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In December of ’04 a small group of poets, philosophers, linguists, historians, meditation/yoga experts, mathematicians and computer hackers, came together to work on a revolutionary new project. The radical nature of the project attracted sneers and condemnation from many at the time. Nevertheless, it was eventually approved, funded and given external assistance whenever the group required.
The plan was radical to the extreme; next to it all previous undertakings appeared tame, almost schoolish! The objective was to reverse, in the most profound manner possible, the traditional ideological, cultural and social direction of the USA – a tall order which was made all the more difficult as we would be restricted to the use of only one major tool, LANGUAGE! But as former Defence Secretary Rumsfeld once stated, “you go to war with the military you have, not the one you would like to have!” And of course you go to war in entirely the wrong location to compensate for an inadequately equipped military! But that’s an old familiar story!
Notwithstanding the limited ‘weapons’ in our armoury, it soon became apparent why this motley crew had been assembled. Language it turned out, was the only weapon required to fulfil mission requirements and achieve our objective, provided it was utilised EFFECTIVELY!
Due to its ubiquitous/pervasive nature and the constraints we faced, we soon realised it was the PERFECT weapon for our needs.
After the usual briefings and familiarisation protocols, the team OUR team, set to work. We were as One in mind and spirit and failure was not an option!
We hoped to transform the world’s most expansive liberal democracy into a CONTRACTIVE, fearful, oppressed, totalitarian, criminal, terrorist State! And if I may pre-empt the result, the success of our endeavours is plain for all to see!
Today the USA is a mere shadow of its former self, thanks to a keen group of exceptional specialists. The one-time liberal democracy is now set on an irreversible course to something resembling a Nazi or Stalinist State and nothing can prevent the inevitable occurring!
[Due to space and time constraints I must abandon short story mode and cut directly to the chase.]
Our western trained semioticians were assisted in their task by an awesome concept, known as ‘Matrika Shakti;’ a philosophical concept from India! The concept or expression loosely translates as the ‘power inherent in [alphabetical] letters’ [to alter consciousness/mind/culture/reality via the conduit or medium of LANGUAGE.]
Language as we all know is the ‘fertile soil’ in which ALL cultures take root, grow and flourish! Language creates culture not the reverse that is the reason certain interests go to such absurd lengths to disguise what they really do by using innocuous terms or euphemisms – torture easily becomes ‘waterboarding’ in cultures that have much to hide or habeas corpus becomes ‘preventive detention,’ regardless of the presumption of innocence in Civil Law!
But to return to the specifically Tantrik philosophical concept of Matrika Shakti; it seems western semiotics has a one-thousand-year-old heritage in the East.
According to Tantra Philosophy [see pdf] those who have mastered or ‘possess’ Matrika Shakti, gain control over the entire phenomenological universe – the current reversal of American values offers ample PROOF to the effectiveness of the claim! In other words, and remaining in context, altering the course and character of a nation becomes a trifling matter if one possesses control over the entire phenomenological universe (or Maya!)
The theory is simple; the affective power (agents) of language are the UNITS of sound/vibrational root utterances the alphabetical letters of language represent! Language is at once appreciated as sign, symbol and sound, as indicated by the alliterative combination of words -- western semioticians have generally overlooked the material component of sound!
It should be stated that language is here used in its total textual sense; a bark tree is included as well as its linguistic signifier ‘tree;’ what should be noted is the manner in which the signifier affects the character of the ‘actual’ bark tree or that which is signified!
It is known that the Inuit people possess over a dozen linguistic signifiers for snow, whereas non-native people have only one limited signifier for ‘snow.’ The limited appreciation of non-natives may explain the lack of sensitivity to subtle harmonies and mutually-affecting relationships found in nature – our devastated environment is testimony to the fact; it should be noted that Western cultures are primarily responsible for the pollution that has created the climate crisis! [Personally I would demand reparations, as it is easily proven!] A coalition of hundreds of affected and INSISTENT nations should reap rewards!
The effect language has on consciousness/perception is dramatic; the subtle depths/levels and manner in which language functions in consciousness is largely unknown in the West but not so in the East.
The Mongols once vanquished the Occidental West with superior KNOWLEDGE, technology, strategy, values and SKILL – the West had no answer for the tactics, discipline and SKILL of the Mongol armies. Today a similar situation arises but with the most unlikely of ‘weapons.’
The West has again been completely vanquished by superior strategies and SKILL. Eastern methods have been applied successfully to alter the course of the once most powerful nation on the planet; today America ranks behind the Sino-Russian/BRIC/SCO group and alliance – further evidence of the effectiveness of the method!
It was a simple matter to make ourselves known to the NSA, other government agencies and some corporate think tanks – once we had their ATTENTION the rest was relatively easy. [See ‘The American Dream,’ (link below) note the date of publication and wonder no longer what happened to your freedom of movement and ‘private’ conversations!] Needless to say that minor revelation is ‘not the half of it!’
America today stands defeated yet is unaware of the fact – in a few short years a profound tragedy has occurred in the USA yet the people are immobilised and remain in torpor! Truly the American people are FIT FOR THEIR (future) SLAUGHTER, one that will occur from within! How many completely INNOCENT citizens are now on the ‘terrorist’ watch list, over one million and COUNTING? Yet the population remains passive – for reasons very clear to us but blurred to YOU!
The contractive US leadership has undergone a complete psychological transformation – the USA today is 180 degrees from its former position. That dramatic REVERSAL occurred in just a few short years – quite an achievement if we do say so ourselves!
If we combine the results of non-provoked ‘outsourcing’ with our methods of turning the HUGE American surveillance apparatus onto itself, American LUNACY becomes all too clear! ‘Outsourcing’ (GIFTING) the Banking and Financial sectors to us was an unexpected bonus – who else would entrust their family jewels to the hands of strangers. Try and comprehend the tremendous predicament you have created for yourselves -- we now romp undetected in almost every major US computer network.
It must feel odd knowing that you no longer have control of your most precious means of manipulation – FINANCE and BANKING! The tragic joke is on you gentlemen and your completely paralysed population.
Other coded, subliminal and overt semantic/semiotic triggers are dispersed throughout this site; we have proven once again the superiority and effectiveness of patience, persistence stoicism and bending to a strong wind when necessary!
In five short years hundreds of our trainees now operate deep within your institutions and networks in ways you are not able to detect or fathom – our REALITY is now part of your Dream!
Even your decision to launch may not be your own – what a day for an American dream!
The CIA is said to have carried out at least 16 Predator strikes in Pakistan during the first four months of this year Tom Baldwin Washington America has stepped up the covert targeted killing policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan despite the concern of security experts about its effectiveness and complaints by human rights groups about civilian casualties.
The CIA is said to have carried out at least 16 Predator strikes in Pakistan during the first four months of this year, compared with 36 strikes in the whole of 2008. These have killed about 161 people since President Obama’s inauguration, according to news reports in Pakistan.
David Kilcullen, who was the chief counter-terrorism adviser to Condoleezza Rice, the former Secretary of State, has said that the programme should be scrapped. “Since 2006 we’ve killed 14 senior al-Qaeda leaders using drone strikes; in the same time period we’ve killed 700 Pakistani civilians in the same area. The drone strikes are highly unpopular.” he said. “The current path that we are on is leading us to the loss of Pakistani Government control over its own population.”
Leon Panetta, the CIA director, said: “Serious pressures have been brought to bear on al-Qaeda’s leaders in Pakistan’s tribal areas. There is ample evidence that our strategy is in fact working. We do not expect to let up on that strategy.” Asked about Mr Kilcullen’s comments, he suggested that sometimes civilian deaths from other operations including less precise F-16 jet strikes are blamed on the drones.
[Kilcullen happens to be perfectly correct but NOTE the sentiments of the administration and executive; they remain unmoved and 'convinced' that drone strikes are a 'successful' strategy! However, reality CLEARLY dictates otherwise; drone strikes inflame massive resentment against the USA and its allies. In fact, extremist groups couldn't have asked for more assistance in recruiting fighters!
The U.S. executive remains committed to its present suicidal course, one that has not changed since Karl Rove extolled the 'virtues' of drone warfare. The administration will not, CANNOT, veer from a course outlined (and implanted) for them by others. You have NO idea, NONE whatsoever!]
"And no one dared disturb the sound of silence." Paul Simon
While I suppose one could argue that it's too early to start identifying the most under-reported story of the 21st century to date, I should think that the actual death and human suffering toll in Iraq might top the list of almost any discerning journalist, academic, policymaker, or for that matter, peacemaker. The fact that the scale and scope of the tragedy has been successfully obscured, so far, is in itself quite a story, though perhaps one with an ending that may leave our collective sense of fundamental goodness more than a bit shaken.
How is it that we in America haven't considered this question seriously? I understand we're in the throes of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. I understand we're shedding jobs at an alarming rate. I get it that hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions, are at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure. No one disputes that these are tough times for a great many people in this country.
But what are the people of Iraq facing? What must it be like to be a survivor of the Iraqi War? Let's start with what's been reported so far.
The website Iraq Body Count has cross documented the violent deaths of between 90,000 to 100,000 Iraqi civilians since the 2003 American led invasion and occupation. Most experts agree that this number is, in all probability, significantly below the actual death toll.
A study by researchers at Johns Hopkins estimated that as of July, 2006, the death toll had exceeded 600,000 people.
A September 2007 study by the prestigious British polling firm Opinion Research Business, put the death toll at 1.2 million Iraqis.
Calculating a rate of increase derived from the numbers reported on Iraq Body Count, (and assuming that the survey methodologies of the Johns Hopkins and Opinion Business Research studies are sound), Just Foreign Policy estimates the current number of Iraqi dead at roughly 1.3 million people.
MIT researcher John Tirman has reported that there are perhaps 1 million Iraqi widows, up to 5 million orphans, and 4.5 million refugees as a result of the war.
What do these numbers mean? For the sake of trying to understand let's pick a number halfway between the Iraq Body Count and Just Foreign Policy estimates. Let's assume that 650,000 Iraqi's have suffered violent deaths since 2003. Let's further assume that the halfway mark also applies to the number of widows, orphans and refugees the war has produced. Then let's put these numbers into context by noting that the population of Iraq in 2003 was roughly one tenth the population of the United States, and then by taking an imaginative leap. Here goes.
A brutal tyrant ascends to power in America, crushing opposition political parties, murdering dissidents and destroying our civil liberties. The European Union and Canada decide to invade in order to "liberate" the American people. And in the ensuing war 6.5 million civilians die violently from military and sectarian conflicts. Civilians, mind you. And the war also produces 6.5 million widows, 25 million orphans, and another 20 milion people displaced from their homes, or become refugees. And the numbers might be double that. 12 Million dead. 40 million refugees. 50 million orphans. Think about it for a moment, if you can.
Tens and tens of millions of Americans would know someone who had been killed in the war. Tens and tens of millions more would know war widows and orphans, or of neighbors, friends or family who fled elsewhere to escape the violence, perhaps permanently displaced. And tens and tens of millions more would have seen violent death and injury first hand. And all of this death and suffering against the backdrop of a destroyed power grid, healthcare system and general infrastructure. A nation and it's people reduced to rubble and despair.
We'd be absolutely awash in grief and shock if such a thing happened in this country. A lot of us wouldn't be able to get out of bed in the morning. A lot of us would feel as though we had no future and no hope. We'd never be the same again.
So how is it that any politician or pundit in America can talk about what did or did not "work" in the Iraqi War? How can a calamity of this magnitude be considered, in any sense whatsoever, a success? How could anyone in America have complained, as they have in the past, that the media doesn't report on the good things happening in Iraq. What good things?
Shouldn't somebody in Washington want to know the truth of what's happened in Iraq? Shouldn't the rest of us want to know, too? Shouldn't we be talking out loud about all of this? Maybe the crisis we're facing here at home is more than just an economic one.
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