Yes, if only we could solve the world's problems through concentrated and sustained thinking, bending matter through bending of the mind. Alas.

No this is cold war plus. Social Democracy is enough to get you on Bush's hitlist for overthrow now.  Venezulea is a multiparty democracy, with freedom of speech and freedom of the press, but Chavez is taking more of the oil revenues from the Bushistas, and giving it to the undeserving poor who are to lazy to get clean running water and electricity, so it must die.

Hey -- I was advocating 150,000 troops into Afghanistan back on Sep. 12th. I couldn't understand why everyone thought Bush was so bold and strong when he send in a few Special Forces and failed to secure the borders of that country. As we later learned, Osama escaped at Tora Bora.
At this point, the U.S. needs to do two things. Get real with Pakistan is number one. We need to pressure Musharraf to go after those tribal areas, or we should go in there ourselves. We should also find out where Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is kept in case Musharraf is assassinated by Al Qaeda friendly I.S.I. agents in his midst.
The time to act was after 9/11, when we had the world's sympathy. Acting now, even with a few dozen dead in London, would almost seem unprovoked.  Sadly we may have to wait until another large scale death toll before we can get serious about Osama.

I have no idea what the "Whole Earth Catalogue" is, so no I don't have it.  Totalitarianism is a bad form of government, whether  Communist, Fascist, or whateverist.  Communism itself never was a threat to the US or to other countries in this hemisphere or any other hemisphere.  If the citizens of a country want to try communism, let them, and maybe their lives will improve.  You can run the world's biggest economy on any form of energy you have, but you wont have an alternative form to petroleum if you don't do the work to develop that alternative.  And, lastly, most of our post WWII treaty commitments were aimed exclusively at keeping communism and socialism at bay, largely to protect our corporate honchos.  We had no beef with totalitarianism, just with economic systems that would cut corporate profits.

We seem to be repeating our old mistakes in Pakistan--supporting an unpopular dictator because he's friendly to us. This is what we did for decades in Iran with the shah--a policy that helped give birth to the very kind of Islamic extremism we are now grappling with and that, unsurprisingly, seems only to be growing in Pakistan.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020313-8.html

Q    Mr. President, in your speeches now you rarely talk or mention Osama bin Laden.  Why is that?  Also, can you tell the American people if you have any more information, if you know if he is dead or alive?  Final part  --  deep in your heart, don't you truly believe that until you find out if he is dead or alive, you won't really eliminate the threat of  --

THE PRESIDENT:  Deep in my heart I know the man is on the run, if he's alive at all.  Who knows if he's hiding in some cave or not; we haven't heard from him in a long time.  And the idea of focusing on one person is --  really indicates to me people don't understand the scope of the mission.

Terror is bigger than one person.  And he's just  --  he's a person who's now been marginalized.  His network, his host government has been destroyed.  He's the ultimate parasite who found weakness, exploited it, and met his match.  He is  --  as I mentioned in my speech, I do mention the fact that this is a fellow who is willing to commit youngsters to their death and he, himself, tries to hide  --  if, in fact, he's hiding at all.

So I don't know where he is.  You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you.  I'm more worried about making sure that our soldiers are well-supplied; that the strategy is clear; that the coalition is strong; that when we find enemy bunched up like we did in Shahikot Mountains, that the military has all the support it needs to go in and do the job, which they did.

And there will be other battles in Afghanistan.  There's going to be other struggles like Shahikot, and I'm just as confident about the outcome of those future battles as I was about Shahikot, where our soldiers are performing brilliantly.  We're tough, we're strong, they're well-equipped. We have a good strategy.  We are showing the world we know how to fight a guerrilla war with conventional means.

Q    But don't you believe that the threat that bin Laden posed won't truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive?

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, as I say, we haven't heard much from him.  And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure.  And, again, I don't know where he is.  I  --  I'll repeat what I said.  I truly am not that concerned about him.  I know he is on the run.  I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country.  I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.

But once we set out the policy and started executing the plan, he became  --  we shoved him out more and more on the margins.  He has no place to train his al Qaeda killers anymore.  And if we  --  excuse me for a minute  --  and if we find a training camp, we'll take care of it. Either we will or our friends will. That's one of the things  --  part of the new phase that's becoming apparent to the American people is that we're working closely with other governments to deny sanctuary, or training, or a place to hide, or a place to raise money.

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

"I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National city Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested." (1933)  Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, USMC

"Old Gimlet Eye" died in 1940 as the then most decorated Marine in U.S. history. 

Gotta watch out for all those radical Christians flying planes into buildings, blowing up public transportation systems, and taking over crappy central Asian countries to use as staging areas for world domination. I don't know how you sleep at night.

Now I can't wait for your inane and incorrect rebuttal.

Fascism: A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

The christians, radical or otherwise, don't need to take over countries, as they already control most of the important ones.  That being said, we just took over, by proxy, two countries by force of arms (killing countless thousands of civilians in the process), and have done it many times in the past.  

The christians don't need to fly planes into buildings, as they have smart bombs and artillery and the like to do that stuff for them.  Dead is dead, whether killed by an airplane or an airstrike, sir, and the christians have recently and throughout history killed a lot more muslims, radical and otherwise, than muslims have killed christians. 

Let's take a look at some recent history.  We've got two world wars, atomic bombs being dropped, the Holocaust, imperialism, I could fill pages and pages with this stuff.  Muslims had  nothing to do with almost any of it.  Yet people like yourself see your culture as inherently peaceful, and theirs as inherently violent.     

 

The Bay of Pigs was a disasterously planned and executed plan. However, why do people on the Left refuse to recognize that Castro, Chavez and the like suppress and jail oppenents, have committed murder and in no way allow freedom to anybody but themselves?

Understanding Pakistan  (from bharat-rakshak.com)

Jinnah's Pakistan: An Interview with MA Jinnah, and how the Pakistan of Yesterday is the Pakistan of Today   http://iref.homestead.com/Messiah.html

 Know Your Pakistan  

 http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/MONITOR/ISSUE6-1/Shiv.html

 The Monkey Trap: A synopsis of Indo-Pak relations  

 http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/MONITOR/ISSUE5-2/khayyam.html

 A landmark article that demolishes myths built up about Pakistan  

 http://www.saag.org/papers8/paper710.html

 Pakistani Role in Terrorism Against the U.S.A

 http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/MONITOR/ISSUE5-2/narayanan.html

 Pakistani Education, or how Pakistan became what it is: Curricula and textbooks in Pakistan  

 http://www.sdpi.org/archive/nayyar_report.htm

or

http://www.metransparent.net/texts/subtle_subversion_pakistan.pdf

 Making Enemies, Creating Conflict: Pakistan's Crises of State and Society. A book written by Pakistanis on Pakistan.  

 http://members.tripod.com/~no_nukes_sa/Contents.html

 Should Pakistan Be Broken Up? by Gul Agha  

 http://pakistan70.tripod.com/gul.html

 Pakistan and Terrorism  

 http://www.geocities.com/charcha_2000/

 http://pak-terror.freeservers.com/Terror_as_a_Policy_Tool.htm

 Ethinc cleansing in Pakistan - a statistical analysis  

 http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/MONITOR/ISSUE6-2/sridhar.html

 A chronicle of genocide by the Pakistan army  

 http://www.gendercide.org/case_bangladesh.html

 Inside Jihad - How Pakistan sponsors terrorists in India  

 http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/2001/0205/kashmir_sb1.html

 Pakistan's Role in the Kashmir Insurgency - Op-ed by Rand's Peter Chalk  

 http://www.rand.org/hot/op-eds/090101JIR.html  

 Pakistan Today: General Background articles  

 On the Frontier of Apocalypse: Christopher Hitchens seminal article on Pakistan today  

 http://newsstuff.0catch.com/article5.htm

 Nuclear Enabler - Pakistan today is the most dangerous place on Earth by Jim Hoagland  

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8422-2002Oct24.htm
l

 A Slender Reed in Pakistan - Editorial in the Christian Science Monitor  

 http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1229/p08s03-comv.html

 Seymour Hersh Interview  

 http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_hersh.html

 Pakistan's Nuclear Crimes (Wash. Post editorial)  

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14272-2004Feb4.htm
l

 Commentary: The real culprit of 9/11?  

 http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040722-051231-9906r
.htm

My concern is not about Christianity, and I'm not taking challenges one way or another.  The point is that "Fascism" is a very poor description of what is going on with Islam; unless of course, one goes ahead, like with "nationalism" and "racism" and defines them to mean something convenient for the argument.  Then I can prove that "Islamofascists" are also "communists", it all lies in giving familiar words new meanings.

Anyway, I've posted a set of links about Pakistan; they are Indo-centric, which is natural, as India is Pakistan's neighbor, and has a much closer view of what happens there.  Being so does not make the material in them any less true.  If nothing else, read Margaret Bourke-White's article about Jinnah, Pakistan's founding father, and reflect on whether anything has changed since 1947.  

I dont' know what liberal capitalism but most western countries are social democracies. They have mixed economies. Businesses are regulated.  They have safety nets.  The fact that STalin didn't like corporations is not excuse for not regulating them.

You have criticized Chavez as one of these dreaded commies, but he was elected three times. 

Does a communist totalitarian country allow for more than one party, freedom of speech and the press.  Venezuela does.  Shouldn't a good strategic thinker be aquainted with basic facts like this?  As for taking their oil elsewhere. They only threatened to do this when Bush sounded like he was going kill Chavez.  It was only in the event of Chavez's overthrow or death that they will sell to China.  They are the Venezuelan Congress.  all of whom were democratically elected as well.  Maybe Bush should stop threatening people like a dolt.

WBC wrote:

With respect to your "hate-filled" reference to Christianity, could you please name a single prominent fundamentalist "Bible Christian" who advocates "suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship.?"


They don't advocate suppression of the opposition. They want them all dead. Just do a google search for quotes along the lines of "nuke them in the name of god" and with very little effort you'll find quotes lke this from Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and others like them. I would label these guys "prominent fundamenatalist bible christians". As for your definition of fascism, it starts with the words "A system of government...". These radical Islamists are not advocating a system of government at all, just chaos ruled by their invisible cloud being. And nationalism doesn't apply for the same reasons. Just because they are cruel and violent and totalitarian doesn't make them fascist. It's religious insanity and I stand by what I said. Your old testament is just as violent as their koran.

There are a lot of governments around the world that suppress and jail opponents, have committed murder, and in no way allow freedom to anybody but themselves.  Many of those governments are our "best friends" today, including the governments of Pakistan, Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc.  We apparently have no plans to invade and replace those governments, or at least I  hope that is the case.  The governments that should concern us enough to plan possible invasions of their territory are only those who are a current threat to our country.  And, that doesn't mean a threat to the profits of US corporations, it means a threat to the lives of our citizens.

The election was monitored by Carter, and he certified it free and far.   There was a paper trail, unlike the election Ohio.  I don't take exist polling seriously from the corporate media. The media in Venezuela are more right wing than they are here. The same right wingers lying about Venezuela lied about WMD. The same dlc dupes that believed the WMD lies believe chavez is a dictator. Why believe the cocksuckers now?

I think you pretty much lost your credibility with your dig at Jimmy Carter.

" I have provided here information ... "

You provided no link in either of the posts in which such a reference is made.  If you have such information, learn to use the toolbar provided in auto format or do it in html.  In the absence of a reference to whatever the hell you are speaking about, your post is incomprehensible.

"I was simply returning the favor for your "1" ratings, petey."

I gave a bunch of your posts "2" ratings, and I was rating your posts specifically to rescue them from being hidden.

As stated, I'll never make that mistake again.

I think Chavez is gradually or not so gradually moving to an authoritian dictatorish on the model of Juan Peron. Clearly the United States has missed out on the opportunity to help spread the wealth in various countries in which elites continue to dominate economic life.

Let me follow up your criteria. What do you mean by pure motives? Why Bush went to war in Iraq may not be known until we get records of his administration. However, at the United States and the West have greater interests in the Middle East and Europe than in Africa. The United States is not Rome or Britain. We don't want territory, but we do want stability and certain outcomes for our benefit.

How would you determine what the local populace would support? Rwanda was a civil war in which one siide at least would have violently opposed our intervention. One thinks of Somalia in which we were supplying food and we got caught up in the in fighting of the warlords.

As for a clear plan. I am not sure Bush can make a clear plan for his jog.

However, I think this issue is very important. It is important for dealing with the world as we now find it. It is also important politically because Republicans, most recently seen in Rove's accusation, that Democrats are into hand holding not defending Americans.

As I recall you believed the lies about WMD as well, so you are pretty gullible when it comes to right wing propaganda.