Another rant from the every-forceful Chris Hedges…
“The warlords we champion in Afghanistan are as venal, as opposed to the rights of women and basic democratic freedoms, and as heavily involved in opium trafficking as the Taliban. The moral lines we draw between us and our adversaries are fictional. The uplifting narratives used to justify the war in Afghanistan are pathetic attempts to redeem acts of senseless brutality. War cannot be waged to instill any virtue, including democracy or the liberation of women. War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and access to weapons. War turns the moral order upside down and abolishes all discussions of human rights. War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society. And the weapons of war do not separate the innocent and the damned. An aerial drone is our version of an improvised explosive device. An iron fragmentation bomb is our answer to a suicide bomb. A burst from a belt-fed machine.” (Click here for the whole thing.)
The secret word is Poppy
“The warlords we champion in Afghanistan are as venal, as opposed to the rights of women and basic democratic freedoms, and as heavily involved in opium trafficking as the Taliban. The moral lines we draw between us and our adversaries are fictional. The uplifting narratives used to justify the war in Afghanistan are pathetic attempts to redeem acts of senseless brutality. War cannot be waged to instill any virtue, including democracy or the liberation of women. War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and access to weapons. War turns the moral order upside down and abolishes all discussions of human rights. War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society. And the weapons of war do not separate the innocent and the damned. An aerial drone is our version of an improvised explosive device. An iron fragmentation bomb is our answer to a suicide bomb. A burst from a belt-fed machine.” (Click here for the whole thing.)
The secret word is Poppy
War is also highly lucrative.
ReplyDeleteAre we anti-revolution now? Any one of us can name a fistfull of wars that empowered the weak, overthrew monstrous fuehrers, freed women from bondage, and resulted in the (perhaps imperfect) democracies we all suckle from the teats of as we bitch about far away affairs. (obviously not this war, but do you see my point?)
ReplyDeleteWar most often IS simply a way for power to contiue it's centralizing spiral, but it is also what happens when inevitable change slams into hateful stagnation.
War is also the primary state of the natural world. The universe is a predator, whether we like it or not, and I for one have my claws out and ready.
I tried to tell 'em. Don't invade Afghanistan, I said. There's no good reason for it. Did they listen? Noooooo . . . . This empire is the source of your tax problems.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this argument about fighting the Taliban because they are sexists is interesting. In the U.S., up to 40% of men will admit to using physical violence with their partner or spouse. Maybe they're as bad as U.S. men--maybe not!
Afghanistan is a terrible place to have a war.
ReplyDeletewhere do you suggest jimbo?
ReplyDeleteFrance?
ReplyDelete