Sunday, February 08, 2004
The outcome of battle can have its up and downs but its purpose and meaning can blur the shape of the war at large if there tangibly speaking exists such a war.
Just about every day or at least every other day in the news one will hear about some US soldier getting killed or severely injured by some type of attack in Iraq. The weird thing about all of this is that this has happened at a time when we thought all too well that we have liberated a country from an evil despot whom we found living in a spider hole just as though he was another person. If we can put the pieces together and ask ourselves why after the liberation of Iraq that we have more US casualties and perhaps mounting instability in a region of the world we thought that we have under control. There are several answers to this question but each of them as I will so list will not at make simple a highly complex international situation. The first reason for all this weirdness is that we are living in an age where strategic warfare is simply something no more. With this comes other factors, among them the obselescence of nuclear weapon. Even though in places like North Korea nuclear war or deployment still looms, it is trivial considering the other stuff going on in the world. One would also be surprise to learn that in the coming ages of global wars and stuff refugee migration will have more environmental harm than nuclear weapons. Or as a scientist once states that all the things we do in the world as far as environmental harm is akin to thousands of nuclear bombs being dropped a day. So we need not to be pre-occupied about nuclear war in North Korea. It is only as nuclear weapons being used as tactical targets(ie medium and low range nukes like you see in Iran India and Pakistan plays a decisive role) that would really matter. If nuclear weapons isn't the big fear that haunted us during the cold war, then what is? The demon that is supposedly taunting us as to why is Iraq is becoming an increasing threat in and of itself and why nuclear weapons are obsolete is itself alarming. What makes it so is that we have to take a look at one aspect of global behavior that is becoming the cornerstone in shaping the outcomes of conflict and events and that has to do with the concept of eluding. In liberating Afghanistan we have unveiled a world in which its history and its abiltity to manipulate through the wars and civil wars in part of its geographic distinctiveness. In the case of Afghanistan and Pakistan it is the use of caves and tunnels. Such areas are nothing more than reservoirs for states to maintain its credibility as being rogue states, to traffic narcotics, weapons, and soldiers for wars throughout the region, and to test whatever hold the US have as a major global broker these days. We can take a look at history on two recent events that has shaped American foreign policy. The first is the decline of the USSR and the second is the September 11th 2001 event. The end of the Soviet Union as some would know represents the demise of socialism and communism. However, I would strongly agree with certain critics that it meant the end of anything of Western values in any forms, in this regard of its nature being applied to every country or group of people. In theory we are living in era that capitalism and democracy are values that in essence can be short lived. Whatever that will come in its place may or may not require new philosphy but a new concept of history. The terrorist act that happened two years ago perhaps is a resonance if not a deathro of the Soviet Union decline. For it is in this even much like we shall see in future newsbreaking events on this level of ordinary people though from different lands who just used their smart to wire money attend flight school and use enough wit to hijack and take over our airlines. It is here that it is important to realize that if what defines a culture is to be open to outside influence such as multiculturalism or universal Christianity then it would hold that the state is itself will have to change with that notion. but the state proper will perhaps in itself suffer epileptic political changes. Even if the US supposedly maintained a stronger exclusion and protective approach with the Patriot Act there is nothing to conclude that if there is any cultural convulsions that the Patriot Act will be futile and nothing more than something intrusive of days long ago. It is not here that I should argue the legitimacy of the Patriot Act even though one must questioned the almost unlimited authority the government has and weigh that against protecting national interest versus individual civil liberty. The case in Iraq would be that it too was a despotic state that benefited both ways during the Cold War. Its remaining future must and (consequently had) not necessarily be in a way that it has to disrobe its authoritarian values and adopt the American creed but it has to enter the 'let loose' of the post modern era. One of the consequences of the post modern era is its post industrial base. It is here why states such as Iraq is increasingly dangerous. Let us take an imaginary approach with the World Trade Center and said that the second airplane that crashed into the other tower was caused by a tractor beam or suppose that there is some type of new technology that was out there that aided the terrorist in their quest. If there were something out there like this the reason for it being so has to do with ongoing gowing feeding of computers getting faster, creating waste that harms the environment and developing intense energy that impose some types of unleashing.(This idea is borrowed from Iasabel Paterson's classic the 'The God and the Machine'). In this case it would be the WTC which is one of my theories that I usually argue that there are mere energies at work that has to be developed and vented. It is too here that post-modernism and post-industrialism becomes self-inflicted victims to the extent that any age no matter how loosely and tightly constructed will produce massive amount of energy that would force cataclysmic cultural shifts, geo global war and extreme techological revolutions. It can radically shift paradigms as I keep on reiterating in the case of the Virginia Sniper case in the entry below. It is here why Iraq is dangerous, precisely that the forces of these energies plays a role in the so called imminent age of super technologies and super societies. One of the prerequisites for this is its post-institutional effect that is the destruction and banishment of institutions as we know it. It is strange to promote the fact that the concept of family and family values, work, religion, and the like are fast decaying and in a matter of decades becoming nothing more than dinosaurs. It is very difficult to live with this fact but it is fact worth remembering and not forgetting if we should realize that these are things we are adjusting our daily lives to live by...all we have to do is adjust our world view towards such. A post institutional effect doesn't neglect one other factor and that is the state. The arguement for the desolation of the state comes from notable scholars who argue that the idea of "violence" was monopolized by the nation-state system and that in recent years it has slipped to mafias, warlords, irregular armies and paramilitaries. This has to be one of the most accurate description of the state. Violence as it is so spoken will be monopolized in more or less in other political and social dimensions. These are states or societies that are imaginary and for some bizarre reasons that are breeded on ideas. Western values won't at all disappeared just tamed and categorized as a feature that can be a danger to itself like these crazy ballot and referendums from abolishing rent control and restricting affirmative action and this ridiculous recall election in the state of California or the restriction of punitive awards in medical malpractice in Texas. Technology itself will be so explosive in the up and coming years to manifest these desires. Now it isn't hear to argue whether or not human beings are determinist or not ; though they would look so on the surface however deep down inside philosophical and empirical lenses will prove so otherwise. Clothing fashion, what we read in the magazines or watch on TV or at the movies will perhaps be one of the immediate signs of this backlash whereas to survive in the future we will have to allow for the rushing changes to take us away. This is again nothing more than imaginary stuff. So in the case of Iraq only a state that shares something worth being ideal will survive. Other than that with new forms of weapons that supposedly giving that there exist a middle class educated core in just about every part of the world can make hand held weapons dangerous enough to blow up a tank like paper cups. With nuclear weapons, would be replace by--what?--fusion cannons or plasma technology like you see in the movie 'Starship Troopers.' Hulk like creatures that can act as super commandos or super soldiers, simple creatures that you see like people who walk their dogs or the pigeons gathering around are nothing but robots in disguise, stealth and invisible technologies, imaginary armies, gods and goddesses, and not to forget virtual states. Yet it will be a 'synthesis' of the early half of this century such that those ideal states envisioned by Lenin, Hitler, or Mao will have to come to some type of fruition but without the crazy idea of as Isaiah Berlin describes using humans or groups of people like a canvass or as an "art of free creation." This time it would be probably the reverse.
So what lurks out there? Are there whole states or threats that has been ignored by history? Is there a such of a galactic quest whereas that there might be an alternate earth other civilisations out there? If there are threats of the future can you imagine that the US have anti-armies. More like knights or samauris or even robots something that isn't 'popular' but 'noble and esoteric or perverse' in that nature....Can this be part of the anti-army of the future. Something of Macross or Robotech? Weird thought
Just about every day or at least every other day in the news one will hear about some US soldier getting killed or severely injured by some type of attack in Iraq. The weird thing about all of this is that this has happened at a time when we thought all too well that we have liberated a country from an evil despot whom we found living in a spider hole just as though he was another person. If we can put the pieces together and ask ourselves why after the liberation of Iraq that we have more US casualties and perhaps mounting instability in a region of the world we thought that we have under control. There are several answers to this question but each of them as I will so list will not at make simple a highly complex international situation. The first reason for all this weirdness is that we are living in an age where strategic warfare is simply something no more. With this comes other factors, among them the obselescence of nuclear weapon. Even though in places like North Korea nuclear war or deployment still looms, it is trivial considering the other stuff going on in the world. One would also be surprise to learn that in the coming ages of global wars and stuff refugee migration will have more environmental harm than nuclear weapons. Or as a scientist once states that all the things we do in the world as far as environmental harm is akin to thousands of nuclear bombs being dropped a day. So we need not to be pre-occupied about nuclear war in North Korea. It is only as nuclear weapons being used as tactical targets(ie medium and low range nukes like you see in Iran India and Pakistan plays a decisive role) that would really matter. If nuclear weapons isn't the big fear that haunted us during the cold war, then what is? The demon that is supposedly taunting us as to why is Iraq is becoming an increasing threat in and of itself and why nuclear weapons are obsolete is itself alarming. What makes it so is that we have to take a look at one aspect of global behavior that is becoming the cornerstone in shaping the outcomes of conflict and events and that has to do with the concept of eluding. In liberating Afghanistan we have unveiled a world in which its history and its abiltity to manipulate through the wars and civil wars in part of its geographic distinctiveness. In the case of Afghanistan and Pakistan it is the use of caves and tunnels. Such areas are nothing more than reservoirs for states to maintain its credibility as being rogue states, to traffic narcotics, weapons, and soldiers for wars throughout the region, and to test whatever hold the US have as a major global broker these days. We can take a look at history on two recent events that has shaped American foreign policy. The first is the decline of the USSR and the second is the September 11th 2001 event. The end of the Soviet Union as some would know represents the demise of socialism and communism. However, I would strongly agree with certain critics that it meant the end of anything of Western values in any forms, in this regard of its nature being applied to every country or group of people. In theory we are living in era that capitalism and democracy are values that in essence can be short lived. Whatever that will come in its place may or may not require new philosphy but a new concept of history. The terrorist act that happened two years ago perhaps is a resonance if not a deathro of the Soviet Union decline. For it is in this even much like we shall see in future newsbreaking events on this level of ordinary people though from different lands who just used their smart to wire money attend flight school and use enough wit to hijack and take over our airlines. It is here that it is important to realize that if what defines a culture is to be open to outside influence such as multiculturalism or universal Christianity then it would hold that the state is itself will have to change with that notion. but the state proper will perhaps in itself suffer epileptic political changes. Even if the US supposedly maintained a stronger exclusion and protective approach with the Patriot Act there is nothing to conclude that if there is any cultural convulsions that the Patriot Act will be futile and nothing more than something intrusive of days long ago. It is not here that I should argue the legitimacy of the Patriot Act even though one must questioned the almost unlimited authority the government has and weigh that against protecting national interest versus individual civil liberty. The case in Iraq would be that it too was a despotic state that benefited both ways during the Cold War. Its remaining future must and (consequently had) not necessarily be in a way that it has to disrobe its authoritarian values and adopt the American creed but it has to enter the 'let loose' of the post modern era. One of the consequences of the post modern era is its post industrial base. It is here why states such as Iraq is increasingly dangerous. Let us take an imaginary approach with the World Trade Center and said that the second airplane that crashed into the other tower was caused by a tractor beam or suppose that there is some type of new technology that was out there that aided the terrorist in their quest. If there were something out there like this the reason for it being so has to do with ongoing gowing feeding of computers getting faster, creating waste that harms the environment and developing intense energy that impose some types of unleashing.(This idea is borrowed from Iasabel Paterson's classic the 'The God and the Machine'). In this case it would be the WTC which is one of my theories that I usually argue that there are mere energies at work that has to be developed and vented. It is too here that post-modernism and post-industrialism becomes self-inflicted victims to the extent that any age no matter how loosely and tightly constructed will produce massive amount of energy that would force cataclysmic cultural shifts, geo global war and extreme techological revolutions. It can radically shift paradigms as I keep on reiterating in the case of the Virginia Sniper case in the entry below. It is here why Iraq is dangerous, precisely that the forces of these energies plays a role in the so called imminent age of super technologies and super societies. One of the prerequisites for this is its post-institutional effect that is the destruction and banishment of institutions as we know it. It is strange to promote the fact that the concept of family and family values, work, religion, and the like are fast decaying and in a matter of decades becoming nothing more than dinosaurs. It is very difficult to live with this fact but it is fact worth remembering and not forgetting if we should realize that these are things we are adjusting our daily lives to live by...all we have to do is adjust our world view towards such. A post institutional effect doesn't neglect one other factor and that is the state. The arguement for the desolation of the state comes from notable scholars who argue that the idea of "violence" was monopolized by the nation-state system and that in recent years it has slipped to mafias, warlords, irregular armies and paramilitaries. This has to be one of the most accurate description of the state. Violence as it is so spoken will be monopolized in more or less in other political and social dimensions. These are states or societies that are imaginary and for some bizarre reasons that are breeded on ideas. Western values won't at all disappeared just tamed and categorized as a feature that can be a danger to itself like these crazy ballot and referendums from abolishing rent control and restricting affirmative action and this ridiculous recall election in the state of California or the restriction of punitive awards in medical malpractice in Texas. Technology itself will be so explosive in the up and coming years to manifest these desires. Now it isn't hear to argue whether or not human beings are determinist or not ; though they would look so on the surface however deep down inside philosophical and empirical lenses will prove so otherwise. Clothing fashion, what we read in the magazines or watch on TV or at the movies will perhaps be one of the immediate signs of this backlash whereas to survive in the future we will have to allow for the rushing changes to take us away. This is again nothing more than imaginary stuff. So in the case of Iraq only a state that shares something worth being ideal will survive. Other than that with new forms of weapons that supposedly giving that there exist a middle class educated core in just about every part of the world can make hand held weapons dangerous enough to blow up a tank like paper cups. With nuclear weapons, would be replace by--what?--fusion cannons or plasma technology like you see in the movie 'Starship Troopers.' Hulk like creatures that can act as super commandos or super soldiers, simple creatures that you see like people who walk their dogs or the pigeons gathering around are nothing but robots in disguise, stealth and invisible technologies, imaginary armies, gods and goddesses, and not to forget virtual states. Yet it will be a 'synthesis' of the early half of this century such that those ideal states envisioned by Lenin, Hitler, or Mao will have to come to some type of fruition but without the crazy idea of as Isaiah Berlin describes using humans or groups of people like a canvass or as an "art of free creation." This time it would be probably the reverse.
So what lurks out there? Are there whole states or threats that has been ignored by history? Is there a such of a galactic quest whereas that there might be an alternate earth other civilisations out there? If there are threats of the future can you imagine that the US have anti-armies. More like knights or samauris or even robots something that isn't 'popular' but 'noble and esoteric or perverse' in that nature....Can this be part of the anti-army of the future. Something of Macross or Robotech? Weird thought
# posted by Jamie @ 8:44 PM 
