Darkness Falls

[LibertyorDeath]

Let's blow this place to kingdom come, let Con Edison take the blame - Bob Dylan

Things fall apart. Other things are pulled apart. The distinction means little to those caught in the collapse, but perhaps those of us who haven't fallen yet may still find a place to stand by discerning one from the other.

Snip


Israeli forces are dropping cluster bombs and incendiaries upon fleeing Lebanese civilians, and under orders to bomb ten buildings in southern Beirut for every Hezbollah rocket that strikes Haifa. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed has learned "from a credible and informed source that a former senior Labour government Minister, who continues to be well-connected to British military and security officials, confirms that Britain and the United States 'will go to war with Iran before the end of the year.'" And with the conscience of a serial killer who exploits her multiple dead in ritual, the Secretary of State says that extreme violence signals the "birth pangs" of a "new" Middle East.

While last Friday, Adamo Bove, a lead investigator into the Italian probe of the rendition of Abu Omar, "apparently jumped to his death." Also Friday, an unnamed Citibank employee fell to his death at its Canary Wharf UK headquarters, a "suspected suicide." And the same day, the chopped-up remains of Opus Dei financier Gianmario Roveraro were found under a bridge, though "police have made no link" between the order and his murder, though the last he had been seen alive was when leaving an Opus Dei meeting. (Roveraro had once said that his part in Opus Dei was "not concerned with finance -- finance is not Catholic or masonic, it is just finance.") And freeway snipers have begun stalking America again before midterm elections, this time in California and Indiana. (Whether they, too, will be caught "like a duck in a noose" remains to be seen.)

Beirut is no more a natural disaster than New Orleans continues to be, where families are now expected to dig their own graves, and no less a product of deep politics than the Pearl Harbor of Lower Manhattan. When cities become ruins, when they go dark and lose the capacity to provide for their people, it's usually on account of choice. It's because someone, an enemy within or without, wants to shoot out the lights and drive a soft urban populace into despair and barbarism. (Military recruitment hit a 30-year low in the mid-90s, and now, as the US economy sharply worsens for those near the bottom and their options further narrow, recruitment soars. But which is more to be desired by the rulers of this new, hard age: economic opportunities for the most poor or more bodies for its Army of Darkness?)

If it looks like social engineering, maybe it is.

posted by Jeff at 2:36 AM 38 comments

http://rigint.blogspot.com/

[Erika]

1. The best laid plans of men

W isn't smart enough to carry through with his plans.