my ArtSeesDiner Blog

<object width=”400″ height=”224″ ><param name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true” /><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always” /><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.facebook.com/v/1483296927617” /><embed src=”http://www.facebook.com/v/1483296927617” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”400″ height=”224″></embed></object>

“The third principle is to view force as the last resort. This requires an explicit renunciation of the Bush Doctrine of preventive war, which in arrogating to the United States prerogatives allowed no other nation subverts international stability and in the long run can only make Americans less secure.”

Excerpted from

Andrew J. Bacevich’s ‘The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced by War’.

Andrew J. Bacevich is a Professor of History and International Relations at Boston University. A graduate of West Point and a Vietnam Veteran, he has a doctorate in history from Princeton and was a Bush Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. He retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of colonel and is a member of the Council on foreign relations. He is the author of several books, including ‘The Limits of Power, the End of American Exceptionalism’. He is not a liberal. He is not a Democrat.

“… revitalize the concept of the separation of powers. Here is the second principle with the potential to reduce the hazards by the new American militarism.”

“In all but a very few cases, the impetus for expanding America’s security perimeter has come from the executive branch.” “The result, especially in evidence since the end of World War II, has been to eviscerate Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution, which in the plainest language confers on Congress the power “To declare War”.”

Andrew J. Bacevich is a Professor of History and International Relations at Boston University. A graduate of West Point and a Vietnam Veteran, he has a doctorate in history from Princeton and was a Bush Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. He retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of colonel and is a member of the Council on foreign relations. He is the author of several books, including ‘The Limits of Power, the End of American Exceptionalism’.

He is not a liberal.

He is not a Democrat.

Having read Andrew J. Bacevich’s ‘The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced by War’, I would like to share his proposed means, which ‘rests on ten fundamental principles’ by which to abate ‘the present day militaristic tendencies’.

“First, heed the intentions of the Founders, thereby restoring the basic precepts that animated the creation of the United States and are specified in the Constitution that the Framers drafted in 1787 and presented for consideration to the several states. Although politicians make a pretense of revering that document, when it comes to military policy they have long since fallen into t e habit of treating it like a dead letter. This is unfortunate. Drafted by men who appreciated the need for military power while also maintaining a healthy respect for the dangers that it posed, the Constitution in our own day remains an essential point of reference.”

http://fora.tv/2009/09/15/Whistle-Blo

Corporations are NOT the people! In fact, they are not people at all.

Get a free bumper sticker to protest the recent 5 to 4 decision by the Supreme Court to allow unlimited corporate funding for election campaigns.

src=”http://www.peaceteam.net/imgs/sc_200×69.gif”>

Read what Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig has to say about corporate influence in Washington. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100222/lessig
And visit the ‘Change Congress’ website.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100222/lessig

Sen. Lieberman: “If We Don’t Act Preemptively, Yemen Will Be Tomorrow’s War”

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, independent Senator Joseph Lieberman suggested the United States should preemptively attack Yemen in light of the failed airline bombing.

Sen. Lieberman: “I was in Yemen in August. And we have a growing presence there, and we have to, of Special Operations, Green Berets, intelligence. We’re working well with the government of President Saleh there. I leave you with this thought that somebody in our government said to me in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen. Iraq was yesterday’s war. Afghanistan is today’s war. If we don’t act preemptively, Yemen will be tomorrow’s war.”

So, according to the Senator, unless we go to war - that is, engage in unlawful state aggression - we’ll have to go to war.

Well, Senator, talking shite seems to have worked for your efforts to protect the massive insurance companies you serve from adverse affects of health care reform. Perhaps your military/industrial masters will reward you for similarly boosting their bottom line at the expense of the American and Yemeni people.

<object type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” data=”http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/4a37fb2f2cad25b3/4b37573296a30f2b/4b361f0089feca65/7cfdeb6e/-cpid/2979d738a37d8512″ id=”W4a37fb2f2cad25b34b37573296a30f2b” width=”160″ height=”400″><param name=”movie” value=”http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/4a37fb2f2cad25b3/4b37573296a30f2b/4b361f0089feca65/7cfdeb6e/-cpid/2979d738a37d8512″ /><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent” /><param name=”allowNetworking” value=”all” /><param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always” /></object>

Leave it to Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam - Python’s ‘Yank-in-the-wood-pile’, director of ‘Brazil’, ‘Twelve Monkeys’ and other cinematic adventures - to pitch a zinger to Keith Olbermann. To wit, “Why didn’t Colin Powell’s interview about the ‘Terror Industrial Complex’ become a bigger story?”

Indeed; Why? The answer, of course, is revealed by asking another question; why aren’t US forces and contractors out of Iraq and Afghanistan?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#33336509

<div><iframe height=”339″ width=”425″ src=”http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/33336509#33336509″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”></iframe><p style=”font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 425px;”>Visit msnbc.com for <a style=”text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;” href=”http://www.msnbc.msn.com”>Breaking News</a>, <a href=”http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507″ style=”text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;”>World News</a>, and <a href=”http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072″ style=”text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;”>News about the Economy</a></p></div>

That scene from ‘Saving Private Ryan’ comes to mind where the Captain, with his dying breath, tells Ryan ‘Earn this.’
With two hot wars and others simmering, that’s precisely what Obama has to do now - earn this honor or disgrace himself, the people who elected him and the Nobel committee.