Yep. This is good... And when it's all over the USan Empire will be no more. And for that, we citizens of the world shall be grateful.

"I pledge allegiance to the Earth and to the flora, fauna and human life that it supports. One planet indivisible, with safe air, water & soil, economic justice, equal rights and peace for all."~~~WEDO (Women's Environment & Development Organization). *So Be It!*

Maybe it is our nations karma.The white man kept the blacks in slavery, so now it is their turn to keep the whites in slavery? Or like they say, what comes around goes around.

Obama is the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE winner. He is for peace, Those Nobel folks said so!

Lysistrata convinces the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace

For those of you who are entertaining the thoughts of an uprising, forget it, they came prepared with the {bush}
Halliburton Detention Centers that are not going to waste.
We must fall in line and go along to get along like our congressmen. We need enough troops to occupy the country while we build the Pipeline that will carry all that oil to waiting ships near India. How about it Exxcon and Unocal, are you ready?

I don't understand all this chatter of betrayal.
Pushing the pawns into Afg. was part of his campaign platform,
as well as continued manning of the newly built forts in Iraq.
He is fulfilling his promise.
Perhaps you weren't listening.

Over, and over, and over..... It wold be so much easier if we admitted to being an empire and just went in and crushed the little opium growers (or rice growers, or whatever kind of farmer who is in our way). Then we wouldn't have to go through all this political bull shit. The results are always the same. It's so boring. After all, I've seen this show before. Just getting old, I guess.

Am I the first on this thread to use the term, "doublecrossed"? As in feeling doublecrossed, which leads to a sense of anger and shame and self-loathing for having been duped?

Is it possible that the psy-ops of the Masters of the Universe could have planned this reaction all along, to debilitate anything that remains of the liberal-left in this country? After all, so great has been the betrayal of his "base." Given all that has occurred in the past year or two, is that paranoia?

Or, is Venezuela's Hugo Chavez right on the mark when he asked Obama, "Are you a prisoner?" (Was there a reply?)

That question could accelerate history. Certainly the rest of the world heard it even if the American people did not.

CD seems to be, becoming, the "Horkheimer & Adorno" of the Existential Left. Nothing wrong with that, as it leads straight to the Magical Realism of the American South (of the Equator: hundred years of solitude; thence to that Islamish [sic] writer who was Fatwawed [sic] by the Ayatollah for writing the best female butterfly disquisition in the history of world literature). (As an aside relating to the so-called "health-care debate" we would not be ill-advised to again read "The Birth of the Clinic," Michel Foucault. Also, his "Madness & Civilization.")

Then there is Noam Chomsky, who, after establishing Semantics as a science at MIT, entered the political arena with his "American Power and the New Mandarins," which declared the War on Viet Nam merely an extension of all the previous wars.

Finally, to mcoyote and Struggle, thanks for the reminder on the nature of the dialectic. It's been a while. Not the be all and end all, but certainly in the right direction. Second law of thermodynamics. I'm beginning to have doubts! Paralax? Parabola? Pretty soon, if the bullshit keeps attacking our brains we will forget how to light a candle.

I am very angry. It is affecting my health. I did not come into this world for the purpose of being angry. I came here to love. I am really disappointed.

Fascists hate butterflies. Regardless of gender. Thus Monsanto, DuPont, et al.

End the Fatwah, World, against CREATIVITY. I am SICK UNTO DEATH of this Oppression against the Soul of Mankind. It has taken us many thousands of years to become sentient (through language). Sorry to inject this tiny item, but we differ from our closest relatives by the ability of Language, and we differ from them in having a larger NECK nerve channel for linguistic capacity. It isn't just the big brain; it is also the NECK channel for the capacity for speech. Then there is the issue of how speech gets organized, which it does! WHY? HOW?

One more thing. Thanks, teddy. Sometimes it is good to think of the Internet as just an old typewriter. Try collecting them at Saturday yard sales, then get the "carbonblack" and the oils that worked the ribbon. I have hope for many of the next generation. Now might be the time to collect old typewriters. And the ribbons. If possible. Movable type.
what a concept.

It is really getting hard to remain an "Idealist." Could it be that there exist at least two types of anarchy?

-30-

What if he can't get any Republican votes for funding? Maybe the oppositionists won't break their habit, and how do they oppose the onerous burden of the Health Care Finance Bill, then turn around and fund a more expensive war.
Seriously, Obama screwed the pooch on this.
Everything done for an unstable government will collapse simultaneously with it. Afghanistan has always been a failed nation of warlords and corruption.

Let it be known that the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq were planned before and independently of the events of the eleventh of September 2001(1), that the events of the eleventh were the new Pear Harbor that right-wing extremists in this country, from Brzezinski to the signatories of the Project for the New American Century, had been wishing for(2), and that the events were a great opportunity(3), as members of the Bush cabinet have repeatedly stated in public(4), and that, consequently, as George said in March of 2002, “ I just don’t spend that much time on him [bin Laden]…I truly am not that concerned about him,” a sentiment echoed a month later by General Richard Myers when he stated that “the goal has never been to get bin Laden.” (Griffin (see note 2 below), p. 107)

Here is a sampling of “the vast opportunities” provided by the events of the eleventh:

i) the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, which were justified, among other things, to the citizenry by recourse to the eleventh;

ii) the new military bases which they enabled the U.S. to establish in a number of Central Asian countries (Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan), including naturally the sprawling embassy compound and several military outposts being constructed in Iraq, and the military bases already completed in Afghanistan (all along the route of the oil and gas pipelines that had been planned by Unocal (Union Oil Company of California) way before the eleventh) (5);

iii) the complete dismantling of the socialist economic structure of Iraq;

iv) the rewriting of Iraq’s oil laws in favor of U.S. companies and, generally, western capitalism;

v) the bullying and intimidation of Iran;

vi) the Gleichschaltung of the U.S. domestic scene (completion and hardening of the conservative revolution in the works since at least the Reagan years, including the assault on abortion laws and affirmative action), which includes passage of the PATRIOT ACT (a document hundreds of pages long and drafted before the events of the eleventh), the abolition of the right of habeas corpus, and the implementation of the doctrine of the unitary executive power;

vii) the eavesdropping on the citizenry;

viii) the establishment of the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay;

ix) the contempt for international laws and conventions;

x) the justification of the practice of torture;

xi) massive increases in the military budget;

xii) the resumption of the making of nuclear weapons(6).

In view of this spectacular bonanza, one may easily be tempted to entertain the thought that if al Qaeda did not exist, it would have to be invented, and that surely BushCo wasn't gonna waste such a gold mine.

Looks like Obama is right in step with the Bush program. A more polite version of Bush, I suppose.

Notes

(1) Regarding Afghanistan, see the evidence supplied by Chalmers Johnson, "The Sorrows of Empire" (Owl Books, 2005), pp. 180-181 (see the quotation from that book below in note 5); and by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, "The War on Freedom" (Media Messenger Books, 2002), pp. 55ff. and 68ff. As for Iraq, see, for example, the letter of January 1998 (available online) written by members of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and others, to then President Clinton, urging him to take steps aiming at “the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power,” and the testimonies of Paul O’Neill, Bush’s former Treasury Secretary, and Richard Clarke, Bush’s first National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism.

(2) For Pearl Harbor envy, see David Ray Griffin, "The New Pearl Harbor" (Olive Branch Press, 2004, updated edition), pp. 95-96: Griffin quotes Brzezinski and the infamous sentence from PNAC's "Rebuilding America's Defenses" according to which the "revolution in military affairs" required by PNAC to establish the Pax Americana (the American dominion over the planet) would certainly benefit from "some catastrophic and catalyzing event--like a new Pearl Harbor" (p. 51 of "Rebuilding America's Defenses," which was published in September 2000).

(3) Or, as Chalmers Johnson puts it in "The Sorrows of Empire," “The terrorist attacks of 9/11 came as manna from heaven to an administration determined to ramp up military budgets” (p. 64). See p. 81 as well: “The terrorist incidents of 2001, much like the sinking of the battleship Maine in 1898, gave a tremendous boost to their private {the neo-conservatives or PNAC people] agenda.” And the quotation in note 5 below.

(4) For a very official statement of this assessment of the events of the eleventh, see "The National Security Strategy of the United States of America," September 2002, section 8: “The events of September 11, 2001, fundamentally changed the context for relations between the United States and other main centers of global power, and opened vast, new opportunities.” Incidentally, this document was authored by Philip Zelikow, who later became the executive director of the 9/11 Commission.

(5) See Chalmers Johnson’s account of the whole sordid Unocal episode, ibid., pp. 176-181. In conclusion of his narration, Johnson states, p. 181: “In light of this trajectory, it would appear that the attacks of September 11 provided an opportunity for the United States to act unilaterally to remove the Taliban…” And this from Patrick Martin: "If history had skipped over September 11 and the events of that day had never happened, it is very likely tha the United States would have gone to war in Afghanistan anyway, and on much the same schedule." (Quoted by Johnson, in ibid., p. 176.) I note here that Hamid Karzai, the U.S. appointed president of Afghanistan, had been on the payroll of Unocal. So was PNAC member Zalmay Khalilzad, whom Bush appointed to be special envoy to Afghanistan immediately after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, and who became the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan in 2003.

(6) Obama did not abolish this program: see Matthew Cardinale, "US Nuke Agency Pushes New Bomb Production," October 1, 2009, Inter Press Service (also on Common Dreams).

Raising my mug of milkless Victory Coffee (one saccharine) to the 34,000 additional U.S. troops being sent into this illegal and horrid Middle East war of agression.

"Yes We Can!"

CAPITALISM is the beast
stop feeding it

it's almost tax time

Murder Incorporated has a new CEO

war is peace
freedom is slavery
ignorance is strength

how useless and disgraceful is the american military when they outnumber the irregular insurgents in aghanistan by 15 to 1 - illiterate peasants with no training who are driving around in 40 year old pick ups and the marines still can't beat them after 6 years

then these useless soldiers come home and want to go on welfare for the rest of their lives - oooh my head hurts

hey when you sign up to be a goon for the nwo pondscum and you set about destroying foreign countries and murdering innocent women and children for corporate profit here is the moral of the story - don't expect a welfare check - nwo pondscum don't do welfare

they keep all the money to themselves and then laugh their asses off all the way to their bailed out banks - then they start laughing about that one too...

suckers

Life is so much better under the democrats.

Republicans hold you 3 feet under water, but the democrats only hold you 1 foot under the water.

It's like a breath of fresh air, almost.

The trials of empire

in a public forum such as this, all i can say after reading this article and learning of this news is that the only gun i own i want to turn on myself. i've lost the will to fight the good fight. this world, our government, is sooo f***ed up and i just can't deal with it anymore. obama has killed me and he will kill others. i'm not the only one who's discouraged like this. pls forgive me everyone. but i just can't do it anymore. it's been a struggle for too damn long. go ahead report me, i really don't care. my pain runs so deep as to numb me now. that bastard. i can't believe the betrayal. and i can't believe i fell for it even though i winced so many times as he talked in the debates about bombing pakistan, etc, etc. i feel more than stupid. i feel hopeless. climate change proactive legislation not going to happen. healthcare reform proactive legislation not going to happen. peace in the world not going to happen. proactive decisive courageous citizen-led leadership in the usa not going to happen. UNCLE!

Hilary Klanton was all for this war more than "our man," Barakus from the damn start, and she's an all out war monger and right winger, probably a neo con as well. She's really nothing but a closet case Republican of the worst kind.

AD

My final two cents here:

[Before getting to the meat of this, let me pause for a moment, to offer a word in defense of righteous anger. There is a certain legitimacy to raw anger. Anger is a correct & reasonable first response to injustice. By itself, it is an inadequate response to injustice. But it is an excellent foundation on which more constructive responses can be built.

And, on the other hand, the most paralyzing & crippling response towards great injustice, is docile acceptance. THAT is what the American political system & their apologists are all about — getting you to somehow resign yourself to corporatists & warmongering imperialists, who however (like Obama) are skilled in the use of ‘uplifting’ language.]

OK, now the meat.

We are at a time in our nation’s history where the political system is breaking down. It is no ordinary time. Mechanisms that have sufficed since the 1930’s are now failing.

There is zero chance that our system can be fixed through the officially-approved mechanisms. Whether overtly recognized or not, there’s a war going on — the US ruling class against all the rest of us. It’s essentially a class war. The rulers want you to remain a Democrat, because the D’s are a ruling-class institution, whose job is guiding the Dem half of the populace in paths that are safe for the rulers. To remain a Dem voter, and to swallow whatever slop the party dishes up, is to passively assent to this arrangement.

Therefore, your primary focus should be on resisting & criticizing the system, not on adapting yourself to it. You should be talking with your friends & family about the very real things that are wrong. You should be trying to make whatever contribution you can to elevating political consciousness. Accepting the slop of the Dem Party is the opposite of all that: it deadens political consciousness, & only makes your enemies stronger.

Voting for candidates only works when there are decent candidates — but that’s not our situation. We betray ourselves if we fail to recognize that.

Well, looking at it historically, the “solution” has to be a break from the officially-approved mechanisms. It must have the form of a broad movement based on the interests of the bottom 80-90% of the population, rather than on the interests of the top 1%. It has to be what they call “radical” politics — something that big business and the media are definitely not going to like, any more than they like Kucinich or antiwar protestors.

The 2 parties are really just a mechanism of social control. They’re not a way for “the people” to express their will; they’re a way for rulers to control the people — partly by making them believe that they (the peeps) have some say (which they don’t). Building a movement to oppose this takes time. But its sine qua non is political consciousness — the type that socialists understand & try to cultivate; and that the big-business parties & media try to suppress & eradicate.

Oh, Barakus, now you lead us down primrose path crossing our Rubicon into oblivion and hell.
Gee, how can we "thank you?"

AD

Here comes the common refrain:

"If you don’t vote, you have no right to complain about the outcome."

The opposite is true. By playing the game, voters agree to the rules. Only those who don’t play and withhold their consent have a right to complain about the outcome, especially since the winner will have his hand in the non-voter’s pocket.

Voting is not an act of political freedom. It is an act of political conformity. Those who refuse to vote are not expressing silence. They are screaming in the politician’s ear: "You do not represent me. This is not a process in which my voice matters. I do not believe you."

Non-voting has a rich and long history through which the dissenting electorate has expressed everything from religious convictions to political cynicism.

Who makes the decisions in our society?

Who writes public policy?

Years of social engineering has caused people to be deluded on this matter.

The White House and Congress don’t really make the decisions, Wall Street and the Pentagon do.

Who wins the election makes no difference because all politicians must do what the elite want. Elections are a scam whose function is to neutralize resistance movements and dupe ordinary citizens into thinking they have a say in matters of the state.

Elections do not secure popular control over the state, they do help secure state control over the populace. Voting is a ritual that reinforces obedience to state authority. It creates the illusion that “the people” control the state, thereby masking elite rule. That illusion makes rebellion against the state less likely because it is seen as a legitimate institution and as an instrument of popular rule rather than the oligarchy it really is. This is why even totalitarian states like Russia under Stalin had elections. Embedded within all electoral campaigns is the myth that “the people” control the state through voting.

There's far more potential in 80% of the political drones staying home or burning tires in the street on election night but neither of these things will happen here in Never-Never Land. Instead the usual 50% will show up to keep the facade in place and validate the system that beats on their heads every day. Then the folk can swell with a moment of civic pride and think that "Democracy", if imperfect, has once again triumphed. "Well at least we got the vote"- and other such dripping bathos will resonate through the corridors of America.

We have no say, or very little, in what even gets voted on be it issue or candidate let alone considering if the vote gets counted.

But as long as the vote charade goes on the appearance of "having a say" remains intact. And you must admit this is part of the genius of the system. It really does give you a few minor openings and the appearance that you are playing the game. LTTE's, three minutes at city council, online petitions and call in radio and hey, "Let's call it Democracy! Let's vote!"

Anyone doubt this now?

This war has been and will continue to be about building an oil pipeline from the Caspian Basin through Afghanistan to the Port of Karachi. When the Taliban became against the pipeline the Bush regime decided that it was time to invade. 9/11 gave the perfect excuse. The rationale was we were bombed by Saudi terrorists so we must attack Afghanistan. Uh-huh. The puppet president Karzai was a former UnoCal employee.
I'm sure the opium fields play nicely into the equation (Karzai's brother is linked to major opium dealing and on the CIA payroll). Since we began our War hasn't opium production gone up some 800%?
In economics 101 it is taught that the greater the risk, the greater the return. Oil, Bombs and Drugs sure fit the bill!

The best part of this whole piece is HRC's comment, "There are warlords and then there are warlords". This is, no-doubt, her characteristically hamfisted way of trying to appear "pragmatic". It's also a brilliant and succinct statement of the entire philosophy of empire.

It's amazing, really. They keep telling us what they really think and we keep ignoring it.

Unfortunately the President has chosen the wrong path....once again.

I need remedial voting.

Support the Taliban and the Afghani resistance in the struggle to drive out, defeat and destroy imperial fascism. –(Jill Bains)

This decision was fully predictable. In 2004, Obama didn't oppose Bush's Iraq war, he only thought the Democrats could do a better job fighting it. Fellow Democrat Clinton, through his low-level war, probably has the murder of more Iraqi children on his soul than Bush.

Nonetheless the despair deepens. I will never criticize the actions of a suicide bomber again. I only wish that, in their own despair, they would at least pick their targets better and avoid killing innocents.

I (and others here) said there was no difference in democrats and republicans when it comes to violence and general criminality. We tried, tried and tried some more, but you wouldn't listen, would you?

Sure, I'll give you that Bush was a complete bumbling nitwit and Obama is a complex thinker and elegant speaker, but in the end, they both love to loot & murder for the man.

Whatup now, faux "progressives"?

I think you have some 'splainin to do.

Feel free to use the provided area below to explain why Obama has failed to do anything he said he'd do. If you need more room for your excuses (which you will almost certainly will) please feel free to write between the lines:

Excuse #1:____________________________________________________________________________________________
Excuse #2:____________________________________________________________________________________________
Excuse #3:____________________________________________________________________________________________
Excuse #4:____________________________________________________________________________________________
Excuse #5:____________________________________________________________________________________________
Excuse #6:____________________________________________________________________________________________
Excuse #7:____________________________________________________________________________________________
Excuse #8:____________________________________________________________________________________________
Excuse #9:____________________________________________________________________________________________
Excuse #10:___________________________________________________________________________________________

One
Big
Ass
Mistake
America!

I see the tunnel at the end of the tunnel.

That stupid, stupid lying rat bastard.

Obama going nowhere fast!

Our latest scheme: buy an army to oppose Taliban. Sounds like another hare-brained US Military strategy that we keep on trying in our so-called counter-insurgency plans. Pit one tribe against the other-- Taliban vs. Soviets, Sunnis vs. Shia, Pashtun vs. Tajiks, Ho Chi Minh's Buddhists vs. CIA's Roman Catholics. All of these half-baked plans, sooner or later, come back to haunt us.

Sending in the 40,000 troops that General McChrystal wants, and train more Afghanistan troops and establish a brigade to fight the Taliban is another dead-end. The Afghanis think we’re infidels and occupiers and, as a result, don’t trust us. And isn’t it equally clear that as a result of the Ft. Hood massacre, American troops simply don’t trust the Afghanis? How are we then going to partner with them and train more troops?

The Taliban are the government we overthrew. Basically they represent the largest tribal group in Afghanistan , the Pashtuns at 42% of the population. Fighting these folks will take a long, long time, plus, according to many experts, they are interested in Afghanistan, not in blowing up buildings in the US. Moreover, Al Qaeda, at less than 100 members, are a spent force.

Then there’s the cost issue. Rule of thumb--each thousand troops sent abroad costs $1 billion. So, 40,000 troops , 40 billion per year. Add this to the troops and contractors already in Afghanistan. Comes to over 100 billion a year. This money is to be paid by adding additional debt to our huge deficit, then having the Treasury department print the money and then having the Chinese loan us the money.

Our taxes do pay for the annual $1 trillion military budget (army, navy, air force, coast guard , 1000 overseas military bases, CIA black box operations, Veterans Affairs hospitals, etc.) It all adds up.

And what we get for all our investment in Afghanistan is a lot of deaths, heartaches and corrupt puppet rulers. Pulling out would be a big plus for us--we might lose our influence over the gas and oil pipelines in the region--but we'd be a richer nation for it.

it is his intention to “finish the job” (of bankrupting America) that began with the overthrow of ...

Number of US casualties in Vietnam on September 22, 1964 when LBJ took the oath of office on board Air Force 1: 108. Number of US casualties in Vietnam at the end of the war: 58,209 KIA, 2,000 MIA in 10 years of fighting.

WHY DO MOSLEMS and BIBLE DENY WOMEN EQUALITY?

Her husband… he is responsible for her guilt. Num 30:13-15

For a wife must be in absolute submission to her husband, as this is commanded by the Lord. Eph 5:22

As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. 1 Cor 14:34

A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 1 Tim 2:11

A married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is free to marry. Rom 7:2

Not being a Moslem and not belonging to a church, my best guess is its all about natural instincts given to man by God.

For when a man and woman encounter a tiger charging at them in the jungle, the woman will grab her hair, step back and scream. While the man will grab a rock, step forward and yell.

And as men must do or die for women, defend with their life the body and morals of a women, what insanity is it for a man to try and protect a female he has no control over.

For men of the rich ruling class create all our laws, created divorce court to cause anger and division among us, and for an absolute they do not give their women even part ownership in the mansion.

Don't miss Jeremy Scahill's important piece on Blackwater. Especially when Obama's latest troop increase of 35,000 is matched with another 35,000 contractors. It's really a 70,000 troop increase with regular troops being used to support a private defense contractor war.

Here's a couple of snips from Scahill's article, found in full here on CD at
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/23-8

The military intelligence source said that the Blackwater/JSOC Karachi operation is referred to as "Qatar cubed," in reference to the US forward operating base in Qatar that served as the hub for the planning and implementation of the US invasion of Iraq. "This is supposed to be the brave new world," he says. "This is the Jamestown of the new millennium and it's meant to be a lily pad. You can jump off to Uzbekistan, you can jump back over the border, you can jump sideways, you can jump northwest. It's strategically located so that they can get their people wherever they have to without having to wrangle with the military chain of command in Afghanistan, which is convoluted. They don't have to deal with that because they're operating under a classified mandate."

In addition to planning drone strikes and operations against suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Pakistan for both JSOC and the CIA, the Blackwater team in Karachi also helps plan missions for JSOC inside Uzbekistan against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, according to the military intelligence source. Blackwater does not actually carry out the operations, he said, which are executed on the ground by JSOC forces. "That piqued my curiosity and really worries me because I don't know if you noticed but I was never told we are at war with Uzbekistan," he said. "So, did I miss something, did Rumsfeld come back into power?" . . .

JSOC: Rumsfeld and Cheney's Extra Special Force

Colonel Wilkerson said that he is concerned that with General McChrystal's elevation as the military commander of the Afghan war--which is increasingly seeping into Pakistan--there is a concomitant rise in JSOC's power and influence within the military structure. "I don't see how you can escape that; it's just a matter of the way the authority flows and the power flows, and it's inevitable, I think," Wilkerson told The Nation. He added, "I'm alarmed when I see execute orders and combat orders that go out saying that the supporting force is Central Command and the supported force is Special Operations Command," under which JSOC operates. "That's backward. But that's essentially what we have today."

Published on Monday, November 23, 2009 by The Nation
Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan
Inside sources reveal that the firm works with the US military in Karachi to plan targeted assassinations and drone bombings, among other sensitive counterterrorism operations.
by Jeremy Scahill
======

Who benefitted when the allegedly liberal Obama made the odd choice of McCrystal? Are we not fully controlled by a privatized military now?

War with Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Iran... and don't forget the continents of Africa and South America... and the special hell being created on the Mexican border. Course, we're not at war with Canada - yet - although when they start to defend their border from mass illegal immigration from the sinking ship of United States....

Obama was groomed and sold to us by the Kissinger branch of our government.

Glenn Ford 10:37. Yes, what is all this " they are going to kill him nonsense ". Obomba has been part of the problem since day one and he is what Malcolm X called the house Negro; otherwise he would never been allowed to run for President. And even if it were true, he knows the risk that goes with the job, at least that is what my nephew in Afghanistan says about risking his life every day. He is the Commander in Chief of the armed forces and the buck stops with him and like Harry Truman said: " IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN!

The only reason Obomba says the Afghanistan war is " A WAR OF NECESSITY" is that is what he has been told and it never was his decision.Obomba played the con game by "pretending" to be giving the escalation in Afghanistan a lot of careful thought. Yep like I have been saying ever since he was elected: HE IS THE CONSUMMATE CON MAN.

Go to Hell, Barry! Slow down and walk; you're practically there.

50% RULING CLASS

Close to half of voters failed to cast a ballet last November. Which means that corporate media gave us fiction news with the headline, “OBAMA WINS 52%.” For 52% of the half of society who voted is only a 26% minority of we the people.

For the lower 50% of society have more debt then wealth, which means they have no way to fund our expensive election process. Which means they are totally ignored by most politicians and have no imput into government or control of society.

For the upper 50% of society have all the wealth, have absolute control over both the Dem and GOP parties, and above all things they want a strong military to protect they worldwide plunder and excessive wealth.

And below of all things, we of the lower class who want decent healthcare, must be denied anything that would cut into their excessive profits, excessive wealth or upper class prestige and glory.

genicon

A broke, unemployed, homeless and hungry population.
The just residue of our Imperial Ambitions.
We wiped out the native Americans and justified it by the doctrine of manifest destiny, when we finally reached the western edge of the continent we turned that doctrine loose on the rest of the world, and we're still at it.
Call it American Exceptionalism or Manifest Destiny its still the same game.

To me the Presidency is like football. The question is (was), is it like High School or Pro football. I'd hoped it was like high school football where there's no agenda other than to win the game by being more athletic, more innovative in your plays, etc. I'd hoped Obama was that star quarterback who'd step in and play real football. (Obviously the analogy isn't perfect because we all know politicians of any stripe engage in alot of crap - but you get my point.)

I gave Obama 1 year, or a really bad decision on Afganistan, whichever came first. I see now that it's really Pro Football that's being engaged in. Pro football has very little to do with sports. The cover story is that it's all about football, the reality is that the NFL is a profit-making organization. Football happens to be it's product/service but that's almost besides the point. Any "star" will be mashed into following certain accepted parameters of play. No hotdogging, no innovation, no nothing that might effect profitability. I'm NOT saying the US presidency is all about profit. I'm saying it's all about some agenda OTHER than governing the US effectively. I wanted it to be otherwise. Obama was my "test case". He failed, and now it's obvious what the US government is all about.

How sad.

I DON'T however believe he was part of the plan all along. He had too much going for him. To carry on the analogy a bit, it'd be like seeing that All-Star, All-state, straight A football player all of sudden start throwing the game as soon as he went pro. I'd say the forces against him in the pro arena were just too much, not that he was a bad kid all along.

He just lost my vote for 2012.

I wrote the analysis below after viewing Bill Moyer's excellent analysis comparing Obama's choices in Afghanistan with Johnson's choices leading up the escalation of the war in Vietnam.

Yet, one can't help but be struck by the amazingly pathetic nature of what is taking place. First we invade a nation to root out terrorist bases. Then we enlist the help of corrupt war lords and others to form a corrupt, unpopular government to root out the Taliban. We do little to stop and in some cases actually encourage the drug trade- even further adding to the culture of corruption in the country. Then we decide after the Afghans "surprisingly" begin to hate their US sponsored government that the government is too corrupt! Then instead of correcting our past mistakes- we attempt to band aid the situation by starting a half assed counter insurgency/anti-corruption effort- with almost no Afghan support! Even more amazingly our military and political leaders think this will work. Or perhaps, they are just protecting their political futures. In which case their crimes are treasonous.

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Bill Moyer- with an intimate knowledge of the events that led to the Vietnam War, makes an impressive and clear case that the War in Afghanistan has similarities and many of the same risks as Vietnam. So does Daniel Ellsberg. So does Mikhail Gorbachev and others. It is clear that Johnson, McNamara and Bundy knew that the war was unwinnable- yet they felt compelled to commit American combat troops anyway. There reasons ranged from a desire to hold a position- to a fear of the domino effect- to fear of political repercussions. Yet what was most visibly absent was an understanding of the Vietnamese. They saw the war in geopolitical and military terms, but failed to appreciate the "enemy." The enemy was fighting for their country and freedom from colonial domination. The United States was an arrogant conqueror who know little of their culture, their determination or their struggle. In Afghanistan, it appears the United States, like the Russians in 1979, are perceived in the same way. The Soviet's War in Afghanistan contributed to the downfall of their empire. Likewise the Iraq and Afghanistan War has contributed to the economic ruin of the United States. Like the Russians we underestimate the enemy- we talk of training troops, corruption, etc., but we fail to understand the aspirations and needs of the Afghan people. Johnson, like Obama, was keenly aware of the political implications of leaving Vietnam- the abrogation of treaties, the appearance of being weak, etc. Yet, in the end the United States was forced to leave Vietnam. It will be the same in Afghanistan. The domino effect has been replaced with the War on Terror. Both are bogus constructs put forward by weak minds who need simple epithets to justify aggression.

$1 Trillion over 10 years...that is about $4000 for every man woman and child in the USA...about $16,000 for the typical family of 4.

that is YOUR tax money at work...for the warlords and opium dealers.

So, with about 100 Al Qaeda in Afganistan, that is about $10 Billion each

how much health care would THAT buy you?

WHAT A SCAM!!

The Audacity of Political Expediency

Are you feeling the AUDACITY of that CHANGE you HOPED you could BELIEVE IN yet!?!?

It really DOES make no difference which party is in power, does it?

If you are going to have fascism...might as well have real fascism instead of Obamas watered down fascism...

Palin/Whoever 2012?

Why the fuck not.

By the time the watered down Health Care Reform come on line, the money to pay for it will have been already wasted in Afganistan chasing the 100 or so Al Qaeda fanatics running around there.

Meanwhile the Afgan Warlards will make their billions and retire to the south of France.

"Well, there are warlords and there are warlords." -Hillary "Warlord" Clinton

Alexander the Great failed in Afghanistan. Ghengiz Khan failed in Afghanistan. The Brits failed in Afghanistan. The Soviets failed in Afghanistan.

A crumbling American empire failed in Afghanistan under Bush but is now going to succeed under Obama?

Aren't we all tired of this stupidity?

CONFUSION BY "teddy" BELOW ---- JUMP PAST BIG POST

Your bumpersticker says "peace," but your tailpipe says "war."
.
Autosprawl wastes energy,
Waste increases demand.
Demand empowers suppliers.
Suppliers buy government.
Government tries to control supply.
.
Want peace? End the automobile and sprawl.
http://frepubtra.blogspot.com

And so ends another presidency. Fascinating to see how it is all going to end for Obama three years before it happens. Once again, a President has opted to dig himself deeper in the hole rather than risk being called a coward come 2012. Ambition has again trumped morality and common sense. And, as in the Lyndon Johnson case, the same price will be paid by Obama. Most likely, Hillary Clinton will run against him for the 2012 primaries. What a waste of a good mind. All that potential and nothing good to show for it in his administration.

Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."

This is poser non-strategy by a trio of posers: Obama, Rahm and Hillary. Especially the "Compact" + "off ramps" part--like a wicker tub plug with a yank chain on it. Bereft of true intellect or national or global vision they are trying to pose their way through Amurka's hypermaterialist zombie lurch toward imperial & biosphere collapse--repeating as many obvious historical mistakes as possible by trying to look, if not exactly tough, then at least cubscoutishly prepared.

"Well, there are warlords and there are warlords," sez wifey-poo warlord. She's going to have more innocent blood on her hands than warlord Madeleine Albright, but maybe not quite as much as warlord Condileeza.

This is policy DESIGNED to fail in every aspect. Possibly as a political expedient toward focusing on the domestic economic quagmire--unless they try to pose their way through that one as well (entirely possible given what a spineless corporate genuflector Obama is). I say that because the "off-ramps" are designed to be triggered by next June--one to three months (depending on the number of extensions we've seen thus far) before the first big wave of unemployed that hit November 2008 starts exhausting their Federal and State unemployment benefits--and even larger waves of unemployed AND homeless start piling up on a monthly basis. Then again, DLC illogic suggests they will drag out and delay any withdrawal from Afghanistan (propping up zombie foreign policy with more zombie banking policy) if the GOP's infotainment cadres blast them enough for it.

A 2010 withdrawal would mean that the oil/pipeline/munitions oligarchs will have to curtail or delay their Central Asian Great Game--until another pack of neo-cons can get in there again by hook or crook. Next time they will probably use Pakistan as their entrée back into the region and thereby militarily reverse the situation on the ground between Afghanistan and Pakistan now--with Pakistan being used to base and expand a war within Pakistan and Afghanistan as "indians off the reservation" territory they can drone incinerate at will. After all, they will say, Pakistan is a nation which has nuclear weapons and A.L. Khan (whose nuclear weapons proliferation network that supplied North Korea has never been completely dismantled according to Sam Nunn).

This is "Compact + off-ramps" is a glossed over version of Nixon's "peace with honor" schtick. But the wiley Pathans are, no doubt, clapping each other on the back and Rudyard Kipling's shade is telling Bismarck's about the Westerners who got hussled once again by trying to hussle the East. No military historians of whom I am aware are ripping the neo-cons for biting off more than they could chew before they digested Afghanistan in the first place and they deserve supreme scorn for this and what it has cost the U.S. and the regions involved.

That said, my gut feeling about all this is: It's bad enough, Lord, that we must tolerate a wireless Gumby place-holder like Obama, and brittle corporate hairspray queen Hillary, can't you please at least rid us of this pretentious rat-phuck Rahm Emmanuel?

EMPIRE USA ---- BRAIN-POWER DICTATORSHIP

Intelligence: speed at which one rationalizes a problem and takes corrective action. For ability to kill in combat, ability to achieve in a competition based economy, this is in direct proportion to speed of thought, the brains a man happens to be born with.

For war is in reality an intelligence contest, a survival of the fittest where victory goes to a nation with the highest collective intelligence. A most unstable way of ruling planet earth, as from one generation to another there is a shift, with the greatest intelligence moving from one nation to another. Such as from Babylon to the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Comes now the Moslem nations to challenge Empire USA, and such a battle of wits to unfold.

ASK YOURSELF THIS QUESTION: WHERE WERE YOU AND WHAT WAS SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU NEVER HIT THE STREETS AND PERSONALLY ACTED AGAINST THIS WICKED SYSTEM.
THE TIME IS QUICKLY PASSING AWAY.....

CONGRATULATIONS! To all you ass-sitting, keyboard-pecking, all talk and no walk,Progressive phonies--no wonder you hate gods--If there is one and he has been watching you---you're fucked! You are not really what you pretend to be--if you truly were, you all would have been there--and done something real to end this corruption. May God have mercy on our souls.
Be thankful that you may still be forgiven--If you will confess your sins the power of forgiveness, which includes how you are able to forgive the offenses of others, will not only provide the healing power of the essence of true forgiveness, but also restore to fitness the highest righteousness, and cleanse you from all guilt.
If you go on telling me that you never do things that are against the 10 Great laws: You are lying through your teeth,you not only make yourself look completely godless, but you make him a lie as well.
1John1:9,10 (VERSION--My Translation)

It'll take four years to get Obama's crappy health insurance enrichment program up and running but the beast of war will be fed on a timely basis.

The only thing this country can do anymore with efficiency is destroy.

well, this puts the nail in the coffin for Obama and demonstrates beyond reasonable doubt his complicity in an illegal and immoral war!!! He will join the depraved and spiritually bankrupt company of Bush, Cheney and the others in the criminal cabal at the helm of US leadership!!!

Overheard from the protracted deliberations:
If you want to live, boy, you'll do what we tell you.

"We have to start showing progress within six months on the political side or military side or that's it," the U.S. defense official said.

That is almost word for word a repeat of Vietnam. In case you missed that, they kept escalating for 8 years; 50,000 U.S. dead, over a million Vietnamese dead, tens of thousands with PTSD, and the U.S. lost.

When is the borrowing of moneys for all these revolting policies finally going to come to an end? When is it all going to tip over into total bankruptcy?

Here we go again. We have to burn the village in order to save it. Or more likely because the napalm is approaching its pull date.

The Nobel Prize committee should disband itself in disgrace. Giving someone the prize for the potential to create peace is equivalent to locking someone up for life for their potential for terrorism.

It's time to fire-up some "Lincoln Park" and .50 caliber DU and rock and roll Democrats. You are the WARMONGERING PARTY HANDS DOWN! GEORGE WALKER BUSH SMILES UPON YOU ALL! DICK CHENEY BLESSES YOU! (Donald Rumsfeld is still a little confused by it). BRING IT ON OBAMA, the oppressor! REID! PELOSI! BRING IT ON! Oh, the irony.

The die has been cast. In theory Obama had the chance to become a peace president. Instead he will now be compared [but will the talking heads on television actually go ahead and point out the obvious?] to another Democratic president named Lyndon Baines Johnson who also escalated a war that was deemed necessary in a place called Vietnam. But it must be pointed out that Congress can end this conflict by cutting off the funds for this misadventure by Obama. Will the Democrats allow Kucinich to be the only one who calls for the war money to cease flowing or will they, as in Vietnam, allow their emotions to overrule their heads by supporting their president by accepting his demand for more death and destruction? Undoubtedly [and unfortunately] the latter as Democrats never fail to justify the name of a book that came out during the 2008 campaign and that was to accurately describe the Democrats as being Savage Mules.

It should also not be too surprising to see an atmosphere of nationalism and hysteria being used and promoted in the coming weeks as those who dare to criticize this escalation will be quickly branded Un-American and/or traitors to their country because they have questioned and criticized the policies of their government. The Democrats, like the Republicans, must claim that the United States is fighting a third world country in order to protect their "vital interests." The question becomes, will the American people remain complacent and continue to buy the party line or will they finally rise up and say NO to American militarism and America's alleged agent of hope and change?

"What you do not done to yourself, do not do to others"-Confucius [551-479 BC], Chinese philosopher

"Imperialism, like dictatorship, sears the soul, degrades the spirit, and makes individuals small, the better to rule them. Fear and cowardice are its allies. Imperialism is government of other people, by other people, and for other people."-Louis Fischer [1896-1970], American journalist

Nanoo

Yesterday being the big national call in day to the white house. Sure I had the number written down and thinking about calling when on the news I'm informed Obama was to meet with the war mongers. Figured Mr. Compromised already decided, so I didn't bother to call.

I'm sorry you people of Afghanistan that this country of my unfortunate birth is doing this to you. I do not honor the troops or support them.

Now here's an important note from Obama's favorite foreign policy adviser:

Jimmy Carter adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski stated: "According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the mujahideen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, December 24, 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise." Brzezinski himself played a fundamental role in crafting US policy, which, unbeknownst even to the mujahideen, was part of a larger strategy "to induce a Soviet military intervention." In a 1998 interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, Brzezinski recalled: "We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would...That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Soviets into the Afghan trap...The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the Soviet Union its Vietnam War."

ZBiggy and Carter murdered hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Russians and ZBiggy gloated over it. War criminal ZBiggy is the man Obama has said he respects the most in foreign policy. Brzezinski equals Kissinger. Tell me again how Democrats and Republicans are different?

Where are all these Liberal/Progressive who want "officials" prosecuted?

The smell of hope and change is different than the smell of napalm in what way?

Oh... but, but ,but it is the rights of women that Obama cares about.

In 1978 the Afghan government of Mohammed Daoud Khan moved against the leading Afghan opposition political party, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). A leader of the party, Mir Akbar Khyber, was murdered and most of the leadership of the party were arrested during his funeral (reportedly at the instigation of the CIA). In response, the remainder of the PDPA staged an uprising which won power in April of 1978. The party immediately published a series of reforms which echoed the failed attempts at reform in Afghanistan going all the way back to the overthrow of the "reformist King", Amanullah Khan, in 1929.

Within days, the CIA began to organize and fund the reactionary and Islamist "opposition forces" in the countryside of Afghanistan, who had already been the fundamental barriers to reform for over a century. This was 2 years BEFORE the Soviets intervened in Afghanistan. Zbigniew Brzezinski has openly bragged that the purpose of the U.S. operations was to FORCE Soviet intervention.

The issues on which the CIA organized were the PDPA's Land Reform and the elimination of debts in the countryside (both of which attacked the power of the rural "warlords"), religious freedom (or the elimination of Sharia Law), and, most important of all, the granting of equal rights for women (which had also been central to the overthrow of Amanullah in 1929).

For the first time in Afghan history, a woman - Dr. Anahita Ratebzad, had become a member of the ruling Revolutionary Council. Less than one month after the uprising, Ratebzad wrote a famous May 28, 1978 New Kabul Times editorial which declared: “Privileges which women, by right, must have are equal education, job security, health services, and free time to rear a healthy generation for building the future of the country … Educating and enlightening women is now the subject of close government attention."

In response, the CIA distributed leaflets throughout Afghanistan with Dr. Ratebzhad's face displayed prominently on them.

Obama must not have any sense of irony and his "moral high ground" sits lower than the Marianas Trench. The Taliban was created out of whole cloth by the U.S., hatred of women's rights and religious freedom were the pillars of that creation, and the hand wringing now, concerning those "poor Afghan women", is light years beyond hypocrisy.

SIMPLE FACT- US INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN IS ILLEGAL

The invasion of Afghanistan was not legitimate self-defense under article 51 of the Charter because the attacks on September 11 were criminal attacks, not "armed attacks" by another country. Afghanistan did not attack the United States.

Barack Obama is a war criminal.

Yes, it's Déjà Vu --- but Déjà Vu of EMPIRE --- and now, finally, even the supposedly "wicked smart", liberal, 'blue-state' citizens may finally wake-up!

Obama's speech and his 'supposed' decision about Afghanistan will reveal far more than the war strategy in Afghanistan. For those who watch with careful eyes it will reveal EMPIRE.

The decision will be voiced through the mouth of Obama to be sure --- but the decision was already made before he was president, in fact before he even ran, and the decision itself was made by the EMPIRE.

America, our country, is now part of an arrogant, unresponsive, un-democratic, but quite sophisticated 'Vichy' Empire ---- which only pretends to allow the people to have any influence over any choices, directly, or through their supposed representative government.

This fact of sophisticated and guileful Empire manipulation and trickery of the people was well documented in 1994 by Thomas Frank in his "What's the Matter with Kansas" --- showing how contrived social 'values' manipulation was used by the Empire-controlled 'Republican Party' to trick stereotypical anti-intellectual conservative Kansans into voting against their own interests.

But now the coin has been flipped, and we need Frank to write a new book, "What’s the Matter with Massachusetts" in which he would lay bare how the Empire-controlled 'Democratic Party' tricked stereotypical self-described liberal and supposedly highly educated intellectuals into voting for a second well educated (and now post-racial) president promising different 'values', but singing the same songs about "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow" and waving banners of 'hope' and 'change' --- which have now been ignored with the same level of contempt and impunity as the last several Empire-controlled Republican and Democratic shills --- who did exactly NOTHING they promised!.

When such obvious contradictions to a government structure of supposed democracy occur many times in a row, but with both supposedly different political parties, and with differing levels of sophistication employed to fool dull and bright voters, the issue is not 'values' but one of deep 'government structure'. And the only conclusion to be made is that we are dealing with a deep and deadly problem of ‘government structure’, which Ben Franklin would have immediately recognized as his fear of Empire supplanting a democratic Republic.

"The problem is not with our stars, Dear citizens, nor with this Obama, nor the previous Clinton nor Bush nor Reagan, nor even with ourselves, but with EMPIRE”

Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine

The administration's plan contains "off-ramps," points starting next June at which Obama could decide to continue the flow of troops, halt the deployments and adopt a more limited strategy or "begin looking very quickly at exiting" the country, depending on political and military progress, one defense official said.

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As I said last month the decision had already been made.

All they were doing was polishing the propaganda.

This is essentially the only difference between Bush and Obama.

Bush just f*cking outright lied to us.

Obama packages his lies within the context of confusing b*llshit.

The country wanted a President who got A's at Harvard instead of C's.

Your wish has been granted.

I wanted a President with courage and a conscience.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! A lot of good calling the White House did.

Looks like Obama is proving he can be just as insane as Bush (and Johnson, c. 1965-69) and just as impervious to all criticism regarding war. What can they possibly think they can accomplish in 6 months that hasn't happened in 9 years? Besides more and more useless, meaningless death and destruction, of course, and that's always a good measure of how well our imperialist wars are going.

Our Nobel Peace Prize winning president apparently hasn't been tuning in to Bill Moyers lately or reading Nader's letters imploring him to get OUT of Afghanistan NOW. Gee, I'm shocked! shocked, I tell you! He's just following the script instructing all this country's leadership that there is one overriding agenda the US must never deviate from: imperial conquest through military domination of all perceived and invented enemies.

It matters not if we never "win" any of our completely unjustifiable, illegal, immoral wars--the point is to keep fighting them forever. Keep the war machine humming along perpetually, under any available pretext. There's no end to serviceable lies, such as bringing Freedom, Democracy, Rule of Law, Liberation of Women (down with the burkha!), and of course "free market" capitalism, the salvation of the world, don't cha know. With our own capitalist economy backed into a corner and pleading for its corrupt life and another chance, our only ace in the hole is war spending and profiteering. Without our countless manufacturers of war materiel, we have no economy.

So death and destruction are all we really have to offer the world. It's our business, very nearly our ONLY business. Obama can't turn his back on that! McChrystal's just a decorated lobbyist for Halliburton, General Dynamics, Lockheed and hundreds, thousands of other US corporations that will continue benefitting from the insertion of 34,000 more troops, to add to the hundreds of thousands of private contractors (mercenaries) there already, without whom our military wouldn't have a chance of surviving. Mostly it's a war prosecuted by private interests, but we need the military mask to make Americans believe it has something to do with "protecting" us from invasions of Taliban and al-Qaeda right on our shores, infiltrating our heartland, kidnapping our women and children, forcing us to worship Allah!

But of course it's all about private profits flowing to fascistic corporations and their puppets in Washington. Obama is there to protect all that, and we all know this even if 'abnsmith' denies it.

Brother ... Brother ... Brother ...

I believe you spell it Obomba.

" 'We have to start showing PROGRESS within six months on the political side or military side and that's it,' the U.S. defense official said." (emphasis added)

One person's "progress" is another person's imperial boondoggle of waste and bloodshed.

I strongly suspect, based on ample evidence of the behavior of this beast, that "progress" will mean a supplemental funding bill for tens of billions of dollars in about six months because there will be no noticeable improvement in the lives of ordinary people in Afganistan.

From a capitalist point of view, increasing military budgets makes sense when capitalism is in a crisis of overproduction. The working class cannot afford to purchase back all the products it produces because of the additional cost of commodities caused by the addition of surplus value to those costs which the capitalist class appropriates as profits. On the other hand the capitalist class experiences declining rates of profit. To prop up the latter, production that doesn't have to enter the general arena of social consumption and has the built in mechanism of being quickly disposed of (use a bomb, shoot a bullet and the product is effectively gone) accomplishes for the capitalist class a means to reduce overproduction while at the same time delivering it some additional surplus value and alleviates somewhat the declining rate of profit.

OK, that's the economic analysis of why capitalist demands increasing military spending. From the political perspective military spending bolsters the political power of the capitalist class when used to insure their class hegemony throughout the world. Not only are the capitalists looking for "new market opportunities", but those new markets need to be "stabilized" to fit into the neo-liberal political space. The capitalists seek to create new markets that embody the "rule of law" consistent with the profit motive and all the capitalist institutions required for capitalist economic functioning.

Because social thought is commodified under capitalism, everything becomes a commodity in the eyes of the people, including political decisions - all political choices fall into the league of "consumer choices". Will that be fries with your burger or will that be 20,000 or 60,000 troops with your war?

In conclusion ...

1) Events aren't driven on simple moral or ethical grounds by individuals detached from the economic system they live under. Events are driven by the necessities of the system under which people live. Shit all you want on what Obama may or not decide in terms of this war, but be aware that whoever was in that position would be following essentially the same course only differing by degrees.

2) The struggle against war and for peace is essentially a struggle against the capitalist system of production. If you really want to see an end to wars, you have to build a new economic-social system where wars are no longer necessary because of the irrational structure of the system itself.

3) Any struggle against the interests of the capitalist class and for the interests of the working class accelerates the demise of the capitalist system and opens up the ability to work towards building a more sane system that works in the interests of peoples needs as opposed to the riches of the few. Working class struggle (in all its forms) is the way forward for humanity.

Note ...

Military spending is inflationary. National debts are increased through this type of social spending. The class that gets saddled with this debt becomes the political question down the road. You can be assured that this debt will become the working class's debt if the capitalists have any say in the matter. This will further impact on impoverishing working people while at the same time extending the capitalist crisis of overproduction. Since capitalism is based on certain fundamental contradictions, this one being the major one, there will be no end to capitalist economic crises. They will only become more frequent and deeper, until the working class is finally forced to say enough is enough.