The rest of the world–those most deeply affected by US foreign policy–may take more seriously the differences between John McCain and Barack Obama. John Freedland in the Guardian comments on the prospect of a McCain victory:

But what of the rest of the world? This is the reaction I fear most…Polling in Germany, France, Britain and Russia shows that Obama would win by whopping majorities, with the pattern repeated in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. If November 4 were a global ballot, Obama would win it handsomely.

The crowd of 200,000 that rallied to hear him in Berlin in July did so not only because of his charisma, but also because they know he, like the majority of the world’s population, opposed the Iraq war. McCain supported it, peddling the lie that Saddam was linked to 9/11. Non-Americans sense that Obama will not ride roughshod over the international system but will treat alliances and global institutions seriously: McCain wants to bypass the United Nations in favour of a US-friendly League of Democracies.

Andrew Bacevich writing at the invaluable Tom Dispatch:

The events of the past seven years have yielded a definitive judgment on the strategy that the Bush administration conceived in the wake of 9/11 to wage its so-called Global War on Terror. That strategy has failed, massively and irrevocably. To acknowledge that failure is to confront an urgent national priority: to scrap the Bush approach in favor of a new national security strategy that is realistic and sustainable — a task that, alas, neither of the presidential candidates seems able to recognize or willing to take up.

So what would that new national security strategy look like?

Chris Hayes at the Nation:

There was a time when Republicans all wanted to talk about “the way forward” in Iraq and a lot of Democrats basically said “we shouldn’t be there in the first place!” I was one of them, and I think it was a legitimate sentiment. The answer to “what next?” was and is: leave.

But now, the Democrats, and the party’s nominee have a vision for the way forward: begin withdrawal. They talk about it all the time.

And the GOP has….what? That the surge was awesome. That we’re now winning. That we can’t withdraw because that would be an admission of defeat or an insult to our honor or something. But what next? I sat through four days of the RNC and didn’t hear anyone even pretend to answer this question.

Good morning Laura and all. sorry for o/t. This is my public service announcement…

patriots! Had enough?

Please
1. register to vote
2. verify your voter status before mid October. You can do it here by clicking on your state and following the instructions.
http://www.votesmart.org/voter…..ources.php

Imagine, a US leader thinking like a responsible world citizen vs a brat.

the McCain/Palin would pre-emptively attack Iran and continue to ignore one of the main root causes of the disaster in the middle east. The Israeli Palestinian conflict. We would continue to implode…

Mushroom soup, mushroom burgers. Mushroom oceans and Mushroom clouds.

Trying to imagine but keep seeing the Democrats roll over for Grampy McCain.

No time to watch–sorry–but here are a few notes.

I hear a giant sucking sound. A depression to begin with. Probably including high levels of inflation. Probably goes global and probably the world dumps its dollars. The wars would end because we couldn’t afford them any more. As things go bad, I’d expect the nascent police state to tighten its grip–it might even get hard to leave. Internationally, I think increasing isolation. The new global powers–Russia, China, India, the EU–would accelerate their emergence. Al-Qaeda becomes a legitimate political party in Arabia, and an enemy with a real army. South America continues its drift towards Latin American socialism.

Livin’ up to my user name, caw!

raven333:

South America continues its drift towards Latin American socialism.

Nothing wrong with that. It corrects years of criminal abuse by US Chicago School thieves. It places the focus of their governments where it belongs: on the regular people rather than corporations.

WE need some of that Latin American socialism right here.

PraedorAtrebates @ 10: well, yes and no. It’s not going to be friendly to the USA, that’s for sure. And Latin American liberation movements are notorious for failure due to corruption and anti-native bigotry–Hugo Chavez seems to be going down the corruption track. They are in dire need of more figures like Juarez and Allende and no-one of that stature has emerged in this generation, so far as I know.

Most people won’t notice the consequences of McCain/Barracuda.
Unless McCain blows up the world many of our religious zombies will keep on purchasing.
However, If you have a functioning brain life will be literally unbearable.