Anonymous war on Isis: Online activists claim to have foiled terror attack on Italy as part of 'Operation Isis' … Supporters of Anonymous have been working to shut down Twitter accounts and websites, but claims to have now disrupted attacks in the real world too. – UK Independent

Dominant Social Theme: Anonymous is full of modern day heroes.

Free-Market Analysis: Do we believe it? Do we really believe that a group of adolescents have formed themselves into a quasi-military worldwide unit to do the "dirty work" Uncle Sam doesn't have the competence or willingness to do?

What warriors these kids must be. Stubbled with acne, they roll out of bed in their parents' basements and get to work attacking US enemies across the continents. They watch CNN and FOX with the earnest concentration of acolytes and then without a spoken word coordinate their deadly cyberattacks with each other and with the CIA.

It really reads like a Hollywood movie, doesn't it? Isn't there a script here just waiting to pop out? It could be written, directed and produced by Kathryn Bigelow who already has a track-record cooperating with the CIA via her famous movie "Zero Dark Thirty" that showed clearly how effective torture was in extracting terrorism's deepest secrets. The only trouble is that it wasn't true.

Torture did not extract the whereabouts of Bin Laden. The SEALS likely did not kill Bin Laden – mainly because Bin Laden had probably died more than a decade before in a French hospital where he was receiving dialysis for Marfan Syndrome. Maybe he trekked around Afghanistan with a portable dialysis machine, but maybe he didn't.

These Anonymous reports are highly doubtful, too. There is, for instance, this Huffington Post report circa 2013:

FBI Agent: We've Dismantled The Leaders Of Anonymous …The hacker collective Anonymous has not produced as many high-profile cyber attacks as it once did, a drop-off that can be directly attributed to the arrests of the group's core members, an FBI official told The Huffington Post this week.

Starting in late 2010, Anonymous captured worldwide attention through a series of attacks against U.S. companies and government agencies, stealing data and defacing or crashing websites.

But the arrests last year of five members of Lulz Security, an influential splinter group of hackers, had a "huge deterrent effect" on Anonymous by creating an "added layer of distrust" within the hacking group, according to Austin P. Berglas, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's cyber division in New York.

… The 2012 arrests relied on the help of a key informant, Hector Monsegur, aka "Sabu," who was caught and then cooperated with the FBI.

So the head of Anonymous was caught and the organization (if it really existed) was thoroughly penetrated. Or maybe US Intel agencies set it up to begin with. Large amounts of funding are dependent on intel ops' supposed competence, and surely the best way to guarantee it is to set up a false flag over which one can then claim victory.

Color us skeptical. It's amazing, for instance, how Anonymous's attacks are aimed at enemies of NATO. And apparently the members of such an organization have not bothered to read the many articles tracking the funding, creation and maintenance of ISIS or whatever it is called to Western black ops and allies like Saudi Arabia.

A politician who does understand the international situation is former Congressman Ron Paul. In "What Are The Chances For Peace in 2016?" he returns to his sensible theme of non-intervention.

Here's an excerpt:

Each year more than one trillion dollars goes up in smoke. More accurately, it is stolen from the middle and working classes and shipped off to the one percent. I am talking about the massive yearly bill to maintain the US empire.

Washington's warmongers have sold the lie that the military budget has been gutted under President Obama, but even when the "Sequester" was in effect military spending continued to increase.

Only the pace of increase was reduced, not actual spending. None of this trillion dollars taken from us is spent to keep us safe, despite what politicians say. In fact, this great rip-off actually makes us less safe and more vulnerable to a terrorist attack thanks to resentment overseas at our interventions and to the blowback it produces.

Paul has a distinctly different view than the mainstream media. He writes, "A new Cold War is a bonanza for the military-industrial complex, the pro-war think tanks, and the politicians. NATO is on the move in eastern Europe, placing heavy weapons right on Russia's border and then blaming the Russians when they complain about the rising militarism."

He also believes there is a solution. "The good news is we do not need a majority to succeed in our fight for peace and liberty. We need only a dedicated and uncompromising critical mass to make great headway."

Paul is suggesting that people educate themselves about the reality of the military-industrial complex and the "directed history" it uses to justify its actions.

He also calls for peace, explaining that education is the key to expanding the non-intervention movement.

We can tell others about the wealth of truth available to those who seek and question. We must not compromise and never accept the lesser of two evils. If the people demand peace, the politicians will follow. Let's demand peace in 2016!

There's nothing wrong with this perspective! In fact, it's an admirable one. But in pursuing it, one must also acknowledge the chances for success may not be very high.

Empires, as we have often observed, rarely reverse course.