Death by Droning: The World isn’t Changing, it
is Changed
By CJCL
September 08, 2015 "Information
Clearing House" - "Off
Guardian" -
Yesterday David Cameron admitted to murder. He did it
loudly, in public, with self-justications primed and a
self-important look plastered across his quivering jowls. The
repurcussions? He faces applause from some sectors…and “scrutiny”
from others. Is that all the outrage our atrophied imaginations can
offer?
The metaphor of the boiling frogs has long been
over used. It takes its place alongside the “smoking gun” and
“ticking all the boxes” in the pantheon of phrases that declare a
lack of imagination. And it is no longer apt. The unthinkable is no
longer being “normalised”…it is normal. It happens every day, and we
shrug it off. The frogs have been simmering for hours, they’re
nearly done.
Just for a moment, let us compare the world of
today to the world of fifteen years ago…
Doing terrible things in an organized and
systematic way rests on “normalization.” This is the process
whereby ugly, degrading, murderous, and unspeakable acts become
routine and are accepted as “the way things are done.”
Edward S. Herman – THE BANALITY OF EVIL
In 2000, before 9/11 and all the subsequent horror
that mental trauma caused a psychotic American Empire to loose upon
the world, can we even imagine that a “civilised” government would
claim the power to seize people without charge? detain people
indefinitely without trial? Would a watching public have stood for
that? But nevertheless, that is the world we live in now.
Ten years ago would an American President
blithely admitting to torture have passed off the public
conciousness with so little notice? Would CIA black sites,
extraordinary rendtions and all the stuff – likely worse – we don’t
get to hear about be cause for a “debate” about its efficacy? Does a
civilised culture ban torture, or simply worry about whether or not
it works? Nevertheless, that is the world we live in now.
Five years ago anybody claiming that the Western
intelligence agencies were recording the data from millions and
millions of people – Were spying on civilians and foreign heads of
state and practically the whole world – would have have been met
with snorts of derision. “Go find your tin-foil hat!” we would have
said, “they can’t do that, it’s illegal” we would have said, “You’re
crazy” we would have said. But Edward Snowden is real, and he’s not
crazy. And now we know – was there a revolution? Were there speeches
railing against the NSA on the floor of the UN? Not even close.
“It’s necessary” they said. “OK”, we said. And then the “free press”
that reported the goverment’s illegal activities voluntarily smashed
up their computers. Since those times Cameron’s government has
handed over even greater powers to GCHQ and their brothers. We don’t
want to a be spied on. We don’t want a
digital panopticon keeping us all inline. But nevertheless,
that’s the world we live now.
…and yesterday David Cameron admitted to murder –
today he faces scrutiny. Just last week anybody accusing the
government of carrying out extra-judicial executions on foreign soil
would have been laughed at. Called paranoid. But here we are.
Apparently there was a “legal justification”, but we’re not allowed
to see it. Apparently it was done at a time and place that
“minimised risk to civilians”…minimised, you understand, not
removed. We still don’t know if there any civilian casualties – it
doesn’t really matter. It was still murder. Apparently he was
“planning attacks” and it was “self defence” – there’s plenty of
evidence for this, but we’re not allowed to see that either. That’s
the world we live in now.
Currently we live in a society where the
government claims the right to:
- Arrest and detain any individual,
indefintely, without charge or trial.
- Extradite any civilian overseas to any
foreign power, even those who use torture.
- Observe and record the internet, email and
phone communications of anybody in the world without warning or
warrant.
- Execute, by drone strike or other means,
anybody anywhere in the world – regardless of whether or not
they have been convicted of a crime
Read those back to yourself – out loud if it
helps. There’s a word for that kind of society, and it’s not
“democratic”. It’s not “civilised”.
It’s tempting, and easy, to always view yourself
as the good guy. Nobody watches a movie and thinks “Man, that
villain is just like me!”. But no villains ever realise they are
villains. The trick is in mental reversal, to imagine your actions
as if someone had done them to you.
Russia currently stands accused of “assassinating”
Alexander Litvinenko – the inquiry into his death is being held just
down the road from the room where Cameron signed off on the
execution of Reyaad Khan. If the story had broken that Putin or
Assad or Kim Jong Un had wiped out a “security threat” by setting
off a bomb on the streets of Cairo or Mexico City…how would we
react? How would our press react? What if Xi Jinping ordered the
execution, by drone, of a Chinese national living in Washington DC?
Would we shrug it off as “neccesary” or “understandable”? We
wouldn’t have time – it would be World War III.
The danger, as Orwell wrote, is in the language.
The sterilization of words. Meanings are cleaned and refined and
sanded down. Torture is what other people do, we use “enhanced
interrogation techniques”. Propaganda is what other people do we
“promote democracy”. War is what other people do we “pre-emptively
defend ourselves”. Assassination is what other people do….we “carry
out targeted strikes to remove threats.” When we eventually declare
war on Syria, when NATO bombs start dropping on the only even
remotely stable areas left in the country, they won’t be bombing
raids they’ll be “humanitarian missions”.
The double-think is everywhere, practically every
story in the press. Syria is fighting a civil war against zealots
and insurgents, but Assad’s regime is “brutal”. Israel shelling a
walled off ghetto because some kids threw stones at them…that is
“self defence”. The totally bloodless referendum in Crimea is an
“invasion”, but the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were “spreading
democracy”. People like Huey Long, Castro, Chavez and Putin – who
redistribute wealth to the poorer sections of society – they are
“corrupt”. Whilst the politicians on our side, forever breaking
expenses scandals and taking jobs on the boards of banks,
pharmaceutical firms and arms manufacturers – they are just trying
to make the world a better place, a free place.
Now, to talk specifcally about the RAF and their
new toys, the defensive perimeter has already set up, the
“justifications” have been deployed. He revoked his citizenship. He
joined a terrorist organisation. He declared war on Britain. I don’t
know if all that’s true, but I do know it doesn’t matter. The point
of a society governed by law is that there are no exceptions. If
pyschopaths and murderers aren’t protected by laws, then no one is.
If a terrorist can be summarily executed…then anyone can.
I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own
safety’s sake.Robert
Bolt – A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
One can’t fall into the trap of separating oneself
from ethereal “other”. You can’t sit back, comfortable in the
knowledge these laws only apply to them, but never to
us. First they came for the Jews and all that. Don’t pretend to
yourself that they would never use these tools on you. They are
making a machine that will chew us all up and spit us all out
eventually. That’s the world we live in now, it’s time to engage
with it.
A frog that doesn’t realise it’s boiling still
dies just the same.