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Unlimited Power!
The somewhat new school - in the grossest sense of space and time - concept of the Westphallic Nation/State by design sheds light on Imperium.
Why even think about empires? We live in a world of nation-states — over 200 of
them, each with their seat in the UN, their flag, postage stamps and
governmental institutions. Yet the nation-state is an ideal of recent
origin and uncertain future and, for many, devastating consequences.
It is not a question of sinking into imperial nostalgia: sentimental
evocations of the British Raj or French Indochina have nothing to offer
to our present political thinking. Similarly, imperial name-calling —
invoking “empire” or “colonialism” to discredit US, French or other
interventions — cannot help us analyse or improve today’s world.
An
exploration of the histories of empires, old and new, can expand our
understanding of how the world came to be what it is, and the
organisation of political power in the past, the present and even the
future.
Over a very long time, the practices and interactions of empires
configured the contexts in which people acted and thought. Examining the
trajectories of empires — their creations, conflicts, rivalries,
successes and failures — reminds us of something we have forgotten: that
sovereignty in the past, and in many areas today, is complex, divided,
layered and configured on a variety of founding principles and
practices.
Empire has existed in relation to — and often in tension with — other
forms of connection over space; empires facilitated and obstructed
movements of goods, capital, people and ideas. Empire building was
almost always a violent process, and conquest was often followed by
exploitation, if not forced acculturation and humiliation. Empires
constructed powerful political formations, and also left trails of human
suffering. However, the national idea, developed in imperial contexts,
has not proved effective, to judge by the unresolved conflicts in the
Middle East and Africa.
We live with the consequences of these uneven and broken paths out of
empire, the fiction of sovereign equivalence and the reality of
inequality within and among states.
Thinking about empire does not mean resurrecting vanished worlds. It
allows us rather to consider the multiplicity of forms in which power is
exercised across space. If we can avoid thinking of history as an
inexorable transition from empire to nation-state, perhaps we can think
about the future more expansively. Can we imagine forms of sovereignty
that are better able to address a world marked by inequality and
diversity?
Pic - "Empire of Liberty"
WoW - the Watchers Council
- it's the oldest, longest running cyber comte d'guere ensembe in
existence - an eclective collective of cats both cruel and benign with
their ability to put steel on target (figuratively - natch) on a wide
variety of topictry across American, Allied, Frenemy and Enemy concerns,
memes, delights and discourse.
Every week these cats hook up each other with hot hits and big phazed
cookies to peruse and then vote on their individual fancy catchers.
Without further adieu - (or a don't) here are this weeks winners
Council Winners
Non-Council Winners
See you next week! And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter..
“We cannot wish away instability, failed states, post-conflict
instability, large refugee flows, genocide, terrorism, humanitarian
catastrophe, regime change, and the need for intervention.”
All of 44's chiz 'bout a leaner meaner killing machine should caveat this:
The true purpose of America’s Army and Marine Corps: to fight and win our
nation’s battles. Humanitarian assistance, stability operations, and
counterterrorism have become military missions mostly by default. There
is simply no other organization that can handle a crisis as rapidly and
efficiently as the U.S. military.
The Army and Marine Corps this country requires have to achieve a proper
balance between their light and heavy forces. Light forces remain
crucial because of their rapid strategic deployability, their ability to
traverse any terrain, and their unparalleled capacity to closely
interact with local populations. Still, there are times when nothing
will do except a battalion of heavy M-1 tanks and Bradley armored
personnel carriers. These heavy forces have proven their worth in both
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Moreover, they are absolutely essential for
fighting a more advanced enemy. And it is these advanced nations that
are our primary worry for the future. As the world becomes wealthier,
more and more nations will be able to afford military establishments
that can be overcome only by heavy armor. God help us if we ever come to
blows with a technically advanced force and all we have to fight with
are light forces optimized for counterinsurgency warfare. Some are too
quick to forget that the light forces that first deployed to Saudi
Arabia for Operation Desert Shield referred to themselves as “speed
bumps,” to discourage the enemy until the heavy armored divisions
arrived to support them.
Likewise, the Army is not once again turning its focus away from
counterinsurgency warfare because of a sour taste left by Iraq and
Afghanistan. Rather, it is peering into an uncertain future and noting
that a host of potential enemies can be confronted only by a U.S. Army
and Marine Corps capable of engaging in a high-tempo,
heavy-force-dominant combined-arms fight.
Pic - "Thinking the Unthinkable about Napalm and Flamethrowers"
Perhaps the ultimate anthem soundtrack in Grrl World - crafted by those bigger than X cats - sourmouths sugar babies dissing potential sugar daddies
OTAN!
At terrible risk of provoking one of those - uh - legendary premature you know what maxes, it may also be regarded as heavy petting foreplay before the world famous Münchner Sicherheitkonferenz kicks off right before St Valentine's Day.
See, it's been like an article of faith (even amongst the faithless) with historians, Internat'l Relations cats and the democrazies throughout Cold War and into the new millennium.
Great Satan created and sustained regional alliances -
toting most of the combat burdens while allies provided bases, training
areas with a handful of nat"l military capabilities and enjoyed a robust era of nigh drunken pacifistic phatness.
NATO"s combat bona fides include doing Balkania (twice) racking up the tally of dead civies in the Stan (genau - Dutch und Deutsch truppen have killed more innocents in a year than Great Satan or Great Britain have in a decade!) and allowing Great Satan to lead from behind in Libyavention
“We acted in time and without Europe nothing would have been done at the global level or at the UN level.”
Uh, say what, Herr Euro President?
What he meant was that without European nagging the U.S. would not have intervened, in which case nothing would have happened.
Actually, about the only thing Europe is good at militarily is taking
credit. Leading Europeans have been promoting the idea of a separate
continental defense identity for nearly 60 years. The latest ineffective
iteration is the so-called Common Defense and Security Policy.
Even during the Cold War, the European members of NATO rarely fulfilled
their promises to spend more on their militaries. With the end of the
Cold War the very raison d’être for the alliance disappeared. Moscow’s
allies even switched sides, rushing to join NATO.
Great Satan's Master Plan worked: Her posse of prosperous and populous
allies—now with around 10 times the GDP and 3 times the population
of Russia—can handle their own Def/Sec chiz. Doesn"t look like Commonwealth Russia is going to catapult scores
of panzers amd motorized infantry battalions across Deutschland's
panzer friendly Fulda Gap enroute to the coast of Spain anytime soon
Check it
Between those willing and able to pay the price and bear the burdens
of alliance commitments, and those who enjoy the benefits of NATO
membership – be they security guarantees or headquarters billets –
but don’t want to share the risks and the costs.
For all but a handful of allies, defense budgets – in absolute
terms, as a share of economic output – have been chronically starved
for adequate funding for a long time, with the shortfalls compounding
on themselves each year. In particular, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets
are lacking that would allow more allies to be involved and make an
impact.
Several of these allies have managed to punch well above their weight because of the way they use the resources they have.
In the Libya operation, Norway and Denmark, have provided 12 percent
of allied strike aircraft yet have struck about one third of the
targets. Belgium and Canada are also making major contributions to
the strike mission. These countries have, with their constrained
resources, found ways to do the training, buy the equipment, and
field the platforms necessary to make a credible military
contribution.
Since Great Satan is getting all PACRIM happy and retaining some abilities to take out the trash in the ME, is her hook up with NATO at an end?
NATO was created at a different time in a different world for different
circumstances. It is time for Europe to take over responsibility for its
own defense. The U.S. and Europeans would still have much on which to
cooperate—economically, politically, and militarily. But the time for
America to act as Europe’s defense guardian has passed.
Pic - "Before she gets to riding so high, she ought to think right, she ought to do right by me"
Cliques!
Ebberdobby fits in one somewhere - the ancient anthemic caveat "Be cool - or be cast out" is quite powerful of course and in Year 2 of Arab Sprung - it's gon be bloodly uncalled for!
Unlike fun friendly sectarian sects - like the Beatles, Batman, Creddie or Seddie l' shia/sunni schismimus maximus is bleeding bloody.
Every since Ali got bushwacked in Kufa Iraq way back in 661 AD - the sectarian chiz has been off the hook - y'all! Currently - Shiaism seems to be the hot combatty faith d'resistance.
Of either sect - only the shiafied can claim to have stalemated the wicked,
woman worshipping West and the never ending cadre of Crusaders,
Zionistas and Hindus. Hiz'B'Allah's 'Divine Victory'
over Little Satan - shia fed and funded rocketeers that succeeded the
suicide bombers of Palestine in HAMAS and Mookie's shialicious Mahdi
Army in Iraq.
The collapse of Iraq and the Syrian killing fields seems entirely gussied up in sectarian couture
Behind all this looms a larger question: in the midst of liberating
itself from tyrannies, is the Arab world about to stumble into a
Sunni-Shia religious war? The rhetoric is getting paranoid on both
sides, even though the original reasons for these sectarian rivalries in
Iraq and Syria have nothing to do with religion.
Iraq’s army, and therefore its politics, were dominated by the local
Sunni minority because the country was ruled for 300 years by the
Ottoman (Turkish) empire, whose state religion was Sunni Islam. Sunni
rule was only finally overthrown by the American invasion of 2003, and
the wounds on both sides of the religious divide are still raw.
Syria
is ruled by a Shia minority only because the French colonial army
recruited its local troops from the Alawites, precisely because they
were a poor and despised minority. That way, the French reckoned, they
would be loyal to France, not to Syria. But domination of the military
ultimately let Alawites seize political control in independent Syria.
If Sectarian Wars were sweetly exploding only in the Land atwixt the Two Rivers and Suriya al- Kubra that would be lucky indeed!
The danger is that Arab rulers start thinking that citizens cannot be
loyal to the state unless they have exactly the same religious beliefs
as their rulers. Mainly because rulers became convinced that they could not be safe if
some of their citizens belonged to a different sect.
Most countries in
the world today are living proof that that is nonsense, but Arab rulers,
both Sunni and Shia, are fast falling into the delusion that it is
true. That would be a disaster.
Pic - "All the other kids better run, better run, faster than my bullets"
Caucas!
It's time for Great Satan"s electile dysfuntionary season to get fully crunk bay bee. The next few Tuesdays will see cats in Iowa, New Hampshire (way more better than old Hampshire) South Cackalacky and sun shiny Florida cuss, fuss and do some ballistic ballot casting.
Step back, deep breath, zoom out and party with some critical thinking about these individual GOPeabodies "in the totality of their
public lives, study their records and platforms, judge their abilities
and views, imagine each of them in the Oval Office making major
decisions for the nation and choose the cat who you reckon should get a shot at being 45"
As one of Great Satan"s original Combat Rock Stars and one of 1's aide de campers sweetly siren'd eons past -
The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences
nothing less than the safety and welfare of Great Satan, the
fate of an empire in many respects the most interesting in the world. It
has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the
people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the
important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not
of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether
they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on
accident and force.
If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at
which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which
that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall
act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general
misfortune of mankind.
Pic - " Kick It!!"
Fighting long-term wars against totalitarians and terrorists is always a
difficult task for Western societies because such conflicts require the
sort of resolution that is always bound to flag over time. There is
always the tendency, especially among our intellectuals, to begin to
reinterpret our enemies and to project our own values and interests onto
their very different perspectives.
Zoom out of the Stripperlicious aspect of the above contentious comment and rezoom in on Great Satan"s Excellent Adventures ala Drones Gone Wild
In an excellent example of inappropriate boring assetted handwringing that is neither convincing or well thought out check this curious slanted trick statement:
The enormous expansion of drone operations has been a success in the
narrowest sense of killing some bad guys. But it has come at an enormous
cost: to our reputation, to our morals, to our relationship and status
with countries we need to work with to contain and defuse terrorism, and
in the lives of the many innocent people we've killed through either
sloppiness or ignorance.
Now nuance is a very fine thing - subtle perhaps.
The counter to such curious concerns seems kinda clear. Drones Gone Wild actually enhances Great Satan's rep as the most high tech proficient humane killers of killers in world history. No diss meant yet get real - certainly far more better than doing a Dresden or going Grozny.
Actually a prett cool embodiment of Great Satan's morals as well as her will power, staying power, fire power and brain power. As for relationships with frenemy nation states that may or may not seem particularly interested in maintaining Writ of State or status updates - the reverse is true.
It shows Great Satan is deathly serious, relentless and will never. Give. In. Smoking craters of dead terrorists kinda sorta make the point that human shielding doesn't preclude 'containing' or defusing t ism
In ancient Teutonic tonguing - schadenfreude is a kinda nounish verby term roughly meaning to take delight in the woes of others.
Kinda like the LOLs that worrying about the wrong thing often bring.
Pic - "Challenging Some Fabrications"
