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Welcome To The Machine

They’re old men now, but some of the songs that helped make the rock band, Pink Floyd, famous were all about the Establishment Machine that churns out human beings like clones to do its bidding, whether slaving in its factories or dying in its wars.

Today, thirty years on from Pink Floyd’s heyday, the Establishment Machine continues to flourish, churning out half-educated, unskilled, fodder to shape into its soldiers and workers. Just occasionally, one manages to wriggle out the Machine by using his brain and rejecting the doctrines forced upon him.

It’s likely not to make a splash on the NBC or ABC News in America; after all, Guantanamo Bay Detention Center was lauded during the Bush era as some sort of ‘holiday camp’ for America’s infamous ‘enemy combatants’.

Over the years, some of the torture and brutality imposed on Guantanamo inmates has come to light. The glorious, freedom/democracy-spreading, United States of America has been revealed as the cold-blooded, uncaring, thug of a nation it truly is.

As is so often the case, when those in authority fail in their duties and obligations, it falls to the ordinary folk of this world to make amends, where possible, whether by publicizing wrongs done, assisting to put matters right, or, like Brandon Neely – ex US military, and once a guard at Guantanamo Bay – seeking out those he wronged and offering a heartfelt apology.

Neely’s story, and those of Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul, who were picked up by the US military in Afghanistan and taken to Guantanamo, is told adequately by the BBC and can be found at the link near the bottom of the page. There is little point repeating it here, but in America it only takes one man doing the right thing to bring the assholes out the closet in their droves, screaming ‘coward’, ‘moron’, and other epithets denouncing those who bother to think for themselves, and supporting the brainwashed lackeys of an Establishment happy to utilize them as cannon fodder.

Well done, Brandon Neely – one of few who manage to escape from the Machine.[1]

[1] “Guantanamo guard reunited with ex-inmates” BBC January 12th 2010

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5 Replies to “Welcome To The Machine”

  1. I thought it was a brilliant story – are people in the US really denouncing it as cowardly?

    Surely the cowardly position would be to know that what you did was wrong, but just keep quiet. Far, far braver to go up to the person you wronged, look them in the eye, and say “Sorry.”

  2. There is a slow but steady growth among the soldiers who are not very happy with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I would recommend everyone to check out the web sight of Iraq Veterans against the war. The winter soldier segment is very important. In fact on my web sight I put a link of a soldier speaking out against the war in general and his role as a soldier there….

    If soldiers stopped fighting today, there would be no longer wars to fight!

  3. Jo – two relevant comments that I came across on websites, though in fairness they were written earlier last year in response to Brandon Neely’s evidence on prisoner abuse at Guantanamo, given to the CSHRA:

    “It’s been a long time since I’ve called anyone a moron, but I can’t think of a better person to whom I should apply the label than Brandon Neely.”

    and,

    “I would assess Brandon Neely as a “weak sister” when it comes to being a member of the military.”

    Both these quotes come from members of the US military. Hardly surprising, really.

  4. Oh course these cretins wouldn’t recognize true courage if it bit them in the **s.
    Brandon Neely is a true hero in every sense of the word. To rail against the machine takes untold courage not to mention the financial cost to him and his family.
    XO
    WWW

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