The Gaza Gulag

Although he did not speak about Palestine and Israel, his words strike me as nevertheless fitting in this resepct.

"Twain and America's "Uniformed Assassins""

by Arthur Silber, powerofnarrative.blogspot.com, July 11, 2010

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=67851

I read that a few days ago and it provides a couple of very relevant quotes from things Mark Twain really said but which have been kept very secret until now. The following more recent article that I just came across while searching for a link to the above one refers to the above piece at the above author's website.

"The Raging Revenant: Anti-Imperialism -- Past, Present and Future"

by Chris Floyd, chris-floyd.com, July 14, 2010

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m67929

First I'll excerpt from the article by the evidently excellent thinker and writer Chris Floyd. I read enough of his articles over the past several years to be able to know that his pieces usually or always are good reading material. And the article provides links for Arthur Silber's articles, btw.

Mark Twain is returning to us, in the unexpurgated editions of his much-censored autobiography which will be published in three volumes. And one of his most notable successors in the fine art of anti-imperialist polemic, Arthur Silber, has provided some useful context for some of the views that Twain and his literary executors thought too hot to print in their now-vanished present day.

Many of these passages dealt with Twain's angry railing against America's militarist empire-builders, as they perpetrated mass murder and savage torture during the "liberation" of the Philippines from, er, the Filipinos. I will have much more to say on this and related subjects in an upcoming piece on James Bradley’s remarkable new book, The Imperial Cruise, but Silber is already on the case here, so give it a full read.

In fact, Silber has been a man on fire in recent days, posting a series of remarkable essays in rapid-fire fashion. These range from the first two parts of a major new series, "The Demand for Obedience, and Reverence for Authority," savagely witty takedowns of media poltroonery across the political spectrum, super-scary Russian spies, the permanent American occupation of Iraq, and much more. Avail yourself of these incisive insights at the earliest opportunity.

Just for good measure, Silber also answers the musical question that has puzzled our pundit puzzlers till their puzzlers are sore: "Why are we in Afghanistan?" Here's part of the answer [see original post for links]:

... (snipped)

Silber cuts to the crux of the matter. As he notes elsewhere in the piece, the true aims of the imperial project -- dominance and loot for the ruling class -- have always been completely out in the open. And these aims can be -- and have been -- and are being accomplished regardless of the putative outcome of each particular adventure, whether it is regarded as a victory, a defeat, a "tragic blunder," etc. etc.

This is a point I have been trying to get at, in my cack-handed way, for years. The avowed intentions and the public outcomes of our imperial wars don't really matter -- because these churnings of blood and corruption are really about something else altogether. I was writing about this back in 2004, in a piece that was necessarily Bush-centric in language, given his ascendancy at the time, but still applies to our entire bipartisan imperial system, even -- or rather, especially -- under the progressive Peace-Prizer temporarily wearing the Potomac purple:

... (snipped)

What that whole article is about says nothing specifically about Israel-Palestine, but we can understand from the article why the U.S. and its criminal EU allies treat Israel the way they do. And since the UNSC has been despotically and imperialistically defined and isn't reformed, Palestinians as well as billions of innocent human beings are left without hope of winning against these ruthless and militarily and financially powerful imperialists.

Hence all the greater the urgency is for soldiers to DISSENT. Only they make it possible for the imperialist elites to be able to do what they command against humanity.

The IDF seems to be mostly outfitted with psychopathic and sociopathic youth though, so dissent among them isn't going to happen except with a relatively small number of them. And we have the same situation with US and European troops or military personnel. Good children are [not] plentiful in the US. Some innocent ones naively believed the lies of the ruthless political leaders, but many don't care about serving even when they know that it's in service to LIARS and, therefore, criminal, rogue, treachorous leadership. Those too PTSD'd to be able to make much sense of anything important can no longer be blamed for continuing to obey criminal orders, but this isn't the case for all soldiers and other fighting military personnel.

Now I'll excerpt from the Uruknet copy of the article by Arthur Silber. He also provides links. And what he excerpted for this article is indented, which I can't reproduce here, so I'll tag, say, these paragraphs by starting them with "INDENTED:".

The first of three volumes of "the complete and authoritative edition" of Mark Twain's autobiography will be published in November. The new material in Volume I will be "as little as 5 percent" of that volume alone, but by the time all three volumes are published, "about half will not have ever been in print before."

Twain himself decided to have his dictated autobiography published only selectively for a long time:

... (snipped)

The Times provides these details concerning some of the more "acerbic" views:

INDENTED: ... (snipped)

INDENTED: In a passage [previously] removed by Paine, Twain excoriates "the iniquitous Cuban-Spanish War" and Gen. Leonard Wood’s "mephitic record" as governor general in Havana. In writing about an attack on a tribal group in the Philippines, Twain refers to American troops as "our uniformed assassins" and describes their killing of "six hundred helpless and weaponless savages" as "a long and happy picnic with nothing to do but sit in comfort and fire the Golden Rule into those people down there and imagine letters to write home to the admiring families, and pile glory upon glory."

INDENTED: ... (snipped)

Twain was entirely correct about the "uniformed assassins" in the Philippines (and in many other countries down to this moment, knowledge of which he was spared, though he may be looking up from Hell with fearsome gaze). "The Mythology of the 'Good Guy' American" offers many details about the abominations committed by the U.S. in the Philippines. Here's a small, excruciating sample, from Paul A. Kramer's The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, & the Philippines:

INDENTED: One of the most banal and brutal manifestations of racialization was U.S. soldiers' imagination of war as hunting. The Manila occupation and "friendly policy" had frustrated martial masculinity; the metaphor of the hunt made war, at last, into masculine self-fulfillment. ... (snipped)

INDENTED: ... (sic)

INDENTED: The most notorious orders of indiscriminate killing were Gen. Jacob H. Smith's late October 1901 instructions to Marine Maj. Littleron W.T. Waller, following Filipino revolutionaries' successful surprise attack against U.S. soldiers at Balangiga on the island of Samar, to make reprisals against the entire population of the island. "I want no prisoners," he had directed. "I wish you to kill and burn." Smith ordered "all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States." When Waller had asked the general for clarification, Smith stated that he considered any person over the age of ten "capable of bearing arms." The interior of Samar must be made "a howling wilderness!" The direct result of these instructions was systematic destruction and killing on a vast scale.

The full article has much more, if you can stand it. But dear me, it certainly sounds as if Twain might not "support the troops." I'd like to think that piece might find some small favor with him.

... (snipped)

Again, Israel and Palestine aren't specifically referred to, but everything that article says is relevant in this regard, as well as with respect to all US-lead imperialistic, ... wars and US-ensured govt overthrows to replace relatively good govts with extremely, hellishly despotic ones.

It is what U.S. so-called "national security" and "national interests" relate to or a used for trying to deceive the public into believing that U.S. "leadership" is noble, et cetera. Most people would not be supportive if they knew what U.S. foreign policies, as well as national policies, are really about, so the strategy of lying to try to fool the public and keep the public fooled is employed; unrelentingly.

There's nothing new about it and the following serious essay by Wade Frazier is a good or very good reference.

"The American Empire"

http://www.ahealedplanet.net/america.htm

Two or three other relevant essays by him are linked under the subheading of "Political and Historical" in his home page.

And like Chris Floyd is right about Arthur Silber's website being very good.

"Assassins" is what the ruling elites want of soldiers, so they strategically need to be kept dumbed down. "Assassins" is what the IDF and Israeli so-called police consist of. US, EU, Israel, assasins and assassin commanders for imperialism, et cetera!