Martin Gifford: Bush was proposing a more secure and happier world.

Yes, well, so was Adolf Hitler. Have you ever heard the slogan Kraft durch Freude? Fortunately, most people rejected his kind of happiness.

But you see, Martin, the problem with being in Australia is that you are in Australia. You don't get to hear Rush Limbaugh or Fox News (the official GOP news agency) 24/7. You get the impression that "progressives" have no plans because you never hear about them. But the reason that you never hear about them is not that there aren't any, but that the national discourse is set by the media. People can't discuss something they've never heard about, and if you only listen to American media you'll never hear about any "progressive" plan. Essentially, all you are doing is replaying the Pravda/Izvestia line: "Progressives have no plan". And you believe this because you have never heard of any plans because they are never reported or discussed because people who have plans that don't involve killing people or blowing stuff up aren't "Serious".

geoffrey2k: Dont forget that we are spending hundreds of millions a year, and much of that money never really leaves the US

Sure it does. It gets laundered in the Cayman Islands or Dubai before it comes back, untaxed, to the pockets of the war profiteers.

Settembrini: Everyone gets those confused.

Of course they do. Just like everyone gets 9/11 and Iraq confused; or Iran and al-Qaida confused; or Saddam and Osama confused. The reason everyone gets them confused is because everyone has been subjected to an intensive disinformation campaign. All I'm saying is that we shouldn't participate in this campaign by calling preventive war "preemptive war".

But thanks for the links — mostly solid stuff.

Martin Gifford: BTW: Hitler comparisons?! Should I take back my comment that Greenwaldians are smarter than me.

I don't see anything so far that would justify that action.

We don't limit ourselves to Hitler comparisons. We also use other monumental political and military disasters, such as the Athenian invasion of Syracuse in the Peloponnesian War or the British assault on Galipoli in WW I as comparanda.

Anyone who remains willfully ignorant of history doesn't get the Cliff Notes for life.

Martin Gifford: Australia is the 52nd state of America!

Iraq or Israel?