I wasn't exaggerating by much, Jack! :-)

Replace the word "protect" in your sentence (West Germany, France, Belgium etc are our Allies, we were sworn to protect them.) with "exploit and make use of" and I'm right with you. The USA is mightily peeved right now that the French are not allowing themselves to be made use of. I wonder in what way the USA will retaliate? Economic moves, probably...

The erosion of our safety net has a very great deal to do with the fact that the world's great socialist powers have been in disarray since '89. It is the key. Remember the "peace dividend" that everyone was supposed to gain from the end of the Cold War? Remember how things were going to get better without all that need for building huge armed forces?

That was a lie. The very opposite has happened, and not because of Muslim fundamentalists either...they are another sorry byproduct of the same policies and policymakers from which the peace dividend lie emanated, because those guys built up Osama, Saddam and the Mujahedeen, armed them, and trained their soldiers. The scorpion they created to attack Russia and Iran has now stung them in the hand.

I was in no way excusing the Russians...I was merely saying that they served as a useful check and balance in some ways between 1945 and 1990. They are just as obvious in their naked self-interest as is corporate America and its bloodhound, Tony Blair's U.K.

To mention 3 opportunistic powers...there are others too.

Haven't time for the rest now. Too bad we can't just meet at the restaurant and talk or something.

- LH