Re: spectacle v truth

> Bob Sheetz wrote:
>
> >Abdel Abdel-Mahdi, a senior official of a Shiite Muslim political party
who
> >visited Mr. Hussein in captivity, said the prisoner was "unrepentant and
> >defiant." He added: "When we told him, `If you go to the streets now, you
> >will see the people celebrating,' he answered, `Those are mobs.' When we
> >told him about the mass graves, he replied, `Those are thieves.' "
> >
> >
> >
> >just a couple of q's;
> >
> >was he "talkative & cooperative" or "unrepentant & defiant"?
>
> One can be both.
>
> >how much money did he really have when captured?
>
> Oh you're rignt, those soldiers who stole money are much worse than
Hussein
> ever was.
>
> >do you have to pay reward for info given under torture?
>
> That question should be directed towards Hussein's former regime.
>
> Anthony Crifasi

you've got me all wrong, anthony.  i've pretty generally opposed US clients
and their repressive regimes over the yrs.  and the reagan-bush policy of
godfathering this guy to save our bacon by quashing the ayatollah and
resurgent islam, while playing the other side as well to assure each being
mangled sufficient to provide against either signifying strategically in the
oil patch (and all without the loss of a single american life), has this
long time left me imprecating justice on the heads of all responsible
agents.

however my pt was the political economy of spectacle.  clearly the
propaganda construction of the bush war is a palpable fairy tale;   like the
the wmd's,
the pulling down of the saddam colossus, the jessica lynch rescue, carrier
landing on the abe lincoln, ...indeed, the faux prez himself and his
"gathering nucular threats". only the most
helpless don't know we're there for israel and oil. so the mass media qua
propaganda apparatus exists
to provide a stready supply of factitious spectacle for  consumption
by us moron taxpayers, to cover the bloody murder and amuse us at the same
time. and the only way i know to resist the diet is skepticism.  in
fact the case of maher arar is only the most recent illustration of US
affinity (preferably by proxy) for torture. in fact the US officers who
discovered saddam's stash in his baghdad palace last spring did help
themselves. in fact the portrait given us of saddam is so hackneyed over the
last 20 yrs, it defies credulity itself.  and i think even you gottamit,
the
tableau of the "capture of saddam," endlessly and ubiquitously repeated, is,
nothing to do with "reporting" or "fact," "truth,"..., a first class
illustration of baudrillard.

vive la dixie chics,
bob


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