It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of
a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into
privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing
algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the
planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.
These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times. Another Reason to Boot Bush: When we say the Bush Administration doesn't have an exit strategy for their war of choice in Iraq, we need to clarify. What we really mean is that the Bush Administration doesn't have a non-idiotic exit strategy for their war of choice in Iraq. What's the Bush Administration plan? Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld articulated it on September 14, 2004: "At some point the Iraqis will get tired of getting killed". Hmmm. They'll get tired of getting killed. Is that it? Well, if we pull our heads out of our navels and look around the word for hope of people getting tired of being killed as a way of ending a conflict, what do we see? Northern Ireland (time frame: decades). Israel and the Palestinians (time frame: decades and ongoing). The French and the English (time frame: centuries). The Europeans and the Muslims (time frame: centuries and unhappily now recurring). If Donald Rumsfeld really believes that the conflict in Iraq will end at any time in the near future because "at some point the Iraqis will get tired of getting killed," then he's an ignorant student of history, a blithering idiot, or both. (Source: Remarks of Donald Rumsfeld at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri September 14, 2004) ![]() ![]() ![]() |