Pericles
Those that believe that the one of the largest U.S think tanks like Brookings institute have no effect on U.S foreign policy, tend to also believe that lobby groups like AIPAC have no effect either. Keeping living in your own dream land..................... no point..... the blue pill is too far gone.

Maybe it's one of them there 'cultural' things.
From the perspective of my modern mass media (un)culture, I'm rather more used to analogies and satire being used to illuminate, rather than obfuscate. I must confess, I quite often don't bother following links if the article itself makes it's points strongly and clearly enough. In this case, I agree with Pericles and Mac. I found the links more interesting and more readable than the article.
For me, this article was more like acetylsalicylic acid than the red pill.
For the links, I thank the author sincerely. It is an important issue and deserves much greater exposure.
I certainly agree that sometimes it seems like we are living in some kind of fantasy world; how Americans can persist in regarding themselves as the 'good guys', after decades of invading other countries, overthrowing governments and openly or covertly supporting some truly disgusting people -all in the name of Capitalism, not Democracy, as they persistently claim- has always boggled me.
BTW, I thought Matrix 3 was very disappointing. It seemed to me the writers were on the verge of making a truly profound point, then suddenly remembered they were Americans.

Poor comparison, omarb.

>>Those that believe that the one of the largest U.S think tanks like Brookings institute have no effect on U.S foreign policy, tend to also believe that lobby groups like AIPAC have no effect either.<<

The Brookings Institution (you still haven't got that right yet, have you) is a forum for academics to post papers, articles and commentaries, and generally air their knowledge and expertise. A bit like Online Opinion on steroids, really. Take a moment to look at their site, it's pretty harmless stuff.

http://www.brookings.edu/

AIPAC, on the other hand, is a lobby group with a particularly narrow agenda, to do everything it can to promote Israel's interests in Washington. Take a look at their site, and you will instantly spot the difference.

http://www.aipac.org/

We all appear to agree that the world is a pretty nasty place. We differ only in the manner in which we express it.

To divide the world simplistically into takers of blue and red pills is about as sensible as dividing it into "good guys" and "bad guys". In the same way that the US is not a paragon of virtue, nor is Russia, nor is China, nor is Australia. Coping with the concept that those boundaries will forever be fluid, is a sign of intellectual maturity.

Read Putin in today's Fin Review, reprinted from the NYT. It's a very sane piece. You'd think the guy is a whiter-than-white peacenik.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html?pagewanted=all

Then you remember Chechnya.

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/vladimir-putins-1999-chechnya-op-ed-2013-9

Have a great day.