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The US military is blowing hot and cold these days. Always on the look out for new and weird weapons, they have taken a leaf out of H.G Wells’ “War of the Worlds”, and invented a Martian heat-ray.

Well, that’s actually an exaggeration, given that this heat-ray isn’t lethal, but it is capable of emitting a high energy beam – up to 550 yards – that causes a burning sensation impossible to tolerate. It will penetrate clothes and heat up the victim’s skin to an unpleasant 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sounds like a useful tool for a police state.

Not yet off the drawing board, and definitely at the other end of the Fahrenheit scale, is a new idea the US military hopes will help it defeat enemies in hot, arid climates like Iraq and Afghanistan – if only they can find someone to invent it.

Spray-on plastic black ice would, say the military, confound the enemy and prevent them getting to grips when it came to fighting. As well as the plastic ice, the military will require a spray-on antidote so they aren’t ‘slip, slidin’ away’ with the enemy.

Of course, they won’t know if it works till someone invents it for them, but if all else fails they can always use it to cool down the poor devils fried by their heat-ray.

Filed under: War toys

When Adam Curtis produced the three TV documentaries, “The Power of Nightmares” for the BBC, they were an instant hit in the UK. Spread over three nights, these hour long films charted the rise of both radical Islam and American neoconservatism.

One of many obvious similarities between both opposing forces has been the efforts of the relative few in each camp to force the majority of us into lives we have no wish to live. Their reason for this is, quite simply, their own personal ideology. Politicians no longer consider themselves servants of the people, but rather our masters – decreeing our futures and how we must live our lives. Radical Islam suffers similar arrogance. Curtis highlights how the ‘Islamic state’ kills democracy by negating the need for more than one political party. After all, the law of the Koran is invariable, so there is nothing to debate.

Although the films have played in some small independent theaters in America, it seems the American public will have no opportunity to view them on national television. According to Curtis:

“Something extraordinary has happened to American TV since September 11. A head of the leading networks who had better remain nameless said to me that there was no way they could show it. He said, ‘Who are you to say this?’ and then he added, ‘We would get slaughtered if we put this out.’ When I was in New York I took a DVD to the head of documentaries at HBO. I still haven’t heard from him.”

Land of the Free?

Having watched all three films recently, I found the research impeccable and the arguments verifiable. They are fully in tune with my own research and ideas.

The last film of the three lays to rest a myth still regularly perpetrated by politicians in the West – that a dirty bomb would cause untold damage if exploded near a major city. Nothing could be further from the truth, as atomic scientists have been saying for years. Politicians, however, still use this and many other fantasies from their arsenal, to try and frighten us.

Most important of all, the films portray how “Al Qaeda” was never more than an invention of the American political psyche , and no worldwide, interlinked network of terrorism ever existed before or after 9/11.

Given the continued, hostile attitude of America towards the Middle East, however, that situation may well already be changing.

Videos of all three films have been released on the internet and may be viewed free of charge HERE.

Filed under: Political machinations

British prime minister Tony Blair showed both a callous disregard and lack of respect for the British and Iraqis killed in the war he insisted on supporting, by failing to turn up for the first debate on the Iraq war in the British parliament, since 2004. Instead, he attended a meeting with the Confederation of British Industry, a conservative think tank for business executives.

It’s been obvious for sometime now that Blair is determined to mimic George Bush by ignoring the opinions of his government and doing his own thing. With his retirement from politics imminent, pandering to the business community is obviously in his interests, and more important to Blair’s future than his responsibilities to parliament and the British people.

Pandering to those who can best serve his self-centered aims and ignoring those who elected him to office are, of course, nothing new. He’s been toadying to George Bush over Iraq for the last four years, much to the disgust of most of Britain.

In fact, the British government’s acquiescence to an obviously militarist US policy in the Middle East has alienated that nation from its true allies in the rest of Europe. No-one is advocating a permanent rift between the US and Europe. Yet, while America continues not only to tolerate, but implement, the crass psycho-political ideals of Leo Strauss, Europe in general, and Britain in particular, should stop toadying to Bush and make clear his policies are unacceptable in the 21st century.

The only European nation to firmly adopt this attitude has been France, which has been castigated in the US for doing so. Even that stance may well alter if Nicolas Sarkozy wins in the forthcoming presidential elections. He toured the US last September, ingratiating himself with Republican luminaries. Sarkozy may well take over from Tony Blair as the next ‘pet poodle’ of George W Bush.

Not so Ségolène Royal, the French Socialist presidential candidate. In a recent television debate she said:

““Since General De Gaulle, France has always embodied a certain pride and independence vis-a-vis the United States. We absolutely cannot accept the concept of preventive war, nor the concept of good versus evil, nor disengagement in the Middle East, nor the Americans preaching economic liberalism abroad and practicing protectionism at home. We cannot tolerate their refusal to ratify the Kyoto treaty when they are the world’s No 1 polluter.”

For four years, the British have longed for a prime minister with enough backbone to stand up in parliament and say exactly that. Tony Blair both lacked the courage and the commitment to his country, to do so.

He might well have said it yesterday. Instead, he was doing what he is best at – toadying to business leaders –

“Gi’us a job, mate!”

Filed under: Spineless organisms