U.S. to create list of 25 countries deemed candidates for intervention

[G_j]

Story at Washington Times (sorry)


http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050329-084546-9176r.htm

U.S. to create list of 'unstable' nations

Washington, DC, Mar. 29 (UPI) -- U.S. intelligence experts are preparing a list of 25 countries deemed unstable and, thus, candidates for intervention.

The National Intelligence Council, a State Department office that collates intelligence for strategic planning, will compose and revise the secret list every six months, the Financial Times reported Tuesday.

Carlos Pascual, a former ambassador who now heads the newly formed agency, said the NIC would identify countries of "greatest instability and risk" to clarify priorities and allocate resources.

Pascual said conflict prevention and postwar reconstruction had become a "mainstream foreign-policy challenge" because of the dangers of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
..more..
=========================

edit: bookends with this recent story, which glided smoothly beneath the radar:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0322-05.htm

Published on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 the Inter-Press Service
Pentagon Reaffirms Globocop Role
by Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON -- March has been a bad month for the world's multilateralists who, encouraged by several early appointments to the State Department and a successful presidential tour of Europe, had hoped that George W. Bush would temper his unilateralist instincts in his second term.

But culminating in Friday's release by the Pentagon of a new ”National Defense Strategy of the United States of America”, the last few weeks have showered a bracing dose of cold water on that notion.

Combined with the nomination earlier in the month of super-unilateralist John Bolton as Bush's ambassador to the United Nations, as well as the U.S. withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for cases involving the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the Strategy strongly suggests that Washington's interest in its traditional alliances, multilateral institutions, and even international law is on a downward trajectory.

The 24-page public document, signed by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, is designed to lay out some of the basic assumptions of the U.S. role in the world, particularly as regards peace and security, that will guide the Quadrennial Defence Review (QDR), an important exercise carried out every four years that steers U.S. strategy, the Pentagon's more than 400-billion-dollar annual budget, and military ”transformation” over the next five to 10 years.

..more..

-----------
'Preemptive Strikes' Become Policy
National defense now extends beyond U.S. borders to include acts of 'active deterrence.'


WASHINGTON — A new "National Defense Strategy" for the first time makes the kind of preemptive strike used in Iraq part of the nation's military policy in dealing with rogue nations, Pentagon officials said today.

The plan that specifies the Bush administration's goals in protecting the nation describes a muscular policy of "active deterrence."

Under it, the United States will seek to expand its relationships with allies and "act with others when we can" to prevent growing regional problems from erupting into wars, according to an unclassified version of the document outlined at the Pentagon by Douglas Feith, the Defense Department's undersecretary for policy. The policy also reserves the right for the United States to act on its own when necessary.

"The president has the obligation to protect the country," Feith said. "And I don't think that there's anything in our Constitution that says that the president should not protect the country unless he gets some non-Americans' participation or approval of that."

..more..
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-031905defense_lat,0,5377772.story?coll=la-home-nation
---------------
Check out the quote in this article:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&ncid=716&e=30&u=/latimests/20050319/ts_latimes/policyoksfirststriketoprotectus

<snip>

Our strength as a nation-state will continue to be challenged by those who employ a strategy of the weak using international , judicial processes and terrorism," the document states.

The concern, Feith explained, was that some nations would try to criminalize American foreign policy by challenging it in international courts.
<snip>

-----
This LBN thread contains the DoD press release:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1323795&mesg_id=1323795

[AnnInLa]

1. Wondering if their locations are near the world's

dwindling oil reserves?

What is the stated objective/purpose of such a list?

[meegbear]

2. Ummmm ...

I don't think our troops should be used for what's called nation-building. -- *, October 11, 2000.

[beam me up scottie]

3. Wonderful.

They've now streamlined one of this administration's illegal policies. I'm sure it will save them a lot of time and money.
Questions, too since it will be "secret".
Not even bothering to pretend anymore, are they?
I cannot even find a word vile enough to describe this.

[salin]

4. Wasn't one of the main premises of PNAC

was that it would be easier to maintain sole superpower status in a world of constant instability?

I really fear that our growing taste ... be it "intervention" or now the doctrine of first strike (forget the language of Preemptive strike, now that bushco has admitted that they would "do" Iraq again even if they "knew" there was no threat)... is that other powers will gain economic strength while we keep draining ours (think...China) and will band together for a little international "bitch slap".

And I fear all the damage wrought by these crazies in the lead-up to such an inevitable conclusion.

[peace4all]

27. absolutely

It seems to fit the PNAC vision.

[bryant69]

5. This is goofy.

The Washington Times is a conservative paper, adn yet they are using language that seems extra sinister. Particularly when they underline the possibility of intervention.

This could mean that they have seriously over estimated the willingness of America to support more interventions (or Invasions). Maybe they think that this is what the American people want?

Possibly they are trying to draw our attention away from Bush's involvement in the Schiavo case or the dwindling prospects of getting Social Security passed.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[G_j]

12. I found that strange also

a news search brings up only the WT (UPI) story.
:shrug:

[yella_dawg]

6. Why twenty five?

Is that some sort of significant number? Is it possible that the list was "prepared" and the "intelligence experts" are just providing justification? Neocons wouldn't do that whould they?

Besides terrifying, the whole concept is just strange.

[Minstrel Boy]

7. Will Casey Kasem do the countdown?

[G_j]

8. it might make a really cool reality show? n/t

[DulceDecorum]

46. Boring, it ain't.

Almost as soon as aid to the Communist Bloc stops, the international Communist revolution will plunge headlong into crisis. The captive peoples, seeing their liberation at hand, will genuinely rise up to throw their brutal dictators out of power, and the armies of Gog and Magog — ranging from the Soviet Communists to the PLO — will self-destruct before the eyes of the entire world.
www.noahide.com/finalwar.htm


http://www.ukar.org/gore10.html

[The Gunslinger]

61. American War Idol

for Iran call 1-888-war1
for Syria call 1-888-war2
for Korea call 1-888-war2

[Art_from_Ark]

11. Yeah, why 25?

I would have thought it would be some Biblical number, like 7, or 12 or 40
:crazy:

[Massacure]

9. Lets see if we can guess.

North Korea
Iran
Syria
Libya
Congo
Colombia
Venezuela
Cuba
Taiwan

+ the former soviet block states

Did I miss any?

[adigal]

14. The United States????

[durablend]

47. You forgot Canada

"Can't have none of that free healthcare BS spread to these here Uniteds State"

[ClintonTyree]

59. Poland, you forgot Poland.

Don't forget Poland! Poor Poland........always forgotten.

[zonmoy]

64. the list

North Korea

what resources do they have that we would want to take by force. unless the goal is to use them as a base to invade and colonize china.


Iran
Syria
Libya

three oil states I could see that.


Congo

what do they have worth stealing

Colombia

the only possible reason to invade would be to give the cia the monopoly on the drugs trade.


Venezuela

has oil

Cuba

only reason to invade would be to destroy one of the only countries that has the answers to what we must become to survive the end of oil

Taiwan

already a puppet of ours

+ the former soviet block states


undoubtedly only the ones that have oil or other resources to steal.

[mopaul]

10. gee i hope WE are on this list

cause lord knows we need intervention

[beam me up scottie]

13. another quote from the yahoo article:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&nc...

snip

"In some cases, respected global organizations seem to be viewed with suspicion. In describing the vulnerabilities of the United States, the document uses strong language to list international bodies — such as the International Court of Justice, created under a treaty that the United States has declined to sign — alongside terrorists. "

snip

Think about this.

[adigal]

15. They are trying to discredit organizations

that will hold them legally liable in the future for an illegal war and torture??? Possibly.

[beam me up scottie]

16. That's one very good reason,

as for others, I don't know, I'm really freaking out about this-I'm not even able to comprehend all of the implications.

[Beam Me Up]

18. Finally, we meet on the same thread.

Have seen your name before somewhere :hi:

[beam me up scottie]

21. Original flavor or

Next Generation? :woohoo:
I love them both, unfortunately I don't think as a species we'll survive long enough to live on a peaceful planet.
(honestly, I searched for my name here before I joined, I never saw yours, Please don't sue me...)

These articles are ominous. If we don't do something none of us will ever have the chance to live long and prosper...

[Beam Me Up]

24. Watched the first Star Trek in college dorm 1966

(gives you an idea how old I am). I've been a fan ever since but am not a 'trekie'. Next Generation was great. Also loved Voyager. However, since 2000 I have stopped watching TV--100% except for vid art by others and myself.

Can catastrophe be avoided? I once held hope. Now I'm convinced that what it will take is something beyond mere 'human' effort--certainly something far beyond anything we'd recognize as 'politics.'

I am relieved to know there are higher dimensions than the one we habitually occupy. Our biggest mistake is the obvious assumption that 'this' is IT.

The monicker is also a nod to Congressman Traficant.

EDIT PS: The last time I voyaged into the hyper dimension I made it a point to ask the Tykes if they knew what was going on on this small, seemingly forsaken planet. Their reply, very nonchalantly was, "yeah, we know." IOW, it may be a big deal to US, from the point of view of the cosmic community it is worthy of attention but not alarm.

You may make of that whatever you will.

[beam me up scottie]

25. My tv died months ago and I never bought another.

I can usually get what I miss through bit torrent. It's amazing how one's IQ explodes without the boob tube to restrain your brain.
I checked your link to the tykes. WOW. Just wow.

"The mind and the self literally unfold before one's eyes. There is a sense that one is made new, yet unchanged, as if one were made of gold and had just been recast in the furnace of one's birth."

Could this be similar to the native americans experience w/peyote?

I don't much miss tv but I cannot ever imagine my world without the web.

[Beam Me Up]

31. Yes, similar, and yet quite different.

For one thing, the onset is almost instantaneous. Baseline (normal) reality to the hyper dimension in about 30 seconds. But, of course, by then "seconds" have begun to stretch far beyond those intervals of a clock's 'tick'. We have fallen through time to the edge of eternity:

Here is a tremendum barely to be told, an epiphany beyond our wildest dreams. Here is the realm of that which is stranger than we can suppose. Here is the mystery, alive, unscathed, still as new for us as when our ancestors lived it fifteen thousand summers ago. The tryptamine entities offer the gift of new language, they sing in pearly voices that rain down as colored petals and flow through the air like hot metal to become toys and such gifts as gods would give their children. The sense of emotional connection is terrifying and intense. The Mysteries revealed are real and if ever fully told will leave no stone upon another in the small world we have gone so ill in.

By the way, my first experience was at the tender age of 18; about the time Star Trek began. Needless to say, I haven't been quite the same since. ;)

"At first, I was iridescent...then, I became transparent. Finally, FINALLY I was absent...."
-- Paul Kantner, Blows Against the Empire

Until our electrons interpenetrate again!

BMU

[beam me up scottie]

36. Damn! I knew I was born

10 years too late. I would have been such a good hippie.
sigh...I do envy you.
These days I consider myself lucky when I meet a guy with a social conscience. I'm sitting here trying to listen to Vivaldi while my idiot next door neighbor is blasting house so loud my coffee almost spilled (duplex) which just shows how much my reality sucks.
Geez, if you're going to blast anything, at least let it be music of some sort...

beaming back down to the surface now...

[kineneb]

37. Ahh, good choice of music to watch the handbasket by

Vivaldi, Handel, Bach

Although I have to admit that Hubby was just playing the original "War" (Edwin Starr)for me.

Oh, and handbasket, as in going to hell in a _.

Some day I will write the damn thesis and get the MA in music history.

[beam me up scottie]

39. I am so jealous of people who have such a

passion and talent for music. I'm still trying to process what I like and don't when it comes to the classical composers. I would never attempt to criticize any of them but Bach is not really to my liking, he's a little too "churchy" for me.

Don't pay attention to anything I say, I am a study in contrasts and my taste in music proves it.
I can listen to Vivaldi in the morning, John Denver for lunch, Van Halen in the afternoon, Boston on the way home, Yngwie Malmsteen for supper, Pink Floyd in the evening, Mozart before bed, and Bruce Springsteen, Dire Straits, Jackson Browne and Queen anytime at all. (the rest of my life is just as bad)

I love any music that can give me goosebumps-unfortunately there's very few new musicians that can do that. My friend Sammy sums it up by saying he loves any music that makes him "feel".

Can you tell me who your favs are and why? I'm starved for ideas because I currently live in the seventh layer of country music hell. These people mock classical and opera when I have it on my radio at work-(which really pisses me of due to the fact I tune in to NPR because hard rock might offend them.) I don't want to check the musician group because I would just dumb the place down.

[salin]

19. domestic consumption, I think

that is - discredit those bodies that might call our actions into question so that the domestic public accepts the rationales and continues to grant power to these folks to act upon their schemes.

We really are still at a point where they need "power" (eg through the system) to act - and with the help of media, and bored and fickle public, and perhaps some voting shennanigans - we do keep giving them the power to act. Thus - the discrediting is preemptive in order to keep the public in their corner.

[G_j]

20. true, but "discredit" may be far to mild a word

by equating international judicial processes and terrorism.
I cringe to think about what sort of deranged thinking may be behind the statements.

--
"Our strength as a nation-state will continue to be challenged by those who employ a strategy of the weak using international , judicial processes and terrorism," the document states."
:scared:

[Just Me]

56. Yep. That is the statement that knocked me on my ass.

I truly DREAD the next several years. These SICK neoCONs are going all the way and we are going to get busted by the world community who are NOT going to tolerate another world dictator.

[Beam Me Up]

17. Come on folks, RECOMMEND THIS TOPIC

And this one by salin:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3385892

And this one by MadHound:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3386132&mesg_id=3386132

These are very important issues that we here at DU should be paying close attention to. If you want to know what the magicians are up to, you have to look where they DO NOT point your attention.

[truth2power]

22. Recommended. n/t

[beam me up scottie]

23. done

and done.

[G_j]

26. kick

[Roland99]

28. Does it include the United States, as well?

[Spazito]

29. Damn, it looks like we (Canada) can't get on any of these

lists. I was sure after we said no to missile defense, we might qualify at last! Hrumph, guess Blame Canada is just a song after all, lol.

[G_j]

30. for an 'expanded' discussion

see this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3385892

[paineinthearse]

32. Thank you for tying this all together

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1323795&mesg_id=1323795 was posted within minutes of the pentagon press release. It got some attention (50 replies) before it faded. Tip: the best time to find government press releases is Fridays at 5PM. If you watch West Wing, you know this as "take out the trash" day.

A week later I posted a follow-up, including the full transcript of a press conference on the subject by Douglas Feith - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1686257

That post got a whopping 13 responses.

:banghead: Probably had comptition from TS.

[G_j]

41. very good advice

I share your frustration, but appreciate your efforts.
This is obviously very important.

[Nothing Without Hope]

33. Oh. My. God. These freaks are out to destroy EVERYTHING!

as long as they get their loot and ego-stroking power

They are such utter FOOLS: The concern, Feith explained, was that some nations would try to criminalize American foreign policy by challenging it in international courts.

I didn't check the post time before starting this message. If it isn't too late, I'll recommend for greatest.

[paineinthearse]

34. Read the full Feith transcript

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1686257#1686440

[DulceDecorum]

45. They were sent to destroy the bonds between us.

and to turn this entire universe into a wasteland.

The Shadows are among us.

[AuntiBush]

35. Oh, joy! Now, the ENDLESS list of $$ War!

What are they going to do when they run out of recuits?

I know! Send in the Religious Crusaders. They know how to blow up bombs (judges & abortion clinic experience)! And they know how to use guns, too!

Nothing like a good "Killer" laundry list, to keep Halliburton rolling in the Global dough.

[kineneb]

38. Why am I feeling like living in the last days of Rome?

25 countries? Shoot, we can't even manage Iraq! If I remember correctly, one of the many reasons Rome imploded was overextension of its military. We already have over 700 bases and outposts around the world. And everywhere we "intervene" we screw up somehow.

[sazemisery]

40. When you have intervention you need troops

This means DRAFT. The Selective Service System gives it's annual report to Congress today. Should be mighty interesting. IMHO the Chimperor's mantra of "There will not be a draft" will have the same effect on his term of office as Bush 1st's "Read my lips, no new taxes."

[wookie294]

42. Flip Flop Bush now says 'terror' nations no longer a 'threat'

Friday, April 1, 2005

WASHINGTON A Department of Homeland Security internal report that assesses terrorist organizations, their anticipated targets and preferred weapons concludes that the threat to the United States presented by North Korea and other countries long described as "state sponsors of terrorism" is declining.

"In the post-9/11 environment, countries do not appear to be facilitating or supporting terrorist groups intent on striking the U.S. homeland," says the draft report, which is intended to help the Homeland Security agency define its spending priorities through 2011.

Of the six nations identified by the State Department as terrorist sponsors, five of them are described by Homeland Security as a "diminishing concern." Those five are North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Libya and Cuba. The sixth country on the list, Iran, is highlighted as a likely threat over the next five years.

"Only Iran appears to have the possible future motivation to use terrorist groups, in addition to its own state agents, to plot against the U.S. homeland," the report says, adding that "ideologically driven nonstate actors" are the biggest threat to the United States.

Terrorism experts said that it was an unusual statement for the Bush administration, which has often called North Korea and other nations serious threats.

This the first time the two-year-old department has prepared what will now be an annual Integrated Planning Guidance Report, a document that is listed as "sensitive" but not classified, meaning it is not intended to be released publicly.

The goal, said Brian Roehrkasse, a department spokesman, is to focus the department's $40 billion in annual spending toward the most serious threats.

Al Qaeda, not unexpectedly, tops a list of adversaries in the report, although the authors question if the group can still pull off attacks similar in scale to those of Sept. 11, 2001.

The report, which was first disclosed last week on the Web site of Congressional Quarterly, identifies animal rights activists and radical environmentalists as possible threats. But it does not mention domestic extremist groups, like Aryan Nations or anti-abortion activists, which have previously been identified by federal officials as threats.

In assessing the most likely targets, the report says that "visual symbols" top the list, like the White House, the Capitol, the Pentagon and the CIA headquarters, as do "American popular culture icons" like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Statue of Liberty.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/31/news/terror.html

[RaleighNCDUer]

44. Except for Iran.

They are focusing on Iran. Can anybody doubt it?

[The Gunslinger]

62. Thell be a threat again when we have the military #s for another war

[RaleighNCDUer]

43. And to think I once wondered what they were talking about

when the said the 'war on terror' could last years, possibly decades.

Perpetual war.

[ktowntennesseedem]

48. So, we've got an Axis of Instability to go with the Evil one?

Could we possibly open a bigger can of worms?

:puke:

[DulceDecorum]

49. The Pentagon's New Map

It explains why we're going to war.
And why we'll keep going to war.
http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2004/040510_mfe_barnett_1.html

Thomas Barnett claims to be a Democrat
but he is VERY closely aligned with PNAC.
Cantor Fitzgerald figures prominently into this equation,
as does the Department of Defense.

In what Barnett calls a "Grand March of History" he claims that the U.S. military must be transformed in order to preemptively take control of the gap, so the U.S. can "manage" the global distribution of resources, people, energy, and money. (It has long predicted that the gap between rich and poor around the world will continue to widen and that the Pentagon will be used to keep the boot on the necks of the people of the third world to the benefit of corporate globalization.)
Barnett predicts that U.S. unilateralism will lead to the "inevitability of war." Referring to Hitler in a recent presentation, Barnett reminded his military audience that the Nazi leader never asked for permission before invading other countries. Thus, the end to multi-lateralism.
Barnett argues that the days of arms talks and international treaties are over. "There is no secret where we are going," he says as he calls for a "new ordering principle" at the Department of Defense (DoD). Barnett maintains that as jobs move out of the U.S. the primary export product of the nation will be "security." Global energy demand will necessitate U.S. control of the oil producing regions. "We will be fighting in Central Africa in 20 years," Barnett predicts.
http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2005/03/17624.php

.....So we created a project and we called it the Year 2000 International Security Dimension Project. We came up with a series of scenarios both good and bad. Our worst-case scenario was pretty fantastic.
<snip>

Our worst-case scenario - pretty fantastic. Wall Street shut down for a week; air travel in the United States shut down for about 10 days; a surge in hate crimes against ethnic groups identified as part of the problem, a surge in gun buying; islanding of certain services - especially insurance; breakdowns of just-in-time supply chains - a terrible description of January 1, 2000; a very prescient description of September 12th 2001. It wasn’t because we were predicting anything. I was scheduled to be on 105th floor of the WTC 2 weeks to the day after 9-11 so obviously we weren’t predicting the trigger. But we had thought long and hard about the horizontal scenarios that would emerge from that vertical shock.
We were approached by Cantor-Fitzgerald in the midst of this workshop series. They had done a series of workshops with the war college in the early 1990s - looked at a war in the Persian Gulf; looked at a financial crisis beginning in SE Asia; looked at a terrorist strike in downtown Manhattan. So we were pretty impressed with their thinking ahead capabilities.
NO LINK.

THIS IS THE PLAN:

In Mr. Barnett's world, countries are divided into two categories. His "core" countries are part of a global community linked by trade, migration and capital flows. Europe, the U.S., India and China fall into this group. Then there are "gap" countries that either refuse to join the global mainstream (such as Saudi Arabia and Iran), or are unable to because they have no central government or are struggling with debilitating crises (such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and much of sub-Saharan Africa).
"The "gap" is a petri dish of grief, repression, terrorism and disease," says Adm. Cebrowski. "And 9/11 shows we can't wall ourselves off from it."
To join those worlds together, Mr. Barnett envisions two different military forces. The Leviathan force consists of stealthy submarines, long-range bombers and highly trained soldiers who are "young, unmarried and slightly p off," Mr. Barnett says.
The System Administrator force is named for the technology wonks who run corporate computer networks. This force is focused on training "gap state" security forces, stamping out insurgencies and rebuilding basic infrastructure such as legal systems and power grids.
That force would include lightly armored soldiers, the Marine Corps and officials from the State, Justice and Commerce departments along with the U.S. Agency for International Development. Its troops would be older and more specialized than the Leviathans. The purpose of the System Administrators would be to bring order to a country, but the force would also be strong enough to defend itself.
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Pentagon-Thomas-Barnett11may04.htm

When Mr. Oogie Boogie says
There's trouble close at hand
You'd better pay attention now
'Cause I'm the Boogie Man
And if you aren't shakin'
Then something's very wrong
'Cause this may be the last time now
That you hear the boogie song, ohhh

[cornermouse]

57. Some of us don't want to manage the world.

They can't even manage what they've got within the borders of this country.

[penpal7]

50. Ths same Intelligence that brought us to iraq? Sticking our nose

is someone's else's business again.

[Javaman]

51. A better title should be: How to fuck up the world in 25 easy steps...

[chemp]

52. does ithe list include Canada?

<eom>

[Callboy]

53. great idea, just

recruit more nat'l guard

[G_j]

55. Draft may be needed in a year, military analysts warn

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0330draft30-ON.html

Draft may be needed in a year, military analysts warn

Bob Dart
Cox News Service
Mar. 30, 2005 03:24 PM

WASHINGTON - If American forces aren't pulling out of Iraq in a year, a draft will be needed to meet manpower requirements, military analysts warned Wednesday.

With recruitment lagging and no end in sight for U.S. forces in Iraq, the "breaking point" for the nation's all-volunteer military will be mid-2006, agreed Lawrence Korb, a draft opponent and assistant defense secretary in the Reagan administration, and Phillip Carter, a conscription advocate and former Army captain.

"America's all-volunteer military simply cannot deploy and sustain enough troops to succeed in places like Iraq while still deterring threats elsewhere in the world," Carter concluded in the March issue of "Washington Monthly." advertisement


Korb is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, and a senior adviser to the Center for Defense Information. Carter is attorney who writes on military affairs for Slate.com and other media. They debated at a symposium on the draft Wednesday.

..more..

[EMTQueen]

54. God help us all.

[cornermouse]

58. The concern, Feith explained, was that some nations

would try to criminalize American foreign policy by challenging it in international courts.

Almost sounds like a public announcement of their intentions. These people are psychos.

[lollipop]

60. Do the Republican supporters of Bush

see this as 'America saving the world'? I don't understand how listing countries as potential enemies could be seen as a good thing by anyone.

[kineneb]

63. No, they see it defensively

"They might invade us"...more fear and paranoia...

And no, it isn't a good idea. Of course we are not dealing with the Rational here, so all bets on reality are off. BushCo is not going to save the world, it is going to try to control major natural resources (oil) to control the world. "Freedom" is a code word for colonialism.

hope the sun sets soon on Pax Americana