War Is Peace-keeping

To misquote Orwell.

When is WAR not WAR?

When it is part of a convoluted argument by Progressives For War, (PFW) in order to justify their mistaken allegiance to the Canadian State and its military actions. In this case in both Afghanistan and Haiti. These are NOT WAR's according to the PFW.

This is the argument posed by Skippy the Amazing Wonderdog, and cross posted at the Torch . Skippy sez, and pardon me while I quote him extensively in order to address his argument;

This is not really the case in Afghanistan. The enemy Canadian soldiers face -- or do not face, in fact -- is not organized in any military sense, does not occupy terrain, and cannot be defeated through firepower alone. Calling this a "war" is an attempt to manipulate perception by emphasizing combat operations.

The Taliban certainly are an organized military as they were also the Government and State of Afghanistan and as such can be considered the Government in exile. There are also Warlords, gee that title might hint at their involvement with 'war', who rule a variety of provinces. There is Al-Qaida which was an army in Afghanistan, and of course there are various armed tribal groups spread through out the Tribal districts between the Afghanistan and Pakistan border. All of these are organized Mujahadin armies. Even if they use Guerrilla tactics.

Does it matter what we call it? Yes, it matters a great deal, at least as far as public opinion is concerned. Canadians seem happy to support "peacekeeping," but they aren't so keen on seeing Canadian troops deployed in a "combat role." But what does that really mean?

Peacekeeping which is currently being trashed by the Right and the PFW,is also being dismissed as an outmoded idea by the Conservative government and its spokespersons. Peacekeeping by definition is:

• Deploy to prevent the outbreak of conflict or the spill-over of conflict across borders;
• Stabilize conflict situations after a cease fire, to create an environment for the parties to reach a lasting peace agreement;
• Assist in implementing comprehensive peace agreements;
• Lead states or territories through a transition to stable government, based on democratic principles, good governance and economic development.

What we are not doing in Kandahar is peacekeeping. We are in combat to pacify the province of Kandahar and its surrounding region in order to create the conditions for peacekeeping.

There was plenty of support for a "combat role" in the Balkans, where one side of the civil war had been demonized.

True, especially when the war against Serbia was declared the first Humanitarian War by Clinton. However there were many of us opposed to that war, including some who now support the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jingoism and nationalism in this case was replaced with bleeding heart liberalism, the poor suffering Albanians in Kosovo vs. the nasty demonic Serbs. However as that war was conducted and Serb civilians were targeted, the humanitarian gave way to the usual conduct of war. And suddenly it was clear that this was an Imperialist War as all wars are.

Nobody seemed to notice at first that our operation in Somalia was not "peacekeeping," and Canadians initially supported that ill-fated deployment. There would have been little objection to sending troops into Rwanda to stop the genocide by force.

In fact Somalia was a peace keeping mission from the beginning . The failure which led to scandal and national shame, a national inquiry found that the mission was ill conceived from the begining, was that Canadian military leadership failed to define it as a Peacekeeping mission rather than a combat mission. Canadians were led to believe that Somalia was a peacekeeping mission, but with the American involvement it quickly degenerated into another oil war, with the consequences of being a failure for the UN and a disaster for Canadian Forces.

Rwanda on the other had was the result of Imperialist disdain and interference. In this case the interference of France and Belgium, the former colonial masters in that region of Africa, it was their refusal to allow the UN in, and their support of the Hutu subaltern leadership that led to the disaster. The failure of American Imperialism in Somalia, their first defeat in battle since Viet Nam, led them to abandon Rwanda.

There would be, on the other hand, a strong objection to deploying Canadian troops in a "combat role" to overthrow a government -- in other words, to "war" as we usually understand it

Really then what was the coup that Canada supported militarily in Haiti two years ago? Canada led the joint American, French, UN troops in a combat operation to overthrow a duly elected government? And we are still there. Despite the most recent election. These are combat operations, war by any other name.

And in Haiti's case we led those operations, because of Quebec's close relationship with Haiti. In fact as I have written here, it is because both Canada and Quebec view Haiti as our 'neo-colony'. See Gildan Sweat Shop Success Story


So let's ask an expert on War, Carl Phillip Gottfriedvon Clausewitz as to his definition of it;

War therefore is an act of violence to compel our opponent to fulfil our will.

Violence arms itself with the inventions of Art and Science in order to contend against violence. Self-imposed restrictions, almost imperceptible and hardly worth mentioning, termed usages of International Law, accompany it without essentially impairing its power. Violence, that is to say physical force (for there is no moral force without the conception of states and law), is therefore the means; the compulsory submission of the enemy to our will is the ultimate object. In order to attain this object fully, the enemy must be disarmed; and this is, correctly speaking, the real aim of hostilities in theory. It takes the place of the final object, and puts it aside in a manner as something not properly belonging to war.

So yes folks this is a war we are in. And yes we should be opposed to this war.

Those PFW who say this is not war are merely deluding themselves, or like Skippy the Wonderdog barking at the moon.



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Stephen Chretien

Stageleft makes some interesting observations on Chantel Herberts latest column in the Toronto Star comparing, gasp, Stephen Harper to Jean Chretien. Similarities: Harper and Chretien

I personally think a picture tells the story. It's all about the finger.

For two years, Martin navigated with his finger stuck on the pulse of public opinion.

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Price Fixing Booze

This is happening in Alberta home of Free Enterprize.

Drink prices rising?
Alberta is eyeing a minimum price for booze in bars and restaurants in a bid to stop customers from pounding back drinks and pounding on each other.The province is considering the floor price following concerns raised by bar owners, police and municipalities, Gaming Minister Gordon Graydon said Monday."Once upon a time, long ago, Alberta did have minimum drink prices. It would be going back to that policy," he said. He said the issue will be explored at a round-table discussion in Calgary later this month.

So much for the "Free market" in booze. Once upon a time we also had unionized liquor stores run by the province.

It is of course alright to privatize the liquor stores , despite the loss of monies it created, but now the business folks want the State to regulate per shot prices.

Once again proving that the capitalist state exists to do what business wants, not what the supposedly sacred "market " wants. Guaranteed prices means a guaranteed profit, and lessens competition between bars and lounges. Hey isn't that price fixing by any other name? Why of course it is.

Next time you hear the refrain about the need for government to get out of business or how the free market creates competition, remember this. Business hates a free market, it wants an assured market, it wants the state to guarantee its business. Protectionism is ok to these guys until they become a monopoly and then they want markets to open up to them.

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The King is Dead Long Live the King

King Ralph has announced, finally, that he is retiring October 2007, as he said he would during the last election.

This allows him to stop being made a fool of on April 1 when the Party of Calgary (PC's) gathers for its annual meeting and leadership review.

The knives are out and ever the populist Klein thwarted the embarassment of not having the parties support, which he demanded earlier this year when he challenged them to support him or else.

Alberta is now being governed by the Retirement Party, after Premier Ralph Klein confirmed he plans to step down as head of the Conservative dynasty -- but not for 19 long and aimless months.

And while his announcement not means that the leadership race which has been occuring in the back rooms will not become official till November of 2007, the infighting and backstabbing will make the Chretien and Martin struggles in the Liberals look like a fight in a sandbox.

Jim Dinning, who some consider the front-runner among six leadership hopefuls, said "there's still some confusion" about when the official leadership race will begin."If the date is October 2007, does the race start now or does the race start then?" Dinning said in an interview.

As I have noted before this is a struggle between the Calgary Capitalist Class which are classic liberals and the right wing social conservative rump in the party.

Ah there is no joy in mudville with this announcement, it merely delays the inevitable. The King is in his counting house, mad as a hatter. He is following his own agenda despite his party, his caucus or his MLA's. He is saving his own ass at the expense of his party.

More articles on King Ralph.

Tories risk taking same trip over a cliff as Socreds

That means the Conservatives won't have a new leader in place until February 2008 -- which gives the party little time to rebuild before the next provincial election is held, likely the same year.

Disaffected Tories are afraid Klein is giving himself too much time to say goodbye and the new leader too little time to say hello.

For them, 19 months is more than enough time for Klein's distracted, at times grumpy, leadership style to drive more supporters away from the party, and to drive the party over the same cliff that claimed the Alberta Social Credit Party and the federal Progressive Conservative Party under Brian Mulroney.

The grumblers are a paranoid lot and they're overstating their worst-case scenario. But they'll be voting at the party's convention and the only way they'd give Klein a ringing endorsement to stay is if he announces he's leaving -- soon.

Klein might still win the leadership vote by a comfortable margin, but then what?

How can he govern for the next 19 months?

He is such a lame duck he'll need crutches to get around for the next year.

Klein to step down next year
Globe and Mail - 4 hours ago
EDMONTON -- Ralph Klein, the country's most colourful and longest-serving Premier, ended years of speculation yesterday by finally announcing his official retirement date: October of 2007.
Klein says he'll quit in October 2007 Toronto Star
Klein locks in retirement date CBC.ca
Canada.com - CTV.ca - Calgary Sun - Edmonton Journal (subscription) - all 47 related »

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Democracy is Ok Abroad

King Stephen the Harpocrite assured the puppet regime in Afghanistan that Canada is behind our Military Mission there, for now. Because he will NOT allow any debate on the issue. Of course when it comes to extending the deployment next year well that's another story.


So while the cheerleaders on the right and the PFW (Progressives for War) applaud our troops fighting for democracy in Afghanistan, at home it is being denied to us.

New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton said it would not look good for Canada's Prime Minister to deny MPs a vote on a military mission aimed at encouraging democracy. "We think it would be ironic that we're defending democracy in another country but not permitting a fundamental democratic process in our own," he said.

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Doctors Pass on Third Way

File this under the Government forgot to consult.....delegates to an Alberta Medical Association policy meeting voted unanimously Saturday not to back his Third Way plan to allow for more private medical treatment.


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P&O

Pennisular & Oriental Steamships is the company that is being taken over by the UAE Kingdom of Dubai.

DP World, a ports company owned by the Maktoum family that rules Dubai, one of the seven sheikdoms in the United Arab Emirates, was forced to sell the U.S. port operations of Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation in the face of congressional opposition.

The irony behind all the sturm and drang in the USSA over this is that this is simply a transfer of a royal charter between royality. Who said the aritstocracy was dead. It simply has been transformed into Ruling Class Families.Clintons are on both sides of Dubai deal

P&O Royal Charter

P&O - The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company - is one of the world's foremost developers and operators of container ports. We are also the leading ferry operator in the UK and have property interests in the US and Europe. P&O was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1840. The Charters and Regulations of the Company are set out below.

P&O Royal Charter (PDF format, 242 KB)

The other irony is that P&O replaces the B&O line in the international version of the game of Monopoly!

What few people have pointed out is that in the international edition of Monopoly, when you buy P&O, you get India for free



And while folks in the USSA are all upset about Arabs owning P&O it got its start under British Imperialism as the Royal Steamship line in charge of transportation in Egypt.

It was consulted on the extension of similar mail services into the Mediterranean. In 1840, it received a contract for a monthly run to Alexandria, and to raise the 1 million pounds needed it became a limited liability company: The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company was incorporated by a Royal Charter on 31 December 1840, and remains to this day one of the few British companies not operating under the Companies Act.

Oriental Extension
Larger ships were acquired for the Egyptian run, still larger ones - all of 2,000 tons - built to brave monsoon weather on the Calcutta/Suez line opened in 1843. By 1845 P&O services reached Singapore and Hong Kong and in 1852 extended to Sydney. The company's three great imperial mail routes - India, the Far East and Australia - had been established in less than a decade.

Evolving from being the monopoly steamship line for British Imperialism, in the 21st Century P&O transformed itself into a Global Monopoly, it is the foremost and leading promoter of privatization of Ports and container transportation.

The completion of the Suez Canal in 1869 brought with it a variety of competitors for P&O's virtual monopoly on long distance steamer service to the Far East. To remain competitive the company cut overhead including "abolishing free liquor at meals." In the early 20th century the firm acquired more than a dozen shipping companies; during the World Wars its ships transported troops and supplies in support of the war efforts.

The company reorganized in 1971, and during the 80s converted nearly all its dry cargo operations to container shipping. It was during this period that it turned its attention to "the necessary on-shore infrastructure of container ports, inland depots, and road, rail and inland waterway transport links." P & O also briefly expanded into oil exploration in the North Sea and US, and into housing construction and industrial services. By 1999 "[t]hese interests, no longer needed to support the Group's core businesses, had largely been sold."

P&O Ports, the P&O Group company responsible for port development, investment, operating and stevedoring activities, began as an Australian terminal operating entity, and expanded internationally in 1986 with the privatization of the Port Kelang container terminal in Malaysia. The P&O Ports web site notes "This was one of the first privatizations of public port assets undertaken worldwide and its great success resulted in it becoming an international model. "

Monopoly, the old Mercantilist power relationship between the aritsocracy and its capitalists is again being played out on the global stage, with America playing the role of protectionist Empire as Britain once did. Another irony.
Is globalisation facing threat of a collapse?

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Harper's Chef, Nanny, and Car Washer Fired

King Stephen the Harpocrite continues his purges, not unlike that other famous autarch.

It has been revealed that Mr. Secrecy has recalled five diplomats prior to their completing their terms.

Now he has fired his Chef.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is being sued by a man who claims his dismissal as a Stornoway chef was "insulting, high-handed, spiteful, malicious and oppressive."

Yep that sounds like the Harpocrite. Even worse the poor man was subjected to being demoted in his job by Mrs. PM and relegated to the duties of a nanny.

He alleges he took on other duties for which he was not paid, including babysitting the couple's two children, washing the family car and burying one of Harper's pet cats after it died.

Lundsgaard alleges that about one month before Harper won the Jan. 23 election, Laureen Harper led him to believe he would become the head chef at 24 Sussex Drive. Both the prime minister and his wife are named in the suit.

Lundsgaard says he received a letter on election day telling him that his services were no longer needed.

The rich and powerful you see have nannies to take care of their needs and their children. Which is why the Harpocrites see no need for daycare for working mothers and working class families.

Why every family should have a nanny, Chef, car washer and cat mortician. If not then what are wives for?



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Harpers Real Reason For Kandahar Visit

Here is the real reason that King Stephen the Harpocrite has run away to join the Troops in Kandahar....Harper avoiding showdown over Alberta's Third Way health plan




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Harper In Kandahar for Timmies

Apparently King Stephen the Harpocrite is over in Kandahar now, this very minute in his personal war on Terrorism. Defending Canada, with the troops cause well we all know that the phony war on Terrorism has always been his pet project.

Harper tells troops that despite dissent, Canada's staying in ...
Canada.com, Canada - 1 hour ago
Prime Minister Stephen Harper chats with Canadian troops in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Sunday. (CP/Tom Hanson). KANDAHAR, Afghanistan ...
Harper goes to war zone Canada.com
HARPER'S SURPRISE AFGHAN VISIT Globe and Mail
Harper visits troops in Afghanistan Toronto Star
Calgary Sun - CBC News - all 115 related »Harper vows Canada will not ‘run away at the first sign of ...
Globe and Mail, Canada - 3 hours ago
Kandahar, Afghanistan — Prime Minister Stephen Harper served up a healthy portion of praise and support for Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan on Monday ...
Harper admits jitters Ottawa Sun
Barely out of warm-ups, PM heads to a hot zone Globe and Mail
all 3 related »

Or perhaps he is site seeing for the new P3 Tim Hortons that will bring the joys of Canadian democracy and culture to Kandahar.

And his trip was like all his actions since being elected PM, super secret.
In this he is imitating his mentor George Bush. Almost word for word.

Harper told reporters accompanying him that the Canadian force in the country serves the national interest because:

• International terrorism is rooted in the country. "It was in Afghanistan that Sept. 11 started."
• The country is a major source of narcotics, which have a terrible impact on Canada.
• It shows Canada providing international leadership and humanitarian aid.

Gee I thought International Terrorism was rooted in Iraq, the reason the Americans gave for going to war, after WMD and Saddam is a dictator. Since the invasion the Bushies have been saying the exact same thing about Iraq, better to fight Terrorism there than in America. They already have to fight armed gangs suffering from poverty and inequality in East LA.

Yes the country is a source of opium which has increased over 200% since the American led invasion. Is there a correlation here?

Leadership? What leadership its a quizziling puppy dog reaction to the orginial American call for NATO to avenge them when they were attacked on Sept. 11. Since then the War on Terror has expanded to Iraq and now it appears even possibly Iran. So which front is this? And if it is a War why has parliament not declared it as such?

Humanitarian Aid? To who? American corporate interests like Halliburton? Or to the Warlords that still oppress women and other citizens? There is no democracy in Afghanistan, there are no liberated territories. There is the failed city state of Kabul and the rest is tribal territories. This is not the Spanish Civil War.

Perhaps if the Americans had not opposed the Russians who were helping the pre- Taliban government fight off the religious fruitcakes and warlords we would not have such a mess there now. Unfortunately human rights is only an issue of convenience for countries like the U.S., to use when it fits their bigger purpose, or to ignore when it does not.

Afghanistan today is certainly no shining example of human rights. To claim protecting human rights as a policy of the occupation of Afghanistan is certainly a joke. Sources report that for women outside of Kabul things may be worse now than under the Taliban. Religious laws still receive official sanction in some areas, and blasphemy is still a crime.

As for democracy, kinda hard to claim to be promoting democracy when King Stephen the Harpocrite refuses to debate this issue in Parliament.

Harper said "the debate over deployment is over," no matter what surveys of public opinion may suggest.

That's it Harper has Declared War and there is no debate. War always the time for serious debate He is being a muscular and masculine politician, something he always wanted to be to get over his policy wonk nerdishness. Harper Will Make Canada Masculine Again Beware of the nerd who gains power.


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Calgary Sun Opposes War in Afghanistan

Ok now that I have your attention, its actually one of their 'token' liberal columnists that opposes the war in Afghanistan and demands a debate.

Dare to debate Canada's role in Aghanistan warrants serious discussion
By Bill Kaufmann

His talking points are the same as I have been making here, so it's nice to have some company in the MSM.

Canada is fighting for freedom and democracy, but some of our Afghan allies have proven every bit as bloodthirsty as the Taliban, which once formed the de facto government and had dealings with the U.S. right up until the summer of 2001.

The rap sheet of the United Front/Northern Alliance includes mass murder of PoWs, the killing and rape of civilians, religious persecution and the use of child soldiers.

These allies proved remarkably unreliable, most notably during the alleged escape in 2001 of Osama bin Laden.

The best-case scenario goal is to turn over more of the country's security to many of these same people.

Coloured fingers are nice, but when cutthroats and drug runners empowered by the U.S. invasion are the end result, surely our country's deployment is up for at least debate.

Canadians should also know whether the prisoners taken by our troops are turned over to U.S. jailers who've been known to batter captives to death from Baghdad to Bagram.

Canada's elite JTF2 commandos have worked closely with and under U.S. command.

A note to the pro-war faction both Conservatives and Progressives For War; NATO is in the North doing operations in the security of the Northern Alliance provinces.

Canada is in the South doing clean-up operations for the US which means going into the tribal territories, meeting nice people and killing them.

So at least get your geopolitics correct before claiming we are doing 'good works' in Afghanistan. We are doing America's dirty work.Looking for answers? Follow the money




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Thanks Stephen

Thank Prime Minister Stephen Harper for the huge turnout at the International Women’s Day march in Toronto yesterday.His plans to scrap a national daycare plan pledged by the former Liberal government galvanized support for the 28th annual rally and march that filled sunny downtown streets with 3,500 people chanting and carrying signs and banners. About 750 marched last year. 3,500 march for women’s day


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Contracting Out Faux Pas

Opps. It turns out that Citibank and Wells Fargo outsource, contract out, to a third party their Visa and Bank card security. And guess what happens ?

Breach Of Security Among Debit Card Companies that then screws American visitors when they are out of the country. Suddenly, not their fault, they can't access their bank accounts.

If You Can't Trust Your Bank, Who Can You Trust?

Shortly after I wrote yesterday's story about Citibank's confirmation that a third-party company it does business with had been breached, causing the bank to block PIN-based transactions for customers in Canada, Russia, and the U.K., I started to hear from the people directly affected by the mess this latest data faux pas caused.

I guess this is another example of the Shmoo's theory of contracting out, outsourcing and privatization "being efficient and effective " Tell that to the poor shmook who is trying to pay his cabfare in London and can't get out any cash from the ATM in English pounds.


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Union Busting Monopoly

Garda one of Canada's largest private security firms has acquired the British owned Initial Security, making it Canada's largest private Rent-A-Cop company. Coming soon to a picket line near you.

The acquired operation, better known as Initial Security, was a unit of Britain's Rentokil Initial, whose diverse interests include office cleaning, courier services and pest control as well as security. Based in Edmonton, Initial offers such services as "uniformed protection, labour unrest protection and mobile patrol," Garda said.


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Double Dipping Emerson

Oh this is rich. In fact very rich. And a good reason for an ethics investigation into David Emerson. As if another reason was needed. But this one takes the cake, as in having your cake and eating it too. Ok that's it for the cliches.

New salvos in bitter ethics battle

Trade Minister David Emerson is in an apparent conflict as Canada's lead negotiator in the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber trade dispute because he still has a financial stake in forestry giant Canfor Corp., according to a complaint sent yesterday to Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro. The formal complaint, filed by Liberal trade critic Dominic LeBlanc and provided to CanWest News Service, is based on Mr. Emerson's $167,000 annual pension he receives from a company that could benefit enormously if the ongoing dispute is resolved. As a cabinet minister, Mr. Emerson will earn $213,000 a year.

Emerson earns a paltry $380,000 a year in Salary and Pension. As the commercial says Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun.



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White Whing Wacist

There are those on the rightwing of the blogosphere in Canada that think they can blissfully go on and on in a racist fashion and think it's funny. Worse they think it's defensible.

I am refering the collective of mental midgets over at Cannuckistan Chronicles. The latest White Whing Wacist outburst in this case was posted by Richard, the Cannucklehead.

Breaking News: Sand Monkeys and MoonBats Really Are That Dumb!

Sand Monkeys. Whats next Rag Heads? Is it any less racist or offensive? No. But hey Richard the White Whing Wascist already has his excuse's ready for those of us offended by his racism.

Note to whiners complaining about the use of the term Sand Monkey: Sand Monkeys are not a race. They are a group. Specifically, they're a group comprised of Islamofascists otherwise known as terrorists. You politely refer to them as insurgents or freedom fighters. Now, if any of you folks who wish to complain about the phrase would like to point me in the direction of one of these islamofascist/terrorists, I'd be more than happy to question them on how they feel about it's use.

Sure he would from the safety of his Canadian blogosphere. This mental midget thinks this clever comment clears him from being a hatemonger and racist. Far from it, it merely confirms he is unapologetic about his hatemongering and racism.

But worse yet Richard literally palpitates with joy over the death of Tom Fox the Christian PeaceMaker. Richard says he deserved to die and his fellow Canadian and Brit comrades deserve to die too. The vitrol drools vindictively in his post.

As a matter of fact, I am pleased things turned out this way. And, yes, I'm hoping the same fate befalls the others. I don't think these treasonous SOB's should live the same way I don't think serial killers should live. These individuals, in my mind anyway, are far from innocent. They're reaping the seeds they've sown and we're devoting far too many resources to try to save their lame asses. Maybe you idiots will finally wake up and join the war on terror instead of fighting your war against western civilisation.

These are far from rational well meaning folks whose politics differ from mine. They are rabid racist dogs of war. There is no reasoning with them. Nor should one try. Merely exposing them to the light of day may help them retreat back under the rock from whence they crawled with their cousins in the White Supremacist movement.


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Tout va Bien

It may not be quite a re-enactment of the student revolt of May' 68 but once again the proletarian students have seized the Sorbonne! Be Realistic Demand The Impossible!

Police and students clashed Saturday at Sorbonne University.



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The Other Afghanistan

A tip o the blog to Vive le Canada which posted a link to this excellent leftwing blog.

Marc W. Herold of the Departments of Economics and Women's Studies at the University of New Hampshire is currently publishing a series of articles on Afghanistan.

It poses questions about Afghanistan from the view of those forgotten by the politicians, the Progressives For War (PFW) and the rest of the MSM, main stream military, apologists.

The people in the empty State of Afghanistan, a land that is filled with nomadic peoples, whose civilization is outside of Kabul. Where our troops are now invading.
In classic capitalist fashion, those outside will be brought into civilization, that is the urban centres, to become proletarianized. This same policy was used in Indonesia for thirty years to move a mass of humanity from their villages towards the metropols to create a vast army of the unemployed.

Here are links to his three most recent articles. For those who think this war is about Timmies setting up a coffeshop in Kandahar, or who are deluded into believing we are actually doing something noble, well read on.

Pulling the rug out: Pseudo-development in Karzai's Afghanistan

The perfect Neo-Colonial state of the 21st century. Part two.

Welcome to the "new" Afghanistan, and please, ladies and gentlemen proceed up these golden stairways. The forms taken by pseudo-development in Kabul are many and grotesque: construction of luxury hotels (photo above of elevator in the new Kabul City Center), shopping malls and ostentatious "corrupto-mansions," grinding poverty amidst opulence, pervasive insecurity, lock-down and deserted streets at night, an opium and foreign monies-financed consumption boom, pervasive corruption, alcohol and prostitutes for the foreign clientele, and the long list of "Kabul's finest" - foreign ex-pats, a bloated NGO-community, carpetbaggers and hangers-on of all stripes, money disbursers, neo-colonial administrators, opportunists, imported Chinese and Soviet Republic prostitutes, imported Thai masseuses in the Mustafa Hotel, bribed politicians and local power brokers, facilitators, beauticians (of the city planner or aesthetician types), members of the development establishment, do-gooders, mercenaries, fortune-hunters, enforcers, etc.

In this section, I shall address six inter-related aspects of Kabul's pseudo-development: (1). Opulence amidst destitution; (2). The absence of genuine governance in a culture of impunity; (3). Corruption; (4). Life in the ex-pat community; (5). Evidence of decadence -- alcohol and prostitution in Karzai's Kabul; and (6) The climate of generalized insecurity. Naturally, no aggregate data exists on these matters and so I shall rely upon scattered first-hand reports that form a coherent whole.

Afghanistan as an empty space

The perfect Neo-Colonial state of the 21st century. Part one.

Argument: Four years after the U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan, the true meaning of the U.S occupation is revealing itself. Afghanistan represents merely a space that is to be kept empty. Western powers have no interest in either buying from or selling to the blighted nation. The impoverished Afghan civilian population is as irrelevant as is the nation's economic development. But the space represented by Afghanistan in a volatile region of geo-political import, is to be kept vacant from all hostile forces. The country is situated at the center of a resurgent Islamic world, close to a rising China (and India) and the restive ex-Soviet Asian republics, and adjacent to oil-rich states.

The only populated centers of any real concern are a few islands of grotesque capitalist imaginary reality -- foremost Kabul -- needed to project the image of an existing central government, an image further promoted by Karzai's frequent international junkets. In such islands of affluence amidst a sea of poverty, a sufficient density of foreign ex-pats, a bloated NGO-community, carpetbaggers and hangers-on of all stripes, money disbursers, neo-colonial administrators, opportunists, bribed local power brokers, facilitators, beauticians (of the city planner or aesthetician types), members of the development establishment, do-gooders, enforcers, etc., warrants the presence of Western businesses. These include foreign bank branches, luxury hotels (Serena Kabul, Hyatt Regency of Kabul), shopping malls (the Roshan Plaza, the Kabul City Centre mall), import houses (Toyota selling its popular Land Cruiser), image makers (J. Walter Thompson), and the ubiquitous Coca-Cola¹.

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An Island Named Kabul

Trickle-Up Economics and Westernization in Karzai's Afghanistan

The evidence of class exclusion and westernization abound in the island called Kabul, the mayoralty of U.S.-anointed and DynCorp-protected Hamid Karzai.¹ Liberation and civilization arrive through acts of westernized consumption and also participation in U.S.-modeled, organized and protected "elections," a topic explored elsewhere by others. The distinctive element of the Karzai reconstruction project – to use the memorable phrase of Ross Perot – involves a "giant sucking sound" meaning here transferring income upward in the social structure, e.g., trickle-up, well-lubricated by drug and foreign monies. The obscene, sickening spectacle of an import-dependent consumption boom in Kabul coexists with deep impoverishment and destitution, the whole sordid mess "protected" by close to 20,000 foreign troops.

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