Jack the
Ripper Runs America
| by John
Stanton
( October
17, 2012, Virginia, Sri Lanka Guardian) American teacher: Who are you going to
vote for?
American
student #1: (male--18 year old eligible to vote): I am voting for Romney.
American
teacher: What is your rationale?
American
student #1: It is unfair for Obama and people [sic] to pick on the upper class
just because they are wealthy. I listen to my parents about these things.
American
teacher: Alright, that’s a reason. Do you know anything about national security
and how it affects you? What do you think about Iran? What about the decay of
many of our cities and towns in our country? How about the unemployed? What
about those military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan? I mean
there are a lot of issues that you should consider when casting your vote
whether it be for Romney or Obama. You can’t rely solely on the easiest sources
of information.
American
student #1: Well, for unemployment, we can bring all the jobs back into the
United States that were outsourced.
American
teacher: Why would corporate shareholders want to pay more in labor costs? It
does not make sense.
American
student #1: Well, look, I am voting for Romney because it will be something
new.
American
student #2 (female—18 year old eligible to vote): I am voting for Obama because
Romney wants to cut funding for the arts. Abortion is a matter for each woman
to decide. Romney is not focused on our country’s problems. I don’t like his
attitude. I do not know all the issues or much about the Iran situation except
that it is not good. Really, they are not that much different. But Obama is my
choice. Voting ‘just for something new’ is crazy.
Above is a
record of a conversation with two eighteen year old Americans who will be
casting their votes in the presidential election of 2012. A third student, just
shy of her eighteenth birthday, was asked the same questions to which she said
that Romney would be her selection because “it would be something new.” All
three students were sincere and passionate about their responses. So in this
three person poll, Romney wins it 2-1. All three indicated that there was not
much difference between the two of them.
Feeling the
intensity of their political passions, and being in the presence of the future
that is current youth, it was difficult not to feel some sadness for them
possessing the knowledge that war plans are afoot for a terrible kinetic
assault on Iran by the US, UK, Israel, and some form of international military
coalition involving Saudi Arabia. Already, economic sanctions are crushing the
Iranian people and the Iranian television outlet Press TV is being knocked off
the airwaves by the European Union. United States’ and Iranian leaders refuse
to break out of their ideological fortresses.
The Iran
matter coupled with record youth unemployment levels, debt (credit card,
college), and a general feeling of boredom engendered by a non-substantive
American culture, just adds to the gloominess of the times.
Why not vote
for “something new”? It’s a crap shoot. The new face alone is identified with
progress/change and provides the impetus/rationale for a decision/vote, not a
critical look at what’s behind and below the face or the events/people driving
the look of that face and the noises it makes.
Although
making a decision based on appearance, gesture, voice and dress is a strong
evolutionary trait, it is one that must be fought against mightily. The king
makers/marketers are betting on a swift visceral evolutionary reaction that
triggers a vote, not a critical assessment of the face, gestures and so on.
Monsters
with Nice Faces
Slavoj Zizek
speaks to this matter through the use a John Carpenter film. “When the hero of
John Carpenter’s 1988 They Live puts on a pair of weird sunglasses that he has
stumbled upon in an abandoned church, he notices a billboard that once invited
us to a Hawaii beach holiday now simply displays the words: ‘MARRY AND
REPRODUCE.’ Ad copy on another billboard – this one for a new color TV – says,
‘DON’T THINK, CONSUME!’ The glasses, then, function as a device for the
critique of ideology. In other words, they enable him to see the real message
lying beneath the glossy, colorful surface.”
With Zizek’s
description in mind the socioeconomic and cultural symbols of the American
human terrain—and the noises emanating from the faces of American leaders and
news readers--are really saying something like this: Let’s kill and displace
more young people, this time in Iran. A lot of our own young Americans have no
future anyway and there is only so much we can get them to spend on clothes,
travel and gadgets. So let’s put ‘em to work killing Iranian kids or converting
them into American disciples. So what if Iraq and Afghanistan turned into hell
holes. Iran will be different and we can combine that with a Syrian adventure.
Third time
is a charm!
As the
insanity for a kinetic war with Iran reaches a crescendo, and the
justifications for failure in Iraq and Afghanistan reach their nadir, the International Crisis Group
has already predicted the outcome of a war on Iran’s turf. Simply replace
Afghan with Iranian in the following passage (and consider the notion that in
some distant future, some invading country might write the same about the USA).
“Today in
Afghanistan you do not have a national army. You do not have a national police.
A factionalized government can only create a factionalized army and police. It
is not a question of ethnic balance; it is a question of factional balance.
People in the army and police are fighting for their factions, not the
country…Assurances from NATO and U.S. military commander’s aside, there can be
little doubt that levels of insecurity are likely to remain high, if not
increase, ahead of the 2014 [Afghan] presidential election. With the majority
of Afghan security forces unable to meet even the most basic operational
benchmarks, particularly in the crucial areas of supply, logistics and air
support, it seems highly improbable that they will be able to fill the gaps
left by departing international forces by the time the campaign gets underway
in earnest in late 2013.
Afghanistan’s
political leaders have a maximum of eighteen months to prepare for an election
and ensure a smooth transfer of presidential power. Many key tasks must be
finished much earlier, particularly regarding electoral oversight. Resolving
both the long crisis over electoral administration and related constitutional
disputes could well be the key to determining whether the current political
system will survive the 2014 NATO drawdown. Failure in either would be a
crippling blow to chances to generate popular trust in a regime already
regarded as highly corrupt. The international community must realize this is
its last best chance to leave a viable state in Afghanistan and mobilize
accordingly.”
And the
outgoing head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan,
Reto Stocker, had this to say upon his exit from Afghanistan. "I am filled
with concern as I leave this country. Since I arrived here in 2005, local armed
groups have proliferated, civilians have been caught between not just one but
multiple front lines, and it has become increasingly difficult for ordinary
Afghans to obtain health care…People are not just suffering the effects of the
armed conflict. Hardship arising from the economic situation, or from severe
weather or natural disaster, has become more widespread, and hopes for the
future have been steadily declining.”
Hope for American Contractors in Iran, Africa, Russia,
China? Hell! Everywhere!
Groan….Not
again! It’s near Halloween. A magic spell is needed to make the Human Terrain
System (HTS) vanish.
The US Army,
TRADOC, HTS still manages to suck up millions. Some say it is really a pension
program run by those who are trying to shore up bank accounts. Whatever the
case if HTS is still around it means that there must be dozens of programs just
like it.
“I have
stopped believing that someone will start asking questions about the Human
Terrain System. This is fraud on such a massive scale, it defies description.
HTS is extending almost anyone in country who wants an extension. The next HTS
class is scheduled to start on or about 22 October. Something just doesn't seem
right. HTS made it through the critical October 1st (new FY gate), and CGI got
the $42 million contract. If they clear the January 2, 2013 automatic budget
cuts, HTS will have eternal life, because [contractor] CGI will not let it die.
There is a glut of people around, with no work, and none anticipated. There is
nothing new HTS teams can learn in Afghanistan, but there are plenty of
opportunities in Somalia, South Sudan, Turkey, Kenya, Guatemala, and the former
Soviet Republics.
Personnel in
the Human Terrain System have produced some graduate papers, a few scattered
self-promoting articles in the Military Intelligence Bulletin, and a critical
series of papers done by the American Anthropological Association. Other than
that, HTS has been blessed to be able to fly well below the radar screen,
despite its huge budget. There are a handful of publications floating around
but they would probably have to be requested under the Freedom of Information
Act. These include the HTS Command Climate Survey, March 2011; HTS Team
Productivity Workbook, March 2012; HTS/CGI Contracting Specifications, August
2011; TRADOC HTS Audit Report, August 2011; and the HTS Budget FY 2011-2012
Some of the
military commanders who made use of HTS have made some obligatory passing
comments about how well their HTS team worked for them, but it is doubtful that
they will show you anything useful their HTS teams actually did for them or any
information that was generated by an HTS team that had any impact on any
operation they conducted. That's not to say that HTS teams can't make a
difference.”
They Live!
John Stanton
is a Virginia based writer specializing in national security matters. Reach him
at cioran123@yahoo.com
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