Paul Grenier writes a creative dialogue on torture between an anonymous (and imaginary) Ambassador, a Scientist, a Journalist, and a Professor (emeritus) at Ethika Politika.
Terror, Torture, and Human Solidarity: Part I
Terror, Torture, and Human Solidarity: Part II
Photo credit: Ethika Politika
Sexual Assault Against Women in the Armed Forces
In this article, Joachim Hogopian gives an excellent overview of the problem of sexual assault in the military and the developments (and disappointments) related to the pursuit of justice that have unfolded in the past couple of years, but my only problem with it is that he offers a pretty traditional “feminist” critique, framing it as a problem of sexism, chauvinism, and an “old boys network” that gives sexual predators in the military only a slap on the wrist for committing the most violent and egregious crimes against women. While that certainly is true, and the justice system in the military can hardly be called that when it comes to sexual crimes, my feeling is that the rates of sexual assault in the military are less a gender issue and more like a spiritual issue. If you train people in aggression, violence, subjugation, exploitation, hate, and the use of force on a mass scale, and you send them out to utilize those “skills” year after year, how can you be surprised when they begin to act that way on a smaller scale and on an interpersonal level? These statistics are indicative of something far more sinister than sexism.
Matthew 7, 15-16: “By their fruits you will know them.”
A beautiful scene from “Jesus of Nazareth,” a television miniseries from 1977.
St. Patrick, Enlightener of Ireland
Quotation on the scroll is from the Epistola Ad Milites Coroti, one of the two remaining authentic writings of St. Patrick (d. AD 432).
An anti-war protest song against the British colonial wars in Ceylon ( Shri Lanka ) at the end of the 18th century. Sung by British opera singer Benjamin Luxon accompanied by American folk singer Bill Crofut on the banjo. e song is a monologue by an Irish woman who meets her former lover on the road to Athy, which is in County Kildare, Ireland. After their illegitimate child was born, the lover ran away and became a soldier. He was badly disfigured, losing his legs, his arms, his eyes and, in some versions, his nose, in fighting on the island of “Sulloon”, or Ceylon (now known as Sri Lank), and will have to be put in (or, in some versions, with) a bowl to beg. In spite of all this, the woman says, she is happy to see him and will keep him on as her beau.
While goin’ the road to sweet Athy, hurroo, hurroo
While goin’ the road to sweet Athy, hurroo, hurroo
While goin’ the road to sweet Athy
A stick in me hand and a tear in me eye
A doleful damsel I heard cry,
Johnny I hardly knew ye.
Chorus:
With your drums and guns and guns and drums, hurroo, hurroo
With your drums and guns and guns and drums, hurroo, hurroo
With your drums and guns and guns and drums
The enemy nearly slew ye
Oh my darling dear, Ye look so queer
Johnny I hardly knew ye.
Where are the eyes that looked so mild, hurroo, hurroo
Where are the eyes that looked so mild, hurroo, hurroo
Where are the eyes that looked so mild
When my poor heart you first beguiled
Why did ye scadaddle from me and the child
Oh Johnny, I hardly knew ye.
(Chorus)
Where are your legs that used to run, hurroo, hurroo
Where are your legs that used to run, hurroo, hurroo
Where are your legs that used to run
When you went to carry a gun
Indeed your dancing days are done
Oh Johnny, I hardly knew ye.
(Chorus)
I’m happy for to see ye home, hurroo, hurroo
I’m happy for to see ye home, hurroo, hurroo
I’m happy for to see ye home
All from the island of Ceylon
So low in the flesh, so high in the bone
Oh Johnny I hardly knew ye.
(Chorus)
Ye haven’t an arm, ye haven’t a leg, hurroo, hurroo
Ye haven’t an arm, ye haven’t a leg, hurroo, hurroo
Ye haven’t an arm, ye haven’t a leg
Ye’re an armless, boneless, chickenless egg
Ye’ll have to be put with a bowl out to beg
Oh Johnny I hardly knew ye.
(Chorus)
They’re rolling out the guns again, hurroo, hurroo
They’re rolling out the guns again, hurroo, hurroo
They’re rolling out the guns again
But they never will take my sons again
No they’ll never take my sons again
Johnny I’m swearing to ye.
Here’s a Joan Baez version:
An important new book called “Another 19: Investigating 9/11 Suspects” has been written by Kevin Robert Ryan, investigating “another 19” possible suspects besides Osama bin Laden and the handful of young Arabs, suspects who had three key things in any investigation: means, motive, and opportunity.
Before you dismiss it as a “conspiracy theory,” keep in mind that the official narrative of 9/11 is itself a conspiracy theory which has not been proven true by any acceptable standard. For a quick overview of the official conspiracy theory, watch this well done video (five minutes):
As a former Congressional staff member with top secret security clearance, Mike Lofgren crunched the numbers for 28 years as part of the House and Senate Budget Committees and found that the numbers didn’t add up. The numbers led him to connect the dots to America’s “deep state”: where elected and unelected figures collude to protect and serve powerful vested interests. He left the Republican party and wrote The Party Is Over.
Now he has written an essay called The Anatomy of the Deep State. It is a must-read.
An interview with Bill Moyers is below. “He says: I’m not a conspiracy theorist…This is something that hides in plain sight. It’s something we know about but we can’t connect the dots, or most people can’t.”
He talks about a hybrid of corporate America and the national security state. He also talks about Group Think, “a kind of assimilation of the views of your superiors and peers,” a all out plague in Washington.
Moyers: “If the ideology of the deep state is not right or left, Democrat or Republican, what is it?”
Lofgren: “It’s an ideology. I just don’t think we’ve named it. It’s kind of corporatism. Now the actors in this drama tend to steer clear of social issues. They pretend to be merely neutral servants of the State giving the best advice possible on national security or financial matters, but they hold a very deep ideology of the Washington consensus at home, which is deregulation, outsourcing, de-industrialization and financialization and they believe in American exceptionalism abroad, which is: boots on the ground everywhere, it’s our right to meddle everywhere in the world, and the result of that is perpetual war.”
He does end on a hopeful note: