First, two significant quotations. From Randolph Bourne's War is the Health of the State : The Government, with no mandate from the people, without consultation of the people, conducts all the negotiations, the backing and filling, the menaces and explanations, which slowly bring it into collision with some other Government, and gently and irresistibly slides the country into war. For the benefit of proud and haughty citizens, it is fortified with a list of the intolerable insults which have been hurled toward us by the other nations; for the benefit of the liberal and beneficent, it has a convincing set of moral purposes which our going to war will achieve; for the ambitious and aggressive classes, it can gently whisper of a bigger role in the destiny of the world. The result is that, even in those countries where the business of declaring war is theoretically in the hands of representatives of the people, no legislature has ever been known to decline the request of an Executive, ...

Given the way the government uses the MSM, this is significant: Top US commander Gen. David McKiernan says the mission in Afghanistan is likely to fail if militants continue to gain power in Pakistan. During his 40-minute briefing, the commander of the US forces in Afghanistan said, "Can you get to the right end-state in Afghanistan if you have a deteriorating or failed state in Pakistan? The answer is probably no." The remarks came as US Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, visited troops in Kabul to see "what they need to prevent militants from crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan." McKiernan predicted that the US would need at least 2 to 3 more years to finish its mission in Afghanistan, adding that it is the length of time that Kabul would need to train nearly 134,000 forces to ensure the country's security. More than 60,000 US troops will be stationed in Afghanistan by the fall, when the nation is to hold elections. Given that Top US commanders don't t...