Follow The Path of Least Resistance 6-8

6. On the World:
Americans are idiots, but the rest of the world is no better. Humans are a stupid lot. No people has a monopoly on hubris and idiocy. Due to its enormous power, American folly is amplified above the rest. It is held to a higher standard and delivers the image. Hence, it has further to fall. The world cheering will be defining and we will deserve their scorn. The best time to trample someone is when they are down. Universal application is always a myth.

7. On the Opening of the Floodgates:
As we are beginning to see, Fourth Generation Warfare has the potential for profound impact on media-centric societies. Impacts are magnified far beyond the original scope and altered in significance. Fear is transmitted via cultural disease vectors.

8. On Chaos:
Chaos is both profitable and destabilizing. Media interests can never get enough of it. Even the self-restrained whores, who pass for journalists and editors in the U.S. theses days, cannot suppress or merely parrot the government line for long. Competing media interests from non-western societies will have no qualms about presenting the story in the most unfavorable light to U.S. interests. Al Jazeera and similar satellite news services are new phenomenon watched by hundreds of millions. The Internet is another obvious avenue for information whose implications are obviously not appreciated by the lackwits who populate the District of Columbia. The Vietnamese had nothing like it. Years dragged by before war coverage became critical. Now, it takes months. The U.S. press might not show dead children in Iraq, but you can bet Al Jazeera will. Hence, hatred of the U.S. becomes more widespread throughout a territory spanning half the globe and alienating much of the rest. Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW) is effective. Simply blow up a couple of buildings[1] and the rest will follow.
Forays into Afghanistan and Iraq represent the beginning of the end of U.S. Imperial pretensions. Iraq is not Vietnam; it is Lebanon. Afghanistan is Afghanistan. There can be no peace with 4GW forces.
The incompetence of politicians would be amazing if not entirely typical in an Age of Mediocrity. Leadership is a casualty of eroding legitimacy. The only things these so-called leaders can be counted upon is too always whore themselves and never do the right thing in any long term context. They will drive themselves into crushing debt to avoid making realistic choices. Their fantasy land is manufactured by a combination of myth and flawed thinking. They believe their power is absolute. How could any sane person believe a state or system omnipotent?
Sham leaders are products of a media-centric society. In this environment, systemic mechanisms ensure vision will always be lacking in a product; hence, the concept of leaders, at least on any large scale, must be discarded. If something needs doing you will have to do it yourself. The Empire is fading fast or is it? Nobody knows; or cares. How many narcissists can dance on the head of a pin? None. Do nothing. See nothing. Be nothing. Why waste more time on the obvious?

[1] Attacks must be multiple and simultaneous to instill maximum panic and project power. Other than actual victims, which are relatively small, a media-centric society will spread the effect in an effective verbal world.