Friday, October 22, 2010

Another crack in a declining empire

A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.

Among the things revealed the US military gave a secret order not to investigate torture by Iraqi authorities, that they deliberately withhold the actual number of civilians dead, and a couple of incidents of pure executions.

Sadly, nothing of this is a surprise. I’ve highlighted several of these things before, and so have others, but thanks to WikiLeaks we now have much more evidence and something to actually point to whenever someone says it cannot be so.

To a certain point war crimes and a limited amount of events can be “excused”. What I mean by that is that in war shit happens, and no matter how cautiously recruits are chosen, there will be one or two complete psychopaths picked. But what is shown by these documents is deliberate, planned and ignored “shit”. This isn’t some occasional idiot doing something against orders, no, it’s sanctioned and encouraged.

Please also remember that the reason for starting the war, invading Iraq and occupying its territory were extremely shady to start with.

One also has to add Afghanistan to this equation, as well as continuous drone attacks against fleeing civilians in Pakistan and many other fun things being done by this coalition of mass murderers.

America is not only losing the war in Afghanistan they are also losing credibility and support all across the world. And this they do at the same time as they are throwing trillions of dollars into a devouring war machine, running enormous deficits, crushing their communications with restrictions, imposing 1984-style internet laws and mad government schemes. US have an uneasy population back home and a looming depression at the horizon.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is how empires die!

Sorry, but I need to say this to you US citizens out there, you’re starting to deserve it. Your masters are really at fault, but you let it happen, you voted for them, and with millions of dead demanding justice and revenge ordinary folks will be and, to a certain extent, should be targets.

And this is, for me, probably the worst thing about the whole thing. US forces and the American establishment have alienated hundreds of millions of people that is now starting to look at Western democracy, ‘capitalism’ and consumerism ( none of which has anything to do with these crimes against humanity) as the very essence of evil. These people didn’t hate American freedom and way of life before, but they are certainly starting to do so now.

There have been so many scandals; so many crimes against humanity, war crimes and total disrespect of all things the U.S. should stand for that it will be almost impossible to rebuild any sort of good reputation again. Most Americans doesn’t seem to understand this. Partially because the American media fail to report and dig into the stories.

Once upon a time America was the dream, even for me. As the only country in the history of mankind that started with the premises of equality, justice and freedom many have looked at the U.S. as the shining beacon of hope. This is getting destroyed, and although the deterioration has been going on for a very long time we’ve certainly seen an escalation in the last decade.

The terrorist attack of 9/11 was a tragedy, and a cowardly assault on innocent people. Although there are some who argues that even that attack was deserved – I am not one of them – it wouldn’t be wrong to feel like that if another similar attack happens today, today it actually would be a justified one.

I’ll even go so far as to say that I almost root for so called “Muslim extremists” wanting revenge. This is a war, and the ones doing all the killing, all the torture, the rapes, and slaughtering the innocent is the U.S coalition. “It's only terrorism when the bad guys do it” doesn’t cut it anymore, enough is enough

Finally I want you all to go and check papers from across the world. Read what British, French and Swedish papers write about WikiLeaks (and the difference between them) and then go across the pond and check out American news. If you don’t see the difference you’re a moron. U.S. citizens are feed lies, but so are you. Journalists aren’t your friends, they are your enemies. Get that into your skull and take that into account every time you read, see or hear any sort of news from any sort of news-outlet.

(10) Things I don’t hate about Dexter

As a long time hater of all things commercial and loather of all things politically correct, I rarely watch TV. In fact I haven’t own one of those idiot boxes in over 11 years. I do continuously watch a couple of shows, downloading them online free from commercials, but almost only to keep myself occupied during rainy days. Generally I only watch documentaries about science, history and our deteriorating economy.

But I have followed a few shows – like Buffy the Vampire slayer and the magnificent Firefly as two of the most shining exceptions. The last couple of years’ only one show is actually on my radar – Dexter.

This politically incorrect show features a mass murderer as the ‘hero’ and we get to follow him trying to avoid ending up in the electric chair while he hacks up other killers and throw their mutilated bodies into the Golf Stream, all the while he works for the police as a forensics investigator…

There are a lot of things about the show that tickles my interest, like the cursing over the top sister of the psychopathic ‘hero’ or the raw sense of humor that’s like a red thread throughout, but the main attraction is probably that it never stops changing. Main characters die frequently, and the problems for our lovable mass murderer is everything from changing diapers to how to best get rid of body parts.

Just as I assumed the show peaked last season with the magnificent John Lithgow playing the ‘Trinity Killer’, the writers and makers came up with an intrigue that involves the beautiful and captivating Julia Stiles. Hopefully a new adept of Dexter’s, maybe even a spin-off with a female serial killer in the service of “good”? But, as said, the show is very unpredictable and it wouldn’t surprise me if Lumen (Julia Stiles) dies from tripping on a children toy in the next episode.

The Music is great, and the supporting actors, although stealing a bit too much focus sometimes, are also on the top of their game.

As I hinted above there are a lot of things to do with a show like this. The writers really have a sack full of treats and things can really go anywhere. Will Dexter get caught and play the Hannibal to a new Clarice? Will CIA recruit him to catch Bin Laden? How will sister Deborah react once she finds out what her brother really does all those late nights? Will they follow the story of the books and let the kids learn the way of Harry?

Me, I really hope they rap up things with a sixth season, end at the top so to say, and then let the new serial killer and Dexter’s female equivalent of Julia Stiles go on a spree across America in her own spin-off. Maybe even have a cross-over with ‘Criminal Minds’? Yeah, I know - another network…

I suggest you take look at this show, if you haven’t already. With the exception for the occasional naked breast and one or two heads being decapitated, it’s really a family show that everyone can watch.


And no, I don’t get paid for this, but if any casting director for the show need a Swede to make meatballs out of his victims, please let me know…

Police Intellectuals

A crack team of profilers, a massive manhunt and lots and lots of police are all over the shootings in Malmö, Sweden. They’ve came together to solve the wave of seemingly related shootings targeting immigrants in the city.

After they'd investigate the evidence from the crime scenes, composed a profile and brought forth the entire brain trust of Sweden’s justice system they have come up with the following:

- The shooter is between 20-40 year old and in all likelihood a man.
- It is likely that since immigrants been targeted that this guy hates immigrants or belongs to a right-wing group.

Wow… that’s just fantastic work isn’t it? A couple of eye witnesses have pointed out that it’s a man and that 20-40 year span is just breathtaking, probably with a slight margin of error. And the smartness of figuring out that the shooter probably doesn’t like immigrants when only those have been shot is like… Sherlock stuff.

I mean, really, is this what we pay taxes for?

Just after I’d blog posted yesterday, another two women got shot through a window in the center of Malmo. Probably by the same “man-like” fanatic racist homophobic Muslim-hating Nazi right-wing maniac shooter between 20-40 years that our brilliant investigating whizzes are looking for.

Apparently people are getting afraid to go out, I have a solution for all you out there - get a gun! If someone starts shooting at ya, shot back. And if (a very big ‘if’) the geniuses within the police actually manage to find you and want to lock you up for defending yourself, you still have that gun left…