The Power of Nightmares

I’ve just watched a terrific film on BBC2 by Adam Curtis on the origins of Al Qaeda and the US Neocon movement. Two depressing sides of the same coin: both comprised of folks who know (with a fanatical certainty that is immune to rationality) what is the case. Here’s an excerpt from the BBC blurb:

“At the heart of the story are two groups: the American neoconservatives and the radical Islamists. Both were idealists who were born out of the failure of the liberal dream to build a better world. These two groups have changed the world but not in the way either intended. Together they created today’s nightmare vision of an organised terror network. A fantasy that politicians then found restored their power and authority in a disillusioned age. Those with the darkest fears became the most powerful.

The rise of the Politics of Fear begins in 1949 with two men whose radical ideas would inspire the attack of 9/11 and influence the neoconservative movement that dominates Washington. Both these men believed that modern liberal freedoms were eroding the bonds that held society together. The two movements they inspired set out, in their different ways, to rescue their societies from this decay. But in an age of growing disillusion with politics, the neoconservatives turned to fear in order to pursue their vision. They would create a hidden network of evil run by the Soviet Union that only they could see. The Islamists were faced by the refusal of the masses to follow their dream and began to turn to terror to force the people to ‘see the truth’.”

The Draft issue

On September 26 I wrote about the strange silence surrounding the legislation currently before the US Congress enabling universal conscription (including women). Now it’s finally begun to surface in the US presidential campaign. Here’s an insightful posting by Joshua Micah Marshall on the subject:

“My point, as I’ve said previously, is not that there will necessarily be a draft or that the Bush administration is planning one or wants one. The point is that the administraiton has pursued a mix of policies that make it a very real possibility — not because the administration wants a draft, but because they may drive the country into a position where we have no choice.

Take the president’s comment to the Associated Press. We have the manpower to deal with another major theater conflict in North Korea or Iran? Really? The US military is under great strain now with current deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. How can we possibly have sufficient manpower to handle an all-out war with North Korea and its aftermath, without pushing the all-volunteer military past its breaking point?

Through a mix of conscious policy and mismanagement, the White House has gotten us to the point where another major conflict would be quite difficult to sustain for a number of reasons. The point of a debate about a potential draft is to weigh the consequences of those policies and that record of mismanagement.

By making categorical statements that are false on their face — i.e., there will never be a draft — the White House is trying to avoid or cut short that debate. And that makes sense because when you have the debate on its merits, a draft does seem like a real possibility.”

I want one of those

It’s called TV-B-Gone and it’s a universal remote controls that turns off almost any television. The device, which looks like the key-fob one has for a car, has just one button. When activated, it spends over a minute flashing out 209 different codes to turn off televisions, the most popular brands first. Just think — every time you go into a bar or a cafe or an airport lounge with some daft TV show blaring in the corner, you can unobtrusively zap it. Mmmm…..

That bulge in Dubya’s suit…

… is an iPod!

Link.

The most bizarre campaign website so far

Some of Dubya’s relatives have put together the site Bush Relatives for Kerry with the message “Don’t vote for our cousin”. Why? “Because blood is thinner than oil”.