Dead Body Theatre

[Eric Cordian]

Steve Schear writes:

> Here, here!  This change, if widely adopted, would go a long way toward 
> reducing war casualties.  Perhaps we may even become as smart as some 
> Pacific Islanders whose wars were fought by surrogates, the logic being 
> that the death of one man can serve as well as the death of many in 
> determining the outcome of a disagreement between heads of tribes, states, 
> etc.

While the replacement of the US/Iraq war with Shrub and Saddam in a barbed
wire steel cage on Pay Per View with Vince McMahon announcing is an
appealing idea, I think it is a bit premature to leap to the conclusion
that this is the road map the US is following.

The logic behind sparing heads of state, even though they are technically
in the military chain of command, has to do with their utility during
post-war reconstruction, and not incurring the eternal hate of the
conquered enemy's civilian population.  That is why the US spared Emperor
Hirohito when reorganizing Japan, for instance.

The ability of the US to fight low-casuality war has transformed war into
an art akin to corporate raiding.  It permits the US to invade any
country, destroy the military infrastructure at little or no cost in
American lives, and leave the country's proles and natural resources
undamaged to be exploited by their new Imperialist masters.  If in the end
it can be claimed that the people are better off than they were before,
even if their previous misfortune was due entirely to US economic
sanctions, then it can be declared that the war was "Justified."

Of course, this just demonstrates that power is ultimately wielded by the
people with the best weapons, even as those same people lull the rest of
the world into thinking there is something called "international law,"
while they arm themselves to the teeth.

Fortunately, there has never been a weapons system in the history of the
world that ultimately didn't cost less to destroy than it did to
manufacture.

Force is always beaten by force plus brains, and I am sure the other
nations of the world are looking at the US and madly seeking to construct
a credible deterrent.  The window of absolute US military superiority will
last 2-3 years at best.  "What the world really needs is a fifty dollar
weapon that sinks aircraft carriers" isn't just a witty .sigfile quote.

North Korea really has the right idea here.  The US threatens sanctions,
they respond - "Our nuclear missiles can hit any target in the US.  
Sanctions are an act of war."  The US threatens a blockade, they respond -
"Our nuclear missiles can hit any target in the US.  Blockades are an act
of war." This is really the correct method of dealing with the US, and
nations like Iraq are stupid to keep capitulating in the expectation that
it will postphone an already decided upon attack.  The United Nations
should know better than to be continuously baited into playing this game
as well.

The point is, of course, that this isn't some new kind of war where the
Bush family fights the Hussein family to spare civilians on both sides.  
This is George W. Bush thinking his security is so impenetrable that he
can send his soldiers to kill the opposition leader's family, and drag
their bodies around in front of cameras, without having to worry in the
slightest that he or his family will experience retaliation in kind.

Of course, to paraphrase Doctor Who, the word "impenetrable" sounds far 
too much like the word "unsinkable."

-- 
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"