“In this series of essays, John Stanton lays out that the United State of America is not the nation that you were taught in school it was. Rather than ever achieving its promise, it has been slowly and inextricably taken over by a relative handful of elitists who can’t see beyond their next power or dollar grab--people who believe that on the weight of their wealth, especially ‘old money,’ they have been imbued with a divine right to rule.”

--Bev Conover, Editor-Onlinejournal.com

“Ominous currents threaten American democracy and world security in the era of George W. Bush. Terrible as his administration has been, opposition movements have made the mistake of personifying Bush as the embodiment of all that's screwed up and perhaps evil

about US foreign and domestic policy, to the point that more systematic analyses have been abandoned, and the leading charge of dissent today boils down to desperate support for the (not so much of a) lesser evil.

“John Stanton is one of the view dissenting voices courageously treading beyond the narrow confines of liberal/conservative, Democrat/Republican discourse, exposing the underbelly of American empire and imperialism and the bipartisan interests that, in their varying ways, seek to expand the empire at the expense of our liberties and well being, and that of future generations here and abroad. Stanton's essays are eye-openers that we ignore at our own peril.”

-- Sunil K. Sharma, editor of Dissident Voice

(www.dissidentvoice.org)

About the Author:

John Stanton is a professional in the national security arena. He was also a senior editor and radio talk show host for American Politics magazine in Washington, DC.  Stanton  has contributed works on US national security policy  and American politics to a diverse array of  publications including National DEFENSE, Convergence, China Daily, Counterpunch, Outlook India, Security Management,  Online Journal, Australian Defence, Defense Week, Journal of  Technology Transfer (former editorial board  member)  and the American Behavioral Scientist. He has commented on US Homeland Security matters on CBS Evening News, ABC, CNN and KPFA (part of the Pacifica Radio Network), as well as other media outlets around the globe.

Stanton is co-author with Wayne Madsen of America’s Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II, also published by Dandelion Books.

Excerpt:

Introduction

Contributor to www.militarycity.com

In an engaging and illuminating way, John Stanton profiles for those outside of Washington power circles exactly what a second George W. Bush administration will finish, and what it will begin.  Our Founders held that God-given individual rights of speech, movement, and property ownership were to be preserved and protected by a small, decentralized, constrained government. 

For almost four years, the George W. Bush administration has assaulted this ideal, and another Bush term will go far to destroy this vision as a practical matter.  Stanton explains how “Bush has adroitly fused state, religious (faith-based government) and business interests into one indistinguishable tyrannical mass” and his explanation of how this has been accomplished is eye-opening.  We idealize 21^st century America as our birthright, our pride and joy—when in fact,   this birthright is bankrupt, and is skidding dangerously towards third world status. 

Bush Junior has become our very own Kim Jong Il, complete with a secretive, unaccountable elite-populated administration, busy cultivating militarism at home and abroad with a kind of paranoia-infused grandiosity normally associated with psychiatric wa rds.

Stanton’s grasp of the larger issues and trends behind the headlines helps us better understand 20^th century US political evolution, and in doing so, seriously grasp the impact of this first presidential administration of the 21^st century.  Stanton’s predictions for a possible second term of George W. Bush are not only shocking, but substantiated by the facts on the ground.  The future described here is not only imminent; it may be a fait accompli.  Armed with the truth, the roadmap of how we got here, and Stanton’s insights, perhaps we can draw on our traditional American ingenuity, tenacity and pioneer spirit, and find a way back home.   

Karen Kwaitkowski is a retired USAF lieutenant colonel who spent her final four-and-a-half years in uniform working at the Pentagon. She now lives with her freedom-loving family in the Shenandoah Valley and writes a bi-weekly column on defense issues with a libertarian perspective for militaryweek.com.

1

Troubles in Fortress USA

A Power But Not Super

[September 2003]

The United States was chastised recently by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its reckless tax-cutting program, which has contributed greatly to increasing the US federal deficit. The IMF expects the US budget deficit to exceed $550 billion over the coming years, a staggering 5 percent of America's yearly economic output.

According to IMF Economic Counselor Kenneth Rogoff, the United States is on the "biggest external borrowing rampage in the history of the world, with current account deficits projected at 5 percent for as far as the eye can see."

With the US sucking up cash from world markets, domestic markets and savings accounts to feed its perpetual war programs, little room remains for private investors to borrow at reasonable interest rates. Productivity is set to decline; since American businesses have fired all the employees they can and, subsequently, have outsourced millions of jobs. To alleviate the coming disaster, the IMF recommends that the US reenact the Budget Enforcement Act, which would bring the regime in Washington, DC back to some sort of fiscal reality.

So what gives here? Since when does the IMF lecture the US? For that answer, we have to go back to the year 2000.

From 2000 to 2003, a mere 36 months, the US federal and state budgets have collectively gone from surplus to deficit. It is too easy to blame the mentality of the dot-com era and toss around terms like "overvaluation." That's the Wall Street version.

There's more to it than that.

Since 2000, the current administration has gone out of its way to downsize and demean government (and its employees) at every level, choosing only to promote and fully fund the military-industrial complex and intelligence, law enforcement and homeland security functions. In this administration's view, every other government function, including social security, belongs in the private sector where the administration's friends, family and assorted shady connections can make a profit. To them, government provides a smoke screen to move money around, to increase the take.

Each day, Americans learn "their" government has lied to them. Fudged unemployment figures, misleading environmental reports, flimsy and false intelligence, and censored news are designed to keep the investors fat and happy and the facts locked away from the public.

It is a clever system that Saddam Hussein or Benito Mussolini would recognize and, arguably, could effectively preside over. Such is the system that America's head cheerleader in charge, George "The Lip" Bush (moniker given to Bush, the head cheerleader for Phillips Academy, Andover, full-contact football in the 1960s) now promotes and in which he now operates. It's worth recalling that Bush II was inserted into the oval office by the US Supreme Court in 2000 amidst documented election fraud in the state of Florida. And it is worth remembering that Al Gore (starting center and captain of Saint Albans' full-contact football team in the 1960s) won the popular vote by 600,000.

Looking back, it is clear that the US began its slide to a third rate power in November of 2000 after its voting mechanisms proved to be easily corruptible. In 2003, voter fraud in both the electronic and paper realms continues to bring into question the legitimacy of some of those holding office, as well as the very foundations of American democracy.

[continued]