Billmon:
[W]hile the American people may want a fundamental change of direction in foreign policy, the elites in both political parties, the corporations and the corporate media want anything but.
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October 21, 2006
WB: A Reason for Hope
Comments
Pat Tillman’s birthday is Nov 6. His brother Kevin has written a short lament on the state of the nation.
It does look like the masses are catching on, but it may be too late to do anything about it. I am most curious to see how this election turns out.
Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 21 2006 8:51 utc | 1
Throughout history, only two methods have proved successful when it comes to occupying and exploiting foreign territory.
One method is Upgrade. The original Roman method. Offer the conquered populace such benefits in exchange for joining your empire that they willingly accept you while these benefits last, while these ‘upgrades’ are being delivered.
The other method is ethnic cleansing. Lebensraum. Remove, terrorize, imprison, enslave and kill the natives to the point where you may proceed in safety and comfort.
All of the problems the American empire is having in Iraq are due to failing to pursue either of these methods in an organized manner.
The Upgrade method was much publicized in the runup to the invasion, but was never seriously a part of the PNAC plan. The PNAC plan was always “creative chaos” — the ideal environment for the kind of gargantuan criminal theft the Iraq war represents to the Republicans.
The ethnic cleansing approach was never philosophically possible for the good and wholesome American public, who have only peaceful intentions and Christian love for the lesser peoples of this world. That delusional narcissism, and the lack of intestinal fortitude to treat natives like natives, has left Americans bewildered, hurt and embittered at the ungrateful Iraqis, who consistently fail to appreciate their new McFreedom. That has left America’s troops with “no choice” but to clamp down on the criminal populace. All of them. Let God sort it out.
As of October 1st, 2006 America ceased funding any further Reconstruction in Iraq. There is no longer even the appearance of offering the benefits of upgrading to the American Empire.
From this time forward, everywhere in Iraq, everything done in America’s name defaults to ethnic cleansing. We just haven’t the courage, here in the home of the brave, to call it what it is, nor to pursue it honestly.
We’ve had carnal knowledge of Iraq, we’ve had our way with feet and fists and force of arms, we’ve fornicated upon that nation via every orifice while jacking off the American public through the newspapers, radio, and TeeVee back home.
Now, at the point of exhaustion, we haven’t the common decency to leave some money on the dresser and get the hell out.
Not before they say Thank You.
.
Posted by: Antifa | Oct 21 2006 15:37 utc | 2
We have seen a serious sea-change in US public opinion since 2003: at first a majority of Americans supported the Iraq war. Then many saw it as a mistake, but a case of Bush erring on the side of security, which they accepted.
Now most of them see it for what it was: not just a mistake, but a reckless mistake. I hope it is reflected in the voting this November.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Oct 21 2006 16:10 utc | 3
We’ve had carnal knowledge of Iraq, we’ve had our way with feet and fists and force of arms, we’ve fornicated upon that nation via every orifice while jacking off the American public through the newspapers, radio, and TeeVee back home.
Now, at the point of exhaustion, we haven’t the common decency to leave some money on the dresser and get the hell out.
Not before they say Thank You.
Well, you know: They say no, they mean yes.
Posted by: billmon | Oct 21 2006 17:03 utc | 4
i’m afraid my friend slothrop would criticise me for my bourgeois humanism but i am moved that the brother of tillman is capable of saying what is essentially sd here & it comes from a person way on the other side of that broad front
& antifa – imperialism has never felt one iota of regret except for their own vanity. they are all equally mad as mad king leopold & their humanity deserted them years ago
they are brutes, they are the barbarians they accuse the third world of being, they are truly without memory & shame
i just have to look into the eyes of one urugayan who has been tortured by the graduates of the school of americas to tell me everything i need to know about the imperatives of u s capital
i have to wonder that death sqauds perform in iraq in exactly the same way – from the phoenbix programm, to latin america – it has never seem far fetched that the blood that sullies the street of ancient mesopatamia is cluelessly culled from policy & actions – of an armed force gone completely mad
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 21 2006 17:47 utc | 7