The death of philosophy

Deeply symbolic and sickening...

Staying the course

Looks like Bush doesn't want to leave Iraq...
It seems the US bloggers think this all depends on the strange whim of the Cheney admin... but there are deeper reasons, which they cannot bring themselves to acknowledge because they are out of the bounds of reasonable discourse in the US (and common sense in Europe!). This is why the discussion they have seems surreal and will never get past the baby stage.

The geopolitics haven't changed. The war was:

• in line with the interests of Israel, the beacon of democracy in the middle east... all the talk of "spreading democracy" is the euphemism for this.
• for the oil of course, the 2nd largest reserves in the world, under lock of the old dictator? Unthinkable! The talk of turning Iraq in a "modern, open democracy" is the euphemism for this
• against Saddam: he was a player, but he turned. Now they still need a player, and won't leave before they get one.

To think that the US spent hundreds of billions of dollars and will just leave before satisfying at least partially some these interests is pure lunacy. Unless they are forced to of course.

Bien joue Chichi.

From this timeline:

Nov 6 – Jacques Chirac makes his first public comments on the riots, demanding the “restoration of security and public order”.

Night of Nov 6/7 – The worst night of violence to date as 1,408 vehicles are set on fire, 395 people are arrested and 36 policemen are injured, as riots affect 274 towns.

The joy of bingo

 

Prescience!

Kevin lays out the wet and centrist case against war as "You know, they did not fully disclose the truth when selling the Iraq war, did they?". Of course he's got his conscience as an ex-semi-kinda-hawk to wrestle with.

Sure, many people thought that Iraq had a few CW canisters lying around. But how did guys like me know it was all rubbish and wrong?
Well, I'm used to being right, so it's kinda hard to say. But my opinion centered an undereported event that has totally disappeared from mainstream consciousness: the removal of Jose Bustani.

This agressive attitude, long before 9-11, against the guy who wanted to sign up Iraq to CW anti-proliferation treaties was a clear indicator that the US did not want to remove weapons in a sensible way (also because it meant starting at home) but wanted to takeover the playground of their old friend.
It was all in the air, if you cared to look at it, and the long-planned war of choice was tagged-on to the dead of the WTC and led to many disasters including the re-election of Dubya. But the discussion of WMD only revolves around the silly sullied mainstream version. Most people now are luckily wise to it now.

Finally, more from Monbiot, who was really on the ball on this (in 2002!):

War would enable the US to re-establish its authority in an increasingly wayward Middle East, while asserting control over Iraq's vast oil reserves. Iraq is also daddy's unfinished business: for George W, it's personal. War is popular: the more bellicose President Bush becomes, the higher his ratings rise. It justifies increasing state support for the politically important defense industry. Arguably, war also serves as a re-legitimization of the state itself. The Republicans argued so forcefully in the 1990s for a "minimal state" that they almost did themselves out of a job, as many Americans began to wonder why they were paying taxes at all. War is the sole irreducible function of the state, and the ultimate justification of the greatly concentrated powers and resources this "minimal" entity in the US has accumulated. But the underlying reason for these unilateral breaches of the law is that the rest of the world allows them to happen. Hundreds of readers of last week's column wrote to the foreign secretary asking him to stand up to the US. Brian Eno organized a petition signed by celebrities as diverse as Robbie Williams, Damien Hirst, Salman Rushdie and Bianca Jagger, in the hope that, even if it won't listen to anyone else, our government might at least respond to Cool Britannia. But on Friday, the first member state to co-sponsor the US resolution to sack Mr Bustani was the United Kingdom.

Irony

bund (bnd, bnd) n.

1. An association, especially a political association.

2. often Bund A pro-Nazi German-American organization of the 1930s.

3. often Bund A European Jewish socialist movement founded in Russia in 1897.

Great synchronicity moment #351352

While reading this:

AN aide to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and an intelligence director were to appear before a parliamentary commission last night to respond to allegations that Italy knowingly gave the US and Britain forged documents suggesting Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium in Africa.

(not really surprising, it does make sense, but still stunning allegations...)

...this song comes up on my headphones:

As soon as you sound like him
Give me a call
When you're so sensitive
Its a long way to fall

Whenever you reach for me
I'll be your guide
Whenever you need someone
To keep it inside

You're just a poor misguided fool
Who thinks they know what I should do
A line for me and a line for you
I lose my right to a point of view

Berlusconi, you played the misguided fool, I hope you lose you point of view being forced in front of Italian eyes for a long time...