From Common Dreams
By Heather Wokusch

Blaming everything on a handful of people at the top, no matter how destructive and abusive they’ve been, misses a critical point. Systems tend to self-perpetuate. Remove one player and the next comes in to ensure business as usual.

Remove Rumsfeld, a man who helped prop up Hussein in the 80’s and skewed intelligence towards war, and who do you get? Robert Gates, a man who helped prop up Hussein in the 80’s and skewed intelligence towards war.

Replacing those in power won’t help if the power structure itself doesn’t change. And that means addressing how our own actions maintain this dysfunctional system.

Decades ago, Rumsfeld and Cheney hoodwinked the American people with fearmongering lies about Soviet military capability, setting the country on a path of paranoia and weapons build-up. 911 let them pull the exact same trick again, with a public more focused on macho vigilantism than on facts and diplomacy.

But the dirty little secret remains: a combative foreign policy requires perpetual conflict. After all, tough-talking cowboys and weapons manufacturers have little value in times of peace, so it’s in their interest to foment never-ending strife. Maybe that’s why top Pentagon strategist Air Force Brig. Gen. Mark O. Schissler recently warned Americans to prepare for a 50-100 year “generational war.”

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