This is a great starting point for a conversation about geo-politics. I'm not about to rush off and join the socialist party, and he certainly doesn't examine his own assumptions, BUT there are many interesting assertions about American power, intentions, and attitudes worth being aware of.

The future scenario he paints shouldn't come as a complete surprise to anybody should it sadly come to pass.

The war against Iraq and America's drive for world domination

Here we go again, arming dictators to gain control of "strategic" resources. Today they're our cronies, tomorrow our enemies.

This 15 page report by Human Rights Watch has all the details.

Changes to U.S. Military Assistance After September 11th

Decius wrote:
] ] Henry Kissinger ... "a troubling signal ...
] ] that this is the person who is going to lead this effort."
]
] I think this guy is just plain too controversial
] to be responsible for something like this.

Tom, the New York Times agrees with you:

] "His affinity for power and the commercial interests
] he has cultivated since leaving government may make him
] less than the staunchly independent figure that is needed
] for this critical post. Indeed, it is tempting to wonder if
] the choice of Mr. Kissinger is not a clever maneuver by the
] White House to contain an investigation it long opposed."

The Kissinger Commission

Your tax payer dollars hard at work treating alleged Al'Qaeda members like animals.

Hurray for America! Land of Equality and Fair Treatment!

Remember, you're innocent until proven guilty!

Art Bell - POWs On Board

Frank Megna, founder of Working Stage Theater in West Hollywood, who directed the currently running play The Emissary, about a young Jewish man who flees New York after his mom and his rabbi die on the same day (not to 9/11, thank God), says Americans are addicted to acting out for the media. And when it comes to September 11, he's sick of it, just like me.

Great article. This really shows why today's American populace generally makes me sick to my stomach.

New Times L.A. | newtimesla.com | News : Jill Stewart

"A TIMELINE SURROUNDING SEPTEMBER 11TH - IF CIA AND THE GOVERNMENT WEREN'T INVOLVED IN THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS WHAT WERE THEY DOING?"

Sept 11 Conspiracy Theory

MADISON, WISCONSIN-When I arrived in Afghanistan (news - web sites) last November, Operation Enduring Freedom-the American bombing campaign that eventually toppled the Taliban-was being hailed by the U.S. media as an unqualified success. Precision bombing and first-rate intelligence, the Pentagon (news - web sites) claimed, had kept civilian casualties down to a few dozen victims at most. Long-oppressed Afghan women burned their burqas and walked the streets as the country reveled in an orgy of liberation. Or so we were told.

The amount of disjoint between television and reality was shocking. The "new" Northern Alliance government was no better than the Taliban; with the exception of the U.S.-appointed former oil-company hacks in charge, they were Talibs. Women still wore their burqas, stonings continued at the soccer stadium and the bodies of bombing victims piled up by the thousands. Not only was the War on Terror failing to catch terrorists, it was creating a new generation of Afghans whose logical response to losing their friends and parents and siblings and spouses and children would be to hate America.

Why didn't the truth about the extent of civilian casualties get out?

I blame the journalists, though Lord knows, some of them tried. As a novice correspondent for The Village Voice and KFI-AM radio in Los Angeles, I carefully studied the pros. A brilliant war reporter for a big American newspaper-he'd done them all, from Rwanda to Somalia to Kosovo-filed detailed reports daily from his room down the street from mine as I charged my electronic equipment on his portable generator. The next day we'd hook up a satellite phone to a laptop to read his pieces on his paper's website. Invariably every mention of Afghan civilians killed or injured by American air strikes would be neatly excised. One day, as a test, he fired off a thousand words about a 15,000-pound "daisy cutter" bomb that had taken out an entire neighborhood in southeastern Kunduz. Hundreds of civilians lay scattered in bits of protoplasm amid the rubble. His editors killed the piece, calling it "redundant."

MEET THE PRESS - The Corruption of Journalism in Wartime

NEW YORK-This is fair to say: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a 55-year-old Pashtun warlord, is a bad man. Evil, even. "What we're talking about here is someone at the absolute margin of violence in Afghan society-in his own way someone as extreme as Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)," Anthony Cordesman, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in an interview. "He has a history that has proved about as conclusively as anyone can that this is a violent, vicious man who deserves to be a target."

A target of what? A target of whom? Hang tight through the next 124 words:

[ Originally from w1ld. What do you want? This is business as usual. Rules do not apply to the U.S. government. Even when they create those rules themselves. This happens so frequently that it's almost boring. What is truly pathetic is that most U.S. citizens cling to some kind of almost morbidly fascinating belief that the U.S. government is a law-abiding global citizen. -Rek ]

George W a gangsta?

Wow. A definite must read. Especially for those who tend to be turned off by my own particular viewpoint. I think it clarifies the regular mis-conceptions that strongly left people condoned the September 11th attacks.

READ!

Towards a Decent Left

"What happened on Sept. 11 was a failure of doctrine, in that pilots and personnel on airlines were told to be passive, to accommodate terrorists if they struck. The doctrine was revised and changed by an ad hoc committee of a dozen Americans rebelling on Flight 93 within one hour of attack. No FAA, no Senate Committee. It was done by an ad hoc committee. And no one has questioned the committee%u2019s decision. That%u2019s power. Performed by amateurs."

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