Phase I - Afghanistan and Iraq
Phase II - Africa and Oil quietly under the guise of the Pan Sahel Initiative and related CSIS strategy
Phase III - Strategic Redeployment of U.S. Forces To Ensure the Procurement or the World's Remaining Resources
This week's headlines... "Bush to move forces from Europe, Asia"
President Bush this week will announce a major reduction and re-positioning of U.S. forces deployed overseas, according to Pentagon and senior administration officials. The official said the planned changes would focus on improving speed, flexibility and capability, while at the same time strengthening existing alliances and building new ones.
The U.S. military said earlier this year it was removing about 12,500 of the 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea for decades and sending many of them to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Pentagon officials have been studying U.S. commitments overseas for more than two years in an initiative to rearrange global deployments of U.S. forces adopted in the Cold War and make the American military more mobile in the new war on terrorism. [read oil]
Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Port-Carbon World
By Richard Heinberg
“Our fossil fuel inheritance is burned once and for all.”
The four principal options available to industrial societies during the next few decades are:
Last One Standing – The past of competition for remaining resources. If the leadership of the US continues with current policies, the next decades will be filled with war, economic crises, and environmental catastrophe. Resource depletion and population pressure are about to catch up with us, and no one is prepared. The political elites, especially in the US, are incapable of dealing with the situation. Their preferred “solution” is simply to commandeer other nations’ resources, using military force.
The worst-case scenario would be the general destruction of human civilization and most of the ecological life-support system of the planet. That is, of course, a breathtakingly alarming prospect. As such, we might prefer not to contemplate it – except for the fact that considerable evidence attests to its likelihood.
Powerdown – the path of cooperation, conservation, and sharing. The only realistic alternative to resource competition is a strategy that will require tremendous effort and economic sacrifice in order to reduce per-capita resource usage in wealthy countries, develop alternative energy sources, and humanely but systematically reduce the size of the human population over time.
Waiting for a Magic Elixir – Wishful thinking, false hopes, and denial. Most of us would like to see still another possibility – a painless transition in which market forces come to the rescue, making government intervention in the economy unnecessary. This rosy hope is extremely unrealistic, and serves primarily as a distraction from the hard work that will be required in order to avert violent competition and catastrophic collapse.
Building Lifeboats – The past of community solidarity and preservation. The fourth and final option begins with the assumption that industrial civilisation cannot be salvaged in anything like its present form, and that we are even now living through the early stages of disintegration.
a crucial excerpt... please print and read at your liesure...
http://www.newsgateway.ca/powerdown.htm
Phase II - Africa and Oil quietly under the guise of the Pan Sahel Initiative and related CSIS strategy
Phase III - Strategic Redeployment of U.S. Forces To Ensure the Procurement or the World's Remaining Resources
This week's headlines... "Bush to move forces from Europe, Asia"
President Bush this week will announce a major reduction and re-positioning of U.S. forces deployed overseas, according to Pentagon and senior administration officials. The official said the planned changes would focus on improving speed, flexibility and capability, while at the same time strengthening existing alliances and building new ones.
The U.S. military said earlier this year it was removing about 12,500 of the 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea for decades and sending many of them to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Pentagon officials have been studying U.S. commitments overseas for more than two years in an initiative to rearrange global deployments of U.S. forces adopted in the Cold War and make the American military more mobile in the new war on terrorism. [read oil]
Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Port-Carbon World
By Richard Heinberg
“Our fossil fuel inheritance is burned once and for all.”
The four principal options available to industrial societies during the next few decades are:
Last One Standing – The past of competition for remaining resources. If the leadership of the US continues with current policies, the next decades will be filled with war, economic crises, and environmental catastrophe. Resource depletion and population pressure are about to catch up with us, and no one is prepared. The political elites, especially in the US, are incapable of dealing with the situation. Their preferred “solution” is simply to commandeer other nations’ resources, using military force.
The worst-case scenario would be the general destruction of human civilization and most of the ecological life-support system of the planet. That is, of course, a breathtakingly alarming prospect. As such, we might prefer not to contemplate it – except for the fact that considerable evidence attests to its likelihood.
Powerdown – the path of cooperation, conservation, and sharing. The only realistic alternative to resource competition is a strategy that will require tremendous effort and economic sacrifice in order to reduce per-capita resource usage in wealthy countries, develop alternative energy sources, and humanely but systematically reduce the size of the human population over time.
Waiting for a Magic Elixir – Wishful thinking, false hopes, and denial. Most of us would like to see still another possibility – a painless transition in which market forces come to the rescue, making government intervention in the economy unnecessary. This rosy hope is extremely unrealistic, and serves primarily as a distraction from the hard work that will be required in order to avert violent competition and catastrophic collapse.
Building Lifeboats – The past of community solidarity and preservation. The fourth and final option begins with the assumption that industrial civilisation cannot be salvaged in anything like its present form, and that we are even now living through the early stages of disintegration.
a crucial excerpt... please print and read at your liesure...
http://www.newsgateway.ca/powerdown.htm