"It's true that the threat of worldwide economic collapse has abated, and that's a good thing. "

What do you base this statement on? Last i checked the only people claiming that the stimulus worked and saved the world from "worldwide economic collapse" are the same folks who your article points out are corrupt Oligarchs.

The Austrian Economist that have been correct and predicted this collapse years ago do not think that anything has "abated".

Or so we have been told.

I agree with your points. But the huge difference to then and now is 911. If a 911 type of event were to take place today, most if not all criticism of Obama would disappear. Not forever, but the immediate reaction would be flag waving and "patriotism". Bush had that to exploit for years. Only after our collective fear gave way to an awakening of the reality of war and the policies created to combat terrorism, did most start speaking out against it.

Obama gained mass popularity by speaking out against Bush policies. He is loosing that appeal as it becomes obvious that he intends to further those policies. Give Obama an event to point to and all will follow without question.

re: The Draft

agreed! Short term cost sucks, but long term it would get the job done.

As you describe, this debate is another way to shape the argument and point it only in one direction, perpetual war. The "leaked" message from Gen. McC. is a perfect way to debate how we should continue as opposed to if we should continue. IMO until we have a loud anti-war movement, things will continue to go in this direction.

What is needed to reinvigorate the anti-war movement?

I mean really?

At what point will he bear some responsibility? A full year in office, 3 years? When? If you were in his position you don't thing you could begin to dismantle this empire?

He may not have created it (though i would argue he could have made some votes against it as a Senator)

He can stop its progress and he certainly does not have to expand it.

"Through no fault of his own, Obama presides over a massive war-making state that spends on its military close to what the rest of the world spends combined."

Your kidding right? I would agree that he was plunged into the situation, but we are going on 6 months under his leadership. You mean to tell me he has NO fault in the "massive war-making state"?

For a guy who clearly understands the power that now resides in the Executive, your statement is flawed. Last i check Obama is calling the shots. All can claim otherwise, but he was elected to restrain the "massive war-making state" and in no meaningful way has he done that. That alone makes him somewhat responsible, and clearly not fault-free.

The other thing always missing in the Afghan debate is the Heroin. The Russians did not try to take the country for the good skiing. Afghan produces roughly 80% of the worlds heroin, most all the profits of which are laundered in the same huge banks that control the Worlds economy, and combined with the magic of fractional reserve banking can create trillions of fiat money.

We are not leaving that country anytime soon.

END THE FED!!!

If you want to dismantle the Empire you must end the federal reserve system. It enables endless war through a constant practice of inflating the money supply, thus allowing constant spending.

If we as a people were forced to pay for the constant state of war through taxes this empire would not exists.

"Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy

the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. By a

continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate,

secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their

citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they

confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many,

it actually enriches some. The sight of this arbitrary

rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security, but at

confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth.

Those to whom the system brings windfalls, beyond their deserts

and even beyond their expectations or desires, become

'profiteers,' who are the object of the hatred of the

bourgeoisie, whom the inflationism has impoverished, not less

than of the proletariat. As the inflation proceeds and the real

value of the currency fluctuates wildly from month to month, all

permanent relations between debtors and creditors, which form the

ultimate foundation of capitalism, become so utterly disordered

as to be almost meaningless; and the process of wealth-getting

degenerates into a gamble and a lottery.

Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer

means of overturning the existing basis of society than to

debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces

of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a

manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose"

-The Economic Consequences of the Peace

by John Maynard Keynes 1919

Central Banking enables it all....if we want peace we must end the Fed.