David Miliband outlines his call for a settlement for "the vanquished as well as the victors in Afghanistan.
This can only mean a massive Marshall Plan style investment. Like the plans promised by the liars Reagan and Bush in the twin treacheries which gave birth to Al Qaida and the Taliban in the first place.
But these grand schemes never happen because that would mean that nuclear families in the status-chasing, consumption-addicted West would have to endure their current car for another year, or make do with only 4 giant-super-double-double cheeseburgers a week.
There is a limit to how much people will pay for peace. The West was unwilling to pay it after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the attacks on the Twin Towers. There is no reason to assume it is willing to pay it now.
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
7/02/2010
6/14/2010
Lots of Lovely War
Extract from Diary of a Masher. 1902?
Apart from the obvious, well-snuffled political opportunities of any major sporting event, this cosy, computer-game vision Britain and the world, where the same certainties are endlessly replayed to a packed, devoted audience, like an eternal Ken Dodd show, reinforces every privilegious delusion of the grand tory vision.
Whether or not the tory party trusts a latter-day Bertie Wooster to mould its image will confirm whether it too has totally lost its marbles.
The other effect of this passage is, obviously, to glorify war. The casual, decorative 'boots sparkling like magnesium, busbies rippling like dominoes' - the leisurely association of war and sport - the mundane presence of war planes over London, as normal and patriotic as Red Routemaster buses.. all designed to perpetuate the myth of Gallant Little Britain. Always ready to see of the bosche, or whichever Johnny Foreigner cuts up rough - what? In other words, the state of permanent war we are in now, and were in at the mental time of Johnson's prose, during the height of empire.
How could anyone reading Johnson's Chronicles ever be fully aware of the reality of the war we are in? One in which war itself is the objective, not victory.
We are now in Orwell's 1984 world of a few almost identical mega-powers, scraping tectonic plates and generating wars like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and tsunami along their edges. This is essential to the Earth as a living planet, but disastrous for those crushed and drowned in the process.
But an ecconomic system created by humans is not a geological inevitability. It is something we should change for the better. Only those who benefit from the suffering would complain.
" I had been to see Trooping the Colour at the Queen's Birthday Parade and, as everyone said at a very jolly Army lunch afterwards, it seemed to sum up so much of what was good about this country. Here were soldiers just seven weeks back from Afghanistan, performing manoeuvres with the precision of rhythmic gymnasts, boots sparkling like magnesium, busbies rippling like dominoes as they turned their heads this way and that...
UK politics review of the year 2008 The Ashes: England v Australia live, fifth Test day one Wimbledon 2009: top 50 champions If you took it all together – the happy crowds, the Red Arrows streaking overhead, the beaming Queen, the balmy weather, the London parks generally surging and sprouting with the joy of mid-June – you came away with a sense that God, or someone very like Him, was in His heaven and that all was more or less tickety-boo."Or was it Boris Johnson in Today's Telegraph drifting off into a Strand Magazine reverie about the World Cup? Either that or HG Wells did invent the time machine. What other explanation is there for gloop like this today?
Apart from the obvious, well-snuffled political opportunities of any major sporting event, this cosy, computer-game vision Britain and the world, where the same certainties are endlessly replayed to a packed, devoted audience, like an eternal Ken Dodd show, reinforces every privilegious delusion of the grand tory vision.
Whether or not the tory party trusts a latter-day Bertie Wooster to mould its image will confirm whether it too has totally lost its marbles.
The other effect of this passage is, obviously, to glorify war. The casual, decorative 'boots sparkling like magnesium, busbies rippling like dominoes' - the leisurely association of war and sport - the mundane presence of war planes over London, as normal and patriotic as Red Routemaster buses.. all designed to perpetuate the myth of Gallant Little Britain. Always ready to see of the bosche, or whichever Johnny Foreigner cuts up rough - what? In other words, the state of permanent war we are in now, and were in at the mental time of Johnson's prose, during the height of empire.
How could anyone reading Johnson's Chronicles ever be fully aware of the reality of the war we are in? One in which war itself is the objective, not victory.
We are now in Orwell's 1984 world of a few almost identical mega-powers, scraping tectonic plates and generating wars like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and tsunami along their edges. This is essential to the Earth as a living planet, but disastrous for those crushed and drowned in the process.
But an ecconomic system created by humans is not a geological inevitability. It is something we should change for the better. Only those who benefit from the suffering would complain.
1/05/2010
Wootton Bassett War-Worship
When the Facebook fascists of Wooton Bassett care as much about the innocent victims as they say they do about their killers, they might be qualified to call themselves British.
Until then, they are just glorifying war and enticing more British teenagers to their deaths. And naturally, for each vainglorious unemployed Brit they kill, several more Afghani women and children will die first. That's war. I wish they would find out a bit more about it before seeking to turn this country into a police state where freedom to demonstrate is totally eliminated, and the crimes of the armed forces are suppressed.
The deaths of Afghani civilians are just as worthy of memorial as those of their killers. And as Wootton Bassett seems to be the place to get maximum publicity, that's where this week's demonstration should happen. The deaths of Afghani civilians are just as worthy of memorial as
those of their killers. And as Wootton Bassett seems to be the place to get maximum publicity, that's where this week's demonstration should happen.
The process of exploiting this war for political purposes (and the tourism helps too, ask the local Rotary Club) was perfected in Wooton Bassett, so for its citizens to whinge about the venue for an anti-war demonstration is rich. In fact it is very revealing. It is an insistence that the death of a British soldier is worth more than the death of an Afghani civilian, which means their lives are held to be worth more too. The lives of the Afghans we are ostensibly fighting for are negligible. We don't even talk about how many die. That is why this demo is essential, and couldn't be held anywhere else, and why talk of disrupting it is symptomatic of the inherent fascism of people who idolise the military and their power of summary death.
The fact that it took an extremist group to bother is no condemnation of them, in fact it is a sad comment on the fact that expressions of common humanity with those we are meant to be fighting for has been crushed by the war-mania of the media and its willing, death-worshipping suckers.
Until then, they are just glorifying war and enticing more British teenagers to their deaths. And naturally, for each vainglorious unemployed Brit they kill, several more Afghani women and children will die first. That's war. I wish they would find out a bit more about it before seeking to turn this country into a police state where freedom to demonstrate is totally eliminated, and the crimes of the armed forces are suppressed.
The deaths of Afghani civilians are just as worthy of memorial as those of their killers. And as Wootton Bassett seems to be the place to get maximum publicity, that's where this week's demonstration should happen. The deaths of Afghani civilians are just as worthy of memorial as
those of their killers. And as Wootton Bassett seems to be the place to get maximum publicity, that's where this week's demonstration should happen.
The process of exploiting this war for political purposes (and the tourism helps too, ask the local Rotary Club) was perfected in Wooton Bassett, so for its citizens to whinge about the venue for an anti-war demonstration is rich. In fact it is very revealing. It is an insistence that the death of a British soldier is worth more than the death of an Afghani civilian, which means their lives are held to be worth more too. The lives of the Afghans we are ostensibly fighting for are negligible. We don't even talk about how many die. That is why this demo is essential, and couldn't be held anywhere else, and why talk of disrupting it is symptomatic of the inherent fascism of people who idolise the military and their power of summary death.
The fact that it took an extremist group to bother is no condemnation of them, in fact it is a sad comment on the fact that expressions of common humanity with those we are meant to be fighting for has been crushed by the war-mania of the media and its willing, death-worshipping suckers.
10/31/2008
War Against Recession
This report puts into words what many are thinking.
The RAND Corporation recently presented a shocking proposal to the Pentagon in which it lobbied for a war to be started with a major foreign power in an attempt to stimulate the American economy and prevent a recession.
Now there's a surprise. Massive demand and instant consumption at the same time.
It was only a matter of time. So countless lives will be lost. That is the price of free trade, apparently.
Whatever the RAND corps may or may not have done, anyone with a speck of historical and economic sense can put two and two together in a Depression and come up with 1939.
Colin Powell's bizarre outburst doesn't make things any clearer.
Sohu.com article.
Prison Planet
Pakistan Daily
recession
The RAND Corporation recently presented a shocking proposal to the Pentagon in which it lobbied for a war to be started with a major foreign power in an attempt to stimulate the American economy and prevent a recession.
Now there's a surprise. Massive demand and instant consumption at the same time.
It was only a matter of time. So countless lives will be lost. That is the price of free trade, apparently.
Whatever the RAND corps may or may not have done, anyone with a speck of historical and economic sense can put two and two together in a Depression and come up with 1939.
Colin Powell's bizarre outburst doesn't make things any clearer.
"Colin Powell appeared on Meet The Press and statedWe don't know what we don't know.
“There’s going to be a crisis which will come along on the 21st, 22nd of January that we don’t even know about right now.”
Sohu.com article.
Prison Planet
Pakistan Daily
recession
10/10/2008
IT'S WAR!
Your Country Needs
YOUR ACCOUNTS
The first Crash War has broken out. Britain financially invaded Iceland yesterday in response to the treatment of the British financial enclave by the brutal Icelandic authorities. Financial nuns have been savaged on financial tables.YOUR ACCOUNTS
Key British assets have been destroyed by the bankruptcy of this new financial rogue state, and so we have retaliated against Icelandic assets in Britain to defend our national interest. War with suits and ethernet cards.
If the collapse of Lehman's was the shot in Sarajevo, this is something like the invasion of Gallant Little Belgium. If Iceland, like Serbia, decides to seek support from Russia - what larks! Across europe, nations will be fighting like rats for the last scraps of credit-credibility. Does this mean we now have to invent an insulting nickname for Icelanders? As I write, hundreds of ex-human beings at The Sun are trying to kill the English language in the hunt for the popular new hate-name. I bet.
The point is that giving bankers unrestricted access to the internet - the Big Bang - was like giving a three year old a candyfloss machine - or a machine gun.
After a decade of gluttony, the result is a diabetic, inert, obscenely bloated, lazy, corrupt teenager, now desperately trying to cope with the collapse of its health. Not unlike the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as was. The only difference we can hope for is that whereas the Imperial structure which collapsed in 1914 was suffering from geriatric problems, the problems of the new digital democracy are merely adolescent growing pains, self indulgence and tantrums.
The only benefit of war is absurdity.
Meanwhile the walls are running red with panic. Shares prices collapsing this morning along with shipping rates, commodity prices, even copper - which a few weeks ago gave us the urban legend of the penny in your pocket being worth more than its face value. Today, every copper penny in your pocket counts. Everyone is digging a financial bunker.
The Tehran stock market, however is apparently doing just fine. Which is nice for them. Buy Iranian preferred now to avoid disappointment - would seem to be the message. Or abandon the abominable hedonism of of usury. The Invisible Hand of the market writes; and, having writ, moves on indeed. The Market works in wondrous ways its good work to perform. It may look crazy to us, but trust them, the financial high priests know best, they will get us all out of this terrible mess if we let them. Exactly as they always have.
crash08
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)