Indeed. (Let me add that the idea of explaining the US current account deficit as imperial tribute is an idea which occurs to many bright, cynical 19 year olds, but just does not work when you think it through.)

There can't be too many books blurbed both by Bacevich and by Gen. Zinni, can there?

"Today marks a grim anniversary, a day when a few fanatics, equipped and secretly encouraged by foreign ideologues, struck a violent blow against normal, civil, democratic society. In the years that followed, the events of that day led to further tragedy, as a once-civilized country turned to the widespread practice of torture. Perhaps now at last we can gain some perspective on this history, and better understand what the defense of a democratic society demands of us. --- Today is also the anniversary of an attack on New York City and Washington, DC."

Recommended by James Fallows.

in which Perlstein condenses _Nixonland_ by a factor of 10.

"Reform is hard. Promoting reform is harder. Promoting reform in the name of cheap oil and military domination is almost certainly impossible."

"They're acting, in short, like the demonic foreigners of their own anti-appeasement rhetoric, impervious to objective reality and hell-bent on total victory no matter what the cost or how dim the prospects of success."

I knew Fulbright was against the Vietnam War, but - this was a _United States Senator_ saying these things, in _1966_. Could we produce anyone like this today? (Minus the Dixiecrat crap, thx.)

War as public relations exercise, the goal being to project an image of strength.

Shorter Matthew Yglesias: For McCain, endless imperialist wars aren't a bug, they're a feature.

"The Iraq war is an unmitigated catastrophe. There is no bright side. There is no silver lining. Everything is a wasteland of despair and there is only an obligation — a sacred, patriotic obligation — to make things right again."

This would be hilarious if it weren't so insanely depressing and frightening. (And the point about the impact of the Cold War is a good one.)

Fafblog continues to be the only source of news able to deal with current reality at its own level.

"As the currently most advanced weapon system in the US arsenal, the B-2 is the star of the moment for a particular concept of war; one that envisions the destruction of whomever the US chooses whenever we choose without significant cost to ourselves."

"we need to spend huge sums of money and encourage an enormous amount of nuclear proliferation because that would facilitate the launching of new aggressive wars"

Profile of the secretary of defense. This is one of the (comparatively) sane ones, but - oy, oy, oy.