Ritual Reality

Teeth to Tail

June 05, 2006

In the June 2006 issue of The Atlantic, Fred Kaplan nails the following paragraph to the post:

Late in February, U.S. Army generals in Iraq started asking military historians and archivists to dig up official records from the 1970s involving the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. The generals were especially interested in the nitty-gritty of pulling out procedures for disposing and transferring military property, for example, and the precise sequence of demobilization. The message was explicit: we’re going to be staging another withdrawal soon, from Iraq; once it begins, it could spin easily out of control; so we need a plan for an orderly exit now.

Given the article's title, "Hunkering Down: A guide to the U.S. military's future in Iraq", I confess I'm already confused. What's the story Kap, military hunkering or withdrawing?

Let Them Eat Bombs

April 13, 2005

Let Them Eat Bombs

The doubling of child malnutrition in Iraq is baffling

By Terry Jones

A report to the UN human rights commission in Geneva has concluded that Iraqi children were actually better off under Saddam Hussein than they are now.

This, of course, comes as a bitter blow for all those of us who, like George Bush and Tony Blair, honestly believe that children thrive best when we drop bombs on them from a great height, destroy their cities and blow up hospitals, schools and power stations.

It now appears that, far from improving the quality of life for Iraqi youngsters, the US-led military assault on Iraq has inexplicably doubled the number of children under five suffering from malnutrition. Under Saddam, about 4% of children under five were going hungry, whereas by the end of last year almost 8% were suffering.

These results are even more disheartening for those of us in the Department of Making Things Better for Children in the Middle East By Military Force, since the previous attempts by Britain and America to improve the lot of Iraqi children also proved disappointing. For example, the policy of applying the most draconian sanctions in living memory totally failed to improve conditions. After they were imposed in 1990, the number of children under five who died increased by a factor of six. By 1995 something like half a million Iraqi children were dead as a result of our efforts to help them.

The Guardian

Mr. Jones is no stranger to The Absurd. If you were born somewhere in mid-60s America and raised by Monty Python's Flying Circus re-runs on PBS, you might even swear that he had a hand in inventing The Absurd in much the same way that, say, Hugo Ball and his cohorts invented Dada. But delivering capital-A Absurd is no easy thing, namely because there is so much damn material. Amateurs believe they can simply point in the general direction and expect The Credulous to figure it out for themselves. The true master holds up a mirror for us to see the sheer absurdity in the world rampant behind our backs. And then there's someone like Mr. Jones, passing out tickets to a hall of mirrors where you get to see not only what's going on back there, but also what's being done In Your Name.

Iraq Police Boom

December 08, 2004

Iraq faces descent into chaos, says CIA chief -- Mail & Guardian, December 9, 2004

CIA Cable Bears Dire Predictions for Iraq -- All Things Considered, NPR, December 7, 2004

Report: CIA Official Warns Iraqi Security Getting Worse -- Baku Today, August 12, 2004

CIA Report Draws Bleak Iraq Picture -- Islam Online, December 8, 2004

Secret CIA memo pessimistic on security for Iraqi elections -- WIS Channel 10 NBC Columbia, SC, December 8, 2004

CIA Warning: Iraq's Getting Worse -- ABC News, December 7, 2004

That's the problem with surfing the big WWW these days. It's all doom and gloom. Meanwhile, the vast left wing conspiracy that is the liberal media just provides a sounding board for those radical leftists inside... the CIA.

Jesus Plus Nothing

December 01, 2004

“You guys are here to learn how to rule the world.... We elect our leaders. Jesus elects his.” -- David Coe

Jesus Plus Nothing, Harper's, March 2003

Jeffrey Shartlet's article for Harper's is a first person account of life inside Ivanwald, a community tucked discretely within a Washingtion DC neighborhood, where aspiring young men learn how the Lord works--and governs--in mysterious ways. These young men are not wayward youth or troubled souls, however. They are part and parcel of the political elite, training and yearning for positions of privelege within the United States government or the numerous conservative think tanks that feed off the Beltway and corrode the media. They are the creme de la creme, The Best and The Brightest, the cult of the everpresent. Their mentors are savvy political operatives with satchels full of agenda. Their patrons are smooth operators. In this rarefied atmosphere a man like former Attorney General Ed Meese regularly leads prayer breakfasts and folks like Doug and David Coe advise politicians on matters both esoteric and concrete.

Event Horizon

November 23, 2004

It's tempting at times to signify Iraq as "the situation in Iraq" or maybe "the war in Iraq" or "the war against terrorism and how it justifies bombing the fuck out of Iraq". However, simply put, Iraq is a mess and the mess is reality.

Anyone old enough to remember the "end" of the Viet Nam War knows what it means to witness a seemingly endless conflict draw to a close. It's a surreal experience on many levels. One day the Fearless Leaders proclaim inevitable victory and the next day people grasp at helicopter skids as the last chopper powers away from the rooftop. Real people, from innocents to cognisants to conspirators, get lost in the propeller wash. Chaos. Helicopters swarming the carrier decks, dumped into the ocean to clear the decks for the next wave, human cargo spilling out like ants, the fortunate, the canny, the connected. Meltdown and retreat. Defeat.

Iraq is headed toward the event horizon. At some point the Bush Administration is going to make decisions that bring the entire horrific episode to a close--at least as far as American involvement is concerned. But the day is coming. Iraq is not going to be pacified. That much is clear. Just today NPR is reporting that the 3rd Infantry Division is being primed for a return to Iraq, a re-invasion 20 months after the same force thundered across the desert and into Baghdad. Mere days after the horrific assault on Fallujah is declared a resounding success, attacks across central Iraq beget American and British military crackdowns--Mosul, Jabella, Anbar. They call it the Triangle of Death, the hotbed of Hussein loyalists insurgency. If Viet Nam was a quagmire, Iraq is quicksand and tar pits. The USA either pulls out or risks occupation without end. This strategy cannot succeed. The Bush Administration is busily strangling our federal government, which some of its advisers have publically advocated as desirable, racking up record deficeit spending and declaring it our patriotic duty to pour billions more into the endless conflict in Iraq. And we are doomed to repeat history.

Manufacturing Assent

November 13, 2004

Iraq Tells Media to Toe the Line

Friday 12 November 2004

(Reuters) Baghdad - Iraq's media regulator warned news organizations Thursday to stick to the government line on the U.S.-led offensive in Fallouja or face legal action.

Invoking a 60-day state of emergency declared by Iraq's interim government ahead of the assault that began Monday, Iraq's Media High Commission said media should distinguish between insurgents and ordinary residents of the Sunni Muslim city.

The commission, set up by the former U.S. governor of Iraq, was intended to be independent of the government and to encourage investment in the media and deter state meddling after decades of strict control under President Saddam Hussein.

The commission statement bore the letterhead of the Iraqi prime minister's office.

It said all media organizations operating in Iraq should "differentiate between the innocent Fallouja residents who are not targeted by military operations and terrorist groups that infiltrated the city and held its people hostage under the pretext of resistance and jihad."

Source

I was watching a news program with some friends the other day when they showed a picture of a Baghdad newsstand. There were literally dozens of newspapers on display, stacked side by side, with a hefty rock on each to keep the desert winds at bay. "Look at all those damn papers they have," someone said. I had read that the popular press was flourishing in parts of Iraq, particularly in Baghdad, and I suddenly realized I couldn't even imagine all the possible viewpoints in those stacks of paper. I wondered how all that information compared to the information we receive in America. The signal to noise ratio over there has got to be a shrill roar. Over here, the major papers dominate and carry pretty much the same stories from essentially the same sources. What's it like to see everything from militant broadsides to religious screeds to blatant government propaganda? Some would argue that's exactly what we see here but I don't think we know how bad we got it.

Vote Your Values

November 09, 2004

The cat's out of the bag. This election was about traditional values versus, I dunno, cosmopolitan values. This "divided America" is framed either as an assault by an immoral cultural elite on traditional values, or as the corrosion of true American values by an ignorant, moralistic herd. The cultural elite contorls the media and undermines the efforts of those trying to uphold the real issues--abortion, the homosexual agenda, the war against evil. The corporate media panders to the public while whitewashing or outright ignoring influence peddling, the destruction of the environment, the futility of a global war that, if anything, has all but destroyed the nation's image and future security.

In last Sunday's edition of the Orlando Sentinel, Kathleen Parker's opinion piece "Who You Callin' 'Ordinary'?" defines the "two Americas" in precisely these terms:

It's the elitism, mes freres....

The folks who re-elected Bush not only voted for the man they felt best represents their interests, but also against a culture they see as alien and hostile. The Bush vote was equally a protest agasint Hollywood, and increasingly untrustworthy media and the peurile Michael Moore contingent....

People who velieve in heterosexual marriage because the traditional family model best serves children and therefore society are not ipso facto homophobic. Americans vexed about our casual disregard for human life are not necessarily Stepford-Neanderthals. And, those people who believe in some power greater than themselves are not always rubes.

Source...

It's incomprehensible that a vote for Bush would be a vote against elitism. Bush is the elite incarnate. And while he indeed panders to the so-called moral majority, carefully and skillfully mesmerised by the GOP's unctuous message of values and fear, he is the most arrogant man on the planet. Parker's opinion, however, is right in line with just about all Bush supporters. It is just this type of mind-boggling, contradictory and illogical belief that prompted nearly half the nation to vote against Bush. It isn't snobbery or the sense of superiority. It's outrage.

Buzz Words

November 06, 2004

On November 1st we posted the following:

A second Bush term, especially one born from a contested, possibly suspicious election, is likely to result in massive domestic strife. Bush will see re-election as a concrete mandate for further aggression. His policies will continue to push sense and decency past all credulity. His followers will continue to see his lack of reflection and inability to admit mistakes as signs of his conviction and decisive leadership. The backlash will make the 60s look like a picnic. The Bush Cartel is perfectly capable of implementing a police state and all attendant forms of control. Some would say we're already there but I don't think we've seen anything yet.

That's just a bunch of alarmist gibberish. We sincerely apologize.

We should have told you not to bother voting at all and to RUN FOR THE FUCKING HILLS!

Revolution

November 01, 2004

Over the past several weeks I've devoured books, articles, blogs and broadcasts like crazy. Crazy even for me, which, any of my friends can tell you, is damn crazy. This research is the foundation of our collaborative efforts found here, the articles and the latest Radio Sub Rosa program.

Clearly, we oppose the Bush Administration at every turn and fervently hope America does the same in tomorrow's election. But the amount and type of research I've done has convinced me that neither of the political parties has the capacity to, a) grasp the depth of the crises facing the world, or, b) engage in substantive, transparent efforts to reverse decades of disastrous foreign policy. We support Kerry and we hope for a clear and decisive result in his favor. But then its time to face the real challenges.

There are literally dozens of grass roots movements afoot that could and should lead to an era of drastic reforms. This election represents the first step. We certainly don't think that Kerry is going to magically transform this nation. His campaign is founded on the idea that he can flex bigger than Bush. If Kerry is elected we should push harder and more relentlessly. But we see some hope for reform under Kerry if it is inexorably and consitently driven home by the public.

A second Bush term, especially one born from a contested, possibly suspicious election, is likely to result in massive domestic strife. Bush will see re-election as a concrete mandate for further aggression. His policies will continue to push sense and decency past all credulity. His followers will continue to see his lack of reflection and inability to admit mistakes as signs of his conviction and decisive leadership. The backlash will make the 60s look like a picnic. The Bush Cartel is perfectly capable of implementing a police state and all attendant forms of control. Some would say we're already there but I don't think we've seen anything yet.

Vote Kerry and then never let up. Work within the law but take to the streets when necessary. Show the world we know when enough is enough, that we're tired of reducing things to rubble when we aren't busy undermining governments and economies while commandeering their resources. Work to show our behemoth and entrenched political parties that we're tired of paying the price of admission to a system that we allegedly own and operate. Work to create truly independent and informed sources of information. Work harder than ever.

A Stumble and A Kick

October 29, 2004

"Let me assure you Americans- [Bush] has NO PLAN. There is no plan for the mess we’re living in- unless he is cunningly using the Chaos Theory as a basis for his Iraq plan. Things in Iraq are a mess and there is the sense that the people in Washington don’t know what they’re doing, and their puppets in Iraq know even less. The name of the game now in Iraq is naked aggression- it hasn’t been about hearts and minds since complete areas began to revolt. His Iraq plan may be summarized with the Iraqi colloquial saying, “A’athreh ib dafra”, which can be roughly translated to ‘a stumble and a kick’. In other words, what will happen, will happen and hopefully- with a stumble and a kick- things will move in the right direction."

That's an excerpt from the latest entry by the brilliant and perceptive Riverbend. Her blog, Baghdad Burning, has served as a unique window onto the true state of affairs in Iraq for thousands of people around the globe. She has provided the inspiration for the latest edition of Radio Sub Rosa, A Stumble and a Kick.

Download: A Stumble and a Kick

Some Immodest Proposals

October 27, 2004

Taking a sensible look at the issue of international terrorism was difficult enough before the attacks of September 11, 2001. What little detailed information existed regarding, say, Iran's sponsorship of Hezbollah, was rarely discussed in the mass mainstream media and probably not well understood by many Americans. Our own government maintained a rapt sense of ambivalence, bordering on denial, about its own involvement with terrorist groups or the states that sponsored them. The Reagan Administration vowed America would never deal with terrorists or their sponsors. But as the Iran-Contra fiasco made abundantly clear that vow didn't apply where particular foreign policy goals were at stake. There certainly was very little discussion about the conditions and pressures that give rise to terrorist groups except in a few well-known conflicst such as Northern Ireland, Basque Spain, or Israel. Even those discussions were usually highly-sanitized for mass media consumption.

While You Were Out

October 21, 2004

International terrorism is the singlemost critical issue facing America and the world. This is not simply because terrorists kill people indiscriminately and justifying their actions with what almost everyone agrees is the perversion of sacred doctrines. However, the entire world--not just the so-called "Arab Street"--is affected directly by America's ongoing War On Terror. This is true for several reasons, not the least of which is the close connections to America's energy policy and corporate interests, as well as the simple fact that continued aggression by any actor causes reciprocal action. The scope and measure of the Bush administration's response to terrorist attacks on American soil have arguably soured an already terrible situation and the repurcussions have already caused misery for other nations, notably Spain, Turkey, and the Philippines. Therefore, it is crucial to re-examine America's response, to demand that our government redefine its aims and redirect its response.

Cause and Effect

October 12, 2004

Between now and the November 2nd election Ritual Reality will publish a four-part series examining what we believe is the true crisis facing this country and the world.

Part 2: Doomed to Repeat?

Hardly a day goes by without someone referring to the "post-9/11 world". This is a handy piece of shorthand that means everything from "plan to arrive at the airport at least two hours ahead of your scheduled departure time" to "Terror Alert Level: Orange - Elevated" crawling across the bottom of the television screen. The post-9/11 world is visceral, immediate, dangerous.

Vice President Dick Cheney recently attempted to define the difference between the world we live in now--America at risk and at war--and the world that was before. The greatest threat, he solemnly intoned, was that America would make the wrong choice, vote for the wrong presidential candidate, and slip into a "pre 9/11 mindset". Should that happen we are sure to suffer another catastrophic attack.

It's high time we discussed the the pre-9/11 world, the forces that created certain strains of international terrorism, and the reasons they are directed at the West and the USA in particular. It goes deeper than "they hate our freedom" or "America just wants their oil."

Radical Visions

October 04, 2004

Between now and the November 2nd election Ritual Reality will publish a four-part series examining what we believe is the true crisis facing this country and the world.

Part One: Pax Americana

Day by day a tragedy of epic proportions unfolds in Iraq. However, as tragic as it may be, the invasion and ongoing pacification of that nation is symptomatic of an even greater crisis. Beyond the hourly accounts of desperate violence and casualty tallies, beyond the process of defining for a credulous american public what constitutes success, the situation in Iraq represents a triumph of sorts for a select group.

Simply put, this group has hijacked foreign policy and, through close ties to influential think tanks and the defense industry, seeks to impose a radical vision of American empire. In their view, America's destiny is to project a global military presence and assimilate, intimidate, or simply replace regimes that appear hostile to American interests.

Mission Accomplished

September 28, 2004

From the moment President Bush strode across the flight deck of the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to declare "Mission Accomplished", he and his War Cabinet have had to contend with, and spin, growing evidence that little is going as planned in Iraq. Not only was the "mission" based on spurious intelligence and largely baseless fear mongering but also, because pre-war planning was at best hopeful and at worst delusional, there is not much the administration can claim to have "accomplished".

During a recent episode of the HBO program Real Time with Bill Maher, host Maher compared Bush's recent assessments of the siutation in Iraq with those of "Baghdad Bob", the former Iraqi Minister of Information Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf, whose job it was to present to the world daily accounts of the invasion of his country that were drafted in some alternate reality. The comparison is apt and yet another example of Maher's knack for keen insight and sense of irony. But while it is tempting to dismiss Bush as simply delusional it is essential to bear in mind that in the overarching geostrategic scheme concocted by Hawkish administration members--including Douglas Feith, Lewis Libby, Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz. The invasion, occupation, and ultimate control of Iraq are steps in a much broader geo-political role articulated by the think tank Project for the New American Century (PNAC). In their own words, a liberated Iraq would serve as a shining example to the rest of the troubled region, and regimes unfriendly to the aims of the United States were officially put on notice. In that light, the dissembly and obfuscation issuing daily from the White House and the Pentagon is little more than a rhetorical holding pattern.

The media in its role as governmental watchdog is dropping the ball with respect to the situation in Iraq. Too much reporting is merely puppeting administration talking points. Discussion of Iraq, and the espoused goals of this adminstration are occuring in a journalistic vacuum with lax investigation, a draught of fact checking and distracting side argments about the veracity of minutia. This vacuum keeps intact the carefully established cover for the catastrophe of the American invasion of Iraq. The Bush administration is running out of options but steadfastly refuses to alter course.

These are the bad new days

September 20, 2004

REICH
You say Gurdjieff used the term "the horror of the situation"... What did he mean by that?

OUSPENSKY
Gurdjieff meant that as long as people think they are free, they will not work on the techniques to become free. He said it was hard work and that nobody would really try it until they became aware that none of us are free at present. The horror of the situation is that we think we are free and we therefore go on acting mechanically.

REICH
When did you become convinced Gurdjieff was correct about the horror of the situation?

OUSPENSKY
It was after the war started. I saw a lorry...

REICH
This was in Moscow?

OUSPENSKY
Yes.

REICH
You saw a lorry. What sort of lorry?

OUSPENSKY
It was a lorry full of artificial legs. Wooden legs, in those days. It was headed for the front lines.

- Robert Anton Wilson, Wilhelm Reich in Hell

Sunday, August 29, 2004: Some 200,000 individuals pour into the streets of New York City to protest the policies of the Bush administration. During the march, 1,000 coffins were carried past Madison Square Garden. These were not only the coffins of those who had lost their lives in the war on terror or during the invasion and continued occupation of Iraq. Some were reserved for those who have not yet died. This demonstration was more than symbolic. It represented not only future losses but also our nation's acceptance of those losses. This acceptance is one of conditioning, as mechanical as the system of economics so rapacious that it requires perpetual war to function.

President Bush recently admitted that his administration had "miscalculated" the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq. But then added the war has been a "catastrophic success."