Great post, Michael. I think Bono should come over here and read it. He is one example of many who are legitimizing those in power by using his status and money given him by his fans to work with them on their terms.

We can not work within this system and expect change because it will always benefit those who creatted it. Cheers.

 

Great stuff, Michael. As our society becomes more and more indoctrinated, it seems secrecy is less necessary. Compare and contrast U.S. actions in Chile (1973) with regime change in Iraq in 2003.

Keep up the excellent work...

 

Nice one Michael. The whole "in the open" thing you mention with regard to secret detention centers and Guantanamo has many analogues. Clinton's foray into Serbia was about "legitimization" and one can wonder how much of a mistake bombing the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was. The message--as officially stated at one point--was to seem just insane and aggresive enough to instill fear in, well, everyone. I think that's also the story with the militarization of space, even though tests of the technology continually fail.

 

Also, kind of related, Paul Street has written some compelling stuff about how the American adventure in Vietnam was easily a success. It depends what you think the mission was.

 

cheers all

Keir - chomsky said the same thing. its sometimes called 'an exemplary action'

jos - i sometimes find bono and geldof more nauseating than bush and bliar

mickey (and everyone) i assume you all have...but have you read 'killing hope' by william blum??

 

Good post, bad situation. A useful rejoinder to the fluffy thinking which drives campaigns like Make Poverty History, mind.

 

Michael, this is truly an excellent blog, excellent work.
Each time I visit, I'm impressed and delighted. I'm honored to be a brief part of it, today.

You know, there's an old Zen story about a scorpion who asks a frog to carry him across a stream. The frog says: "No, you'll sting me."
The scorpion tells the frog that he's changed, reformed, and that he promises not to sting him.
Well, somewhere near midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog says: "You've stung me. Now we'll both drown." The scorpion replies: "Im sorry. I'm a scorpion, it's my nature to sting people."

We're ruled by a system, the nature of which is to sting people. It's a "Scorpion System." It can not be reformed...

Meanwhile, in my neighborhood, there are still people who are convinced that they did the right thing by voting for George Bush.

 

in this neighbourhood there are still people that fall for the old 'if you don't vote for ........(insert labour leaders name) then you will get the conservatives (tories) and they are RE-e--a-all-l-y-y bad. same as the democratic repub thing in the US. people fall for it every time when in truth labour and the democrats are just the ruling elite's second 11

 

Yes Michael, I think Blum's work is crucial. In fact, when asked "where to start," I often tell folks to read two books:

1. Zinn's "People's History"
2. Blum's "Killing Hope"

...and then go from there.

 

Great post as always. You do such good long format content.

One of the reasons Cheney has given for the CIA exemption is that he doesn't actually want to torture, but wants to be able to use that as a threat against the detained.

No, I don't buy it either.

Also, I don't see Guantanamo as as PR item, I see it as an effort to push the publicly acceptable, so that the covert can go even further.

Also, over at my blog, I finally conceded the argument to you regarding the BBC. After reading their spin piece on the Mirror revelation, that Bush was just joking about bombing al jazeera.

I give up. You win the argument.

Mike

 

Hey Michael, that pre-concert speech is up now at my blog. Cheers for the "aargh's" you typed for me during the discussion. I had to remain civil.