There is word from the Institute for Development of Economics Research of the United Nations University claiming that the richest 2 percent of the world's adults own more than half of the world's wealth.
The richest 1%, they say own 40% of the planet's assets in the year 2000, and the richest 10% own 85% of the total goods. A different 50% of the world's adult population own just under 1% of the world's wealth.
So, this is definitely worth fighting for. If you are the numerous Not-haves, you clearly NEED to attack. But who? Where are they? How do you find them and get to them, and attack with what?
But if you are the Haves, then you have the means to defend your way of life. You just have to be clever about it, and give the Not-haves reasons to attack each other.
If you one of the Haves, the greatest of your assest is religion. Not for you, you have other assets; religion is for the Not-haves. It will keep them busy and maleable for generations, and give them reasons to worry about what they do, how they can do it, and it also promise them riches after they suffer away.
Another great asset the Haves have is the military. The Not-haves can serve in the Have's military forces. Why would any Not-have possibly risk his or her life and well-being again and again for the Haves? Easy - of course the answer is security. Simple. If you don't get killed, you get a pension and some benefits.
Then there is the question of education. If you are a Have, you don't really need it; if you are a Not-have, you are led to believe it can help you help the Haves and therefore get paid well by the Haves. But the "education" is not really Education - it is a form of training. The "educated" Not-haves become like eunuchs, trained to care for the Haves but limited to one area of expertise. That limits the usefulness of their "education" to the Not-haves themselves, and keeps them in the employ of the Haves. This "education" is sometimes so specialized that the graduates become a bit like idiot savants, able to stun the world in one or two things but otherwise unable to function without care from their keepers - in this case the keepers are the Haves.
Patriotism is another asset that the Haves have. There is honor and glory all over the place that Not-haves can aspire to. What use is honor and glory? Well, if you can't get assets, then honor and glory can make you shine before other Not-haves. The Not-haves parents can be proud of their patriotic child.
Another great asset the Haves have, is the Not-haves themselves. Ultimately the Not-haves belong to the Haves. They work for them (at the Haves' pleasure, of course). The Not-haves can "have" too, they just have to borrow it from the Haves - and then pay it back again and again and again.
© John Womack, 2006. All rights reserved.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Worse than a civil war? Yes - much, much worse.
Webster defines a Civil War as a war between different citizens of the same country. Perhaps that seems to imply to President Bush and those who advise him that a civil war should be two different sides like in the American entry in civil wars in which two different armies squared off against each other.
What is going on in Iraq though, is much worse that that simple, model civil war. It is more like a free-for-all brawl. Like Vietnam. Does anyone remember Vietnam? (No, I really mean does anyone in D.C remember Vietnam?)
In Vietnam there was North Vietnam vrs South Vietnam, but in the southern part there was also the Viet Cong against the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Then there was a parade of American-selected South Vietnam leaders such as Ky, Thieu, Huong, Diem, Van Mihn, and so on.
So Iraq is not only a civil war, it is also a series of civil wars like Vietnam was, but worse even than that: Iraq is an ancient battlefield for war lords. Ancient hatreds that have simmered for more than a thousand years in places, shoved to the back burner because of Saddam can surface at any time, raising questions of pay-back, questions of family honor, questions of subjugation and endless variations on all of those themes. But Iraq is STILL much, much worse than even that!
Because in addition to being a civil war, and being a series of civil wars, and being a land of century-old blood feuds among warlords, it is also a religious war. Not just a simple religious war even, but a collection of religious wars. Sunni against Shiite against Kurds against Jews against Christians, and add in the Wassabis, Sufis, evangelical Christians, Orthodox Jews, Hamas, Fatah, Hezzbollah and whatnots. And even the Shiites, to choose only one faction, have several on-going factional disputes among themselves.
Forget any good the American forces and mercenaries may have done over there. All we represent to many Iraqis are the shock and awe of Abu-Ghraib, deportations to Guantanamo, renditions, Hadithas, Falujas, torture, and things the American press has never cared to hear about plus a recurring, years-long inability of the mighty American powers to restore water, electricity and even gasoline supplies. To the Iraqis, that simply means we don't really care.
© John Womack, 2006.
What is going on in Iraq though, is much worse that that simple, model civil war. It is more like a free-for-all brawl. Like Vietnam. Does anyone remember Vietnam? (No, I really mean does anyone in D.C remember Vietnam?)
In Vietnam there was North Vietnam vrs South Vietnam, but in the southern part there was also the Viet Cong against the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Then there was a parade of American-selected South Vietnam leaders such as Ky, Thieu, Huong, Diem, Van Mihn, and so on.
So Iraq is not only a civil war, it is also a series of civil wars like Vietnam was, but worse even than that: Iraq is an ancient battlefield for war lords. Ancient hatreds that have simmered for more than a thousand years in places, shoved to the back burner because of Saddam can surface at any time, raising questions of pay-back, questions of family honor, questions of subjugation and endless variations on all of those themes. But Iraq is STILL much, much worse than even that!
Because in addition to being a civil war, and being a series of civil wars, and being a land of century-old blood feuds among warlords, it is also a religious war. Not just a simple religious war even, but a collection of religious wars. Sunni against Shiite against Kurds against Jews against Christians, and add in the Wassabis, Sufis, evangelical Christians, Orthodox Jews, Hamas, Fatah, Hezzbollah and whatnots. And even the Shiites, to choose only one faction, have several on-going factional disputes among themselves.
Forget any good the American forces and mercenaries may have done over there. All we represent to many Iraqis are the shock and awe of Abu-Ghraib, deportations to Guantanamo, renditions, Hadithas, Falujas, torture, and things the American press has never cared to hear about plus a recurring, years-long inability of the mighty American powers to restore water, electricity and even gasoline supplies. To the Iraqis, that simply means we don't really care.
© John Womack, 2006.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
How to Begin in Iraq
Much of the rumble about the Baker-Hamilton report concerns how to "fix" not only the American War in Iraq but all of the middle-east and southwest Asia.
The U.S. invaded Iraq and upset a brutal dictator who was holding a boiling cauldron of competing war lords and rival sects down by the use of savage killings and torture. Now we have removed the cover from the cauldron and it has exploded.
We cannot cure their problems because they want their problems and they don't want us. Unfortunate as it seems, we are limited in what we can do with only the use of guns and a small army. We don't speak the language, don't understand the religions or their many crucial and deadly nuances, we don't share the background of the people or understand their methods of solving problems. We bring logical management techinques, democratic principles and corporate hierarachies to the table and find they don't like tables.
What Bush has done is done, we cannot undo it. Most importantly we cannot bring Sunni, Kurd, Shiite, Christian and Jewish groups together in peace by waging war against them in their own homeland. They have not solved their own problems for some 1500 and more years. All we can do is to get our military men out of Iraq, try to get us back into the human race, and begin the cruicial and definitive work of international communication, dialog and negotiation.
A great place to begin is in the UN (especially since the Bolton thing has gone), and to work with Europe, the other countries in the middle-east (including Iran and Syria), and other nations in the world. There is help that can come to the middle-east, but it cannot be delivered by American bullets, bombs and CBUs - those just add to everybody's problems and misery - including our own. And don't forget our "troops" - they signed up to defend our country - not to be returning targets in a war that can't be won.
Don't even try to say the UN in inept and incapable. If America had put a tiny portion of the money, skill, knowledge, dedication and meticulous work into the UN that we have spent on war over the past 50 years, the UN would be a vastly different organization today, and we would all be much safer, richer and happier. Where do we begin? The Baker-Hamilton Report is a great place to begin. Today is a great place to begin. We have to start somewhere.
© John Womack, 2006. All rights reserved.
The U.S. invaded Iraq and upset a brutal dictator who was holding a boiling cauldron of competing war lords and rival sects down by the use of savage killings and torture. Now we have removed the cover from the cauldron and it has exploded.
We cannot cure their problems because they want their problems and they don't want us. Unfortunate as it seems, we are limited in what we can do with only the use of guns and a small army. We don't speak the language, don't understand the religions or their many crucial and deadly nuances, we don't share the background of the people or understand their methods of solving problems. We bring logical management techinques, democratic principles and corporate hierarachies to the table and find they don't like tables.
What Bush has done is done, we cannot undo it. Most importantly we cannot bring Sunni, Kurd, Shiite, Christian and Jewish groups together in peace by waging war against them in their own homeland. They have not solved their own problems for some 1500 and more years. All we can do is to get our military men out of Iraq, try to get us back into the human race, and begin the cruicial and definitive work of international communication, dialog and negotiation.
A great place to begin is in the UN (especially since the Bolton thing has gone), and to work with Europe, the other countries in the middle-east (including Iran and Syria), and other nations in the world. There is help that can come to the middle-east, but it cannot be delivered by American bullets, bombs and CBUs - those just add to everybody's problems and misery - including our own. And don't forget our "troops" - they signed up to defend our country - not to be returning targets in a war that can't be won.
Don't even try to say the UN in inept and incapable. If America had put a tiny portion of the money, skill, knowledge, dedication and meticulous work into the UN that we have spent on war over the past 50 years, the UN would be a vastly different organization today, and we would all be much safer, richer and happier. Where do we begin? The Baker-Hamilton Report is a great place to begin. Today is a great place to begin. We have to start somewhere.
© John Womack, 2006. All rights reserved.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Baker-Hamilton.
The Baker-Hamilton Report officially came out today. Scary stuff. But it's probably just the tip of the tip of the explosions that lie beneath all that.
Baker seemed to indicate on the Jim Lehrer Report December 6, 2006, that the U.S. would probably be in Iraq into the far distant future. Possibly he was referring to (or being able to say in the future that he had referenced) those little-talked-about 14 air bases in Iraq.
Much about the American War against Iraq seems to me to mimic the American War against Vietnam. We were dragged into the event by a president who lied to start the war. The enemy is personified by its leader, who is then cast as being The Devil, himself. Early opportunities to consolidate victories were wasted. "New Strategies for Victory" begin marching out of the Oval Office. The leaders of our host country are denigrated. We plan to win in a series of bold strokes, and they are successful, but ultimately meaningless. Training begins for the host country's "military" forces. New programs to Win the Hearts And Minds of the host country people are initiated. (In Vietnam, LBJ's forray into this program was called the WHAM program). The American public is told that we can't back out now - we have lost 1,000 (then 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 and so on) lives and we have to "honor them".
THEN - came the really big event. The Vietnam war had been the Democrat's baby - their problem - and THEN Nixon was put into power (with his very own "secret" plan) and the Republicans bought the war - they bought it slowly and reluctantly - but completely.
Then Vietnam became the all of America's problem.
We now have the Democrats moving into control of the House and Senate - not much control, but they will control the committies and be able to ask the questions and fund the issues. If they begin to "buy" the War in Iraq, then it will be a very long trip down into a hole from which we may not fully emerge.
©John Womack, 2006. All rights reserved.
Baker seemed to indicate on the Jim Lehrer Report December 6, 2006, that the U.S. would probably be in Iraq into the far distant future. Possibly he was referring to (or being able to say in the future that he had referenced) those little-talked-about 14 air bases in Iraq.
Much about the American War against Iraq seems to me to mimic the American War against Vietnam. We were dragged into the event by a president who lied to start the war. The enemy is personified by its leader, who is then cast as being The Devil, himself. Early opportunities to consolidate victories were wasted. "New Strategies for Victory" begin marching out of the Oval Office. The leaders of our host country are denigrated. We plan to win in a series of bold strokes, and they are successful, but ultimately meaningless. Training begins for the host country's "military" forces. New programs to Win the Hearts And Minds of the host country people are initiated. (In Vietnam, LBJ's forray into this program was called the WHAM program). The American public is told that we can't back out now - we have lost 1,000 (then 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 and so on) lives and we have to "honor them".
THEN - came the really big event. The Vietnam war had been the Democrat's baby - their problem - and THEN Nixon was put into power (with his very own "secret" plan) and the Republicans bought the war - they bought it slowly and reluctantly - but completely.
Then Vietnam became the all of America's problem.
We now have the Democrats moving into control of the House and Senate - not much control, but they will control the committies and be able to ask the questions and fund the issues. If they begin to "buy" the War in Iraq, then it will be a very long trip down into a hole from which we may not fully emerge.
©John Womack, 2006. All rights reserved.
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