> But they are all external constraints, which don't equal a major
> division in the US power elite and ruling class.
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And yet you say the Iranian and Nicaraguan Revolutions did provoke such a
split in the US ruling class. I don't it recall the elite and the American
people being as agonized or as divided then as they are now over the war in
Iraq. This is the biggest foreign policy crisis the US has experienced since
Vietnam, and for the same reason: they have a large land army waging a
vicious and unsuccessful counter-insurgency war which has weakened their
international position and thrown them into a confusion about how to
extricate themselves from the "quagmire". How were Iran and Nicaragua more
divisive?