A bird's eye view of the vineyard
Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb
The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog. We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).
What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are
Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader 2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of
The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by The Saker >>
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail supporter? Anthony
Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony
Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony
RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony
Waiting for SIPO Anthony Public Inquiry >>
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Deptartment of Psychiatry is so corrupt that when David Stephen says "The Government can do anything... Wed Aug 14, 2024 11:41 | dop
Julian Assange is finally free ! Tue Jun 25, 2024 21:11 | indy
Stand With Palestine: Workplace Day of Action on Naksa Day Thu May 30, 2024 21:55 | indy
It is Chemtrails Month and Time to Visit this Topic Thu May 30, 2024 00:01 | indy
Hamburg 14.05. "Rote" Flora Reoccupied By Internationalists Wed May 15, 2024 15:49 | Internationalist left Human Rights in Ireland >>
Bank of England Staff Told to Share Pronouns and Use ?Gender Neutral? Language Sun Sep 01, 2024 09:00 | Will Jones Bank of England staff have been told to share their pronouns at the start of meetings and use "gender neutral" language when speaking to customers.
The post Bank of England Staff Told to Share Pronouns and Use “Gender Neutral” Language appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Government?s Private Schools VAT Raid ?Risks Costing Taxpayer £1.8bn? Sun Sep 01, 2024 07:00 | Will Jones The Government?s VAT raid on private schools risks costing the taxpayer up to £1.8 billion as parents cut their work hours once their children move into the state sector, a report has found.
The post Government’s Private Schools VAT Raid “Risks Costing Taxpayer £1.8bn” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Sun Sep 01, 2024 01:04 | Richard Eldred A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Domestic Abuse Charity Allows ?Men Who Identify as Women? to Apply for £47,000-a-Year ?Women-Only? R... Sat Aug 31, 2024 15:00 | Will Jones A domestic abuse charity has been criticised for encouraging "men who identify as women" to apply for a senior £47,000-a-year "women-only" post.
The post Domestic Abuse Charity Allows “Men Who Identify as Women” to Apply for £47,000-a-Year “Women-Only” Role appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Ed Miliband and Chris Stark Have Just Admitted They Have No Clue What They?re Doing Sat Aug 31, 2024 13:00 | David Turver Ed Miliband and Chris Stark have asked National Grid for fresh advice on how to achieve Net Zero electricity by 2030. In other words, they've just admitted they have no clue what they're doing, says David Turver.
The post Ed Miliband and Chris Stark Have Just Admitted They Have No Clue What They’re Doing appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
|
The first fragging under klieg lights, by satellite dish.
international |
anti-war / imperialism |
other press
Sunday December 04, 2005 00:15 by poolfeedjunkie
![Report this post to the editors Report this post to the editors](../graphics/report.gif)
. Ten at once. Ten marines meet their Maker in a flash of furious fire and fallen friends. Human meat on the street, shattered and smoking and seeping. Eleven more left lying about, leaking life’s blood, hovering between heartbeats, waiting to be saved or to slip away. The whole world watching, seeing that this is where we are, and this is where we are going.
Tomorrow is today.
Where is safe in such a struggle? Point to the province that’s been pacified -- there isn’t one. In a war with no fronts and no flanks there is only the ground you stand on at any given moment, and even that ground is compromised, under constant threat. The foxholes are confused; there is no perimeter. The turf you turn away from belongs to the enemy the second you show your back, because the enemy is every man, woman and child who lived here before you entered, and who lives here after you exit.
If you let them live. If they let you live.
This is no place for soldiers. Guerilla warfare is a game of ghosts, a game of frights, a monstrous mathematics of hearts and minds to be terrified or taken out. A game for spooks, not soldiers, for there is nothing brave about beating prisoners; there is no honor in scorching the earth.
This is no place for soldiers. Beyond vicious, this is a game for vampires. You can never conquer your opponent, only cut him, again, again, and again. You seek only to slice, to booby trap, to bleed the bastard. You seek territory only to destroy and deny it to your enemy. The goal posts in this game are stalemate, exhaustion and the ruination of everything useful.
Until that distant day when the last one standing wins whatever is left standing.
This is no place for soldiers. With nowhere to advance or retreat to, victory is impossible, for both sides. The only victory is political, and can only come by wasting soldiers, supplies, and cash beyond your enemy’s capacity to keep pace. Today is tomorrow, until one side bleeds out. The shooting only stops when one side loses faith in further shooting. Which means winning is never the goal, for either side. A decision to stop shooting is the goal. Your crisis of faith is their Holy Grail.
This is no place for soldiers. In such a struggle, hearts and minds are the only turf to contest. In such a struggle, headlines hit harder than artillery or airpower. Bribes beat bombs, and terror trumps all. In such a struggle, the gloves come off, and rules grow quaint. Whoever lives here must be too cowed to cross us, or go away, or become a ghost. As long as there’s a spark, as long as there are hearts and minds beyond control, you cannot win or hold real estate. You cannot say safe, or pacified, or free.
Guerilla wars are only ever won through the Final Solution, ethnic cleansing. Remove the troublemakers until order prevails, or until you have the place to yourself. That’s why we killed Jesus, and Geronimo, and Maura Clark, and Martin Luther King – the hearts and minds who heard them had to hear them die. The mojo of martyrs burns longer, but cooler. We may outlive the ghosts we put in the ground; we may gain their ground for our lifetimes, we may postpone their victory until after ours, and let them haunt people of another era.
Condi Rice knows all this. Her arrogant public remarks are merely whitewash for the great and gleaming Fortress of Solitude, the White House, where the man who never makes mistakes commands an oval bunker, and little else. Everything this Administration says about these twenty-one marines is a pure public pretense that the Iraqi resistance hasn't just scored a major propaganda coup, worldwide. That this isn’t as big as the Tet Offensive.
Behind many closed doors in Washington, there is a lot of screaming to be heard, and many harsh demands that we get even tougher with a wayward indigenous population.
With the Iraqi people. The enemy.
And the European people. The enemy.
And with the American people. The real enemy.
The ones who count, if their votes are counted.
The neocon warmongers are being boiled alive by the Iraqi resistance, and now the struggle has come home to Orlando and Oregon and Ohio, to stay. The war is now on everyone who disagrees with the faltering American Empire, and all rules are quaint.
The whole world is watching, and understands that if the Iraqis can swat twenty-one marines at once, then they can swat as they please. That this is the same lesson conveyed by the Tet Offensive of 1968. That there is nothing the neocons can do except whitewash their public image, increase their threats and terror across the board, increase their grip on news and information, and seize control of hearts and minds worldwide.
And that this can't be done.
And so, the whole world understands that the war on Iraq is over, except for the Bugout Fever to follow the December 15th elections. Seymour Hersh hints that, if we don’t get out, the Iraqis will deny us even the Green Zone, the most heavily defended and controlled bit of real estate in the whole of Iraq. No surprise there. Holding territory in a guerilla war is the same as lining up behind a "Shoot Me" sign. Which is no place for soldiers.
None of this is news to the experts in guerilla warfare at the Pentagon. They are well aware that the only winning strategy from here is to put the Iraqi population in lockdown. Move them to camps, hamlets, refugee areas. Ethnic cleansing in fact and practice, no matter what pretty name it is given by Condi and Rumsfeld and Friends.
Running concentration camps is no place for soldiers. Wholesale ethnic cleansing is something the American military is absolutely unwilling to do. That's why General Pace so openly distanced himself from Don Rumsfeld on TV. That’s why he publicly and pointedly reminded every grunt over there that there ARE rules, and they DO apply to every man jack in khaki or blue, including YOU, soldier.
The message hit home. Rummy never saw the mad minute coming. It was an expert ambush; it was a mutiny, neat and clean. Rumsfeld was decapitated. He mumbled and stumbled and fumbled it. He screwed the pooch. He came off as not in command of himself or his men. With a few well chosen words, General Pace removed Rumsfeld from the field of honor. On international TV, in front of the whole world, Rumsfeld was fired by his own men. The first fragging under klieg lights, by satellite dish.
Thank you, General. Rummy’s world is no place for soldiers.
Posted by: Antifa | Dec 3, 2005 2:37:48 AM | #
|