R2-D2
"I'm confident that we will prevail. I'm confident we'll prevail because we have the greatest force for human liberation the world has ever known — the men and women of the United States Armed Forces."
George W. Bush
In its own strange way, Bush's speech was an admission of defeat. Somehow, Vietnam, the American nightmare, had finally bested the man who spent his youth avoiding it and his presidency evading it. The President had finally mounted the tiger you are always advised not to ride and had officially entered the dead zone, where the bodies pile high and victory never appears, taking the rest of the country with him.
Tom Engelhardt | Seven Years in Hell
Below the radar...
I dropped Tom a note several years ago and he was kind enough to respond to it. I no longer have the mails but I do remember the gist of my question to him. "What's the point in writing in opposition?" I asked him. "These people should be hung, drawn and quartered before being fed to dogs starved for the occasion."
Those weren't my exact words, but I did question Tom's strategy.
With measured calm, he pointed out that there would be no revolution, that he would continue writing in opposition to any administration perpetuating the USian hegemon, that every empire disintegrates, and that the best we can hope for is to add one or two cuts to the countless millions inflicted on it during its descent to the dead zone.
Those weren't his exact words but, over the years, Tom has continued writing against empire in that vein and I've continued 'enjoying' his work.
The piece quoted above is extraordinary even by Mr. Engelhardt's high standards and, without any speculative leaps pushing the bounds of credibility, the picture it paints (detailed by Dilip Hiro's fact-laden The Sole Superpower in Decline) is one of an eviscerated empire in belligerent collapse — or, like the World Trade Center several years ago, explosive free fall.
In short; the victory culture is running on empty, its militarized society has nowhere to run to, and the future will give its people no place to hide. The U.S. has entered the dead zone.
Great writing by a great, albeit quiet commentator.
Noting the above , I don't fully agree with Tom's analysis of the U.S. as an Empire of Stupidity and, over the next couple of days, I'll tell you why. In the meantime though, I thought I'd link to the type of article the mainstream media should have been publishing decades ago.
I'm doing it on the run, anticipating my being sucked out of cyberspace for yet another enforced hiatus. Who knows? Maybe it won't happen and I will follow through on this one...
