You say Racist, I say Colonialist, Let’s Call this Whole Thing Off
One of the rituals attending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, when our opponents score a goal, is for an American general to materialize before the press and announce, in his best miles gloriosus manner, that “we face a thinking enemy.” Wow. Who ever would have imagined that the enemy might think and learn?
The latest example followed the insurgents’ success in shooting down seven American helicopters in Iraq. According to the February 18 New York Times, Major General James E. Simmons, an Army aviator, told reporters, “We are engaged with a thinking enemy.” General Simmons should know; the mujaheddin shot down his helicopter on January 25, fortunately with no casualties.
a thinking enemy? who knew? thought they were just a bunch of Backward Wogs, did we, guys? barely primate, let alone human? incapable of observation and reaction?
the nickname of Cheney’s plane is hardly needed to complete the picture, but there it is. the Spirit of Strom Thurmond is indeed alive and well among the US command, evidently.
it looks like a colonial racist mindset and it quacks like a colonial racist mindset and goddammit, I think it’s a colonial racist mind[sic]set.
I’m too disgusted to type properly. meanwhile, another feelgood whitefella propaganda flick is ably deconstructed by historian Peter Linebaugh, one of my favourite contemporary writers. a hagiography of Wilberforce? struth! we are way beyond satire. we are through the looking-glass and playing hedgehog croquet.
Kevin:
Bill Lind was one Col John Boyd’s closest friends.
STAN: Kevin, you obviously lurk here from time to time, because you send comments that get deleted. The reason they are deleted is that you have — after more thanone opportunity to change — intervened with name-calling, and gratuitously abusive (sexist, homophobic) language. This is aninteresting point about Lind and Boyd, and we appreciate it. I will restore you comment privileges if you just promise to follow the basic rules here — no sexist, racist, xenophobic, homophobic slurs; no personal attacks. I want to engage active duty soldiers and vets here; but not if they use the space to behave like adolescent boys and make it feel unsafe to others.
28 February 2007, 11:38 pmDeAnander:
Just in case we had any doubt about who Strom Thurmond was or what he stood for: Sharpton distantly related to Thurmond?
OK, that was in 1948. But what is this guy’s name doing painted on an official US military/govt transport plane? What is the VP of the US doing, getting onto such a plane? Any decent human being [OK, an irrelevancy in this case, but still...] would refuse to ride in it.
1 March 2007, 4:17 pmBikeSummer!:
Colonialist is a pretty much spot-on. It is very similar to the comments #2 and #3 here, which makes the case for a common anthropological thread shared among groups that essentially use a consensus approach to leadership. This is sharp contrast to the top-down hierarchy of colonial powers, BushCo., the WTO, and IMF (to name a few), that have divided and conquered small, sustainable societies and groups for centuries. Of course, racism is one of the many tools exploited by oppressive, authoritarian institutions to divide-and-conquer grassroots organizations.
1 March 2007, 6:49 pmBikeSummer!:
As the stock markets melt down, the clock is ticking for people to redirect their 401k accounts, IRA accounts, and other savings to invest in the future. Here are a few suggestions to help weather the stock market crashes.
Keep in mind that CNN, the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, and other corporate media outlets are now reporting this inevitability, and the old economics 101 theory of rational expectationlism will kick in.
Your government will not save you from the stock market crash, but it will help billionaires and corporations pick your pockets of your hard-earned savings. Best wishes for a sustainable future.
2 March 2007, 11:40 am