“We will export death and violence to the four corners of the Earth in defense of our great nation.” – President George W Bush in Bob Woodward’s book Plan of Attack

While most Americans are concentrating on extricating the US government from the debacle in Iraq, and most peace activists are simultaneously concerned that the Bush administration will launch a war against Iran, the leaders of the Pentagon are

planning how to win wars 10, 20, and 50 years from now.

Washington is preparing for every contingency, from rooting out a handful of suspected terrorists halfway around the world to possible wars with Russia and China.

The Defense Department’s drawing boards are groaning under the weight of blueprints for sustaining total military dominance of land, sea, air and outer space throughout this century. The costs of supporting the US government’s martial propensities will be astronomical in terms of the social programs and benefits denied American working people, not to mention the consequences of living in a state of permanent warfare.

The Futuristic Battlefield

Welcome to Amerika.

Crazy Horse — I always assumed that Cheney’s energy task force was focused on domestic energy issues — protect coal and nuclear, expedite permitting re LNG/nukes, etc, expand their distorted view of markets in electricity (my field) and focus tax and investment policies on supply side, not demand side. I never thought of it in geopolitical terms, because I assumed Cheney was already there and didn’t need their advice.

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Perhaps that explains why you’ve ignored my cries to deal with the bigger oil issues over the past few months. Be reminded also of the interview with Wesley Clark who said that he was told by someone at the Pentagon in October 2001 that they had plans to take down seven countries in five years – they all had oil interests. See yesterday’s article at
yesterday’s Buzz Flash of the Sunni party warning the Iraqi government that if they pass the oil legislation as written they’d be totally selling out the country’s assets to the Americans for the next umpteen years.
It was never a surge plan, it was always a foot in the door to maintain a long term occupation with permanent bases because Bush/Cheney/Baker want control of the oil rights there and across the region, eastern European “stan” countries, and into Africa and South America; that’s why they’re building bases all over the world. It was always the oil; the Arabs had it right all along. Talk about subsidizing the oil interests – what’s the take so far? Billions and billions, nevermind the tax writeoffs given the oil companies in the last few years.

Crazy Horse @ 46

Scarecrow, everything you and others point out about the irrationality of the iraq war madness, seems to become clear at the nexus of the PNAC and chainey’s secret Energy Task Force. am i correct in assuming that’s a given here at FDL?

A little backrground: “Robert Newman’s History of Oil”
http://getintheirface.blogspot…..f-oil.html
*Try the comments too.

Lovely. Thanks for the tip.

yes dude– go here and scroll down and peruse at will.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/…../1992.html

So the assertion that Libby might be just as moronically–strike that, I mean maniacally obsessed with Iraq that he could lie,lie,lie on his own with no prompting whatever from Cheney, and could out Plame just because he wanted to do it regardless of higher ups–all that is not so far fetched. It is making me wonder whether this Guidance document of 1992 said anything about intentions for Iran as well. I am not sure if I want to let Cheney off the hook intellectually for the outing of Plame (as he is the nominal boss), but I better understand Libby’s willingness to pose as “falling on the sword” for Cheney in order to appear sympathetic.

It’s laughable that the Administration of Mr. Stumbletongue would use language in an attempt to pull the wool over the public’s eyes. And it’s disgusting that some people fell for it.

Your post was about Iraq it is equally applicable to Afghanistan.

Once a viable resistance emerged against the Christian occupation, the war was lost. The only question is the time and means of withdrawal.

The one and only way to win is to resettle the land, like the Anglo-Saxons in England, the Vietnamese in Indo-China or the Europeans in North America. If the USA is not going to have the Draft and resettlement to control the oil fields, the one and only alternative is energy conservation, the rule of law, and containment of all fundamentalists; Christian, Jewish and Muslim.

Amen to Rozen @ 49.

The biggest cloud is the on over DOJ. Almost everything done by others in the Exec was either solicitedy by, authorized by, or covered up by, DOJ. The hardest job of a lawyer is to tell their client no – the hardest job of the top policing force is to follow the law themselves and hold even their own to the rule of law.

DOJ has been a miserable failure. People went home to to hug their own children, while those that they signed off on having kidnapped, tortured and abused stayed in dark holes, with disappeared from their families and not knowing if their children were alive, or even if their children had also been disappeared and funneled into state sponsored abuse. People went on to well paid corporate slots, leaving behind the caged lives and messes they created and without a thought for their own colleagues that forced into felonies for their own career enhancement.

When the lawyers and top enforcement officers embrace state sponsored abuse and walk off with rewards for it – it’s happy talk to even call it a cloud. It’s a lot more ominous than that.

barbara @ 43

I’m an editor in my “real life” (actually, I’ve begun to suspect that this is the real life), so I love nit-picking grammar and spelling as much as anyone. More, maybe. (And yes, I’m setting myself up, because if I make a mistake here, I’m totally busted!)

May I suggest that the operative words here are “blood” and “bleed” and their assorted forms?

We’re talking 18 months of continuing madness, per the Dem plan. Now I understand the political plus of going that route. But the reality is that Americans and Iraqis will be dying in huge numbers every single day for — what? — upwards of 500 days.

Americans are not being sent to “serve.” That’s a PC dodge. They’re being sent to bleed. Literally and metaphorically. Sometimes to bleed and die.

McCain and Obama were absolutely right. These lives are being wasted. W-A-S-T-E-D. No apology required.

What are we thinking?? It’s immoral to keep forcing Americans (and Iraqis) to die for what has been called the war that has no cause. Hubris. Some cause. Do you really want to send your spouse, your kids, your grandkids to die for George Bush’s wild hair?

Didn’t think so. Let’s bring ‘em home. Now.

It was interesting to watch what happened to McCain and Obama after they used the word “wasted” and then watch how many others picked it up and said, “well, those lives were wasted.” I thought there were two difference frameworks — one for those who believed in what they were doing, and hence their “sacrifice” was not “wasted,” and another for those who thought there was no worthy cause, and hence the terms seem appropriate. In between is a great chasm.

It’s a “You can’t handle the TRUTH” moment.

But in McCain’s case he’s talking to the Kool-Aid drinkers.

http://www.iraqslogger.com/ind…..in_Karbala

IraqSlogger is all and only about Iraq. Has an overview/translation of what’s in the Arabic papers most days. That’s a damn sight different from the embedded in the Emerald city reporting.

Easy plan wanna hear it??

Instead of trooping cities, dangerous streets or province checks, raids, etc etc, we should protect the institutions our money is supposedly going toward for reconstruction . Our troops should secure schools, hospitals, water works, and things which Iraqis NEED. We should build these, and protect them.

Leave the Iraqi troops to protect everything else. Oh and another thing, please can we have some oversight on the police there? Can we ‘embed’ iraqi troops with our own troops? Not many. Just military advisors.

Simple problem – Things are going bad in Iraq, because no matter how many troops we have there, the average Iraqi finds themself hopeless in a culture which constantly spirals toward destruction. With nothing getting better in his community, what do you expect will happen????? Give them a reason to turn AWAY from terrorists and insurgencies and they will.