JSOC
The Joint Special Operations Command, known by the acronym JSOC, pronounced jay-sock by members of the US armed forces, carries with it a mystique. The press, JSOC’s promoters and its critics, as well as the entertainment media, have all contributed to its mystique; and that mystique is promoted my the military because it functions as a kind of deterrent.
One of the advantages of offical secrecy is its contribution to this mystique – writ large for secretive units, but this mystique-maintenance is also useful throughout the military. Hollywood, pulp fiction, television drama, infotainment “news,” and military-veteran boosterism all contribute to the vast ignorance of military matters, by overdramatizing military life and military operations, and by idealizing it.
Film and popular literature are packed with protagonists whose past or present CV includes membership in some elite and highly secret combat unit, where individuals are seven-language linguists, flawless marksmen with every firearm ever manufactured, field surgeons, helicopter pilots, chess masters, and gymnasts.
The arms race among entertainment moguls to one-up each other’s fantasies has only accelerated this stupidity; and the thirst among (primarily male) consumers for this drivel has corresponding and escalating ratio of profit to humbug.
Hannah Arendt once noted:
The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal. From the viewpoint of our legal institutions and of our moral standards of judgment, this normality was much more terrifying than all the atrocities put together.
Obviously, I insert this quote with the subject of evil in mind, and in the context of a discussion of this mystique-laden military institution, JSOC. Because that is what they actually do, evil, and not some salvific secret missions that keep us unkowingly safe abed at night. Moreover, they are not the idealized archetypes, but simply a bunch of men who are conjoined primarily by their overarching commitment to US nationalism, their belief that ends justify means, and their personal pursuit of probative masculinity.
Few are multi-lingual, most are only marginally in better physical condition than the average civilian gym rat, many are stupid – moreso than you want to know – and all are committed, when under orders, to bully and kill helpless people.
They are far more banal than anyone would like to believe; and the culture is closer than anything else to a boys locker room. They like sports, pornography, gun culture, video games, alcohol, and misogynist humor.
A little background.
For the record, I was a member of a constituent organization for a few years in the 80′s while they were forming JSOC as a coordinating command in the wake of the 1979 hostage rescue debacle in Iran. Like all these coordinating elements that recieve truckloads of money, it grew into a kind of bureaucratic empire that was planted in some upscale digs on the boundary between Fort Bragg, NC, and the adjacent Pope Air Force Base. This is a process I call institutional dog-waggery… when the coordinaton and support apparatus becomes the tail that ends up wagging the dog.
Included in JSOC, then, were special counter-terrorism units from the Army and Navy, with special aircraft and air coordination asssets from the Army and Air Force. God only knows what tack-ons have happened since then, especially since Donald Rumsfeld privileged the role of so-called special operations as part of his doctrinal rewrite for the entire Department of Defense.
Money has flowed like water into special operations; and this is the institutional equivalent of pouring buckets of ox blood into the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chagres River. Along with the boys who want to kill to prove themselves have come opportunists and mountebanks of every stripe, not unlike the intellectual swindlers who sold Rumsfeld on his doctrine in the first place. Well, to be honest, Rumsfeld himself was one of the chief con artists, but that’s another story.
In time, the very precise and limited skill sets that had been developed by the early counter-terrorist units – mostly geared to hostage-barricade resolution – had diffused out of the CT units, via retirees and ex-members, as well as training agreements with other agencies, until anyone who wants to observe what used to be called close-quarter battle (CQB) can see it reenacted with a fair amount of verisimiltude on prime time tv… SWAT tactics to the layperson.
The original Delta Force commander, Charlie Beckwith, RIP, who wanted to ensure that these skills remained close-hold, used to tell subordinates that “the only way to keep a secret is don’t tell anybody.” He was prescient, as it turns out, and the CT units had – within a decade – worked themselves out of their dangerous and exclusive job.
This applied to JSOC, which also included infantry support units, i.e., Ranger Battalions, like the one Pat Tillman worked for when he was killed by his own comrades in Paktia Province Afghanistan in 2004. That was a JSOC operation; and it was not helpful in the maintenance of the enemy-deterring mystique. Three or so Taliban irregulars with an RPG and a couple of AKs, shooting ineffectively from half a mile away, created a public relations crisis that contributed to the disappearance of the Secretary of Defense, killing three people in the process.
The debacle in Somalia in 1993? JSOC.
Given the proven ability of special operations to fail, and given the diffusionary loss of its original focus, the only asset that remained for JSOC to do things that are “special” was its high level of secrecy. Many alumni are now performing special duties at six-figure salaries as mercenary contractors… still paid by the Department of Defense – that is, with your taxes – only without that pesky potential Congresdsdional overisght. I say potential, because Congress has no stomach to oversee anything military. The idealization of the military has ensured that.
Which brings me to the sycophancy of elected officials in the face of military commanders, and that includes Barack Obama.
Elected officials are forced to factor the mystique into anything and everything they say about anyone and everyone military. A sizeable fraction of the voting public believes that cops are like the interesting, intelligent people they see on endless Law and Order reruns, and they believe that military people are like the equally complex and ethical characters played by their favorite actors in idealized representations by the media. Or they are related to military members, an equally biasing condition.
Consequently, we have been forced to repress our gag reflex every time one of these Generals comes before a Congress that lines up to see who can fawn most effusively before the stars.
Barack Obama is terrified of the military-security nexus within his own government, because they are uniquely positioned, by this special status, to bring him down… his legal status as Commander-in-Chief notwithstanding. That is why he has dragged his feet on don’t-ask-don’t-tell – which he could suspend by fiat now until law is repealed; and that is why Obama didn’t sack Stanley McChrystal – a la Truman-McArthur – when McChrystal, now the military viceroy of Afghanistan, leaked a report last year to back McChrystal’s own play to increase troop strength in Afghanistan by 45,000.
Instead, Obama gave him 30,000 – enough less to save a little face, and enough more to dig the Obama administration deeper into the hole that the Afghanistan-Pakistan-Yemen war has become.
General Stanley McChrystal, by the way, is the fomrer commander of JSOC; and he was the JSOC commander who alerted then Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush to drop references to Pat Tillman in a speech, when it became apparent that the original cover-up of Pat Tillman’s death by fratricide was going to unravel around a fraudulent award that couldn’t be retrieved. McChrystal was in charge of the operation, in the loop on the cover-up, and helped Bush dodge the PR bullet on it.
In the military, we used to say, “No fuck-up shall go unrewarded,” and McChrystal is living proof. But that doesn’t tell us what else McChrystal and JSOC have been doing with themselves, aside from hiding. What other kinds of things does this secrecy permit?
Well, for one, McChrystal ran Task Force 6-26, which became temporarily famous after the killing of Abu Masab al-Zarqawi, a boogyman figure cultivated by the military-media complex. What made TF 6-26 infamous was their activity in Camp Nama, Iraq: torture. Massive, systematic, sustained torture, by JSOC operators, under the supervision of Stanley McChrystal, this deceptively soft-spoken officer.
The camp in Baghdad was used almost exclusively for the torture of detainees. The torture went on before, during, and after the scandal at Abu Ghraib. Detainees were killed by their torturers, members of the most elite units in the US armed forces. Almost in celebration of the activity of the camp, placards were hung that said, “No Blood, No Foul,” meaning if you don’t make them bleed, you can’t be charged with the crimes you are committing.
Impunity. That’s what secrecy buys. JSOC’s new “special” is impunity.
In an article in Harpers this month, Scott Horton, a fomer classmate of now-JSOC commander Admiral “Billy” McRaven, published a stunning expose of this impunity at Guantanamo Bay’s still-open prison camp. Apparently, within Guantanamo Bay, there is a “special” prison within a prison, quite likely run by JSOC, called “Camp No” by the soldiers now speaking out, meaning, no, it doesn’t exist. It was in this camp that three prisoners, held in Guantanamo for years now without any charges, allegedly commited suicide.
The suicide story was given to an uncritical press in June 2006, right after all three prisoners died, with the bizarre statement by Camp Commander Rear Admiral Harry Harris that the suicides were act of war against the US.
The U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service (yes, the NCIS of the popular tv program… “Characters Welcome”) conducted an investigation of the suicide story, declared the official story valid, then classified the investigative report and placed it off limits to the public… until a Freedom of Information Act request forced the Navy to cough up a highly redacted copy.
In Horton’s article, he explains:
According to the NCIS documents, each prisoner had fashioned a noose from torn sheets and T-shirts and tied it to the top of his cell’s eight-foot-high steel-mesh wall. Each prisoner was able somehow to bind his own hands, and, in at least one case, his own feet, then stuff more rags deep down into his own throat. We are then asked to believe that each prisoner, even as he was choking on those rags, climbed up on his washbasin, slipped his head through the noose, tightened it, and leapt from the washbasin to hang until he asphyxiated. The NCIS report also proposes that the three prisoners, who were held in non-adjoining cells, carried out each of these actions almost simultaneously.
Four soldiers from the 629th Military Intelligence Battalion who were at Guantanamo Bay (now named Camp America) have now come forward with a different story, a story about Camp No.
Salah Ahmed Al-Salami, Mani Shaman Al-Utaybi, and Yasser Talal Al-Zahrani did not simultaneously commit suicide in their separate cells as an act of asymmetric spite against the United States of America. They died at Camp No, in an extraordinary circumstance that the Harpers story outlines very well.
Given that these men appeared likely to have proven their innocence if granted a hearing in accordance with the most minimal standards of jurisprudence, the question arises, why were they killed?
I’ll make a suggestion, not an accusation, since I have no direct knowledge of this incident. Proving innocence can be very damaging, especially if release brings revelations of more torture, rape, and murder… all of which happened, involving special operations, at various times in the conduct of the now expanding war. These are felonies; and they can send people to prison.
Anyone who hoped the Obama administration would investigate these kinds of activities during the Bush era has been disappointed. On the contrary, Obama has expanded the war into new countries, expanded the participation of the CIA and JSOC, left Guantanamo intact, refused to initiate independent investigations of military actions, and promoted the former JSOC commander – tainted by cover-ups and torture – to the most powerful warlord in Afghanistan.
Now the Obama administration’s Justice Department is declining to investigate Guantanamo and the NCIS.
Meanwhile, JSOC flourishes, cloaked in secrecy with just the mystique peeking out. But there was no leaping over tall buildings in a single bound, no warrior-poets protecting us from the manifold dangers lurking outside our borders. There’s just garden variety machismo, men who beat, torture, and kill unarmed detainees… men who have learned to relish violence, because it raises their esteem in the eyes of other men – the terrrible escalations of probative masculinity that continue to underwrite war like no other phenomenon.
What Simone Weil said remains unfortunately true:
As soon as men know that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers with approving smiles.
kathy:
What happened to that earlier entry that referred to the misogynist rhetoric of that Counter-punch writer, and your points about prison-revenge fantasy? I know i posted a comment on that, and I”m trying to find it. thanks.
31 January 2010, 3:55 pmSteve:
For a inside view of the male-video game-CQB cult-fascist fantasy world read Daemon by Daniel Suarez http://www.thedaemon.com. In a new twist on the tired science fiction cliche of a computer that takes over the world, a dying computer game maker creates an evil AI that is programed to assemble an army of murdering video game losers after his death. One of the most interesting and disturbing themes in this book is the view that the problem with corporate america is that it isn’t darwinian enough.
31 January 2010, 6:01 pmSteve:
http://www.thedaemon.com/ without the period.
31 January 2010, 6:02 pmRazer:
Prescience.. You started off on the image marketing of the US military just as I was posting this to my Facebook page:
From 2008 when there WERE jobs for young people.
(Now with MORE economic persuasiveness than ever!)
RECRUITING CHILDREN INTO THE US MILITARY
The Pentagon’s Child Recruiting Strategy
(an M.D. wrote this analyis)
…including such tactics as:
TARGETING THE ADOLESCENT BRAIN
RECRUITMENT TOOLBOX:
Movies, Toys, TV, & Computer Games
Blackhawk Helicopters on High School Campuses
18-Wheeler “Recruiting Vans,” on high school campuses
Recruitment via Television
Recruitment via Hollywood Movies
Recruitment via Video Gaming
More… I sourced the info here:
http://www.ringnebula.com/Oil/recruiting-children.htm
But even MORE prescient, emptywheel at firedoglake just put up a post regarding Dana Priest (WaPo) and Greg Miller’s (LATimes) articles about targeted assassinations of US citizens, JSOC and the CIA Here.
“emptywheel” is calling it turf war (for the ‘assassin of Americans’ image?)
31 January 2010, 7:46 pmWinston Warfield:
Thanks for this piece; I’m going to have young men in my neighborhood read it who are already becoming ensnared with military recruiters. Tragic, isn’t it, that the greatest fear we males harbor having been so thoroughly indoctrinated in the culture of patriarchy, is the fear that other males will see us as “weak”, or “soft”. Empathy for “the other” is seen as soft; morality itself gets jettisoned in the mad pursuit of “hardness”. This fear of peer disapproval is often greater than the fear of death itself. I can see no way out for us other than to “unpack” it, as you say, struggle to understand it and how it messes up our lives and the lives of those close to us (and far away). As my friend who survived the 173rd AB in Vietnam puts it sometimes when asked how he’s doing, “I’m simply trying to be a decent human being.” He says that with sincere humility, having developed into a peaceful person after many years of struggle and self-education. Obama harbors “the fear”, and is not self-aware enough to be able to overcome it vis-a-vis confronting the military-security complex. That understanding would be the only way to personally weather such an epic confrontation. Yet he came up through a similar ultra-macho elitist competitive intellectual culture at Harvard, so I’m not holding my breath. Clinton before him caved to military machismo regarding gay rights. Hell, LBJ was paranoid about gays in his administration, remember? I can’t fathom the death grip this gender craziness has on us, to the point of sacrificing our own children on the altar of ruthlessness and military domination.
31 January 2010, 10:51 pmStan:
Hey Kathy,
The CP piece is here – oddly near a piece by pro-feminist Bob Jensen. I cited it in the comments section on the thread Citizens United v. FEC.
Your follow-on was this:
Seems apt to bring this up again in the context of this piece, which I submitted to Counterpunch this morning. Patriarchy may not cause wars, though this is one of those undebatable arguments because war – like all complex social phenomena – is variably determined. But it’s pretty easy to make the arguement that probative masculinity facilitates war by providing it with eager participants. This will make the macho left uncomfortable, because they participate quite willingly in PM when they deploy sexual revenge motifs and other displays of their willingness to inflict cruelty.
In reconsidering my own past, including my past with the left, I have been reminded – to my great discomfort – how many ways I myself bought into the “willingness to inflict cruelty” meme, even when I was already claiming to be pro-feminist. As I added in this JSOC piece for Counterpunch (hopefully they’ll accept it today), mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
I read CP all the time, because there are a lot of very good articles there that no one else is printing. I’m reluctant to brand CP with some exclusive franchise on left-machismo. It’s ubiquitous on lefty sites, an indication that “there are miles to go before we sleep.”
Addendum: CP published it.
1 February 2010, 8:40 amMichael Anderson:
It seems that a bifurcation of sorts has been reached in Christian probative masculinity. It fits in with everything you have stated in this article. And, it’s obviously been going on for a while, under my radar at least.
“Christians” who have a “culture is closer than anything else to a boys locker room. They like sports, pornography, gun culture, video games, alcohol [we'll see on that one], and misogynist humor.” Your quote, I believe, is not inconsistent with this development.
Who would Jesus kickbox the hell out of this week?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/us/02fight.html?hp
PS—good to see you up and running, verbally, again.
2 February 2010, 11:05 ameoinmonkey:
http://www.army.mod.uk/news/14171.aspx
“Step aside games consoles, the action hero toy has returned with the HM Armed Forces collection, based on active servicemen and women. The range of toys promises to fill the void in the action figure market left by Action Man and friends.
Representing the Army , Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, The HM Armed Forces toys will delight boys and girls, and their mums and dads too, with their authentic features; inspiring imaginary play while learning the roles of these brave men and women serving our country.
… Portraying the correct ethos of this new brand and its constituent services, is vital. Leading Child Psychologist Dr Amanda Gummer is working closely with the team to ensure that important themes such as a child’s sense of team-work, belonging and identity are considered in the development of the range, whilst modern messages of anti bullying, boundaries and discipline can also be seen to be reflected in play with the range, not to mention the physical fitness aspect.
Commenting on the new collection an MoD spokesperson said: “We are proud to be celebrating our Armed Forces through these new action figures, which showcase the men and women who work so hard to ensure our protection.” “
2 February 2010, 12:22 pmGuy Montag:
” … the sycophancy of elected officials in the face of military commanders, and that includes Barack Obama. … Consequently, we have been forced to repress our gag reflex every time one of these Generals comes before a Congress that lines up to see who can fawn most effusively before the stars. … General Stanley McChrystal … was in charge of the operation [Tillman fratricide cover-up], in the loop on the cover-up, and helped Bush dodge the PR bullet on it. …In the military, we used to say, ‘No fuck-up shall go unrewarded,’ and McChrystal is living proof.”
. . .
Stan helped the Tillman family in their investigation and published his “Tillman Files” back in 2006 at fromthewilderness.com and his “Fog of Fame” series at counterpunch.org.
Recently, I posted my own “Tillman Files”:
Jon Krakauer‘s book, “Where Men Win Glory,” blamed the Bush administration and the Army for the cover-up of Pat Tillman’s friendly-fire death.
However, the untold story is the cover-up was actually a thoroughly bi-partisan affair. In particular, the Democratic Congress and the Obama Presidency protected General Stanley McChrystal from scrutiny and punishment for his central role in the cover-up of Pat Tillman’s friendly-fire death.
The following documents at http://www.feralfirefighter.blogspot.com describe how General McChrystal has been protected by Congressman Henry Waxman, Senator James Webb (along with Senators Carl Levin and John McCain), the New York Times Pentagon Reporter Thom Shanker, the Center for a New American Security’s (CNAS) Andrew Exum, and President Obama:
“WHERE MEN WIN GLORY” — Andrew Exum, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), and the Whitewash of General McChrystal’s Role in the Cover-Up of Pat Tillman’s Fratricide
“LIES … BORNE OUT BY FACTS, IF NOT THE TRUTH” — Senator James Webb, Thom Shanker & The New York Times and the Whitewash of General McChrystal’s Role in the Aftermath of Pat Tillman’s Death
“DID THEY TEACH YOU HOW TO LIE YET? — Senator James Webb, General Stanley McChrystal, and the Betrayal of Pat Tillman
“A SENSE OF HONOR” — Pat Tillman & Senator James Webb
“REMEMBER THE ICONOCLAST, NOT THE ICON — Pat Tillman 1976 — 2004″
“BATTLE FOR THE TRUTH — Iddo Netanyahu, Kevin Tillman and the Cover-Up of Their Brother’s Death”
[Note: I believe the best short introduction to the Tillman story is Gary Smith’s Sports Illustrated's (9-11-06) cover story "Remember My Name." I've placed a link to that article in my document "Remember the Iconoclast, Not the Icon." If you want to dig deeper, I would suggest starting with “Where Men Win Glory.” The three documents at the beginning of that binder briefly summarize the story and point to more detailed information within the other documents.]
It’s not surprising that after the initial cover-up fell apart, Army officers and the Bush administration lied to protect their careers. Reprehensible, but understandable. But the Democratic Congress, after they took control of both Houses in 2006, could have gone after those responsible. Or at least not promoted them!
Just before the 2006 mid-term elections, Kevin Tillman published his eloquent letter, “After Pat’s Birthday” (truthdig.com). Kevin hoped a Democratic Congress would bring accountability back to our country. But, just as with warrantless wiretapping and torture, those responsible for the cover-up of his brother’s friendly-fire death have never been held accountable for their actions.
Five years ago, Pat Tillman’s family were handed a tarnished Silver Star. It was a travesty of justice that General McChrystal was promoted to the Army’s highest rank, and handed his fourth star.
P.S. Amir Bar-Lev premired “The Tillman Story” last week at the Sundance Film festival. Looks like it will be released this year sometime.
4 February 2010, 6:41 amAdam Bohrer:
To escape from the boredom of civilian life has very limited avenues. Warfare is the quickest answer for men, especially today when most labor is now done by machines or people abroad. To become a man in the eyes of other men, and to earn the respect of women is difficult when the virtues of strength and hardwork are sidelined by the idleness of whitecollar drudgery. Bravery has fewer playgrounds. The appeal to join special operations forces is strong because it is an elite club of men who endure the toughest challenges to fulfill a visceral identity as a warrior. The mystique of Spec Ops has ancient roots because it is the least industrial of military practices and harckens back to the ways of the samurai, hoplites or the expedition of Lewis and Clark. The adventures promised by earning the trident or donning the green Beret are second to none, and some would kill to have an extraordinary lifestyle. This appeal makes sense to me. Doing a quick quote search of sun tzu I stumbled upon this:
“Of all those in the army close to the commander none is more intimate than the secret agent; of all rewards none more liberal than those given to secret agents; of all matters none is more confidential than those relating to secret operations.”
Sun tzu further declares that all war is deception. Modern warfare couldn’t be closer to this statement as most wars are fought for debt and resources under the lies of terrorism, but national security is most assuredly at stake. The efforts of the Spec Ops community may have become perverse because the true goals of our wars are not declared, but is not the effort important for the survival of this global order? It appears that the special operations teams are the first to quell any disorder or opposition to energy and financial establishments – a necessary task to preserve the modern way of life.
Stan – why did you join the Special Operations Community? I am intriqued by your story and the honest descriptions you have made.
4 February 2010, 12:34 pmGuy Montag:
“General Stanley McChrystal, by the way, is the former commander of JSOC; … McChrystal was … in the loop on the [Tillman] cover-up, and helped Bush dodge the PR bullet on it. …In the military, we used to say, “No fuck-up shall go unrewarded,” and McChrystal is living proof.”
. . .
Jon Krakauer’s book blamed the Bush administration and Army for the cover-up of Pat Tillman’s friendly-fire death. However, the untold story is the cover-up was a thoroughly bi-partisan affair. In particular, the Democratic Congress and the Obama Presidency protected General Stanley McChrystal from punishment for his role in the cover-up of Pat Tillman’s friendly-fire death.
The documents at http://www.feralfirefighter.blogspot.com describe how General McChrystal has been protectd by Congressman Henry Waxman, Senator James Webb (along with Senators Carl Levin and John McCain), the New York Times Reporter Thom Shanker, the Center for a New American Security’s Andrew Exum, and President Obama.
It’s not surprising that after the initial cover-up fell apart, Army officers and the Bush administration lied to protect their careers. Reprehensible, but understandable. But the Democratic Congress, after they took control of both Houses in 2006, could have gone after those responsible. Or at least not promoted them!
Just before the 2006 mid-term elections, Kevin Tillman published his eloquent letter, “After Pat’s Birthday” at truthdig.com Kevin hoped a Democratic Congress would bring accountability back to our country. But, just as with warrantless wiretapping and torture, those responsible for the cover-up of his brother’s friendly-fire death have never been held accountable for their actions.
Five years ago, Pat Tillman’s family were handed a tarnished Silver Star. It was a travesty of justice that General McChrystal was promoted to the Army’s highest rank, and handed his fourth star.
4 February 2010, 9:25 pmm.c.:
Non-special forces, but a long time ago one of a navy recruiter’s selling points was that submarine service paid extra. Other more dangerous jobs like flight deck duty have pay grades above the norm too, I believe.
6 February 2010, 12:34 pmJon:
Speaking of atrocities, I am about 2/3 through an astonishing book called JFK and the Unspeakable, by James Douglass (a man in the Berrigan brothers tradition). The first half of the book deals with the WHY of his assassination, while weaving a mystery story documented all the way, of incredible intrigue that surpasses DaVinci Code! I cannot recommend it highly enough. One of the reviewers calls it the best book by far on the subject. It is recently published and can take advantage not only of earlier scholarship, but on recent FOI releases, as well as his own interviews with people who had relevant direct memory of specific events. Just as one example, who else remembers hearing, as I did personally, Oswald saying on live TV, when asked if he killed the president: “I didn’t kill anyone; I’m just the patsy.”
6 February 2010, 11:23 pmDeAnander:
Atrocity as a Way of Life: A young soldier confesses to waterboarding his 4-y-o daughter for her failure to recite the alphabet on command.
The “strict father” archetype run amuck. The absolute pervasion of private life by military/warfare mentality. The definition of all that does not obey as the Enemy to be conquered — even if it is 4 years old and helpless and your own child… The masculinist, patriarchal obsession with Control and Domination.
8 February 2010, 12:43 pmStan:
This is the one that got caught… or the one who acted out early (stalking the streets in combat gear). This particular demon is now lurking in the psyches of hundreds of thousands of men, waiting for the right confluence of circumstances to become manifest.
8 February 2010, 1:40 pmDeAnander:
I suspect the demon was lurking there before they enlisted… lurking in the culture. Lurking in the history of patriarchy/civilisation. What the military does, seems to me, is to feed that demon, train it up like a junkyard dog, fatten it in a CAFO of meanness, force-feed it to produce the weird, unnatural foie-gras of complete sociopathy and alienation. And the fodder they stuff that demon with is abuse, misogyny, ego-stoking, fear, and always the carrot — the promised “bond of brothers” which is supposed to compensate the Lost Boys for their alienation from women, children, the natural world, human compassion, etc.
8 February 2010, 4:01 pmJuannie:
“Barack Obama is terrified of the military-security nexus within his own government, because they are uniquely positioned, by this special status, to bring him down… his legal status as Commander-in-Chief notwithstanding.”
“Obama is cautious and fearful of being torpedoed by the military-paramilitary-clandestine services network. That’s tactical. And that caution will cost him dearly.
But he’s also Chief Executive.
Executives are loathe to surrender even a scrap of accumulated executive power.”
“If I had trained as intensely to be a carpenter, and if I had become good at it, …
Same thing is true for a gunfighter. There are thousands of these men out there now, who received a very expensive and well-drilled education in gunfighting. When times get tough, they will fall back on what they know. ”
“The “strict father” archetype run amuck. The absolute pervasion of private life by military/warfare mentality.”
“This particular demon is now lurking in the psyches of hundreds of thousands of men, waiting for the right confluence of circumstances to become manifest.”
“And the fodder they stuff that demon with is abuse, misogyny, ego-stoking, fear, and always the carrot — the promised “bond of brothers” which is supposed to compensate the Lost Boys for their alienation from women, children, the natural world, human compassion, etc.”
OK Stan & De, you have articulated the problem very clearly for those of us who already understand this. Somewhere within the above quotes is the beginning of a solution to the problem. Stan, I know you know the saying, ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going.’ Does this apply intellectually also? I also know that between the two of you there is the understanding, brainpower and heart to start articulating a way out of this seeming impasse. I’m more limited and don’t have even one good idea that I couldn’t shoot full of holes myself. I don’t want to keep reading and rereading the problem stated in myriads of ways. I want to read your ideas here and start my participation. I only have a few years left to try to accomplish the impossible for my daughter and her generation and I’m growing more and more restless accordingly.
Thanks for the well wishes De. It’s been three and a half weeks now and for better or worse, I’m back.
8 February 2010, 4:50 pmStan:
December 2011