Pakistan

"Over the years U.S. politicians have considered unqualified statements of support for Israel’s objectives to be a throwaway--that is, no political cost and all political benefit for the politician. But those days are forever gone, and the danger of increased violence in the Middle East is much higher than the threat level announced in the nation’s airports close to election time."

"It's clear that John McCain and his neo-conservative backers would look forward to such a confrontation; they thrive on crisis; it's where they come alive and can roll out their black/white simplicities and threats to use force, utilize an "enemy" as their way to increase their domestic power, cranking-up the old military-industrial complex. And, at least for the purposes of the election campaign, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have joined in, using Russia as a bete noir and are warning Russia to back off and back down and back away."

"If I had the ear of Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev, I would suggest the following: “Be patient and cautious. The American public is waking up at last. Bush and his neo-conservative collaborators have the support of less than 30% of the public, and their time in office is running out – perchance faster than they realize. Fully two thirds of the American public do not support the Iraq war, and want an early end and withdrawal from Iraq. More and more of us American share your disapproval of American imperialism and American international bullying, and have no desire whatever to see a return of the Cold War. Of those who do not, many would also disapprove but for the official lies that they have been persuaded to accept.”

"While a watchful eye is trained on Muslim Americans, bureaucrats have profoundly changed our nation's security methods, unleashing a national security and intelligence technology arms race. The new domestic intelligence systems, if abused, will make the population control methods of China and the former Soviet Union seem quaint."

"War is enormously profitable for some of America's biggest and most powerful corporations. American capitalism can be a ravenous beast without a soul, a beast that far too often feasts on the pocketbooks of American taxpayers and on the blood and the blasted, broken bodies of innocent and defenseless civilians, subsistence farmers mostly, in poor Third-World countries that represent no threat whatsoever to the legitimate national security interests of the United States of America."

"Leaders of Jordan and Egypt understand that they can't blindly follow the policies of a discredited American government and a failed Israeli leader to break the Islamists. They say all politics is local in America. The local angle is also important here."

"The back and forth of the remaining presidential campaign will be fun to watch. Joe Biden will say a lot, but most of it will be meaningless. It will turn out to be a contest between who likes Barack Obama the most and who likes Sarah Palin the most. Sarah Palin is the huge wildcard and she will come under relentless attack from the Left."

"With Obama and Biden now beginning a post-convention campaign tour, attention turns to the Republican convention which began on Monday in Minneapolis. It will be as orchestrated and charged affair as the Democrats' event, as the Republicans will work to reintroduce their candidates to the nation. Like the Democrats, they will seek to define the differences between the two Parties, inspire their faithful, present their agenda and inspire their base."