The Descent

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“I think nothing has higher priority than averting an attack on Iran, which I think will be accompanied by a further change in our way of governing here that in effect will convert us into what I would call a police state.

If there’s another 9/11 under this regime … it means that they switch on full extent all the apparatus of a police state that has been patiently constructed, largely secretly at first but eventually leaked out and known and accepted by the Democratic people in Congress, by the Republicans and so forth.

Will there be anything left for NSA to increase its surveillance of us? … They may be to the limit of their technical capability now, or they may not. But if they’re not now they will be after another 9/11.

And I would say after the Iranian retaliation to an American attack on Iran, you will then see an increased attack on Iran – an escalation – which will be also accompanied by a total suppression of dissent in this country, including detention camps.

It’s a little hard for me to distinguish the two contingencies; they could come together. Another 9/11 or an Iranian attack in which Iran’s reaction against Israel, against our shipping, against our troops in Iraq above all, possibly in this country, will justify the full panoply of measures that have been prepared now, legitimized, and to some extent written into law. …

This is an unusual gang, even for Republicans. [But] I think that the successors to this regime are not likely to roll back the assault on the Constitution. They will take advantage of it, they will exploit it.

Will Hillary Clinton as president decide to turn off NSA after the last five years of illegal surveillance? Will she deprive her administration her ability to protect United States citizens from possible terrorism by blinding herself and deafening herself to all that NSA can provide? I don’t think so.

Unless this somehow, by a change in our political climate, of a radical change, unless this gets rolled back in the next year or two before a new administration comes in – and there’s no move to do this at this point – unless that happens I don’t see it happening under the next administration, whether Republican or Democratic.“

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Naomi Wolf has written about the new para-militaries, in the form of Blackwater (et al) and how they are being geared up for domestic work. The looming attack on Iran seems inevitable, and the consequences catastrophic. One of the results of this attack will be an increase in repression of dissent in the US, and of suspension of due process. Blackwater is the perfect firm to carry out that repression, and viola, we have full blown fascism.

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The recent protests in (what was once) Burma, have illicited a good deal of coverage in the western press. And yet even bigger protests are occuring in Egypt (http://arabist.net/arabawy/2007/09/23/ghazl-el-mahalla-updates-15000-workers-are-taking-part-in-the-industrial-action-numbers-expected-to-rise-factory-under-police-siege/ ) and I bet you haven’t read a single word about it. Why is this? Well, first, because the leader of the Burma…er…..Myanmar, protest is Aung San Suu Kyi, who I have never much liked, and now I know why. What she has clearly indicated is that her country shall invite in ***foreign business investment*** ….i.e. create another client state of the US. Egypt on the other hand is already a client state of the US….and these protests are led by a……gasp……Islamic scholar (former Marxist — which is even worse). Beyond that, this is a demonstration of worker’s power, and solidarity, and most certainly is not in the interest of western corporate business.

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I want to try to circle back here to US Imperialism, and a quick note on its history, as a way to view the growing police state in the US, and the never ending racism of the Empire. A quick google should get you a nice over-view of the US war against the Phillipines, under the leadership of that heroic Imperialist Teddy Roosevelt. Google Moro massacre, and you will see how El Mozote is hardly an anamoly, nor My Lai, nor Falluja. Given recent writings from the likes of Krauthammer, Fergusson, Kristol, and the ever-popular (with both Bush one and two, AND Clinton) James Dobbins, you will hear how, actually, colonialism wasn’t such a bad thing, nay, not a bad thing at all. And the Jena 6 story isn’t about racism in the end either. My impressions of the current climate in the US is that there is such hegemony in control of the press, that most Americans have little grasp of basic historical fact. Add to this the endless propaganda about American ideals, about American good intentions, and you somehow end up with this strange proto-fascist and ur-Colonial mindset ….. and with a culture and populace addicted to the compulsive repititive viewing of their projected fantasies of aggression, one should not be surprised at the embrace of real violence, especially when sanctioned by the government. I see Jamie Sheridan’s new film is out, with Jodie Foster…..more pure revenge fantasy. I recall the J-Lo debacle along the same lines, and on it goes. The same theme is repeated again and again, and then we arrive at Dexter. When a society can accept the idea of the usefulness of a serial killer, and when this society lives in denial of the genocide that accompanied its founding; well, I think its pretty much doomed to self annihilation. The repressive measure of this administration will exist under Hillary or Barrack too, because the historical and material forces at work demand such repression. The US is an Imperialist nation, and Imperialism demands severe exploitation of the periphery, and these days that means creating and re-creating new peripheries. At Columbia University, Lee Bollinger insults a visiting dignitary (a man, whatever one might think of him, conducted himself with great grace) and makes totally factually wrong comments, then what hope is there. Bollinger runs a major University, but has all the geo political sophistication of Bill O Reilly. well, never mind, time to go to the movies and watch some bloodshed…..and by the way, did I mention the Jena six ISN’T about racism…..? Good…….and so there is an inner tension, a contradiction in most people who exist in this marketed and pre-fab non reality .. and that contradiction is finding expression in more and more violence. If I’m correct about the need for these revenge fantasies, then on whom are we taking revenge? The answer is, likely, ourselves.

John Steppling