The Reemergence Of Balance-Of-Power Politics

Many critics of US power, for their part, attribute George W. Bush's unilateralism to the self-centered, provincial worldview of the American right. This explanation confuses cause and effect. Bush's unilateralist ideology is a product of a unique structural conjuncture: the consolidation of the civilian-military "defense establishment" that won the Cold War as the dominant faction of the US elite and the disappearance of an effective countervailing force to US power in the global state system.

Concept of Citizenship in the Islamic World

"According to Bernard Lewis, the concept of citizenship is completely alien to Islamic thinking. For Lewis, one “noteworthy historical and cultural fact [about the Islamic world] is the absence of the notion of citizenship. There is no word in Arabic, Persian, or Turkish for ‘citizen’ The cognate term used in each language means only ‘compatriot’ or ‘countryman.’ It has none of the connotations of the English word ‘citizen,’ which comes from the Latin civis and has the content of the Greek polites, meaning one who participates in the affairs of the polis. The word is absent in Arabic and the other languages because the idea of _the citizen as participant, of citizenship as participation_ is not there.”

Illegal immigrants want to stay, become U.S. citizens

Exclusivity. Everyone likes to be better than their neighbor. I think that is very possible that this sense of superiority is more entrenched in middle class Americans that it is among the elite.

Is it really such a crime to want to be American? It is no such an exaggeration to say that we rule over most of the world that matters. We are accorded every respect, we are deferred to when we traveled abroad; a simple American official has more power that a foreign king. The very least man who can call himself an American, albeit a member of the lower classes he might be, holds an immense advantage over any other citizen of the world. Too poor to own a single home, he is still and yet a member of the people that rule the world. It endows him with a precious exclusivity no other can bestow.

Recently the Senate On October 24, 2007, The DREAM Act failed in the Senate to receive the 60 votes required to break a filibuster attempt. Is a bill that has been introduced several times in the United States Congress that would provide a path to American citizenship for immigrant students and those wishing to join the military. Currently, in the United States a child can only obtain their immigration status though their parents, there does not exist an independent method. Many individuals brought here as children remain without a permanent status despite having naturalized citizen or legal permanent resident parents or spouses.
If the child was brought into the country illegally there is no method of legalizing. Even a return back to the birth country does not guarantee a path to legal status. If they attempt to come back legally they are often subject to decade long bans and student, tourist, or work visas are rarely given to people with such strong connections to the US. An estimated 65,000 immigrant students who meet these requirements graduate from high school each year.
How can we permanently close the doors to citizenship to people with whom we must coexist? It is a bad father he who brings up his son on a regimen consisting of nothing but daily beatings - when that son grows up he loathes his father, he doesn't love him or admire him. If we flog our kindred we will have to co-exist with people who loath us for our cruelty and hypocrisy. If we prevent them attain their citizenship, they will loath us for our snobbery. If we impoverish them by not letting them participate fully in the country they live, they will loath us for our bad faith. If we take them from their homes to take them away to the country of their parents we will have to coexist with people who loath us for our callousness. How much loathing does that total? More by far that we can afford to incur from people who live in the same lands we do ourselves.

The New Psychology of Leadership

Recent research in psychology points to secrets of effective leadership that radically challenge conventional wisdom

US Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates revealed, "I don't do email. I'm a very low-tech person."

When asked if his own email account was affected by cyber attack, Gates revealed, "I don't do email. I'm a very low-tech person."

Cyber Attack by China on the Pentagon

China flexes muscles of its 'informationised' army

Thucydides: The Melian Debate - Ancient Greece

Melos was a small, relatively sparsely populated island in the Cretan Sea. It was surrounded by several other smaller islands which were members of the Athenian Empire which extended its power broadly over the Cretan Sea. Officially, Melos was allied with Athens' enemy in the Peloponnesian War, the Spartans or Lacadaemons, because Melos was originally a Lacedaemonian colony. The Melians, however, remained neutral during the Peloponnesian War, and did not send arms, men, or boats to their Lacedaemonian kin. The Athenians arrive off the coast and demand that the Melians become a tribute state of the Athenian Empire, but the Melians ask to remain neutral. Arguing from a standpoint of the pure exercise of power, the Athenians give a remarkably "Machiavellian" theory of the right to rule and the right to invade based purely on military strength. As you read the negotiations between the Melians and the Athenians, ask yourself the following: Does the author seem to take sides? Who has the strongest argument? How do the sentiments expressed by the Athenians here jive with the sentiments expressed in the Funeral Oration of Pericles ?
Athenians
Since we are not allowed to speak to the people, lest, in truth, a multitude should be deceived by seductive and unanswerable arguments which they would hear set forth in a single uninterrupted oration (for we are perfectly aware that this is what you mean in bringing us before a select few), you who are sitting here may as well make assurance yet surer. Let us have no set speeches at all, but do you reply to each several statement of which you disapprove, and criticize it at once. Say first of all how you like this mode of proceeding.

The Melian representatives answered:, "The quiet interchange of explanations is a reasonable thing, and we do not object to that. But your warlike movements, which are apparent not only to our fears but to our eyes, seem to belie your words. We see that, although you may reason with us, you mean to be our judges; and that at the end of the discussion, if the justice of our cause prevail and we therefore refuse to yield, we may expect war; if we are convinced by you, slavery."
Athenians
Nay, but if you are only going to argue from fancies about the future, or if you meet with any other purpose than that of looking your circumstances in the face and saving your city, we have nothing more to say; but if the good of your city is your intention, then we will proceed.
Melians
It is an excusable and natural thing that men in our position should neglect no argument and no view which may avail. But we admit that this conference has met to consider the question of our preservation; and therefore let the argument proceed in the manner which you propose.
Athenians
Well, then, we Athenians will use no fine words; we will not go out of our way to prove at length that we have a right to rule, because we overthrew the Persians; or that we attack you now because we are suffering any injury at your hands. We should not convince you if we did; nor must you expect to convince us by arguing that, although a colony of the Lacedaemonians, you have taken no part in their expeditions, or that you have never done us any wrong. But you and we should say what we really think, and aim only at what is possible, for we both alike know that in the discussion of human affairs the question of justice only enters where there is equal power to enforce it, and that the powerful exact what they can, and the weak grant what they must.
Melians
Well, then, since you set aside justice and invite us to speak of expediency, in our judgment it is certainly expedient that you should respect a principle which you know is for the common good; that to every man in peril a reasonable claim should be accounted a claim of right, and that any plea which he is disposed to urge, even if failing of the point a little, should help his cause. Your interest in this principle is quite as great as ours, inasmuch as you, if you fall, will incur the heaviest vengeance, and will be the most terrible example to mankind.
Athenians
The fall of our empire, if it should fall, is not an event to which we look forward with dismay; for ruling states such as Lacedaemon are not cruel to their vanquished enemies. With the Lacedaemonians, however, we are not now arguing; the real danger is from our many subject states, who may of their own motion rise up and overcome us, their masters. But this is a danger which you may leave to us. And we will now endeavor to show that we have come in the interests of our empire, and that in what we are about to say we are only seeking the preservation of your city. For we want to make you ours with the least trouble to ourselves, and it is for the interests of us both that you should not be destroyed.
Melians
It may be your interest to be our masters, but how can it be ours to be your slaves?
Athenians
To you the gain will be that by submission you will avert the worst; and we shall be all the richer for your preservation.
Melians
But must we be your enemies? Will you not receive us as friends if we are neutral and remain at peace with you?
Athenians
No, your enmity is not half so mischievous to us as your friendship; for the one is in the eyes of our subjects an argument of our power, the other of our weakness.
Melians
But are your subjects really unable to distinguish between states in which you have no concern, and those which are chiefly your own colonies, and in some cases have revolted and been subdued by you?
Athenians
Why, they do not doubt that both of them have a good deal to say for themselves on the score of justice, but they think that states like yours are left free because they are able to defend themselves, and that we do not attack them because we dare not. So that your subjection will give us an increase of security, as well as an extension of empire. For we are masters of the sea, and you who are islanders, and insignificant islanders, at that, must not be allowed to escape us.
Melians
But do you not recognize another danger? For, once more, since you drive us from the plea of justice and press upon us your doctrine of expediency, we must show you what is for our interest, and, if it be for yours also, may hope to convince you:, Will you not be making enemies of all who are now neutrals? When they see how you are treating us they will expect you some day to turn against them; and if so, are you not strengthening the enemies whom you already have, and bringing upon you others who, if they could help, would never dream of being your enemies at all?
Athenians
We do not consider our really dangerous enemies to be any of the peoples inhabiting the mainland who, secure in their freedom, may defer indefinitely any measures of precaution which they take against us, but islanders who, like you, happen to be under no control, and who may be already irritated by the necessity of submission to our empire, these are our real enemies, for they are the most reckless and most likely to bring themselves as well as us into a danger which they cannot but foresee.
Melians
Surely then, if you and your subjects will brave all this risk, you to preserve your empire and they to be quit of it, how base and cowardly would it be in us, who retain our freedom, not to do and suffer anything rather than be your slaves.
Athenians
Not so, if you calmly reflect: for you are not fighting against equals to whom you cannot yield without disgrace, but you are taking counsel whether or no you shall resist an overwhelming force. The question is not one of honor but of prudence.
Melians
But we know that the fortune of war is sometimes impartial, and not always on the side of numbers. If we yield now, all is over; but if we fight, there is yet a hope that we may stand upright.
Athenians
Hope is a good comforter in the hour of danger, and when men have something else to depend upon, although hurtful, she is not ruinous. But when her spendthrift nature has induced them to stake their all, they see her as she is in the moment of their fall, and not till then. While the knowledge of her might enable them to beware of her, she never fails. You are weak and a single turn of the scale might be your ruin. Do not be so deluded; avoid the error of which so many are guilty, who, although they might still be saved if they would take the natural means, when visible grounds of confidence forsake them, have recourse to the invisible, to prophecies and oracles and the like, which ruin men by the hopes which they inspire in them.
Melians
We know only too well how hard the struggle must be against your power, and against fortune, if she does not mean to be impartial. Nevertheless we do not despair of fortune; for we hope to stand as high as you in the favor of heaven, because we are righteous and you against whom we contend are not righteous; and we are satisfied that our deficiency in power will be compensated by the aid of our allies the Lacedaemonians; they cannot refuse to help us, if only because we are their kinsmen, and for the sake of their own honor. And therefore our confidence is not so utterly blind as you suppose.
Athenians
As for the Gods, we expect to have quite as much of their favor as you: for we are not doing or claiming anything which goes beyond common opinion. For of the Gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a law of their nature wherever they can rule they will. This law was not made by us, and we are not the first who have acted upon it; we did but inherit it, and shall bequeath it to all time, and we know that you and all mankind, if you were as strong as we are, would do as we do. So much for the Gods; we have told you why we expect to stand as high in their good opinion as you. And then as to the Lacedaemonians, when you imagine that out of very shame they will assist you, we admire the innocence of your idea, but we do not envy you the folly of it. The Lacedaemonians are exceedingly virtuous among themselves, according to their national standard of morality. But, in respect of their dealings with others, although many things might be said, they can be described in few words, of all men whom we know they are the most notorious for identifying what is pleasant with what is honorable, and what is expedient with what is just. But how inconsistent is such a character with your present blind hope of deliverance!
Melians
That is the very reason why we trust them; they will look to their interest, and therefore will not be willing to betray the Melians, who are their own colonists, lest they should be distrusted by their friends in Hellas 1 and play into the hands of their enemies.
Athenians
But do you not see that the path of expediency is safe, whereas justice and honor involve danger in practice, and such dangers the Lacedaemonians seldom care to face?
Melians
On the other hand, we think that whatever perils there may be they will be ready to face them for our sakes, and will consider danger less dangerous where we are concerned. For if they need our aid we are close at hand, and they can better trust our loyal feeling because we are their kinsmen.
Athenians
Yes, but what encourages men who are invited to join in a conflict is clearly not the good-will of those who summon them to their side, but a decided superiority in real power. To this no men look more keenly than the Lacedaemonians; so little confidence have they in their own resources, that they only attack their neighbors when they have numerous allies, and therefore they are not likely to find their way by themselves to an island, when we are masters of the sea.
Melians
But they may send their allies: the Cretan sea is a large place; and the masters of the sea will have more difficulty in overtaking vessels which want to escape than the pursued in escaping. If the attempt should fail they may invade Attica itself, and find their way to allies of yours whom Brasidas did not reach: and then you will have to fight, not for the conquest of a land in which you have no concern, but nearer home, for the preservation of your confederacy and of your own territory.
Athenians
Help may come from Lacedaemon to you as it has come to others, and should you ever have actual experience of it, then you will know that never once have the Athenians retired from a siege through fear of a foe elsewhere. You told us that the safety of your city would be your first care, but we remark that, in this long discussion, not a word has been uttered by you which would give a reasonable man expectation of deliverance. Your strongest grounds are hopes deferred, and what power you have is not to be compared with that which is already arrayed against you. Unless after we have withdrawn you mean to come, as even now you may, to a wiser conclusion, you are showing a great want of sense. For surely you cannot dream of flying to that false sense of honor which has been the ruin of so many when danger and dishonor were staring them in the face. Many men with their eyes still open to the consequences have found the word "honor" too much for them, and have suffered a mere name to lure them on, until it has drawn down upon them real and irretrievable calamities; through their own folly they have incurred a worse dishonor than fortune would have inflicted upon them. If you are wise, you will not run this risk; you ought to see that there can be no disgrace in yielding to a great city which invites you to become her ally on reasonable terms, keeping your own land, and merely paying tribute; and that you will certainly gain no honor if, having to choose between two alternatives, safety and war, you obstinately prefer the worse. To maintain our rights against equals, to be politic with superiors, and to be moderate towards inferiors is the path of safety. Reflect once more when we have withdrawn, and say to yourselves over and over again that you are deliberating about your one and only country, which may be saved or may be destroyed by a single decision.

The Athenians left the conference: the Melians, after consulting among themselves, resolved to persevere in their refusal, and made answer as follows:, 'Men of Athens, our resolution is unchanged; and we will not in a moment surrender that liberty which our city, founded seven hundred years ago, still enjoys; we will trust to the good fortune which, by the favor of the Gods, has hitherto preserved us, and for human help to the Lacedaemonians, and endeavor to save ourselves. We are ready however to be your friends, and the enemies neither of you nor of the Lacedaemonians and we ask you to leave our country when you have made such a peace as may appear to be in the interest of both parties.'

Such was the answer of the Melians; the Athenians, as they quitted the conference, spoke as follows:, 'Well, we must say, judging from the decision at which you have arrived, that you are the only men who deem the future to be more certain than the present, and regard things unseen as already realized in your fond anticipation, and that the more you cast yourselves upon the Lacedaemonians and fortune and hope, and trust them, the more complete will be your ruin.'

The Athenian envoys returned to the army; and the generals, when they found that the Melians would not yield, immediately commenced hostilities. They surrounded the town of Melos with a wall, dividing the work among the several contingents. They then left troops of their own and of their allies to keep guard both by land and by sea, and retired with the greater part of their army; the remainder carried on the blockade.

The Athenians starve out the Melians, who finally capitulate. In punishment for not surrendering in the first place, the Athenian generals put to death every male citizen of Melos and cart off the women and children into slavery.

Poll: Muslims Believe Key U.S. Goal is to Undermine Islam

"Large majorities (an average of 79 percent) across all four countries believe the United States seeks to "weaken and divide the Islamic world," ranging from 73 percent in Indonesia and Pakistan to 92 percent in Egypt. Equally large numbers perceive that the U.S. is trying to maintain "control over the oil resources of the Middle East" (average 79 percent)".
Read article here:
Poll

THE DEATH OF A MUSLIM WOMAN: another victim of a barbaric custom among Muslims in Europe

Read article:

"The Whore Lived Like a German"

Hatin Surucu just wanted to live her own life. Instead, she became Berlin's latest victim of honor killings. Her Turkish Muslim brothers allegedly gunned her down for adopting Western ways.

Leftist Rebels attack a key gas pipeline in Mexico

Read article:

Rebels attack a key gas pipeline in Mexico, forcing companies to temporarily shut down factories. A small, left-wing guerilla group vows to continue the attacks.

New Chinese Nuclear sub caught on Google Earth

"This may cause the Chinese military to become the latest organization to show concerns over what Google Earth can reveal to users. The U.S. government and Indian military are both worried about the high-level quality of satellite imagery which is available to users. A spy chief also predicted curbs on satellite photos may be needed for programs like Google Earth".
Read article:
Google Earth Captures China's New Ballistic Missile Submarine

The War Tapes - This is a must see war documentary about Iraq and the American soldiers that go there

"Remarkable. Very moving. Very real."
- Mark Bowden, Author of Black Hawk Down

The War Tapes, a powerfully distressing film in which director Deborah Scranton weaves together first-person video footage shot by three National Guardsmen in Iraq in 2004, roughly a year after the invasion began, gives us a literal soldier's-eye view of the current U.S. military nightmare: desolate rides through Baghdad and Fallujah, accompanied by the occasional explosion and always -- always -- the fear that the next IED will be the one that hits you. The soldiers speak movingly of that anxiety. It's almost intrinsic to the nature of movies that we begin to wait for that horrific event, the awful ''climax'' to the soldiers' dread.

Trailer:
http://thewartapes.com/trailer/

U.S. No Longer Tallest Country in World

"America used to be the tallest country in the world. From the days of the founding fathers right on through the industrial revolution and two world wars, Americans literally towered over other nations. In a land of boundless open spaces and limitless natural abundance, the young nation transformed its increasing wealth into human growth".
Read article here

A review of Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America - by Cullen Murphy

Pop Romanizing
by Victor Davis Hanson

"Brilliant Roman and American writers have left thoughtful observations about the ironies — and pathologies — of their seemingly unstoppable societies that changed the world abroad and in the process their once traditional citizenry within."

Science and Islam - Professionals find no problem turning radical

"Fundamentalist-type attitudes are relatively common among people in applied science in the Muslim world," Edis said. "The conception has been that modern science is developed outside, and we need to bring it into our societies without it corrupting our culture."

Read article:

Radicalism among Muslim professionals worries many

Great New documentary about The American occupation of Iraq

No End in Sight
The first film of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq’s descent into guerilla war, warlord rule, criminality and anarchy, NO END IN SIGHT is a jaw-dropping, insider’s tale of wholesale incompetence, recklessness and venality. Based on over 200 hours of footage, the film provides a candid retelling of the events following the fall of Baghdad in 2003 by high ranking officials such as former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Ambassador Barbara Bodine (in charge of Baghdad during the Spring of 2003), Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, and General Jay Garner (in charge of the occupation of Iraq through May 2003) as well as Iraqi civilians, American soldiers, and prominent analysts.

Watch the video clip here: http://www.noendinsightmovie.com/

The Bourgeois Empire versus the Islamist Barbarian

Empires and Barbarians-
From the American Interest Journal

From around the Net:
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"Are We Rome?"Hollowed out by arrogance, corruption and a bloated military, the greatest empire the world has ever known fell. Is America doomed to follow in its footsteps?

The Scourge of Militarism:Rome and America

Azerbaijan Opens Part of Oil Pipeline to the Mediterranean

The Sunburn - Iran's Awesome
Nuclear Anti-Ship Missile.The Weapon That Could
Defeat The US In The Gulf

China Builds a Smaller, Stronger Military:Modernization Could Alter Regional Balance of Power, Raising Stakes for U.S

Averting a New Great Game in Central Asia

Russia relyingon arms-sales diplomacy: Moscow intent on renewing old alliances with military hardware

Discouraging Lessons From Imperial Spain

System Failure

To most Americans it is obvious by now that the political and strategic results of the Iraq war are a major disaster that will hurt our country's interest for a long time to come not to mention the cost in American and Iraqi lives. The path to follow seems to elude everyone, and the people who came up with the idea in the first place are absolutely clueless. Just today Iraq was declared the second most "failed state" courtesy of the Bush administration. The next quote from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on King Leopold of Belgium applies as if it was written yesterday:
"It is upon the King, always the King, that the guilt must lie," he writes. "He planned it, knowing the results which must follow. They did follow. He was well informed of it. Again and again, and yet again, his attention was drawn to it. A word from him would have altered the system. The word was never said. There is no possible subterfuge by which the moral guilt can be deflected from the head of the state...
So the question for everyone that cares remains: what the hell do we do now? Granted, most Americans that have no relation to the military or have no political or historical interest are so far removed from what is happening that they simply don't care.That is one of the luxuries of living in affluent America, far away, isolated America.

A failed Civilization

While Americans, Europeans, Russians, Japanese, Chinese explore the skies and deep space with our satellites, probes, and space stations the Muslim civilization yet have to produce a decent election.
Whereas westerners, through the Middle Ages, strived to learn from the superior Muslim culture of the time when Muslims controlled most of the knowledge of the age (remember the numerous Christian translators of Arabic philosophical treatises) Muslims did not try to learn from the west in later centuries after the renaissance and during the age of exploration because you were not supposed to learn from the infidel.

After the last failed Ottoman attempt of taking Vienna in the 17th century it was obvious that the civilization of Islam had fallen way behind the west. Then the invasion of Napoleon in 1798 brought home a harsh lesson: even a small European force could invade one of the heartlands of the former powerful Islamic empire. This realization of the dire situation of their civilization and a refusal to learn from the infidels continues to this day and is a major source of resentment and hate among Muslims for the west which explains in part organizations like Al- Quaeda.
According to Bernard Lewis The discovery of the New World by Europeans was basically ignored by the powerful Ottoman Empire. A Turkish version of Columbus own (now lost) map, prepared in 1513, survives in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, where it remained unconsulted and unknown, until a German scholar discovered it in 1929 . What this tell you of an Empire as powerful as the Ottoman?

For the Ottomans Knowledge was something to be acquired, stored, if necessary bought, rather than grown or developed (from the book What Went Wrong?). I saw this mentality in Saudi Arabia to where I have been twice. I saw that most of the technical workers and engineers that work for the Aramco oil company owned by the House of Saud are not Saudi nor Arabs (with very few exceptions) but European, American, even Korean, Japanese, Indian and Chinese. Think of the different outcomes of former British colonies such as India as opposed to Pakistan and you get the idea.

By pointing out all this I am not excusing the recolonization of Islamic lands by the Bush Administration. Building an empire in the Middle East should have been an idea that smarter Americans would've had to refuse and the British could've been more open about their experience with this part of the World after WW1 but apparently they too forgot about the foolishness of military adventures in the sands of Iraq.

The Middle East need to have a profound social, intellectual and economic transformation if it wants to be a relevant civilization once again. It has to adopt a secular mentality in the western style that transforms the role of religion in the life of its citizens into a personal matter instead of an all encompassing totality. It needs to quit the idea that it has a monopoly on victimhood and grievance and outgrow it just like many ex-colonies around the World have done, and for Allah's sake: quit blowing yourself and your countrymen up!!

As an example of the gulf between our civilizations read about the controversy in Egypt about a breast feeding fatwa, and about honor killings in Europe by Muslims immigrants. It is simply incredible:
Fatwa promotes adult breastfeeding

Father found guilty in honor killing

Forgotten Lessons from past Empires

For the last 500 years western empires have dominated the world, but by the end of WW1 they were but merely shadows of their former selfs but still managed to control much of Earth. By the end of WW2 they simply were empty shells and within a few decades their colonial dominions collapsed.

It hasn't been an easy Imperium since the U.S. became a true world power after wining WW2. On the heels of Hitler and Imperial Japan came the worldwide struggle against Soviet and Chinese Communism and countless nationalist wars and revolts that threatened at one time or another U.S. strategic concerns. Against the soviet menace it won swiftly after almost 50 yrs and now the major threats are in the form of Islamic terrorism and Asian, mainly Chinese, growing economic, political and military clout. Russia too has become stronger and more menacing of late but is not the concern it was under the soviets. And the nuisance of Chavez, Fidel and Morales in Latin America are no major threats but only pesky inconveniences. Of these, Chinese growing shadow around the world is of the major concern since is happening very fast at a time when the U.S. is embroiled in a war in Iraq losing huge amounts of money, goodwill and military readiness by the day.

There is simply no solution on the horizon to the Iraq fiasco and no will left within the American public to engage Iran militarily with all the costs that would entail including exorbitant gas prices. On this, America faces perhaps the most inextricable strategic disaster of its entire history.
These are precisely the kind of circumstances that usually give foreign powers the chance to gather strength and close the gap separating them from the dominant nation. China, Iran and Russia are obviously doing precisely that and they have the cooperation of other lesser powers such as Hugo Chavez's Venezuela in bringing about their stated desire for a "multipolar" world.

The U.S. has grown increasingly dependent on resources and goods from China and the Middle East. Also, we depend on foreign investors and foreign national banks to finance our deficits while at the same time our trade imbalance grows ever larger. As many historians have argued our situation is reminiscent of Imperial Spain during the 16th century. Spain mounted impressive military feats throughout continental Europe against France, its main continental enemy, and the rebel province of Holland (think Iraq), tried to conquer England several times while colonizing the new world. But the gold and silver that was getting from its colonies was going directly into the coffers of its creditors in order to pay for more wars and was not being reinvested into the country. By the 1640's mighty Spain was no more...