Guardian U.K. — In a U.S. senate report it seems most of the illegal food for Oil money was actually being handled by the U.S., with government approval and sometimes even backing. So, criticisms of Kofi Anan and the Europeans will now seem awfully hypocritical, with 52 percent of the illegal arrangements being with the U.S. (This is virtually unreported in the U.S. press.)
U.S. military ask the people yet again to fund a star wars plan — lasers and rockets in space. In trial after trial since Reagan it has proved both unworkable, expensive, and impractical. But that’s in a “reality based” world, I forget. Looks like Baudrillard was right — a fictional reality trumps the evidence every time.
And then there’s the fact that it would completely upset any perceived balance of power — it’s about American Empire — complete and total hegemony. The world won’t be very happy about that.
Of maybe they know it will never work, and it’s all about pork barrel voter stuff — creating massive contracts for GE, GM, Westinghouse, Martin Marietta, etc.
And now there’s the Newsweek Koran flushing article that sparked riots and angry demonstrations across 10 cities in Afghanistan and others in Pakistan last week. (A former Guantanamo detainee described in Newsweek how U.S. military flushed the holy book down the toilet in an effort to humiliate prisoners.)
Interesting that this act, an act that wasn’t about physical or overt mental cruelty, should be the one that triggers the latent anger. I suspect this act — I have no doubt that it happened — is viewed as confirmation that the infidel Americans have no respect for Islamic thought, religion or peoples. That fairness, freedom, democracy and human rights are all lip service – and this proves it. More so than physical torture — which is expected and almost natural in wartime — this is like spitting on the deepest and most cherished beliefs of a whole segment of humanity. It proves, to them, that the Americans in their midst really are devils.
The fact that the Bush administration's reaction is to deny it, then to pressure Newsweek for a retraction, rather than to instantly apologize, shows how much they think it is possible to control the media and twist public perception away from “reality based” to pure fiction. That by saying something didn’t happen will make it go away. Didn’t Stalin used to try this? Will the images of U.S. politicians and businessmen embracing Saddam taken years ago be erased, as Stalin did?
I suspect the genie is out of the bottle. That as prisoners are released they will all confirm tales like this one, and that the rioting and anti-American fever will spread and increase in Indonesia, Syria, Turkey, Algeria, Malaysia… no one will believe the U.S. denials, the behavior is too consistent with other American stuff. Yikes.
Cassette copy dream — jotted down in April?:
A vision of a precious audio cassette that has to be listened to VERY carefully, with dedicated ears — and is very rewarding as a result. A second cassette tape, a copy of the first one, is slightly less delicate, though still somewhat fragile, but not quite as rich or deep and experience, and doesn’t require exclusive attention.
