must the US follow the USSR on the path to collapse? from webster tarpley: Is the United States now inexorably fated to follow the Soviet Union on the path leading to social breakdown, internal collapse, secessionism, and general chaos? This question is objectively now on the agenda. And not surprisingly, a gaggle of foundation-funded professors and other experts, led by that notorious British reactionary Niall Ferguson, are gloating in Schadenfreude and jubilation that the United States is now irrevocably doomed to imperial implosion, based largely on Paul Kennedy’s dangerous half-truth about imperial overstretch. And not only that: Niall Ferguson appears to be preparing the ground for some kind of massive bear raid against the US dollar emanating from London, some kind of a speculative thunderbolt capable of bringing the US breakdown crisis to a fast-track culmination.
The answer presented here to the question posed in the title is that, while the gravity of the US crisis is undeniable, it would be criminal stupidity to assert that we are dealing with some kind of irresistible cycle of US national decline. Quite the contrary: the historical experience of the New Deal, if properly evaluated, reliably indicates a broad array of economic reform measures which are immediately available to lead the US and the world out of the current crisis. The challenge to all serious American thinkers is to specify the needed components of a general US return to a regulated and dirigistic New Deal economic model, and to make these measures intelligible to the vast majority of the US population, and to agitate effectively for their implementation. (Need we point out that both Obama’s corporatist Democratic Party and the right-wing radical Republican Party are hysterically hostile to the New Deal?) Analysts who imagine that their role is to produce ever more dazzling or bombastic rhetorical invectives against the Wall Street collapse we see all around us are simply irrelevant at this point. Every real intellectual leader needs to have an answer ready for the question, “What is your program for overcoming the current world economic depression? Where are your solutions?” Those who do not deal in such answers can no longer be taken seriously.
kyrgyzstan closing US base key to afghan conflict from ap: Kyrgyzstan's president said Tuesday his country is ending U.S. use of an air base key to military operations in Afghanistan - a decision with potentially grave consequences for U.S. efforts to put down surging Taliban and al-Qaida violence. A U.S. military official in Afghanistan called President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's statement "political positioning" and denied the U.S. presence at the Manas air base would end anytime soon. The United States is preparing to deploy an additional 15,000 troops in Afghanistan and Manas is an important stopover for U.S. materiel and personnel. Ending U.S. access would be a significant victory for Moscow in its efforts to squeeze the United States out of Central Asia, home to substantial oil and gas reserves and seen by Russia as part of its strategic sphere of influence. Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev spoke on a visit to Moscow minutes after Russia announced it was providing the poor Central Asian nation with billions of dollars in aid. Bakiyev said when the U.S. forces began using Manas after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, the expectation was that they would stay for two years at most.
military official: we don’t have an end game in afghanistan from thinkprogress: President Obama is finalizing a plan to send tens of thousands of more troops to Afghanistan as “part of a push to beat back the resurgent Taliban and secure regions of Afghanistan that are beyond the reach of the weak central government in Kabul.” NBC’s military correspondent Jim Miklaszewski reports that Pentagon officials haven’t been able to provide an answer to Obama’s concern about having an “end game” strategy in place: According to military officials during last week’s meeting with Defense Secretary Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon’s “tank,” the president specifically asked, “What is the end game?” in the U.S. military’s strategy for Afghanistan. When asked what the answer was, one military official told NBC News, “Frankly, we don’t have one.” But they’re working on it. The New York Times reported recently, “Even as Mr. Obama’s military planners prepare for the first wave of the new Afghanistan ’surge,’ there is growing debate, including among those who agree with the plan to send more troops, about whether — or how — the troops can accomplish their mission, and just what the mission is.”
no US/pakistan deal on drone attacks from press tv: Pakistan denies reports that Islamabad had clinched a secret deal with Washington allowing drone attacks inside the country's tribal zones. Pakistani Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Mohammad Sadiq said on Wednesday that "There is no understanding between Pakistan and the United States on Predator attacks." His comments came in response to the remarks of US Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, in his testimony before the Senate Armed Forces Committee, who said Washington would continue strikes on Pakistan and Islamabad was aware of that.
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from news junkie post: The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has flouted Mendocino County, California’s newly enacted medical marijuana ordinance by raiding the first collective that had applied to the sheriff’s cultivation permit program. A multi-agency federal task force descended on the property of Joy Greenfield, 689, the first Mendo patient to pay the $1,050 application fee under the ordinance, which allows collectives to grow up to 99 plants provided they comply with certain regulations.
from ap: Italian news reports say that a military police general was convicted of smuggling drugs during the course of an investigation and sentenced to 14 years in prison. The news agencies ANSA and Apcom said Giampaolo Ganzer was sentenced on Monday after being convicted of bringing heroin into Italy in the course of two operations led by the carabinieri investigative unit that he headed in Milan. Prosecutors alleged that a group of officials in the military police unit had organized a drug trafficking ring with the aim of getting rich. Ganzer was among 14 people convicted in the case, while four were acquitted. In addition to jail time, Ganzer was fined euro65,000 ($82,000).
