Party of Davos?

[Bubba Wheels]

Hope this thread doesn't get me banned, being 'political' and all. But I'm genuinely interested in some opinions on this, covered a little in previous threads.

But this really starts to put the focus on things for me. Saw this guy talking on C-Span Sunday and Pat Buchanan's (my hero) new column talks about this (When Bush World's Collide). Some might be interested. http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/books_global_class_war

[Klinglerware]

Linky looks broken...

[Bubba Wheels]

fixed

[Crapshoot]

Protectionist, Xenophobic claptrap - the tune never quite changes.

[Klinglerware]

Interesting arguments. A couple of random thoughts:

- the author seems to be saying that globalization is inevitable, so we might as well codify a parallel multi-regional political system of rights (sort of like what the EU is trying to accomplish) to minimize cross-border social upheaval. Doesn't this seem to run counter to the preferred policy choices of those who want to retreat from the international system?

- The argument that poor and middle class people from different countries having more in common with each other than with the elites in their own countries is an interesting
idea (it's a rebranding of an old marxist-leninist position, if I recall correctly). I often wonder about race and class issues here in America in a similar fashion. This may sound tinfoil, but it does seem that poor whites and poor blacks in this country have more in common with each other than with the richer classes--the obsession with race seems to disguise problems that are more economic class issues. I'm not saying that there is something "divide and conquer" going on, but it does seem interesting to me...

[Bubba Wheels]

One thing I heard the author state on C-Span, before the Iraqi invasion the U.S. military had 720 bases outside of the U.S. Why? This explains alot.

[flere-imsaho]

One thing I heard the author state on C-Span, before the Iraqi invasion the U.S. military had 720 bases outside of the U.S. Why? This explains alot.

Inertia. During the Cold War the U.S. and U.S.S.R. played a hegemony game, and the easiest way to do this (especially before the days of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and very-very long range cargo aircraft) was to build bases in "friendly" countries.

Whether or not this continues to be a good idea is up for question, but in this post I'm just explaining the history behind this.

[MalcPow]

Not to mention it's easier to mobilize or conduct operations in a region when you actually have an established presence nearby.