Echo . . . Echo . . . Echo

It may seem repetitive to say the same thing the same thing the same thing over and over and over again. Indeed, it undoubtedly is repetitive. But in an age of digitally shared files and interactive technology, but more importantly in a country where the dominant media has to be shown up by a comedian, repetition is not just a necessary evil, the way the game's played: it is the game itself.

With that prologue out of the way, take it way Mr. Soros:

Even today, many people believe that September 11 justifies behaviour that would be unacceptable in normal times. The ideologues of American supremacy and President Bush personally never cease to remind us that September 11 changed the world. It is only as the untoward consequences of the invasion of Iraq become apparent that people are beginning to realise something has gone woefully wrong.

We have fallen into a trap. The suicide bombers' motivation seemed incomprehensible at the time of the attack; now a light begins to dawn: they wanted us to react the way we did. Perhaps they understood us better than we understand ourselves.

And we have been deceived. When he stood for election in 2000, President Bush promised a humble foreign policy. I contend that the Bush administration has deliberately exploited September 11 to pursue policies that the American public would not have otherwise tolerated. The US can lose its dominance only as a result of its own mistakes. At present the country is in the process of committing such mistakes because it is in the hands of a group of extremists whose strong sense of mission is matched only by their false sense of certitude.

This distorted view postulates that because we are stronger than others, we must know better and we must have right on our side. That is where religious fundamentalism comes together with market fundamentalism to form the ideology of American supremacy.

As Vaara points out, there's a reason the right wing elite hate this guy -- which seems as good a reason as any, I think, for everybody to read his latest book.