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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: carranza2 who wrote (9595)	1/24/2006 2:20:33 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541674

Notice how Mandelbaum doesn't quote a single non-American in his wordy effort to rationalize everything America does? In effect he says, "Let me tell you why we are always right. No need for other points of view, I will dismiss them effectively in my sermon." Self-serving rhetoric,assuming away all dissent or arguments to the contrary. That's why this guy is an academic and not in charge of any actual policy issue.

To: carranza2 who wrote (9595)	1/24/2006 3:21:08 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 541674

All the President’s Power ___________________________________________________________ From executive orders to undeclared wars, the White House has gone unchecked since long before George W. Bush. by Thomas E. Woods Jr. January 30, 2006 Issue The American Conservative amconmag.com <<...Both liberals and at least some conservatives must share the blame for contributing to an ideological climate of which the inevitable outcome is the unrestrained executive under which our Republic now groans. Ultimately, though, apportioning responsibility for this transformation of the presidency, in which its occupant can flagrantly and defiantly violate the law, is of much less urgency than addressing—and, one hopes, correcting—the present debacle. Former congressman Bob Barr, a conservative from Georgia, has it right: “The American people are going to have to say, ‘Enough of this business of justifying everything as necessary for the war on terror.’ Either the Constitution and the laws of this country mean something or they don’t. It is truly frightening what is going on in this country.”...>>

To: carranza2 who wrote (9595)	1/24/2006 8:36:20 AM
From: thames_sider	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541674

Sovereign states as powerful as the United States, and as dangerous as its critics declare it to be, were historically subject to a check on their power. Other countries banded together to block them. ... Yet no such anti-American alignment has formed or shows any sign of forming today. Widespread complaints about the United States’ international role are met with an absence of concrete, effective measures to challenge, change, or restrict it. ... The explanation for this gap is twofold. First, the charges most frequently leveled at America are false. The United States does not endanger other countries, nor does it invariably act without regard to the interests and wishes of others. Second, far from menacing the rest of the world, the United States plays a uniquely positive global role. Two other key reasons which this author seems to have, er, overlooked. 1) the US has the world's largest effective nuclear arsenal and expresses willingness (not to mention eagerness from some powerful voices) to use it. 2) the US spends more on its military forces than the next ten largest spenders in the world all added together. IOW there's no coalition that could actually stop it. Other than those glaring misses and an alarmingly complacent view of US motives especially in the ME, interesting article.