To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (267752 ) 1/10/2006 11:39:15 AM From: tejek Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 1572212 This landmark, myth-shattering work chronicles the most powerful institution in America, the people who created it, and the pathologies it has spawned. Carroll proves a controversial thesis: the Pentagon has, since its founding, operated beyond the control of any force in government or society. It is the biggest, loosest cannon in American history, and no institution has changed this country more. To argue his case, he marshals a trove of often chilling evidence. He recounts how "the Building" and its denizens achieved what Eisenhower called "a disastrous rise of misplaced power"—from the unprecedented aerial bombing of Germany and Japan during World War II to the "shock and awe" of Iraq. He charts the colossal U.S. nuclear buildup, which far outpaced that of the USSR and has outlived it. He reveals how consistently the Building has found new enemies just as old threats—and funding—evaporate. He demonstrates how Pentagon policy brought about U.S. indifference to an epidemic of genocide during the 1990s. And he shows how the forces that attacked the Pentagon on 9/11 were set in motion exactly sixty years earlier, on September 11, 1941, when ground was broken for the house of war. I think the amount of influence the Pentagon exerts is dependent mostly on the president. I've come to realize there is a climate of paranoia in this country that is encouraged by some presidents and nurtured and supported by the Pentagon. I think it must have developed after Pearl Harbor. Its what makes this country crazy and our foreign policy somewhat irrational.......again dependent on the president. I guess having Clinton sandwiched in between Reagan and Bush Jr. has made that point very clear to me. The people most infected with this paranoia must have been driven crazy under Clinton. No wonder they hate him so much. I suspect its also the reason why they are so willing to give up their freedoms under Bush. ted