Category: Current Events

While American Empire Goes Even More Reactive, Russia Stays Pro-Active

In a totally NON-surprise move, the Russian Navy bolsters its naval presence off Syria to the highest level since 2015 when it first was asked by Syria to aid in fighting various rebel groups in their country.

As noted by a recent Reuters article:

On Saturday, the Admiral Grigorovich and Admiral Essen frigates sailed through Istanbul’s Bosphorus towards the Mediterranean, Reuters pictures showed.

The day before, the Pytlivy frigate and landing ship Nikolai Filchenkov were pictured sailing through the Turkish straits that connect the Black Sea with the Mediterranean. The Vishny Volochek missile corvette passed through earlier this month.

This is a NORMAL buildup to protect Syria as it continues in the negotiation stage and subsequent clean-up and liberation of the Idleb governorate in Syria’s northwest. The public announcement of this was made to let the rebel forces in this area know that they have limited time to respond to offers from the Syrian military that emphasized a September 7 deadline, the date when the Turkish, Russian and Iranian presidents will meet.

A Moon of Alabama article from three days ago shows the area about to be set free from rebel control, and the sensitivity here has to do with the US/UK/Israel backed rebel forces that have effectively been cornered:

There are signs that al-Qaeda in Syria and similar groups will try to preempt the upcoming attack on them by an offense of their own. The U.S., UK and France prepare for another chemical incident in support of the Jihadi attack. They would strike Syrian government forces and institutions after a new fake incident would be attributed to the Syrian government.

Turkey was given until the summit to remove al-Qaeda and similar Jihadi groups from Idleb governorate. It so far failed to do so and its chance of achieving that is practically zero. Al-Qaeda in the form of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS, formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) and in coalition with other foreign Jihadis from all over the world rules about 70% of Idleb governorate:

“Idlib Province is the largest al-Qaeda safe haven since 9/11,” says Brett McGurk, the senior US envoy to the international coalition fighting Isis.

Pushed up against the Turkish border, with the clock ticking, Syria, Russian and Iranian forces are EXPECTING the US’s deep state to attempt to pull off a false flag to justify even more intervention in an area where they are not wanted.

The Inspector General of the U.S. aid agency shut down an aid program through which al-Qaeda in Idleb was fed:

“US charity Catholic Relief Services wouldn’t directly confirm it was the NGO involved but left little doubt, saying it had “closed” its operations in northwest Syria following reports of aid diversion, and had dismissed staff as it works to “further enhance” anti-fraud measures. CRS has received $147 million from USAID for projects in Syria over the last three financial years, according to the USAID website.”
“USAID’s inspector general, reporting to Congress, first in March and with more details released in July, said that staff of an unnamed non-profit added “fighters” of armed group Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham to lists of civilians eligible for food packages and then covered up the records. The US government regards HTS as a successor to the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.”

First reports of this scheme through which the U.S. supplied al-Qaeda were already published in 2012. It was widely known that al-Qaeda systematically “taxed” up to 50% of all food and weapon supplies U.S. supported “moderate rebels” received.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/images6/idlibmap20180815.jpg (click to zoom in)

Ringed with both Russian and Iranian observation posts, this is a very controlled “run-down” of the terrorist scourge in the region as long as the US does not interfere.

To assist in pressing its point, at lest 20 Russian naval units are in the region (thanks to Capt N on Twitter)

A long-range Kalibr cruise missile is launched by a Russian Navy ship in the eastern Mediterranean, August 19, 2016. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service

This is a serious attempt at bringing to a close this chapter (but not yet the final chapters) of Syria’s battle against terrorism and their supporters.

The US Navy however is positioned more for North Korean and Chinese “threats” and will have to bring non-carrier based task forces into the region like the USS Ross, armed with Tomahawk missiles:

Expect the US and other forces to be desperate in bringing about a confrontation. Never-mind that the US just re-activated their 2nd Fleet for North Atlantic and Arctic activities now that the Trump administration has ratcheted up tension with Russia using sanctions as well as ill-advised Tomahawk cruise missile attacks like Trump did the last time he dabbled in Syria’s domestic affairs.

The multi-year joint effort by Syria-Russia-Iran is progressing in an attempt to undo the “democracy” the US brought into the region:

Long term, Moon of Alabama says:

Six month from now, after the Idleb operation is over, the Syrian army is likely to move further north to retake the Syrian areas Turkey is currently holding and attempting to annex. After that the U.S. occupation force in north-east Syria will come into sight.

Additional U.S. operations against Syrian, Iraqi and Iranian forces might soon come on the Syian-Iraq border where U.S. forces are building up for new operations. It is claimed that the U.S. deploys radar systems to north-east Syria which it keeps occupying. These would be useful in establishing a no-fly zone over the territory of its Kurdish proxy forces. The U:S. is likely underestimating the local hostility against this development. The 2-5,000 U.S. troops there may soon find themselves in a hopeless fight with local guerilla forces.

For all the innocent lives impacted, please pray that the US steers clear of its reactive/short-term moves that continues the de-stabilization process it set in motion soon after the Cold War was over in 1989. The US continues to try to justify a global military as well as the Petro Dollar (USD).

Stay ‘tuned’ (US Navy Electronic Technician humor)

-SF1

Prophets: Ignored and Marginalized .. Every Time

Anyone who has studied the Bible knows that the prophets (not “forth-telling” as in future telling, but “truth-telling”) were routinely seen as strange old men who reside on the edge of crazy and are in fact marginalized or worse, killed. From Noah, Moses and Samuel in the Old Testament to John the Baptist, Jesus, John and Paul in the New Testament, there was usually some tragic period in their life and also some truth-telling that usually had the masses turn away from following them.

Here is a modern day prophet whose message of peace was not well received but he did live until age 94. His name at birth in Germany was Helmut Osterman, born into a prosperous Jewish family in 1922 hear Hanover. His family saw the rise to power of the Nazis and in 1933 moved to Palestine. This 11-year old changed his name to the Hebrew, Uri Avnery.

Eric Margolis, in his Lew Rockwell article today, outlines Uri’s trajectory and allegience as well as his shift in his vision for the future of Israel:

In 1948, the young Avnery joined the underground Jewish guerilla force Irgun, fighting British and Palestinians and, later, Arab regular soldiers. Irgun committed numerous notorious terrorist acts and massacres that played a key role in driving the Palestinian population from their ancestral homes. He was seriously wounded and nearly died. Two years later, he and three friends started a political magazine, “One World.” Avnery was increasingly political and sided with Israeli expansionists.

As with a lot of prophets, there is a period where one’s belief structure is based in the traditional view and they are usually very passionate about it. (i.e. Saul, the best of the Jewish Pharisees, with a resume that is top-notch)

But then one day, or in a series of days, there is a stirring in the heart that something is not right, and that there is a better, although even non-traditional preferred way toward a future that aligns better with nature and its God:

… he gradually came to see that peace and cooperation was the only solution for Israel. After Israel’s smashing victories over the Arabs in the 1956 and 1967 wars, he formed a leftist pro-peace party and won a seat in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. He helped found the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Council and the renowned Gush Shalom peace movement.

Avnery was one of the first Israelis to call for fair treatment of the Palestinians, over a million who had become refugees in 1948 and 1967. He urged Israel to sign a lasting peace accord with the Palestinians and return to them control of the West Bank, the old city of Jerusalem, Golan and Gaza – all occupied by the Israeli Army and growing waves of Jewish settlers.

It is a tough road to hoe when one is a pioneer in new thoughts that would help propagate the Golden Rule (do unto others as you would have them do unto you).

Uri became the target of decades of hatred by right-wing Israelis. He was stabbed. He said things that were not said in public. He kept reminding Israelis that their Jewish ethics demanded fair and decent treatment of Palestinians, whom Israeli leaders preferred to call ‘cockroaches’ and ‘wild animals.’

Yes, but in spite of the attacks (and the truth that when one is on target, one will take on a lot of flak!), Uri continued to share what would be best for all people groups in the region for a peaceful future (something that had been maintained in various areas of the Middle East over the past few centuries, like Syria, Lebanon and even in Iran)

There would never be peace in the region, warned prophet Avnery, until Israel returned at least some land taken from Palestinians, and created a viable Palestinian state with full democratic rights and freedoms … Never one to mince words, Uri called Israel’s right, which just enacted a law making Israel an exclusively Jewish state (thus excluding its 21% Muslim and Christian population) ‘semi-fascist Jews.’

Uri’s dreams seem like they will never come true. He was passionate about a path forward but has found resistance in BOTH Israel and in Washington DC / American Empire:

Avnery became fast friends with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The two leaders could have created a viable Jewish-Arab state or federation. Sadly, Arafat was probably murdered and Avnery politically sidelined. In fact, Israel’s entire pro-peace left has dwindled to a fringe movement, isolated by its right-wing governments and Washington. Days after Uri died, Israel’s Likud coalition announced the expropriation of more Arab land on the West Bank to build 1,000 new homes for Jewish settlers.

As it is with prophets, years later people will find wisdom in the story of their life that may inspire them in another time and place in this world. Until then, it is important to share stories of people like this to give the next generations hope as well as to help them identify prophets in their midst, and take note.

SF1

Nationalism or Patriotism? PLUS, What About the National Anthem?

The friends, family and community-centric patriotism of the 1600 and 1700s could be triggered by this flag. This is the Union Jack representing the union between England (+Wales) and Scotland.  In time, as conditions worsened, the Union Jack was a symbol of tyranny of a state apparatus that went beyond protecting their citizen’s rights and became oppressive to life itself.

As the Bad Quaker explains in this article (where the quotes that follow are sourced from), there is a difference between nationalism and patriotism. The symbols (flag, song, etc) that originally were the pride of the patriot became stolen to reflect a nation-state whose attributes were not anything one would prefer in a friend’s character, but of someone you would keep at a distance.

.. consider if the word ‘nationalism’ were represented by the phrase ‘team spirit’ and the word ‘patriotism’ by the phrase ‘friends, family, and community’ ..

As the Bad Quaker points out, team spirit will always overlook the bad attributes of one’s team and always seeing the good in it.  In this, there is no performance or behavior that will cause one to switch loyalty over.

Friends, family and community are actually people that are to be defended from aggressive forces, or lifted up in times of trials .. a condition of the sacrificial love of others.

So the State is the source of nationalism, while the warrior is the source of patriotism.

So what about the symbols of the state, country or people group? This gets a bit more complicated but again, Bad Quaker has some insight into this:

The National Flag is a perversion of the warrior’s banner, a symbol of the nobility of his heritage and his independence.
The National Song is the socialist version of the many spontaneous songs that would breakout as warriors arose to defend their honor, singing songs of bravery and victory.
The Salute as a military gesture was once a source of common respect and trust among warriors, but twisted by the State it has become a tool for lesser men to show authority over true warriors.

The state has twisted and tainted what once was good and honorable. At its inceptions, the idea of America was a noble one but it was quickly hijacked for an agenda of power and control. Unfortunately, revolutions routinely provide much of the same oppression and tyranny that appeared before the conflict and warfare, and sometimes even more (i.e. French Revolution)

Bad Quaker goes on to explain:

… the heart of the patriot is naturally stirred as he sees the National Flag unfurled or as he hears the National Song because these things were once the property of the warrior. However they have been largely usurped by the State with the express intention of confusing the patriot. And we must see this, the State stole these things because nationalism is false and empty and it is only by theft and deception that the State can convince patriots to support its ongoing aggressions. It is only through deception and theft that the State can convince true warriors to fight its wars. Nationalism is void of bravery because nationalism sits behind a desk and sends others to fight. Nationalism is quick to wave a flag and just as quick to drop it on the ground as soon as the parade passes.

Now the following is very important to note in the case of current events when there are people NOT standing for the national anthem and other people see that dishonoring. As a veteran, I served so that people could be free to NOT stand during a nationalistic focus at a sports event OR while in a government school. No one should be coerced or forced to “worship” a state flag EVEN when there are “patriots” around that see this flag as something that represents family, friends and community.

Unfortunately, the state has PAID (with your tax dollars) to have most major sporting events be preceded by the worship of the state flag and with the state song since the 1940s. Before this there was rarely any display like this AND before the so called “Civil War”, most people identified with their state and not with the federal or general government of the united States. (THAT is not a typo, many original documents capitalized the “S” in States while NOT capitalizing the “u” in united, for a reason)

Nationalism is the hollow dead emotion the State wants patriotism to become. Nationalism is the false pride in one’s self at the accomplishments of others, while patriotism is pride in individual accomplishment.

True story. The state is paranoid that its delusion may lose to real patriotism, so it will at every chance and especially with your dime make sure you are reminded every time there are sports played in the USA that you remember who you are to worship.

The bottom line:

.. there is no place for nationalism in a free society, patriotism and the warrior spirit are a natural and needed aspect of freedom. The trick is in separating the two, as Paul the apostle once said, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”

Nuff said!

SFI

 

War’s Value to the Politician, Lifelong Warmonger vs. a Father

Politicians think in terms of election cycles, getting elected the next time is their highest priority. Beyond this, it is either the money the can make along the way from lobbyists, or the power they hold while in office, or the lucrative post-political job they can get to pave their way to retirement.

Warmongers are a different breed. War offers an expediency towards things they value most, an elite status that protects them from the everyday, they dream of empire and destruction of everything in the way of that empire.

“This is the way the kind of king you’re talking about operates. He’ll take your sons and make soldiers of them—chariotry, cavalry, infantry, regimented in battalions and squadrons. He’ll put some to forced labor on his farms, plowing and harvesting, and others to making either weapons of war or chariots in which he can ride in luxury. He’ll put your daughters to work as beauticians and waitresses and cooks. He’ll conscript your best fields, vineyards, and orchards and hand them over to his special friends. He’ll tax your harvests and vintage to support his extensive bureaucracy. Your prize workers and best animals he’ll take for his own use. He’ll lay a tax on your flocks and you’ll end up no better than slaves. The day will come when you will cry in desperation because of this king you so much want for yourselves…” 1 Samuel 8 – God’s Warning via Samuel

Fathers think and act very differently as their heart is with the next generations. Fathers think on legacy, think of love and selflessness, and would rather deal with war themselves than let their kids deal with it. Fathers would be willing to look like a fool to take the focus off the object of their affection, their son or daughter. Fathers would wage war, as a very last resort, to give their ancestors and their community more freedom and liberty. With freedom their offspring are most likely to thrive in bringing innovative value to others in their community. Sharing the fruits of what they love to do to others who can trade or barter back the fruits of their own talents and gifts. This exchange is called an economy, an environment of cooperation and friendship!

Jeff Deist from the Mises Institute has a short article out today about war, where he states:

Why do seemingly endless military conflicts persist, despite lacking any constituency for their prosecution beyond the DC beltway? And why does US military strategy appear incoherent and counterproductive, when viewed through the lens of peace? Why can’t we do anything about this, no matter whom we elect and no matter how much war fatigue resides in the American public?

The answer is not found in a facile denunciation of the military industrial complex or war profiteers, though both are very serious problems. The answer lies in understanding how the DC War Party operates. Its goals are not ours. It is not democratic; the government is not “us.” It is not political; its architects are permanent fixtures who do not come and go with presidential administrations. It is not accountable; budgeting is nonexistent and gross failures only beget greater funding. It is above all not “economic” — it operates in an artificial “market,” one created and perpetuated by wars and interventions ordinary people don’t want. War socialism, or what former Congressman Barney Frank brilliantly termed “military Keynesianism,” has taken on a life of its own.

War taken to the edges of our world are accomplished by an elite who operate in a cocoon of their own making, insulated from their decisions, while in true sociopathic style, have zero empathy for those caught up in their unleashed hell on earth.

Ludwig von Mises experienced this first hand:

Ludwig von Mises saw peace as the key to any liberal economic program, and argued strenuously against the fallacy of war prosperity. Even early in his career, before his horrific experiences as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I, he recognized the critical distinction between economy and war: the former characterized by exchange and cooperation, the latter marked by the worst form of state intervention:

“Only one thing can conquer war — that liberal attitude which can see nothing in war but destruction and annihilation, and which can never wish to bring about a war, because it regards war as injurious even to the victors.”

The victors DO pay a cost even when they do in fact win the war. In the movie ‘The Patriot’ (2000) the fictional main actor Benjamin Martin says at the close of the movie about reflecting on what we have won and what we have lost. There is a cost to war:

.. the loss is not only economic, it is also cultural and moral. War, the ultimate rejection of reason as a means of navigating human society, reduces our capacity for compassion and makes us complacent about atrocities. Worst of all, it emboldens and strengthens the domestic state — encouraging us to accept absurdities like TSA theater and SWAT teams with leftover military vehicles operating in peaceful small towns.

The small town life of the 1950s, the 1910s or the regional societies of the 1840s and 1780s are no more. Culturally and morally the society we have today in the United States is bankrupt. With the government’s effective pacification of the church via 501C3 exemptions, even the Christian religion has next to zero influence in changing or reforming society. Only an underground non-official movement of Jesus followers could positively impact this empire like it did to the Roman Empire in the First Century.

Until then, the atrocities abroad come home to roost.

 While US troops remain mired throughout the Middle East, a subsurface political war heats up in the US. This cold civil war creates the kind of hyper-politicized society progressives once only dreamed of. Social media outlets encourage even the most ill-informed and ill-intentioned voices to spread hatred against those with differing views. Goodwill doesn’t translate, so fake bravado hidden behind anonymity or distance are the order of the day. Epithets like “racist,” fascist,” “Nazi” and worse become cheap currency in the new vocabulary of meaningless words. Dissenting voices lose jobs, reputations, and access to popular platforms. Mobs form to attack political opponents in restaurants and shops, shout down campus events, and threaten online disclosure of their perceived enemies’ personal information.

The estimate length of time the US Military expects to be in Afghanistan is the same as it has been for Germany and Japan .. OVER 50 YEARS!

Jeff Deist ends his article with a dire prediction:

The hawkishness of neoconservatives and the “democratic socialism” of progressives both lead in the same direction, toward economic destruction and war. If you think American society is polarized and prone to lashing out abroad now, what happens with a shrinking economy and 40% unemployment?

The end of the rope experience like present day Venezuela may very well come to the American Empire. Prepare yourself and your family appropriately with self defense training and skills, adjust economically, be strategic psychologically,  and most importantly, get right spiritually toward being a loving father or mother of your kids, your extended family and friends as well as others in society in the future. Be ready to be a light in the darkness.

SF1

 

Words Do Matter, Definitions Help – What is Really Behind ‘Right’ and ‘Left’?

Obviously, calling oneself right or left means nothing. Beyond this, talking as well might give someone an insight into a person being “right” or “left”. Actions speak the loudest however, and in tough times it is one’s actions that create a legacy between “right” and “left”.

From Bionic Mosquito’s article comes some interesting thoughts on past and present efforts involving society and individuals, the relationships therein and the role of “right” or left”. Bionic starts off with this quote that I love:

As long as you’re living right, then you don’t have to worry about what people see.

– Clay Aiken

So true. I learned at an early age, I think age 5, that to lie I had to remember not only the lie itself, but who I told it to, and when .. and so I settled on just telling the truth and letting the chips fall where they may. I sleep good at night.

Bionic has been spending some time with Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn’s work called: ” Leftism: From de Sade and Marx to Hitler and Marcuse ” that is online courtesy of the Mises Institute.  He quotes Erik in saying:

..  In all European languages (including the Slavic idioms and Hungarian) right is connected with “right” (ius), rightly, rightful, in German gerecht (just), the Russian pravo (law),pravda (truth) ..

This is just the way the European’s organized things .. maybe based on:

On The Day of Judgment, the righteous are to be on the right, and the punished on the left; Christ, of course, sits on the right.

The Bible. In any case, once we have a definition that can be agreed upon, we can compare it with experience. So let us start looking at that it all means.

So, what is “right” for man? Man – each one a unique individual – needs room; room to grow, room to be left alone, room to think, room to thrive. Much of political reality over the course of a few centuries has been to crush this:

“…all the great dynamic isms of the last 200 years have been mass movements attacking – even when they had the word “freedom” on their lips – the liberty, the independence of the person.”

Individual-based, not the collective.  So how free were those before and after the Revolutionary War? Well, truth be known, any freedoms gained were quickly evaporated by a centrist agenda early before the Constitution was created (even though the Articles of Confederation were SUPPOSED to be modified by the convention in Philadelphia). The “fear” that the British Empire might again have eyes on this young republic made people opt for the collective again and freedoms were picked off one by one.

Bionic quotes Erik once more:

“The right has to be identified with personal freedom, with the absence of utopian visions whose realization – even if it were possible – would need tremendous collective efforts; it stands for free, organically grown forms of life.”

I do believe that the influence of Jesus and His followers had an impact on furthering the natural rights of individuals regardless of their class or skin color (i.e. Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”)

While the leftist dreams of restoring some mythical golden age, the rightest looks to the past to find what is eternally true, and build on this:

“The true rightist is not a man who wants to go back to this or that institution for the sake of a return; he wants first to find out what is eternally true, eternally valid, and then either to restore or reinstall it, regardless of whether it seems obsolete, whether it is ancient, contemporary, or even without precedent, brand new, “ultramodern.”..”

The right recognizes the uniqueness in each individual; the left dreams of uniformity. Politically…

“… [t]he leftists believe in strong centralization. The rightists are “federalists” (in the European sense), “states’ righters” since they believe in local rights and privileges, they stand for the principle of subsidiarity.”

The left cannot stand for competing authority or allegiance:

“Leftism does not like religion for a variety of causes. Its ideologies, its omnipotent, all-permeating state wants undivided allegiance. With religion at least one other allegiance (to God), if not also allegiance to a Church, is interposed.”

OK, so let us unpack this .. know that Republicans are not “right” (since they crushed the peaceful attempt at an exit of sever southern states in 1861) and the German National Socialist (Nazi) regime was not “right” either ..

What does true conservatism support?

“All conservative movements in Europe are federalistic and opposed to centralization. Thus we encounter in Catalonia, for instance, a desire for autonomy and the cultivation of the Catalan language among the supporters of the extreme right as well as the left”

With this understanding, the way one approaches history can be greatly enhanced, especially understanding the hate that developed of the Jews during the 1920s and 1930s as shared by Thomas Dilorenzo in his Lew Rockwell article today:

The economic policies of the Nazis, wrote Hayek, are “full of ideas resembling those of the early socialists.” The dominant feature of Nazism was a fierce hatred of anything capitalistic — “individual profit seeking, large-scale enterprise, banks, joint stock companies, department stores, international fiance and loan capital, the system of ‘interest slavery,’ in general.” Nazi policy, wrote Hayek, was nothing less than “a violent anti-capitalistic attack.” “It is not even denied, wrote the Nobel Prize-winning economist, that “many of the young men who today [1943] play a prominent part [in the Nazi Party] have previously been communists or socialists.”

The “common trend” of German journalists and others who supported the Nazis “was their anti-liberal and anti-capitalist” beliefs. The even adopted as their “accepted dogma” the phrase “the end of capitalism.”

The Jews were singled out for special hatred by the Nazis, who viewed them as symbols of capitalism. “The party . . . combats the Jewish-materialist spirit within and without us,” they wrote in their “25-Point Platform of the Nazi Party.” And as Nazi apologist Paul Lensch wrote in his book, Three Years of World Revolution (p. 176), the ideas of “freedom and civic right, of constitutionalism and parliamentarianism . . . derived from that individualistic conception of the world,” must be gotten “rid of to assist in the growth of a new conception of State and Society. In this sphere also Socialism must present a conscious and determined opposition to individualism”

So let us be clear, the left’s socialism is much closer to the Nazi state than efforts of decentralization like what happened to the USSR and what is happening in Spain with Catalonia.

So in summary, those that call themselves “conservatives” or “right” these days are usually not. Listen to their words BUT inspect their actions. As Tom Woods pointed out in his article on Woodrow Wilson back in 2003:

There is the prudence and perspective of the conservative. No conservative, whose hallmark is a disposition toward stability, would risk his own country’s well being, both financial and moral, in a ceaseless crusade of visionary schemes. A real sense of history, as well as an appreciation of what is possible in this fallen world, should sober us up from the utopian fantasies of liberalism. Great American statesmen of the past understood this: we can be an example to the world, but beyond that we dare not go. No mother should ever have to be told that her sons died trying to straighten out the political situation in Nigeria. As Lord Byron said, “Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.”

It is NOT America that must go abroad to bomb nations into democracy, America would have done better to be a model group of republics much like what is seen around Russia these days as they already have seen the bad side of collectivism in the USSR.

History helps one from repeating the mistakes of others .. just do your own research!

SF1