The Independent, By Robert Fisk, March 19

Five years on, and still we have not learnt. With each anniversary, the steps crumble beneath our feet, the stones ever more cracked, the sand ever finer. Five years of catastrophe in Iraq and I think of Churchill, who in the end called Palestine a "hell-disaster".

But we have used these parallels before and they have drifted away in the Tigris breeze. Iraq is swamped in blood. Yet what is the state of our remorse? Why, we will have a public inquiry – but not yet! If only inadequacy was our only sin.

Today, we are engaged in a fruitless debate. What went wrong? How did the people – the senatus populusque Romanus of our modern world – not rise up in rebellion when told the lies about weapons of mass destruction, about Saddam's links with Osama bin Laden and 11 September? How did we let it happen? And how come we didn't plan for the aftermath of war?

Oh, the British tried to get the Americans to listen, Downing Street now tells us. We really, honestly did try, before we absolutely and completely knew it was right to embark on this illegal war. There is now a vast literature on the Iraq debacle and there are precedents for post-war planning – of which more later – but this is not the point. Our predicament in Iraq is on an infinitely more terrible scale.

the iraq invasion was imo a gamble from some con ppl ,the usa needed iraq for several reasons :
1 - Oil ,not for the public but for its huge war machine.
2 - Oil for its huge debt which imo it would never repaid anyway ,or to boost its economic industry ,like the europeans did in the colonial age
3 - War is a racket ,to get money for its supporters aka the militairy - industrial complex ,1 of the reason of the War on Terror
4 - to Rubber stamps its supreme militairy status on the world.
5 - the neocon and christian right dream of a greater israel by wipping out 1 of the contenders of israel ,even maybe a armaggedon scenario
6 - to take out the alliance of Syria - Iran and regime change in favor of the west
7 - maybe even to saveguard the dollary hegemony.

Imo the invasion of iraq started in 1991 ,with the embargo in place to weaken iraq and preparing for occuption and it wouldnt surprise me that saddam was fooled in to invading kuwait to set this plan in motion.
those point above doesnt have to be in 1 big masterplan but they move all on the same parallel direction.

The costs, and the impact on government and investment has created a sort of catabolic decline in the United States that is probably very long term. The rising use of debt, and the fact that all the money used in Iraq is not even counted against the deficit, tips costs such that we are paying more for mistakes than ever before that contribute nothing to our welfare. Fully 20% of monies in the Federal Government (not earmarked for SS) is going to fund interest expense. A cost that contributes nothing, draining capital away from even the ability to maintain what we have. Our economy has become the equivalent of eating celery. It takes more energy to eat a stalk of celery than the calories provided.

The complexity of everything has reached a point where it is taking more energy to do something than the benefits derived. The costs of extracting oil is reaching points that are higher than the value of the fuel itself. Ethanol is certainly at that point when all costs are considered. There was a day when a well in the ground at a cost of $1 yielded $100 in oil, today $1 yields $3. With ethanol $1 yields $.75, and that now represents 10% of the gas in our car.

But the roads, all the capital is used to just maintain them and we can't keep up. The buildings are now costing more than the capital to maintain them. The zoning rules and regulations, all the layers of rules and oversight, adds to the complexity.

Societies don't fall in a day, they fall over 100 years and at the end of it all you don't even know what hit you. But the last five years are certainly a tipping point.

The collapse of Enron, Bear Stearns, Countrywide Credit, the decline of the dollar, the surge in the costs of energy in all its forms are symptoms not causes.

At least, Bear Stearns is brining in grief counselors. Sigh.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Story?id=4476286&page=1

With the final grasp for control of dwindling resources....

I think we are better than this, though. I hope (there's that word again) that those of us with some damned sense can regain control.

The kids of the next generation are all right, and about half of the boomers are not totally fucked up. I've seen a LOT of opinions change over the last seven years. I've gone from political ignorance to awareness and activism myself, and have a small group of my own now that I keep educated. If we all do that, and grab onto as many more as possible to educate them too, we can make it.

Think of what it takes for me to just drive to the store.

I get in a car that was delivered from Tennessee, the engine was assembled in Mexico. The car itself designed in Japan, and that using licensed GM technology. The metals are mined from South Africa and South America, all of this requiring coal that is sent to huge utilities using GM generators that are being constructed in India. The gasoline is trucked to my station from trucks made in basically the same manner as my car. The ethanol in that gasoline has to be sent by rail and mixed at a the terminal that loads the truck with gasoline, that was sent to the terminal by a 500 mile long pipeline from the refinery located in Wisconsin. The oil is delivered by tankers using the St. Lawrence Seaway that must be kept open by enourmous diesel consuming dredgers. The refinery itself is a cascading series of devices that heat the oil to crack it into its component fuels, using natural gas from Canada.

The oil likely came from the Gulf of Mexico on enormous steel platforms that are anchored at Sea. Drawing the oil from deep underground with teams of hundreds of engineers and operators, being ferried back and forth from the mainland by helicopters consuming jet fuel that is likely being refined in Texas.

Compare that with taking a walk.

The greatest strength of the US is the ability to manage complexity. However, the bigger the front, the bigger the back. There are limits to everything. Especially, when self-interest in the extreme — like hubris and greed — enters the picture, divorcing ideals from reality. Then complexity becomes a nightmare, as it is now in the financial crisis, where leverage is so interlocked that the failure of one player can bring down everyone. "Internal contradictions," as the Marxists like to say, are bringing down the house of free market capitalism in the form of economic neoliberalism and political neo-imperialism.

The way to attack complex systems is by increasing their complexity. This is OBL's stated strategy. The US is hemorrhaging funds on wars and homeland security, yet, is not managing to keep up with the threats. The present course is unsustainable, and OBL knows this. So does Putin, Chevez, etc. The vultures are circling.

simplicity.

Look how the US forces have been pinned down in Iraq by nothing more than explosives in a can of nails planted by the side of roads. The IED is an amazingly cheap and simple device.

I always think of the elaborate missile defense systems that are envisioned. A rocket full of gravel exploded in orbit at just the right spot could wipe out the entire global geo-positioning and communications satellite systems, not to mention spy satelites and the space station. NORAD brought low by gravel. Now that is complex AND simple. I can think of a number of countries that could easily achieve that objective.

USA peaked economically around 1960, I think, and has been declining since. From what I can see, this was the best time economically for the average American. But I think it is a subjective designation, determining a "peak" for a culture or empire. There are any number of criteria, and each person might value a certain set more or less than others do. For instance, militarily USA continues to increase. Financially as well; many would disagree, but just because the increase of public wealth has consolidated does not mean that it doesn't exist. If I had to choose an actual overall "peak" I would say the Civil War. This destroyed populist culture in the USA. (Correct me if I am off-base.)

I will say one thing unequivocally: it is much more interesting a life when things go wrong than when things go right. Anyway, there is much time left to enjoy USA.