Freedom Fries in the Kantine of the US Congress

Instrument of anti-terrorism state policy, a common sight in the Roman Empire.
(From the movie "Spartacus" by Stanley Kubrick, screenplay by Dalton Trumbo.)

U.B. said...

Don´t we expierence wonderful days.A little Brazil ,a little 1984,a little
counterterrorism.It sucks that our minister of the interior handled this case in secrecy!This is going the same way as Maosim, Stalinism,Hotchiminism and Fachism if it goes on."For the wellbeeing of the peolple what does it matter if a single person suffers."A little torture,man come on who cares.It was done for the higher goal.And that Schulz was punished on behalf of Meyer......that´s just a petty that the names got confused.I mean look at least he is alive and was not thrown out of an airplane over the ocean as the argentines did to get rid of their " terrorist."And he has the right to sue his kidnapers.What more do we want.Okay.One could say whoever
picked the wrong man did it with best intentions.Imagine what would happen if the people in the arabian world would suddenly think that their oil was for their wealth.You would not want this, would you?To pick and blame the wrong man from time to time is better than paying 20$ a gallon for petrol.Wouldn´t we all give up a few civil rights and a little freedom as long as we could keep our Pick Up. HM! U.B
05:22

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Ah, I see you are Interested in this very curious business. (I prefer Valium, others have had nice things to say about Xanax. For medical reasons, I do not recommend Liquor, but many will be turning to it for Nervous System Relief.)

If Vleeptron will promise not to talk anymore about the former Miss Texas, will you please tell Vleeptron how the German media is treating this story? The dignified media and the Undignified tabloid media, auf deutsches oder English? (I can stumble and bumble through the headlines, anyway.)

Is there outrage? Is there public and political anger? Or are the media and the politicians schlaffing about the Tale of the German Citizen who disappeared for five months?

(Personally, I think this is all a scam, it seems obvious he was abducted by Aliens in the UFO and taken to the Bermuda Triangle because Elvis was lonely and missed talking to people from Germany from when he was a young American soldier.)

President Bush goes ballistic/postal/schoolyard over lots of things -- he seems last year to have muttered to Tony Blair that he wanted to bomb the Qatar headquarters of Aljazeera TV, but Mr Blair talked him down from this ledge.

(On the website Magharebia for North Africans which private contractors for the American government set up to Tell The Truth about Iraq to North Africans, many authentic true Muslim Commenters and Bloggers are certain that if he said that, President Bush was only making a joke. I think Anteon International Corp. pays each authentic true Muslim U$50 for each Sincere Comment.)

But when Bush announced the War on Iraq, the first thing he went ballistic over was the diplomatic opposition he encountered from his European allies Germany and France. (Shortly afterwards, a conservative Republican member of Congress tried to get the Congressional cafeteria/kantine to change the menu from "French Fries" to "Freedom Fries." Poor fellow seems to have been absent from Hochschul American History class, or he would know that without French, USA would not have Freedom, we would be singing "God Save the Queen" at the baseball games, and George Washington would have been Singapored by the neck until dead.)

Well, Germany is a Big Place, and its government has Many Büros. There is the Büro that objects to the Iraq War. (Bush doesn't like that Büro.) There is the Büro that tries to protect German Citizens from foreign abductions and torture. (Bush doesn't like that Büro.)

But you can find other Büros that maybe have Other Responsibilities and different ways of seeing the World. The Interior Ministry, and the fellow who was the Minister then, Otto Schily -- they had Other Responsibilities.

When the USA told Otto about the Abduction of Khaled Masri (in other stories, al-Masri), they asked him to keep the whole embarrassing mistake Super-Hush-Hush Secret, certainly not to tell the German media. The USA was sure Otto would understand why this was necessary. Otto understood why this was necessary. (What other necessary things, I wonder, did Otto understand?)

(What job does Otto have today? Is he still in the new re-shuffled federal Government? Maybe he protects the Environment.)

I truly believe that to truly understand this moment in History, everybody would be very strongly advised to Rent The Video of "Brazil," a now hopelessly outdated out-of-code 20-year-old movie which, like all Old Things, cannot possibly be of any value to Modern Young iPod People living today. (If there is a Happy Ending at the end, take the DVD back to the Rental Store and scream at the clerk until you get your money back and get the Authorized Terry Gilliam Approved Certified Director's Version. The "Happy Ending" version is often the one they show on TV.)

But another useless, hopelessly old and outdated fictional (and therefore Not True) flashlight that illuminates this moment in History, and you can Rent This Video too, it is Excellent, Alec Guinness is wonderful, but For Best Results, get the Book: "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" by John leCarre.

At the end, a sacked, fired, discarded, disgraced old British Spy named George Smiley finally tracks down and captures a "mole" -- one of his Spy colleagues who has actually been a secret traitor for the Soviet Union for 30 years, spilling all of Britain's secrets to the Soviets, and betraying and causing the deaths of scores, hundreds of British agents and Europeans who worked for the British. When Smiley captures the mole, the mole has risen to become No. 2 man in British Intelligence.

It doesn't matter any more, all the milk has been spilt, all the damage has been done, the toothpaste cannot be stuffed back into the tube, but George Smiley wants to know WHY his trusted spy colleague -- and friend -- betrayed all his friends and betrayed his country for decades. In the mole's secret jail, they have conversations. And the mole tells Smiley what made him do it.

As a young man at university (Oxford, but the real "moles" were Cambridge men) in the 1930s he had, like so many others, seen the Soviet Union as the Mecca of Idealism that would cure the world's corrupt ills.

But he did not really become Converted until the 1950s. Then he looked around at England (he always speaks of England, not Britain, never UK), and he looked at the new Superpower called America. America had become Great, Rich, Powerful. And his beloved England, before World War Two the Great British Empire, has now become sick, weak, a Poor Relation, in diplomacy and espionage a Puppe, a marionette dancing to America's tune, its spies running errands for their masters at the CIA.

The mole says bitterly: "We had become America's streetwalkers."

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Of course I always say that the War in Iraq is another Vietnam. And after this post, I will say it again, and often. Change the skin color, change the religion, change the part of Asia, now Humvees instead of old Jeeps ... but these are just superficial differences.

But there is another comparison, a much creepier comparison. America has become The New Rome.

America's people ARE decent and humane and generous, but our Government has been seduced into Running the World the way the Roman Empire ran the world: With threats, with bullying, with violence, with Shock and Awe.

All over the world, from the island of Britain (south of Hadrian's Wall, anyway) to the western edge of India, throughout northern Africa, Egypt and Arabia, Palestine, to Germany, to Belgium, to the Black Sea, Rome ruled with its (usually) mighty, all-victorious Army. Much of its Empire was run as direct Colonies by Roman governors, but Rome had many "sovereign" allies. They were "Free" under their local Kings. Free to pay Rome the tribute Rome demanded. And Free to do everything the way Rome demanded.

They were Rome's streetwalkers.

It's an effective way to Rule The World. It works. Do Our Bidding. Or Face Our Overpowering Military Might. Know the Shock And Awe of Rome. (After the Second Punic War, the victorious Romans sowed the farmlands of Carthage with salt, so nothing would grow there for a long time.)

So why isn't the World still ruled by The Roman Empire?

Britain tried it again starting around 1600. And Britannia Ruled the Waves as effectively as Rome until 1945. Not as long as Rome had, but not a bad track record.

What went wrong? Why doesn't Britannia Rule the Waves anymore?

To Rule the World by Force, Violence, Threat, Intimidation, Bullying, the PEOPLE of the Superpower must keep having a taste for cruelty, revenge, barbarism, terror As A Policy Of The State.

When they travel to the far places of the Empire, and see Crucified Rebels, they must nod and accept that the Crucifixions are Necessary Instruments of State Policy. They must Not Complain. Like Otto, they must agree to Keep Their Mouths Shut.

But PEOPLE do not have an endless, unlimited, infinite appetite for crucifixions and public hangings (see also: "Burmese Days," George Orwell's memoirs of the days when he was a young Colonial Policeman).

It may take PEOPLE a long time to care less about cheap gasoline and cheap bananas than they care about torture and cruelty of faraway strangers.

But eventually, PEOPLE will care.

Rome had to crucify those early peacenik weak sissy hippies who called themselves Christians and worshipped the Prince Of Peace. Rome had to terrorize everyone to make sure these anti-Empire ideas would not catch on and spread.

Two centuries later, even the Emperor became a Christian and ordered every Roman to become a Christian.

Because most people ARE decent. And most people do not have an infinite appetite for Cruelty and Barbarism.

Soon -- no predictions when, but Soon -- Singapore will stop hanging human beings.

Soon -- no predictions when, but Soon -- the USA will stop executing human beings.

Soon -- no predictions when, but It Will Happen -- the USA and UK will bring the soldiers home from Iraq. And the USA government will STOP celebrating Kidnapping and Torture as Necessary Instruments of Policy.

NGO Vleeptron strongly hopes Germany, its people and its Government, and Freedom France, its people and its Government, will help the USA cure itself of this temporary sick addiction to Secret Black Dark Torture. NGO Vleeptron strongly hopes the PEOPLE of the USA will very soon stop making "Brazil" the True Prophesy of today's World.