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‘Civilized Nations’
The Washington Post is differentiating between 'civilized' and -unsaid- 'uncivilized' nations.
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After making false claims about the illegal passage of a British destroyer near Crimea, a planned provocation, the author goes on to bash Russia as well as China.
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WaPo columnist George Will then asserts:
Henry Kissinger has said, not unreasonably, that we are in “the foothills” of a cold war with China. And Vladimir Putin, who nurses an unassuageable grudge about the way the Cold War ended, seems uninterested in Russia reconciling itself to a role as a normal nation without gratuitous resorts to mendacity. It is, therefore, well to notice how, day by day, in all of the globe’s time zones, civilized nations are, in word and deed, taking small but cumulatively consequential measures that serve deterrence.
If arrogance were a deadly disease, George Will would be dead.
corvo,
You’re right I did not mean Wamsutta, but neither did I mean the more obvious referent, Metacomet. Who I did mean was Weetamoo, the sunksqua, or female sachem of the Pocasset tribe; among her many marriages was Metacomet’s brother. Her first husband was from Saugus, MA, some sixty miles away, which shows the breadth of Native relations before the White man began slowly chipping away at their territory. She had an extraordinary life, and was a belligerent by choice in what the White man calls “King Phillip’s War,” where she supposedly drowned fleeing across the Taunton River. Rather than being washed out to sea, as one would expect if one drowned swimming across the lower Taunton River where it is wide enough that one could conceivably drown (One can’t drown crossing the Taunton River 20 miles upstream in the town of Taunton where one can practically walk across), her body was taken, and similar to Metacomet, her head cut off and placed on a pike, where it was proudly displayed in the Town of Taunton for a number of years, as a sign, I suppose, of the superiority of European civilization. At least that is the story according to the self-righteous progenitor of religious fundamentalism, Increase Mather, so some of this tale may be self-serving lies and propaganda, as I have attempted to indicate.
America names it’s wars as subtle attempts to portray the hapless victims of Imperial aggression as belligerents. The Korean War, the Vietnam War, etc., as if the Vietnamese were taunting the Americans, “Hey, you idiots, come over here and fight a war with us on OUR territory, then we don’t have to travel all the way over to your territory, and we can go home and sleep in our own beds every night!” Similarly, how can the Native people fight an aggressive war against unwanted invaders, as it is portrayed, when it is obvious that the settlers intended to wipe the Natives out and steal their lands, as they promptly did with avarice and great dispatch. As Wikipedia notes with unintended irony and understatement, commenting on the fallout of the genocide of the Natives as a result of “King Phillip’s War,” “King Phillip’s War began the development of an independent American identity.” Yes, and that identity included 215 years of uninterrupted genocide on this continent (not even slowing for the Civil War), before they were forced by their own success to venture across the seas and recommence the killing “over there.” (because the Yanks are coming..) The American identity indeed! And it hasn’t stopped yet. Glory, glory, halleluja! (By way of digression, any level-headed reading of ”The Battle Hymn of the Rebublic” makes clear that OUR Lord is in favor of us killing any and all infidels, referred to as ”serpents” in the lyrics)
To my knowledge, thankfully no munition or helicopter has been named after the participants in the war to genocide the Eastern Native tribes. Many names are commemorated in streets, mills, ponds etc of the area. There is the very beautiful Weetamoo Woods in territory she lived in, in South Tiverton. This is a land of great natural wealth and a quiet understated majesty, yet in the 14 years I have lived in this area, I have seen countless remote places of irreplaceable beauty mowed down for the modern cancer of the solar “farm.”
There was a large undeveloped tract in East Freetown which was bisected by 140. Fortunately, a large boulder, a glacial erratic, with a cave large enough for about four men to sleep in, built of stones carefully chinked and stacked against its west side, remained. While I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the historical assertion, the cave was called King Phillip’s Cave, and was reputed to be a place he sought refuge while fleeing his pursuers. All local school children were taught this story at least as far back as I can trace, and the place was accorded great reverence. Off of East Howland Road, you proceed 3/8 of a mile down a broad path in the woods. Then there was a trail fork on your right, leading up a gentle incline. Gradually, your worked you way out of the woods into an area of glacial deposition. Groupings of dramatic large 10 foot boulders split by time are on your right beneath you. The exposed grey granite, weathered by the ages, was covered with pale green and purple lichen and moss — absolutely magical at sunset. At the summit, you re-entered the forest, then dropped down to follow the lip of a idyllic circular pond carved out by the glaciers. Then, there was another fork to the right, and 1/4 mile along an undulating path, at another summit, was King Phillip’s Cave. There is no level land on this hike. At least, this was all true 3 years ago. Now, its a solar farm. King Phillips cave is gone. The granite out cropping, now the center of the farm proved too hilly and difficult to put panels on. But one can see by the blast holes that they tried, destroying any beauty to the stone. Southeastern Massachusetts is largely flat farmland, which is far more receptive to solar farm construction. Why anyone would attempt to construct solar panels on a unique undulating area of exposed rock and glacial activity is beyond me. I have no knowledge of what monies changed hands in the name of this atrocity. An undisturbed area of unique beauty 10,000 years old, with a human structure 350 years old of immense historical significance is gone forever. Adios Metecomet, adios Weetamoo, the night is on fire: You continue to live on in my dreams. They paved paradise and put up a solar farm.
Posted by: Malooga | Jul 19 2021 4:25 utc | 127
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