Friends, it is obvious that UMA has been the rational behind much of the conflict in the world during the last few decades.
Uncompromising Military Absolutism is a strategy popular with some nations in the world. How does it work? It begins when a ‘problem’ nation or group is attacked by one or several nations with a massive bombing campaign, a ‘shock and awe’ if you like.
Of course, you must choose your targets carefully to ensure you don’t fight someone who has the means to fight back and give as good as it gets. You also ensure your troops can’t be hauled before any World Court for war crimes and of course you don’t count civilian casualties or allow the media to get too close to the action. And you must clothe your imperialist objectives in glowing terms, things like ‘spreading freedom and democracy’ and ‘fighting terrorism’ and ‘self-defense’. It’s also helpful to find or invent some pretext for invasion like getting rid of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ or ‘removing a potential threat’.
The purpose of this ‘shock and awe’ is to cause severe damage to the country’s infrastructure (but not its valuable resources). A secondary purpose is to ensure that its inhabitants are terrorized and many of them killed. Doing this quickly gets the message across that no one is safe and that you are uncompromising and will kill civilians, women, kids, the elderly, anyone who gets in your road. Then you begin the next stage.
This involves tanks and heavy artillery and stormtroopers in addition to the bombing. You charge the troops with the responsibility of using ‘disproportionate force.’ This means they must not demonstrate any compassion. They must be seen as uncompromising, brutal, indifferent to the suffering they are inflicting, much like it used to be when whole nations were ‘put to the sword’. And if there is any opposition, call in an air strike or the heavy artillery and blow the opposition and all who might be in the building to pieces, even the innocents. This will ensure minimum casualties for your own forces and maximum casualties for your opponents.
The next stage, once the occupation is complete, is to ensure your military controls the entire country. Curfews, continuous patrols by heavily armed soldiers, numerous checkpoints, home invasions, arrests and imprisonment, torture, beatings, etc, are standard fare. You want the inhabitants to feel that their lives no longer belong to them but to you and your invincible army. You want your military presence to be seen as absolute!
The next phase, once control is absolute, is to set up a puppet government, one that is completely subservient to you, the conqueror. Doesn’t much matter who is appointed as long as they do as they are told and keep repeating the message that you, the conqueror, have brought a new, better way of life.
Of course the people living in the ruins of the country and counting their dead may have trouble seeing this but they will. If they don’t, drop a few bombs on them, blow up a few weddings. They’ll get the message fairly quickly and will learn to love you. And if they don’t love you, who cares? Let them fear you then.
The final phase is to get your occupation legitimized, build military bases, then begin stripping the scarce resources of the country away while you start planning which country will be next to feel the effects of your UNCOMPROMISING MILITARY ABSOLUTISM.
Yes, since UMA came into our lives, the world is a better place. And aren’t the militarists and the armament manufacturers ecstatic?
But come to think of it, didn’t the Romans use UMA? Mmmmmm! Perhaps UMA has been around for a long time?
In fact, ever since we became ‘civilized’ !
UMA, the name of the monster in our midst that nobody discusses. Well put , David. It is SO bizarre to me how this, that you have clearly detailed above, IS WHAT WE do. Or in our names at least.
It is totally disconnected from how we see ourselves. “Yes we can, Oprah and Obama!”
This is what our money that is taken out of our paychecks goes to Every pay period. While our bridges fall and kids dont get cared for properly. Bus lines closing. Libraries closing or tapering back tapered back hours. Job cutbacks left and right. It is all close to home. We are to believe that bad things must happen over there to protect us here. But then a wind blows carrying toxic particulate dust from China and the Middle Eastern deserts. It is a small world after all.
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David G Reply:
January 24th, 2009 at 9:35 am
UMA destines us to be caught up in endless war, Grace. It is a mindless doctrine promoted by amoral imperial powers who profit from war.
UMA and peace are mutually exclusive!
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Quite so. But, in assessing the situation, let us not overlook the fact that UMA, or however one wishes to designate the miltary component of “full spectrum dominance”, is just that. It’s one means to an end that is commonplace amongst the world’s elite.
With good reason and considerable justifucation, we tend most strongly to abhor that particular method as an especially barbaric expression of geopolitical strategies. But regardless of how the global marauders accomplish their enslavement and thievery, whether by military, political, financial or other means, the ultimate impacts on the victims can often be equally harsh. For at least some of those suffering from starvation, widespread ill health, child slave labour and suchlike, a quick bullet might actually be less painful.
Having said all of that, I must agree that it sure would be great if we could eliminate UMA entirely from the gamut of geopolitical strategic methodologies. Given human nature and the military advantages enjoyed by the richest and most aggressive nations, however, that would seem to be a forlorn hope — unless, of course, those rich guys run short of the wherewithall which lately seems to be a distinct possibility.
A word with the Chinese and other major creditors might be in order, except I have a sneaking suspicion that more than a few of them are not unhappy to keep fueling the Titanic and let events take their projected course.
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David G Reply:
January 24th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Arvy, what ‘The Thinkers’ have to do is to destroy the myth that UMA is a legitimate part of a civilized world.
UMA has to be exposed for the immoral, valueless, evil monstrosity that it is and those who employ it or profit from it have to be condemned, treated as pariahs, as deranged.
UMA solves nothing and keeps us at the level of savages.
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Arvy Reply:
January 24th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Unfortunately, to whatever extent one can consider warfare in the context of a “civilized world”, the trend seems to be in the opposite direction. Prior to WW2 there were actually some moral inhibitions against wholesale slaughter and destruction of non-military targets. Despite some residual lip service, any such reserations seem to have disappeared almost completely — especially since the explosive dawn of the nuclear age at the end of that war.
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The puppet governments are always chosen by an “election”. Same in the US.
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Pannetta implemented Clinton’s rendition policies, while he was his Chief of Staff, and I can’t wait until the Intelligence hearings re his being appointed director of the CIA. Plus, it has been reported that already Obama’s military drones (fudging cowards) killed several civilians in Pakistan, at least three of which were children, destroying dwellings also. The jew Federal Reserve plotter tax-evader Geithner, who he is insisting on being Sec. of Treasury, (our presidents only choose jewish for this, and all but one of the district fedl reserve chairs are jews), serve on his cabinet, has already put together a package of sanctions on Iran. Death dealing Obama, just like he promised.
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Prior to WWI, bombing was not allowed, under any circumstances considered a war crime. Thanks for your strong denunciation of UMA.
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Ken Reply:
January 25th, 2009 at 2:52 am
the end of civilization!
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Swan, your continuing news concerning Obama’s Jewish appointments fill me with great alarm given the recent actions of the Jewish State.
Perhaps America should consider changing its flag to the Star of David?
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Thanks for being alarmed. I am, and many agree with you, that the Star of David should be flying over Obama’s Whitehouse. Please, do scorn the USA. What you described above, is exactly what we did in Iraq, and the way we acted afterwards. (we is easier to type than my government). SPREAD THE WORD.
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Ken Reply:
January 25th, 2009 at 2:54 am
how else do you get elected? Obamba the prostitute.
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Just like you said, we’ve been doing this for a long time. Since the birth of civilization. Unfortunately, most don’t make the connection how one conflict births another as the “vanquished” eventually rise up to avenge the wrongs done. And so on, and so on, and so on. Kinda like a nasty virus.
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Swan, it scares me, the UMA mentality. It’s what Orwell wrote about in 1984: Big Brother, Might is Right, Use Any Means to Justify your Ends, Ruthlessly Crush all Opposition, Instill Fear, Establish uncompromising Control, Encourage People to Spy On Each Other, Institute Surveillance on Everyone, Use Torture and Rendition, etc.
How did the Beacon on the Hill become the Axis of Evil?
Rip, it is like a virus, even a cancer, one that moves from generation to generation!
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As Grace stated, UMA is the “monster” nobody talks about. Propaganda does a good job making sure that feknow it’s there. The “spreading freedom and democracy” pitch goes back so far in this country, the concept is accepted as factual just as it is accepted that the Earth is the third planet from the sun. This was understandable a half-century ago, when infecting the world with the American virus began in earnest. At that time, the powers that be got lucky. They just happened to be fighting aome tyrants who really did deserve the wrath of the world. The underlying reasons of securing territory and spreading our “democracy” all over the world—empire-building—were obscured by Pearl Harbor and the Holocaust. They failed to mention to the American people that the attack on Pearl Harbor was secretly provoked. And after the war, they again left out some information one might find important, like the fact that Japan had been trying to surrender the entire summer before being nuked. Truman just HAD to see what those new big bombs could do, and send a message that we were the new world order. But American propaganda made sure none of this was examined, and they did it with ease.
So during World War II, and even into Korea, it did seem believable to the American people that true democracy was being spread across the world, and we were making sure that eventually the whole world would be holding hands and singing the praises of democracy. We changed from a country defending itself to a country spreading an ideology overnight, and the American sheeple, never great readers, didn’t really notice. That we were experiencing our greatest economic boom in history helped the government get our Empire-building underway unimpinged on. People really believed that 1955 would last forever.
Of course, along came Vietnam and the passive acceptance of America’s unfailing rightness began to weaken. But by the time George W. shows up, we’re back to mindlessly waving Old Glory again thanks to 9/11. Pathetic. Americans are so pathetic. We were all angry, at first. I was harboring deep feelings of revenge against the Middle East, as well. For about a month. Then it began to wear off, and I began to think. And I imagine all of you did, too. But the Sheeple, they never DID think. That’s why thy had the embarrassing question of “Why do they hate us?” And when they’re told the answer, few of them want to believe it.
Of
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Ken Reply:
January 25th, 2009 at 6:55 am
“like the fact that Japan had been trying to surrender the entire summer before being nuked”
if even if they had not, lay on siege after Iwo Jima, Guam, ten years later there sending Hondas to the US.
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Late Revolution, an excellent, perceptive comment. Hopefully many American will read it. I’m sure they will given that 65% of the 300 plus views this blog gets per day come from America!
Ken, America’s love of killing is extraordinary really, given its background. And the irony of the Hondas is delicious.
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If the Israelis went to Gaza to bring Shalit back, then they have returned empty handed.
And if they went to Gaza to stop rockets, then rockets have increased in number and scope.
And if they went to Gaza to end Hamas, then Hamas has now grown stronger and gained more popularity and more legitimcy.
And if they went to Gaza to occupy it, then we should remember that their elite forces could not advance one single meter inside the strip.
And if they went to Gaza to prove they have the upper hand militarily, then it was enough for them to hold a military parade in Tel Aviv.
And if they went to Gaza to kill Hamas leaders, then they were able to kill only two leaders out of 500.
And if they went to Gaza to win world sympathy, then the world public opinion has turned against them and their image has been tarnished even further.
And if they went to Gaza to restore confidence to their cowardly soldiers, then those soldiers have lost what was left of their confidence and self respect having seen their military honor, if any, rubbed in dust.
And if they went to Gaza to prove their power of deterrence, then it has now turned out that the resistance pride and threats have been strengthened.
The only thing the Israelis were able to achieve was kill children and other innocent civilians.
And I hope it won’t be long till we see their Nazi leaders dragged kicking and screaming to the criminal court of justice to get their punishment for the genocide war they started against the beleaguered and helpless people of Gaza.
Now, believe it or not, the Jewish Chronicle has just published a list of what it called the enemies of the state of Israel.
The list is long and it includes among others the names of the Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert and the UNRWA operation manager John Jing!
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Jon Stewart last night had the gall to fly the Israeli flag prominently on his show while he was interviewing Jimmy Carter. Comedy Central should be proud, NOT.
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Arvy Reply:
January 28th, 2009 at 6:10 am
Atonement perhaps? His earlier commentary re Israel’s attack on Gaza probably didn’t go over too well with AIPAC et al.
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Very good point, Arvy.
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