Pech Valley

"Ultimately, the decision to withdraw reflected a stark — and controversial — internal assessment by the military that it would have been better served by not having entered the high valley in the first place."

“What we figured out is that people in the Pech really aren’t anti-U.S. or anti-anything; they just want to be left alone,” said one American military official familiar with the decision. “Our presence is what’s destabilizing this area.” - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/world/asia/25afghanistan.html?_r=1

This has to be on of the most confusing things to ever be released in the news. Every once in a while one of these tidbits gets out and you have to wonder if anyone is paying attention if they can publish this after 10 years of saying the completely opposite thing.

It really gives me pause to think of how history has evolved over the past hundred years. In 1911 one didn't have to even pretend to justify military action in Asia or Africa, white supremacy was the philosophy of the day and Imperialism was its natural expression. Nowadays the maze of logic that gets extrapolated to explain the Empire employs a mental slight of hand that I am beginning to believe no one on earth is capable of actually defining in comprehensible language.

Perhaps this is the truth of the whole modern mentality- any accurate description is impossible. It is just a pile of people doing and saying things that has long since lost any means of being perceived in rational terms. I guess when you have 7 billion people populating a planet whose social structure is one of cannibalistic capitalism, trying to look for a way in which to write about it that is both understandable and factual is a fool's errand.

High Hegemonic Hilarity

The modern world seems to be a big machine that runs on irony and hypocrisy, and being built by Americans, was not designed for fuel efficiency. One might claim that comedy isn't a major component to this system, but I would contend that it is very much the engine that takes us rip roaring through history lately. Let's take the example of the modern uprisings in South West Asia and Northern Africa as a case in point:

Europe takes these territories over in the late 19th and early 20th Century. They create colonies, administer them through violence and intimidation, all for no better reason than they thought they needed ruling. Then when they decide to leave they sat down like kids with crayons and drew some lines on a piece of paper and then informed the people in the region what countries they now resided in. Naturally these boarders weren't really good so the different 'countries' fought over them, which made it possible for Europe, the USSR and the USA to come in and arm the various governments so they could squabble more seriously over the lines in the sand.

For a variety of reasons it was realized that Dictatorships were the most efficient way to make allies in this volatile region and so that's how that worked out, autocracy for everyone! Now this was fine when it was NATO Vs. International Communism, but once that farce was played out it pretty much became NATO playing chess by itself, which isn't a game for anyone sane. Iran and Saudi Arabia like to think they can play, but they end up just being pieces on the board. Then one day as Neoliberalism was disemboweling the area, as it has done everywhere else in this brave new market world, some Arabs got really pissed off about the shit show that was their fate. And so it was that they started hitting the streets to partake in the time honored tradition of gambling their lives in the hope their governments would fold. Sadly even if they do fold one hand, the powerful still hold all the cards and so the game goes on unchanged.

In another vein of the same joke, Sarkozy and Cameron, current leaders of the Imperial instigators France and Britain, told their people that multiculturalism has failed and that they are going to revert to old cultural values. This is funny for a lot of reasons. The funniest of them is that they robbed the world to create wealthy societies at which point people from their 'former' colonies arrived to work and live so as not to be totally buggered for all of history. At this point they tell these same people that they are polluting their culture by their presence. When considering how the West operated and operates in these peoples place of origin it is a joke in very bad taste.

But wait, the US is never to be outdone in this department. In conjunction with a mindboggling foreign policy in the Arab world (crazed solo chess with made up countries for pieces) they are also the harbinger of neoliberalism, which the US has exported to every corner of the earth. This is an impressive feat considering their was originally no demand for it. Ergo it is a powerful joke when a country like Egypt rises up against both Dictatorship and Neoliberalism only to hear the US support the Egyptian people in their desire for freedom and democracy. The joke goes even further when the same people are accused of supporting religious extremism for the very same action... Sadly I think the humor is lost on most people, but since it is one of those really long complicated jokes without a discernible punchline and lots of people suffer/die/cry in it, I understand why many fail to grasp the humor. For me however the union of comedy and tragedy is the only way to live in this world without falling for the falsehoods of idealism or nihilism. My advice is to take it for what it is folks, and try to laugh at the jokes.

Some quotes on our subject:

"Forgive, oh Lord, my little jokes on Thee, and I'll forgive Thy great big joke on me." -Robert Frost

"Not living in fear is a great gift, because certainly these days we do it so much. And do you know what I like about comedy? You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time—of anything. If you’re laughing, I defy you to be afraid." -Stephen Colbert

"Well, the telling of jokes is an art of its own, and it always rises from some emotional threat. The best jokes are dangerous, and dangerous because they are in some way truthful." -Kurt Vonnegut

Winds of Change

In the West it seems misconceptions about Arabs and Islam are so deeply engrained that the reality of the region is beyond any semblance of comprehension. During his life Mohammed took radical stands that challenged the traditions of his people at every level. He also asserted he was a just a man and that his message was one of justice and peace, constantly advancing a position that all are equal before Allah. Tolerance of Jews and Christians was also a fundamental part of his message. During his last major sermon he looked out over his followers and wondered if any of them truly understood what he had taught.

Since that time the Ummah has been debating the meaning of this man and thus Islam is nothing static, but an ever changing concept in the minds and hearts of the people who practice it. These days this debate has once again reached a pivotal moment where the long suppressed masses are standing up and stating in unequivocal terms their desire to reform the world in which they live, which is the very core of their religion. Mohammed always explained that Islam wasn’t a ritual or set of beliefs, but a manner in which one should constantly exist.

This week people in Libya, Algeria, Jordan, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia and Bahrain have seized the collective desire for the removal of governments that have strayed very far from the meaning of their faith into autocracy, brutality and injustice. After centuries upon centuries of various leaders telling these people how and what they can do a primordial pressure has finally erupted into the streets and onto headlines around the world. Where it goes from here is a question that no one can answer. One thing is sure, God willing, they will change their fate.