visiting scholar constructive feedback sums up...,

None of this is surprising.

Here is where I stand today after observing the last 3 US Presidents and how the news media and "THE TEAM" of operatives who operate upon with the two 'Dung Producing Party Animals":

• AMERICAN HEGEMONIC SUPREMACY goes unchallenged, NOT (just) because there is no equal and opposite opposing forces in the world to "check it" but MOSTLY because of the domestic political "proxy battles" which go on - which functionally limit protest or animate it - with regard to WHO is in power.
• I keep focused on international news so I don't get caught up any longer in this scheme.

• YES I supported the Iraq War because I was caught up in the "Fight The Critics" scheme.

• Today I see clearly that THE US GOVERNMENT REMAINS CONSISTENT IN ITS ACTIONS - while the people (American) divide themselves into factions

Today the US "economy" is said to be strong.

Look at the international press and note that mostly every other nation is suffering and on the brink of recession (especially the "Oil Producing States" and they are being forced to make massive government spending cuts/ layoffs).

The USA has the power of the "US Federal Reserve System" which used a $3.5 trillion credit card to produce FAKE MONEY to keep the US economy going - all the while the IMF/World Bank forced "austerity measures" in other nations who don't have the fiscal power to print fake money without suffering from INFLATIONARY FORCES.

The only way this smoke and mirror scheme is going to be address - so that 330 million Americans don't get isolated from the travails of the billions of other people in the world is to force "IMF-like" controls upon the domestic US fiscal policy - to reflect the $18 trillion in debt that the USA is able to abstract.

This is not an "Anti-American" stance. It is an acknowledgment that other nations without the same power are caught up in the wake that American and European policies produce. The worst thing they are doing is allowing their citizens to become NET CONSUMERS, further deleveraging their ability to achieve "Self-Determination".

Military Power / Fiscal Power / Foreign Policy Sanctions / Intelligence Agency Insurgency / Cultural Colonialism / Consumerism - are different sides of the very same cube.