Thread: Is the US losing the cold war?

Originally Posted by Alma

You are talking of "our government", I'm talking of economico-financial power elites. Their interests no longer reflect interests of American nation, or British nation or any other nation... They are transnational and are looking after their OWN interests.

How did Zbigniew Brzezinski put it?

"...But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and the human sacrifice (casualties, even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization....

Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat..."

9/11 achieved just that: it "fashioned a consensus on foreign policy issues" (war against Afghanistan and Iraq); united Americans around a common goal -- "the war on terror" making them accept "economic self-denial", "human sacrifice" and a "Patriot Act"...

Well, even the multinational corporation argument doesn't hold up with regard to the recent revolts across the Middle East. The corporations in question loved people like Mubarak. Dictatorships are much easier to do business with in many respects because of their long term leadership. With democracies, you have to make deals with new people every decade or so.

As for 9/11, multinational corporations undoubtedly have a lot of power and reach, but again, I would think a far bigger leak would have occurred by now regarding a massive conspiracy if one actually existed. Right now, most of the conspiracy crowd only has anecdotal and circumstantial evidence.

Yes, some things are fishy about how everything went down, and I'm not defending the official story completely, but I also don't believe it all fits nicely into some grand plan.