Biggest Current Threat to Americans?

One of the LRC articles today links to an article by General William Odom. He was pro-American empire. The article takes a positive view of the empire’s doings. Odom thought that Clinton, in his reign as emperor, did badly by the empire but not hugely. He thought that Bush 2 was an utter disaster as emperor. I quote “More than anything else, the Iraq war is a spectacular example of how to squander American hegemony—fiscally, militarily, politically, and morally—and it will likely go down as the greatest strategic mistake in American history.”

In other words, Bush 2 advanced the end of the empire via the Iraq mistake. This blunder, this folly, is because of the neocon capture of foreign policy. A continuation of such blunders, such as by attacking Iran or allowing Israel to attack Iran, will also advance the end of the empire. The latter result sounds good but the problem in ending an empire with debilitating wars that may turn into general (and nuclear) wars is that this course will probably also bring about many domestic changes for the worse, including dictatorial rule and a deterioration in the American economy.

It’s interesting that Zbigniew Brzezinski and Odom wrote a piece in 2008 that outlined a sensible Iran policy for the emperors to promote, and it is a policy of sensible negotiations. It is not a neocon policy, not a sanctions policy, not a policy of threats, not a pro-Israel policy, and not a policy of war. Who’s listening? No presidential candidate.

Obama has so far not been inclined to go as far as Bush 2 in making open wars. He has done what Odom suggested, which is get the U.S. out of most of the Iraq quicksand. However, Obama has been all too ready to expand drone warfare in many lands. And he has been ready to confront Russia and China. On Iran, Obama has been slow to rush to war. However, neither has he given up on sanctions, threats, the military option, etc. Obama at this time seems 0.8 to 0.9 captured by the neocons; look at his Secretary of State for proof of that, even if he has sidelined her and relegated her to endless speeches. Also look at his war against Libya and Syria (in progress). Will Obama ever stand up against the neocons openly, or has he been captured by them? On the other hand, Romney sounds exactly like Bush 2 on Iran. He sounds entirely captured by the neocon ideas.

The biggest threat to Americans? It’s the continued capture of U.S. foreign policy by neocon ideas and people, the reason being that this capture means more and more war. That has domestic ramifications in the many forms we are now seeing.

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12:15 pm on August 7, 2012