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Quote from : Wikipedia : Michael Ruppert
Michael Ruppert is the founder and editor of From The Wilderness, a newsletter and website dedicated to investigating political cover-ups.
On August 16, 2006 Ruppert announced that he was leaving the United States permanently, citing years of harassment for his ongoing dissident activities.
After returning to Los Angeles, Ruppert started writing again from retirement.
On March 24, 2008, Ruppert published an article called RETROSPECTIVE - 2008.
He has written three more articles dated September 17, September 29, and November 5, 2008.
All four of these new articles are posted at his From The Wilderness website.
In the Sep. 29th article, Ruppert wrote, "I have broken an unspoken deal with the government to remain retired and not speak out."
Quote from : Wikipedia : Dialectic : Hegelian Dialectic
Hegelian dialectic, usually presented in a three-fold manner, was stated by Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus as comprising three dialectical stages of development: a thesis, giving rise to its reaction, an antithesis, which contradicts or negates the thesis, and the tension between the two being resolved by means of a synthesis.
Although this model is often named after Hegel, he himself never used that specific formulation.
Hegel ascribed that terminology to Kant.
Carrying on Kant's work, Fichte greatly elaborated on the synthesis model, and popularized it.
On the other hand, Hegel did use a three-valued logical model that is very similar to the antithesis model, but Hegel's most usual terms were: Abstract-Negative-Concrete.
Sometimes Hegel would use the terms, Immediate-Mediated-Concrete.
Hegel used these terms hundreds of times throughout his works.
The formula, Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis, does not explain why the Thesis requires an Antithesis.
However, the formula, Abstract-Negative-Concrete, suggests a flaw in any initial thesis—it is too abstract and lacks the negative of trial, error and experience.
The same applies to the formula, Immediate-Mediated-Concrete.
For Hegel, the Concrete, the Synthesis, the Absolute, must always pass through the phase of the Negative, that is, Mediation.
This is the actual essence of what is popularly called Hegelian Dialectics.
To describe the activity of overcoming the negative, Hegel also often used the term Aufhebung, variously translated into English as "sublation" or "overcoming," to conceive of the working of the dialectic. Roughly, the term indicates preserving the useful portion of an idea, thing, society, etc., while moving beyond its limitations.
(Jacques Derrida's preferred French translation of the term was relever).
In the Logic, for instance, Hegel describes a dialectic of existence: first, existence must be posited as pure Being (Sein); but pure Being, upon examination, is found to be indistinguishable from Nothing (Nichts).
When it is realized that what is coming into being is, at the same time, also returning to nothing (in life, for example, one's living is also a dying), both Being and Nothing are united as Becoming.
As in the Socratic dialectic, Hegel claimed to proceed by making implicit contradictions explicit: each stage of the process is the product of contradictions inherent or implicit in the preceding stage.
For Hegel, the whole of history is one tremendous dialectic, major stages of which chart a progression from self-alienation as slavery to self-unification and realization as the rational, constitutional state of free and equal citizens.
The Hegelian dialectic cannot be mechanically applied for any chosen thesis.
Critics argue that the selection of any antithesis, other than the logical negation of the thesis, is subjective.
Then, if the logical negation is used as the antithesis, there is no rigorous way to derive a synthesis.
In practice, when an antithesis is selected to suit the user's subjective purpose, the resulting "contradictions" are rhetorical, not logical, and the resulting synthesis is not rigorously defensible against a multitude of other possible syntheses.
The problem with the Fichtean "Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis" model is that it implies that contradictions or negations come from outside of things.
Hegel's point is that they are inherent in and internal to things.
This conception of dialectics derives ultimately from Heraclitus.
Hegel has outlined that the purpose of dialectics is "to study things in their own being and movement and thus to demonstrate the finitude of the partial categories of understanding"
One important dialectical principle for Hegel is the transition from quantity to quality, which he terms the Measure.
The measure is the qualitative quantum, the quantum is the existence of quantity.
"The identity between quantity and quality, which is found in Measure, is at first only implicit, and not yet explicitly realised.
In other words, these two categories, which unite in Measure, each claim an independent authority.
On the one hand, the quantitative features of existence may be altered, without affecting its quality.
On the other hand, this increase and diminution, immaterial though it be, has its limit, by exceeding which the quality suffers change.
[...] But if the quantity present in measure exceeds a certain limit, the quality corresponding to it is also put in abeyance.
This however is not a negation of quality altogether, but only of this definite quality, the place of which is at once occupied by another.
This process of measure, which appears alternately as a mere change in quantity, and then as a sudden revulsion of quantity into quality, may be envisaged under the figure of a nodal (knotted) line".
As an example, Hegel mentions the states of aggregation of water:
"Thus the temperature of water is, in the first place, a point of no consequence in respect of its liquidity: still with the increase or diminution of the temperature of the liquid water, there comes a point where this state of cohesion suffers a qualitative change, and the water is converted into steam or ice".
As other examples Hegel mentions the reaching of a point where a single additional grain makes a heap of wheat; or where the bald-tail is produced, if we continue plucking out single hairs.
Another important principle for Hegel is the negation of the negation, which he also terms Aufhebung (sublation): Something is only what it is in its relation to another, but by the negation of the negation this something incorporates the other into itself.
The dialectical movement involves two moments that negate each other, a somewhat and an another.
As a result of the negation of the negation, "something becomes an other; this other is itself somewhat; therefore it likewise becomes an other, and so on ad infinitum".
Something in its passage into other only joins with itself, it is self-related.
In becoming there are two moments: coming-to-be and ceasing-to-be: by sublation, i.e. negation of the negation, being passes over into nothing, it ceases to be, but something new shows up, is coming to be.
What is sublated (aufgehoben) on the one hand ceases to be and is put to an end, but on the other hand it is preserved and maintained.
In dialectics, a totality transform itself, it is self-related.
Originally posted by Sean48
My freind
I am what the OS would call is a "truther"
and I have to say , there's no way you are going to keep my interest with
18 plus video's
To capture a person's attention , cite a certain video for an example
or proof, and the natural interest process will take over.
I will star and flag your obvious immense work, but probably just glance
over this Volume of work
Originally posted by Sean48
reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas
We are not far off the same page.
I just finished watching IMPROBABLE COLLAPSE , 7 video's on 911
They are presented by the same person who released your
911 Lies and truth's
Small world chasing the same Truth
Quote from : Wikipedia : Operation Cyclone
Operation Cyclone was the code name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency program to arm the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, 1979 to 1989.
Operation Cyclone was one of the longest and most expensive covert CIA operations ever undertaken; funding began with $20–30 million per year in 1980 and rose to $630 million per year in 1987.
Amazon Review :
Steve Coll's Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 offers revealing details of the CIA's involvement in the evolution of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the years before the September 11 attacks.
From the beginning, Coll shows how the CIA's on-again, off-again engagement with Afghanistan after the end of the Soviet war left officials at Langley with inadequate resources and intelligence to appreciate the emerging power of the Taliban.
He also demonstrates how Afghanistan became a deadly playing field for international politics where Soviet, Pakistani, and U.S. agents armed and trained a succession of warring factions.
At the same time, the book, though opinionated, is not solely a critique of the agency.
Coll balances accounts of CIA failures with the success stories, like the capture of Mir Amal Kasi.
Coll, managing editor for the Washington Post, covered Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992.
He demonstrates unprecedented access to records of White House meetings and to formerly classified material, and his command of Saudi, Pakistani, and Afghani politics is impressive.
He also provides a seeming insider's perspective on personalities like George Tenet, William Casey, and anti-terrorism czar, Richard Clarke ("who seemed to wield enormous power precisely because hardly anyone knew who he was or what exactly he did for a living").
Coll manages to weave his research into a narrative that sometimes has the feel of a Tom Clancy novel yet never crosses into excess.
While comprehensive, Coll's book may be hard going for those looking for a direct account of the events leading to the 9-11 attacks.
The CIA's 1998 engagement with bin Laden as a target for capture begins a full two-thirds of the way into Ghost Wars, only after a lengthy march through developments during the Carter, Reagan, and early Clinton Presidencies.
But this is not a critique of Coll's efforts; just a warning that some stamina is required to keep up.
Ghost Wars is a complex study of intelligence operations and an invaluable resource for those seeking a nuanced understanding of how a small band of extremists rose to inflict incalculable damage on American soil.
--Patrick O'Kelley
Amazon Review :
Political movies about backroom negotiations need not be dry or heavy-handed, as Charlie Wilson's War delightfully proves.
Based on the true story of playboy congressman Wilson's efforts to fund Afghanistan's defense against the Soviet invasion of the 1980s, the film is borne along on breezy attitude and a peppery script by West Wing scribe Aaron Sorkin.
Wilson, played by Tom Hanks (who also produced), is the perfect hero for this kind of tale, because there's nothing perfect or heroic about him: He's a highball-swilling, fanny-pinching gadabout who becomes radicalized on the issue of helping the Afghans against their mighty aggressor.
He has help in the form of a right-wing Texas anti-Communist (Julia Roberts) with a genius for raising money, and a sardonic CIA operative (Philip Seymour Hoffman, stealing the show) who lacks all the social skills Wilson has in abundance.
Sorkin's syncopated speech is just the ticket for director Mike Nichols, who understands exactly how to keep this kind of political comedy popping (the complicated story comes in at a hair over 90 minutes, amazingly).
Some scoundrels are on the right side of the angels, and the movie's Charlie Wilson is one of them.
--Robert Horton
Quote from : Wikipedia : Operation Cyclone : Funding
Funding
The U.S. offered two packages of economic assistance and military sales to support Pakistan's role in the war against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan.
The first six-year assistance package (1981–87) amounted to US$3.2 billion, equally divided between economic assistance and military sales.
The U.S. also sold 40 F-16 aircraft to Pakistan during 1983–87 at a cost of $1.2 billion outside the assistance package.
The second six-year assistance package (1987–93) amounted to $4.2 billion.
Out of this, $2.28 billion were allocated for economic assistance in the form of grants or loan that carried the interest rate of 2–3 per cent.
The rest of the allocation ($1.74 billion) was in the form of credit for military purchases.
Sale of non-U.S. arms to Pakistan for destination to Afghanistan was facilitated by Israel.
Somewhere between $3–$20 billion in U.S. funds were funneled into the country to train and equip Afghan resistance groups with weapons, including Stinger man-portable air-defense systems.
The program funding was increased yearly due to lobbying by prominent U.S. politicians and government officials, such as Charles Wilson, Gordon Humphrey, Fred Ikle, and William Casey.
Under the Reagan administration, U.S. support for the Afghan mujahideen evolved into a centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy, called the Reagan Doctrine, in which the U.S. provided military and other support to anti-communist resistance movements in Afghanistan, Angola, Nicaragua, and elsewhere.
Originally posted by bsbray11
Mike Ruppert is a former investigator for the LAPD. A cop.
He followed the money and started naming names, not long at all after the attacks themselves.
Now he lives in a foreign country, for fear of his life.
Quote from : Wikipedia : Flying Tigers
Flying Tigers was the popular name of the 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force in 1941-1942.
Arguably, the group was a private military contractor, and for that reason the volunteers have sometimes been called mercenaries.
They were mostly former United States Army (USAAF), Navy (USN), and Marine Corps (USMC) pilots and ground crew, recruited under Presidential sanction and commanded by Claire Lee Chennault.
The group consisted of three fighter squadrons with about 20 aircraft each.
It trained in Burma before the American entry into World War II with the mission of defending China against Japanese forces.
The Tigers' shark-faced fighters remain among the most recognizable of any individual combat aircraft of World War II, and they demonstrated innovative tactical victories when the news in the U.S. was filled with little more than stories of defeat at the hands of the Japanese forces.
The group first saw combat on 20 December 1941, 12 days after Pearl Harbor (local time).
It achieved notable success during the lowest period of the war for U.S. and Allied Forces, giving hope to Americans that they would eventually succeed against the Japanese.
The Tigers were paid combat bonuses for destroying nearly 300 enemy aircraft while losing only 14 pilots on combat missions.
In July 1942, the AVG was replaced by the U.S. Army 23rd Fighter Group, which was later absorbed into the U.S. 14th Air Force with General Chennault as commander.
The 23rd FG went on to achieve similar combat success, while retaining the nose art and nickname of the volunteer unit.
Quote from Wikipedia : Black Sheep Squadron
Baa Baa Black Sheep (later syndicated as Black Sheep Squadron) is a television series that aired on NBC from 1976 until 1978.
Its premise was based on the experiences of United States Marine Corps aviator Pappy Boyington and his World War II "Black Sheep Squadron".
The series was created and produced by Stephen J. Cannell.
The opening credits read: "In World War II Marine Corps Major Greg 'Pappy' Boyington commanded a squadron of fighter pilots.
They were a collection of misfits and screwballs who became the terrors of the South Pacific. They were known as the Black Sheep."
Quote from : Wikipedia : Project for the New American Century
The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. that lasted from early 1997 to 2006.
It was co-founded as a non-profit educational organization by conservatives William Kristol and Robert Kagan.
The PNAC's stated goal was "to promote American global leadership."
Fundamental to the PNAC were the view that "American leadership is both good for America and good for the world" and support for "a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity."
The PNAC exerted influence on high-level U.S. government officials in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush and affected the Bush Administration's development of military and foreign policies, especially involving national security and the Iraq War.
Originally posted by dragonsmusic
Having problems with the videos.
Might be a storm in my area.
This is a mighty effort. I will come back and look at these . Thanks for posting.
911 is a topic way too many Americans are frightened of.
Originally posted by bsbray11
Mike Ruppert is a former investigator for the LAPD. A cop.
He followed the money and started naming names, not long at all after the attacks themselves.
Now he lives in a foreign country, for fear of his life.
Originally posted by VictorVonDoom
Originally posted by bsbray11
Mike Ruppert is a former investigator for the LAPD. A cop.
He followed the money and started naming names, not long at all after the attacks themselves.
Now he lives in a foreign country, for fear of his life.
I've followed Ruppert for a while. In fact, he is the one who really opened my eyes to what's going on when he laid out his evidence of the CIA smuggling drugs into the US. But he predicted that we would invade Afghanistan, Iraq, and Venezuela, in that order, BEFORE the 9/11 attacks! I think our plans for Venezuela have been put on the back burner for a while because Chavez got wize to what was going on. He ejected all the US "military advisors" who were actually CIA agents. Venezuela is still in our sights, though. When we invade there, the excuse will be the war on drugs.
Quote from : Wikipedia : Trans-Texas Corridor
The Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) is a transportation network in the planning and early construction stages in the U.S. state of Texas.
The network, as originally envisioned, would be composed of a 4,000-mile (6,400 km) network of supercorridors up to 1,200 feet (370 m) wide to carry parallel links of tollways, rails, and utility lines.
It is intended to route long-distance traffic around population centers, and to provide stable corridors for future infrastructure improvements – such as new power lines from wind farms in West Texas to the cities in the east – without the otherwise often lengthy administrative and legal procedures required to build on privately owned land.
The tollway portion would be divided into two separate elements: truck lanes and lanes for passenger vehicles.
Similarly, the rail lines in the corridor would be divided among freight, commuter, and high-speed rail.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) intends to "charge public and private concerns for utility, commodity or data transmission" within the corridor, in essence making a toll road for services such as water, electricity, natural gas, petroleum, fiber optic lines, and other telecommunications services.
The network will be funded by private investors and built and expanded as demand warrants.
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428
Governor Rick Perry,
I have been reading on the Trans-Texas Corridor for quite some time, and how it is potentially a large part of the coming North American Union, a conglomeration of Mexico, America, and Canada, and noticed as I was reading on the TTC that your constituents have protested it almost to the point of extinction, or rather that possibly that your office as well as other people within the element building this major infrastructure have lessened the media exposure and downplayed the entire thing hoping to dissuade protestation of the entire process.
I am curious as to why the entire thing has not been considered for usage underground, to bypass protests as well as assist in the restructuring of your states image as being progressive in transportation as well as making all of the land that was previously squabbled over by Texans that are being displaced that much more solidified with structural integrity through shoring up the foundation of anything that is built over the underground TTC.
What I am specifically referring to here is the usage of Tunnel Boring Machines, possibly from Robbins, seen here at Robbins Tunnel Boring Machines in order to bury the whole project throughout Texas and elsewhere and if done correctly this would in essence strengthen the roadways, housing, and business districts above any areas of the covered roadway, rail lines, and telecommunications superhighway. As it stands right now, looking at the TTC from outer space it would look like you are trying to divide the nation in half.
I am writing to you as a person who sees intelligent use of resources as well as lowering the overall environmental impact above where it can be squabbled over, whereas the minerals and soil that could be mined utilizing the Tunnel Boring Machines could be used to lessen your own political image as detrimental to your constituents as well as possibly get you re-elected if you so chose to do so. Think about the positive publicity from such things as lessening the noise pollution that has become an issue with the protestors, the physical pollution of all this extra traffic across your state, and the other types of issues you could resolve via any extra means possible. With the system being moved underground you would of course need to consider that carbon-monoxide build up would be an issue as well, so do not forget this in considering it, but with technology being where it is today, you could as well market the entire thing with the thought of utilizing wind generators above ground to power the carbon-dioxide scrubbers, as well as lighting and other technology that would be necessary to keep build-up of foul pollution low in the tunnel system.
These are of course a few of the ideas I had and if you write me back I will be happy to share a few more with you and your office.
Quote from : Wikipedia : Real ID Act
The REAL ID Act of 2005 is a U.S. federal law that imposes certain security, authentication, and issuance procedures standards for the state driver's licenses and state ID cards, for them to be accepted by the federal government for "official purposes", as defined by the Secretary of Homeland Security.
The Secretary of Homeland Security has defined "official purposes" as presenting state driver's licenses and identification cards for boarding commercially operated airline flights and entering federal buildings and nuclear power plants.
The Act is a rider, formally Division B of H.R. 1268, the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005.
Publishers Weekly : Amazon Review :
In October 1994, the Immigration and Naturalization Service began Operation Gatekeeper.
Its goal was to reduce the movement of Mexicans across the U.S. border between San Diego and Tijuana.
Nevins (Berkeley), who writes for the Nation, the Progressive, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications, examines this operation in the context of immigration between these two countries.
A historical account of the United States-Mexico border shows that, up through recent times, the movement of peoples between the two countries was of relatively little concern.
Not until the period of 1970 to the 1990s did political pressures make securing the border a pressing national issue.
In turn, this pressure popularized the concept of the illegal alien. Operation Gatekeeper itself was developed by the Clinton administration to counter efforts by Gov. Pete Wilson to restrict Mexican migration into California as well as the Proposition 187 movement to deny education, health, and social services to undocumented immigrants.
While the operation did defuse anti-immigrant feelings, it made the crossing much more dangerous and resulted in an increased loss of life.
This work complements Peter Andreas's Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide (LJ 8/00) and Pablo Vila's Crossing Borders, Reinforcing Borders: Social Categories, Metaphors, and Narrative Identities on the U.S.-Mexican Frontier (Univ. of Texas, 2000).
Nevins does a good job of presenting the case, but the result is a narrowly focused work that is most appropriate for academic libraries.
Stephen L. Hupp, West Virginia Univ., Parkersburg
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Originally posted by ugie1028
HOLY CRAP!
what a post!
S&F! (I did that earlier, but im on Pt4 right now)
I would swear, but due to the rules i cant, but...
talk about hook-line-sinker. this presentation has it all. I will leave more thoughts after i finish watching.
Publishers Weekly : Amazon Review :
The bin Ladens are famous for spawning the world's foremost terrorist and building one of the Middle East's foremost corporate dynasties.
Pulitzer Prize–winner Coll (Ghost Wars) delivers a sprawling history of the multifaceted clan, paying special attention to its two most emblematic members.
Patriarch Mohamed's eldest son, Salem, was a caricature of the self-indulgent plutocrat: a flamboyant jet-setter dependent on the Saudi monarchy, obsessed with all things motorized (he died crashing his plane after a day's joy-riding atop motorcycle and dune-buggy) and forever tormenting his entourage with off-key karaoke.
Coll presents quite a contrast with an unusually nuanced profile of Salem's half-brother Osama, a shy, austere, devout man who nonetheless shares Salem's egomania.
Other bin Ladens crowd Coll's narrative with the eye-glazing details of their murky business deals, messy divorces and ill-advised perfume lines and pop CDs.
Beneath the clutter one discerns an engrossing portrait of a family torn between tradition and modernity, conformism and self-actualization, and desperately in search of its soul.
(April 1)
Amazon Review :
Since 9/11, the world has become more and more aware of terrorism. It has become a part of our daily lives.
We are constantly shown acts of terrorism on the news, reminded to fear the terrorists, and that we are fighting a war on terror.
To that end, the US Government has used its official conspiracy theory for 9/11 to substantiate the actions of war and the continued disregard for liberties-all in the name of fighting terrorism.
This theory concludes that nineteen suicidal Middle Eastern Muslim hijackers, their hearts full of hatred for American freedom and democracy, hijacked four airliners.
Reportedly, two planes were crashed into the Twin Towers of New York City's World Trade Center, a third into the Pentagon, and the fourth crashed in rural western Pennsylvania after its passengers fought with the hijackers.
This whole "Mission Impossible" operation, able to defeat the United States' four-hundred-billion-dollar defense system, reportedly was under the total control of a zealous Muslim cleric using a computer while hiding in cave in Afghanistan.
In The Terror Conspiracy: Deception, 9/11 and the Loss of Liberty, the world's leading conspiracy theorist, Jim Marrs, unmasks the facts about 9/11 and the New World Order.
Using primarily mainstream media and government reports, Marrs offers a more realistic and better-supported conspiracy theory.
He has crafted the definitive journalistic account of these events, describing the full history behind the overt and covert causes, and exposing the likely complicity of the Bush administration in the 9/11 attacks.
Jim Marrs asks those question few have been willing to discuss since that fateful day.
His analysis goes far beyond 9/11, enabling us to understand the motivation behind American foreign policy that resulted in war in Afghanistan and Iraq, our now perpetual War on Terrorism, and the continuing loss of freedom in America.
The book also contains the explosive essay The Pentagon Attack Papers - Seven Hours in September: The Clock that Broke the Lie, by Barbara Honegger, M.S.
Barbara Honegger is Senior Military Affairs Journalist at the Naval Postgraduate School (1995-present), the Navy’s advanced science, technology and national security affairs university.
Honegger served as Special Assistant to the Assistant to the President and White House Policy Analyst (1981-83); was the pioneering Irangate author and whistleblower on the October Surprise.
Amazon Review :
This bold and important book strives to be a practical "strategy for a Second American Century."
In this brilliantly argued work, Thomas Barnett calls globalization "this country’s gift to history" and explains why its wide dissemination is critical to the security of not only America but the entire world.
As a senior military analyst for the U.S. Naval War College, Barnett is intimately familiar with the culture of the Pentagon and the State Department (both of which he believes are due for significant overhauls).
He explains how the Pentagon, still in shock at the rapid dissolution of the once evil empire, spent the 1990s grasping for a long-term strategy to replace containment.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Barnett argues, revealed the gap between an outdated Cold War-era military and a radically different one needed to deal with emerging threats.
He believes that America is the prime mover in developing a "future worth creating" not because of its unrivaled capacity to wage war, but due to its ability to ensure security around the world.
Further, he believes that the U.S. has a moral responsibility to create a better world and the way he proposes to do that is by bringing all nations into the fold of globalization, or what he calls connectedness. Eradicating disconnectedness, therefore, is "the defining security task of our age."
His stunning predictions of a U.S. annexation of much of Latin America and Canada within 50 years as well as an end to war in the foreseeable future guarantee that the book will be controversial. And that's good.
The Pentagon's New Map deserves to be widely discussed. Ultimately, however, the most impressive aspects of the book is not its revolutionary ideas but its overwhelming optimism.
Barnett wants the U.S. to pursue the dream of global peace with the same zeal that was applied to preventing global nuclear war with the former Soviet Union.
High-level civilian policy makers and top military leaders are already familiar with his vision of the future—this book is a briefing for the rest of us and it cannot be ignored.
--Shawn Carkonen
Kirkus Review : Amazon Review :
The former national security advisor is still a believer in geopolitics after all these years.
Like most foreign-policy aficionados weaned on the Cold War, Brzezinski (Out of Control, 1993) has been forced by the disintegration of the Soviet Union to broaden his perspective--but not very far.
He sees the US as the only global superpower, but inability to maintain its hegemony indefinitely means that ``geostrategic skill'' is essential.
To what end is not specified beyond the vague shaping of ``a truly cooperative global community'' that is in ``the fundamental interests of humankind,'' but in this genre, goals are commonly assumed rather than examined.
In any case, Brzezinski casts Eurasia as the playing field upon which the world's fate is determined and analyzes the possibilities in Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Balkans (interpreted broadly), and the Far East.
Like a grandmaster in chess, he plots his strategy several moves in advance, envisioning a three-stage development.
Geopolitical pluralism must first be promoted to defuse challenges to America, then compatible international partners must be developed to encourage cooperation under American leadership, and finally the actual sharing of international political responsibility can be considered.
The twin poles of this strategy are a united Europe in the West and China in the East; the central regions are more problematic and, for Brzezinski, not as critical in constructing a stable balance of power.
This updated version of East-West geopolitics is worth taking seriously but it is also an amazing example of how a perspective can be revised without actually being rethought.
(Radio satellite tour) --
Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP.
All rights reserved.
He has crafted the definitive journalistic account of these events, describing the full history behind the overt and covert causes, and exposing the likely complicity of the Bush administration in the 9/11 attacks.