machines were unable to control the result of the last election in Pakistan, the result of which gave Pakistanis a bigger voice in their government than America's.

It was obvious to anyone with any sense -- which excludes the entire Bush Regime and almost all of the "foreign policy community -- that the illegal and gratuitous US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and Israel's 2006 bombing of Lebanon civilians with US blessing, would result in the overthrow of America's Pakistani puppet.

The Imbecilic Bush Regime ensured Musharraf's overthrow by pressuring their puppet to conduct military operations against tribesmen in Pakistani border areas, whose loyalties were to fellow Muslims and not to American hegemony. When Musharraf's military operations didn't produce the desired result, the idiotic Americans began conducting their own military operations within Pakistan with bombs and missiles. This finished off Musharraf.

When the Bush Regime began its wars in the Middle East, I predicted, correctly, that Musharraf would be one victim. The American puppets in Egypt and Jordan may be the next to go.

Back during the Nixon years, my Ph.D. dissertation chairman, Warren Nutter, was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. One day in his Pentagon office I asked him how the US government got foreign governments to do what the US wanted. "Money," he replied.

"You mean foreign aid?" I asked.

"No," he replied, "we just buy the leaders with money."

It wasn't a policy he had implemented. He inherited it and, although the policy rankled with him, he could do nothing about it. Nutter believed in persuasion and that if you could not persuade people, you did not have a policy.

Nutter did not mean merely third world potentates were bought. He meant the leaders of England, France, Germany, Italy, all the allies everywhere were bought and paid for.

They were allies because they were paid. Consider Tony Blair. Blair's own head of British intelligence told him that the Americans were fabricating the evidence to justify their already planned attack on Iraq. This was fine with Blair, and you can see why, with his multi-million dollar payoff once he was out of office.

The American-educated thug, Saakashkvili the War Criminal, who is president of Georgia, was installed by the US taxpayer funded National Endowment for Democracy, a neocon operation whose purpose is to ring Russia with US military bases, so that America can exert hegemony over Russia.

Every agreement that President Reagan made with Mikhail Gorbachev has been broken by Reagan's successors. Reagan's was the last American government whose foreign policy was not made by the Israeli-allied neoconservatives. During the Reagan years, the neocons made several runs at it, but each ended in disaster for Reagan, and he eventually drove them from his government.

Even the anti-Soviet Committee on the Present Danger regarded the neocons as dangerous lunatics. I remember the meeting when a member tried to bring
the neocons into the committee, and old line American establishment representatives, such as former Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon, hit the roof.

The Committee on the Present Danger regarded the neocons as crazy people who would get America into a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The neocons hated President Reagan, because he ended the cold war with diplomacy, when they desired a military victory over the Soviet Union.

Deprived of this, the neocons now want victory over Russia.

Today, Reagan is gone. The Republican Establishment is gone. There are no conservative power centers, only neoconservative power centers closely allied with Israel, which uses the billions of dollars funneled into Israeli coffers by US taxpayers to influence US elections and foreign policy.

The Republican candidate for president is a warmonger. There are no checks remaining in the Republican Party on the neocons' proclivity for war. What Republican constituencies oppose war? Can anyone name one?

The Democrats are not much better, but they have some constituencies that are not enamored of war in order to establish US world hegemony. The Rapture Evangelicals, who fervently desire Armageddon, are not Democrats; nor are the brainwashed Brownshirts desperate to vent their frustrations by striking at someone, somewhere, anywhere.

I get emails from these Brownshirts and attest that their hate-filled ignorance is extraordinary. They are all Republicans, and yet they think they are conservatives. They have no idea who I am, but since I criticize the Bush Regime and America's belligerent foreign policy, they think I am a "liberal commie pinko."

The only literate sentence this legion of fools has ever managed is: "If you hate America so much, why don't you move to Cuba!"

Such is the current state of a Reagan political appointee in today's Republican Party. He is a "liberal commie pinko" who should move to Cuba.

The Republicans will get us into more wars. Indeed, they live for war. McCain is preaching war for 100 years. For these warmongers, it is like cheering for your home team. Win at all costs. They get a vicarious pleasure out of war. If the US has to tell lies in order to attack countries, what's wrong with that? "If we don't kill them over there, they will kill us over here."

The mindlessness is total.

Nothing real issues from the American press, which is about demonizing Russia and Iran, about the vice presidential choices as if it matters, about whether Obama being on vacation let McCain score too many points.

The mindlessness of the news reflects the mindlessness of the government, for which it is a spokesperson.

The American media do not serve American democracy or American interests. They serve the few people who exercise power.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, the US and Israel made a run at controlling Russia and the former constituent parts of its empire. For awhile the US and Israel succeeded, but Putin put a stop to it.

Recognizing that the US had no intention of keeping any of the agreements it had made with Gorbachev, Putin directed the Russian military budget to upgrading the Russian nuclear deterrent. Consequently, the Russian army and air force lack the smart weapons and electronics of the US military.

When the Russian army went into Georgia to rescue the Russians in South Ossetia from the destruction being inflicted upon them by the American puppet Saakashvili, the Russians made it clear that if they were opposed by American troops with smart weapons, they would deal with the threat with tactical nuclear weapons.

The Americans were the first to announce preemptive nuclear attack as their permissible war doctrine. Now the Russians have announced the tactical use of nuclear weapons as their response to American smart weapons.

It is obvious that American foreign policy, with its goal of ringing Russia with US military bases, is leading directly to nuclear war. Every American needs to realize this fact. The US government's insane hegemonic foreign policy is a direct threat to life on the planet.

Russia has made no threats against America. The post-Soviet Russian government has sought to cooperate with the US and Europe. Russia has made it clear over and over that it is prepared to obey international law and treaties. It is the Americans who have thrown international law and treaties into the trash can, not the Russians.

In order to keep the billions of dollars in profits flowing to its contributors in the US military-security complex, the Bush Regime has rekindled the cold war. As American living standards decline and the prospects for university graduates deteriorate, "our" leaders in Washington commit us to a hundred years of war.

If you desire to be poor, oppressed, and eventually vaporized in a nuclear war, vote Republican.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

If McCain is elected, I am moving to New Zealand.

At least the USA's Anti WMD Defense Sheild program works great...they somehow made all the WMD in Iraq disapear overnight!!

There will be no peace as long as the Military-Industrial Complex is allowed to run roughshod over American politics and American politicians. Peace is not profitable, at least not to the purveyors of carnivore capitalism.

Hollow Point: I thought the connection between the article and the need for more transparency in government contracts would be clear. The article vividly describes how the missile program does not work and has been the goose that laid the golden egg for contracts since 1946. We, the taxpayers, foot the bill. The program creates an ongoing need to drum up enemies and combat scenarios to justify its continuance. In this case, Poland must have missiles for some reason. This is not only wasteful but dangerous.

The business and accounting practices as described would be unacceptable in any decent enterprise. Therefore I would like to have the light of day shining on the contracts that are spending OUR MONEY.

I added comments about a NYC security contract and the prison contracts because I feel there is a pattern of using our tax money for questionable purposes in the name of security.

For the life of me, why is this the fault of the "administration" in general and GBW in particular?
You Americans, intellects or otherwise, always point fingers at someone else.

Your democracy is broke. Pure and simple. GWB did not break it! Americans collectively broke it! If you ask who is going to fix it. Let me point out that not everything under the sun is fixable.

born free my father is a doctor
sorry old song from a bad movie about Lions.

bornfree, what does you posting have to do with missiles in Poland?
As for live free or die, well move out of america like I did and now I am free.
Sorry that has nothing to do with missiles in Poland

Who really brought the trade towers down? We have Terrorists foreign and domestic.

Well, follow the money.

Billions in Homeland Security Private Corporate contracts to spy on Americans, for the purpose of protecting us from Who?

Two illegal wars . Billions spent for national security, to who?

Americans, Iraqi, Afghan , lives lost. American freedoms lost.
We are now a Police State, billions being spent on warrantless surveillance.Firefighters, Postal workers, Ems workers, phone company's,cable company's, DHL,UPS , all spying on Americans. They don't need warrants. Just infrastructure.

And 7 years of defining what anti patriotic Americans say and do. Any dissent is Anti-American.

4th amendment is almost gone, first amendment is being attacked, by the press and the religious right wing lunatic fringe.

Well I guess we don't need the first amendment, who needs the press and organized religion.

Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.

The second amendment is next. When will these right wing conservative republicans wake up, the Constitution is being attcaked and destryoyed by you and all the Republicans you
support.

The Police state and Military complex you call patriotic is destroying your constitution, not protecting it.

All your fear mongering support has given strength to an Administration that is growing are enemy's numbers faster then they could have imagined.

The Democrats have been powerless for 20 years, they are Republican whores . I blame the Republicans for the rebirth of the sleeping bear , Russia.

And the cold war begins again, the military corporate complex will have us at war or in a cold war for the next 100 years. They will keep us there with their police state.

You may not like Obama, but I will not vote for another old rich white republican, we have had 28 years of that crap, and look where we are now.

Our health system is unaffordable, unions are powerless, wages for the middle class have been decreasing for the last 20 years, justice system favors the rich and corporations, the Democratic party is powerless.

Maybe, Obama is a wolf in sheep's clothing, a man that will help Americans first, restore living wages, restore the constitution.

We wont know till we put him in office, I am sure of what we will get with 4 more years of Republican Unconstitutional treason.

War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War, and the destruction of the Constitution, free thought, freedom of the press , freedom of religion , freedom to move about the country without a surveillance bug implant up your ass.

Shame on all of us.For not protecting the Constitution, and preserving the honor of all the Americans that have sacrificed their lives to protect our civil liberty's as defined by the Constitution.

BornFreeMen
Live Free or Die.

JCl*******
What does your posting have to do with missiles in Poland?

Give a million, get back a billion !!

Business plans? We don't need no stinking business plans!!

Military services, prisons, security and now energy facilities are currently fertile fields for private contracts. Immigration and terrorism are the catchwords to lull us. There are also attempts to run public schools and medical systems into the ground so as to justify opening these arenas for more private contracting. Public construction and roads are such classic feeding grounds for the Sopranos that we hardly notice anymore.

Right now huge amounts of money are allocated and most of the time we do'nt even know about it. For example, prisons. Prison contracts need for lots and lots of people to be incarcerated for crimes like drug posession, prostitution so there is an overflow population that strains the municipal systems. Same with immigration. We could incarcerate one factory owner or 200 undocumented employees. We choose the latter for many reasons, but one being it provides volume for the privately contracted prisons.

New York City is introducing a hare-brained scheme to photograph every car entering Manhattan every day. Why? Terrorism, of course. But what is really behind this plan, which is obviously expensive and ineffectual? It is not very clear how the masses of data collected could ever become information. It is also unclear how there is any preventative value there. I have seen no mention of who will get the contract to do this.

We need laws that require more TRANSPARENCY for contracts that affect the common good, especially where taxpayer funds are involved. Contract terms should be posted on the web with a good index. Basic information would include:

1. A summary of the RFP, including justification of why we need whatever it is and what it must accomplish.
2. A description of the bidding process.
3. A listing of the legislative sponsors
4. A listing of the applicants, including descriptions of previous experience with them
5. An explanation of who got the contract and why and who did not get the contract and why.
6. Disclosure of any financial or other relations between those who sponsored and voted the project, those who are awarding the contracts and those who are getting the contracts.
7. The terms regarding fulfillment of the contract to specifications, on time and within budget and any penalties for non-fulfillment.

PLEASE READ THIS

The missile defence can hit a target if it knows the location of the target.
Now if it is programed into the missile the target location wouldn't knowing where RUSSIAN missile silos are sort of helps ????? That is the whole point of the missile defence it is an offenive weapon. The story is USA smoke an mirrors boys CD is again acting to help the pentagon

Of course such bases could also be a very big confidence sham game, designed to pay billions to US Military Military Corporations for nothing very effective, and push powers like Russia into spending big money on military offence systems so as to cripple their economy, just like the nuclear missile race with the former Soviet Empire. Since decoy systems are cheap and may not even be needed it is hard to see how the Russians will fall for the same trick twice. Expect more spending on Russian troops, tanks and planes. The political game is being played to keep Europe in the NATO and US fold, against Russia.

A very clear book to digest is richard rhodes '' ARSENALS OF FOLLY '' he quotes very extensivly the nuclear warriors responsible for our current stockpile . the long and short of it is that ALL missles past the magic number of 400 collectily on the part of the America and Russia will do rather nicely to obliterate both nations..and all missles past 400 are political chips played to expand their repective budgets and to use politically to get reelected in our country and to expand the politcal power of the Poliburo in russia..the same goes for Missle Defense

Given the apparent lack of fitness for stated purpose of missile defence bases, the entire scheme is a domestic media excuse for other hidden goals. The first goal is the establishment of a well guarded and secretive US base of operations in Poland. I cannot imagine that the US will allow Polish nationals or anyone else not in US services to view the insides of its missile defence secrets. The bases requires protection, communications interception, spies, radar, soldiers on duty round the clock and logistic support. Probably a large airplane runway is required as well. It is not so much a missile defence system, it is probably more of a large US offence base, with offensive weaponry. Russia obviously finds it very offensive.

It may serve as a kind of take-over insurance for Poland against Russia to have a large sensitive US base on its soil. It is surprising that Georgia did not have one of these installed as insurance prior to launching a US styled invasion of South Ossetia. The US would not let Russia take over such a base, and would be forced to open warfare. Imagine those supposedly effective secret defence systems being appropriated by the Russians. But such bases probably take a long time to setup, and one so close to Russia would be too obvious a threat and too far for the Iran excuse.

The Polish government must have got a good deal on the base installation. Money must have changed hands. Poland is not so far from Russia, and I am sure this defence system is not very good against masses of Russian tanks, planes and troops, so it may be just a matter of time before Russia declares the base to be a national threat and takes a close personal examination of the insides of the Polish US missile defence base.

George W can defuse Russian worries about missiles in Poland by sitting down with his good mate Vladimir and agreeing to Russian nuclear bases in Mexico to facilitate Russian defence against possible future attack from Brazil.

All true...but the line "yet there are no clear criteria for success" reminds me of Dubya and his cabal- they have NO clear criteria for success as MOST human beings on Earth would understand it- why should their PROFITABLE little projects have any success measures either?
McCain might be elected- what are his "sucess measures"- rivers of blood, shattered lives, body bags,destrucion of whole communities- or Dividends/PROFITS based on all of the above? Certainly the latter, more of the same if he Swift Boats in...
Success in the old sense of the word means NOTHING after Dubya and his merry murderers, and their dumb ass supporters get through with it...

And another:

" …their purpose is to defend Europe and the US against the intercontinental ballistic missiles Iran and North Korea don't possess. This is why they are being placed in Poland, which, as every geography student in Texas knows, shares a border with both rogue states"

Come to think of it, it might be a bit subtle, and also beyond not solely Texans' geographical knowledge.

Even McCain must be smart enough to see that anti-missile system isn't going to work

It's not a defense system. That's why it won't work as one. Forget about showing why it won't work as a defence and how much money is being wasted building something that won't stop incoming missiles.

It will work just fine for it's (hidden) true purpose: endless pre-emptive war. Let's talk about that.

http://www.space4peace.org/sales.htm

Book Description
The expansion of space militarization forms a common thread with the explicit unilateral empire-building of the Bush administration. But just as Star Wars did not begin with the Missile Defense Agency, preventive war theory did not originate with Donald Rumsfeld. Advocates of military space always were on the front line of those demanding global dominance. Loring Wirbel argues that the seeds for the current space supremacy doctrine were sown at the end of the Cold War, in the early days of the Clinton administration. Examining the evolution of space-based tools, Wirbel shows that missile defense strategy is part of a dangerous US move to wage endless preventive war and demand global supremacy over allies and adversaries alike.

Star Wars: US Tools of Space Supremacy provides a fresh look at the role of space as an enabler of the Bush administration's plans for endless preventive war. It debunks the benign notions of missile defence, and expands the definition of space supremacy beyond that of weapons in space, to include the unilateral misuse of space-based intelligence, communications, and targeting technologies.

About the Author
Loring Wirbel has been involved in military conversion & peace work for 25 years. He is currently editorial director for communications initiatives at CMP Media LLC, headquartered in New York & London. Wirbel worked with Mobilization for Survival in the American southwest on campaigns to end the mobile basing strategy for the MX missile, & to phase out Rocky Flats as a plutonium factory. His cover story on the National Security Agency for The Progressive magazine took a top Project Censored award in the early 1980s. A series on Reagan's Star Wars programs won a Scripps-Howard award

I hear the Poles were strong armed into relinquishing their present defense system in favour of this one...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_Command

More seriously, think of the alternative productive uses to which the money thus spent on this Grand Maginot Disaster in the sky could have been put. Better railways...proper flood defences for New Orleans...bridges needing repair...schools and houses that need building...

Any more, please?

bill from saginaw.......but something different is happening in 2008,so it won't work as well this time....we'll see what happens on november 4th........americans are FED UP" with warmongering attutides and empty cowboy bluster......NOBODY IS AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD U.S.OF A. ANYMORE......we can't even secure a sandbox (iraq)and we are losing in afghanistan...(a desolate country)

Print and distribute... especially in countries under MSM brainwash control.

Ahuramazda August 19th, 2008 2:22 pm

"Hopefully, NATO will think twice before proposing former Soviet Union nations to join it."

Et tu Brut! NATO will not think twice, for NATO was, is and ever will be just the code word for the same Empire of financial capital.

I remember an old saw: a Pole is praying God to send Mongols to Poland and Almighty asks him, Are you crazy? What would be your benifit after such disaster?

- I know, I know... But Mongols will pass Russia twice and that is my benefit!

So Poles must be happy.

"...ground-based midcourse missile defence..." = GMD = Grand Maginot Disaster.

Dick Cheney showed George Wanker Bush a map that said it was from National Geographic. The map clearly shows both North Korea and Iran bordering Poland. Bush believed it then and still believes it now. If you ask, he'll show you that map. If you argue with him, or show him a different map, you'll disappear into America's gulag in Eastern Europe where you will spend the next year or so with your testicles plugged into a wall socket. P.S. Cheney also recently gave McCain a copy of the same map and he (McCain) will gladly show it to you if you ask him.

This article & all comments take as gospel that the missiles to be placed in Poland are defensive.

Reminds me of the Lonny Donegan song, Rock Island Line. To avoid a toll on pig iron, a train engineer tells the stationmaster, "I got all livestock, I got all livestock."

After he's waved through, he shouts back, "I fooled you, I fooled you. I got pig iron, I got pig iron. I got all pig iron."

George Monbiot deserves an A-plus for this editorial expose. Well researched and very well written.

Along with the factors Monbiot identifies - campaign financing, grandiose pork barrel for Pentagon contractors, billions more in appropriations for DARPA and the descendants of Curtis LeMay and Dr. Strangelove - there should be a tip of the hat to acknowledge the partisan political legs this missle shield scam has in our two-party system.

We should never forget how Ronald Reagan dropped Star Wars on Walter Mondale in a one-on-one presidential debate setting. The Dems never knew what hit them.

Perpetuating the technological quick fix fraud of today's missle defense shield not only assures the GOP of a bread-and-butter issue to peddle to the weaponry manufacturers in all fifty states. It also sets up the GOP's staple, inevitable counter-attack partisan ads for recycled use against any public figure that is courageous enough to stand up and denounce the Star Wars scheme as a fraud: real men and responsible leaders know it's always better to be safe than sorry where national security is at stake, so wimps and weaklings better shut up and stand aside.

It worked for Reagan. The fix is in for McCain to use it on Obama.

Either way it shakes out as a tool for framing partisan attacks in the fall election season, the US military/industrial complex wins. The big boys keep laughing all the way to the bank.

Bill from Saginaw

Outstanding article!

Madlib... I think you misspoke. Didn't you mean to say "This makes a HOT war inevitable."?

Frankly I don't understand how this Doomsday crapshot 'best defense is a stupid offense' weapon can promise to save any lives whatsoever. I mean we're talking about shooting down Neutron bombs and such... particular nuclear weapons that were designed to dramatically INCREASE radioactive pollution with the stated goal of poisoning and killing off the enemy forces long long long after the blast has passed. In a nuclear war- every square inch of America would instantly become uninhabitable for 200,000 years. But this missile defense system proposes to blast the Neutron bombs out of they sky? Thereby only spreading the radiation globally through the upper atmosphere? Thanks BushCo. & Conspirators Incorporated!!! Great f*cking idea!!

George Monbiot - what you write here is valid, but you are watching the wrong hand! The magician chuckles!

Yes, this article does a great job revealing how bogus the pentagon storyline re the missile defence system is. Sure, graft and corruption are involved as they are in all military projects. But that is the straw dog - chase that and you are missing the point.

Critique it as a doomed to fail defence system and you are fooled again.

The missile defence system is not intended as a defence system at all. It is the groundwork for a space based attack system. Stacked in three layers (ground, mid altitude, and space) each component has offensive purposes and abilities. They are going for weoponization of space and those spaced based weapons are the final piece in the 'missile defense' system.

I don't have time right now to provide comprehensive links to explain this... anyone who has background information to make this clear, please post!

here is a start:
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_security/space_weapons/

thanks

The Hopi prophecies state this land pretty much gets burnt off the face of the earth by man made fire that is now a reality that can happen.

Brother and sister, Power and Avarice go hand in hand down the lane.

Together, they incestuously breed Arrogance and then Incompetance.

It's kind of like the Olympian gods with a Friday the 13th twist

The intelligent thing to do, if the reason for the missiles weren't bullshit, would be to involve Russia in the system. We could let them help protect Europe from missiles originating in Korea or even Iran. They could also benefit from such defenses. But by excluding them and building up NATO aligned countries on their borders, we are sending the signal that we don't trust them or want them as part of a global community. This makes a cold war inevitable.

Don't worry. As soon as we're done SLOPPING up the remains of fossil fuels and nuclear shit, these silly "defense" programs will wind down. Until then, SHUT UP and SING and quit complaining !

Our "policy" has ALWAYS been one thing, APPETITE and the skills of violence to feed it where and when we please. A terrific lucid first paragraph here laying out pure passive-aggressive insanity that calls itself defense. As usual. When the psychopathic Pilgrims pre-emptively murdered a dozen Native New Englanders (who'd been helping them) for a "plot" that didn't exist, they hung the heads on top of their church---and posted a white sheet dipped in the blood of the Native men butchered. America's first flag, friends. http://ancientgreece-earlyamerica.com

George Monbiot is wrong. The program has been a great success. Just how much US (tax-payer) treasure has been handed to the coporations for this gig?

This is the best article I have read on CD in a long time...

Witty and hard hitting.

"This proves that the missile defence system is necessary after all: it will stop the missiles Russia will now aim at Poland, the Czech Republic and the UK in response to, er, their involvement in the missile defence system."

"...and so far it has achieved a grand total of nothing."

"It's called spiral development, which is quite appropriate, because it ensures that the costs spiral out of control."

(That last one sounds like any Government project to me...)

SECRETARYBIRD...Your comment is very thought provoking...I would have largely lost that point in the article. Now I will have to think on it for some time.

Not only are our Leaders blathering idiots they are also suicidal. Threatening Russia is like hunting lions with a switch.

Samson said: "If anything, that might be replacing bumbling amateur crooks with true professional crooks."

EXACTLY! That's the point we've been trying to get across to the blind Obama supporters. To no avail I must add.

There had to have been some kind of strong-arming (no pun intended) on the part of the USA to put anti-missiles inside Poland. What Russia should have done was to make Poland a better offer to join their side.

Poland - enjoy the capability of driving cars and heating your homes and businesses while it lasts.

So I hear that there is some diplomatic negotiations with Russia and Europe regarding Georgia (it was smart for the Americans to not take an active role in this dispute. Honestly, I think was one of the best decision that George has ever made as the selected resident of the USA). I want Americans and NATO people to know that Russia probably will accept nothing less than complete abondament of the idea that Georgia will join NATO. Will not happen... Russia will do everything in its power to make sure that Georgia does not join NATO - whether USA, EU or any other nation on Earth likes it or not.

The Russian occupation of Georgia, in my opinion, serves as a reminder to the world and any other organization that Russia will not be trifled with or tolerate any of its bordering nations from striking deals that are against Russia interests and (oh what is that phrase again? I forgot! Hmmmmmm oh yes...) its National Security. "The West" has had a field day for almost 20 years and had a apparent mistaken notion that the USA is the "sole superpower." I think Russia just wanted the world to know that Russia means business if it is messed with and they merely used Georgia, Ukraine, and soon Poland as examples in the hope that the nations of the West come back to reality as it were. Remember Americans and Europeans, humanity is at stake and the world does not revolve around you.

What is the matter Americans and Europeans? Russia does not deserve to have its interests paid attention to - that its national security interests do not matter to anyone? That Americans and European organizations can just do anything and everything they want? That figures...it is part of your arrogance as you have been spoiled with fantasy thinking of delusions of grandeur for almost twenty years now. Well, the USA, EU, NATO, and most western alliances can do most things negative throughout the world EXCEPT make Russia mad. NATO should have kept this in mind when considering expansion. Hopefully, NATO will think twice before proposing former Soviet Union nations to join it.

PS ... and don't believe that putting Obama and the Chicago political machine in charge is going to make things any better. If anything, that might be replacing bumbling amateur crooks with true professional crooks.

"US politics, because of the failure by both Republicans and Democrats to deal with the problems of campaign finance, is rotten from head to toe. But under Bush, the corruption has acquired Nigerian qualities. Federal government is a vast corporate welfare programme, rewarding the industries that give millions of dollars in political donations with contracts worth billions. Missile defence is the biggest pork barrel of all, the magic pudding that won't run out, however much you eat. The funds channelled to defence, aerospace and other manufacturing and service companies will never run dry because the system will never work."

A very nice succint statement of what's wrong. The only problem is that he blames it on 'Bush' when Clinton was just as bad at this stuff. And probably most other Presidents back through say Ulysses S. Grant and other notable crooks.

"Perhaps the best discussion point of all in it: "The US does not really have a foreign policy. It has a series of domestic policies which it projects beyond its borders.""

Typically, this is how mighty empires fall. They stop making rational decisions like they did when the empire was first being formed (or seized), and instead everything becomes 'court politics'. Whatever makes the court around the emperor rich is what gets done. Because the people at that level are so obsessed with their own power and infallibility that they thing their great empire can't fall, so why not steal a few billion by doing something silly.

Chernoble overwhelmed the old Soviet Union's capacity to deal with the refugees, the loss of power of shutting down 20 nuke plants, and the food that had to be destroyed.

Katrina overwhelmed the US capability to respond. Although that is more a political failure on the part of the Republicans and the Democrats.

A nuclear weapon strike would be much worse.

Too bad Poland didn't wiggle out of the neocons' coalition of the coerced in time to avoid missle deployment in their country.

a single nuclear strike in any country would overwhelm the capacity of that country to cope with the casualties - any country. so, in contrast to any other weapon, where a 2% success rate would be considered dismal, with nuclear weapons, a 2% success would inflict severe trauma on the adversary, a scientific american article pointed out 40 years ago.could any country survive as a society with the destruction of their 2 largest cities?
hence a system with 90% success against nuclear weapons delivery systems is a failure, and the current systems are far from that rate of success , as the article above points out. the "few hundred dollars worth of diplomacy" is clearly the better way to go.

I'm really glad that this article has got onto CD today - I was knocked out by it when I read it over my breakfast this morning.

Perhaps the best discussion point of all in it: "The US does not really have a foreign policy. It has a series of domestic policies which it projects beyond its borders."

If the system were to work, which is doubtful, it will have little impact on cruise missiles.

The System Is the Magic

Are we somewhere between the endless bounty of Strega Nona's pasta pot and Chicken Little's falling sky?

I can recall the enormous orginazition built and maintained through the centuries on the idea that everyone was born with 'original sin' and could only be 'saved' through their sacriments. Once we built temples to the sky but now we point weapons at the sky. It's small wonder that we were kicked out of Eden.

"The Russians, as Poland expected, respond to this proposal by offering to turn the country into a parking lot."
___________________

Monbiot's articles are usually witty, trenchant, and clever, but this one is too clever by half.

The Russians may decide to play it safe by turning the US, as well as Poland, into a parking lot.

They are aware that ballistic missile interception is largely a scam on US taxpayers. But are they willing to stake their lives on it? And should Americans be willing to stake their lives on the willingness of Russians to stake their lives on the fallibility of US anti-missile technology?

Would the neocons tolerate a Russian anti-missile system in Cuba, or would they turn Cuba and Russia into a parking lot first, regardless of the reliability of Russian anti-missile technology? Haha.

You think Monbiot's one-liners are funny? This one will crack you up : the Russians will (correctly) perceive a US anti-missile "defense" system in Poland as a US nuclear first strike, and respond accordingly.

But a little hitch like that won't stop neocon ideologues from deploying their Doomsday Machine; if anything, it will probably spur them on. Time to add human beings to the Endangered Species list.

Now the US and Poland just have to convince every other nation with missles to add radio transmiters to their warheads, so they might have a chance of hitting one or two of the potential thousands raining dowen on poor dumb poland.

these missle "defence" systems we banned under the nuclear treaties between USSR and USA simply because the cause a new arms race...if you can shoot dowen 1 or 2 of my missles, then I will simply fire 20 instead.

U.S. capitalism apparently knows no end to the lust for power and wealth. A vibrant democracy is the only opposing force to the greed of capitalism. That is why corporate capitalism is the enemy of democracy.

The rights of capital has made the U.S. a war mongering nation, waging war in the interests of Wall Street, U.S. corporations, and a very profitable defense industry. The overwhelming power of these institutions has imprisoned the U.S. Congress.

Unfettered Western capitalism has now planted the seeds of its' own destruction.

The real danger is that the United States believes its own hype on the effectiveness of these systems making a nuclear exchange more likely.

pk

As usual, the most insightful articles about the U.S. are published in other countries, and most Americans never read them.

Great Article - I never thought a (WHITE PAINT) punch line could have me rolling on the floor.

Brilliant article

We have the ability to live in peace.

Pursuing peace in an active way is much cheaper and more effective in securing our interests and security.

Great Great Article! Full of delicious quotes.

"So why commit endless billions to a programme that is bound to fail? I'll give you a clue: the answer is in the question. It persists because it doesn't work."

"But under Bush, the corruption has acquired Nigerian qualities"

Awarding contracts is what is behind everything in the US at the moment. The banality of greed that motivates our policies, domestic and foreign, is hard to imagine. The "fight against terrorism" and other slogans are to keep us looking the other way.

BTW - Of course this article was published in the UK, not in the New York Times or Washington Post.

The American empire is a fraud, and The United States of Everything is rapidly declining. The only question is, whether it will kill itself before it destroys the whole earth.
Hoa binh