Been reflecting about how frequently Americans use the word "hatred" in political contexts these days - the Bushites keep repeating that liberals/foreigners all "hate America" "hate Bush" "hate freedom" etc, call Palestinians "hate-crazed", say Islamic fundamentalist terrorism is all about "hating Americans"... And I've also read some anti-war sites saying Americans should start to "hate" Bush for what he's done to the economy, for sending American troops to fight an unnecessary war, etc. etc.

To me this sounds strange and somehow shocking, it's not the kind of political language/climate I'm used to... I find it disquieting.

In Italy, "hate" isn't part of the political vocab: we use a lot of mockery, sarcasm, insults too, sometimes quite vicious ("sewer-rats" etc. ) ... but I've never heard the word "hate" - we usually say we "STRONGLY CONDEMN" something we disapprove of, say it's "a very grave error", "a perversion of democracy" or whatever, then go on to explain why. We'll say a politician/country is acting in an "unworthy" manner, that his/its behaviour is "shameful" ... "repulsive" et etc...but we don't use the word "HATE".. don't see or feel things in those terms. Same goes for NZ - in politics (national and international) we talk in terms of disapproval, not hatred.

The point being that the"judgement > disapproval > decision to oppose" sequence is a rational process which STAYS rational, but what seems to be insinuating its way into US politics seems more like a "judgement > anger > hatred" sequence - i.e. a sequence that starts off as apparently "rational", then totally abandons the rational sphere for that of passionate, irrational emotion..

So what comes after hatred... what's the next step, the culmination, the outlet for such states of hostile passion? Can all that hate really find adequate expression in anything as (let's be honest) tiresome/pain-in-ass-boring as normal political activism?? - Or does it naturally seek its most "appropriate" psychological release through some form of extreme violence??

Organized extreme violence = war - and irrational collective outbreaks of hatred produce mob violence - and also "berserker" warrior gangs (which is what soldiers degenerate into when they "freak out").

But for honesty's sake, I must admit that the rational side of the rational/irrational coin can also have a very dark side. In the years when Italy was devastated by political violence with terrorism from both far-right and far-left, "hatred" was NOT what it was about, it was NOT hatred that inspired those criminal acts, but various kinds of delirious "theorems". So the killing was NOT emotional, it was ... dutiful??? impersonal?? I mean, it seems those shootings/bombings were considered "necessary" but with no emotion even when targetting "enemy" politicians such as Aldo Moro - i t was all the result of a skewed analysis, a cold intellectual delirium.

Basically this was a "covert-op" or "military" mentality, an amateur version of the CIA /KGB and THEIR "cold war" theorems/theories - each murderous action carefully calculated not as an end in itself, but to create the desired political repercussions.

Incidentally, I think ALL "covert-ops" including non-state warfare aka "terrorism" operate in this same psychological mode ... the mentality is not emotional but one of impersonal "dedication" to the cause, i.e. not hatred but belief that the action is a "necessary sacrifice" for a final "good". a "national good" if the cause is national, a "universal good" if it's ideological /universal - which I think includes fanatical religious sects that split off from universal religions, including (as far as we know) Al Quaeda in relation to Islam??

"DarkMirror" probability-prophecy attempt of the week...

Going out on a not-too-thin prophetic limb here: ... my feeling is that no matter what Bush's electoral wishful thinking may be, I don't think the US will be able to start pulling its troops out for a long time now even if it wants to - useless as US troops are for most practical "Iraqi security" purposes due to lack of knowledge of local language, culture and social ins and outs - and despite growing hostility not only from Sunnis but from Shia too.. because the likelihood of Iraq degenerating into multi-sided strife aka civil war is way too high now , the situation has already degenerated too far for the US to have much chance of a) reversing it or b) significantly "unloading" the Iraqi quagmire onto other countries. And it won't be able to use them merely to man a comfy big US military base conveniently near the oil-fields... the troops will have to stay in where the "action" is, in other words keep in there as sitting targets for insurgents and other attackers, then keep rampaging in afterwards to try to repress the attacks... thereby breeding more hostility, more attacks and so on ad infinitum - plus having the totally "non-enviable" situation to look forward to of being caught as man -in-the-middle in ethnic/religious warfare... really dangerous peacekeeping on the ground being well known to be the US's LEAST favorite military exercise - but that's exactly what it's going to get.

UN involvement? Yeah yeah, keep whistling - theoretically yes, on humanitarian grounds, but in reality the UN has to depend entirely on troops supplied by other "willing" nations and WHO exactly is going to be so crazy at this point as to supply the requisite several hundred thousand troops at this stage, in this situation or worse? Ditto NATO, don't think any other countries will really be prepared to provide much more than token assistance.

So... George W. wanted a war ? Wanted to send his fellow-citizens off to foreign climes to get bombed and shot at? Well I'm afraid that's what they've got... and when it will end is anybody's guess but my guess is that it WON'T be all over by June this year... or next year... or the year after that... And pre-emptively destroying Iraq's own civil policing and army structures hasn't helped much either... it's very easy to destroy, very hard to rebuild.. and/or glue what you've shattered back into some kind of workable, usable shape.

Anyway, I think a few years of this situation will put the US off any more offshore "adventuring" into wars of choice, for several generations to come.. which currently seems to be the only "silver lining" in this very gloomy situation


Email contact address: parvati_roma@email.it

Kurdish leader Jamal Talabani is blaming Turkey for today's massacre of Kurds - including prominent Kurdish leaders - in Arbil!!

http://debka.com/article.php?aid=779


EEK ... this is from the Israeli "insider-info" site DebkaFile, which seems to be a very good channel for Kurdish info (proved it with scoop on Kurdish involvement in Saddam's capture) - the story hasn't been picked up by the major news agencies yet and DebkaFile is sometimes believable, sometimes just spins the Mossad line... but on logic, in this case I think it's credible re Talabani's accusations... whether or not they're accurate is anyone's guess but the very fact he's making them (instead of following the US line of accusing the Kurdish splinter group Answar Al Islam ) does NOT promise well for peace in this area.




Email contact address: parvati_roma@email.it

Email contact address: parvati_roma@email.it

The double suicide-bombings of Kurdish party headquarters

Shocked, saddened at this latest tragedy - but not surprised. Unfortunately crappy US pre-war info on Iraq wasn't limited to WMDs but total off-the-wall crappiness also extended to probable course of events, post-"liberation" (what a black, tragic joke)! Pandora's Box. Remember warnings about "destabilization" - well, this is what that abstract term looks like in the real, physical world: broken, bleeding corpses.

"Religious extremism" has nothing to do with this despite the usual spin, it's a straight anti-Kurdish strike (Kurds are Sunni too but support US and enjoy US support = for their own purposes ..)... Religious disguise used here merely for access. Now of course there will be Kurdish retaliations, too much to hope that the Kurds with their peshmerga militias etc will take this lying down.. so blood will flow even more freely in this martyred country.. the "balkanization" of Iraq proceeds inexorably step by step in its descent into ever-increasing horror.

My helpless sorrow and deepest sympathy to all Iraqis alike.

Email contact address: parvati_roma@email.it

Examining the field, I've come to the conclusion that Kerry meets all the requirements for a natural-born "Bilderberger". So I guess it's up to the American electorate to chose our yoke for us: either the PNAC's unilateral Pax Americana or the Bilderbergers' multilateral NWO??

Well..after the recent NeoCon Experience, Back-to-Bilderbergers-As-Usual seems not only a distinctly "lesser evil" but... almost a relief??