Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Yr Enemies R Stupid

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  • Che Tibby,

    Which is about right, even today. The lack of understanding of the role economics has to play is, however, terrifying.

    that might actually be the other salient point from charles stross, halting state, economic warfare is the real c21st weapon.

    much less messy, for starters.

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    Try for a starter a view from the inside of US policy: War and Decision, by D J Feith, former under secretary for Defence.

    James, is that you?

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    Try for a starter a view from the inside of US policy: War and Decision, by D J Feith, former under secretary for Defence.

    Care to summarise what the little man had to say? I saw a couple of his interviews when he was promoting the book (including the one on the daily show, which was hilarious) and the gist seemed to be "we were right, you shall see, just you wait." What do you reckon?

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    There is an uncut two-part Daily Show interview with weaselly Feith which lasts the best part of 20 minutes here.

    Most illuminating.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    Personally, if the US wants to invade Mars and scour it for Martian WMDs, then I'd be happy for them to do so. After that, if they want to try regime change on Jupiter? Anything to keep them busy & happy..

    Perhaps Osama is hiding in the Kuiper Belt?

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    <quoteWhere's James when you need him to tell us how it really is?
    </quote>

    Candyman, Candyman, Candyman.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    Maureen Dowd on Dougie...

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • WH,

    i agree that klein uses examples and arguments that should not be discounted simply because the narrative in which she includes them is unpersuasive. i had a flip through her new book recently, the research was interesting notwithstanding the cherrypicking that helps create the book's apocalyptic feel.

    no logo is worth reading. i remembered the book when i saw $B300 nike's being offered with a pay-by-instalment plan in rio de janeiro.

    Since Nov 2006 • 797 posts Report Reply

  • James Bremner,

    Klein, I mean to say where to start, I can't be bothered. She is just another Michael Moore, a paranoid loon who strings a bunch of bs together into a screed that the gulible and ignorant sadly lap up.

    Space warfare. With so much in our modern world depending on satellites, and that ability of the US to defend itself totally dependent on satellites, the idea that the Yanks wouldn't make sure they can take care of business in space is pretty naive.

    Katrina. Read the "From" below my name. I know a bit more about Katrina than most people I meet. Never ceases to amaze me to read or hear people going off about some aspect of the big K with barely a fucking clue about the subject.

    If you want to get pissed of at FEMA, have at it. But don't forget that FEMA is not responsible, or equipped at all, for the immediate response to a disaster, that is the responsibility of local authorities.

    Also don't forget to get pissed off at the clowns in the Army Corp of Engineers who designed fatally flawed levy walls 30 years ago (17th St, London Ave canals etc) that did most of the damage to the city. Get mad at the Local and State governments which hadn't done the preparation they were supposed to have and screwed up plenty afterwards as well.

    Biggest single fuck up: Kathleen Blanco saying on Tuesday "I need 24 hours to make up my mind" about calling out the National Guard. What is there to think about? Absolute fucking moron.

    Biggest mistake Bush made: Taking a state's rights perspective (a big deal over here) and deferring to Blanco as Governor. He could have gone around her and had Nagin make a request for federal military resources that would have provided a legal basis to cirumvent Blanco and gotten the army there days faster. He didn't do it. Big mistake.

    And don't forget those who ignored the evacuation order. I am not referring to the sick or elderly (which the city of NO was supposed to evacuate but didn't even have a plan to) but the tens of thousands of able bodied who routinely ignore hurricane evacuation orders. They played Russian roulette with the biggest nastiest hurricane in a century, and lost.

    NOLA • Since Nov 2006 • 353 posts Report Reply

  • Shep Cheyenne,

    OK James, but who sent Blackwater in?

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    44 minutes.....

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Peter Darlington,

    Katrina. Read the "From" below my name. I know a bit more about Katrina than most people I meet.

    So what was your experience of Katrina, James? Were you living in NO at that time? Did you manage to get out beforehand and how has it been for you since?

    Just interested to hear your perspective on it first hand really, without all the politics re local govt, FEMA, Bush etc...

    It's been quite a wild week here too, not on the same scale though.

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • James Francis,

    a paranoid loon who strings a bunch of bs together into a screed that the gulible and ignorant sadly lap up.

    I have to. I can't help myself. It sounds remarkably like GWB.

    St John's, Newfoundland • Since Nov 2006 • 121 posts Report Reply

  • Angus Robertson,

    Naomi Klein - the Ann Coulter of the fundamentalist left?

    Auckland • Since May 2007 • 984 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    Naomi Klein - the Ann Coulter of the fundamentalist left?

    Give me a break.

    Seriously, have you guys bothered to read her books? I agree that at times she's irritatingly simplistic, but it's not as if the basic claims in Shock Doctrine are outlandish. Or new, for that matter. But aside for the polemic itself, which I can take or leave, the content is well researched and certainly interesting.

    Ann Coulter, on the other hand, is a deranged loon.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Lyndon Hood,

    the Ann Coulter of the fundamentalist left?

    Duncan Sarkies did do a lovely bit in one of his shows, started something like

    I went to a rally, I saw Naomi Klein speak and she is hot...

    ... and expounded on this infatuation for a couple of minutes to the tune of Rebel Yell.

    He apologised for it in advance.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1115 posts Report Reply

  • Che Tibby,

    44 minutes.....

    ROFL!!!!!1!!!!!

    the c-word three times, and there he is.

    i actually gaffawed when i saw that the j-man had popped in.

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    I know a bit more about Katrina than most people I meet.

    We have argued this issue about 974,000 times, James, but 'I was there!' does not a coherent argument make. Nor does 'I blame the people who didn't leave' (class-ay!) or repeating the 'state and local authorities! state and local authorities!' mantra.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Angus Robertson,

    Seriously, have you guys bothered to read her books?

    I have read articles of her's online, not the books. They have a consistent theme.

    The problem for Naomi is over 800 million people within developing nations have been freed from grinding hand to mouth subsistance poverty by themselves reforming to increase market participation. Naomi Klein's basic claim - this poverty reduction is a disaster.

    Auckland • Since May 2007 • 984 posts Report Reply

  • Philip,

    Simon, Maureen Dowd! You mean the elderly schoolgirl of the NYT. Doesnt get any lighter weight than that.

    Regarding the various interviews with Feith, they all just show what a trivial medium TV is when people are out to score cheap and boring points - eg the war has gone badly, you didnt anticipate x and y. All of which can be said about any war. What the book shows, and what nobody else here seems serious enough to contemplate, is that the situation with Iraq had been a mess for a long time and was unravelling fast. The Feith book shows a bunch of policy makers -bureaucrats and political appointees - grappling with a situation where there was no easy or safe decision to be made. They were aware that 9/11 could have been 30,000 dead. They didn't know what was coming next, but they now knew that there was no limit to the scale of attack if the weapons were available.

    You can read the book and still disagree with the decision, but then you have to contemplate the messiness that was likely to eventuate in other forms. Most of the comments here seem almost unhinged in comparison to Feith's account of political leaders struggling with a situation in which there was no easy, or even good, decision to be made.

    Since Jul 2008 • 2 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    they all just show what a trivial medium TV is when people are out to score cheap and boring points - eg the war has gone badly, you didnt anticipate x and y

    Actually, it's clear that the point Jon Stewart was making was far more complex than that, particularly if you watch the unedited part two of his interview with Feith. He was arguing that the war was based on a hypothetical - 'Hussein may attack!' - but that while the administration was quite happy to talk in hypotheticals in the case *for* war, they deliberately misrepresented or obfuscated the hypothetical worst-case scenarios - which have, of course, come to pass in spades.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    ROFL!!!!!1!!!!!

    the c-word three times, and there he is.

    i actually gaffawed when i saw that the j-man had popped in.

    Yep, quite pleased with how that worked out.

    Anyhoo, with regard to conspiracy theories, I reckon Russell only posted this up because he's just trying to boost his advertising revenue to pay for all his expensive consumer toys (iPhone, Hi-D TV, etc).

    See Charlie Brooker in The Guardian here:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/14/september11.usa

    and here:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/21/charliebrooker.pressandpublishing

    Russell will of course deny this, but the truth is out there.....

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    They were aware that 9/11 could have been 30,000 dead.

    And that had fuck all to do with Iraq. But I refer you to Danielle's point: even allowing that the case for Iraqi WMD was made in good faith (which is one hell of a concession), the claim on the part of the administration that the war would be swift and painless was a lie, plain and simple.

    The problem for Naomi is over 800 million people within developing nations have been freed from grinding hand to mouth subsistance poverty by themselves reforming to increase market participation. Naomi Klein's basic claim - this poverty reduction is a disaster.

    How many time does the woman need to repeat that she's not against globalisation before her Sunday critics stop claiming that she is?

    The fact that international trade has bettered the lives of a great deal of people should not be allowed to obscure the instances in which it has destroyed the lives of others, nor prevent us from questioning the democratic legitimacy of those who make the decisions. Joseph Stiglitz said much the same things when he came to New Zealand a couple of months ago and he's hardly what you would call a fundamentalist, no?

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Sam F,

    The file is damaged and could not be repaired.

    Oh noes!

    In the unlikely event that this isn't a stuffup on my end, is there any other source for the PNAC doc?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    There is an uncut two-part Daily Show interview with weaselly Feith which lasts the best part of 20 minutes here.

    Was that the interview where Jon Stewart started it (post-interview, edited in) by apologising for the interview that was to follow, and finished the actual interview by saying "well, I don't know if we can use any of this..."?

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

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