glad to see this was published in an american paper. i agree w/ the sentiment of the essay but 2 points.

"Those currently holding elite positions of influence have shown themselves ill-fit to the job of leading a great, peaceful, just and prosperous nation."

- was america always a great - peaceful - just nation ? my recollection tells me that america was designed to be a country that strives on expansion and war (inevitably becoming the empire we're familiar w/ today). and peaceful ? remember the civil war and capital's incessant attack against the poor - an attack that has been occurring since the nation's inception.

"America has faced a great number of difficult situations, and, repeatedly, our leaders cannot manage the institutions of the United States to honorable, successful outcomes."

"These events are not the result of poor foresight, and "Nobody could have seen it coming" will not function as an excuse. This time, the leaders know precisely what they are doing."

- i wonder if failures are failures in and of themselves. one person's (or class of people) failure is another person's (or class of people) sick opportunity. i think the ideas of naomi klein apply here (shock doctrine). these failures (catastrophes) are orchestrated so that sycophantic business people can profit from the manufactured crises.

...peace...

We're not an Occupation, we're actually a Resistance.

What exactly is a "strategic intelligence consultant"?
.
Anyway ... not a bad article overall, but why not names some names? More specificity would be nice. And while I'm hardly a fan of the Booomers (my 'rents generation) they're not the first to produce an "elite leadership" of sellouts, sociopaths and selfish chair wamers ... and I doubt they will be the last either.
.

"The baby boom generation, whose members hold the highest posts of government, military, finance, industry and the media, has failed to produce a cadre of leaders capable of anything other than fulfilling their own selfish interests, either by loading up their pockets with outlandish compensation packages or by staying in positions of power for personal gain while wrecking the institutions they pretend to serve."

Don't blame all the boomers. Age out many of our current legislators and they predate most of us boomers. Look at the faces of todays movement many of them are boomers. Don't fall into the "generational" trap.

"In the decade since the world-uniting tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, America has faced a great number of difficult situations, and, repeatedly, our leaders cannot manage the institutions of the United States to honorable, successful outcomes."

That's because you can't solve those sort of problems by shopping or waging war. No amount of hero worship or patriotism can solve them. What can is critical thought and a determination to hold humanity and humane treatment as our larger goal. Money is only currency it shouldn't be considered the prime or ultimate goal of mankind. Man should be better than that.

On a positive note, with the extreme violence against US citizens for exercising their constitutional rights in the Occupy movement; as whistle blowers against corruption, and others, done to them by their own government, those in foreign countries who "hate us for our freedoms," might stop hating us now that we no longer have any freedom, and look elsewhere for something to hate.

what's the deal with this guy

he writes: "Perhaps, we hoped, that these things were only possible in clearly authoritarian regimes such as Syria, Burma and Iran,"

gee i guess he hasn't been following the news much - from italy, france, uk, ireland, portugal, spain, etc and so on

"New revelations show complicit activity between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and local police forces to repress the Occupy protests"

no, tell me it isn't true

" it is clear that those in elite positions of government are at the very least guilty of overreaction fueled by anxiety and confusion"

ah so that's why they do it - they are anxious and confused - tell me is that in equal measure or is it 60-40 - more anxious or more confused - which is it

"In the decade since the world-uniting tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001"

what world you living in pal - the psyop of 9/11, still uninvestigated as is the jfk assassination, openly united the war mongers of the mic and the bankster terrorists. but that's about all, especially if you understand the other countries in the "coalition" are nothing

"America's leaders seem chronically incapable of doing the right thing."

no.....gasp

but then: "the leaders know precisely what they are doing."

finally some sense

so, the leaders are incapable of doing the right thing but they know precisely what they are doing

hmmmmm.....

that's about right

explains a lot don't it

can't wait to see the psycho newt kick the tar out of the psycho obummer

that outta be good

You got me thinking about who the "boomers" were that today hold office:

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

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

Interesting lists. Haven't had time to totally analyze them yet. But thought I'd share. I am thinking the "silent generation" actually hold more power than they should. They love to pit the rest of us against each other. But the three amigo hawks are all "silent generationals" (Graham, Lieberman and McCain). And ask yourselves how many of Bushes main advisors came out of that "silent" generation. Made a lot noise for being supposedly "silent" didn't they?

It's really that insidious "silent generation" you should be fearing:

http://www.coachisright.com/the-%E2%80%9Csilent-generation%E2%80%9D-will-devastate-obama-and-his-party-next-year/

I also want to know what a strategic intelligence consultant is, and I also want to complain about the generational prejudice. I think some of the problem is ignorance--this has been going on a lot longer than a decade, although admittedly it got worse with W. But illegal, vicious wars based on false pretenses didn't start with Iraq, or Vietnam. How about the theft of northern Mexico?
Competence does seem to have gone downhill, but it seems to me our leaders have been sociopaths, quite often, for thousands of years. It's not something new with the baby boomers--they're getting pointed at now just because the timing is such that they're occupying most positions of power. But step back 30 years and most of the evil ones were from the WWII generation. Step forward absent some kind of massive change, and they'll be X or Y people. When the baby boomers were young, our demonstrations and challenges to the status quo made Occupy Wall Street look tiny and tame. Unfortunately, the result was to impel the ruling class to put in place a carefully crafted system of media manipulation, think tanks, funded chairs in universities, cuts in public funding for independent media and colleges, etc., to make sure it would never happen again.
To be fair--our unrest was largely due to the fact that half of us were subject to being drafted to the stupid, unjust war of our day, and they hadn't yet rigged it to where our troops would have very few casualties--nor forbidden photos of the flag-draped boxes coming home, or the atrocities of the war. So we had massive protests largely because we didn't want our males subject to that. On the other hand, it could be said that today's youth are also impelled by self-interest in their protests, because they are getting screwed financially so intensely. We didn't bother so much about careers, because we knew we could get at least a crappy job any time we needed a few bucks. This phenomenon of graduating from college and being expected to serve months at least, in a responsible job with NO pay, as a bridge to the mere hope of eventually getting a decent job--this endless obsession with one's resume--that didn't exist in the 60s and 70s.

I am getting really sick of no nothing writers blaming the baby boom generation for everything because they have no historical analysis and no clue.

"Perhaps, we hoped, that these things were only possible in clearly authoritarian regimes such as Syria, Burma and Iran, but they are now home-grown creations, sharing both technique and intention to keep people from peacefully assembling and asking for a redress of grievances, the most precious right enshrined by the Founding Fathers."

Much of my generation spent their youth opposing the imperialist Vietnam War and some of them were shot at Kent State and Jackson State. Most of the people I know from them are still doing the right thing and many have spent theri lives helping others, especially the women. This is a war with the elites that has gone on in the USA before and since the founding of the nation.

I would ask Common Dreams not to print anymore of this tripe that upholds one of the narratives the Right is peddling; that old folks are stealing from the young. Social security for many again especially women is a pittance that often has people choosing between heat and food. I have actively fought this system my entire life. Being a strategic intelligence consusltant maybe Eric Garland is working for the police state, he is certainly ignorant and spreading right wing propaganda. Please get a clue Eric and read some history of the class struggle and the more recent history of the Vietnam War and how after it was ended because of the politically active boomers, the Pentagon instituted its Make America a Man Again propaganda program which has helped keep subsequent generations enthralled with the military.
I think Garland owes the many, many life long activists of my generation an apology for this piece of misinfomation. If we want to blame generations how about the so-called greatest generation which was in total thrall to the military industrial complex and let it build despite Eisenhower's warning. But that would also be historically wrong since it has always been the elite classes and the "best and brightest" from Harvard and Yale who have pushed and gained money and power from these wars and from the current economic system. And that economic system is full of enthusiastic young traders. No more BS like this in Common Dreams please.

I am guessing a "strategic intelligence consultant" is someone that either isn't familiar with the savings and loans scandals of the 1980s or feels they are not as noteworthy as Enron or that they don't deserve inclusion in the discussion of financial excesses even though the flaws that lead to them have been the road map for all further excesses and phoney paper.

I am guessing his generation seeks the same power the "silent" generation now get's away with.

I do agree that our leadership is utterly useless but it is because they are totally owned by the corporations and the banks and the military. The idea that letting a new generation in would solve the problem is naive in the extreme. I have met fine and intelligent well informed young people as part of Occupy. But some of them are Ron Paul fanatics and some of them aren't well informed. Too many of the men are still sexist and abusive to women. And I've met older people working for and end to corporate patriarchy. Another world is necessary and it will take all generations.

Burma no longer exists, where has this strategic intelligence consultant been? Our Secretary of state just visited Myranmar. Don't care which generation you belong to but you need to get your facts straight.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Burmese-Opposition-Leader-Clinton-Promote-Closer-Ties--134899308.html

Which generation does he identify with? The dumb one? Was he paid for this?

Nothing that has occurred in the last thirty years has been by accident. Starting with the October Surprise and other criminal election manipulations, Ronald Reagan was installed as step one in the corporate take over of the United States. Step two was the illegal installation of George Bush Jr, by the Supreme Court. Step three was the attack on the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon. The last two presidents, like Reagan, have been only figurehead. The half wit son a former president and the handsome black man with the big smile,are not decision makers. Most of the decisions are made for them. In the last thirty years they have moved most of the nations wealth from the middle class to the supper rich. We have lost most of our constitutional rights. We now longer are even allowed to complain about it without getting gassed, beaten up and arrested. Many citizens have been brain washed by constant Television Propaganda. The event that allowed them to go full force into stage three of our complete takeover was 9/11. Television Propaganda has trivialized people so much who ask questions about 9/11, that all you get is a grin and chuckle at the mention of a possible conspiracy. The most unbelievable conspiracy theory is the one told to us by our Government, and the Media. Of course most people always believe the Media. They know exactly what happened on 9/11, because they saw it all on television. We have been torturing people? They scratch their head and don't quite comprehend that. Most people don't even ask questions about the many concentration camps that have been built in this country, and what and who they were built for. Ill tell you who they are for. They are for US !

"Life is a beautiful, magnificent thing, even to a jellyfish. ... The trouble is you won't fight. You've given up. But there's something just as inevitable as death. And that's life. Think of the power of the universe — turning the Earth, growing the trees. That's the same power within you — if you'll only have the courage and the will to use it." -Charlie Chaplin

They are bullies and, so far, at least on Fox News, their hired torpedos seem have us "surrounded." But the web wasn't in their original plans 30 years ago, they are now reaching the end of their magical thinking, and I believe they turned their eyes inward towards the web a little too late.

Perhaps the writer does not remember that many of our leaders were shot dead or jailed or tailed by the FBI. Boomers tried hard back then. Today we have a new opportunity with the Occupy Movement. This is the chance I have been waiting for for 30 years. This time we must not hold back, but support Occupy wholeheartedly. So get off your butts, boomers! For me its the last chance to make a better world and I will give it my all.

Applause for Mr. Garland, who makes the same statement that many have been making since the Occupy movement began -- the nation is occupied by those who are alien to the entire idea of human rights and international law, and the whole 'fuhrerprinzip' in its american incarnation has been an unmitigated disaster.

from the article:

~ And with the violent repression that they have recently coordinated at local, state and federal levels, we are aware that they see this as a brute power struggle. And almost no Americans are interested in that unwinnable game. ~

what a wet, defeatist towel...
'we' ain't all your 'we', pal...

We - They! Us - Them! 99% - 1%!

The Occupy Movement has a legitimate beef. In many ways it is the same beef as the Tea Party.

The elites (both conservative and liberal) benefit from the status quo and from keeping a lid on discontent or at least from keeping those of us who have a beef yelling at each other.

If you really want to be the 99%, start acting like it. Start reaching out to the discontented folks on the other side of the political spectrum.

"And almost no Americans are interested in that unwinnable game."

True. Most people don't have the stomach for cleaning out the septic tank.

As for "reporters" getting beaten-up, that could be a good thing – provided its the ones representing the MS American Press instead of the "Alternative Press". When the likes of Andrea Mitchell and other "elites" start eating the pavement, we might start seeing some changes in the way these cretins continuously support this rogue government and its criminals.

But don't bet on that happening.

I don't think it necessary to target a specific generation as the author has done. Doing so, in and of itself, is also divisive and dependent upon the blame game. Don't you think we have all heard enough blame games to get to the next century? Correcting the dysfunction of the current system is a huge task, even to keep the conversation going in the proper direction takes some finesse. In my mind, it will take everyone who's reading this and plenty more. There is so much to do. I, too, hope we can focus on the proper questions in order to find the proper answers rather than waste time deciding who's most to blame!

No rights can be taken for granted. they have to be fought for.

Our governmenr is CLEARLY, through example after example, the enemy of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Our government is the enemy, not the people trying to point out their corruption. We the people of the United States will get our country back, because we are still Americans and still place America first, second and third, unlike our government who seems to time and again put another country (we know which one) before our own. To our leaders, Federal, State and Local I say "Shame!" And to the people who have not yet joined the Occupation to change the horrors our nation is perpetuating on the world, I say, "Join the 99% Solution." Foul deeds are being done in our name, America. Time to take our country back and put these traitors in jail where they belong.

""Americans generally are unused to images from the Occupy protests being domestic ones. Grandmothers and unarmed college students pepper-sprayed with alarming casualness. Reporters singled out and beaten. Veterans returning from war in Iraq only to be gravely injured trying to exercise the precious liberties for which they supposedly risked life and limb."""
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Well, this just goes to show the movement or protest has hit a brick wall of sorts. What needs attention is what those people 'whom are' occupying this country need to be constantly called out for what they really are, sociopaths and psychopaths. We have let them take control of this country and we then need to go about 'branding' these miscreants for whom they really are. The higher the profile the more placards with their faces on them need to be held up labeling them for the psychopaths that they are. And for more definition, any records of their actual devious actions need to be shown on some medium even if it is just poster paper. And those deeds are not hard to define when peaceful protestors, elderly or young or veterans being shot here at home, then the like of bloomturd and ray kelly need their mugs shown in public. Only people without moral integrity or a conscience would do that to a fellow citizen and not blink and eye but order more doses of the hurt and arrests for the next round.

The truth is out . . . and no leader is trying to hide it . . . we are now living in a full blown PLUTOCRACY!!!!!

With all due respect but...screw the founding fathers. Do whatever it takes to rid the country, and the world, of these undesirables.