I've noticed these threads tend to go off topic after about 200 comments (or, sometimes just 2).

Anyway, I thought since the discussion was presently centered on wars of aggression, you might like to read a recent interview with Chomsky on the Iraq occupation.

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/53257/

with two factions, everything makes a lot more sense.

That party is the Shareholders' Equity Party, the Corporate Capitalism Party.

Elections are won and lost with money. Money comes from private and corporate contributors. The big money individuals are, for the most part, representative of corporate interests. The corporate contributors contribute for the purpose of seeing their agenda advanced through regulation, deregulation, government contracts and subsidies of various sorts. That is where the majority of campaign funds come from. Both parties are taking money from the same class of people, a class whose members have more in common with each other than they do with ordinary citizens.

In a capitalist society you must always follow the money if you expect to have any understanding of the processes that influence a society's institutions, be they economic, religious, political, educational or family.

I personally see America as a predominately corporatist and increasingly fascist society. I do not hazard a guess as to whether or not the dark path we have taken is reversible at this point. What is happening to us has happened to every other empire. We are probably past our apex. I am heartened by the knowledge that other empires have survived this process and now prosper under the organization of the EU and the UN.

I do think that America is in for a great fall. I do not think it will be terrorists that put us on our knees. We will be the ones responsible for our downfall. We will do it by squandering our wealth, our technology and science, our global goodwill and our children at the altar of corporate capitalism and fundamentalist religion. Greed is the Achilles heel of capitalism. Fear is the Achilles heel of religion. Both greed and fear share one trait in common: like a gas they expand until they fill all the available space. Unless they are contained.

I have no illusions that America will contain its aggression with regard to Iraq, Iran or any other non-aligned oil producing or otherwise geopolitically influential country in the Middle East.

What I do expect to happen is what is already happening as a result of America's unbridled aggression and unilateralism with regard to global energy, trade, finance and the environment. Almost all of the developed nations and many of the developing nations have already established relationships with other nations in an effort to "wire around" U.S. military and economic aggression.

America's debt to China already prevents the U.S. from doing anything that would cause China to reduce or replace its U.S. reserve currency. As China's middle class emerges and gains the ability to consume more and more of China's total production, there will be less of a requirement to export China's manufacturing to the U.S.

The U.S. has recently begun to re-establish a cold war relationship with Russia. Since America no longer honors its non-proliferation treaties, Russia will eventually follow suit as a matter of necessity. Russia now has nuclear MIRVs (multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles) and parity with America's nuclear arsenal. Russia is also awash in oil and gas money and will remain so for some time. That means Russia has the money it needs to update its nuclear and other military capabilities.

Europe gets 44% of its natural gas and 30% of its oil from Russia and Russia sells 60% of its exported gas to the European Union. Since Europe is so dependent on Russia for its energy, it is not in the EUs interest to adopt a belligerent posture on behalf of America against Russia. In addition, America continues to strain its relationship with its allies in Europe, not only through its military aggression, but also through its unwillingness to participate with other countries in finding solutions to global problems.

Then there is Latin America. Latin American countries are currently in the process of paying their debt to U.S. and European controlled international banking organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank. Once the debts are paid off, the next step will be for Latin America to regain full control of its own natural resources and economies. After that, there will be no reason for Latin American countries to see America as anything other than a potential trade partner in a world filled with trade partners.

As a result of America's actions in Iraq, the world no longer perceives America as one of the "good guys". In fact, the opposite is the case. America is now seen by many countries as one of the most dangerous nations in the world.

The result of all this has been and will continue to be a gradual move away from international relationships in which America is the controlling party and towards multi-national relationships exclude dependencies on U.S. policy or economics.

I see no reason why a particular political viewpoint (e.g., libertarianism) should not occupy at least ninety percent of this blog's comment section from time to time, say, . . . once a month. But perhaps we could talk about other things the rest of the time.

Please do not think me a totalitarian for suggesting this. I felt I needed to make a choice between banging my head on my desk, re-reading Lenny Bruce's FBI file (http://www.fadetoblack.com/foi/lennybruce/fbifile.htm) for the umpteenth time, or making this comment.