Yadda Yadda

“The so-called war against terrorism is unwinnable… The analogy of war is a false one. The proper analogy is simply dealing with individual criminals and a few criminal gangs. To do that, you don’t have to put the nation on a war footing; you don’t have to destroy or injure civil liberties at home or spend billions of dollars. You just doggedly pursue the criminals as they arise, knowing, as police forces do, that this is steady work. You will never get them all because they are replenishable.” –Charley Reese.

Egg-zackily! And we all know it’s true. Which means the grand military mobilization to fight this “war” has to be for another reason. Reese points to one such reason: to provide a rationale to support the expansion of the military-industrial complex, a parallel civilization whose economy was on the brink of severe shrinkage in the wake of the end of the Cold War. That’s right, folks, it’s all ultimately about the almighty dollar (or these days, Euro).

This is also one of the main reasons the West (i.e., the Americans) continue to support anti-democratic tyrants in the mold of Saddam, such as Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan. Here is the model: choose a local strongman who will enforce American-friendly trade rights and provide a base of operations for commercial and military endeavours. Assist him in either gaining or solidifying a leadership position. Once established, require him to purchase Western military hardware. Since his treasury is typically quite thin, loan him the money to buy these arms he does not need. Thus the already impoverished and brutalized local citizenry is further burdened by increased national debt. Is it a surprise, then, when one of these “clients” decides to actually use the arms we have encouraged him to buy?

Moving on…

As some of you know, I have successfully avoided all sources of caffeine –coffee, tea, cola, etc– for 3 years now (with an exception in Uganda earlier this year, when I happily downed a bottle of Coca Cola). Well, I just did it again. Drank a bottle of cola. Just had to. So now I’m wired!

So the rumour is that my all-time favourite Japanese anime show, Evangelion, will soon be aired on MTV. Is the mainstream North American audience ready for the mature, sexily disturbing and psychological story-telling of this unique and twisted show? I doubt it.