Pastor Rob Wilton in New Orleans with Vintage Church has a church relief team ready to help in New Orleans. He's riding out the storm in Covington, LA but will return to assist and plans to blog about it. If your looking for ways to help, he's a good place to start.
Blog:
IM New Orleans
And Twitter:
http://twitter.com/IMNEWORLEANS
Also Pastor Dan Rizzo in Baton Rouge, LA. Twitter.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Riding Gustav
Political Intell, The Wikipedia way...
Found this via the Instapundit. I spike in editing of Sarah Palin's Wikipedia page might have forecasted her being picked a day early.
"The Washington Post reports on the findings of Cyveillance, a company that 'normally trawls the Internet for data on behalf of clients seeking open source information in advance of a corporate acquisition, an important executive hire, or brand awareness.' Cyveillance decided 'on a lark' to test its methods by monitoring the Wikipedia biographies of Vice-Presidential prospects. The conclusion? If you'd been watching Wikipedia you might have gotten an advance tipoff of Friday's announcement that McCain was selecting Sarah Palin. 'At approximately 5 p.m. ET (Thursday), the company's analysts noticed a spike in the editing traffic to Palin's Wiki page, and that some of the same Wiki users appeared to be making changes to McCain's page.'"
"The Washington Post reports on the findings of Cyveillance, a company that 'normally trawls the Internet for data on behalf of clients seeking open source information in advance of a corporate acquisition, an important executive hire, or brand awareness.' Cyveillance decided 'on a lark' to test its methods by monitoring the Wikipedia biographies of Vice-Presidential prospects. The conclusion? If you'd been watching Wikipedia you might have gotten an advance tipoff of Friday's announcement that McCain was selecting Sarah Palin. 'At approximately 5 p.m. ET (Thursday), the company's analysts noticed a spike in the editing traffic to Palin's Wiki page, and that some of the same Wiki users appeared to be making changes to McCain's page.'"
Saturday, August 30, 2008
On another topic entirely....
Having rented and watched "Hitman" this weekend, I felt compelled to say that Olga Kurylenko is stunning to look at. There, I said it. I feel better.
Suddenly, a name like Olga is redeemed! No longer does it conjure up images of the large, chain smoking, butchy Russian guard with a hairy mole working the Gulag without mercy...Quite the opposite comes to mind now.
I note she'll also be the new Bond girl in "Quantum of Solace" and is in the web episodic movie "Tyranny the series". Hey, I'm still a guy after all.
Simply stunning.
The Style of subversion
The Style of Subversion: An Introduction
The Style of Subversion: Resisting Pseudo-Alterity
The Style of Subversion: A Loving Resistance
"
The Style of Subversion: Resisting Pseudo-Alterity
The Style of Subversion: A Loving Resistance
"
As long as our understanding of our prophetic call is rooted in anger or simple frustration, we will fail. With such emotions fueling our vision, the best thing we can accomplish is destruction or, perhaps, deconstruction. We can tear down the Empire, but what will take its place? Another Empire. That simply creates an ongoing cycle where new oppressors continually take the place of the old oppressors. Revolutions tear down the status quo and set up a new status quo that is often twice the Son of Hell than the old status quo.
We who follow Christ should know better than to simply seek to create a new world order... "
Quotes
“…the Christian must not act in exactly the same way as everyone else. He has a part to play in this world which no one else can possibly fulfill. He is not asked to look at the various movements which men have started, choose those which seem ‘good,’ and then support them. He is not asked to give his blessing to any particular human enterprise, nor to support the decisions of man.”
“We are free, because at every moment in our lives we are both judged and pardoned, and are consequently placed in a new situation, free from fatalism, and from the bondage of sinful habits.”
Ellul from his "The Presence of the Kingdom".
“We are free, because at every moment in our lives we are both judged and pardoned, and are consequently placed in a new situation, free from fatalism, and from the bondage of sinful habits.”
Ellul from his "The Presence of the Kingdom".
More links
More early Church Fathers on violence. HTML link.
An Introduction to the Work of Jacques Ellul by Marva J. Dawn. PDF.
Violence, Anarchy and Scripture: Jacques Ellul and René Girard by Matthew Pattillo. PDF.
Some balanced criticism of Ellul's approach here. Jacques Ellul: creation, fall and cultural engagement by David T. Koyzis. PDF.
And here, Jacques Ellul and The Subversion of Christianity by Charles St-Onge. PDF.
An Introduction to the Work of Jacques Ellul by Marva J. Dawn. PDF.
Violence, Anarchy and Scripture: Jacques Ellul and René Girard by Matthew Pattillo. PDF.
Some balanced criticism of Ellul's approach here. Jacques Ellul: creation, fall and cultural engagement by David T. Koyzis. PDF.
And here, Jacques Ellul and The Subversion of Christianity by Charles St-Onge. PDF.
Seed
My church's community outreach and mission called "SEED", headed up by "Nathan Ivy".
A Louisville urban renewal project. And yes, Nathan and others choose to live in these communities when they could afford to live elsewhere; ie the safer and already well groomed suburbs.
The building above is just around the corner from Sojourn. This is very much an early 1900's part of town with midsize, now abandoned, factory buildings right across the street from rows of shotgun houses.
It does remind me alot of Bridgeport.
A Louisville urban renewal project. And yes, Nathan and others choose to live in these communities when they could afford to live elsewhere; ie the safer and already well groomed suburbs.
The building above is just around the corner from Sojourn. This is very much an early 1900's part of town with midsize, now abandoned, factory buildings right across the street from rows of shotgun houses.
It does remind me alot of Bridgeport.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Liberation of the mad farmer
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion—put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
Wendell Berry
from The Country of Marriage
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion—put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
Wendell Berry
from The Country of Marriage
A conspiracy of faith, in the margins of Empire.
From Shane Claiborne's "The Irresistible Revolution", Chapter 5,
“Another Way of Doing Life”. You can read the chapter for free HERE.
The simple way that he speaks of in his book is the idea of moving into the abandoned and forsaken parts of the empire. The other side of the tracks, the ghettos and among the poverty stricken with the goal of simply living to serve. Not donating money towards but actually becoming apart of that community.
I cannot live vicariously through people like Shane or those I see at my church who do the same. Sojourn is located in a hard up area of Louisville and many young people, quite able to live in the nicer suburbs choose to live nearby and as the church encourages, "cultivate beauty".
I have to join them. I already own nothing. In the wonderings of my mind of late I see another life entirely and the path to it has never been so clear and clutter free. The old life still beckons. It was never more evident than when a very beautiful female sought out my companionship. Her words about faith just seemed empty. Like a footnote in a book about something else entirely. I wondered if I looked like that to others. My faith just something I talked about after I had my fun and my way and on my terms.
It was a temptation that for once was seen and averted.
I'm talking about forsaking the pursuit of happiness through work and culture. Find a girl, get married, rise thru the ranks at work, get a house, raise the kids, feed the dog and doze off to the ever present television noise has ended for me. I realize some may do this with a vibrant faith, and I don't judge them. I just no longer care to try. It was a lifeless toil of consumption with a bible nearby and deep down I knew it. I'm sure I prayed for a way out...well...that prayer was answered.
That doesn't mean I'm joining the left or givin' up on many of the things I've learned over the years, like libertarian political theory for instance or Calvinism. I don't jettison things as I go but I incorporate them and the person I become is a messy hodge-podge of all these ideas and beliefs. There will be contradictions and I don't anticipate anything being easy. I think the second portion of my life will be much more difficult than the first ever was. One can only hope.
“Another Way of Doing Life”. You can read the chapter for free HERE.
People are drawn to lights and celebrities, to arenas and megachurches. In the desert, Jesus was tempted by the spectacular — to throw himself from the temple so that people might believe — to shock and awe people, if you will. Today the church is tempted by the spectacular, to do big, miraculous things so people might believe, but Jesus has called us to littleness and compares our revolution to the little mustard seed, to yeast making its way through dough, slowly infecting this dark world with love. Many of us who find ourselves living differently from the dominant culture end up needing to “despectacularize” things a little so that the simple way is made as accessible as possible to other ordinary radicals.
The simple way that he speaks of in his book is the idea of moving into the abandoned and forsaken parts of the empire. The other side of the tracks, the ghettos and among the poverty stricken with the goal of simply living to serve. Not donating money towards but actually becoming apart of that community.
I cannot live vicariously through people like Shane or those I see at my church who do the same. Sojourn is located in a hard up area of Louisville and many young people, quite able to live in the nicer suburbs choose to live nearby and as the church encourages, "cultivate beauty".
I have to join them. I already own nothing. In the wonderings of my mind of late I see another life entirely and the path to it has never been so clear and clutter free. The old life still beckons. It was never more evident than when a very beautiful female sought out my companionship. Her words about faith just seemed empty. Like a footnote in a book about something else entirely. I wondered if I looked like that to others. My faith just something I talked about after I had my fun and my way and on my terms.
It was a temptation that for once was seen and averted.
I'm talking about forsaking the pursuit of happiness through work and culture. Find a girl, get married, rise thru the ranks at work, get a house, raise the kids, feed the dog and doze off to the ever present television noise has ended for me. I realize some may do this with a vibrant faith, and I don't judge them. I just no longer care to try. It was a lifeless toil of consumption with a bible nearby and deep down I knew it. I'm sure I prayed for a way out...well...that prayer was answered.
That doesn't mean I'm joining the left or givin' up on many of the things I've learned over the years, like libertarian political theory for instance or Calvinism. I don't jettison things as I go but I incorporate them and the person I become is a messy hodge-podge of all these ideas and beliefs. There will be contradictions and I don't anticipate anything being easy. I think the second portion of my life will be much more difficult than the first ever was. One can only hope.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Interesting...
at least for geeks like me.
The South may have defeated itself, having been internally split and in deep divide over what most assume was a unanimous decision.
The South may have defeated itself, having been internally split and in deep divide over what most assume was a unanimous decision.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Pfui !
I'm also collecting and reading Nero Wolfe detective novels by Rex Stout. I love em. I have 23 now of the 40 some odd he wrote. So, if your ever in a bookstore or yard sale dear reader and your thinking to yourself, Gee, I wish I could buy a book and send it to someone...but who? and What? Frustrate your noggin no longer.
If I collect the whole set I'll be cool and hip. The planet will also recover from heating, er, or cooling, or whatever they think its doing this week. So don't be a polluter for crying out loud! Confound it! Your either for the terrorists or your against them!
A&E made about 3 seasons worth of the books and were very well done.
Produced by and starring Timothy Hutton shown here as Archie Goodwin. Though I prefer to picture him as my grandfather in his speak easy days. Did I mention I love these characters!
Why did A&E only produce 3 seasons? Because their donkeys thats why.
If you like your geniuses flawed and eccentric, like ole Sherlock maybe, than do yourself a favor and read one of Stout's creations. Or catch the DVD in the library. Yes, I said the library. Below, Maury Chaykin as Wolfe.
If I collect the whole set I'll be cool and hip. The planet will also recover from heating, er, or cooling, or whatever they think its doing this week. So don't be a polluter for crying out loud! Confound it! Your either for the terrorists or your against them!
A&E made about 3 seasons worth of the books and were very well done.
Produced by and starring Timothy Hutton shown here as Archie Goodwin. Though I prefer to picture him as my grandfather in his speak easy days. Did I mention I love these characters!
Why did A&E only produce 3 seasons? Because their donkeys thats why.
If you like your geniuses flawed and eccentric, like ole Sherlock maybe, than do yourself a favor and read one of Stout's creations. Or catch the DVD in the library. Yes, I said the library. Below, Maury Chaykin as Wolfe.
Sources
For more Jacques Ellul, you can download free .pdf files HERE.
Just scroll down and on the left will be a gray "my share" box. There are quite a few Ellul works there. Nonviolence is one of them. Once downloaded, you can read at your leisure with Adobe reader.
Jason Barr runs the website and I chatted with him briefly last night. Turns out he doesn't live all that far from me here in Indiana. So hopefully we'll be meeting in the not so distant future.
It's awesome to be able to come into contact with people, books, authors and articles through the internet. I think so at least. An entire world is at your fingertips. I realize Ellul himself would have some reservations and would no doubt point out the cost of such technology, though, I haven't gotten that far yet in my reading.
I knew that very day my Father popped our phone into the new Commodore 64 modem, that I was going to use this machine for all its worth!
Look at the size of that floppy disk drive! I thought I was a programmer for awhile since I could make the screen go black and have this as the only sentence on the entire screen: (And it took one whole side of a cassette tape for memory. Cassette tape!)
Hello Greg, Would you like to play a game...?
What a dork.
Just scroll down and on the left will be a gray "my share" box. There are quite a few Ellul works there. Nonviolence is one of them. Once downloaded, you can read at your leisure with Adobe reader.
Jason Barr runs the website and I chatted with him briefly last night. Turns out he doesn't live all that far from me here in Indiana. So hopefully we'll be meeting in the not so distant future.
It's awesome to be able to come into contact with people, books, authors and articles through the internet. I think so at least. An entire world is at your fingertips. I realize Ellul himself would have some reservations and would no doubt point out the cost of such technology, though, I haven't gotten that far yet in my reading.
I knew that very day my Father popped our phone into the new Commodore 64 modem, that I was going to use this machine for all its worth!
Look at the size of that floppy disk drive! I thought I was a programmer for awhile since I could make the screen go black and have this as the only sentence on the entire screen: (And it took one whole side of a cassette tape for memory. Cassette tape!)
Hello Greg, Would you like to play a game...?
What a dork.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Ground Zero
Well, one thing is certain, revolutions rarely occur from just talking about revolutions. So I resolved to get into the fray. Where do I start?
The last thing I uttered before sleep last night was that the Lord expose all my violent doings, all these ways I fail to follow. It' s not the use of nonviolence to mediate problems as much as it is a belief that this is the best way to express faith in Jesus publically that leads to the kind of provactive confrontation that changes people. And that he help me to will and to do. I must have been very sleepy because in retrospect, that was one of those, get your crash helmet kind of prayers and I didn't grab mine.
I'd like to tell you that for a few hours the next morning, I put put up a valiant non-violent fight at work. But I failed before ever reaching there. For truly, even my dreams are filled with violent action starring of course me. Now, I'm not faulting myself for having a dream as much faulting the training of myself to feel comforted by violent fantasies. A demonstrative ego. The fantasy of heroic deeds of intense violence for the reward of fame and female worship. Rarely have I attempted to emulate the Saints who died in remote places, without fanfare so that the good new of Jesus reigning might be taken serious.
It's hard to fall asleep when the usual things that one deems heroic, and his attempts to emulate them are suddenly challenged.
Of course work environments present challenges very unique but no less violent. The violence of gossip, blame, scapegoating, greed, lust, envy, covetousness and folly are all there. There is economic violence, class warfare, racism, prejudice, intimidation and coercion. I am called to confront these all with Christ-likeness while never forgetting that I too, am also part of the problem. It will not do to tell the lowly worker soley to be Christ-like without also challenging the owner with his wealth to the same. How does that play out?
An so begins what I can only describe as a very lonely struggle. And yet there is a peace. There have been times in my life that I was surrounded by and busy with people but felt an intense solitude. Alone, as they say, in a crowded room. Today, I could not be more alone and yet, I feel a quiet satisfaction. Not in the loneliness. I have before been marginalized and out casted for my own actions and reasons. That is not what I speak of, a sort of zeal for being unique but instead in the wholly otherness that seems to permeate these actions. As if they belong not to me but the God who is, wholly other. Grandiose? Maybe. But invigorating.
We are to wage the warfare of faith, our only weapons those Paul speaks of: prayer, the Word of God, the justice of God, the zeal with which the gospel of peace endows us, the sword of the Spirit. . . .
And if we think this is easy, it is because we know nothing about life in Christ, because we are so sunk in our materialistic culture that we have quite forgotten the meaning of God's work in us, quite forgotten what we are called to in the world. For to wield Paul's weapons is certainly not to live a smug, event less life. The fight of faith demands sacrificing one's life, success, money, time, desires.
The fight of faith is perfectly peaceable, for it is fought by applying the Lord's commandments. Humanly speaking, to fight thus is to fight nakedly and weakly, but it
is precisely by fighting so that we strip bare and destroy the powers we are called to contend against.It is not by sequestering ourselves in our churches to say little prayers that we fight, but by changing human lives.
And it is truly a fight-not only against our own passions and interests and desires, but against a power that can be changed only by means which are the opposite of its own. - Jacques Ellul
The last thing I uttered before sleep last night was that the Lord expose all my violent doings, all these ways I fail to follow. It' s not the use of nonviolence to mediate problems as much as it is a belief that this is the best way to express faith in Jesus publically that leads to the kind of provactive confrontation that changes people. And that he help me to will and to do. I must have been very sleepy because in retrospect, that was one of those, get your crash helmet kind of prayers and I didn't grab mine.
I'd like to tell you that for a few hours the next morning, I put put up a valiant non-violent fight at work. But I failed before ever reaching there. For truly, even my dreams are filled with violent action starring of course me. Now, I'm not faulting myself for having a dream as much faulting the training of myself to feel comforted by violent fantasies. A demonstrative ego. The fantasy of heroic deeds of intense violence for the reward of fame and female worship. Rarely have I attempted to emulate the Saints who died in remote places, without fanfare so that the good new of Jesus reigning might be taken serious.
It's hard to fall asleep when the usual things that one deems heroic, and his attempts to emulate them are suddenly challenged.
Of course work environments present challenges very unique but no less violent. The violence of gossip, blame, scapegoating, greed, lust, envy, covetousness and folly are all there. There is economic violence, class warfare, racism, prejudice, intimidation and coercion. I am called to confront these all with Christ-likeness while never forgetting that I too, am also part of the problem. It will not do to tell the lowly worker soley to be Christ-like without also challenging the owner with his wealth to the same. How does that play out?
An so begins what I can only describe as a very lonely struggle. And yet there is a peace. There have been times in my life that I was surrounded by and busy with people but felt an intense solitude. Alone, as they say, in a crowded room. Today, I could not be more alone and yet, I feel a quiet satisfaction. Not in the loneliness. I have before been marginalized and out casted for my own actions and reasons. That is not what I speak of, a sort of zeal for being unique but instead in the wholly otherness that seems to permeate these actions. As if they belong not to me but the God who is, wholly other. Grandiose? Maybe. But invigorating.
We are to wage the warfare of faith, our only weapons those Paul speaks of: prayer, the Word of God, the justice of God, the zeal with which the gospel of peace endows us, the sword of the Spirit. . . .
And if we think this is easy, it is because we know nothing about life in Christ, because we are so sunk in our materialistic culture that we have quite forgotten the meaning of God's work in us, quite forgotten what we are called to in the world. For to wield Paul's weapons is certainly not to live a smug, event less life. The fight of faith demands sacrificing one's life, success, money, time, desires.
The fight of faith is perfectly peaceable, for it is fought by applying the Lord's commandments. Humanly speaking, to fight thus is to fight nakedly and weakly, but it
is precisely by fighting so that we strip bare and destroy the powers we are called to contend against.It is not by sequestering ourselves in our churches to say little prayers that we fight, but by changing human lives.
And it is truly a fight-not only against our own passions and interests and desires, but against a power that can be changed only by means which are the opposite of its own. - Jacques Ellul
Monday, August 18, 2008
Necessity demands...
Some ramblings as I flesh this out further...
When in my life I feel necessity striving within me, I try to examine it.
I NEED tobacco, I NEED a drink, I NEED sexual fulfilment, I NEED justice, I NEED to make them understand, I NEED to have this...
The needs mentioned above are not sinful in and of themselves. But when I NEED them, to make it thru the day, to feel complete and satisfied, I am in those moments leaving the faith. Trusting as it were in another sovereign, namely me.
I can still do them. I do not condemn those who do as well, what I'm learning to condemn is the thought I can do so as a Christian.
This most importantly comes into focus though with violence. "I need to use violence to solve this problem. This aggression against me." This may be so and often seems like the only answer but it can never be said to be Jesus' answer. In those moments we have joined the world.
Hypothetical Exhibit A: I am arrested this weekend for a crime I did not commit. But I languish over the weekend in jail. I submit to this violence trusting not in the powers that be, though I employ and challenge them, but in Jesus. Kuddos to you, you say. But while 'waiting', a man in my cell decides he is going to satisfy his sexual desires using me. At some point, all the praying, pleading and threats will have been issued. I can in this moment, defend myself. Using violence as a means of stopping his aggression. I would understand if you did likewise. Applaud you even.
But I cannot declare I've been Christ-like. I can seek forgiveness afterwards but I cannot justify it, after the fact.
Hypothetical Exhibit B: While in the mission field, the village I'm in the care of is assaulted. Machete wielding thugs descend from all sides. I can in that moment choose to pick up a machete to defend my new friends to the death. I wouldn't expect you to do any less either. But I cannot declare this the best and most Christ-like option. To die along with the villagers without defending myself might be a better witness. Surely a complete non violent response would testify even more. Not a testimony to non-violence itself mind you but a testimony that my life, your life, our lives as Christians are not our own. We give them up to find them in Jesus, the one true God. Our acts testify even to the oppressor.
The Christian's first act of nonviolence is that he refrain from asking others to live as if they were Christians. When violence is in question, it is not our business to lecture them and urge them to be nonviolent. That is an atrocity since only the Christian can behave like one. The power to behave as a Christian comes from faith. You cannot demand or expect the non-faithful to do it.
The thugs, the unconverted villagers, the cellmate cannot and will not abide by my ethic. They will do what men necessarily do, act and react with violence.
Only the Christian can become the witness. The pacifist in my midst lays down his life for nothing. To just be simply non-violent in a violent world is suicide.
I do not expect Russians and Georgians in the Caucuses to do anything other than fight and kill one another. I do not condemn them nor do I seek to lecture them on how to act as Christians when they are not. Should their leaders testify that they are Christians then I can bring all I have to bear on the subject to persuade them that their actions, however necessary, are not Christian.
To ask a government not to use the police when rioting is engaged, or not to use the army when the Nation is under attack, is to ask the state to commit suicide.
"So, if a Christian feels that he must participate in a violent movement (or
in a war!)let him do so discerningly. He ought to be the one who, even as he acts with the others, proclaims the injustice and the unacceptability of what he and they are doing. He ought to be the mirror of truth in which his comrades perceive the horror of their action. He ought to be the conscience of the movement; the one who, on behalf of his unbelieving comrades, repents, bears humiliation, and prays to the Lord; the one who restrains man from glorifying himself for the evil he does." - J. Ellul
The Christian who accepts violence, like the Christian who thinks he can ignore violence, has renounced his Christianity as a way of life. He has given up the attempt to express his faith in the difficult situation of today. This would go for economic, psychological and physical violence.
When in my life I feel necessity striving within me, I try to examine it.
I NEED tobacco, I NEED a drink, I NEED sexual fulfilment, I NEED justice, I NEED to make them understand, I NEED to have this...
The needs mentioned above are not sinful in and of themselves. But when I NEED them, to make it thru the day, to feel complete and satisfied, I am in those moments leaving the faith. Trusting as it were in another sovereign, namely me.
I can still do them. I do not condemn those who do as well, what I'm learning to condemn is the thought I can do so as a Christian.
This most importantly comes into focus though with violence. "I need to use violence to solve this problem. This aggression against me." This may be so and often seems like the only answer but it can never be said to be Jesus' answer. In those moments we have joined the world.
Hypothetical Exhibit A: I am arrested this weekend for a crime I did not commit. But I languish over the weekend in jail. I submit to this violence trusting not in the powers that be, though I employ and challenge them, but in Jesus. Kuddos to you, you say. But while 'waiting', a man in my cell decides he is going to satisfy his sexual desires using me. At some point, all the praying, pleading and threats will have been issued. I can in this moment, defend myself. Using violence as a means of stopping his aggression. I would understand if you did likewise. Applaud you even.
But I cannot declare I've been Christ-like. I can seek forgiveness afterwards but I cannot justify it, after the fact.
Hypothetical Exhibit B: While in the mission field, the village I'm in the care of is assaulted. Machete wielding thugs descend from all sides. I can in that moment choose to pick up a machete to defend my new friends to the death. I wouldn't expect you to do any less either. But I cannot declare this the best and most Christ-like option. To die along with the villagers without defending myself might be a better witness. Surely a complete non violent response would testify even more. Not a testimony to non-violence itself mind you but a testimony that my life, your life, our lives as Christians are not our own. We give them up to find them in Jesus, the one true God. Our acts testify even to the oppressor.
The Christian's first act of nonviolence is that he refrain from asking others to live as if they were Christians. When violence is in question, it is not our business to lecture them and urge them to be nonviolent. That is an atrocity since only the Christian can behave like one. The power to behave as a Christian comes from faith. You cannot demand or expect the non-faithful to do it.
The thugs, the unconverted villagers, the cellmate cannot and will not abide by my ethic. They will do what men necessarily do, act and react with violence.
Only the Christian can become the witness. The pacifist in my midst lays down his life for nothing. To just be simply non-violent in a violent world is suicide.
I do not expect Russians and Georgians in the Caucuses to do anything other than fight and kill one another. I do not condemn them nor do I seek to lecture them on how to act as Christians when they are not. Should their leaders testify that they are Christians then I can bring all I have to bear on the subject to persuade them that their actions, however necessary, are not Christian.
To ask a government not to use the police when rioting is engaged, or not to use the army when the Nation is under attack, is to ask the state to commit suicide.
"So, if a Christian feels that he must participate in a violent movement (or
in a war!)let him do so discerningly. He ought to be the one who, even as he acts with the others, proclaims the injustice and the unacceptability of what he and they are doing. He ought to be the mirror of truth in which his comrades perceive the horror of their action. He ought to be the conscience of the movement; the one who, on behalf of his unbelieving comrades, repents, bears humiliation, and prays to the Lord; the one who restrains man from glorifying himself for the evil he does." - J. Ellul
The Christian who accepts violence, like the Christian who thinks he can ignore violence, has renounced his Christianity as a way of life. He has given up the attempt to express his faith in the difficult situation of today. This would go for economic, psychological and physical violence.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Dancing with anarchy yet again...
Some one will undoubtedly say that due to the subject of my last few postings, that my leftist or rightist or libertarian politics are showing. But I assure you I have a deeper agenda than mere ideological spin.
I do not highlight the hypocrisy of American foreign policy for sheer giggles of uncovering hypocrisy. I need not write a thing in order to expose such vice. Looking in the mirror daily will suffice for that.
Rather it is the wider call of the disciple of Jesus upon me. That possibly, the issue of violence and force are better understood in this arena since we as a nation are forced to examine and the fears of more violence in a region of the world rather obscure now threaten us.
I like to think I am a realist. Coming from the mean streets of Bridgeport, Connecticut taught me something. Violence is the order of necessity. Since we are creatures of necessity, violence is the dominant trend. Like gravity or erosion, they are here. Which is exactly the line of thought I found in the writings of Jacques Ellul
What I've learned thus far...
That when I, as a mere man or as part of a greater nation, CHOOSE the path of violence I enter a system of necessities that subjects me and untold others to the indefinite reproduction of violence. Reciprocity.
I am not surprised when a women, trapped in her basement by a molester, strikes him dead and runs into the sunlight, or an enslaved people take up arms to produce liberty for themselves. Indeed, I applaud such action. But being a realist, the violence used is never without further consequences.
Having studied the ideas of "Just wars" and such that the theologians have articulated I find them all to be wanting. All violence is, in the end, the same and it has no limits even though, it seems, we like to think we can just declare them.
Terrorism is but a tactic of violence. It is escalation of violence in the hope of securing victory. That we choose to not employ it in favor of other tactics doesn't make it evil and 'us' right. When a US Marine throws a fragmentation grenade into a house that harbors enemies that are killing his comrades, he may not intend for women and children also in that house to die and most likely desires the opposite. But, as most would say, it is an unfortunate result. Collateral damage. We may mourn and cry. Drink away the nightmares but the terrorist is likewise employing violence to achieve an end that while never fully realized continues the insanity.
I am not here equating Marines to Terrorists. But violence, once unleashed, knows no boundaries and has only one certain goal. Reciprocity. Escalation.
I've been in war and it is madness. There are no rules though we like to think there are.
"Violence is a single thing, and it is always the same. In this respect, too, Jesus saw the reality. He declared that there is no difference between murdering a fellow man and being angry with him or insulting him (Matthew 5:21-22).
This passage is no "evangelical counsel for the converted"; it is, purely and simply, a description of the nature of violence." - Jacques Ellul
Once I open that nasty bag of tricks, there is no controlling the flow. When for instance, little Georgia declared independence in the early 1990's, many moved quickly to recognize it. Knowing as humans do that positions of power require violence and force to maintain. Not soon after, regions within Georgia declared Independence from it but because they were sympathetic to Russian alliances, no one acknowledged it. Much like the little US Colonies in 1776. In that day the known Empire thought it violent and obscene, but in time and thru violence, the nation of America was recognized.
We all decry violence aimed against us and yet we use and justify violence for ourselves. Whether its parents, police, bankers, politicians, employers or rioters.
Ah , you say. So true, violence begets violence-nothing else. But as long as the ends are desirable it is justified. Al Quadi's end goal, the Russian's end goal, the guy down the street whom I detest end goal, are not justifiable therefor he is condemned while my use of violence against them, is!
Violence can never realize a noble aim, can never create liberty or justice. The removal of Russian violence in the Balkans opened up suppressed violence among the various tribes and ethnic groups. Remove them with violent means will beget you more violence and this unforeseen.
Violence never attains the objectives it announces as justifying its use. Nations, Governments and institutions established through "just" violence are never an
improvement. Ask the American Indian and African slave how the war of Independence established freedom and justice for all. Ask the Vietnamese farmer how the ousting of France and the US established the great age of prosperity and peace.
Pacifism is not an answer either. It is not realistic. Unaware of the real evil and danger that lurks. Siding with the enemy is not a solution though the condemnation of all violence is agreed with.
Another way exists.
The first duty of a Christian is to reject idealism. Christian realism leads to the conclusion that violence is natural and normal to man and society, that violence is a kind of necessity imposed on governors and governed, on rich and poor.
What Christ does for us is above all to make us free. Man becomes free through the Spirit of God, through conversion to and communion with the Lord. This is the one way to true freedom.
But to have true freedom is to escape necessity or, rather, to be
free to struggle against necessity. Therefore, only one line of action is open to the Christian who is free in Christ. He must struggle against violence precisely because, apart from Christ, violence is the form that human relations normally and necessarily take. In other words, the more completely violence seems to be of the order of necessity, the greater is the obligation of believers in Christ's Lordship to overcome it by challenging necessity.
In the Old Testament, man shatters the necessity of eating by fasting, the necessity of toil by keeping the Sabbath; and when he fasts or keeps the Sabbath he recovers his real freedom, because he has been found again by the God who has re-established communion with him.
And this freedom is fully accomplished by and through Jesus Christ. For Christ, even death ceases to be a necessity: I give my life for my sheep; it is not taken from me, I give it." And the constant stress on the importance of giving signifies a breaking away from the necessity of money.
For the role of the Christian in society, in the midst of men, is to shatter
fatalities and necessities. And he cannot fulfill this role by using violent
means, simply because violence is of the order of necessity.
To use violence is to be of the world.
I do not highlight the hypocrisy of American foreign policy for sheer giggles of uncovering hypocrisy. I need not write a thing in order to expose such vice. Looking in the mirror daily will suffice for that.
Rather it is the wider call of the disciple of Jesus upon me. That possibly, the issue of violence and force are better understood in this arena since we as a nation are forced to examine and the fears of more violence in a region of the world rather obscure now threaten us.
I like to think I am a realist. Coming from the mean streets of Bridgeport, Connecticut taught me something. Violence is the order of necessity. Since we are creatures of necessity, violence is the dominant trend. Like gravity or erosion, they are here. Which is exactly the line of thought I found in the writings of Jacques Ellul
What I've learned thus far...
That when I, as a mere man or as part of a greater nation, CHOOSE the path of violence I enter a system of necessities that subjects me and untold others to the indefinite reproduction of violence. Reciprocity.
I am not surprised when a women, trapped in her basement by a molester, strikes him dead and runs into the sunlight, or an enslaved people take up arms to produce liberty for themselves. Indeed, I applaud such action. But being a realist, the violence used is never without further consequences.
Having studied the ideas of "Just wars" and such that the theologians have articulated I find them all to be wanting. All violence is, in the end, the same and it has no limits even though, it seems, we like to think we can just declare them.
Terrorism is but a tactic of violence. It is escalation of violence in the hope of securing victory. That we choose to not employ it in favor of other tactics doesn't make it evil and 'us' right. When a US Marine throws a fragmentation grenade into a house that harbors enemies that are killing his comrades, he may not intend for women and children also in that house to die and most likely desires the opposite. But, as most would say, it is an unfortunate result. Collateral damage. We may mourn and cry. Drink away the nightmares but the terrorist is likewise employing violence to achieve an end that while never fully realized continues the insanity.
I am not here equating Marines to Terrorists. But violence, once unleashed, knows no boundaries and has only one certain goal. Reciprocity. Escalation.
I've been in war and it is madness. There are no rules though we like to think there are.
"Violence is a single thing, and it is always the same. In this respect, too, Jesus saw the reality. He declared that there is no difference between murdering a fellow man and being angry with him or insulting him (Matthew 5:21-22).
This passage is no "evangelical counsel for the converted"; it is, purely and simply, a description of the nature of violence." - Jacques Ellul
Once I open that nasty bag of tricks, there is no controlling the flow. When for instance, little Georgia declared independence in the early 1990's, many moved quickly to recognize it. Knowing as humans do that positions of power require violence and force to maintain. Not soon after, regions within Georgia declared Independence from it but because they were sympathetic to Russian alliances, no one acknowledged it. Much like the little US Colonies in 1776. In that day the known Empire thought it violent and obscene, but in time and thru violence, the nation of America was recognized.
We all decry violence aimed against us and yet we use and justify violence for ourselves. Whether its parents, police, bankers, politicians, employers or rioters.
Ah , you say. So true, violence begets violence-nothing else. But as long as the ends are desirable it is justified. Al Quadi's end goal, the Russian's end goal, the guy down the street whom I detest end goal, are not justifiable therefor he is condemned while my use of violence against them, is!
Violence can never realize a noble aim, can never create liberty or justice. The removal of Russian violence in the Balkans opened up suppressed violence among the various tribes and ethnic groups. Remove them with violent means will beget you more violence and this unforeseen.
Violence never attains the objectives it announces as justifying its use. Nations, Governments and institutions established through "just" violence are never an
improvement. Ask the American Indian and African slave how the war of Independence established freedom and justice for all. Ask the Vietnamese farmer how the ousting of France and the US established the great age of prosperity and peace.
Pacifism is not an answer either. It is not realistic. Unaware of the real evil and danger that lurks. Siding with the enemy is not a solution though the condemnation of all violence is agreed with.
Another way exists.
The first duty of a Christian is to reject idealism. Christian realism leads to the conclusion that violence is natural and normal to man and society, that violence is a kind of necessity imposed on governors and governed, on rich and poor.
What Christ does for us is above all to make us free. Man becomes free through the Spirit of God, through conversion to and communion with the Lord. This is the one way to true freedom.
But to have true freedom is to escape necessity or, rather, to be
free to struggle against necessity. Therefore, only one line of action is open to the Christian who is free in Christ. He must struggle against violence precisely because, apart from Christ, violence is the form that human relations normally and necessarily take. In other words, the more completely violence seems to be of the order of necessity, the greater is the obligation of believers in Christ's Lordship to overcome it by challenging necessity.
In the Old Testament, man shatters the necessity of eating by fasting, the necessity of toil by keeping the Sabbath; and when he fasts or keeps the Sabbath he recovers his real freedom, because he has been found again by the God who has re-established communion with him.
And this freedom is fully accomplished by and through Jesus Christ. For Christ, even death ceases to be a necessity: I give my life for my sheep; it is not taken from me, I give it." And the constant stress on the importance of giving signifies a breaking away from the necessity of money.
For the role of the Christian in society, in the midst of men, is to shatter
fatalities and necessities. And he cannot fulfill this role by using violent
means, simply because violence is of the order of necessity.
To use violence is to be of the world.
Christmas in August.
US Ambassador Khalilzad on Georgia...
(No mention of Georgia's attacks on civilians August 8th.)
"[W]e must condemn the Russian military assault in the sovereign state of Georgia, the violation of the countries sovereignty and territorial integrity including the targeting of civilians and the campaign of terror against the Georgian population. Similarly, we need to condemn the destruction of Georgian infrastructure and violations of the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Ambassador Khalilzad further asked, "Was Russia's objective regime change in Georgia, the overthrow of the democratically elected government of that country?"
After all, he contended, the bad old days of tossing out governments of other nations were over.
Hmmm...Lets see...
CIA-supported coup against Iran's (elected) government in 1953 that brought the shah to power.
In 1963 Washington greenlighted the coup against South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, which resulted in his execution.
For nearly a half century Washington has been attempting to overthrow Fidel Castro.
In the 1980s the Reagan administration funded and armed a guerrilla force in an attempt to oust the Nicaraguan government.
In 1983 the U.S. invaded Grenada to remove a government viewed as inimical to American interests.
Six years later the U.S. invaded Panama to arrest its head of state. In Somalia in 1993 Washington decided to arrest local warlords – the de facto government – whom it disliked.
In 1994 the U.S. not only ousted the existing Haitian government, but put a new regime in its place.
A decade later the U.S. intervened to oust the same (elected) leader.
In 1999 the U.S. and NATO launched a war against Serbia to give autonomy, and ultimately independence, to the territory of Kosovo, supporting a violent secessionist movement which then ethnically cleansed hundreds of thousands of Serbs. The U.S. backed an unsuccessful coup in 2002 against Venezuela's (elected) President Hugo Chavez.
That same year President George W. Bush simultaneously targeted Iraq, Iran, and North Korea for regime change, terming them members of the "Axis of Evil."
A year later he invaded Iraq and ousted Saddam Hussein.
I'm reminded of a Christmas sermon by William H. Willimon.
So when you think about it, in our context, it is odd in a way that so many of us should flock to church on a Christmas Eve. It is a bit strange that we should think that, in Christmas, we hear such unadulteratedly good news, that we should feel such warm feelings, and think that we are closer to God now than at any other time of the year.
I guess we ought to be of the same frame of mind as our cousin, King Herod. When he heard the word about the first Christmas, the Gospels say that he was filled with fear. Give Herod credit. He knew bad news when he heard it. He knew that the songs that the angels sang meant an attack upon his world, God taking sides with those on the margins, the people in the night out in the fields, the oppressed and the lowly.
But for the people up at the palace, the well fixed, the people on top, the masters of the Empire, Christmas was bad news. And many of them were perceptive enough to know it.
So maybe that is why we cover up Christmas with cheap sentimentally, turn it into a saccharine celebration. Maybe, in our heart of hearts, we know that Christmas means that God may not be with the Empire, but rather the Empire may be on a shaky foundation, and that, if we told the story straight, as the Bible tells it, we might have reason, like Herod (when he heard about the first Christmas) to fear.
(No mention of Georgia's attacks on civilians August 8th.)
"[W]e must condemn the Russian military assault in the sovereign state of Georgia, the violation of the countries sovereignty and territorial integrity including the targeting of civilians and the campaign of terror against the Georgian population. Similarly, we need to condemn the destruction of Georgian infrastructure and violations of the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Ambassador Khalilzad further asked, "Was Russia's objective regime change in Georgia, the overthrow of the democratically elected government of that country?"
After all, he contended, the bad old days of tossing out governments of other nations were over.
Hmmm...Lets see...
CIA-supported coup against Iran's (elected) government in 1953 that brought the shah to power.
In 1963 Washington greenlighted the coup against South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, which resulted in his execution.
For nearly a half century Washington has been attempting to overthrow Fidel Castro.
In the 1980s the Reagan administration funded and armed a guerrilla force in an attempt to oust the Nicaraguan government.
In 1983 the U.S. invaded Grenada to remove a government viewed as inimical to American interests.
Six years later the U.S. invaded Panama to arrest its head of state. In Somalia in 1993 Washington decided to arrest local warlords – the de facto government – whom it disliked.
In 1994 the U.S. not only ousted the existing Haitian government, but put a new regime in its place.
A decade later the U.S. intervened to oust the same (elected) leader.
In 1999 the U.S. and NATO launched a war against Serbia to give autonomy, and ultimately independence, to the territory of Kosovo, supporting a violent secessionist movement which then ethnically cleansed hundreds of thousands of Serbs. The U.S. backed an unsuccessful coup in 2002 against Venezuela's (elected) President Hugo Chavez.
That same year President George W. Bush simultaneously targeted Iraq, Iran, and North Korea for regime change, terming them members of the "Axis of Evil."
A year later he invaded Iraq and ousted Saddam Hussein.
I'm reminded of a Christmas sermon by William H. Willimon.
So when you think about it, in our context, it is odd in a way that so many of us should flock to church on a Christmas Eve. It is a bit strange that we should think that, in Christmas, we hear such unadulteratedly good news, that we should feel such warm feelings, and think that we are closer to God now than at any other time of the year.
I guess we ought to be of the same frame of mind as our cousin, King Herod. When he heard the word about the first Christmas, the Gospels say that he was filled with fear. Give Herod credit. He knew bad news when he heard it. He knew that the songs that the angels sang meant an attack upon his world, God taking sides with those on the margins, the people in the night out in the fields, the oppressed and the lowly.
But for the people up at the palace, the well fixed, the people on top, the masters of the Empire, Christmas was bad news. And many of them were perceptive enough to know it.
So maybe that is why we cover up Christmas with cheap sentimentally, turn it into a saccharine celebration. Maybe, in our heart of hearts, we know that Christmas means that God may not be with the Empire, but rather the Empire may be on a shaky foundation, and that, if we told the story straight, as the Bible tells it, we might have reason, like Herod (when he heard about the first Christmas) to fear.
Riding Saddleback
Alot more can be said about the Saddleback civic forum on the Presidency that occured Saturday with Senator's McCain and Obama.
What saddened me was the question to each about war. What is worth dying for and more to the issue for them, what is worth sending 18 year old Americans off to die for? While they each said, Freedom, National Security and National interests, to the applause of many, neither remarked that only CONGRESS can declare war. The Executive Branch does not have, should not have but increasingly does have is own Praetorian Guard.
Lets face it, any war worth fightng wouldn't have trouble passing through the people's representatives, The Legislative branch. Think World War II. That's the point. Vietnam, Korea, Kuwait, Iraq, Balkans are all wars MANY if not most Americans would not relinquish their offspring to fight for, not without a cultural upheaval and mass debate, which SHOULD happen if the vote to declare war is before us.
The War Powers Act among many things paved the way for Congress to be more of a stamp on military actions already engaged by the Executive.
The audience seemed content to know that The potential Emporers would wield the Legions only in "our" best interest. If you think my allusion to Rome is off the mark and flippant, take note of history that the declining Roman Empire relied more and more heavily on immigrants and conscripts from vassal states rather than Roman citizens. States like Georgia, Latvia and Poland form our Auxilia palatina. 21 States and maybe as many as 34 fight for the Executive branch of our Government.
Hail Caesar.
What saddened me was the question to each about war. What is worth dying for and more to the issue for them, what is worth sending 18 year old Americans off to die for? While they each said, Freedom, National Security and National interests, to the applause of many, neither remarked that only CONGRESS can declare war. The Executive Branch does not have, should not have but increasingly does have is own Praetorian Guard.
Lets face it, any war worth fightng wouldn't have trouble passing through the people's representatives, The Legislative branch. Think World War II. That's the point. Vietnam, Korea, Kuwait, Iraq, Balkans are all wars MANY if not most Americans would not relinquish their offspring to fight for, not without a cultural upheaval and mass debate, which SHOULD happen if the vote to declare war is before us.
The War Powers Act among many things paved the way for Congress to be more of a stamp on military actions already engaged by the Executive.
The audience seemed content to know that The potential Emporers would wield the Legions only in "our" best interest. If you think my allusion to Rome is off the mark and flippant, take note of history that the declining Roman Empire relied more and more heavily on immigrants and conscripts from vassal states rather than Roman citizens. States like Georgia, Latvia and Poland form our Auxilia palatina. 21 States and maybe as many as 34 fight for the Executive branch of our Government.
Hail Caesar.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Georgia on my mind...
I once again find myself at odds with the Empire I live in.
In 1991 the Warsaw Pact dissolved. In my ignorance, I wondered why NATO didn't likewise dissolve. What was the point of this Military/Industrial alliance that now bordered an area that was sure to become a hotbed of ethnical, religious and regional uprisings? Recall the famous Article 5 (invoked for the first time ever after 9/11) of NATO that each nation within accepts that an attack on any NATO member is an attack on all.
But as F William Engdahl has put so well, "Washington has steadily converted NATO into what can only be called the military vehicle of an American global imperial rule, linked by a network of military bases from Kosovo to Poland to Turkey to Iraq and Afghanistan.". Enter Georgia.
The current regime in Georgia does not appear to me as a democratic wannbe, at all. As usual, we installed the Harvard trained Saakashvilli. Does the term Blowback mean anything anymore?
This doesn't look like a flowering democracy either. Saakashvilli Shutting down opposition run TV on Nov. 7th (partly owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp )and unleashing police on protesters.
It was Georgia that attempted to "retake" South Ossetia, a Self proclaimed independent province since the early 1990's on August 8th, 2008. I guess claiming independance only counts if your siding with this Empire.
This fighting is your tax dollars at work, mind you as American military personel are on the ground (Here and here) "training" Georgian troops for what just might be an American agenda to force the issue with Russia. Except Russia pulled the punk card. Interesting that field excercises in July of 08' never included this 400 man unit, which was busy in Iraq. Surely US intel was screaming that the Russians were ready to pounce. Guess it ain't easy being the Empire's proxy in the wider war that Trotskyites in the US just can't get enough of.
Is this how the American Empire avoids the draft? No wonder so many nations oppose Georgia's entrance into NATO.
That's not to say that I'm all about Russia. According to AEI institute fellows that I watched on C-Span last night, Russia has been amassing troops and armor on Georgia's border for over a year and may have some well placed spies within Georgia's ruling elite. I agreed that to respond so quickly and effectively, less than 24 hours of Georgia's attacks on South Ossetia, meant long term planning.
It appears to me that Russia has rather swiftly neutered a potential NATO advesary and definite American Sattelite (since 2002) and did so without regime change.
But my biggest gripe is the coverage. Once again we are ill-informed and despite 24hr news coverage in the US, have only tidbits, seconds really, of cold hard facts followed by 30 minutes of pundit spin and presidential candidate leveraging.
I found this post here most informative, reminding me yet again why network and cable news isn't worth the effort to lift the remote.
In 1991 the Warsaw Pact dissolved. In my ignorance, I wondered why NATO didn't likewise dissolve. What was the point of this Military/Industrial alliance that now bordered an area that was sure to become a hotbed of ethnical, religious and regional uprisings? Recall the famous Article 5 (invoked for the first time ever after 9/11) of NATO that each nation within accepts that an attack on any NATO member is an attack on all.
But as F William Engdahl has put so well, "Washington has steadily converted NATO into what can only be called the military vehicle of an American global imperial rule, linked by a network of military bases from Kosovo to Poland to Turkey to Iraq and Afghanistan.". Enter Georgia.
The current regime in Georgia does not appear to me as a democratic wannbe, at all. As usual, we installed the Harvard trained Saakashvilli. Does the term Blowback mean anything anymore?
This doesn't look like a flowering democracy either. Saakashvilli Shutting down opposition run TV on Nov. 7th (partly owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp )and unleashing police on protesters.
It was Georgia that attempted to "retake" South Ossetia, a Self proclaimed independent province since the early 1990's on August 8th, 2008. I guess claiming independance only counts if your siding with this Empire.
This fighting is your tax dollars at work, mind you as American military personel are on the ground (Here and here) "training" Georgian troops for what just might be an American agenda to force the issue with Russia. Except Russia pulled the punk card. Interesting that field excercises in July of 08' never included this 400 man unit, which was busy in Iraq. Surely US intel was screaming that the Russians were ready to pounce. Guess it ain't easy being the Empire's proxy in the wider war that Trotskyites in the US just can't get enough of.
Is this how the American Empire avoids the draft? No wonder so many nations oppose Georgia's entrance into NATO.
That's not to say that I'm all about Russia. According to AEI institute fellows that I watched on C-Span last night, Russia has been amassing troops and armor on Georgia's border for over a year and may have some well placed spies within Georgia's ruling elite. I agreed that to respond so quickly and effectively, less than 24 hours of Georgia's attacks on South Ossetia, meant long term planning.
It appears to me that Russia has rather swiftly neutered a potential NATO advesary and definite American Sattelite (since 2002) and did so without regime change.
But my biggest gripe is the coverage. Once again we are ill-informed and despite 24hr news coverage in the US, have only tidbits, seconds really, of cold hard facts followed by 30 minutes of pundit spin and presidential candidate leveraging.
I found this post here most informative, reminding me yet again why network and cable news isn't worth the effort to lift the remote.
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