OF THE
TIMES
"Never before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and the human sacrifice (casualties, even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization." - Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives; Pg. 35.A general consensus is emerging that in the quest for American hegemony America's plutocrats and warhawks staged a new pearl harbor (the September 11 attacks) on American soil to get the American people fired up once more about an external threat, and then manipulated their feelings of fear, patriotism, and revenge to launch a global war on terrorism, and military invasions of various countries in the Middle East.
"Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat." - Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard; Pg. 211.
"The attitude of the American public toward the external projection of American power has been much more ambivalent. The public supported America's engagement in World War II largely because of the shock effect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor." - Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard; Pg. 24-25.