Almost done reading "The Sorrows of Empire"- frustrated

The author, Chalmers Johnson, hammers in over and over that the US has become militaristic as opposed to having a good military defense. I didn't realize how many military bases there are around the world and in how many countries; and the idea of the countries having them there as "protection" or a monetary blackmail sounds like the mafia.

On the other hand, you have a country like Venezula saying "enough" and working to keep the US, the Supreme Imperalist Meddler, out of it's sovereign nation and instead meeting with bully tactics.

Seems to me the crucial emphasis for whoever runs for president has got to be for the US to get out of the Empire business. Spoken clearly and concisely and then with actions to shut down military bases that are only there to achieve world domination.

The vast majority of the US public is woefully uninformed, apathetic, and willfully ignorant (proof: only 6% of Americans have read at least one book in the last year, taken from The Twilight of American Culture by Morris Berman). Furthermore, they have come to like the comforts and luxuries that go along with empire, however fleeting they may be, and will fight tooth and nail to maintain the right to shop and consume they have come to see as God-given. Try to give them information such as that which Johnson includes in his book, and they'll most likely just ignore it. After all, nobody wants to spoil their "beautiful mind" with the ugliness needed to maintain that empire from which they receive so much short-term benefit....

I'd like to see us turn back from this path, but I don't think it's possible without the fall.

If you liked Johnson's book, I recommend After the Empire by Emmanuel Todd as well.

US military is also worlds greatest polluter-Link here
www.warresisters.org

Look to left and click at brochures-pamphlets section: Look at: Superpower-Superpolluter

Download pdf make copies and distribute to those unaware.

on this mess so far. i am now reading 'Crossing the Rubicon', and am once again amazed at how much information is out there, how un-informed i am, and how far up sh*ts creek we are. Waiting impatiently for the other shoe...