Monday, November 11, 2013

Retrospective - WMD at Doug's Darkworld

This image was selected as a picture of the week on the Malay Wikipedia for the 44th week, 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Map of internment camps during the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Caption:The Gap in the Bridge. Cartoon about the absence of the USA from the League of Nations, depicted as the missing keystone of the arch. The cigar also symbolizes America (Uncle sam) enjoying its wealth (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

American and Soviet troops meet east of the Elbe River (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Back when I was blogging at opit.wordpress.com from Dec 2005-7 I ran a WordPress list similar to the Blogs I'm Following list I have today - except it was WordPress and not Blogger I used and followed. I was thinking of my Remembrance Day posts and who wrote good articles. How I have neglected honest thought !

Doug's Darkworld

War, Science, and Philosophy in a Fractured World.

Archive for the ‘WMDs’ Category

Syria, War and Lies All Over Again

Obama stated that the use of chemical weapons would trigger US intervention. Why in the name of God would Syria do the exact thing that would trigger US attacks? They wouldn’t of course, no one is that stupid, especially considering that chemical weapons are essentially useless on the battlefield unless your enemies are using World War One style human wave attacks. So Syria has no conceivable reason to use chemical weapons, and excellent reason not to use them.

The Boston Bombing: The Terrorists Won

9,000 troops deployed to hunt down a teenager? A whole city placed under unconstitutional martial law? American citizens treated like an occupied country? Because of one wounded teenager? This was insane. You’d have thought Chuck Norris was loose with a neutron bomb for God’s sake. And the thing that really shows how absurd this all was, the bomber wasn’t caught until after people were let out of their homes and a citizen spotted him.

We passed vast and sweeping laws allowing government unprecedented powers to snoop in the name of security. And with all this staggering expense, an expense that rivals our spending in World War Two, we still got “attacked.” And the knee-jerk response from government and pundits is “We need more security!” No, we need more sanity. We should analyze the risks facing America like adults, and not be panicked into doubling down on a strategy that not only has failed, a strategy that is making terrorism more likely, not less. It’s already clear that it ain't going to happen, self-reflection and debate is no longer part of the American character. Americans are living in a Dickian Hollywood movie now, a scary world where imaginary Hitlers infest every corner of the globe and must be fought with ever more blood and sacrifice.

The Bombs of August

The nuclear attacks on Japan are a wonderful example of poor logic, propaganda, and outright lies. For one thing, they didn’t “end the war.” The war was already over, it was just a matter of how and when Japan would surrender. The bombings didn’t save any lives, American or otherwise, they killed huge numbers of people, the vast majority of who were innocent civilians. The bombings served little to no military purpose, neither town was a major military target. In fact the bombings were completely opposed by the leaders of the US military at the time, since they were indeed war crimes under the law at the time. The decision to drop the bombs was a purely political one made by Truman and his cabinet.

August was also the month that World War One started. A war that everyone involved in confidently thought would be over by Christmas. A war that ended up being one of the bloodiest wars in history. A war that destroyed three great empires, redrew the map of the world, and set in motion events that are still killing people to this very day.

World War One did usher in an era where politicians at least had to pay lip service to the idea that major wars should be avoided if possible. Hence the League of Nations, the UN, and a host of international treaties designed to minimize the chances of “World War Three” breaking out. Sadly however the lessons of the twentieth century seem to be fading rapidly into history, and the politicians of today are more and more practising the kinds of brinkmanship and foreign adventures that could lead to wider war.

We are in a state of permanent war it seems these days, so much for the peace movement of the sixties and seventies. Where have all the hippies gone?

It’s All Just Nuts

There’s the collateral murder video. Again I’m horrified on at least two levels. I’m horrified once again that this is what our military does overseas. And I’m horrified that so many American’s will either ignore this, rationalize this, or be shocked by this. In Hollywood land and the mouths of our politicians, our military consists of heroes fighting for our freedom and fighting to make the world a better place. In reality land, the USA has simply assumed Britain’s colonial mantle, and our armies are fighting to make the world’s resources available to western corporate exploitation. And routinely committing atrocities in the process.

Despite all the hoopla about the “improving” economy, the American economy is a hollow shell based on funny money. So sooner or later it’s all going to come crashing down, and we will no longer be able to afford mind-numbingly expensive colonial adventures. Which sort of leads to an interesting observation, how is it that the same people who have no problem with us spending staggering sums of money allegedly helping out the people of Afghanistan and Iraq … totally freak out about the possibility of their tax dollars being used to help sick Americans?

How about the drug wars in Mexico? I’d say I don’t even know where to start on this one, but I do. Start with this article. It at least gives some history and context to a horrible situation. The only thing I would add is that this horrible mess is funded entirely with US drug money and the weapons are virtually all from America as well. This is what prohibition and a culture of gun love has wrought.

Today’s mainstream media: “Based on true events.”

The powers that be in the USA and Israel have spent the last sixty years or so using exaggerated foreign threats to consolidate their power and enrich themselves. And in the process have created an enormous industry and lobby that absolutely requires foreign threats to justify its existence. Again, for the record, Israel and the USA have enourmous military machines, the first and fourth largest in the world. In fact the USA spends more money on defence than the rest of the world combined. So it is essential that their populations be kept in a state of fear so that these expenditures are justified. It’s just sad to me that so many in Israel and the USA completely swallow this threat mongering with no understanding that their leaders are simply lying. And that the once at least semi-independent media goes right along with it, as one Russian observed, in the old Soviet Union they had to shoot people to get the press so subservient to the state.

Trayvon Martin and Institutionalized Racism

Unemployment: You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

Syria Burning

Syria is another of the countries that was made up after World War One by the British and French as they carved up the Ottoman Empire for their own colonial exploitative purposes. Since Syria had no resources worth bothering with, it was ruled by a series of more-or-less independent dictators until the present day. With the arrival of the Arab Spring a few years back, serious opposition to the Assad dictatorship broke out, and the country is essentially in full blown insurrection. It’s not however a civil war, since the rebels are not united into a single faction by any stretch of the imagination. Since the Assad dictatorship posed a clear danger to colonial rule in the region, IE the possibility that Syria would evolve into a modern secular state, the west has been almost gleefully providing the rebels with support. And it’s certainly made a bloody mess of the country

Pillar of Lies

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Yes, this image isn’t completely fair. Still, it’s not that far off. Only a tiny handful of people are killed and injured by rockets fired from Gaza. Vastly more people are killed and injured by IDF violence in the occupied territories. That’s because Israel has a vast array of modern weaponry at its disposal, they are one of the world’s great military powers. The Gazans have hand weapons and home made rockets and mortars.