Written By Sully

I'm not sure what you're saying. If I remember correctly everyone was in favor of attacking Afganistan after 911. That was non-partisan. What democrats are saying we're warmongers for attacking Afganistan? Now if you're talking about Iraq, news flash: Iraq had nothing to do with 911.

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Oh My God!! If this isnt the most misinformed statment of the century I dont know what is. Sorry Sully but Iraq has absolutly everything to do with 911. Anyone who thinks otherwise has yet to wake from the 911 slumber that was bestowed upon us by the current administration. The path to the truth is an individual one since every single popular news channel refuses to touch the 911 topic and one must venture forth onto the net to find out the truth of that day.

The polls are now less than 20% believe the offical 911 story and that number has continued to drop and will continue to drop as more information is brought forward. Hopefully you will be one of the next people to reach this stage.

As for the North Korean nuclear detonation, God help us!!

As a big fan of the series Cosmos by Carl Sagan, I often look back to that first episode when he explains how we are living in a dangerous time in our evolution and how we have either the power to destory ourselves or the power to come together and rid the world of nuclear weapons. In the updated version of Cosmos he updates the episode in the last 5 minutes to say that great strides have been made in making the world a safer place by the dismantling of nuclear weapons.

There was a time I thought that way myself but it is becoming painfully clear that we have learned nothing as a species and that we are still upon a course that will very likly lead to a very different and very scary world in the decades ahead. With countries like Iran, N. Korea, Saudi Arabia, Egypt etc.. all heading in the same direction, that of becoming a nuclear power, one can only hope something drastic will happen to once again change this worlds attitude for the aquisition and proliferation of nuclear arms.

Technology will without a doubt reach a point where nuclear weapons will be an achievable goal for any moderate sized country. When most of the worlds countried have this power will it be more likly that it will put an end to wars in general as they will become to dangerous to partake in anymore or is it more likly that with the push of a button everything this species has accomplished in the last 10,000 years will be wiped clean from the slate of planet earth.

I obviously have no awnser for that question, it just takes me back to Sagan and Cosmos and again makes me realize what a waste it would be. We could accomplish unbelievable things as a species if we could just get past this thing called killing each other. Instead we waste lives, time and money that could be put to much better use like enhancing the lives of the people living now and enhancing the planet for the generations to come. Looking at our daily activities on a global scale I just cant help but to think how pathetic this species really is at the present time and only hope that something happens that changes all of this.

One can hope!!

A Worldwide Double Standard.....

The United States has had its way on the world stage it would seem for the past 60 years or so. And nuclear weapons have certainly factored into America's ability to force its will upon the world

The double-standard that is being tolerated by the world, mostly as a result of the United State's ability to garner favors, lobby and sanction other nations is truly amazing to this writer.

The nations of the world who caved in and joined the United States in condemning the he Democratic People's Republic of North Korea last week, while at the same time completely ignoring the illegal actions by the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq, are hypocrites and their actions are truly mind-boggling.

In terms of standing up for what is right then, I stand by Kim Yong Il and the people of the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea and I support them fully and their right to freedom and self-determination.

It is truly amazing to me that we live in a world that on the one hand punishes certain nations who haven't done anything wrong, while tolerating and supporting other nations like the United States who continue to do wrong year after year.

And given America's most recent egregious violations of International Law, it is inconceivable to me that the United States is even permitted to have a voice, retain a seat on the Security Council or to lead the other nations of the world in condemning another nation of the world like the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea!

The American Mantra would appear to be:

• We have always believed in double-standards inside and outside of our country (particularly those that benefit the majority white population of the United States of America); you know that I am telling the truth.
• We believe that other nations of the world should also believe in and support the right of America to operate in the world as it desires!
• We believe that we should be the richest nation on the earth in terms of economic wealth and that we should also have military superiority over all other nations of the world.
• We believe that we have the right to deny other nations similar economic and military advantages.
• We believe in a world-wide Apartheid system, and that America sits atop that system and all other nations of the world are at the bottom.
• We believe in America's right to tell other nations of the world how to conduct themselves and their failure to do so, will likely result in embargo, economic sanctions or invasion and occupation.
• We believe that the other nations of the world are so dumb to allow us to get away with what we get away with, however, as long as we can get away with it, we will!
• We believe that wrong is right and that right is wrong, however, as long as we are wrong (but still have economic and military might) and can get away with it, that we are still right!

God bless America!

From the New York Times

Op-Ed Contributor
Behind Enemy Reactors

By JON B. WOLFSTHAL
Published: October 14, 2006

Washington

I CELEBRATED New Year's in 1996 by drinking cheap sparkling wine at the Yongbyon nuclear center, where North Korea produced the plutonium for its first nuclear test. Like dozens of dedicated civil servants, I served as an "on-site monitor" under the 1994 United States-North Korean nuclear agreement known as the Agreed Framework.

Those of us who served as monitors are proud of what we accomplished. I am not alone in being concerned that many commentators and government officials are trying to lay the blame for at least some of the current nuclear crisis at the feet of the previous administration's efforts to end North Korea's nuclear program. These allegations have little bearing on the facts and minimize the contribution of the Americans who served their country in dangerous circumstances.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/opinion/14wolfsthal.html?th&emc=th

By William M. Arkin,

"Don't the events in North Korea show that this picture of contingency plans for everything is false and exaggerated? Moreover, even when there are "plans," those plans are more often than not plans to plan than they are plans to actually do something.
So who's the paper tiger now?"

There are three reasons we are a paper tiger.
1. Iraq
2. Iraq
3. Iraq

Just as Bill Clinton had a sign in the 1992 Presidential election stating "It's the economy stupid", the democrats have a sign this election stating "It's Iraq stupid".

Mr. Arkin,

"that the horses of the armed forces are champing at the bit to take off as soon as an order is given to attack"

did you mean chomping at the bit?

Quigley5
"The constitution means nothing when it is ignored. It is best you learn there is no law, anterior to law, without law or contrary to law. All LAW is backed up by the policeman's gun. The US Army as yet canot act or form a posse commitatus."

Nicely put. However, don't you think that amongst the impoertant features of modern republics there is the ability to solve the Hobbesian problem of a Leviathan monopolizing violence by framing this monopoly with the autority of -constitutional i.e. nonpersonal-law...

Of course, your axiom reappears as an inexorable crux when the government decides that the new law will be that this monopoly is no longer limited by the recognized frame...and we are back to Hobbes. If we can have legitimate suspiscion about the real intentions of those who exploded the contraining frame, we should also have no doubt that an unframed monopoly of violence means freedom for the prince and his court, but slavery for all others. When the source of the authority of the government is no longer the frame of constitutional law, but the person who promulgates the laws, the authority has lost its legitimacy (authority is reduced to coercitive power)...
If we are able to have a sense that the authority of law does not exactly matches the mere power to enforce the law, then this should be the indication that sane persons can distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate laws...I have a sense that there are still some sane Americans willing to restore the American republic after the damages done by the imperial neocons. Beware: the latest series of "laws" all indicate the symptoms of a republic becoming imperial, and they won't benefit as much the people than the emperor or Darkthador...

BOB

I did not say Dictator as Hitler was to the end a National Socialist. Norway, Sweden and Finland all and many more have Fuehrers. The biggest fuehrer in the United States is Mayor Bloomberg of New York City. You cannot smoke and you cannot spit. Socialism takes many forms. Our Fuehrer Bush just signed a bill that prevents you from waggering on a horse in England and placing the bet by credit card or even a check. The vigorish in England is between 15-20% and at most tracks in the US itt is 50-80% Play the numbers and the vigorish with the state in the best state is 60% by the scratches or Powerball. Don Vito Corleone was 25%. American Sociialism is unique to America and we have long sinced ceased to be a Free Republic. Forget your schooling and start your education. Education is a game where the student takes the first step. One Hung Lo Sung of North Korea is both a Socialist and a Dictator. In his last years Ludwig von Mises wrote in English. His books are cheap on ABE Books. As Ben Franklin said, we have a republic if we can keep it. Read and think. You do not need me to talk to.

The US stole the homes, farms and hunting lands from the Iinians. The Washinton Post is Published in Washington because that is were bright leaf tobacco came from and Virgiia money was worth more than a Continental. In every treaty east of the Mississippi the Native Americans were free to trade their tobacco intra and inter state but New York's Elliot Spitzersworth got a law passed that you could not buy not just tobacco but any of their wares by Credit Card or Check anywhere. The constitution means nothing when it is ignored. It is best you learn there is no law, anterior to law, without law or contrary to law. All LAW is backed up by the policeman's gun. The US Army as yet canot act or form a posse commitatus. The Federal Reserve has no consitutional right to print legal or money and money i defined and it is not debt.

The bottom line on this forum is we have no power with North Korea because we are broke. It takes money to fight a War and War Bonds to prevent inflation. We had money for World War II amd Hitler paid us plenty to fight him, all in Gold. I lost many a buddy with armaments made by Hitler with American money. There is a lot you do not know. You are not a happy man when you enter a German warehouse and find War Supplies labled Made in the USA.

Didn't Clausewitz warn against planning for wars abstracted from their political conditions? It sounds like the U.S. is spending too much time making "maximum freedom" plans for worst case scenarios and not enough time managing the day-to-day needs of the slow-moving crises in Iran and North Korea.

Its really easy to leave an empty chair at the negotiation table and daydream about essentialize military scenarios.

Prayer Is The Highest Activity of Man...some of us believe!

The problem with some who pray, they don't understand how serious an undertaking prayer can be.

I explained this to a flight attendant years ago while passing through Cleveland Hopkins Airport. She was praying for her estranged husband, who had apparently done her wrong. However, her heart wasn't right, so her prayer wasn't a very nice one.

I explained that in order to pray, one must first condition his or her own heart in order to speak to the God of the Universe, the Singularity or the Unifying Principle; take your pick.

I also explained that prayer requires forgiveness, i.e., fore - to put the interests of the other party first, and to give, i.e., to become the giver!

She was not happy with the Rev, given that she was more interested in 'vengeance is mind' as opposed to prayer!

Yes prayer is good, but a good prayer is better, a good prayer turns the one around first, who is doing the praying!

Bob,

Two prizefighters were in the ring going at each other during a prizefight. Between rounds, one fighter's corner kept telling him again and again that he was doing great and that his opponent had never laid a glove on him.

After being pummeled round after round, the pugilist who knew that he was being beaten round after round told his corner (who once again informed him in between rounds that his opponent did not lay a hand on him), 'to keep an on the referee because somebody in there is beating the 'h'll out of me'!

The problem with America's strategy, simply put, is that some Americans want to swing at anybody and everybody and they are willing to 'drop the bomb', not knowing who is actually hitting them, or when to declare victory. Ergo on two separate occasions Bush indicated that operations in Afghanistan and Iraq were successful, oops!

Sadly Mr. Bush and many of his empathizers neither know nor do they care who is really beating up on America, they simply want to take a swing at all American-made enemies. Real prizefights they say are actually won in training. That is where preparation and strategizing takes place in order to conquer an opponent!

So what is wrong with making a realistic assessment of the problem and coming up with a viable strategy to win the peace? You see, for some of us the goal that we envision is long-lasting peace, we're not in it for the money or to beat on our chests and declare someday that, 'we showed 'em'!

Quigley5 writes: "All forms of Socialism require a Fuehrer."

So where's the Fuehrer in Sweden, Norway and Finland?

Bob,

I'm not sure what you're saying. If I remember correctly everyone was in favor of attacking Afganistan after 911. That was non-partisan. What democrats are saying we're warmongers for attacking Afganistan? Now if you're talking about Iraq, news flash: Iraq had nothing to do with 911.

I also do not see anyone calling for less planning (except Arkin here). All presidents democrat and republicans have had the military maintain contingency plans for all sorts of what seem to be unrealistic senarios. Military planning has rarely been a political issue and is recognized as a proper method of maintaining any military.

I guess here's the funny thing to me. The angry left always wants it both ways. They want us to plan, arbitrate, negotiate and be diplomatic until someone drops a bomb on us. And when we go in and kick a$$, they say we're warmongers. But then when we take the time to plan, contingency plan, and do all the things they whine about, they say we're DOING anything...

And they call themselves intellectuals?

COOP:

What you say is true by the square of the distance. Outerspace stuff is long after my time. My business was killing people, I was quite good at it, did not go to West Point. I was mostly into this face to face stuff. I was a lanuage major and they had little use for me until 1946 when I got to watch some hang. Then I got to kill Communists. From 1946 to 1951 I managed to save a few dollars, not to mention Swiss Francs. Now you work to support me and I wish to personally thank you and perhaps your father to have sent me on This Great Crusade for Freedom and the personal note of greetings from his Holiness Franklin D. Roosevelt. Schooling is important in life but education is a game in which the student takes he first step. The first step is to keep your ass down.

Covert Observer wrote:
--One thing they could do at the UN, if they don't already, is start all sessions with a prayer. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.--

Osama prayed hard that his hijackers succeeded. Evangelicals prayed hard that Bush be elected. Foley is currently praying hard. Hastert actually had a preacher come to his office to pray with him. Prayer has emboldened and consoled many who have taken great risks, for both good and bad purposes. Prayer is the last refuge of a scoundrel. It is an acceptance that events in play are not under your control. Maybe that is why Bush prays so much.

What we need more of in this world, including the UN, is not prayer but a facing of realities square on and determining how to change the course of events we feel are in the wrong direction and out of our control. Prayer only comforts the soul. We need reality to change and that takes courage, leadership and organization. Prayer does little to change reality, just our perceptions of it.

So what's needed is more THINKERS and less stinkers, so to speak. :) Now everybody have a nice Friday the 13th! 000000000h! I can't wait for Halloween 00000000h. 0000000000h. :)

As I always say, and I'll continued to say it, what's needed is an IMAGINATIVE PLAN that involves theatricality. Something like a messiah appearing to the bad guys to throw down their arms.

And the United Nations needs a shot in the arm. We need to work WITH the UN, not bluster about and complain that the UN isn't doing its job.

One thing they could do at the UN, if they don't already, is start all sessions with a prayer.

More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.

Quigley5,

Nuclear weapons are hardly "worthless in outer space", in fact they make excellent space weapons due to the EMP produced, the flash will also blind optical platforms. A high altitude or orbital nuclear blast will have massive effects on orbiting platforms and even land based electronics. The US is probably the least likely to use nukes in this fashion since it would degrade/destroy many of our platforms, but a country that has few space assets could level the playing field by doing it.

P.J. Casey wrote:
--Further, Since the Reagan Adminstration, Republicans have had a bug about Missile Defense Systems that are supposed to stop ICBMs from hitting this country. There has never been any air defense system that was capable or will be capable of stopping every type of air attack. Deterants worked perfectly fine throughout the Cold War, and we don't need these expensive systems that do not work.--

I basically agree with what you are saying but I do think missle defense is something that should be worked on. If we ever develop a capable missle defense it will be a great day, having missles become as impotent as propeller driven bombers.

However Bush and the republicans do have this bug as you point out. That is what has driven it into production when it wasn't ready and caused cheating to make the tests look like they worked. It will likely take another decade or more to get these things right so we need to bring it back into the R&D arena and work on it properly. The right way to develop a superior capability is in secret. The stealth program was a great example. Once it was unveiled our enemies stood in shock. We had a production capability they had not even begun to think about. If we had secretly built a missle defense program in a proper R&D environment, it would likely be ready now and its unveiling would be as dramatic. But the republicans are idiots. As someone else pointed out, they place contractors in the battlefield logistic supply chain. Its all about who makes the money, not success, not freedom, not security, and certainly not the end result except whose pockets are full. They have proven themselves incapable of leading this great nation and its time for them to go. Vote!

Arkin wrote:
--Don't the events in North Korea show that this picture of contingency plans for everything is false and exaggerated? Moreover, even when there are "plans," those plans are more often than not plans to plan than they are plans to actually do something. So who's the paper tiger now?--

Jezzz Arkin what city do you live in? Washington is a city filled with contingency planners and not just military. Contingency planning is a necessity for any organization that needs to prepare for various senarios.

You seem to be saying that once we have drawn up such plans they need to be implemented. Most contingency plans never get implemented. Its a method of readiness. If they are wasted, that is good because it means the senarios imagined did not happen.

Even with the nuke test the other day the US need not implement such a plan. The failure is not the implementing of the plan but the failure to use every means possible short of war to stop the development of nukes and their eventual test. Bush blames Clinton, which is as laughable as a child arguing that his dog ate his homework. While Bush invaded Iraq, which had no WMD, and inspectors were discovering that there were no WMD after a month in Iraq before the war, and while Bush prepares to attack Iran which is years away from developing a nuke, Bush ignored NK which SAID it was breaking the UN seals on the plutonium that were put there through an agreement made by Clinton, was backing out of the NPT and would build bombs. The test the other day was no surprise. Bush simple ignored the one country in the world that was blatently producing WMD and is hostile to the US to boot.

NK is continuing to build better missles, build stronger nukes and all Bush can do is continue fighting in Iraq and threaten Iran. I'm really getting the feeling that WMD is nothing but a smokescreen for attacking those with oil that Bush regards as hostile to the US. The paper tiger is not the paper the contingency plans are written on, its the paper Bush's foreign policy is written on. Its his weakness, his inability to tell the truth and his need to lie to get his way.

It amazes me the ignorance of the opinion writers. The fact you have served in the Armed Forces does not mean you have been to War. Viet Nam was a fight not a War. We lost more men and planes (per unit) in WW II in close ground support than any other sport.

An Atom Bomb is not a bomb. We tried to make into one to fire out of a cannon. Small ones can dangerously be dropped from a plane. It is a Thermonuclear Device. It is worthless in outer space. The case around it is the air. Albert Speer or our Air Forces could have left a ruin of Germany but we had enough trouble with the remains of World War II. It is best your strategic thinkers learn the difference between Waging War and Fighting in a War. What does that Chinaman in North Korea think he is going to do with his missiles and assortment of Thermonuclear Devices? What does Iran think it is going to do with its. Perhaps build a water pipeline from the Danube to Mecca? I feel President Bush thought he could make something out of the mess Churchill made in Iraq after WW I ? Bush should have started with Iran but our Democracy would not have stood for it. It was not until the UK separated religion from politics that they got the tribes together for the time being. China is sitting on a powder keg. The sign on Gen. Omar Bradley's Office read, "Sh%#@^t happens".

This is all so much chaffe at 18,000 feet. War Plans? WMD? Sabin playing with Polio virus and he got bit.

Mr. Arkin:

You should read more and write less. You are blinded by the glare of the facet on the diamond you cannot see. If you had listened to Hjalmar Schacht on U.S. Radio in the 1930s you would understand more. "Colonies are necessary to Germany. We shall get them through negotiation if possible; but if not, we shall take them." All War is nothing but theft and murder on a National Scale. All forms of Socialism require a Fuehrer and the policies Hitler and Roosevelt were alike except for the very big difference Civil Rights and murder. The Socialist of North Korea as Germany, Japan, etc., worked off of the theory "Of Pure Blood". Russian Socialism fell quickly because of the mismanagement of loot. Islamic Socialism (Fascism) cannot define its concept "Of Pure submission to the Faith". English Tribal Socialism is totally dysfunctional. It is my best guess is that somebody is selling the wrong type of Mushrooms to North Korea. I think they must think they are the new "Rome". America grew great by borrowing money in the 19th century and investing it, raping the continent, factories and railroads and such. The World lent us money for this and now they think we are using the loans to invest in assets but we are buying a large Pizza s with sausage.

Korea is a side show that has been going on to 3,000 years.

I am 87 years of age and you were not even born. I just returned from Beirut and in no way, manner shape or form does the bombing of Beirut compare to the bombing of Dresden or the two other German cities, in late 1945, by the 8th Air Force and British Bomber Command, Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris COC under orders from Truman and Churchill. Beirut compares to a dusting. Dresden was bombed to stop the SS Guerilla war that had already taken 2,000 American lives and bring about the Unconditional Surrender of the National Socialists. Israel is an excuse in Word War III between Germany(NATO), Russia, the Islamist against the United States. Israel does not have the planes, the bombs, he shells, the rockets, the lift weight to fight one day of World War II. It is not the Jews they are after but the West. It is Christianity vs Odinism and Islam.

I have no idea what North Chosin is up to.

Aw, buck up Arkin. Just because we haven't started another war, doesn't mean we won't. There's still time.

Great article, but I take exception to the idea that you have to post this under opinion since it cuts so close to the bone of reality. It's a shame that every voter in America doesn't have the opportunity to read articles like this prior to 11-7.

Great series since the Able Danger.

For uncensored news please bookmark:

www.waynemadsenreport.com
www.wsws.org
www.takingaim.info
otherside123.blogspot.com

White House aide resigns in influence-peddling scandal
By Patrick Martin
12 October 2006

Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author

The corruption investigation into the activities of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff claimed its first White House figure October 6, when Susan B. Ralston, executive assistant to Karl Rove, Bush's top political operative, resigned her position. A White House spokeswoman said that Ralston "did not want to be a distraction to the White House" in the month before the November elections.

Ralston has long been known to have close ties to Abramoff, since she worked as his chief of staff before moving on to a similar position for Rove. But the pressure on the White House escalated last week after the release of a congressional report documenting hundreds of Abramoff contacts with the White House, many of them involving visits to Ralston, and dozens of gifts from the multi-millionaire lobbyist to his former aide.

Abramoff headed a lobbying empire which raked in tens of millions of dollars in contracts from clients such as Indian tribes seeking federal licenses to operate gambling casinos on tribal land, defense contractors seeking special mention ("earmarking") in congressional appropriations bills, and sweatshop owners in the Northern Marianas Islands, seeking exemption from federal labor laws. He traded on his network of contacts among Republican operatives on Capitol Hill and in the Bush administration, many of them dating back to his years in the College Republicans.

In addition to the thinly disguised bribery that passes for a normal day's work in the Washington lobbying business--millions in campaign contributions in, billions in congressional appropriations out--Abramoff was an enthusiastic

For the rest please go to:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/oct2006/rals-o12.shtml

I was somewhat puzzled by Mr. MacLeod's remark, but I think he is talking about Atomic bombs and, if so, he is correct. However, Weapons of mass destruction are any type of weapon designed to kill large numbers of people. Area bombing against large civilian population centers was common practice on both sides in WWII. The gassing the Kurds, by Saddam Hussein's regime would be another example. One can go on and on with further examples, but the bottom line is there are no saints when it comes to warfare.

There is only one country that has used weapons of mass destruction against innocent men women and children. That country is the United States of America.

War cost money, and the Administraation is too busy giving out tax breaks and corporate welfare to properly fund any conflict. I served in the military through three administrations, and, Democrat,or Republican, I never thought the military was short changed on equipment or support. I about went into shock when I found out that the Army's logistics chain had been turned over to private enterprise in Iraq. What happened to unity of command, and what idiot thought it was a good idea to have untrained civilians running around the battlefield getting killed. Warfare is a highly coordinated effort which requires COMMAND and CONTROL by trained military leaders. The military must contol a logistics chain consisting of trained soldiers.
Further, Since the Reagan Adminstration, Republicans have had a bug about Missile Defense Systems that are supposed to stop ICBMs from hitting this country. There has never been any air defense system that was capable or will be capable of stopping every type of air attack. Deterants worked perfectly fine throughout the Cold War, and we don't need these expensive systems that do not work.
The money could have gone to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for proper equipement and support. In deed, we might have had enough troops to secure Bagdad and Iraq.
The real charm of this light and fast army is that it is cheap, which translates into tax cuts and corporate welfare for Defense Contrators.
By the way, I think the IDF faced the same problem in Lebanon.

No surprise here. This is what happens when you staff the decision-making part of government with cronies, who won't listen to the professionals who they "manage." This is why Woodward's book about insiders afraid to tell the truth, for fear of being thought of as "negative," is so frightening.

So who's the paper tiger now?
Here's your paper tiger:
http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99sep04/world.htm#8

We have the greatest military in the world, or so it seems.....,

....however, neither the military nor all of America's other contingency plans are the solution to what ails the world right now, and what American can do about it! What is the problem and the solution then Mr. Know It All, you say? The problem is that the world is changing, many people and nations of a more educated world (no longer underdeveloped), are demanding respectability in the 21st century world paradigm. And who taught the world to modernize? The United States has been the world's model, demonstrating to other nations the value of having a market economy, worldwide trade, technological development, an educated public and unfortunately, a nuclear threat!

And not so surprisingly, who has a problem with the emerging sophisticated and high-tech nations that are not under America's direct control, the same nations that are competing with and soaking up resources that the U.S.A. once monopolized? Don Pardo, it's the Americans, particularly the American government, that refuses to step back and accept the changes that are taking place in the world? The world's teacher is loosing its place of dominance in the world and it is very uncomfortable with the power and strength of nations who were formerly mere mentors and outcasts of the United States of America. .
The solutions, I did not forget? First of all the U.S.A. must develop a 'live and let live domestic and cooperative international policy', by which America will respect the autonomy of the emerging nations of the world whose form of governance and methods may differ from that of the U.S.A. The U.S.A. must also learn to work honestly with and through international consortiums who will also recognize the uniqueness of all nations on earth; George Bush intimated the same during yesterday's Presidential Press Conference!

And the rest of the Western nations (won't be as big a problem for some of them), and the other world's hegemons will also have to understand that the old ways of doing things are being tossed out of the window given a world-wide transformation that has been taking place. The world is going through a paradigm shift whether the U.S.A. and the other hegemons like it or not. Let us not forget that the Afghans went to war in order to oppose the power of the Soviets and the Russian hegemon several years ago. Firing cruise missiles, embargoing nations and threatening annihilation doesn't work against nations who lack the fear of dying, that most American have.

Other than the actual use of nuclear deterrence, the U.S.A. does not have a big enough military (and we've alienated our former Allies), or the resources to take on the whole world or those portions of the world who are currently telling the U.S.A. to back off. The invasion of Iraq failed. Instead of sending a message to other nations of the world 'to be afraid of America', other nations have been emboldened and are gearing up and preparing to fight Old Glory!

The only other option(s) that the U.S.A. has, is either to blow 'em up (America's enemies) or to continue its work in space exploration, for it appears that space may turn out to be the only place that the U.S.A. will be able to dominate in the mid-21st Century, as it did on earth during the latter half of the 20th century, well, depending on who gets their stakes in space ground first. And I suspect that many in the current Administration are forward-looking!

P.S. America got rid of its old War Department, well, they actually renamed it the Defense Department and it is hardly that. America needs to create and fund a Peace Department, otherwise, it will be 'To The Moon or Mars, Alice'. Did anyone save their rocks?

It seems to me a better plan would be use military training exercises to give aid durning real humanitarian emergencies like the sunomie, or the earth quakes in the hemilias, or new orleans,
If we helped people rather than trying and treating to kill them, we might not be hated as much, and it would cost one hell of a lot less.
But then again I am not a christian that follows the great commandments thou shall kill and thou shall steal.

CONPLAN 8022 is the SIOP under a new name, plain and simple. The key military role with regards to WMD will remain deterence, you use them or pass them to others who use them and we nuke you in return.

One should not misconstrue what a "CONPLAN" is--it is an "Operations Plan in Concept format, NOT a "Contingency Plan." Regardless of the terminology, it only reflects planning for possible contingencies, NOT intent to execute without cause.