File spoon-archives/foucault.archive/foucault_2002/foucault.0203, message 8


From: "Ali Rizvi" <ali_m_rizvi-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Train More Terrorists!!
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 10:13:08 


Lionel,

I think What Dr. Hanson is attacking has always been a minority view in 
America. I am sure Romans and Greeks would not have even dared to match 
American ferociousness. Who else would have dared to think of wiping whole 
continent of human beings, boming hiroshima and Nagasaki! I think Americans 
do not need Dr. Hanson's or Professor Rorty's advice and now Professor 
Welzer with his pseudo communitarianism. They are attacking a non entity.

America has been from its day one what Rorty has described it to be:

"“. . . we (Americans) are the first thoroughgoing experiment in national 
self-creation: the first nation state with no body but itself to please — 
not even God. We are the greatest poem because we put ourselves in the place 
of God; our essence is our existence, and our existence is in the future. 
Other nations thought of themselves as hymns to the glory of God. We 
redefine God as our future selves”

And Bush has rightly echoed this vision in his much talked about union 
address recently:
"“Even seven thousand miles away, across oceans and continents, on mountain 
tops and in caves, you will not escape the justice of this nation . . . 
Steadfast in our purpose, we now press on. We have known freedom's price. We 
have shown freedom's power. And in this great conflict, my fellow Americans, 
we will see freedom's victory".

And it is not limited to Bush. The so called compassionate american 'left' 
is no different. Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeline Albright as asked 
about the death of ½ million Iraqi children on National TV. She replied that 
“it was hard choice” for the administration” but ‘we think the price is 
worth it”.

No wonder America is the only country in the world to be declared 
'terrorist' by the World court!!

Recent Afghan War has seen the new heights of this American ferociousness. 
Here is a brief summary.

As the recent events in Afghanistan show the American thirst for blood has 
not been quenched in Iraq. It’s so called ‘infinite Justice’ and crusade for 
“enduring freedom” continue to wreak havoc on the downtroddens of the earth. 
According to a Pentagon report 18, 000 bombs and missiles have been fired 
upon Afghanistan by the first week of March. (Tim McGirk, “When Bad 
information Kills People”, Time March 11, 2002). The U.S. has delivered 
approximately 14,500 land mines by 'air delivery' in the form of unexploded 
bombs to Afghan civilians as part of 'Enduring Freedom', which will keep 
reminding them of the ‘fruits’ of freedom for a  long time to come (Lisa 
Getter, "Silent Peril Lies in Wait for Afghanistan's People," Los Angeles 
Times December 1, 2001). The U.S. Air Force has used weapons with enormous 
destructive capability--including fuel air bombs, B-52 carpet bombs, 
BLU-82s, and CBU-87 cluster bombs to ‘daisy cutter bomb’ and the BLU-118B 
thermobaric bomb, known as the "Big Blue Two" bomb. The Pentagon spokesman 
described the ‘daisy cutter bomb’ as “the deadliest bomb in the world other 
than nuclear weapons”. It weighs 15, 000 pounds (about 6, 800 kg), and 
according to the Pentagon spokesperson Stuffebeen “can literally eliminate 
everything around the area with the radius of 600 yards” (Reported by Xinhua 
News Agency, December 10, 2001). In the recent fight around the Gardez area 
“more than 80 thermobaric bombs had already been dropped by Sunday, with the 
explosions heard as far as 20 miles away” (reported in The Guardian March 4, 
2002). According to the report these “ 2,000lb laser-guided bombs penetrate 
complexes and disperse clouds of explosive particles which are detonated by 
a delayed-action fuse. The blast sucks up oxygen, creating a blast which 
collapses lungs, breaks eardrums, and pulls out eyes” (ibid.). The 
disarmament spokesman at Greenpeace, William Peden, described the bombs as 
similar to weapons of mass destruction. He said, "They are inhumane and 
should not be used in a conventional war context," (ibid.).

America has mercilessly and indiscriminately bombed graveyards, hospitals, 
mosques, wedding parties, prayer congregations, caravans, nomads and almost 
everything moving. It has destroyed any remaining infrastructure left after 
years of destruction. It has bombed and destroyed telephone exchanges, power 
stations, electric grids, hydroelectric power stations, independent news 
agencies, utilities, educational institutions, and almost everything and 
anything (I have summarised this from relatively independent Western news 
papers like The Guardian and The Independent London, of the period from 
October 17, 2001 to March 12, 2002. For a very helpful chronology of events 
from  September 11, 2001 to December 2001, see “Timeline: September 11 and 
its aftermath: the war in Afghanistan until December 31, 2001” in Social 
Education, vol. 66 no. 1 Jan-Feb 2002, 25-28).

American indiscriminate bombardment of civilian and civilian facilities is 
not unintentional as it is often claimed, it is the direct consequence of 
American unwillingness to sustain any casualties in the War. As John 
MacLachlen Gray writes: "...better stand clear and fire away. Given this 
implicit decision, the slaughter of innocent people, as a statistical 
eventuality is not an accident but a priority--in which Afghan civilian 
casualties are substituted for American military casualties." ( Maclachlen 
Gray, “Working the Dark Side,”, The Toronto Globe & Mail,  October 31, 
2001.).

Foucault once characterised racism as thrist for blood. May be Americanism 
can be defined as thirst for blood better than racism.

that is it for now.

best regards
ali

The successful resort to overwhelming power against defenseless enemies has 
a bad effect on the character"

NOam Chomsky

For the US, this is the first time since the War of 1812 that its national 
territory has been under attack, even threat. Its colonies have been 
attacked, but not the national territory itself. During these years the US 
virtually exterminated the indigenous population, conquered a large part of 
Mexico, intervened violently in the surrounding region, conquered Hawaii and 
the Philippines (killing hundreds of thousands of Filipinos), and in the 
past half century particularly, extended its resort to force throughout much 
of the world. The number of victims is colossal. For the first time, the 
guns have been directed the other way. The same is true, even more 
dramatically, of Europe. Europe has suffered murderous destruction, but from 
internal wars, meanwhile conquering much of the world with extreme 
brutality. It has not been under attack by its victims outside, with rare 
exceptions. It is therefore natural that NATO should quickly rally to the 
support of the US; hundreds of years of imperial violence have an enormous 
impact on the intellectual and moral culture.
Noam Chomsky


----Original Message Follows----
From: Lionel Boxer <lboxer-AT-hotmail.com>
Reply-To: foucault-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
To: foucault-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu,    
deleuze-guattari-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
Subject: Re: Train More Terrorists!!
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 05:27:23

Nate Goralnik <rhizome85-AT-yahoo.com>

In light of Nate's comments, what does the following article suggest?:

http://www.hillsdale.edu/imprimis/2002/february/default.htm


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