America 'tis of thee ...

Seduced by the image of the white hats rescuing people from the evil blackhats, the cavalry riding to the rescue of the pioneers bent on creating a new land of freedom where everyone is created equal. But wait, was it all good? What about the non-whites? What about those whose land it was? Slavery and genocide. The commander asked "Is this the new world?" "No, this is the Washita River." The new world had blemishes, but we are not supposed to talk about those, we are not supposed to look beyond the image.

It is a sad reality that the finest ideals and better angels too often succumb to the less noble aspects of human nature. Lincoln called for a "new birth of freedom", but what would he think of what has happened, of the new kind of chains and of temporary necessities become the norm? His war was to maintain the unity of the state, now the wars are to expand the empire.

Herein we shall mark the progress of the empire.

"Beware the military-industrial complex." Tom Engelhardt presents Chalmers Johnson - "It's Much Later Than You Think."

Chris Floyd - "Dogs of War Hijacking National Policy."

A follow up the above.

"I've got an idea, and it's a gas." What remedy was applied to those accused of having WMD? Physician, heal thyself.

When it comes to observing US and international laws, treaties and norms, the Bush administration is a serial offender. Since 2001, it's:

-- spurned efforts for nuclear disarmament to advance its weapons program and retain current stockpiles;

-- renounced the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and asserted the right to develop and test new weapons;

-- abandoned the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) because it expressly forbids the development, testing and deployment of missile defenses like its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and other programs;

-- refuses to adopt a proposed Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) that would prohibit further weapons-grade uranium and plutonium production and prevent new nuclear weapons to be added to present stockpiles - already dangerously too high;

-- spends more on the military than the rest of the world combined plus multi-billions off-the-books, for secret programs, and for agencies like the CIA;

-- advocates preventive, preemptive and "proactive" wars globally with first-strike nuclear and other weapons under the nihilistic doctrines of "anticipatory self-defense" and remaking the world to be like America;

-- rescinded and subverted the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) to illegally develop new biowarfare weapons; in November 1969 and February 1970, Richard Nixon issued National Security Decision Memoranda (NSDM) 35 and 44; they renounced the use of lethal and other types of biological warfare and ordered existing weapons stockpiles destroyed, save for small amounts for research - a huge exploitable loophole; the Reagan and Clinton administrations took advantage; GHW Bush to a lesser degree;

-- GW Bush went further by renouncing the US Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 that prohibits "the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons....;" on May 22, 1990, GHW Bush signed it into law to complete the 1972 Convention's implementation; what the father and Nixon established, GW Bush rendered null and void; "Rebuilding America's Defenses" is his central policy document for unchallengeable US hegemony; among other provisions, it illegally advocates advanced forms of biowarfare that can target specific genotypes - the genetic constitution of individual organisms.

"What if those weapons fall into the hands of the wrong people?"

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Thus the rise of the dark angels.