Independent and progressive blogs are the modern day equivalent of The Federalist Papers.

Similar to Andrew Bacevich, the political analysis offered by William Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF) who has taught at the Air Force Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School, offers a stinging indictment of the perpetual war Americans have been indoctrinated to support. In a recent article on TomDispatch, an article that should have been published in all the major newspapers, William Astore intuitively explains how the American public is duped into believing that any downsize of our military forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Italy, England, Japan, Germany, Turkey, South Korea, and the dozens of other countries where US military forces are permanently deployed, "will invariably be seen as cut-and-run appeasement and discounted as weakness".

Unlike the morally bankrupt politicians and their media sponsors, informed citizens, retired members of the officer corps, and experts on national security like Andrew Bacevich and William Astore, see right through the lies and deceptive sound bites offered up by a corrupt political establishment. To independent bloggers like TomDispatch, Opinione, and War in Context, political rhetoric like “support our troops” or “support our war fighters”, are clearly seen as euphemisms for “support our defense contractors” or “support the defense corporations who give us campaign contributions”.

In the recent comparison and contrast article by William Astore, that I like to call Seven and Seven, the retired military officer lists seven examples of why our political elites so readily and regularly give war, and not peace, a chance. William Astore than goes on to give seven reasons why the American public needs to put a stop to the current privatization and profit motive behind war in America and how to better utilize our limited resources. Opinione especially liked the following:

Let’s retool our economy and reinvest our money, moving it out of the military-industrial complex and into strengthening our anemic system of mass transit, our crumbling infrastructure, and alternative energy technology. We need high-speed rail, safer roads and bridges, and more wind turbines, not more overpriced jet fighters.

After reading informed articles like the one from William Astore, who actually had the integrity and courage to serve his country, the political rhetoric coming from chicken hawk political strategists like Karl Rove and media spin doctors like Glen Beck, expose them to be nothing more than shallow egotistical media personalities and care more about their own wealth than the wealth of their country that they declare to love and support. Aided by an easily deceived public who is unwilling to put the time and effort into understanding the important issues such as supporting the negative consequences of a perpetual state of war, these chicken hawk politicians and political pundits have betrayed the American people in favor of private corporations who care more for a short term profit than the long term prosperity and security of our country.

While most people who read the New York Times, Washington Post, or Wall Street Journal may consider themselves knowledgably in world affairs, these readers are merely only regurgitating opinion based Op-Ed editorials and journalist reporting from increasingly ideologically driven publications. Newspapers and their cable TV news brethren merely only perform stenographic reporting from what the powers inside Washington DC want them to report on, and are too afraid to upset their corporate owners or the corporations who may pay for advertising in their papers and on their networks.

Since gaining an enlightened understanding of how the press is manipulated and used by political parties in America to influence and manage public opinion, the only real hope for a grass roots movement to take hold and reverse the demise of America, is for more people to stop watching cable news outlets and get their news from independent blogs from accredited sources.

The articles written by William Astore, Andrew Bacevich, and the dozens of other experts on American foreign policy and military affairs are like the modern day equivalent of The Federalist Papers.