Gareth Porter in a recent article in Truthout:

The story of the lies that took the Obama administration into a bigger war in Afghanistan shows that those lies have structural, systemic roots. The political dynamics surrounding the making of war policies are so completely dominated by the vested interests of the heads of the Pentagon, the military, and other national security bureaucracies that the outcome of the process must be based on a systematic body of lies. Only by depriving those institutions of their power can Americans have a military policy based on the truth.

It fits with what I have been saying about the machinery of government having all the momentum in decision making by the administration, and it explains to a large extent why Obama has been so disappointing for progressives. No matter what he might have thought to be a better way of dealing with the world before the election, once surrounded by those with vested interests in their ways and methods, he has had little opportunity to make his own kind of foreign policy or way decisions. He will have to rid himself of many of the oldovers from previous administrations if he intends to accomplish much on his own. Even Hillary is wedded to the old ways of accepting the combined “wisdom” of the intelligence agencies and the military. It has been a long time since anything resembling original thought got any kind of a blessing in Washington.

Go have a good read. It’s well worth it.