A Post Modern Modest Proposal

It would have to be noted also that the “liberators” were complicit in many of the crimes of the evil dictator and that to a considerable degree the down fall of the evil dictator was to simply fall out of step with his imperialist sponsor. The “Downing Street memo” would be noteworthy as it documents how justification for the war had to be “fixed” as at that point in time the object of this Anglo-American blood lust- the spent dictator- was riding on his laurels and already stripped of any real military capability by a decade of UN sanctions and a previous war that was more accurately a turkey shoot. Indeed, part of the crime is that disproportionate force was used indiscriminately especially against the civilian population. The question has never been asked: How much suffering and destruction do you inflict on a country and its people to oust but one spent dictator? Part of the fix was to try and dupe the United Nations into approving the war. On one occasion an eminent statesman appeared before the UN and staged a sleazy show and tell of weapons of mass destruction that simply did not exist. But this particular statesman took subsequent retirement, as I believe, he was a man of some integrity and could not stomach the big lie. Though there were authoritative voices who warned these weapons of mass destruction simply did not exist a compliant mainstream media bingeing on spoon-fed propaganda volunteered as the vacuous cheerleaders for war-so much for eternal vigilance being the price of democracy! Swift would no doubt observe that in this post-modern era there is a great deal of confusion as to who are the good guys and who are the bad guys; but being of keen insight he would quickly see that those who protest their honorable and democratic intentions the loudest are probably the most suspect. He would be sorely disappointed to see the Divine Right of Kings persists unto this day; though now it has become the domain of dough-headed political swindlers. Claiming to be God’s agent, he might agree, is always a handy ploy- but if the Big Guy ever did choose to interfere in the affairs of Mankind suing for slander and initiating remedial Bible study would be among His first acts. Swift would have to be counseled that this is the Age of Brass, where verity, honour are accountability are disposables- Flushabyes for these stalwart men of brass- where democracy is the ebb tide and corporatism is the flow tide. The military industrial complex, a big part of this corporatism, he would come to understand is largely the unnecessary overproduction of hideous weaponry. The only way to justify this overproduction, and generate generous corporate profits, is to have wars on a regular basis. America, he might observe, is a country held hostage to military redundancy as the people of Ireland were in his time hostage to dire poverty. The US presently spends more money on “defense” than the next sixteen largest nations. Regularity is important for the men of brass and often requires the use of insidious laxatives: Where there is no enemy you create one. Where only a weak enemy exists you amplify the threat posed by that enemy to suit the agenda. Where no just cause exists for war you fabricate it and hope nobody catches on. If people do catch on, you hope indifference and apathy prevail. All of the above require basic theatrical talent – and the frequency of too many bad actors is The Black Plague of post-modernism( The Black Plague of the Middle Ages was spread by the Asian rat flea; this post modern version by the Caucasian rat flea.) Wars, of course, consume vast weapons inventories as well as offering a unique opportunity to test new weaponry on living beings. Any mindful economist will advise that dead bodies on a foreign killing field, the health of the Dow Jones, and the level of joy in the plastic lives of vapid shareholders hunkered down in their tinseled gated communities are noteworthy correlations. Swift’s response to all of this would no doubt be, “So what else is new?” Impressing a satirist, especially one so accomplished, can be an arduous task not left to the faint-hearted. What might impress Swift is that we have found a new and novel way of eating the children. Unknown in his day it has come about through our ingenious use of technology and our ability to recycle waste into some something useable but one more time! Here, we refer to depleted uranium. It is a bi-product of nuclear reactors and is normally waste. Some military wise acre discovered that used in ammunition it has incredible armor piercing ability, turning steel plate into butter. Far from being depleted it is still highly radioactive with a life of 4.5 billion years. Each US Abrams tank shell contains 9.5 pounds of depleted uranium. Thousands of these and similar shells have been fired in Iraq since the Gulf war. The heat generated by this type of ordnance is so intense US Army soldiers refer to the victims as “crispy critters”. When these shells explode they also have the nasty habit of spraying the vicinity with microscopic radioactive dust and of course this dust can be ingested by living beings and carries nicely on desert winds. What depleted uranium does to the human body can make grown men weep, vomit, and commit suicide. What it does to the human fetus can drive new mothers to utter madness. Depeleted uranium quite simply short circuits bodily functions, destroying and mutating cells, attacking vital organs resulting in cancers and any number of seemingly unrelated ailments. Cancer in Iraq is now epidemic causing death and disfigurement to thousands. The children are being “eaten” in the most horrible fashion. The atrocity does not stop there. The adult children- the troops of America and Britain, any who come in contact with this toxic dust are also afflicted. Not content to “eat” others children the political swindlers have condemned thousands of their own native sons and daughters to horrific nightmare afflictions and premature deaths. These political swindlers have bloodied hands yet they strut about the podium flashing pearly teeth with the stench of their putridity left politely unmentioned. Eviscerating The Powell Doctrine( Collin Powell, former chairman US Joint Chiefs of Staff, former Secretary of State) was an aspect of their crime: …. military action should be used only as a last resort and only if there is a clear risk to national security by the intended target; the force, when used, should be overwhelming and disproportionate to the force used by the enemy; there must be strong support for the campaign by the general public; and there must be a clear exit strategy from the conflict in which the military is engaged… With the invasion of Iraq the Powell Doctrine becomes the parody of the lie; last resort and clear risk are the lie; overwhelming and disproportionate force- the signature of madmen and the architecture of atrocity; and the exit strategy; an escalating and devastating open ended conflict. The Powell doctrine dovetails nicely with the PNAC(Project for the New American Century) which is a neo-conservative manifesto for American global domination. But alas modernism is dead! The 20th century and it wars are relegated to the scrap heap of history. The ideals born of the sacrifice of tens of millions of dead souls quickly forgotten. The Geneva Conventions are flushable: The International Criminal Court-a study in selective prosecutions and international law declared null and void. We live in the age of “extraordinary rendition”-international CIA gulags where terrorist suspects can be held and tortured indefinitely with all legal rights suspended. Vainglorious post modernism is upon us; the age of brass, denial and delusions. But here, in some small measure, is a proposal, our post-modern modest proposal. (It might also be called Mother’s Law): Swindling politicians who make messes have to clean them up. They get to fly tourist class to Iraq on Virgin Airlines. The do active community service in detoxifying the country, cleaning up cluster bombs( famous for delimbing children worldwide), and tend the sick and wounded. They clean, scrub, and wash up, rebuild what they have destroyed. They learn that for every action there is a consequence. They get to see in living colour the Hell on earth they created. To survive this redemptive process they will have to have regular respite. For this they will proceed to Afghanistan and frolic in the poppy fields and visit with Osama Bin Laden in the caves of Bora Bora to discuss the purity of their respective religions with him-broadcast live on CNN and Al Jazzera- the ultimate reality television! Only madmen would offend the mothers’ of this world. The mothers’ of Iraq,Britain and America have a few things in common. They do not want their children to glow in the dark. Nor are they willing to stand by and see the birthright of future generations pillaged. Almost three millennia later Swift would no doubt be disappointed that his “yahoos”- Uncouth and uncivilized persons representing the worst side of humanity (there is a suspected link between yahooism and infestations of the Caucasian rat flea) prevail and modesty still an elusive trait. Swift might suggest that if we are to effectively deal with the physical poverty of Africa we might first take a look at our own moral poverty. Sadly, this grandiose regression comes at an inopportune time. The world-now more than ever is MacLuhan’s “global village”- militarism, neo imperialism, contempt for the rule of law-especially international law are no longer affordable. There are momentous issues to be addressed-sustainable growth, energy conservation and global warming cannot just be wished away. To address these effectively is going to require a huge redirecting of available resources and an ardent commitment to multilateralism-a globalization that is regenerative rather than just exploitive. Unless post-modernism is redefined we are going to experience many undesirable outcomes. Robert Billyard © July 11th,2005