Presidential Adventures To Our Ruin

STOP- “FOREIGN ENTANGLEMENTS”

Introduction: we, as Americans, are inheritors of law from the English colonists who until 1775 were Englishmen. English Kings had the power to send armies and navies where they wished without the agreement of anyone until about 1690-the end of the English Civil Wars. George II was the last English King to lead an army into battle at Dettingen in 1743. At least, he was on the field whether in danger or not.

There was also at the time- 1763- serious resistance in England and in this English colony to a standing army. Armies were usually raised for the fighting season. Of course, now armies are year around seen as lifetime careers. What happened to the resistance altogether to a standing army ? Why are standing armies all right now as a career out of a career center formerly Army recruiting?

Now, American Presidents send armies where and when they wish with or without the blessing of Congress; and those Presidents don’t have the decency to pretend to lead armies on any battlefield, or send their children to the battles either.

Part One: The Main Argument

The American Presidency has been and is out of control in the matter of making war and takking us into ‘foreign entanglements. There has been and is now after George W. Bush a great failure in Presidential judgment on the matter of making war to name only one area of important Presidential responsibility. Presidents are being allowed, encouraged or are assuming way too much authority by taking this country into unnecessary, elective, destructive, illegal, imperialistic and now pre-emptive wars.

Most “wars” Americans have had to fight have not been declared by Congress in advance, and were probably not necessary for the U.S. to fight at all. This fact alone is absolutely ruinous to the promise of this Democracy which promise is quickly disappearing. The Founders of this country- so revered for their wisdom- wanted the people’s representatives in Congress to have war-making power for good reasons. They wanted the people through their representatives to control the Presidency not the other way around as is the case now. The Founders wrote in the check of Congress hoping for that large elected body to make a sensible decision on the all important matter of making war.

Preemptive war (striking before being attacked) was said to be un-American for a few generations before this Iraq war. Unfortunately, that may have been but a figment of American mythology. Now some conservatives even think that the Constitutional Commander-In-Chief doctrine allows Presidents to make war where and when they wish. Progressives want Congress to declare war in advance in fulfillment of Congressional authority and responsibility. The lawful responsibility of the President to make war has become a gravely serious issue about which people of good will cannot differ- there is no room for difference on this one with such dire implications for American citizens.

Congress has declared war only five times since the Constitution was adopted in 1787. That was done in 1812, 1846, 1898, 1918 and 1941. The United States has fought over 200 big and small military actions as undeclared wars. Congress has ducked the responsibility so many times that Congress out of guilt and to try to reassert its power passed the War Powers Act in 1973. That Act was to assure Congress of getting its Constitutional responsibility after a President had decided to or had actually put troops out to fight. The details are of little consequence here. Sufficient to say that the War Powers Act has not been effective, and Congress is still very ineffective when millions of Americans need their representatives most in exercising Congressional authority with overly aggressive Presidents. Coincidentally, the English King about 1680 lost the power to take an army where he wanted.. In respect to making war the U.S. now has a King by any other name.

These adventures with American power have taken the United States a long way from the original intention of the Framers of the Constitution not to be involved in foreign entanglements . That was the advice of several of the Founding fathers including George Washington in his Farewell Address. The idea of modern America as undeclared policeman of the world or biggest bully on the block has turned this country into a militarized and militaristic powerhouse. Our country is now entangled all over the world into the affairs of other countries with almost 800 bases. Our modern leadership being so much more clever than the Founders military Empire is our name.

Americans are going to have to go to the law to stop overly ambitious Presidents from taking this powerful country into costly adventures that do not insure public safety, and are detrimental to the basic interests of most Americans. We have to demand changes in the law that will corral in the Presidency in the role of Commander-in-Chief. Citizens will have to use the law to restrict the Presidency from taking the country to war except for the real long term defense and security interest of the 50 states, and put the war making power fully and finally back with Congress.

If this takes an Amendment to the Constitution to put the genii back into the bottle it will be a long, strenuous and tough fight with the kind of Congresses we now have. It is highly unlikely that the American people of today will ever have the will to achieve such a Constitutional amendment. The country is likely set on more misadventures of Presidents that cannot be changed without broad and general recognition of the problem and demand for change. The issue is not framed nor is the clamor from the citizenry loud enough yet to get the attention of Congress. It will take a national clamor to push Congress even to make law on this to say nothing of a Constitutional amendment. The citizenry of the United States does not have this issue high on its list of important issues. The courts may be the first and only hope, and that is a mighty slim reed at this point.

This modern feature has been called the Imperial Presidency referring to the Empire this country has become. This misuse of American power is a reckless form of Adventurism in the name of fear called ‘national defense’. However, Presidential Adventurism is a careless and mistaken misuse of the people, power and prestige of this country with the huge power and responsibility entrusted to Presidents by the electorate.

The American people have been put through several unnecessary wars that achieved nothing, but great cost including the death and maiming of American armed services; the death of many foreign troops and civilians ; a huge debt for American taxpayers and the great destruction of American and foreign property. These are only part of the direct cost which is easily reckoned. The full cost of these adventures dreamed up by Presidents have been kept from the American people and even from the people’s representatives in Congress.

. A recent article in the Washington Post notes that the founding fathers “knew that no single individual, whether selected by birth or popular vote, could be blindly trusted to wield power wisely.” A current student of wide experience traces the history of the growth of Presidential power coining the President as “self anointed leader of the Free World.” Professor Andrew Bacevich and many others today are much traumatized by what our country has become, and the retreat from citizenship that has gone with it. Commentators have pointed out this weakness in the Constitution. The visionary, Chalmers Johnson, discusses the undesirable development of a useless Congress in the context of the out-of-control Presidency. The recent G.W.Bush Presidency stretched the power of the President way beyond that envisioned by any previous Presidency other than possibly that of Richard Nixon.

There is wide concern about this stretch in Presidential power among progressive political analysts and informed citizens. Presidential abuse of power is working its way to the top of the list, but won’t become a serious issue in the national corporate press. The frightful excesses of executive power by G.W.Bush have been noted by a myriad of objectors, but the idea of misused power has yet to rise to the top of national priority. We are being warned by people who know better, but is the public listening ? Will the public listen ? Where is the enlightened leadership on this important issue ?

Out-of-control Presidential adventurism can and may very well ruin this country economically from the wreckage of repeated, unnecessary war. Endless War is now in 2008 being discussed openly as if it is an inevitable, unavoidable and necessary possibility. This would not be the first great and powerful country (empire) to be ruined by the costs and losses of war. The modern empires of Portugal, Spain, France and England were all ruined by their Princes and Kings intoxicated with the great power they controlled. Power has been misused by all kinds of leaders both elected, appointed, and hereditary- conquerors and dictators alike. Misuse of power is not reserved just to people who are not elected to office. The American people are victims of the misuse of Presidential power and a weak and compliant Congress.

Getting competent, responsible leadership which will not ruin the life situation of the people is one of the great problems of any country. This Democracy is not guaranteed competent, wise and temperate national leadership. Election is not a guarantee of reasonable and sensible use of power. Election and representative government can be subject to the folly of its leaders as were the countries of Kings, tyrants and dictators. The reckless use of entrusted power by Presidents is one of the more obvious failures of American elected leadership.

Under our Constitution war making power is shared or divided between Congress and the President. To be charitable let us say that the founding document is ambiguous, confusing or too brief to make the power sharing crystal clear. There is an effort now to make this power sharing work better. A committee chaired by two former Secretaries of State: James Baker and Warren Christopher recommended changes on 8 July, 2008. That committee called for another permanent Congressional committee which a President must consult, but whose recommendations he can veto and go his own way with our troops. We are still back to the powers of the English King which were long ago lost by that monarch. How is another committee going to help when Congress ducks responsibility ? The recommended compromise does not reinforce the power of the people through their Congress to control the use of American troops. The recommendation, therefore, falls short of making a real difference in the present situation.

Realization of misuse of power has got to be brought to our people in a way they can understand. Only the concerted demand of the American people will ever achieve the changes necessary to control the Presidency. Congress and the courts have abdicated their Constitutional role in controlling the Presidency. Presidential control by the oversight of the people’s representatives in Congress is almost a hopeless fantasy in conjunction with a power intoxicated President. The President is to carry out the will of the people through Congress not ‘give leadership’ toward disaster.

There is a notion around that the United States as the sole remaining ‘super power’ (so we are told) has to be “policeman to the world”. I ask you who appointed this country in that role ? That role in all its implications has never been discussed with and voted on by the American people.. I dare say that the American people have everything to lose in that role as it has progressed since the Spanish-American War. That role may be pleasing to the ear of nationalistic patriots, but has lead to serious unforeseen consequences for the American people.

Furthermore, the notion that the U.S. has the messianic role of exporting democracy to the world while we are policeman of that same world has never been discussed with, debated by and decided on by American taxpayers. This messianic notion began with President William McKinley who began our Empire to take Christianity to the Philippines- a people McKinley thought incapable of governing themselves. This remains one of the current missions of a few “intellectuals” commonly now called neo-conservatives. Tragically, the American people are being kept out of major decisions which affect their lives which is crippling our democracy with the apparent un-democratic notion that the people don’t have enough good sense to understand the issues. Some misguided advisors are even talking about 50 and 100 year wars.

The assumption of this world policeman role is ruining our country at home while we take on expensive and deadly fights around the world. The role of world policeman is a thankless, self-defeating job even if it is backed up by the prestige of the United Nations, and other people’s money. There are still big indirect costs at home which are not being paid openly for the thankless role of world policeman. The matter of the full cost of these Presidential adventures is in itself a subject full of dire implications generally dodged by administrations and Congress. It is easy for people in Washington to imagine high minded jobs for this country to do with other people’s tax money and the patriotic children of the working people. Congress is a bad example of how to handle other people’s money in a sensible, equitable and responsible way.

There is an assumption that war: armies, airplanes, missiles and bombs can solve a problem such as local or world terrorism. That assumption in itself is in all likelihood untrue, and needs to be discussed openly. The current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq would loudly trump the idea that armies can cure terrorism against un-uniformed people in their own country. It is an entirely foolish premise of Presidential Adventurism. Just as foolish as assumptions under estimating the enemy of previous adventures of our Presidents.

War is itself a failure of leadership, and probably the result of lack of vision on both sides. War as a way to solve conflict is as barbarian as eating human flesh for dinner. War as an institution is dragged out of our ancient human tribal ethnocentric time in caves. Ancient human time is still alive in some heads with their blind and mindless loyalties to tribe, religion, country or blind dependence on armament. War is mass craziness as people are whipped up, misinformed, uninformed and lied to in order to get them ready and willing to fight and die. Further, those who fight and die are made into heroes and given all kinds of incentives to fight. Why otherwise would we fight? War in this modern time has to be seen as craziness and as leadership failure gone rampant.

Tragically, many people of the world even in the 21st Century are trapped in tribal loyalties as well as loyalties to warlords and religions which keep them from anything but hopeless warring among themselves. Those people and those places have not even begun the civilizing efforts begun here by Jefferson and Madison to officially recognize religious toleration in law. Our religious toleration is a model to the world in that most of the time people of various religions tolerate each other here.

Peoples of the world by their leadership need to develop religious and tribal toleration based on an acceptance of the right of others to be different. Religious toleration has to be encouraged by leaders, and codified into law. Religious toleration was codified into law by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson in 18th century Virginia. The kind of super-loyal tribal craziness still so rampant in the world has been largely surmounted in this country, and we ought to stay out of such primitive fights in the countries of other people.

War cannot be seen as inevitable and impossible to prevent, but must be seen as a crazy way to resolve disagreement or conflict- a great waste of life and resources, and a great failure of leadership. People ought to demand the resignation and replacement of failed leadership that wants to take them to war especially war when not attacked. It ought to be expected of leaders that war be avoided at almost any cost. Why would the average American taxpayer, parent and citizen want his country to be the strongest by far, the greatest and the bully on the block when the cost of that is a decreased standard of living ? That is where the pursuit of empire is taking us. Unnecessary wars have taken us to a standard of living lower that the German and Japanese peoples we conquered in WWII. Of course, our mythology tells us otherwise about our country and our people.

At the same time the United States cannot be self-designated as policeman of a world of states unable to resolve their own conflicts. Effort is and has been made within the United Nations to resolve conflicts between countries and within countries. Although those efforts are only at the beginning stage they ought to be encouraged and strengthened. Tribes and countries must find disincentives not to make war on each other. Belligerent, self-aggrandizing, power hungry leadership ought to be discouraged and even prohibited by the world- national sovereignty or not.

This kind of effort will have to come through the United Nations which must be made to work for the hope of all mankind. Countries must have the opportunity to reap the destruction of their own deficits of leadership just as with incompetents in a family. It is enabling for this country to try to rescue countries and peoples in the throes of tribal instincts from themselves and from their neighbors. Other countries need to be let alone by the United States.. The U.S. ought to stay uninvolved in the entanglements of other countries.

That is the issue framed as simply as possible. To prove the point let us go backward in time to review the wars that Presidents and their friends have gotten the American people into since the country was formed by the present Constitution of 1787. Working from the present backward in time let us look at what Presidents have done almost on their own and against the long term security and public welfare of the American people.

Part Two- Major Wars- Declared and Presidential
Going Backward in Time from the Present

“War on Terror” in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and the middle East
from the 9/11/02 WTC Attack –

This undeclared war was begun by President GWBush in 2003 after some kind of brief discussion in Congress which did not declare war on Iraq. The 9/11/02 attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon mostly by fanatical Saudis; and the failed attempt on the White House were very upsetting to the American people. Using the upset of the 9/11 attack, President George W. Bush and fellow neo-conservatives have mistakenly put this country into another unnecessary “pre-emptive” military adventure supposedly trying to stop ‘terror’ with our armed forces. Although the real reasons for the adventure have never been explained it was often said to be to ‘defeat’ terrorism. That is a theme GWBush used throughout his Presidency. That whole operation is on the false assumption that an army with bombs and bullets can discourage or stop terrorists which has obviously not happened, and wont happen any time soon.

The adventure in Iraq is preemptive as Iraq did not attack us. The Iraq fight is not the first country we have attacked before being attacked unless Korea and many lesser places are considered. It is now evident that after the initial military victory against a small enemy army the fight has turned very sour into a prolonged, dangerous and destructive occupation largely unwanted by the people of Iraq. Our Commanders have turned Iraq into a hope for stable government, and due to pressure at home into a hopeful place at the moment.

It is now clear that the attack on Iraq was planned in the White House long before 9/11, and GWB and others of the Administration lied to the American people as to the reason for the unnecessary, preemptive war. The mission is now allegedly to take democracy to the Iraqis which may never work in our interest. The real reason for this pre-emptive fight is not obvious yet unless it is to insure access to oil by international oil companies while appearing to do good for the Iraqis.

In the meantime 4000+ uniformed Americans have been killed. And 26,000+ seriously wounded Iraqis have been killed and much Iraqi property has been destroyed by American fire power. There are now two million refugees from Iraq many to Syria. Another generation of fine young American men and women are being misused as the military is stretched beyond good sense. The venture may cost American taxpayers 2-3 trillion dollars before we get out based on legitimate estimates. Lastly, this military adventure has generated many terrorists in Iraq where there were none before. Has there been a more senseless national adventure in the short history of this country ?

This military adventure has defeated its own ostensible purposes by making Arab people the world over angry at this country, and willing to blow themselves up to kill Iraqis and Americans. Our troops have turned Iraq into a hornet’s nest of terrorism. Iraq is now a training ground for terrorists using increasingly more sophisticated roadside bombs with great success. Numerous Islamic fanatics blow themselves up to kill fellow Iraqis and some Americans. This sad story is current and generally reported even by the corporate media.

This Iraq military adventure has ruined the good name of this country worldwide with the Arab and Muslim world for generations to come. American soldiers, CIA and others at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq took pictures of their grotesque pranks, and published them on the internet for the world to see. The military and/or the CIA through the torture of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo have thoroughly ruined the reputation of this country. It is now being reliably reported that permission for this brutal treatment was given by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and the Bush II White House.

This adventure has proven to the world that this country is an arrogant, militaristic powerhouse devoid of the moral grounding we so loudly proclaim. Much of the world now looks at this country warily and with distrust. Where the United States was once a decent country offering a beacon of hope to people we are now widely despised around the world. We are turning into the very thing we claim to dislike.

The American military has done its job in Iraq, but is now in O’ 07 stretched, over- used and over-worked. A President is again using up our young in a pipe dream of senseless preemption. This great Presidential miss-adventure is turning into a national disaster before our eyes.

One of the most immoral and cynical aspects of this war is that depleted uranium and white phosphorus has been and is being used on shells which will adversely affect our troops and surviving Iraqis for a long time to come. We are basically sending the young to fight, and then poisoning them even as we did with Agent Orange in Vietnam and DU in the First Gulf War. The conservative, Jim Powell, military and political historian, rails against foreign entanglements from WWI to Iraq. Powell for consistency would have to call G.W. Bush just as arrogant as Woodrow Wilson and other Presidents he has named.

The direct money cost of the Iraq war just to the U.S.A. is as usual being underestimated and obfuscated by the American government. The cost was given as $218,000,000,000 in 8/05; and if it were to last six years would be over a $US1trillion dollars according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. About the 8 January, 2006 a new and comprehensive estimate of the cost of the war hit even the corporate news. Dr. Joseph Stiglitz and Dr. Linda Bilmes now estimate the cost o the Iraq war at $US2,000,000,000,000.

Paul Craig Roberts, a syndicated writer on economics, blasted the Bush Administration for falsifying their estimate of the cost. Roberts says: “Stiglitz correctly includes the cost of lifetime care of the wounded, the economic value of destroyed and lost lives, and the opportunity cost of the resources diverted to war destruction. What he leaves out is the war’s diversion of the nation’s attention away from the ongoing erosion of the U.S. economy. War and the accompanying domestic police state have filled the attention span of Americans and their government. Meanwhile, the US economy has been rapidly deteriorating into third world status.”

I don’t know Roberts evidence for the last sentence, but it is not hard to believe that the cheerleader President has and will ‘lowball’ the cost and the destruction. The anti-war crowd now says that this war is costing every American $727 (which will increase). The sad fact is that this administration like others before it is not open, honest, transparent or even candid with taxpayers about the whole cost of the Iraq war. Without full disclosure Americans or their representatives in Congress cannot make good use of opportunities for sensible decisions. .
Tragically, this abominable Presidential adventure is building a huge armed forces base near Baghdad- as if the U.S. is staying forever or has money to throw away.

A leading American authority analyzes the power excesses of the GWBush Administration into these categories: l. the preemption doctrine; 2. unsubstantiated executive claims getting Congressional approval;

The cost of the five year wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is now reliably estimated at $US3,000,000,000,000 or more by the economists Stiglitz and Bilmes. That includes the direct costs and many indirect costs to be borne for years to come in ruined lives. This may well be pushing the U.S. economy into the worst recession since the great depression of the 1930s. We are now in late 08 and early 09 going through a serious recession being blamed on other causes than useless war. The Nation Magazine shows graphically what the $479.2 billion cost just for Cleveland could have done for that city. It is a sad day for Americans.

This reckless Presidential adventure is ruinous to the lives of many at home as well as now more than 4000 American dead, other allied dead and thousands if not 100K or more Iraqi dead, and a huge destruction of Iraqi property and disruption of life. Casualties are now estimated at 101,000-a figure needing wide distribution.

The War in Afghanistan in 09 is being re-focused. It is said openly by military leaders that more American troops than the 60K there are needed. After 7-8 years this seemingly endless war is getting nowhere as opposed to the intractability and reality situation of the people of the country. Unfortunately, the new President Obama has widened the war while trying to find a sensible rational and a mission that will work. There is still the fantasy in Washington that our troops will win something even though many Afghan people want us out.

Note: The Iraq and Afghan wars are taking place under entirely new circumstances of communication and information. The Armed Services has tried to control reporting from Iraq. That has not worked successfully. Much reporting has leaked out with modern electronic devices never before available.

After seven years of war the mass of printed and visual material available analyzing the war while it is going on would fill a room or a small house. The misguided President, his cadre and his political party are up against this huge wall of communication like no other President has been while in office. If the political system works we will be well rid of the people in favor of endless war by early next year. As much as 80% of the American people are fed up with militarism and all that is going with their taxes, but where is the accountability ?

1st Gulf War 1990-1991

This undeclared fight was sponsored by President G.H.W.Bush with the involvement of several other countries. Since the U.S. was not attacked it is obvious that this was an elective war well organized by the U.S. President. Whether it achieved anything critically necessary to the welfare of the American people except to secure an oil source remains to be seen. It is a war with documented trickery of Nayira, a Kuwait national, before Congress which fooled Congress and the Presidency into thinking atrocities were happening in Kuwait.

Due to the fact that it was quick and did not produce a lot of American casualties it has not received much negative attention. There was considerable debate in Congress preceding Congressional blessing to give G.H.W.Bush permission to fight without declaring War. Dick Cheney told Congress then that the President did not need their permission to make the war. Although a former Congressman Cheney even then was supporting Presidential power at the expense of Congress.

The fact is that the $US61,000,000,000 cost was higher than some small previous wars. Whether these figures are totals for all countries or just for the U.S. is unknown. G.H.W.B. did get other countries to bear most of the costs. American casualties are now estimated at about 30% of the 697,000 people who served in the region. That includes 7600-8300 soldiers who died, 156,000 disabled by illness from the war, and 158, 000 injured or ill from war service. Those are heavy casualties for such a quick war. It is unclear whether American casualties are separated out in these figures or are included with other countries.

Depleted uranium [DU] was used on shells. DU is a poison which is still producing birth defects among American and Iraqi babies. Each shell fired by an American tank had from 3 to 10 pounds of DU- on each of the 944,000 shells fired. The Pentagon admits leaving behind 320 metric tons of DU on the battlefield with a life of millions of years. How massively immoral is that and unprecedented in warfare.

President GHWB was criticized roundly for not having our troops go on into Baghdad to unseat the terrible dictator, Saddam Hussein. GHWB was actually respecting the UN mandate. Maybe, his son was trying simply to take care of critics of his father by the destruction he has caused in Iraq.

The Vietnam War- 1964-1972

This national tragedy was started and enlarged by American Presidents but was never declared by Congress. The great tragedy of the present middle-aged generation was the ugly jungle war in Vietnam (as well as the secret war in Laos and Cambodia). The people of the United States got nothing much out of that elective Presidential military adventure, but 58,000 dead and 2,000,000 Vietnamese killed, a big debt, the wearing out of our armed forces that took 15 years to overcome, many maimed and psychologically ruined men; the tearing up of this country among and between generations, the alienation of most of the generation of the young of the United States who were being sent to be killed for a cause they and the sane people of the country didn’t understand or accept.

Vietnam is the biggest and worst example of Presidential Adventurism in living memory. Every President from Truman to Nixon had a hand in enlarging the war. Eisenhower deferred to Congress on Indochina, sent 200 advisors, but then authorized covert operations in other countries. Kennedy sent up to 16K troops and equipment. The murdered Kennedy may have wanted to pull out the troops. Johnson wanted a blank check in the Tonkin Gulf resolution which was debated two days in Congress, and passed with eighty in favor and two exceptions. Johnson confessed privately to Fulbright 3 Feb, 1964 that Vietnam was “hopeless”, and told others the same thing. Nixon inherited what Johnson had really stirred up.

Vietnam is the worst because it took the longest, got the most killed and cost the most of any such adventurism one can remember. The maimed and destroyed are still around. Agent Orange poisoned and ruined the lives of thousands of Americans and Vietnamese for generations. In the peace negotiations President Nixon then gave the North Vietnamese what they wanted. “In the end the Americans had tried to destroy the people’s will and failed.” What a lesson in arrogant Presidential fantasy that was underestimating the enemy- a common error of arrogance !

The money cost just to Americans was over $US346,000,000,000 in current dollars. Our government as usual understated or buried the full cost of that war. Recently the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments costed out that war at $US600,000,000,000 in today’s dollars. Our government wants to avoid the transparency on cost which would give American taxpayers the information to make a sensible decision even if they did have the opportunity to vote on such a matter.

Our U.S. Army was stretched too far and took up to 15 years to recover. The U.S. Army in the jungle turned to functioning crazy and in disillusion turned to drugs, ‘fragging’ [killing] soldiers that weren’t liked], and other unsavory conduct. Money only begins to cover the real cost in ruined lives which is still being paid with PTSD. American youth were not prepared to be jungle fighters in a pointless war, and that kind of warfare was very damaging to our troops. It is delirious to think that American boys and girls can fight anywhere, any time against any imaginable enemy. That kind of myth is no more true than American exceptionalism gone rampant, and a kind of superiority mythology we had better get over.

The “My Lai Massacre” was until recently the most glaring known example of military misbehavior. A helicopter pilot named Hugh Thompson and his crew stopped the killing of several hundred Vietnamese civilians by American soldiers. Lt. William Calley, the ranking officer there, was tried, convicted and served prison time for the barbarism of wanton sanctioned killing. Thompson’s death at 62 the week of the 6 Jan 2006 brought up the way this whistle blower was afterward shunned and threatened by fellow pilots. In Thomson’s replayed interview on CBS Sunday Morning 8 Jan 06 he said those barbarian U.S. troops had cut out the tongues of some people, raped and bayoneted pregnant women among their worst acts .

Mai Lai is only one of the shameful senseless events of the Vietnam War that were later revealed. There are stories of other massacres and numerous examples of gross misbehavior by American troops. A contemporary study reveals continual mindless killing to achieve ‘body county’ to make a unit look good. At home during that war we saw the tragedy of National Guardsmen firing on and killing other young Americans at Kent State University. That war caused unthinkable tragedy for the country all due to completely irresponsible Presidential adventurism for no goal to better the American people.

We are only now 40 years later being exposed to investigative journalism on some other massacre type killings sanctioned at the time by officers up the chain of command. Some veterans of those jungle fights deeply resent these exposures. Veterans still chafe at the Winter Soldier revelations particularly what now Senator John Kerry said publicly at that time. That resentment is understandable enough. Men who fought there had to believe then and many want to still believe in what they did. Random killing of non-combatants may not have been a common experience, but its occurrence ought to give us serious concern .

The record of Presidential lying and deception by Presidents Johnson and Nixon and Presidential advisors, Henry Kissinger and Robert McNamara, has recently been documented in detail beyond dispute by active duty Army Officer, Colonel H.R. McMaster. It is apparent that the Vietnam adventure ruined two presidencies and alienated a whole generation of our young. How much more damage would you want from Presidential miss-adventure with our excessive military power ? Every President from Truman to Nixon had a hand in widening that war unnecessarily. It is also said on good authority that President Kennedy intended to pull out of Vietnam, and look at his fate.

Look also at the fate of Martin L. King who preached against the Vietnam War, and was also killed 7 April, 1967. Imagine how you would feel had your child been killed in that useless bit of Presidential misconduct.

Robert McNamara one of President Johnson’s ex-Ford Motor Co Brain Trusters and as Secretary of War, a man most influential in escalating the Vietnam War. McNamara apparently in his older years agonized over his role in extending that war. By his death he apparently pretty much admitted publicly that he had been wrong, and grieved over his role in that useless, unnecessary war. McGeorge Bundy, another Presidentialadvisor, has similar misgivings in old age.

Truman’s Korean United Nations ‘Police Action’ War 1950-1953

President Harry Truman got the U.S. into the undeclared ‘United Nations police action’ which didn’t qualify as far as Truman was concerned as a war for Congressional calling. Harry Truman in this way avoided the Congress in which he had served thus subverting the checks and balances put in the Constitution. Eisenhower said at the time that Korea was ‘a mistake’ without Congressional approval. At the time 64% of the public was against sending troops overseas, but they went to Korea anyway. A prominent and lasting critique of this kind of foreign policy credits Truman and elitism with perfecting the technique of bypassing Congress and taking our country to war.

Among the 136 to 211,000 troops casualties were very high. That war cost the U.S. taxpayers $US237,000,000,000. Korea was a terrible war for those who fought it. Many of the surviving American fighters to this day have trouble from the frost bite of their feet as it was such a cold place to fight. For all the countries involved there were almost two million casualties in that war.

There is legitimate question whether the U.S. and/or China used biological weapons in Korea. The obituary of John W. Powell discusses his journalistic revelations in China during that war claiming that the U.S. was and did use such weapons. The apparent expert, Edward Hagerman, said in 2008 that it is still inconclusive whether either country used biological weapons. Neither country has either affirmed or denied ownership of that rather heinous development.

The Post WWII tragic record of American government deception

There is a recently compiled record of our government in overthrowing governments – legitimate and illegitimate- and assassinating democratically elected political leaders or people aspiring to be leaders. Blum lists 55 instances in about 50 countries where the CIA and/or our troops have intervened. The documented record is very discouraging to anyone wanting to be proud of his/her country. Blum goes further than that by listing 36 instances of plots by the CIA to assassinate political leaders in various countries. Blum then goes on to list 9 pages of instances of the use of United States armed forces around the world- several hundred instances altogether- by order of a President. Those discussed above are but the worst examples being widely known as the most destructive of life and wealth.

World War II. (1939)- U.S. participation 1941-1945

That great ’world war’ was declared by Congress against Germany and Japan after the U.S. was attacked by Japan 7 Dec, 1941. WWII may have been produced in Germany by the humiliating and unfair settlement with Germany following WWI, and in Japan by military megalomania and the desire for the Imperial power over an empire. WWII is the last Congressionally declared war, and may be the last legitimate, necessary and unavoidable war which had to be fought to stop the madness of Hitler’s armies, and the ruthless behavior of the Japanese Imperial Army- leadership madness if there ever was such. Whether President Roosevelt provoked our entry in the war to rescue England or knew of the Pearl Harbor attack is moot if the war was in fact necessary and unavoidable. The U.S. forces in Europe did help to stop the German conquerors of Europe, Russia and England. WWII may be the only necessary war this country has fought since our Revolution.

. The Japanese obviously did attack the United States on 7 Dec, 1941. That attack made the war in the Pacific immediately possible, apparently necessary and unavoidable with the full support of much of the American population. Whether the attack and the war could have been avoided at what cost by President Roosevelt is open to legitimate question.

There is some continuing controversy whether the U.S. needed to be in that war or whether it was a war of choice. Even today writers are arguing as did Christopher Hitchens commenting on a book by Pat Buchannan that it was a “war worth fighting.” Even at a distance of 70 years it appears to be a necessary war. It would be important to clarify to the extent possible whether President Roosevelt and his friends took the country into that war under false and misleading pretenses.

The countries involved in that war suffered almost 16,000,000 casualties as military deaths and 29, 600,000 civilian deaths. Of all the 20,000,000 Americans in uniform the U.S. had 406,000 casualties- only a small part of the total and the direct cost to this country was $US288,000,000,000 in today’s dollars. Costs to ex-military are still being paid. A standard figure today for casualties in all countries is 60,000,000.

World War I- “Saving the World For Democracy” –1914-1918,
The American part being 1917-1918

The recent work of Jim Powell makes the case that American participation in WWI may have lengthened the slaughter going on between England and France against Germany. President Woodrow Wilson got Congress to declare the United States into this elective war to rescue England and France although Germany did not attack our country. Jim Powell recently made the case that President Wilson on an adventure with American troops made a big mistake getting this country into war behind the British and French vs. the Germans. According to Jim Powell the British army lied to everyone to get the Americans into the war.

The American part of the trench war in France was short and deadly as 320 thousand Americans were K&W-if you can imagine that kind of cost for our part of a war of less than two years. That cost was paid by men who were told they were fighting a “War to End All Wars.” WWI cost this country US$200,000,000,000 in current dollars of our time. Jim Powell calls Woodrow Wilson arrogant, deluded and probably ignorant in foreign affairs. Woodrow Wilson was admittedly a dedicated Christian, and very self-righteous and rigid about his beliefs. . Powell blames U.S. intervention in WWI for the rise of Hitler and the Third Reich, Stalin and communism; and even WWII. Powell sees the massive failure in leadership in the big nations of England, France, Germany and Russia which brought huge losses to their countries in WWI and its aftermath.

The obvious whole cost of this war is as many as 8,500,000 military deaths of all nations, and total military and civilian casualties of 82,000,000. Those numbers are so stunning as to be beyond the capability of the mind to grasp, but WWI was certainly a world wide disaster.

Spanish-American War- “First War for American Empire “-1898-
Phillippine Insurection 1899-1912

Congress declared this war against Spain. Historians of these wars of President McKinley usually credit them as the beginning of American military Imperialism. The wisdom and necessity of fighting the Spanish in Cuba and the native freedom fighters in the Philippines was challenged at the time by far-sighted men of high profile. Men of the stature of Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie with their group called ‘Anti-Imperialist League’ publicly challenged the President of the United States. However, Congress declared war on Spain as requested by President McKinley . This Presidential adventure for territory and markets was not stopped by serious civilian resistance. Should President McKinley have been looking for support to stay home he could have found it. What the U.S. got out of it was Guantanamo and the Philippines.

The sinking of the Maine battleship was blamed on the Spanish, but has been lately proven to have blown up internally. The cause of the war against Spain was fabricated by people who wanted to fight. The long, costly war to put down an insurrection by freedom fighters in the Philippines was against our principles, and was the beginning of American Empire. That war cost the U.S. 4100 Killed and Wounded, and $US7,000,000 in present day dollars to say nothing about 220,000 native and indigenous people killed and their property and hopes for freedom temporarily destroyed. That struggle is in fact still going on in the Philippines.

The American Civil War- or the War for Southern Independence 1861-1865

The great domestic tragedy of the Civil war was never declared by Congress against the Confederacy. The necessity of our Civil War was loudly and actively questioned at the time. A student of the period closely follows the activities of Stephen A. Douglas and Lincoln after being elected. Milton traces the start to Congressional failures at the inability to compromise, and the inflexibility of Lincoln after he was elected. President Lincoln started the war without a Plebiscite (national vote) when many Northerners were against the war. There were plenty of members of the Democrat “Copperhead” Party under Clement Vallandingham of Ohio who were against the war at the time. There was great resistance to the great numbers killed during the war all of which resistance is usually not mentioned in school history books. The great killing of young men and the military draft aroused much active opposition which Lincoln squashed by locking up several thousand people who openly talked, worked or wrote publicly against his war.

Lincoln either preserved the Union or forced the South to stay in the Union at a terrible cost in lives and money. At a cost of more than $US45,000,000,000 in today’s dollars more than a million casualties- killed 630,000, wounded and missing 370,000 on both sides and great destruction of Southern property. That war holds the American record for the slaughter of 24 thousand men of both sides killed the first day at the Battle of Antietam, as well as killing in unimagined numbers in other battles. While Ulysses S. Gant is much admired for his generalship, he was the man who killed many thousands at a time to win the war.

It was recently pointed out by a prominent researcher that the casualties of this awful war were 2% of the population. That would be the equivalent today of the killing of 6,000,000 men out of our present population- an unthinkable number. That compares to the 4-5 thousand killed in the inconclusive war in Iraq thus far into 2009.

There is a good possibility that this greatly destructive war did not have to be fought. It may seem foolish to second-guess the necessity of our Civil War with the great sacrifice people made. Still, Otto Eisenschiml goes carefully through the possibilities for avoidance. It appears that Abraham Lincoln after seeming to support peace decided on his own without his Cabinet or the Congress to raise the first 75K troops which was considered an act of war to the Southern states. While plebiscite was suggested it didn’t happen so neither the people of the North nor their Congress in the final analysis had no voice in the decision to fight the South.
It is claimed by John V. Denson and others that had the South been left alone with their slavery that onerous institution would have disappeared anyway. That is one of those improvable assertions of history after the fact. Looking backward the South could have gone its way temporarily or forever, and what difference would it have made to people in the North ? . Slavery was becoming an institution of liability to Southern farmers anyway.

The sad fact is that Lincoln in March of 1862 asked Congress to pass a joint resolution offering Federal money to any state willing to buy out slaves adopting a plan for gradual emancipation. Frank Blair (Postmaster General ) had advocated that plan for a long time. Congress on the 10 April, 1862 passed a resolution saying that the government “ought to cooperate” with any state including compensation, etc. In April of ’62 Congress passed a bill offering to buy out slave owners in the District of Columbia. .That was considered quite a victory.

The Emancipation Proclamation itself still contained the idea of compensated emancipation. At the end of 1862 the idea of compensated emancipation was in a proposed Amendment to the Constitution which did not survive Congress. In the end the final failure was with Congress to end the conflict in a sensible way. There are several 1976 academic studies of the economics of that buy out plan by Wm. L. Marr` and Betty L. Fladeland. The enlightened idea of buying up slaves did not in the end avert all the death, suffering and destruction of that awful war.

Our Civil War greatly expanded the size, scope and power of the American Presidency and the Federal government, and reduced the power of state government. At the same time that war showed how civil liberties were narrowed during wartime which is what is now to be expected of a war time even in this democracy. Lincoln and his administration silenced most of the public resistance during the war by doing away with habeas corpus and jailing about 10,000 opponents to shut them up. That loss of liberty was blamed by Lincoln on the necessity to fight the war successfully. It was a big step into the enlargement of the power of the President and the Federal government over the states and individuals.

Casualties among the military North and South were about 1,200,000 men K&W. That war cost the two sides- North and South- over $US5,000,000,000 in today’s dollars.

The Mexican War (1846-1848

Another unpopular war declared against Mexico and protested by many. None other than Henry David Thoreau landed in the Concord MA Jail for not paying war taxes. The cost was about a $l,000,000,000 of today’s dollars and over 17,000 casualties dead and wounded on both sides.

Abraham Lincoln in Congress at the time even endorsed an amendment against the Mexican War calling the war unconstitutional.”

The Second War for American Independence 1812-1815

The first of five declared wars- this against England- had almost 7,000 American casualties, and cost this new country less than $1,000,000,00- in today’s dollars. For some few combatants and residents it was a serious war restricted to certain sections of the land and water of the country.

The British quite famously burned a lot of Washington and even the White House.
More needs to be said here about popular resistance in both countries and the failure of leadership that brought it about.

The cost of wars in lives and money of : declared
and undeclared Presidential adventures

The total dead from all the major wars of the United States up to the present preemptive war in Iraq is at least 432,990 killed In battle and 576,393 died during war of other causes which totals: 1,009,383 minimum. The wounded are half again as many which is more than 1,554,396 total casualties of just our own people not including foreigners. 2,500,000 military killed and wounded just in our major wars which is not a complete figure.

The total cost of all wars so far including Iraq (60 billion) for all these major wars after our Revolution is said to be $US30, 732,000,000,000.-. that is 30,732 trillion. Wouldn’t that have gone a long way to make things better for our own people at home ? Is that a sensible use of our people and our riches for what the people got out of these unnecessary wars ?

Governments don’t want to talk honestly about the total costs of the wars they make. Tyrannical governments don’t have to discuss costs with anyone. If people were aware of all the costs ahead of time the public would be much more against wars of Presidential choice.

Thoughtful people are and have been busy figuring the costs of every war. Much of that effort is now available on the internet. Robert Higgs claims that this country has spent $10 trillion in today’s purchasing power on military affairs since World War II. A speech in Congress by Representative John J. Duncan Jr. covers a lot of the ground very nicely. See it at
http://www.house.gov/duncan/2005/fs061405.htm

A book by William Nordhaus called ‘The Economic Consequences of War with Iraq’ was offered before GWBush went ahead, and was fobbed off by the Bush Administration. Nordhaus says that expenses of $1.3 trillion on the Iraq war would build for example. 2.2 million modest homes. Lawrence M. O’Rourke, reporter for the Sacramento Bee, claims that if the “U.S. is forced to keep 40,000 troops in Iraq through 2010,… the cost could rise to $646 billion, said Rep. John Spratt.” All these estimates will probably turn out to be low.
Government is good at hiding costs so as not to arouse civilian resistance. That is true of our government as well, and was even more true under Kings and Dictators who didn’t account to anyone.

One of the ‘unintended consequences’ of contemporary war not generally understood is the high cost of recruiting every soldier. The costs are now in February, 2006 as high as $40,000 bonus for each new recruit. Recruiters are today paying up to $20,000 for re-enlistment. When young people become less willing to fight the financial incentives such as bonuses and promises rise so that we are virtually buying soldiers for an army of mercenaries. Recruiters have had to become virtually obnoxious to sign up young people, and there is real resistance about allowing recruiters on some high school and college campuses.

These days there is also the cost of supporting veterans physically and mentally wrecked as 26,000+ serious casualties of the Iraq are brain damaged for life, and will require permanent government help Chalmers Johnson is probably not the first nor last to refer to our situation as ‘endless wars.’ However, the high cost of military or Presidential adventurism is not be generally known to Americans. The fact that there is little organized protest must mean that Americans are in agreement, complacent, too busy to care, uninformed or brain dead ?

A further recent insult is the Bush II 2007 budget which would increase the Pentagon budget to $439,000,000 - the largest since WWII and 45% higher than when GWBush took office. When the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are added in the figure jumps to $580,000,000,000. “The figure includes $10,400,000,000 for a missile defense system that doesn’t work and fails every test and $2,600,000,000 for yet another nuclear powered attack submarine, of which the Navy already possesses a generous 60 as well as a plane the ‘Defense’ department doesn’t want.” This huge figure also included a very expensive airplane that Congress wanted, but the Pentagon did not; and President Obama and Congress did just get out of the budget.


Part III-Some Issues of American Empire: Militarism, militarization and militaristic power (beyond belief).

It is important that the American people begin to understand the issues and problems with American Empire. It is obvious that these issues and problems are not being widely discussed in public forums or the corporate media. Americans are largely unaware of the situation of their country. Discussion of these issues ought to become commonplace so that people would understand where we are and where we are going. Issues and problems ought to be discussed in newspapers and on TV not just in obscure places so that people become familiar with the ramifications of the matter so that some kind of consensus can develop out of full discussion. If our leadership were really worth their salt they would talk in terms of the problems and issues of Empire to help people understand where we are and where we are going. One has to listen very carefully to hear these ideas from elected leaders of a political party.

There is plenty of evidence not widely understood and not generally mentioned by people in high office that this country has become an empire by our overwhelming military power and almost a thousand military dependencies around the world. References to authors explaining the idea are to be throughout the preceding notes.

These ideas merit your attention. The attitude of Robert Kaplan, well known writer on American war, is that we ought to fight wars to “extend the boundaries of civil society.”- in other words- take our form of government to the world. The so-called Neocons ‘think’ based on premises such as this messianic notion that it is our duty to fix the wrongs of other countries of the world. That notion needs to be discussed with the American people while the job of President is being controlled in the matter of making ‘war’ in the first place.

The Wartime Power of the President as Commander In Chief under the Constitution

The crux of the matter is the power of the President to make war as Commander in Chief under the Constitution. The power has been growing under the Presidencies of Tyler, Lincoln, McKinley, Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Truman, Nixon et.al. and now G.W.Bush- men who got us into wars or kept us there. Where are its limits and how far does that power grow while we maintain the semblance of a democracy ? Some current research and thought on the subject is cited in the notes throughout this paper.

Some prominent Neo-conservatives think that any President has absolute power to make war when and where he wishes. That extreme position was recently developed in a book by John Yoo, a Korean born wunderkind, who helped persuade the misguided Bush II that as President he had unlimited power. Furthermore, young attorneys John Yoo and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales thought the U.S. could skate around the Geneva Conventions on prisoner abuse; and Vice President Dick Cheney thinks the CIA ought to be exempted from any control to torture prisoners. These seemingly extreme and misguided views have adherents on the side of unlimited Presidential power.

The GWB administration stretched the powers of the President in ‘wartime’ [even a Presidential war] beyond any previous limits. It is important to say here that the extreme advice of Yoo was officially rejected, condemned and denied by people in our government.
It needs to be said here that the much respected Republican Senator Robert Taft in a long 1951 Congressional debate about this power of the President thought Congress had the power to prevent the use of troops in a way that might involve the nation in war. Taft said it is: “incumbent upon Congress to assert clearly its own constitutional powers unless it desires to lose them.” At that time 64% of Congress was against sending troops overseas, but the troops went to Korea anyway. So where was Congress when it was needed ? These are not matters for complacency by the American electorate.

One of the numerous ways GWB has ‘grabbed’ power is in the many signing statements he has done- something over 750. That means in effect he has written that he disagrees with and will not follow all or part of over 750 laws passed by Congress. This number is way beyond anything ever done by any previous President. This scheme was allegedly worked out by Vice President Dick Cheney. It is not remarked on by the press that he is exempting himself from so many laws. This is another secret development for an imperial President deluded with power and wanting to be King.

The unsettled matter of torture is another issue that has come to haunt the GWB administration and the American conscience. The morbid pictures of Iraqi men and women really got many people upset. Those pictures posted on the www came out of Abu Ghraib and other such places- sinkholes for the morbidly sick.

Part of this issue is the fact that hundreds of people are/were being held without recourse to law- in-communicado and/or without habeas corpus (the right to know their accusers and the case against them). The CIA is alleged to have done this in various places in the world including at Guantanamo prison.

Recently the Senate under the leadership of John McCain has overwhelmingly passed a resolution to limit American torture. Former President Jimmy Carter and many other leading figures of previous administrations are saying that unlimited torture is against traditional American values. That fact ought to have been obvious even to people blinded by the power with which they were entrusted. The abuse and torture of prisoners coming to light in this sad Presidential miss-adventure in Iraq is damaging to whatever good reputation this country ever had or thought it had in the world. It is still unsettled as to exactly what our government is doing, and where. Officially, they are in denial in a way that is not convincing but to the most naïve. Recent studies make the whole sordid subject most tragic for those of us wanting to be proud again of this country.

Recently in the Obama administration some of the “legal” opinions written for GWBush to give him permission to allow torture have been released to the public. More than that a study of the International Red Cross has been leaked to Mark Danner upon which Danner has commented. It is now known that the highest levels of our government were aware of and gave their permission to each stretch of previous rules governing torture. Now some in the country are actively considering what to do about the extension of Presidential power in the previous administration. There are big questions whether to prosecute which level of officials in that administration that stretched and re-wrote the rules while torturing.

The matter of Presidential power is being discussed in a rarefied atmosphere, and not in the corporate press. Senator Arlen Spector has written directly on he subject as a conscientious Senator of opposition to the GWBush power grab. Spector suggests rolling back Terrorist surveillance, enhancing the power of the Congress and the Courts as checks on Presidential Power, reigning in ’Signing Statements’ as the Presidents way to escape the will of Congress. These serious subjects will get little attention until higher priority subjects are moved off the agenda.

Put Presidential War Power into Google, and look at the writings of Louis Fisher, Glenn Greenwald, Dahlia Lithwick, Frances Sempa and Thomas E. Woods Jr. among contemporary writers.

Islamic men in various prisons around the world.

A thoughtful person lists the areas of tragedy brought by the GWBush administration as: secret prisons, paramilitary forces, surveillance of ordinary citizens, infiltration of citizens groups, arbitrary detention and release of citizens, targeting key individuals, restricting the press, casting criticism as ‘espionage’ and dissent as ‘treason,’ subverting the rule of law all in the name of fighting terrorism.

Only lately have the calls for prosecution of the top people in the GWBush administration become more frequent, loud and strident. Vincent Bugliosi, a retired Los Angeles prosecutor with years of experience, has outlined how to prosecute GWBush himself. While President Obama has said publicly that he does not want to lead the charge on prosecution other competent people are weighing in on this subject of national importance. Scott Horton. Now the new Attorney General, Eric Holder, is appointing a Prosecutor to review evidence about CIA torture which has already been shown to have been authorized by someone in the Bush II White House.

The CIA, NSA and Secret Government- the undoing
Of a ‘free’ and ‘democratic’ society

Since World War II there has been a great development of secret government within the Executive Branch of the U.S. government. Whether parallel with or as part of the ‘Cold War’ against Stalin’s Russia or the imaginary war against ‘world terror’ we now have secret government out of control.

The CIA was developed by Congress in 1947 during the Presidency of Harry Truman out of the OSS -the WWII spy apparatus. At the time the Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, had grave forebodings about the CIA from the beginning that no one would know what it was doing. The agency began secret and clandestine operations right from the beginning. The CIA was to coordinate ‘intelligence’ of the Defense and State Depts. Both of which didn’t like the idea of their intelligence being coordinated. . Significant failures and 60 years later the people are still waiting for a rational pay off. Our government now has 12-14 ‘intelligence’ gathering operations in various federal departments all of which are supposedly being coordinated.

It is the clandestine (secret) operations of the CIA which are anti-democratic, and not worthy of a great country. Even in recent years the CIA has been responsible for arranging the torture of men they accuse of being terrorists, of forcibly toppling governments legally elected in other democracies, and other secret abuses.

Secret government includes large amounts of documents being officially kept from public view or from the view of any responsible person other than those with the right level of government security clearance. Having never been involved in any way with the secrets of government it looks from the outside like a phantasmagoria of cleverness for people of conspiratorial mentality. It means that large quantities of documents which are developed to run our government are kept from legitimate view and reporting. Various degrees of secrecy are developed, and some people have various degrees of clearance to see hidden documents. This means that the people of the country do not know what is going on, and investigative reporters cannot find out. Our society will not work that way.

The secrecy created and maintained by government means the people whose tax dollars pay the bills are kept in darkness, and such outfits as the CIA operate in secrecy. Secrecy allows the CIA to commit acts that are criminal to the laws of this country. Secrecy while untenable in a democracy covers up all manner of illegalities and failure.

Government in this way gets shielded from scrutiny. Government in this way is enabled to get away with outrages- illegal and illegitimate activities- out of sight. The working people who pay for these shenanigans are not allowed to know. This, in itself, is an outrage of the highest order to the American taxpayer. Our Democracy is grievously impaired by this secrecy while it is getting a bad name all over the world. One big example is the island of Chagos Archipelago and island the U.S empire has taken over from Britain after the residents were moved out, and stocked with the tools of Empire. The world has been lied to about what is going on there, and journalists were not until lately allowed to look the place over.

The GWB administration has gone further than any imaginable previous effort to set up electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens and foreigners alike. The ultimate of secret government is the leaked news on 15-16 Dec, 2005 that President George W. Bush had authorized wire taps and electronic surveillance on citizens not accused of anything and without the authorization of a court (which was the usual practice under our law). Then Friday afternoon 16 Dec.2005 Jim Lehrer asked GWB in a nationally televised interview whether Bush II had made these authorizations, and the President declined to answer saying that is secret. That is where we have come from openness, transparency and decency.

Imagine the international image that attitude makes of a free people being spied on by their own government in an illegal way. It is impossible to follow all the excesses carefully. There is lots of analysis of this subject. One of the most cogent is that done by David Cole in NYRB. It is worth going out of the way to see his comments on four books and these spy programs. This violation of the civil rights we thought we had has many people stirred up. Cole points out some of the disastrous programs the recent occupants of the White House people have launched.

. Right after WWII Russia was trumped up into a mortal enemy which role the Russians were willing to play. All the secret organizations were developed during the long, ‘cold war’ with Russia. The CIA is now called the President’s ‘Secret Army’ which is a tragic development for a free society. Presidents have used the CIA in its cloak of secrecy to do dirty jobs in other people’s countries. The CIA and even the Army in its extraction of President Noriega from Panama has carried out dirty jobs in the name of national security which is a rubric which can apparently cover almost any kind of national indiscretion.

The CIA budget since 1947 has been and is secret. It is not known to but eight representatives of the people in Congress, and then maybe not completely. The hidden money for the CIA in the budgets of other agencies is being called the ‘Black Budget’ with good reason. A citizens law suit and finally a law suit of Congress in 1997 forced the CIA to admit to a 26 billion budget in 1997. New research by Trevor Paglen estimates the ‘black budget’ under the GWBush administration to be about $32 Billion. There is a lot of fascinating information on the internet googling ‘secret budget’. Among the more interesting is the work of Michael E. Salla Ph.D. Secret budgets are an insult to the implicit trust of a democracy toward its people. Secret budgets imply that either the people cannot be trusted, the work is nefarious or the people are too stupid to know.

For all the billions spent on “intelligence” the CIA didn’t have accurate information even when it was needed as on Iraq and other instances pointed out by the detractors. The CIA is- in fact- a liability to the integrity of this once honorable country. A democracy cannot survive with such secret operations contrary to militaristic opinion notwithstanding. The secrecy of the black budget is an abominable tribute to President Harry Truman that he got this secrecy institutionalized in 1947 with whatever excuse at the time.

The CIA has become a disgrace to our relatively young, free and democratic government. The CIA has carried out the dirty work dreamed up and rationalized by Presidents against citizens of other countries even to toppling democratically elected governments. How does a representative democracy explain to the world the clandestine bringing down of other elected governments as in Chile and Haiti recently ? These secret institutions are now a scourge on this democracy, and they are getting stronger not weaker under the hubris about ‘Homeland Security.’.- an excuse which will apparently cover any kind of anti-democratic outrage. Even President GWBush wants the CIA to torture legally- another disgrace to this once decent country.

The FBI, CIA and NSA of secret government are making a mockery of the democracy the Founders gave us, and we thought we had. Technology has enabled spying on telephones and e- mail that was not really possible to earlier generations. As the recent Presidential approval of the wire tapping of American citizens by NSA a great brouhaha has quickly emerged. Senator Robert Byrd who spoke at length against the invasion of Iraq on Monday the 19th of December, 2005 on the Senate Floor called this spying act of Presidential adventurism against Americans “criminal usurpation of rights”.

This short cut of a brazen President was not investigated and did not lead to censure or impeachment. As it turns out Congress in its uselessness is virtually gone along with the Presidential usurpation of the civil rights we thought we had. Now in the Obama administration some of those sanctioned acts may be investigated.

Years ago now the secret veil of the CIA began to be cracked open by ‘whistleblowers’ formerly from within the organization. Philip Agee began that expose in 1975. He is said to have become a ’permanent target of the United States government.” It does not apparently pay to let the taxpayers know what secret armies are doing with our money. Agee and others since have shown the CIA to be ruining the reputation of this once honorable country by killing and deposing political insurgents, elected officials and leaders in other peoples countries. Agee leaves us an important body of work- enough to scare even the knee-jerk warrior among us as to the virtues of a secret army at the disposal of the President.

This is not all there is to be said about the CIA, FBI or other secret militaristic organizations in our democratic society. There are people- I am sure- who would defend the necessity and importance of the secret work of CIA operatives around the world. However, we must warn that even a hugely powerful militaristic country- the most powerful in the world at the moment- may have to function with more than brute strength. All empires have had their own demise, and ours is no different.

Detractors of the CIA have warned that our society cannot go on reasonably free with a CIA. See for example: Chalmers Johnson, whom I believe was once a CIA employee warns in no uncertain terms about the ruinous nature of our CIA to the Democracy we thought we had. Recent studies of the failed CIA have proven that institutionalized lying to Congress and the President endemic with the agency to keep itself in business. This most discouraging and damaging assessment needs to be studied carefully so the American people can understand what is going on with this anti-democratic agency. This analysis of four recent books would serve to faze almost everyone with their eyes open.

Furthermore, the secrets of our government are like business being conducted with computers and on the internet. The tragedy of this fact is that ‘hackers’ may still get into those computers. A recently retired U.S. government security expert talked of their research and proof that China and other countries have hacked into secret computers. He even revealed that a recent high tech picture frame from China was being sold with computer bugs in it to invade computers of people who buy them.

In fact secrecy has always been a problem. However, the secrecy of governments is more open now than ever with the electronic gadgets being used. It has even been revealed by the U.S. FBI that our military have used bogus computer gear.

Limiting the war making power of the Presidency
Only for the domestic Betterment of the American People

Congress has tried repeatedly to stop the wars from beginning or stop them after they are underway. There was probably more open protesting by the American people against the Civil War and the Vietnam War than other times. Even war protests are way underreported today for ‘national security’ or other reasons by the corporate press. War protests are virtually ignored by the corporate press.

Misuse of entrusted power is the underlying issue here. Presidential power is being stretched beyond anything previously imagined. John Adams is quoted as saying in the Boston Globe in 1771: “Power, especially in times of corruption, makes men wanton;… it intoxicates the mind; and unless those with who it is entrusted are carefully watched, such is the weakness or the perverseness of human nature, that they will be apt to domineer over the people, instead of governing according to the known laws of the state”.

Only a rare President like Grover Cleveland or Dwight Eisenhower has had respect for the Constitutional role of Congress in making war. Presidents such as Richard Nixon poked sarcasm at several million people protesting his extension of the Vietnam war into Cambodia on the mall in Washington. The will of the people on war is ignored, rationalized or bypassed by Presidents and politicians who are smugly confident that they know better. Humility is sadly lacking in the ambitious, professional politician intoxicated with power. Lord North said ‘power usually corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’, and that is pretty obvious. Former VP Cheney has said more than once recently (spring, 07) that the opinions of the people overwhelmingly against the war in Iraq- didn’t matter. That is the arrogance of people entrusted with great power.

Since the advent of the War Powers Act of 1973 Congress has feebly tried to regain its Constitutional prerogative of declaring war. Some Congress people have gone to court to try to get Presidents to conform to Congressional wishes. In the summer of 1973 Rep Robert Drinan and three others asked the courts to stop the bombing of Cambodia by Richard Nixon. The judge ruled that the compromise on the War Powers Act meant the branches of government were not locked up in struggle so court ruling was not necessary.

Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman late in 1973 filed a motion requesting that the courts would stop the bombing of Cambodia in the absence of Congressional authorization. The judge then actually forced Nixon to quit bombing by using an injunction. That injunction was later struck down, and Holtzman appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Her motion was denied by Thurgood Marshall of the Supreme Court and the Second Circuit on the grounds that it wasn’t necessary- merely a disagreement between branches of government. None of the big issues were clarified. The Supreme Court was and is again useless to the vital interests of the people.

Congressman Tom Campbell and other Congresspersons in March, 1999 challenged President Clinton and the War Powers Act in D.C. District Court. In June, 1999 the D.C. Judge dismissed the suit of Campbell and 30 other Congresspersons on the grounds that they had no legal ‘standing’. Another court refused to hear their appeal.

Courts have thus far avoided cases by Congresspersons and citizens on the basis that this issue was moot, was not ripe, and the plaintiffs lacked standing –all legal loopholes of various doctrines on jurisprudence. Courts have thus far failed the American people in their search for an end to disastrous Presidential adventures. It is the luxury of legal niceties that have let our highest courts sidestep legitimate concerns of the American people.

What can Americans do about
limiting Presidential power ?

1. Widely publicize the issue – increase public awareness and concern.

2. Make the issue high on the agenda of elected officials by public demand; as nothing will happen without widespread public demand;

3. Get big national organizations such as the ACLU, Move-On, Center for Constitutional Rights, etc. to form a coalition to sue in the federal courts to curtail or stop Presidents and/or Congress from making war in other countries, and to restore the Constitutional power of Congress on
War making powers:.

a. demand a pull out of the 700-1000 or so foreign bases our troops, and secret CIA are stationed in all over the world;

b. demand a U.S. Foreign Policy to get out of all other countries, business and stay out avoiding all ‘foreign entanglements’-
isolationism to the detractors. (to include the CIA and all
other U.S. organizations doing covert operations)

c. demand that our troops not be used in other countries for any
reason, but those expressly permitted by Congress, and then only in reply to an attack on U.S. territory. This would eliminate pre-emptive war.

d. demand that the CIA and all other clandestine operations
be abolished, and their budgets be killed.

The American people have got to expect and demand better of their elected officials in Washington and State capitols.

Part Five: Where is the Accountability
in Washington ?

Election of a President every four years is obviously not enough
Accountability. Impeachment at the time rarely happens being only twice in the history of the country; and one of those impeachments was useless except for getting even. There is literally no accountability to misleading the American taxpayers into war however useless it is and however unwanted by the American people.

Part Six: what is our country (the U.S.) up to anyway ?

The many governments of the world have this last century been struggling to improve the human condition, and make order out of the modern chaos in the continual attack of countries against each other.

After WWI Woodrow Wilson, our U.S. President at the time, envisioned a League of Nations which the countries of the world did develop. Then after the League was organized our U.S. Congress kept our own country out of the League helping to defeat the hopes and aspirations of peoples of the world to reduce conflicts.

After the great horrors of WWII the countries of the world again organized an international organization-the United Nations with the active participation of Eleanor Roosevelt among others. In our time some conservatives go on bad-mouthing the United Nations. Senators like Jesse Helms were instrumental in getting the U.S. government not to pay its dues. If these minority Americans had their way they would wreck the United Nations, and the hopes of mankind with it.

G.W.Bush even sent John Bolton as our Ambassador to the United Nations. Bolton was very open about disliking the UN, and wanting to see it wrecked. What kind of President but an heir of Ronald Reagan would send a man who disliked an institution to take care of our business there ? It is Ronald Reagan at his worst all over again appointing a fox to guard the hen house.

Still rational and sensible people of the world in leadership roles go on trying through the United Nations to bring order, safety and security to the vulnerable peoples of the world. Vulnerable even includes us in the United States.

There was a long effort at eliminating land mines which finally culminated in a treaty signed by 121 nations 4 Dec, 1997; and unsigned by 42 nations including the United States. The United States was among the countries that have not yet signed the treaty. That throws away the high ground for our country formerly well respected.

The latest of those efforts is a treaty to outlaw cluster bombs. One hundred nations agreed on 28 May, 2008 to outlaw these weapons which kill indiscriminately, and many of which hang around for children to find with deadly consequences. These terrible weapons kill and hurt civilians not involved in fighting. Tragically, the biggest makers and sellers of these bombs: the U.S., Russia, China, India and Pakistan were not involved in the treaty. Again our militaristic country without moral grounding is continually giving way to the interests of business are not involving themselves, but making us look barbaric [which we may be] to those 100 countries, and rational aspirations of the least powerful peoples of the world. We are fast becoming the most churched country without moral principles in our government.

Written by George C. Williston
Hastings, Michigan 2009
RA 16204763 l946-48.
mail to: georgecwilliston@hotmail.com

As recommended by at least one of the Framers of our Constitution whom I believe to be James Madison, but on the www. also attributed to George Washington; and something similar to Thomas Jefferson. Of course, our Presidents now are so much smarter than they were that their advice has gone unheeded.
John P. Reid In Defiance of the Law: the Standing Army Controversy, the Two Constitutions, and the Coming of the American Revolution (Chapel Hill: UNCPress, 1981). A standing army being an army enrolled from year to year not by the season.
During the Civil War, Robert Lincoln, the only fighting age son of President and Mrs. Lincoln wanted to enlist, and finally got his father’s permission. During WWII all four sons of President Franklin and Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt served on active duty in the armed services. One or more in combat not plush jobs. Now only a couple of the sons and daughters of the President or Vice President and Congresspersons serve actively in the Iraq war.
Making war on another country before being attacked by that country is pre-emptive war. That was not supposedly the American thing to do until the GWBUSH term.
War Powers Act of 1973- Public Law 93-148,\cfO,p555-559.
Timothy S. Boylan and Glenn A. Phelps The War Powers Resolution: A Rationale for Congressional Inaction http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/-phelps/Parameteres.htm
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. The Imperial Presidency (Boston: Houghton, 1973) 377-473. Schlesinger follows this development through U.S. history. The Nixon and GWBush presidencies show the worst extremes of the abrogation of power. Schlesinger outlines various schemes in Congress to limit the Presidency none of which have gone anywhere. See Schlesinger pages 35-67.
Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr. and Aziz Huk Where’s Congress in this Power Play? The Washington Post National Weekly Edition April 9-15, 2007: 26.
Andrew J. Bacevich The Semiwarriors The Nation April 23, 2007: 30.
Larry J. Sabato A More Perfect Constitution (NY: walker, 2007) 97-101.
Chalmers Johnson The Sorrows of Empire (New York: Holt, 2004) 292-96.
HYPERLINK "http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06E3DA1E39F93AA15750C0A96294" http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06E3DA1E39F93AA15750C0A96294. and other papers of the day.
Tom Hayden Kilcullen’s Long War the Nation 2 Nov 2009: 22-24
Louis Fisher Presidential War Power (Lawrence: UK Press, 2004)202. Second Edition, 318 pages including bibliography. An excellent book in its second edition.
Eric Alterman When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and its Consequences (NY: Viking, 2004) and The Nation: 25 Oct. 2004:20-26.
Time Magazine cover story 15 April, 2007
Lisa Haijar ‘In the Penal Colony’ The Nation 7 Feb, 2005:23-30. An outstanding review of several current books on the torture done by Americans of people caught in this war. See also: Juliette N. Kayyem ‘Tortured Arguments: The Rules are us, not the Terrorists’ The Washington Post: National Weekly Edition 22:39: 22. May 18, 2005. ‘The Truth About Abu-Ghraib’ Washington Post Weekly Editorial Page August 8-14, 2005:24.
Anthony Shadid Night Draws Near (NYC: Holt, 2005) 424 pages. The best summary to 10/05 of how and why the U.S. is failing in Iraq. This administration and its war has provoked more critical comment than any war in history before it is even over .
Jim Powell Wilson’s War (NY: Crown Forum, 2005) 290-298.
Lawrence M. O’Rourke Costs of War Quietly Surpass $300 Billion. Sacramento Bee 25 April, 2005: A1 and HYPERLINK "http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/12785625p-13636521c.html" http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/12785625p-13636521c.html
The 33 page Stiglitz-Bilmes paper is on the www at the following URL with reference to other government and private estimates of the cost of this ‘War on Terror’. See: HYPERLINK "http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/fa" http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/fa. Of course, there is disagreement on the cost of this Presidential adventure while in progress. Those who like the war want to minimize the costs. See Jerry Bowyer who says “Iraq War Not Breaking the Bank.” His fantasy is at
HYPERLINK "http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.p?ref=/nrof_buzzcharts200601html" http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.p?ref=/nrof_buzzcharts200601html. There is lots of information and growing speculation on the internet.
The italics emphasis is mine. 09 Jan, 2006 by Paul C. Roberts a nationally syndicated commentator. VDARE.COM-ttp://vdare.com/Roberts/060109_america.htm.
Common Dreams News Center already two years old is out of date.
Fisher op. cit. , . Probably the most comprehensive book on this subject in its second edition. A very important read for the informed citizen.
Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict, 2008. See also Washington Post National Weekly Edition17 Mar 08:27 and NYT, A25, 4 Mar, 08.
The Nation: The Costs of War: 31 March, 2008: 24-25.
Alexander Cockburn The Nation12 May 2009: 8.
Perret 312-313.
Fisher 171
Chalmers Johnson is the authority for those revelations. See Johnson, The Sorrows Of Empire (NY: Holt, 2004)100-102.
A large bibliography on the wreckage of Vietnam would be easily come by on the internet. See HYPERLINK "http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=5l4" http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=5l4
See also Gareth Porter Perils of Dominance (U of Cal Press: Los Angeles, 2005) and
Major H. R. McMaster Dereliction of Duty (NYC: Harper Collins, 1997) and
Barbara W. Tuchman March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam (New York: Knopf, 1984) 233- 379. McMcMasters book is an absolute classic on our government duplicity.
Fisher 130.
Fisher 133, 134.
Perret 296.
Andrew J. Bacevich: The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War (NY: Oxford, 2005)
Nick Turre a My Lai a Month The Nation Magazine 1 Dec, 2008: 13-20.
Deborah Nelson The War Behind Me (NY: Basic Books, 2008).; David L. Anderson, editor Facing My Lai; Kwon Heonik After Massacre, 2009 and others.
McMaster op. cit. Lying and deception indexed in many places. This historian author and officer is now on active duty in Iraq. Also Fisher 136.
Jonathan Schell Remembering Robert McNamara The Nation 3/10 August, 2009 pp24-26 and other places previous I am sure.
Bob Woodward and Gordon M. Goldstein Final Thoughts on War Washington Post Weekly 1 November, 2009: 25
Geoffrey Perret Commander in Chief (NY: Farrar, 2007) 145-148.
Fisher 117.
Fisher 113.
William A. Williams The Tragedy of American Diplomacy (NY: Norton, 2009)7 and previous editions from 1959. This powerful and prescient book ought to be widely read.
http://www.rationalrevolution.net/articles/casualties_of_war.htm
Nash 775.
NewYorkTimesA25, 17 December, 2008. See the Hagerman book “The U.S. and Biological Warfar and Secrets from the Early Cold War and Korea.”
William Blum Killing Hope (Monroe: Common Courage, 1995) Contents, Appendix III, p453, and Appendix II, p444.
Evan Thomas War of Choice Newsweek 23 June, 2008: 23-26; and Christopher Hitchens 26-29 commenting on a book by Pat Buchannan.
Nash 775. The bigger numbers are from HYPERLINK "http://www.rationalrevolution.net/articles/casualties_of_war.htm" http://www.rationalrevolution.net/articles/casualties_of_war.htm The unbelievable numbers of dead in the European nations is still beyond belief. See timothy Snyder Holocaust: The Ignored Reality. In The New York Review 16 July, 2009: 14-17.
http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/cwc/other/stats/warcost.htm
Powell Wilson’s War op. cit.
http.//www.rationalrevolution.net/articles/casualties_of_war.htm
Mark Twain, the formidable adversary, wrote a scathing satire called “To the Person Sitting in Darkness” North American Review February, 1901.
Ron Powers Mark Twain (NY: Free Press, 2005) 602.
http://www.filipino-americans.com/filamwar.html
George F. Milton he Eve of Conflict: Stephen A. Douglas and the Needless War (NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1934) 519-551.
See specifically: John V. Denson War and American Freedom in the Costs of War (NJ: Transaction, 1998) 11-30, 4l5. Frank L. Klement The Limits of Dissent: Clement L. Vallandigham and The Civil War (Lexington: UKPress, 1970; Mark E. Neely Jr. The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties (NY: Oxford, 1991). G.R.Treadway Democratic Opposition to the Lincoln Administration in Indiana (Indpls: IHB, 1973 ) pp 265-283 excellent critique of various authors on the subject of resistance to the war.
John A. Marshall American Bastille (Philadelphia: Hartley, 1869)717 Pages. Brief information about 100 high profile, important people. Many editions. See note 50.
John V. Denson ‘Lincoln and the First Shot: A Study of Deceit and Deception’ in John V. Denson, editor. Reassessing the Presidency (Auburn: Mises Institute, 2001) 231-289.
Drew G. Faust The Republic of Suffering, (2008) how the American people dealt with the huge number of men and animals slaughtered on battlefields of our Civil War.
Otto Eisenschiml Why the Civil War ? (NY: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958) 91. See also Randall: Lincoln the President I,351, and Constitutional Problems under Lincoln.
Roy Basler The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (NY: Rutgers, 1953) V; 144-146. and M.T. Owens Lincoln’s Strategy 9 May, 2005.
Doris Kearns Goodwin Team of Rivals (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005) 459.,
HYPERLINK "http://teachingamerican" http://teachingamerican history.org/library/index.asp?documen=558. and J.G. Randall Constitutional Problems under Lincoln (Gloucester: Smith, 1963) 365-370.
John V. Denson War and American Freedom in the Costs of War (NJ: Transaction, 1998) 11-30, 41-51. Klement) op. cit. and . Neely op. cit.
http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/cwc/other/stats/warcost.htm
Eisenchiml 77 and John T. Morse Abraham Lincoln (American Statesmen Series, 1893) I , 169; and Herndon and Weik: Herndon’s Lincoln (Chicago: 1889) iii, 462. .
Al Nofi Statistical Summary of America’s Major Wars
HYPERLINK "http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/cwc/other/stats/warcost.htm" http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/cwc/other/stats/warcost.htm and Lewis M. Simons A Tale of Two Wars Washington Post National Weekly Edition 5-11 Sept, 2005:21.
Johnson; Sorrows op. cit.
All these figures are from Warren Stewart’s The Washington Spectator 1March, 2006:4.
John Yoo The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs (Chicago: U of C Press, 2005) 366P and a fascinating review by David Cole in NY Review of Books [NYR] 17 Nov, 2005, 8-12. One must also see Stephen Holmes review of Yoo’s book: John Yoo’s tortured Logic in The Nation 1 May, 2006 31-39. See also Jon Wiener Opening the Files on Bush’s Secrets The Nation 16 March, 2009:21-22.
The contemporary commentary on the Constitution by law professor Akhil Reed Amar America’s Constitution (NY: Random House, 2005) 631 pages. This book has had fine reviews. No position will satisfy everyone on the matter in a time of political tension.
Quoted in Fisher, 113.
Morton Mintz ‘Power Grab’ NYR LIII, 19 Oct 2006; 76-77.
Joseph Lelyveld ‘No Exit’ NYR; LIV: 15 Feb, 2007; 12-17 and Raymond Bonner ‘The CIA’s Secret Torture’ NYR; LIV; 11 Jan, 2007: 28-31. also Ian Buruma: The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib NYRB: 26 June, 2008: 6-10.
Mark Danner, Professor of Journalism, has relentlessly pursued torture of the GWBush era. See ‘Frozen Scandal’ NYRB 4 Dec 2008: 26-28. and ‘U.S. Torture Voices from the Black Spies’ NYR: 9 April, 2009: 69-77, and ‘ICRC Report On the Treatment of Fourteen “High Value Detainees” in CIA Custody’ NYR, 30 April, 2009: 48-56.
Senator Arlen Spector ‘The Need to Roll Back Presidential Power Grabs’ NYR 14 May 2009: 48-52.
Naomi Wolf The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot (Chelsea Green: WRJVt, 2007) 176pp. a beautifully written little book full of vivid comparison.
Tim Weiner Legacy of Ashes: the History of the CIA” (NY: Doubleday, 2007)25.
James Bamford Who’s in Big Brother’s Database? NYRB 5 Nov,2009:29-31
David Cole ‘The Grand Inquisitors’ NYR, LIV: 12 19 July, 2007; 53-56.
Tim Weiner Blank Check (NY: Warner, 1990)
NYTimes 1 April 08. reviewing book “I could tell you, but Then You Would have to be Destroyed by Me” by Trevor Paglen and another by Paglen ‘Blank Spots on a Map’.
HYPERLINK "http://www.scoop.co.mz/HL0401/500l5l.htm#5" http://www.scoop.co.mz/HL0401/500l5l.htm#5.
See Tim Weiner Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. (NY: Doubleday, 2007)702 pp. A new definitive study of this misbegotten agency of a self governing people.
Anthony Lewis ‘The Terror President’ New York Review of Books: 1 May, 2008: 40.
See Naomi Wolf The End of America (VT: Chelsea Green, 2007) for a brilliant exposition of our drift toward totalitarian rule.
Michael Ratner As Noted in The Nation 4 February, 2008 page 5.
Philip Agee authored these books: Inside the Company, 1975; dirty work, 1978; White Paper Whitewashed, 1981; and On the Run, 1987. Some are co-authored with Louis Wolf.
Chalmers Johnson, Nemesis (New York: Metropolitan, 2006) and, The Sorrows of Empire ( New York: Metropolitan, 2004). Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes :The History of the CIA (New York: Doubleday, 2007).
Spencer Ackerman The American Way of Spying in The Nation 14 July, 2008: 38-42.
Diann Rehm Show, Public Broadcasting System, 29 May, 2008 at noon.
John Markoff, NYTimes, 9 May 08: C4.

Fisher 144.
Fisher 144, 271.
Fisher 201, 273.
HYPERLINK "http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9712/04/landmine.wrap/" http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9712/04/landmine.wrap/
HYPERLINK "http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=views02/1021-04.htm" http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=views02/1021-04.htm
Grand Rapids Press 29 May, 2008: page A3.

By George C. Williston
Hastings, Michigan
HYPERLINK "mailto:georgecwilliston@hotmail.com" georgecwilliston@hotmail.com
269-948-5747
Last edited 9/09