Did you know:
- There are still 20,000 – 50,000 troops loyal to Saddam fighting the US forces, and that, according to Sen. Lugar (R-IN), “victory is at risk”?
- Civilian death toll is estimated at around 10,000, the highest since the Vietnam war?
- Pfc. Jessica Lynch wasn't injured in a fire-fight; she just crashed her truck?
- America is funding terrorist groups in order to wage war on other terrorist groups?
- The US is holding 3,000 Iraqis — gagged, bound, and beaten — in violation of the Geneva convention and is refusing to let the Red Cross have access?
Now some details. I'll of course provide references, and you can use google news to find lots more should you choose to. Although the age of the free press is coming to an end unfortunately… Within a year it will only be one single mega-corporation and then the indie media (more, more, more, more, more).
1. Saddam's Troops
Paul Wolfowitz (Deputy Defense Secretary) has said that the US is still facing “several tens of thousands” of light infantry (ie. Saddam still has a functional army), as well as about 20,000 criminals released from Baghdad prisons. Government officials are warning both that the military victory is far from complete, and that the US underestimated their civil responsibilities and are at present unable to bring the country to order. (more).
2. Civilian Death Toll
Hospitals in Iraq are still totally overrun with civilian casualties of US aggression, with “collateral damage” being roughly triple that of the first Gulf war, and possibly five times that of the attack on Afghanistan — and these numbers just keep rising (more).
3. Saving Private Lynch
In the original version of the story, young Jessica Lynch heroically fought off a battalion of Iraqi troops, emptying her gun and killing several demons before being stabbed and shot herself. Her injuries included broken bones, presumably from torture at the hospital… not! Turns out that their company got lost and drove into Nasiriyah (where they were no longer protected). A band of paramilitaries fired on their convoy, and Jessica got spooked and crashed her truck where she sustained her injuries — which were then treated by Iraqi doctors who found her (more).
4. America, State Sponsor of Terrorism
America is demanding the right to overthrow Iran due to claims that “it's where al Qaeda is from” (I think I've heard this one before). In order to do so, the Pentagon would heavily fund the Mojahedin Khalq (MEK), an Iraq based armed-opposition group, contracting them to launch terror attacks on Iranian interests. I should be clear that the MEK is officially considered a terrorist group by the State Department. Ignoring the sheer hypocrisy of this action, it's one that almost always backfires in extremely unpleasant ways a la deals with the devil (more).
5. American War Crimes
The US is continuing to hold about 3,000 PoWs captive in a tent city near Baghdad, gagged and hooded, in the searing heat. Even though it's over a month after America declared the war effectively over, the US still refuses to give the Red Cross access to these camps, and continues to directly violate the Geneva Convention (more).
There's a lot of other horrible crap in the news, like the blocking of French journalists covering E3 (the video game convention) from entering America (more), as well as the Pentagon snubbing of France (more), all of which promises to erupt into a dangerous tit-for-tat… America may be big, but it's not that big. These are profoundly self-destructive acts that the American people will surely suffer for. Or I could go on about state-sponsored racism in America (more) or any number of other problems…
The US is promising to block all other nations from using near-Earth space (more). That is, the US will block other nations from running imaging (spy, weather, research, etc.) satellites, communications systems (satellite phones, 2-way internet, etc.), navigation systems (foreign versions of GPS like the ESA Galileo program), and so on. This includes not just “enemies”, but even friendly allies. To facilitate this process, the US plans on, in effect, merging NASA (a civilian organization) with the military and this will of course result in the total militarization of space.
In even more ominous news, the Council on Foreign Relations has just issued an “attack now” statement on China (more), saying that they are currently decades behind America in military power — hostilities are pending due to the battle over Taiwan, which China sees as a rogue province but America sees as a sovereign nation (as well as due to enormous economic wars). However, the Heritage Foundation points out that this new report does not jive with Pentagon numbers which give far greater estimates of China's military power*.
So here's the question: If the Bush Cabal is allowed to stay in power over Americans, will they take on China before it's “too late”? They could probably win now and kill “only” fifty million Americans (an “acceptable” rate of loss?) or so… but if they wait ten years, victory would be far less certain.
I suppose now would be a good time to quote Einstein.
"We must inoculate our children against militarism, by educating them in the spirit of pacifism... Our schoolbooks glorify war and conceal its horrors. They indoctrinate children with hatred. I would teach peace rather than war, love rather than hate. ... I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
* Also remember that China is allied with Russia at this point, and Europe is very much a wildcard. Don't bet that Europe won't jump at a chance to decimate America's all-but-monopoly.
So for the movie we'll be filming at least one bridge guerrilla suspension (shhhh!). The trick of course is doing it quickly without getting yourself arrested, which means that you (a) have to be able to set up very fast, (b) get the person off the rig fast when you decide to, and (c) break down the rig quickly.
Unless I'm missing something, the easiest way is probably a vehicle based system. I've whipped up this idea for a bar that attaches to the top of my Jeep's roll-cage. It's super-simple: just a triangulated bar with “hooks” on one end that grab around the edge of the roll-cage and are then held in place with pins. Optionally the whole thing could be attached to the winch as well.
So when you're driving it mounts lengthwise and stays in “road legal” territory. Then you pull up onto the side of a bridge, spin the beam ninety degrees, lock it into place, and you're good to go… then yank the person back up (easy since your mounting point is already eight or nine feet off the ground; just pull the pulley to the top. Pop out the pins, spin the beam back, re-lock it into the driving position and disappear into the night.
As those of you in Toronto definitely know, there's a child-killer (more) that quite likely lives within a short walk of Ryan, Danielle, and Saira. The police are now doing (or at least asking the residents to do) “voluntary” DNA tests. So far, if you say “yes” they don't typically test you, they just write down that you said yes. I don't know what happens if you say no.
But let us remind ourselves of one of the core truths of liberty that events like September 11th outlined: It is in times of crisis that we must most hold onto our civil liberties. The police have no right to do blanket DNA testing (more, more) of everyone in the area in the hope that it might catch someone. If we're to operate with the presumption of innocence, I am very uncomfortable with laying the foundation for this kind of tyranny where there is instead a presumption of guilt. After all, if you're not a suspect, at least a little, they have no need to be test you.
“If you think I'm guilty, arrest me and prove it. Otherwise piss off.”
Is it horrible that a little girl was abducted and her body later dismembered and then dumped? Of course, but it's also irrelevant. Countries like Canada and America are great places in theory because of the freedom they offer their people. Just because we're scared, be it of the monster in a turban or be it the monster next door, is no excuse for trampling the foundation of our nations' beauty. Innocent people should not have to face persecution just for living in the vicinity of a crime.
…and as Ryan points out, do you really trust the government that much?
Allowing things like this to happen voluntarily guarantees a few things:
- Eventually it will become the status quo, and not long after it will not be voluntary any more. Most laws don't exist to protect right and wrong — they exist to maintain the norm.
- Once it happens a few times, it “makes more sense” to keep the DNA records on file. All voluntarily of course, at least at first.
- The severity of crime this technique can be used for will grow lesser and lesser until “sweep investigation” becomes the effective norm.
And before you say “oh, crazy conspiracy Shannon” go look at the way laws appear. This crap happens all the time, and has for most of history.
Normally I don't post the mail I get any more; I figure it's between me and the person who sent it. But I do want to post this postcard from Clive and Marty who are currently in the British Virgin Islands filming for the upcoming BME movie (and soon to be joined by Kay and Nina, and recently left by Jason). I figure that the movie isn't really “mine” — it's more of an “ours” creation (a la the scrapbook).
As you know we filmed earlier this year in the UK (thanks to Patrick, and of course Marty, Jill, Erik, Steve-O, and many others), and Badur and Jonny are currently in the middle of an ambitious (and I'm sure exhausting) 60-day filming spree across North America. Coming up later this year are a Scandinavian tour which I'd love to extend into Russia, as well as a South American tour. If anyone would like to be involved as staff on those legs, I'm still looking for exceptional and unique individuals to take part, possibly with sponsorship depending on the options.
