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And now, back to the good war...
The Kaptain's Log
by Kaptain Kanada, a.k.a. Manuel Miles
manuel_miles@shaw.ca

Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise

Well, now that "the surge" has temporarily succeeded in Iraq, largely by the massive bribing of myriad militias (who will use the payoffs to buy newer and better armaments for the inevitable next round of fighting), it's time to try to put the Afghan genie back into its bottle. Of course, as every student of history knows, the empire is just going to charge a bit deeper into the quicksand.

But it must: its British and Canadian auxiliary legionnaires are losing badly to the "defeated" Taliban and other resistance forces.

The proles have to be prepared to accept this increased level of warfare, of course, so the same old tired agitprop is now being spouted by the government-mouthpiece media of the imperial heartland and its principal satrapies. In case you don't know the formula, here it is:

1) Declare "victory" in whichever war zone has the troops needed to "surge" to the one in which the imperial occupation forces are currently getting their asses kicked.

2) Create a phony "debate" about how many troops should be sent and when. Studiously avoid any mention of heretical ideas such as actually leaving any of the occupied lands; the masses must be convinced that escalation of the war is unavoidable.

The phony, rigged U.S. election farce is good for this. On the one hand, you have McCain advocating total annihilation of all resistance in Iraq prior to greater butchery in Afghanistan prior to an invasion of Iran; on the other you have Obomber pushing for maintenance of the Iraq occupation at its present level plus a heightening of the slaughter of Afghan civilians prior to the invasion of Iran. What a "debate", eh!

3) Run a lot of "human interest" stories about soldiers who are soft and cuddly but tough enough to realise that they have to "do their duty" so that the rest of us can sleep secure in our beds at night. Hint that some of these fine young folk will not be making it back home. Hint that only the most heinous of demons would do harm to our young heroes.

4) Showcase a few of the standard articles about how inhuman the enemy is. Claim, for example, that the Taliban, who annihilated the poppy growing industry during their rule, are responsible for and benefiting from the massive re-establishment of narco-culture since the occupation. Avoid all mention of the fact that the main poppy growing fields are in areas controlled by Our Noble Allies, the Northern Warlords.

This de-humanisation makes it easier to get support for "the mission" and it paves the way for acceptance of the inevitable "collateral damage" of the civilians who are always referred to as "enemy combatants".

5) Write nonsense about some alleged "aid project" and how much it's going to help the occupied people. Avoid use of the words "corruption", "bribery" and "bottomless pit".

Add that the populace really opposes the resistance forces and just wants to be left alone by them to live in peace. Avoid mentioning that their "protectors" in the occupying armies repeatedly machine gun any automobile that is unlucky enough to be within a thousand yards of one their many unannounced convoys.

6) Promote the usual Roman circuses of professional team sports and Hollywood celebrity gossip. This both distracts from excessive thinking about the wars and it numbs the television-addicted masses into a stupor of acceptance.

You are probably thinking that anything so transparent cannot possibly fool anyone, especially since this exact pattern is followed over and over again. And you're right. It is simply given to the bleating sheep-like masses; then they convince themselves because it's way easier than thinking and infinitely safer than acting . The irony of it is that the wool which the tax-paying saps pull over their own eyes was fleeced from them in the first place.

Sometimes I wonder if there's any hope at all for:

Peace and Liberty.

Manuel Miles is a Libertarian Christian and an inveterate iconoclast. He challenges authorities, experts and conventional "wisdom". He is a writer and itinerant pedagogue from Edmonton, Canada whose professed ambition is "...to trample everyone's sensitivities, regardless of their race, creed, colour, political persuasion, or what-have-you." His few friends describe him as "a nasty bit of baggage," and they are understating the case.

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