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[Tars]

Sadly, some things don't seem to change

["Mad" Miles]

Tars,

We seem destined to debate....

I loved this video...

But have a major quibble with it.

While it says "what I think and feel", it's comparison of the weaponry and destructive power from the Vietnam War (and the Cambodian and Laotian Wars) to the firepower used, and being used, in Iraq (and Afghanistan) is ham-handed hyperbole, the kind that deligitimates peace and anti-war arguments in the minds of anyone who pays attention to the details of military and political history.

We're not using napalm in I&A (phospherous yes, which is even more horrific [burns to the bone], was used in Southeast Asia and the use of it is an internationally sanctioned War Crime).

We're not engaging in high altitude high-explosive carpet bombing from B-52's, at least not for the last several years. "We" did in the opening phases of our attacks on Afghanistan (against Al Queda and the Taliban) and Iraq.

The firepower now deployed is much more destructive, and focused. Predator Drone rocket and missile attacks. Blackhawk helicoptor strafing and rocketing, etc. are all technologies only dreamed of during the era of American Imperialism (U.S.) from 1963 to 1972.

Does that mean civilians aren't being killed, maimed and otherwise shredded in large numbers? Of course not! But it is a different kind of conflict, with specific details that are specific to the time and place. Claims that it is "just the same" feed into easily made counter-arguments from the Right that accuse us in the Peace camp of being oblivious to the facts.

(Not that facts are the be all and end all of understanding and arguing about "reality". They, like numbers, are always subject to interpretation and debate. And are secondary to interest and the use of powerful force to shape and control reality..., or not.)


Finally, and this is aside from my argument with the video and how it conflates different eras, and different military technologies (or, put better as, exponentially advanced military technologies), I've always loved and have been in awe of Jimmy's rendition of the "SSB" at Woodstock.

But recently I was told by someone who was there that he performed it at 2:30 a.m. on the last night, when tens of thousands of burnt out festival goers were trying to get some ZZZ's.

For me, this put a whole new interpretation on his iconic version of our national anthem that I'm still trying to figure out.

Self-indulgent "Fuck You Hippies" agitprop from a solopsistic drug addicted artist?

Or a sincere effort to wake the world up to the horrors of his country's crimes?

Or everything in between and much more?

Hey, I'm a congenital nightowl frustrated by a ridiculous schedule that demands I rise before dawn, so my sympathies are with a party animal like Mr. Hendrix was reported to have been.

Haven't decided for myself, and frankly, given the timing, not too sure it matters. It's not like we can ask him to see what was going on in his mind at the time!


Happy Independence Day.

Just what was it we're now "independent" of?

Aristocratic arrogance?

Royal edicts without the consent of the governed?

Interference with the property rights of the local large landholders?

Violations of the basic rights of English Common Law, in particular the right to Habeas Corpus?

.......?!


Just why was the American Revolution fought?

Might we not be better off if we were all Canadians?

At least we'd have socialized medicine, other decent social services and a sense of decorum, neatness and domestic order bordering on OCD!


Oh yeah, we're "Free"!

Tell that to my students.


Embrace the Absurdity, before the Absurdity Embraces YOU!


"Mad" Miles