America Will Always Kill It's Own For Better Ratings

Endless small towns
Full to the brim with American flags and bad food
All that time and all that television
This is the real America
Where the American slow death plays itself out over football seasons
And raking the leaves
All that heritage
Depressed shells of the American Dream (copyright) they tried to be
No one told them it was a joke
The joke was on them and that the American Dream (all rights reserved)
Is only for the few and that the rest can just chase it
Serve their time chasing in the tortured land of beautiful fugitives
Proud suppliers to the American Machine (trademark): soldier boys, food, patriotic air, good sturdy racism and a raging separatist spirit

America is a nomad
A bastard
A criminal
Cut loose in their own vast country to wander and wage war
Always lost
Always homeless
Come and go
America never notices: body bag or
Business class.

Slippin'

No, not the kind of slipping where you fall over on your arse but rather slippin' which means to be caught out of your own neighbourhood or postcode, something that can cost you anything from your pride, your mobile, to your life.

I was aware of the UK phenomenon of slippin' but it was brought home to me today with a group of young people I've been working with for a while. I'm helping them make a song and the artwork to go with it, which they'll then display and perform; they are all kids from a Pupil Support Centre which is basically another term for a PRU, or Pupil Referral Unit, a place for young people that have been excluded from school or are unable to do anything positive in a school environment for whatever reason (and there are many).

Over lunch we were chatting and as always the conversation turned to slippin' and the penalties for being caught in the wrong area, postcode or road; many of the young people had been threatened at knife point or got attacked or just had stuff stolen off them.

Adults of course are oblivious to this, unless you exist in that world, we move around free of the lines drawn in the sand, that crisscross every section of the cities and towns we live in. These young people are hypersensitive to these boundaries and they have to be, stepping outside of the theatre we are based at is itself fraught with danger, whether imagined or not, and penalties for slippin' weigh heavy on their minds.

As I watched them chat, one of the young people, Piers, profoundly expressed the heavy sense of dread and fear that hangs over his every movement; he talked of feeling weary, of always feeling on edge when outside of his home and it struck me, to live with that fear and hypertension virtually all of the time is a serious thing to carry at a young age.

I'll leave you with a tale told by Abdi, a young Somalian boy I'm working with on the project, he spoke of the time that a Somalian boy was caught slippin' in Camden and was thrown out of the back window on a double decker bus.

Abdi says that since that day he's never been to Camden.

"People Are Jumping Out The Windows...They're Jumping Out The Windows, I Guess Because, They're Trying to Save Themselves...I Don't Know"

It was eight years ago today...

For some reason this anniversary of the terrible 9/11 attacks is playing a lot on my mind. Last year I was immersed in the world of Zero, a play no doubt inspired by the acts of torture triggered by 9/11, the year before that I was consumed by the archaic process of trying to purchase a home, while in 2006 I was more concerned about Iraq which has besmirched the idea of 9/11 and demeaned it to a mere precursor of war and excessive loss of human life. 2005, I didn't even mention it all, so preoccupied was I with yet another house move and the impending tour of Bouncers.

Before that, I'm ashamed to say, I had always been rather glib about 9/11, even pedantically referring to it as 11/9 and making noises about correct formatting of the date, like a monstrous tit. The reason, as I have inferred above, is that we were not allowed to hold onto 9/11 as a terrible crime against the United States and a device by which we all pulled together as humans against acts of cruel terror.

Because just as the dust was settling, it was a seemingly perfect excuse for Bush and his cohorts to unleash a period of eight hellish years, that have included human rights infringements, the awful mire that is the war in Iraq and the endless process of bringing peace and stability (and of course an acceptable regime to the West) in Afghanistan; at massive loss of civilian and military life...never mind the terrorist attacks around the world inspired by America's approach to the problem.

And now I come to think about it, the number of odious off-shoots is endless: we have the increase in fundamental and violent Islam activists, which in turn has led to a polarisation of the world's religions and the bracketing of Islam as evil, which further exacerbates it's militarisation and has become something of a culture war.

This polarisation has leaked into our politics with retarded 'with us or against us' thinking; black and white solutions to grey problems and a lack of a middle ground where most solutions are offered. All this adds up to a tarnishing of 9/11 as the instigator of this God awful mess, when in reality it is the Bush regime's response to 9/11 that has changed our world for the worse; ably supported of course by a whole raft of idiots on both sides.

I stumbled upon the famous video today of Bush at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School, the moment when he is told: "A second plane has hit the tower, America is under attack" is at one minute in...



I suppose my feelings of sadness at this anniversary have partly been due to a maturing in my attitudes to the events of that day and the volume of powerful 9/11 documentaries that have featured on British television in the last week or so, including the excellent '102 Minutes That Changed America' and '9/11: The Falling Man'...

This post's title is a direct quote of an eyewitness, whose testimony I saw live on television and was so moved by it, I hunted down the audio file as a reminder of the terror and horror of that awful day.

In honour and loving memory of those that lost their lives on that fateful day.

Union Jacks Unsettle Me

Call me a pinko-lefty-liberal-fag-Commie-cheese eating surrender monkey-Jew-homo-leftist-moonbat-leftard-socialist-freedom hating ballbag but when I see a house that has a Union Jack in the window, I shudder.

I shudder because the chances are they are some kind of daft racist and/or suffering from a crippling small mindedness and/or, worst of all, feel that flying the flag is their patriotic duty at this time of war. And I'm not talking the conflicts in Iraq or Afghanistan, people have been putting up Union Jacks in their windows long before those conflicts.

I'm talking about the imaginary war being fought in Britain, as it comes "under siege" from Johnny Foreigner, darkies and a smattering of gypsies. Oh and don't forget about all those Somalians...

Thankfully, the people flying these Union Jacks fight this imaginary war by...well...putting up flags, moaning to their mates down Wetherspoons at the Curry Club (every Thursday 3-10) and shouting at the TV, as they become one with their Argos sofa bought on the drip with their nan's death money.

I'm not sure why I'm so squeamish about the Union Jack, maybe because it represents a union of nations that I don't really believe in, or because nationalism seems so silly in the modern age as we learn that national identity and basic elements of nationalism are relatively new man-made inventions, with little basis in reality.

I think the main reason it puts me ill at ease is that the Union Jack has been won over by goons like the BNP and the National Front, that my flag has become their flag and as I don't really care much for it anyway, I've handed it over to them and they've sullied it and transformed it into something deeply unsavoury.

Come back next week folks, where I'll be attacking people who fly the Saint George's Cross and bang on about celebrating Saint George's day as daft racists that are clinging to outmoded ideas of nationality and that Saint George was actually a Turk with an Arab mother.

Perspirex

I have a confession to make.

I am a sweater, a heavy sweater.

Thus, I was excited to hear of a new anti-sweat product called Perspirex and as I was early to teach acting out in North London I popped into a chemist to get some.

The chemist was packed but I strolled to the counter and enquired if they had any Perspirex for me to purchase, the assistant looked at me as if I were mad and made me repeat the product name a few times, he then asked what it was for.

So, in a packed chemist, I started to explain that it stops heavy sweating, from which I suffer and as he was hard of hearing, he kept getting me to repeat what it was for; his friendly mate then came out and got me to repeat the whole story all over again before the original shop assistant, who by now was on a computer looking it up, made me spell it out so that I ended up shouting in the busy store:

"PERSPIRE! AS IN SWEATING! AS IN HEAVY SWEATING!"

Eventually he found it and with a little whoop of joy shouted out "PERSPIREX!" and proceeded to exclaim that it is a roll-on that stops heavy sweating.

It turns out they didn't have any.

Thank God I didn't have thrush.

The Horror of Iran

I have kept silent on the terrible situation in Iran because, quite frankly, I don't have an answer, or a 'take' or really an idea of what should be done and the best way for us, as in the West, to respond.

Should we merely make vocal claims of support, shouting across the Elburz Mountains to be dismissed as interfering Westerners, sowing seeds of selfish regime change and perhaps scuppering the chance for some level of reform? Or should we engage in diplomatic tit-for-tats, discuss sanctions and shake our heads disapprovingly at the way the protesters are being suppressed so violently, when we ourselves struggle with handling public displays of disaffection?

I have no idea but I do know that any Western involvement will only cause harm and even without it, those in power in Iran use the West as a whipping boy to terrify and galvanise it's followers.

Regime change is not our place, even though watching the protesters being killed, beaten and treated so terribly makes me feel desperate to do something to help them, makes the fire of indignation rise up...but surely Iran must go on it's own journey and be all the better for it. Intervention will not bring lasting change (see Iraq for reference).

I don't even know to what degree the election was fixed, I have a feeling that some of it was hashed but I also know the West has underestimated the lack of appetite for reform in the vast majority of the country, which for all intents and purposes is quite conservative.

I wasn't even going to blog on it, until the crisis in Iran got it's media martyr in Neda Agha-Soltan, it's very own YouTube horror story, a young female protester who was shot dead and whose last moments; as the blood runs from her mouth and nose, were captured on film, a document of the very real cost of protesting in Iran, a crushing and heartbreaking reminder of how high the stakes are to many Iranians and what thousands are willing to risk in order to voice their pain at this stolen election.

Oh the horror, oh the utter horror...

Culture of Fear

I was reading the blog post here, where the blogger in question was trying to convince us all that what she considered common sense, sensible attitudes to "stranger danger" were not in fact the fear-ridden anxieties of someone who seems to think we live in the most dangerous of times.

We don't by the way.

The post itself is full of words like vulnerable, exposed to the mercy of others and harm, it reeks of fear but not of reasonable fear but hysterical fear, safety first fear, the kind that stunts your life experience, the kind that battens down the hatches and makes the world something to be feared rather than embraced. It also smacks of a fear of getting hurt, in whatever sense, as if pain (in all it's many forms) is something to be avoided, rather than a huge source of learning and growth.

I'm banging on about this blog post because I read this today, an article on a study by the Mental Health Foundation that quite clearly points to us being a nation of fearful idiots, scared of imaginary terrorist and crime threats, anxious about financial uncertainty and thus trapped in a crippling period of paralysis. Aside from the cretins who believe this nonsense, who are the ones keeping us fearful? Why, the ones with the most to gain of course!

Often exaggerated are fear of crime, terrorism and loss of community, the MHF finds. Increased access to information about possible threats to security via 24-hour news and the internet contribute to unease among the general population.

The report lambasts politicians, public bodies, the media and business people for what it calls institutionally-driven fear fuelled by scaremongering use of "worst-case scenario" language around issues such as knife-crime, MRSA and terrorism.

As Bertrand Russell said: "collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd" a perfect state to have the collective in for those in power. A fearful public are an easily manipulated one, are a selfish one caught in a destructive web of self-obsession at their own personal mores and issues; so not concerned with the struggles of the whole, willing to cede decision making to those in power on the grand issues.

More fool us. And worryingly, it is the young who are most fearful, no doubt under the influence of scare-mongering parents and the culture of fear we are building around us.

On a side note, something in the piece made me smile, the slightly piqued assertion from the police that even though the UK has more CCTV cameras than the rest of Europe put together (some 4.2 million), they don't seem to make us feel any safer.

HA HA HA!

Poles Apart: End of the First Week of Rehearsal

I made myself laugh typing the title of this blog post because we only have a week and a half to write and rehearse the show full stop, so it's not as if they'll be any more weeks of rehearsal to blog about.

And it's been a busy few days, devising and rehearsing Poles Apart in the day and in the evening typing and editing up the day's work to try and make a coherent script and document of our work; as well marking down lighting and sound cues and making a props list.

It's been a very creative time, it's come pretty easy for Mark and I and I seriously think we have a very good show on our hands, I do love how something comes from nothing, how a piece of art rises up from the void. Today we had great fun buying the costumes, which include terrible tracksuits for Act II and nasty-ass Velcro sneakers to go with.

We've also been juggling an extensive PR campaign, with plenty of radio interviews and press interviews, it's good that the show has a media real buzz about it, hopefully that'll sell more tickets for our run. Speaking of which, make sure that if you live near any of these places below, buy a bloody ticket and come and see us.

February:

5th Yvonne Arnaud theatre 01483 44 00 00
6th Maltings Arts St. Albans 01727 844 222
7th Brewery Arts Centre Kendal 01539 725133
10th Darlington Arts 01325 486555
11th Wellingborough Castle 01933 270 007
12th Oldham Coliseum 0161 624 2829
13th South Holland Centre Spalding 01775 764777
14th Helmsley Arts 01439 771700
17th The Ironworks Oswestry 01691 679123
18th New Theatre Royal Portsmouth 023 9264 9000
19th Artrix Bromsgrove 01527 577330.
20th Georgian Theatre Royal Richmond 01748 825252
21st Riverhead Louth 1507 600350
24th the Plough Great Torrington 01805 624624
26th Paisley Arts Centre 0141 887 1010
27th Arlington Arts Centre Newbury 01635 244246
28th Newark Palace Theatre 01636 655755

March:

4th Rotherham Arts Centre 01709 823621
7th The Gate Goole 01405 763652
10th Brewhouse Taunton 01823 283244
11th Marine Theatre Lyme Regis 01297 442138
12th The Met bury 0161 761 2216
13th Derby Guildhall 01332 255800
14th Queens Park Arts Aylesbury 01296 424332
17th Salisbury Arts Centre 01722 321744
18th Wyeside Arts 01982 552555
19th Pyramid & Parr Hall Warrington 01925 442345
20th Waterside Arts Sale 0161 912 5616
21st Stafford Gatehouse 01785 254 653

And the great news is that tomorrow, Mark and I are off to Poland (via Holland) to do a TV interview for Poland's leading television breakfast show, (think a Polish version of This Morning) we are so bloody excited and hope that:

1. We rise the awareness of our show in the Anglo-Polish community
2. We are funny in Polish
3. We do not offend any Polish people

WE ARE SO BIG IN POLAND!

On a side note, while searching for Polish images, I stumbled upon this fine blog that documents Polish Tramps.

Enjoy...

America's UN Resolution Abstention

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert getting Bush in a headlock to make sure the US abstains from the UN Resolution on a ceasefire in Gaza

Bush needed no convincing after Olmert shows him pictures of dead Arab children

Bush then looms behind Condoleezza Rice in order to humiliate her into abstaining from something she was going to support

The world demands it's free motherfucking cupcake!

I've done my level best to not blog on the current conflict in Gaza, mainly because I don't feel I can bring much to the debate in a blog format, when the issue at hand is so immensely complex and one false move can have you labelled an anti-Semite/Zionist.

And posting pictures of dead Arab children is exploitative and crass.

Having said that, my feelings on the issue can be best summed up by the fact that both Israel and the people of Gaza elected really awful people to represent them and they are reaping the dividends of those choices, as the two elements duke it out and the civilians get caught horribly in the middle.

My solution: Israel goes back to the Internationally approved 1967 borders, stops making illegal settlements and takes down the bizarre wall; then (the hardest bit) it has to bite it's tongue as Hamas (or whatever idiotic 'wipe Israel off the face of the map' political party is in charge) tries to provoke them into lowest common denominator battle. If Israel took the moral high ground and did all the things asked of it by the world, Hamas would still attack but then Israel would have the backing of the globe in its destruction. It's a win-win for them but all it takes is a long view and restraint, something Israel has lacked since its inception.

I'm more interested in the weight of power that Israel and Olmert seems to be able to exercise over Bush and his pals.

Rice it seems was all willing to vote for the ceasefire UN resolution, which would've made it a clean sweep of all 15 votes and total condemnation of Israel's activities from even it's closest allies. And on that note, I'll hand over to Olmert:

"When we saw that the Secretary of State, for reasons we did not really understand, wanted to vote in favour of the UN resolution...I looked for President Bush and they told me he was in Philadelphia making a speech. I said, 'I don't care. I have to talk to him now'.

They got him off the podium, brought him to another room and I spoke to him. I told him, 'You can't vote in favour of this resolution.' He said, 'Listen, I don't know about it, I didn't see it, I'm not familiar with the phrasing.' He gave an order to the Secretary of State and she did not vote in favour of it, a resolution she cooked up, phrased, organised and manoeuvred for. She was left pretty shamed and abstained on a resolution she arranged."

And lo, it came to pass that the US abstained on the UN security resolution with the White House overruling the State Department (yet again), fighting to the very last day of their miserable existence, to perpetuate their unconditional backing for Israel.

The official line from the White House is: "We've seen these press reports and they are inaccurate." So either Olmert is lying and posturing like the corrupt old toad he is, or the White House is lying...again...and again...and again.

The Number Redux

Some time ago I blogged on The Number, which is an all encompassing South African prison gang and mythology, that is striking in its poetry and brutality.

Below are a selection of images that The Guardian newspaper ran, of various members of The Number for you to take in. There is something to be said for the hollowness in the eyes of many of these men and the unbelievable evil that have seen and been part of.






Speaking of unbelievable evil, glad to see that most of the world has signed a treaty banning the use of cluster bombs, one of humankind's worst ideas for killing innocent citizens long after a war has been over and maiming millions of others. Cluster bombs really are a terrible bloody idea.

And I say most because, as you'd expect, the United States, China and Russia (amongst others) have refused to do so.

Perhaps with Obama in charge the US will start to keep better company?

I hope so...

"Along with something to do and someone to love, having hope is one of life's essentials..."

I stole that quote from A C Grayling and an article of his in The Independent about President-elect Barack Obama and the optimism he embodies. And I couldn't agree more. Unfortunately, much of what I read in the blogosphere is quite frankly, a pile of horse shit; as right-wing bloggers lose (unlike McCain) without dignity and seem to think that socialism, Sharia law and the end of Israel are all coming at once.

The left-wing side of things is little better, with a whole raft of people who've spent the last 8 years moaning incessantly about things, suddenly having to cheer the fuck up and failing quite badly. It took about 24 hours after Obama's election for the miserable nay-sayers to start laying into the President-elect and guessing how bad it's going to be and to be honest, I'm glad these people are as far away from the political process as possible, I find liberal overreach as unappealing as a conservative one.

One of the many reasons that Obama's phenomenal achievement is worth celebrating, is that it brings an end to one of Ronald Reagan's worst tactics (utilised by the Bush dynasty and McCain): that appeal to the fears of the white Southerner, playing on the working class American to vote against their economical self-interest, by exploiting issues such as abortion, gun control and gay marriage.

What disgusts me most, is that the wealthy and highly intelligent men who ran these campaigns didn't give a shit about those issues but they knew that they could exploit the 10% of the electorate that did. Distract the idiots with morality, fag bashing, godless liberals and wetbacks and watch them lap it up, as those in power laugh all the way to the bank.

I also remain hopeful and positive because I believe Obama will renounce torture, extradition, extra-judicial imprisonment and abduction; the Geneva Convention will once again have value in America. As former President Jimmy Carter articulated:

"My country will never again torture a prisoner. My country will never again attack another country unless our security is directly threatened. My country will respect the rule of law and dignity of every human person as the foundation of our foreign policy."

Amen to that brother.

We live in hope.

Postcode Wars

This week marks the final week of the Zero tour, before we begin our 3 week residency at the Tristan Bates Theatre in the West End of London.

Tomorrow we're LIVE TONIGHT! SOLD OUT! in Wolverhampton of all places, before heading off to the excellent Citizen's Theatre in Glasgow and 3 shows there.

Today, I spent some time at my old drama school plugging the show to the fresh-faced students there, who are only some 4 weeks into their training and it made me cast my mind back to the fond memories of my time there. I look forward to paying the students another visit next week to give them a talk on making the most of the course and their careers as actors.

This post's title has been brewing in my drafts for some time, I think it all started when I was back in Notts, bringing back memories of daft lads scrapping over poxy bits of council estates like it really mattered: NG3 versus NG2, shithole versus shithole, one massive human rubbish dump fighting another massive human rubbish dump.

How desperate are we? We've got thousands of young people taking chunks out of each other to defend their little shitty patches of Britain, as if they had some kind of value, as if these ghettos deserve being fought for.

But then I remember, to find hope in the hand life has dealt you, you must give value to what is around you, to make it worth something, otherwise what've you got left to live for?

Unless of course, you decide to get out...

Tackling Knife Crime

UK readers will know that Britain is going through a spate of knife attacks, pretty much one every other day, with London being pretty badly hit and most of those involved are young people, both as attackers and victims.

These are some serious times.

I live in North London, Bowes Park/Palmers Green and if I'm not overland training it, my nearest tube is Wood Green. Today, as with many days over the last few weeks, there has been a large police presence, doing stop and search, checking for weapons and also handing out leaflets about tackling knife crime. I think it's a great idea because Eva-Jane and I are the kind of people who could get into trouble; as we are the sort who when people are rude, or listening to music too loud, or eating/smoking/generally being an anti-social git, we step in.

We don't like to walk on by.

But with the fact that most young people now seem to carrying some kind of weapon, it puts that kind of behaviour in greater risk of being punished.

It's funny, in my day knives were for pussys and considering the daft stuff I got up to when I was a kid I only ever get held up at knife point once and was lucky to not get stabbed as I pushed my luck with the bloke in question.

It was all about being able to handle yourself with your fists rather than weapons and if ever we did use weapons it was whatever was around, stick, bricks and shit like that; improvised violence so to speak. It was only at organised fights between gangs that we might be armed but only then with stuff to beat people with, not stick them and anyone who did use knives was deemed a bit of a cunt, which indeed they are. Most of them have no idea how to even use a knife, which is a blessing but also shows up the desperate nature of it all; it's like grab what you can to defend yourself and all that honour bullshit, when most of them wouldn't know honour if it shit on their mum.

How times have changed.

"There is no Flag Large Enough to Cover the Shame of Killing Innocent People"

Leaving or not?

Maybe not.

Democrats cover their ass.

My thoughts are with the men and women serving in Iraq and the civilians whose lives are still being sacrificed.

Thanks to UWL for the image.

These Are Some Serious Times...

After London there was Glasgow...

And the response has been sadly predictable, on both sides of the fence.

From the government and figures within the security industry there is more dangerous and unsettling talk of the need to cut back on civil liberties in order to combat terrorism, Blair calling those trying to voice concern at the UK governments infringements under the pretense of protecting us "loopy-loo" which is as silly as it is rudely dismissive.

I thought the whole point was that we didn't alter our way of life and laws to deal with the attacks, I thought that meant that they'd won? Instead of these attacks acting as prompts to question foreign policy and review the bigger picture of world politics, it seems to merely entrench our politicians further and the catch-all response is emitted: "if you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear."

I mentioned the typical response on both sides and a brief search through various left-leaning forums that are usually very politically astute finds the normal tin foil hat wearing nonsense being churned out, regarding it being a MOSSAD job, or an American false flag opp to increase support for the Iraq war in the UK.

The best (worst) ones though are those that argue that because it wasn't very successful or the bombs weren't good that we shouldn't get our knickers in a twist, which is similar to telling a diabetes sufferer to cheer up because they don't have cancer.

I'm glad the attempts on civilian life were pretty useless so far and that the bombs they made weren't very good but that doesn't stop me caring about why they are attacking us and getting politicians across the board to mark a sea change in our foreign policy but I think people are forgetting that we'd still get attacked anyway.

Appeasement is not the answer, a fair hand is but it must be a fair hand willing to form a fist and smash to pieces anyone who attacks us.

Like I said, serious times...

The Horror of Gaza

Madness has seemingly descended upon the thin sliver of land bequeathed to the Palestinian people; that is little more than a ghetto for the 1.4 million or so residents.

The conditions in the Gaza Strip are bad enough; it is little more than a glorified refugee camp with poor infrastructure and high levels of child mortality and other far-reaching health implications. The last thing it needs is a senseless and brutal conflict between Palestine’s two political forces, which will frankly have massive consequences across the region.

After a terse and tense 3-month joint government between Fatah and Hamas, the status quo has collapsed into a bloodbath, with some 100 people dead already. The result is that once again Palestinian politics takes a step backwards, backwards to guns, violence and the creeping infringement of a fundamentalist Islamic government, close to the borders of Israel.

I have mixed feelings on the matter, on one hand I have respect for Hamas as a genuine political organisation that has the backing of large swathes of the Palestinian population; backing that stems in a frustration with the more gentle and therefore negated approach of Fatah (once again we are seeing a militarisation of the Islamic faith, caused by desperation with political isolation). On the other, I see behaviours and actions that will feed a Zionist and US response that will further damage the claims of the Palestinian people to a land of their own. They are playing directly into the hands of those that wish them the greatest harm.

I can only hope that in the aftermath, Palestinian diplomats come to the fore rather than the war mongers, who still believe the gun and the bomb will break their repression rather than engaging with the world politick to highlight and solve their woes.

Peace be with you all this weekend.

Tet Offensive Redux

I think the scales are tipping in our favour but at what cost to life in Iraq and Afghanistan?


By tipping in our favour, I mean the slide from power of the neo-con movement in the United States, as its policies fail not only in the imperialist expansion into Iraq and Afghanistan but also the doctrine of total war and pre-emptive defence that has not held up to the old fashioned brinkmanship (of the JFK school) utilised by North Korea and to a degree by al-Qaeda.

Bush has started making parallels with Vietnam and how the current shocking violence in Iraq (some 73 US troops dead since the 1st of this month) could be the equivalent of the Tet Offensive upon civilian moral back home. The Pentagon is accepting defeat in its military thinking as 12,000 additonal troops poured into Baghadad has led to a 22% rise in violence.

And so from Bush saying that US troops would stay in Iraq even if only Laura (his wife) and Barney (his dog) supported him, exit plans are alledgedly beginning to be drawn up; to cut and run.

I'd like to leave you with an image of a young American soldier staring out of a window during the Tet Offensive, their is something in his eyes that seems to reflect the current situation: the possibility that no more troops lives will be lost but that what will be left behind will further damage a generation of people in both the US and Iraq.

"There’s a Level of Violence That They Tolerate"

According to a new study (which, of course, has had its validity challenged by the Bush regime) the casualty figure for Iraqi civilians in this fake war is around 600,000.

Fuck me.

Now, the US did their best at first to ignore civilian death (remember: "We don't do body counts.") and refused to make any effort to compute the loss of life, as dead civilians make the war on terror a hard sell but they eventually settling on a ballpark figure of around 117 dead people a day. Naturally, the Pentagon has been trying to suppress a report that goes some way to acknowledge the massive loss of life in Iraq since the invasion but even they only have it at around 150,000.

Bush himself has used a figure of 30,000 Iraqi civilians killed in his war and when challenged with this new data, he replied thus (video here):

"I don’t consider it a credible report, neither does General Casey and neither do Iraqi officials. I do know that a lot of innocent people have died and it troubles me and grieves me. And I applaud the Iraqis for their courage in the face of violence. I am, you know, amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they’re willing to, you know, that there’s a level of violence that they tolerate."

*cough*

Yeah, they want to be so free that they just love the the dead bodies piling up around them.

The report is here, go read and make your own mind up.