Required Reading for Obama

[ProudDad]

The Guns of August
Lowering the Flag on the American Century
By Chalmers Johnson

Let me begin by asking: What harm would befall the United States if we actually decided, against all odds, to close those hundreds and hundreds of bases, large and small, that we garrison around the world? What if we actually dismantled our empire, and came home? Would Genghis Khan-like hordes descend on us? Not likely. Neither a land nor a sea invasion of the U.S. is even conceivable.

Would 9/11-type attacks accelerate? It seems far likelier to me that, as our overseas profile shrank, the possibility of such attacks would shrink with it.

Would various countries we've invaded, sometimes occupied, and tried to set on the path of righteousness and democracy decline into "failed states?" Probably some would, and preventing or controlling this should be the function of the United Nations or of neighboring states. (It is well to remember that the murderous Cambodian regime of Pol Pot was finally brought to an end not by us, but by neighboring Vietnam.)

http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175286/chalmers_johnson_portrait_of_a_sagging_empire

Here's where your FUCKING BUDGET DEFICIT LIES!!!

[polichick]

1. This is a book every American should read...

It's way past time we listen to Eisenhower about the mic!