Today's news has left me feeling a bit shell-shocked. Suddenly, I find out WWIII is not just around the corner, after all. Or is it? Certainly an administration that would ignore verifiable intelligence, promote faulty intelligence, lose important document trails, and rearrange facts to fit a desired scenario would not be hesitant to continue with their planned next level of terror just because of an inconvenient NIE report. So, while I may breathe a little easier tonight, tomorrow will still find the same neocons in charge, the same warmongers with the same global oil agenda. Maybe I should be grateful for one night's sleep, at least.
Now, this shell-shocked feeling reminds me that Naomi Klein's new book, "The Shock Doctrine", might make a nice holiday present. Her ideas are quoted on many blogs I read, like Proud Progressive and Dada's Dally and Tomcat's Politics Plus. You can read more about "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" on Naomi Klein's website, where you'll also find links to many of her recent articles.
Doesn't it feel like we've been in Shock'n'Awe since 2000? We're acting like a nation of shell-shocked soldiers who've been exposed to horrendous unspeakable acts. Regularly, we are subjected to new crises that seem deliberately planned and exploited. Our responses range from acute panic attacks to who-cares-anymore mental & physical paralysis. Those are typical symptoms of shell-shock. Other symptoms are depression & nightmares. Sound familiar? I hope Naomi Klein is correct in her assertion that we can work our way out of this mental morass once we recognize WHAT has happened and WHY it has happened. I look forward to reading her book.
Meanwhile, here's a little promotional video (6.75 minutes):
ps, a traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall replica is coming nearby soon. We've never seen one before and are not sure what to expect. Husband is ex-marine viet vet. I've heard it can be very powerful ...
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great post....and yeah, we ALL have some form of PTSD at this point- I firmly believe that we have been traumatized by this Regime...it is like a sick joke- should we take a deep breath and heave a sigh of relief ? I don't know..sadly we are so abused by Lies and Propaganda and Bushco Games- so how can we relax ? we can't.....sadly...No One Can...because the Mad Man is still driving the Bus drunk helter skelter along the cliff.....
I just want to see it over...but in many ways we know that Bush is a drunk pissed off Frat Boy- the kind to make a scene at a party once the pretty girl has ignored him or called him an ass, so he will try to make a SCENE before he leaves the premises....
Scary Dark times still....I am sorry...
I know others are celebrating and less anxious....not me...I wish I were....but I keep thinking these are the same bastards that tortured for bad info and "listened" to Curveball- the bottem line is that Bush and Cheney are both egomanical, and psychopaths...they are not operating with any normal codes in place...
maybe reading Naomi Klien brings perspective and insights...she is more than wise....
thanks...
Enigma: I hesitated to call it PTSD because I thought maybe returned vets would take offense at civilians thinking they have it too, so I reverted to the older WWI shell-shock terminolgy. England set up shell-shock clinics after WWI where returning vets could spend up to a year recovering. Sadly, I think it's going to take us a lot longer than that, if ever.
I'm afraid you're right that Bush will make a scene before he leaves the party. Let's see, so who's the pretty girl ignoring Bush at this global frat party? Ahmadinejad! The one who called him an ass? Hugo! Thanks for those thoughts ...
well i am reading the shock doctrine now - and me i synthesize stuff pretty fast. Spado also wrote about what i am about to convey.. Now granted there are things creeping around us - detention camps , immagrant round ups..we imprison people and dissapear them to an extent..BUT we are not Chili in the 70's WE are however being surrvailled , HSA is data mining..ID cards are being disgusted. ..IN SHORT WE HAVE AN AVALANCHE of ISSUES we are bombarded with ......
all of us now and then discuss or quite blogging - go into overload or despair ..right ? Well that is a form of shock YES ! "the people go limp" Meanwhile the economic changes of the Shock doctrine (the radical free marketeers , the Friedmanites push through changes) Its happening here, the push to privitize EVERYTHING - to cut gov spending on the people, social programs etc. Not just in NOLA but all over - "the ownership society"crap comes directly out the Chicagon School of Economics.
WE cannot go limp and as Spado says in a recent post we need to focus. Focus in on certain issues , to each their own. But stay focused.
oh the book is great ..seriously you guys if you can treat yourself -buy it ! Its really well written - easy enough read.
what a great video you found i should have watched it first. There must be a way out of this..but its gonna take over coming one thing in this culture at least and that is GREED - we must bring compassion back to our country even in the face of an "overblown" threat. Believe me the convenience of the War on terror is no accident. Its set loose a waterfall of civil rights cut backs and social spending.
How we combat wingnuts and fundi wack jobs is a difficult task. How we get people to see that the dissapearance of the middle class is planned..hmmm we got our work cut out for us. I am gonna focus on this(social compassion/services) and my other issue, lgbT..all roads of education and compasssion could be helpful. eh ?
Actually not just VETS have PTSD, and it is an Anxiety Disorder, there are different forms of it- it is all about being emotionally trauma, and in Burmah and Thailand they sent teams there for Refugees that have left Burmah, who have been politcally traumatized for years.....the other location that still has teams studying the psychological trauma is Indonesia from the Tsunami, and here in the States there are teams trying to study the Katrina Suvivors,....scattered and misplaced.....
And sadly the Psychological trauma caused by these war mongers is real and devastating.....and they have milked it relentlessly since 911...they have never done anything to heal this country- Nothing- Telling people that are traumatized to go shopping???what the heck....
So my other point is that the poor VETS even come home to an atmostphere of increased tension and anxiety....it is so wrong....
There are different levels of PTSD, and there is also the effects of living with someone that has it....
sadly this country is damaged on so many levels....even our psycholical infrastructure.....
BTW I loved what PP wrote about compassion....figures that a Social Worker would have similiar concerns...and worries....sigh...namaste.
Shockingly Awful is what I call it. I think about how we are so repulsed and disgusted with such lack of integrity, but think of the people living in the middle east enduring the brunt of this nightmare.
although Iraq turned out to be a kind of a pushover in terms of team W being able to successfully, illegally occupy it (and for so many years), I think should the US attempt to do the same in Iran, all hell will break loose. Because we have the evidence that there are no nuke weapons there, for the us to invade preemptively would be, insane. the rest of the World Community would likely start to take opposing action.
Fool us once shame on you, fool us twice, shame on us. Will we be fooled again?
Ack! Everything I wrote a few hrs ago just *poof* disappeared! Blogger is pissing me off. Well, I'll try to reconstruct, this time in smaller bits ...
PProg: Oh so it's Shy-Town we have to thank for The Ownership Society (grin)! I'll HAVE to read Shock Doctrine soon. My resident economist (husband) hates Milton Friedman, but loves what Krugman says about him & Kissinger.
You mention GREED. Today it's greed for oil. I can't do it justice, but Krugman wrote of societal paradigm shifts ... that regular people are the last to recognize & the least able to do anything about them. But big biz/big gov (the same thing nowadays) are in a position to profit from these life-altering economic shifts, while the rest of us just twist in the wind wondering what happened.
Today it's greed for oil, but in the near future scarcity of fresh water is looming. So guess who has bought up 100's of 1000's of acres of land in Paraguay which happens to sit on top of the Aquiferi Guarani, one of the world's largest sources of underground fresh water? Eeek-yes, Bush 1, Bush 2, Bushettes 3&4, Cheney, Rumsfeld, good old Kissinger, etc/etc! And they've influenced Paraquay to opt out of the Intl Criminal Court, in case extradition ever comes up. Gaaah!
more to catch up ...
Enigma: doesn't it figure that the guy who destroyed his own brain cells drinking & doping, almost crashed natl guard planes, hears voices from the sky, bankrupted every business he ever touched ... wouldn't flinch from bankrupting the whole country, instilling faith-based science, crashing our proud military, and destroying our national psyche? I do believe future historians may deem us a PTSD Nation, along with places like Burma, Thailand, Sudan, Somalia, Bosnia, etc/etc.
Fran: you are voicing my biggest fear! Iraq is a bloody mess, but Iran is WWIII. I hate to even voice this thought, but sometimes I really wonder why a country like China or Putinland hasn't decided to take advantage of our compromised strung-out forces & make a move on us.
dk I am not trying to paint a total doom & gloom picture... but it would make sense the general region of the Middle East would begin to revolt against a 2nd takeover. Kind of like the "little fish" idea where all the little fish (samll middle eastern countries band together) to bite back the big fish- USA. At some point the World Community would have to declare Bush a madman & act accordingly.
Even if Bush does nothing more than stay occupied in Iraq & Afghanistan-- but makes contracts & deals that go beyond his term of presidency, not to mention that $600 million dollar Embassy in the Baghdad green zone, would be traumatic to the people there, who have endured so many years of being illegally occupied, in a war zone. I can barely stand to watch their living hell, let alone claim to have any understanding that something as simple as having safe drinking water, means risking your life. What do those people have? ETSD Endless trauma stress disorder? One other thought those of us with draft age children (and they are children) in order to do an Iran invasion, they would have to initiate a draft. Either that, or the whole surge concept is just a sham in order to pull more troops into the region to then just saunter over to the next country to invade, seeing as they are in the neighborhood. Unimaginable suffering our country has inflicted.
Fran: whether it's a banding together of smaller countries or just one bigger country biting us back, either way leads to global catastrophe, I think. And yes, that "walk over" concept from Iraq to Iran is just so convenient. So even with 16 agencies telling Bush in the NIE report that Iran is not in the nuke weapon biz, he just can't think of not utilizing those troops. The last thing he wants is to bring them home, EVER!
All those contracts & deals you mention that go well beyond '08: I keep hearing these referred to as "private contracts" and "private security forces" etc. -- like as if "private" means it's strictly a business deal, willing buyer to willing seller. Well, it's not. It's cost-plus govt contracts, which is money right out of taxpayer's pockets. My taxdollars paying for Blackwater salaries & equip is almost more than I can bear.
"ETSD" !!! OMG, that MUST be the secret neocon agenda, probably buried somewhere in the PNAC mission stmnt.
Don't get to comfortable. Bush still wants war and Bush always gets what he wants.
With my local little election over I'm slowly turning my attention back to the big game.
As for Bush and war, he looked a little sad begging other nations to at least agree that Iran is being very naughty.
Larry: eeeek, that's so comforting!
Cartlege: you think Bush looked sad? well, maybe if he was anticipating Cheney lashing him for his pyscho press conference.
Anyone seen or heard from Big Dick lately? He didn't even attend the annual WH Xmas tree ceremony. I get worried when he's out of sight for too long.
d.k., sad, pathetic? Poor choice of word perhaps. either way he failed to inspire.
Thanks for the Hat-Tip, DK. I agree, of course, about Klein.
On Iran, consider this. We may not even be out of the woods there. Say Israel attacks Iran, and Iran retaliates. Bush, the GOP and the MSM all lie and say Iran attacked first. Bush has his casus belli. I think the NIE was released only because he was informed by people within the intelligence community that it would be leaked, if he did not come clean.
Cartledge: I knew that's what you meant! I was only having fun picturing Bush getting a little morose over having to face Cheney's wrath. Plus you remind me of subtle differences we have in our wording. For instance, I always have to think for a moment when a Brit uses "mad" for "insane", not "angry".
Tomcat: we are for sure not out of the woods, but I don't think Israel needs to start bombing in order to give Bush a reason to bounce over into Iran. He & Cheney have been hard-humping border attacks, iranian-supplied arms, iranian-support for Shi'ite violence, Kyl-Lieberman, etc, for quite awhile now. The spector of a mushroom cloud would've been such a nice topper. It's quite a spectacle watching them twisting around like cirque de soleil acrobats trying to make the facts fit their fiction, isn't it?
There are some benefits to being multi lingual - depends on where you are in Australia when defining mad :(
Still, I must work hard on being unambiguous, or learn to enjoy the vagaries of comprehension, or just develop a round sense of humour, or just spread mayhem and confusion.
So many choices in this life...
DK, that was just one possible scenario. We will never be out of the woods until Bush is out of office and the GOP has lost all vestages of power.
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