war and shelf life

It used to be a mystery. That there was a sea change underway was certain, but we were hard pressed to narrow it down and define it as we were experiencing it. When exactly did it start, who was responsible, how long would it last? If we tried to explain this to other people, we got funny looks "what exactly are you saying?" That was then.

This is now. Almost a decade later, or is it milleniums, and nothing has reversed the course of madness. The welcome screens are overflowing with contrary headlines we won't quote on blogs anymore in order to budget for food. Something about Obama wants summer breaks in the school year abolished. What was that about no stone left unturned ... or something about an ownership society?

Uh hunh. And where do you think the money to make real the recovery story will come from, because the people are going to get the idea pretty soon a jobless recovery is a little shaky? How about from this comment written by a JSmith:

...The object is to destroy Iran's industrial and civil infrastructure, shatter its economy, destroy any self-defense capability, poison its environment, assassinate its scientists and engineers, and subvert its political system; i.e., to create a failed state incapable of exerting any influence in the region...

Let's consider in carrying out the above, how vastly the endeavor enriches the already obesely rewarded carpetbaggers salivating at the prospects of another boom. Let us no more eye pop at those reports of the oil giants' record profits. Bubbles and booms are the age old survival choice of leading western nations. What do they know that you don't? They know big, big money soon fill the piggy bank again. Right on schedule covering for the recovery story. This is how they do the Foxtrot, step kick, step kick, back step and repeat.

We used to think we were not supposed to know things. We supposed what we saw of the come lately leadership was some awful deviation from a norm and came to find it is the norm. We used to think they cared how they appeared and cared about their oaths and offices and the global reputation of a reputed global ideal. All that aid going to impoverished nations, remember collecting items for your Care Box? The toothbrush and toothpaste tucked inside, you were certain someone, somewhere depended on your gift? We were raised to love the world. Some of us still do.

You know what is coming next. I can't stand to see it. We know what has happened to Iraq. We know Mesopotamia was jackbooted off the pages of history. We know the noose awaits. We know there will be many assisting and cheering it along and the blood money will flow as the blood flowed in the gutters in Jenin.

In addition to the anguish and sadness this brings on when they Bring it On, the secret question lingers, when are these victims going to have had enough? Retaliate? Oh, never! No one retaliates against superpowers, are you kidding? Not with this air power, this technology, not with the cohesive, coordinated back-up super powers of our friends and allies. That's suicide. Whatz a matter with you?

The victims are erased and converted before retaliation. When you can wipe the rest of world off the face of the map, there isn't anybody left to argue.

We have known this chapter was coming since Condoleeza received a written response from Mahmoud and soundly denounced it. The translation was pure poetry. For whatever political copywriters that may have assisted him, it read as the writings of a well intentioned, wrongly accused, humble scholar. You cannot help but get the idea that is who he is - absent the propaganda. Westerners have difficulty listening to him speak because he speaks thoughtfully and softly. We must have missed the part about babies on the floor and gassing his people. Who is being groomed to replace him? Have roles been promised to relatives of his successor the same way Ahmed Chalabi's nephew, sharing the same office floor as arch-neocon palm-greasers Feith and Zell, was contracted for $75 million to arrange Saddam's trial?

After all is said and done and the dead are laid to rest, Gitmo will remain open for business, the same ancient business of the stretching rack, under the repackaged product line. The boxed convenience of prepared mixes under a sparkling new theme, Organic Carpetbagging, it sells so well. Down the road apiece, the masses online in front of the tube lose interest, max out their credit and go into depression and the whole joint comes unhinged. Then the music changes, everybody moves out to the dance floor and the Foxtrot repeats like a broken needle on a scratched '78. Step kick, backstep.

The only mystery that remains is the oldest mystery of all. Is there really such thing as the devil? Our ancestors thought so. They burned people at the stake and are striking the match all over again. Time - seconds, years, centuries - is just a hologram.