And then the wolf smiled and cried, "All the better to eat your with, my dear!"

[serai]

Here's a fun little bedtime story for all of you:


What Americans have sacrificed in the "war on terror"


I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever. -- Thomas Jefferson

Comments

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Fascinating link. Thank you.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. *sad sigh*

[ladysunrope.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the link- another blog to add to dailykos and steve gilliard.

The story itself? How jaded have I got that this did not surprise me in the least?

All I can say to the likes of Thomas Jefferson is that justice seems to be having a bloody long nap.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Well, I wouldn't say that justice is asleep, because the kind of justice this country is calling down on itself takes a long time to manifest - look how long it took with Rome. But it's coming nonetheless. And it won't be pretty. Nope, it won't be pretty at all.

[celandine-g.livejournal.com]

Thanks, fascinating reading (both above and below your cut) and like Ladysunrope, I am not in the least surprised by anything--which is really sad. Truly, there seems to be no atrocity beneath the current administration, adeptly and succinctly characterized as an idiot managed by a madman. That about says it.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

My heart just sank when I read that account. Not that it's surprising, as you say. But I don't recognize this country anymore. How anyone can call himself an American and so blythely massacre everything that makes us Americans - I don't understand it.

It reminds me of that line from The American President: "People who say they love America but clearly can't stand Americans." That fits Bush and his cohorts to a T. They wave the flag while burning it, basically. Then they accuse others of aiding our enemies, when nobody is doing a better job of that than they are.

If I had any hope, I'd look forward to a trial for treason and the accompanying sentence, once the opposing party wrests control back. But that's clearly not going to happen, and these fuckers are simply going to get away with it, just as they have been for the last 35 years.

[starlit-woods.livejournal.com]

I just found out yesterday that the Australian Prime Minister has admitted to sending spies into Australian Mosques. The things that the public has allowed his government to do and get away with, and the American public allows Bush's administration to get away with, staggers me. It's disappointing enough that there are leaders like this, but that the majority of our countries just stand by and let them do it, even while they disagree, sickens me to my stomach.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

People will always allow the guys with the guns to get away with shit, at least until it's too late to stop them any way but violently. As much as I'd like to be upbeat and positive about humanity, the bottom line is that we're a bunch of monkeys with overdeveloped brains, and we behave like monkeys* on the whole. Peacefulness and getting along just aren't hard-wired into us the way throwing shit and killing are, which is why being good is much harder than being bad. When we try to be decent, we're going against our nature, and that's always tough.

* The bonobos are the exception in the ape world, of course, but who wants to emulate them? All they ever do is play games and fuck. Clearly they have no idea what being civilized is all about.

Re: Reply & Rant -- Part II

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Well, to be blunt...

First of all, uh, you just now thought of this? Really? It occured to me within the first couple of months, nay, weeks (come to think of it, it might have been days) after Sept 11, 2001, that this would be the perfect excuse for a serious power grab on the part of Bush and his cronies. The whole Iraq thing was so ludicrous from the very beginning that the attacks couldn't be the reason for the war. And anyone who has ever read Nineteen Eighty-Four is familiar with the idea that an endless war is the perfect formula for keeping a populace fearful and compliant, and that the only war that can be endless is a war against an invisible/internal enemy. There's an old Vietnamese saying: The tiger has stripes that fade into the background. This makes the frightened man see tigers everywhere.

And second, the people who benefit are obviously those who were promoting this crap in the first place: Rumsfeld, Cheney, et. al. And honestly, Cat, it's a bit naive of you to be thinking that a run for the presidency is anywhere in these guys' sites or wishes. They've been in the power line for nearly fourty years with no need whatsoever of any elected office. Rumsfeld's been in and out of the White House since the Ford administration, as has Cheney, and they've been spewing exactly the same neo-con crap since the 70s, at least. (Only then it was about Russia, and it really was the same, damn near exactly the same crap that they've been claiming about the terrorists - they're a worldwide force with infinite funds, they're trying to turn the entire world against us because they're just insane and Hate Our Way Of Life, they have HUGE, somehow undetectable arsenals in SuperSekrit bases - all of which turned out to be utter bullshit when they said it about the USSR. You'd think that would've tipped some folks off about how likely it was to be true this time, wouldn't it? Guess again.) The last thing any of these guys would do is try to get elected to anything. The Constitution puts limits on the amount of time an elected President can be in power, but there are no such limits on how long or how many times a person can be, say, Secretary of Defense or Chief of Staff. Since those are offices appointed by elected officials, all a guy like Rumsfeld has to do is keep bamboozling the sucker in the hot seat to trust him and bing! he's back in again. The real power has always been behind the throne, as any medieval counselor could tell you.

The other parties benefitting from the war are, of course, the contractors. Who just happen to have deep ties to Rumsfeld, Cheney, etc. To quote Deep Throat, follow the money. When somebody's making billions of dollars off a war, you can pretty much assume that they've got something to do with its continuation. I'm beginning to wonder just how much control Bush has over this whole thing, and how much has been those cabalistic fuckers pulling the strings of his ignorance and ego to get what they want.

Re: Reply & Rant -- Part II

[serai1.livejournal.com]

*snort* It's not a matter of being smarter, it's being more cynical. All that Hands Across America crap that was going on right after the attacks? I never bought it. Sure, sure, we're all being nice to each other, but we still mowed down innocent citizens of Middle Eastern descent. Several got killed in the days after the attacks, and I thought that was a pretty good indicator of just what kind of mindset America gets into when it feels threatened - locked down, jingoistic and xenophobic in the extreme. For all that we were soooo "grateful" for the international support, we certainly weren't very willing to think about why the thing might have happened, were we?

Unlike a lot of people, I kept going to my favorite Middle Eastern restaurants, blasted Arabic music in my car, and had no qualms at all about treating folks from that area just the way I'd always treated them, mostly because it was the decent thing to do, and partly because I'd known for years that something like this was coming. It was, after all, inevitable - we've spent decades fucking around with other people's countries, and the only surprise is that it took so long for someone to figure out such a simple attack strategy. But I never, ever bought into the whole America First crap, or let myself be talked into spying on my neighbors or being suspicious just because some Middle Eastern people (very rightfully) started acting furtive and non-communicative. Shit, I could hardly blame them, what with so many Good Murrikins talking shit about perfectly innocent folks.

But I'm a cynical ol' bitch. I don't believe that people are inherently good (see my comment above about us being basically overbrained monkeys), and any time people here start flag-waving, or whining and weeping about How Awful Life Is (in the most privileged country in the world, that kind of thing comes off as especially childish and horrifying), or throwing their arms around each other and getting all teary about Our Glorious Country, or any other such self-serving horseshit, I raise an eyebrow and think, "Yeah, right." It just doesn't fly with me, because I've seen enough of that kind of lalahappycrappy to know it'll last only as long as the populace is amused by it, and then it'll be back to Business As Usual - take what you can get, give nothing back, and screw everybody else.

I find it especially amusing that people get so hot under the collar about Rumsfeld and his cabal, when these guys are really quintessentially American, believing in that Manifest Destiny shit and doing what they can to screw as much as possible out of the rest of the world because God Chose Us. I mean, really. We live so well BECAUSE of that kind of mentality, not in spite of it. Our standard of living exists only because we are the worst global dictators Earth has ever seen, and we're willing to stomp anyone into the ground who threatens our hegemony even a little.

So as much as I despise their disgusting machinations, it's really their hypocrisy that I can't stand. I'd be a lot happier if they'd be honest about what they're doing, instead of skulking in the shadows like a bunch of cowards. Shit, if you're going to be a dictator, fucking come out and DO IT.

Eh, whatever. I waver between being pissed and not giving a shit. In the end, they're gonna do what they do, and the best we can hope for is that the world won't get blown up before we fall from the top and let somebody else have a chance. Who knows? Maybe the Islamic culture would be better at it. After all, the Christian culture were just as closed off, unfriendly, narcissistic, violent and xenophobic back in the day as any of the fanatics running around now, and look where we ended up!

Re: Reply & Rant -- Part II

[serai1.livejournal.com]

*shakes head* That's not going to happen - NY getting nuked, I mean. That's not the terrorist mindset. The whole point of what these folks are doing is to goad us into reacting in a way that makes US look bad, not them. One attack that killed a couple of thousand, that was big and certainly upset the world. But we heartily stepped up to the plate and took on the role they sketched out for us. We became avengers, albeit ones with amazingly bad aim, whereas the response that would have taken the wind out of their sails would have been quite different. We've played into their hands impressively, acting like just the kind of arrogant, steamroller fuckwads they've been saying we are. THAT is what the terrorists want - for us to do their work for them, because that way they'll always look like little Davids throwing rocks at Goliath, at least to the people whose opinions they're interested in, which is the rest of the Muslim world. (Not that all Muslims buy that, but enough of them do that their ranks have swelled alarmingly, as I'm sure you've noticed.)

The terrorists' agenda would not be served by throwing a nuclear weapon at us, and they know it. Nukes are dirty, and throwing one at us would not only occasion a response far in excess of what they want, it would turn the rest of the world against them for the eighty-seven minutes that would be left to it. It's far more to their advantage to make us strangle ourselves, in a show as arrogant and self-defeating as possible. W

hich we're doing, of course. Far be it from the US to disappoint anyone who thinks the worst of us.

Re: Reply & Rant -- Part II

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Oh, them. They don't worry me. Kim-Yong Il is a blowhard, and the recent overtures NK has made towards China in the direction of stepping things down in exchange for more aid seems to indicate that their activities in this area are more about having a big stick to wave than any interest in actually attacking anybody. Besides, who the hell would they attack? Us? Why? We have very little to do with them, other than getting our panties in a bunch every time we get leery about their motives. Just because somebody has a nuke doesn't mean they're pointing it at the States. Not everything in life is about us, despite what the Repugs would have us think.

And Iran? Please. According to the folks who actually know about nuclear weapons (as opposed to the bloodthirsty warmongers in the White House), Iran is at least ten years away from building a viable nuclear weapon. They're just starting out in this area, and as things stand right now, there's no reason to be worried about them throwing bombs. The only thing that might exacerbate the situation is if WE get all gung ho and start making threats and pounding our shields. Which is, once again, exactly what we're doing.

Besides, what could these governments do? Throw a bomb, yes. But what do you think the chances are that it would actually get here? These governments are halfway across the world, for gods' sakes. It's not like they've got bombs stashed just over the border. People keep forgetting how physically isolated we are, thousands of miles away from most of the world, with either ocean or extreme climate between us and pretty much anybody who'd want to take us out, or has any capacity to do so. The only reason the NY attacks worked is their under-the-wire nature. But that wouldn't work with a nuke, because you can't sneak one of those on board an airplane, anymore than you can build a liquid explosive device in an airplane toilet.

These kinds of scenarios are fairy-tale crap pushed on us by the people who want us to stay scared, Cat. Our time is definitely short as the Leaders Of The Free World (*snort*), but it won't be a nuke that takes us out. It'll be our own arrogance and stupidity, goading the rest of the world to turn their backs on us, as many have already done. By the time the fall comes, we won't be the behemoth we are now, and I doubt very much that anyone will feel the need to risk the existence of the biosphere on the likes of us. And if we end up acting in such a way that somebody DOES pound us, well - maybe we as a nation deserve it. As a ruling entity, we only look good from this end; from the point of view of most of the world, we're no great shakes anymore, and it would probably be better if we weren't around.

In the end, I agree with T.S. Eliot - our world will end not with a bang, but a whimper. As with all empires, we'll fall and something else will rise. It's happened before and it'll happen again, over and over. *shrug* That's life.