Where does one start: with the nature of individuals, or the nature of groups?
Gustave Le Bon studied The Crowd and Edward Bernays studied the effects of the many on the behaviour and beliefs of the individual. He thus successfully introduced the use of propaganda, advertising, and public relations to influence mass beliefs and behaviour.

Human beings come in many 'shapes and sizes' for which “one size does NOT fit all”. Humans are born unequal. They ALL have basic needs of food, shelter, and companionship; and ALL take part in relationships involving exchange: some exchanges called 'trade', some 'contract' and, most, simply based on trust.
Any surplus to basic needs can be exchanged, or traded.

In this milieu of human interactions, the 'strong' usually prevail against the 'weak'. The weak are either defeated, or submit. This is generally true in any group of humans. 'Strong' has to be taken in its widest meanings, including physical, mental, and technological senses. Because dominance-submission is inherent in most human relationships, democracy, meaning free and fair decision-making on matters of collective importance, is at best unlikely and virtually impossible in practice.

In representative democracy, the representatives almost always form privileged groups which then act in their own best interests, including favours and rewards. It is thus unsurprising that 'true' democracy is so elusive and rare to the point of non-existence.

"WE create reality" so what is TRUTH?

A malign power is in control of the USA and its vassals. Psychopaths rule and the malign power controls, giving them "plausible deniability". Guess who they are!

The world is ruled by psychopaths, controlled by "bankers" - a generation of scorpions and vipers, as they were once famously described when they used the Temple of God for their nefarious deeds.

It all lies in the workings, and weaknesses, of the human brain: the workings of logic and rationality, the weaknesses if addiction and excess.

The author decries the loss of 'community'. He tells us of current divisions (masking and 'vaxing'). He gives us an historical perspective: life in the 60's, the decay of Western religious beliefs, and the loss of trade unionism. He tells of anaemic substitutes as diverse as globalism and drug addiction. He asserts we “are searching in all the wrong places and with all the wrong politics”, but fails to give even the vaguest clue as to the best way forward in our search for community.

Thatcher, Reagan's counterpart in the UK, broke the trade unions through her defeat of the National Union of Mineworkers, using armed Police violence, and went on to break-up mineworker communities by closing down the industry. Pit villages were the bedrock of working-class solidarity. She broke their communities, their villages, and their spirit. She taught the power of selfishness, of competition, and of war (Falklands). She gave away most of the national wealth of nationalised industries, creating millionaires in doing so while throwing huge numbers out of work, and demonstrated the power of GREED, and of CAPITALISM.

The author does NOT tell us of technological developments (the digital revolution) that aids and creates the dissolution of 'real' communities while extolling “virtual” communities. Another anaemic substitute!

People NEED food, shelter, and companionship. Being totally inter-dependent, they also need to trade, to bargain, to exchange. This can be done cooperatively, fairly, or it can be done competitively; in which the strong can exploit the weak, and laws are made by the strong, in favour of the strong. People do not NEED (digital) technology. It atomises, replaces, and eventually will remove the need for people (workers). That is what faces us at present.

First of all concerning costs of war: the USA prints dollars (bits of paper) that it can exchange for 'real' wealth (material goods and services, including bribes) with other countries. This is an enormous piece of trickery based on the confusion of a 'token' or 'symbol' of reality, with reality itself.

Secondly, the focus on “re-making the Middle East”. The Middle East is highly relevant to the USA for TWO reasons: OIL and ISRAEL. In our present age, oil is wealth. Oil and Saudi Arabia are almost synonymous.
Why Israel? Who manipulates the tokens of wealth, and has done so for millennia – “a generation of scorpions and vipers” as they were once described when they defiled the Temple of God.

Thirdly, “Americans have believed that being No.1 in the world is part of the country's DNA.” As I have written many times before 'there is no escape from the consequences of the human brain and its inherent weakness: the addiction to excitement - of greed, of sex, of competition, of winning, and to exercise power. This addiction is presumably controlled by a dominant set of genes (DNA) that controls the behaviour of what we term "psychopaths" that seem invariably to strive for dominance, whether in small groups, or large populations. In consequence, leadership comes and goes, but its purpose continues: satisfaction of a craving.'

We are living at a time of highly disturbing change: the demise of the dominance of the USA and the rise of a-yet-to-be-recognised new force. China? Russia? India? Brazil? Feed on excitement. Place your bets.

There is plenty of evidence to show the current U.S.A. in its true light: an evil, hypocritical nation, led by a greedy, dishonest oligarchy. Afghanistan is but one small episode of a great many in the relatively short history of this evil country that currently seeks to dominate the world.
Will it change? Of course, change is inevitable.
But there is no escape from the consequences of the human brain and its inherent weakness: the addiction to excitement - of greed, of sex, of competition, of winning, and to exercise power. This addiction is presumably controlled by a dominant set of genes (DNA) that controls the behaviour of what we term "psychopaths" that seem invariably to strive for dominance, whether in small groups, or large populations. In consequence, leadership comes and goes, but its purpose continues: satisfaction of a craving.

"When will WE ever learn?" Never! We are all brainwashed to run in circles: acquiring more and more, while needing less and less. We bury ourselves in waste ... and corruption.

In 'a tsunami of crocodile tears ... history is suppressed.' Not only suppressed, but obliterated and re-written. Events in Indonesia in the late sixties showed how effective religious extremism could be in bringing about regime change: Suharto replaced Sukarno and altered the history of south-east Asia. Islamism was born!
The USA sought to emulate this success in Afghanistan, Central Asia (Chechnya), and the Balkans (Yugoslavia). Saudia Arabia played a key role, as did Pakistan. But the U.S. provided the military know-how and hardware.
Until this article by John Pilger, I have seen no mention of late of the gas pipeline from Central Asia to the Indian Ocean, thus avoiding the territory of the USSR/Russia. Many believed this to be a crucial reason for the U.S. involvement -- backing up the petro-dollar with its Saudi-Arabian backbone. That is why Karsai became Afghanistan's puppet President.