Last weekend, I attended the Banana conference of Asian American bloggers in Los Angeles with Byron of BigWowo.com, and I have to say it had a little bit of everything: interesting discussion of issues affecting the Asian American community in general and the blogosphere in particular; the generous hospitality of hosts Lac Su and Steve Nguyen; the chance to meet people you’ve only known through their online personas; sampling the nightlife of L.A.; and even a little bit of drama….

Overall, it was a rewarding experience and I definitely got something out of it. Here are some random thoughts:

- Lac Su and Steve Nguyen deserve props for conceiving of this event and pulling it off. This is probably the first significant conference devoted strictly to the Asian American blogosphere, and it wasn’t easy to bring together people from the East Coast and Midwest to SoCal.

- The conference panel itself maybe could have been organized into smaller sections each devoted to a particular topic. It was kind of cramped with 20 plus people on stage together. Lac said that he gave the event a grade of “C.” But overall, this was a solid effort for a first-time event. In general, I viewed it more as a social networking thing. And on this count, it was rewarding.

- It was great to meet the real people behind the blogs that I’ve read. It really gives you perspective on who they are as people. I got to meet Keon and Jillian of Minority Militant; Vu and Cynthia from BiCoastalBitchin.com; Sylvie of Anti-Social Ladder; Gil and Erin of Nikkei View; Erin from Hyphen Magazine; Curtis/Oiyan from APAP; Tanzila from Sepia Mutiny; Julie from Kimchi Mamas; Kevin from Channel APA; Suzanne and Emily of Absolutely Fobulous; the famous Phil Yu of Angry Asian Man; Nelson Wong of AA Rising (who has been involved with the web the since the early 1990s), and many others.

- It will be interesting to see what develops from this conference. Lac mentioned that this conference is only a part of what he has planned in the future. Hopefully, this is not just a one-off event, but can be the springboard for building a broader network of Asian American bloggers. It’s all about movement building.

- I wonder how many other Asian American bloggers are out there who would’ve been interested in attending. There’s got to be many others. After all, the Asian American population is at least 13 million people.

- Vu and Cynthia of Bicoastal Bitchin have an interesting secret project that I can’t wait to see unveiled.

- The Galvatron is a hella powerful drink.

- Keon: Westside baby (but no Ecstasy for your actor friend)!

Just to give you a flavor of opinions, here are some other Banana conference summaries:

Bicoastal Bitchin-AznHeartthrob

Bicoastal Bitchin-CBruhs

Minority Militant

BigWowo

Hyphen Magazine

Geisha School Dropout/Kimchi Mamas

NikkeiView

Filmmaker Steve Nguyen and Lac Su, author of the acclaimed memoir I Love Yous are for White People, are organizing a conference for all Asian American bananas.

No, they don’t mean bananas in the sense of people who are yellow-on-the-outside, White-on-the-inside. They mean Asian American bloggers.

Entitled BANANA, this conference brings together some notable Asian American bloggers including but not limited to: Angry Asian Man, Hyphen Magazine, 8 Asians, Asian Pop, Slant Eye for the Round Eye, Minority Militant, BigWowo.com, AARisings, Mochi Magazine, Channel APA, NEAAT! Anti-Social Ladder, AZNRaps, Kimchi Mamas, Visualiazns, NikkeiView, Bicoastal Bitchin, DVAN, Soompi.com, and even yours truly Asian American Movement Blog!

The conference takes place at:

Saturday, November 21, 2009
3:00pm – 6:00pm
University of Southern California (USC)
University Park Campus, Taper Hall, Room 201
Los Angeles, CA

The conference is open to the public, so if anybody is in the area, they can drop by.

More information about the Banana Bloggers Conference can be found on their Facebook page.

Videos about this event can be found below:

Former baseball superstar and home run slugger, Sammy Sosa had a little surprise for fans when he made an appearance in Las Vegas recently.

The former Chicago Cub star showed up at the Latino Grammy Awards in Las Vegas with bleached White skin.

It seems that Sosa has been using some kind of “skin rejuvenation” cream which just so happens to cause his skin to lighten in color.

An acquaintance of Sosa, Rebecca Polihronis, explains: “”He’s not trying to be Michael Jackson…. He is in the middle of doing a cleansing process to his skin. The picture is deceiving. He said, ‘If you saw me in person, you would be surprised. When you see me in person, it is not going to seem like the picture.’”

O-kay.

This doesn’t explain why Sosa also sported green contact lenses and a relaxed hairdo at his Las Vegas appearance. Indeed, ESPN’s Jemele Hill raises some disturbing questions about Sosa’s “skin care” regimen:

Sosa certainly isn’t the first sports figure to use cosmetic assistance — [cough] Jerry Jones — but when a once-dark-complected man from the Dominican Republic is whitening his skin and wearing green colored contact lenses, it suggests he’s suffering from issues that extend well beyond dermatology.

Sosa’s new look implies that he has a “color complex” — a term used to describe those who have been brainwashed to believe adopting more “white” features will help them gain mainstream acceptance.

The Grio website delves into the broader cultural politics that may underlie Sosa’s change in appearance, noting that:

In the Dominican Republic, Sosa’s country of origin, people are overwhelmingly black: 90 percent have African ancestry. Yet only 11 percent identify themselves as black. And as UN experts found, there is “a profound and entrenched problem of racism and discrimination against such groups as Haitians, Dominicans of Haitian descent, and more generally against blacks within Dominican society.”

Hyphen Magazine also had a post on this subject and compared it to Asian Americans’ own issues of self-hate and beauty images:

Hearing about Sosa is disheartening, given how it relates to Asians’ and Asian Americans’ own concepts about beauty standards and body image. Eyelid and nose ridge surgeries are among the top surgeries performed in East Asia, and here in the states there are well-known Asian Americans like former LA news anchor Mia Lee who change their eyes, nose, breasts, and hair, (on top of wearing green or blue contacts). (More recent photos of her are even more dramatic and striking). It is also not uncommon to hear remarks nowadays about how much more beautiful half-white babies are, compared to say, non-white babies.

In light of these issues of race and beauty, Hyphen Magazine is holding its annual Mr. Hyphen Contest. The point of this competition is to question mainstream stereotypes about Asian masculinity (as emasculated, geeky, nerds, etc.) and celebrate a different definition of what it means to be a man. A provocative discussion about this contest and male beauty pageants in general can also be found at BigWowo.com.

I got an e-mail from two young Asian American filmmakers asking to promote their new film. So here it is….

Made by Ranju & Sanjit Majumdar, 24-year old identical twin brothers, the feature-length film Determinism is

set in a racially charged fictional college town in Pennsylvania, where students and drug dealers are often one and the same. Alec, the film’s anti-hero, is an alienated South Asian. He’s always been an outsider, and he certainly doesn’t fit in here…. Broke and cut off from his family after he flunks out of school, Alec sets off to free himself from the stereotypical role of ‘South Asian Geek’ imposed upon him from birth. So opposed to typecasting that he can barely use a computer, he is determined to transcend Determinism — by any means necessary.

The film sounds interesting, and if you read the background of the Majumdar brothers, their background and thoughts about the movie are also compelling:

We are 24-year-old identical twins born to South Asian immigrant parents (father Bangladeshi, mother Indian) and raised in Pompton Lakes, a small, white, working-class town in New Jersey.

Quickly we learned how skin color impacts perceptions. We were outsiders from the get-go: marginalization seemed to limit our abilities to thrive academically and socially; we felt like our lives were “determined” by our ethnicity. Often, we felt gravity tugging at us to roll over and surrender to the stereotype. But more often, we had an undying urge to breakthrough these invisible barriers and prove everyone wrong.

When we entered our first year of college in a predominately African American branch campus of Penn State, we realized we were not alone with our identity issues. Many students shared the same struggles. A few kids we got to know internalized the glamorization of gangsters — or “Gs,” as they are called on campus — and dreamed of a “thug life” to prove their “authenticity.” Brandishing a label helped ease their pain. Their path inspired our screenplay, in that it located a struggle parallel to our own.

Never were we able to “go with” the stereotype that people tried to imprint on us. And the more we delved into issues of identity, the more we thought about determinism and free will. Can race, class, and ethnicity determine the outcome of one’s life? Are people truly free or are they bound by past and present circumstances? Which factors are outside our control and which, if any, are pre-determined? How much of a role does one’s own psychology take in fueling feelings of being “The Other”?

Breaking the straightjacket stereotype of the “Asian Geek” through the street cred offered by gangsta culture.

These are issues that not a few Asian American males can probably identify with.

Alec, the anti-hero of the movie ain’t no Long Duk Dong. That’s for sure.

Determinism is the Majumdars’ second feature-length film and was shot while the brothers were in school at Penn State University. Their first feature-length movie was shot while they were still in high school. Talk about prodigies.

You may have heard of low-budget guerilla films, but Determinism is a basically a NO-budget guerilla film, as it was made with no crew (save for the Majumdar brothers themselves), the actors, a Sony FX-1 HDV camcorder, and a Sony Vaio with Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 and Adobe Premiere CS3.

That’s it.

Determinism should be inspiration for other people who are interested in making films (or for that matter, any project or dream you have) that you don’t need a lot of money, resources, or even people.

You just need your own determination.

Here is a trailer for the film. I haven’t seen the movie itself, but based upon this brief clip, it seems pretty slick. I like the dark, evocative mood that the trailer creates. As the Majumdar brothers note in their production notes, they were inspired by the “timeless dark aesthetic of German expressionism and film noir.”

I don’t know about other people, but you got to like 24-year old filmmakers that can reference German Expressionism when talking about their work.

http://www.determinismthemovie.com

One notable thing during Halloween is how Americans–and especially White Americans–think that the holiday gives them license to dress up in various racial and ethnic “costumes” in a manner they wouldn’t dare do any other time.

This is basically a politically correct form of racial black/brown/yellowface that mainstream America indulges in.

So in honor of this year’s Halloween, here is a holiday version of “What Not To Wear.” 

The “Kung Fool” mask. Idiot puns + racist mask = hours of Halloween hilarity!  

The “China Man” costume. Freak and Easy.

The “Fee Ling You” Mask. Get it? Fee Ling You/Feeling you? Also, check out the blurb on the side of the ad with the racial references to fortune cookies and take-out orders. That is so frigging funny! Not.

The “Fee Ling You” mask, part 2. More American stupidity.

An all-time favorite, the Geisha Girl yellowface costume. Orientalist exoticization has never been so fun!

Or how about “Teen Asian Dragon Lady” costume? Miley Cyrus has got nothing on this costume in terms of racial drag.

But wait. Even your dog can join in all the Halloween fun with this “Chinese restaurant takeout box” costume for your favorite canine.

I have primarily focused on racist costumes of Asian people, but other minorities are not free from this kind of thing either. Here are a couple of minor examples:

The “Illegal Alien” costume. An oh-so clever take on (Latino) immigrants in America.

The “Rasta Dredlock” wig costume. Hey mon, even White people can be cool (runnings) now.

At base, all these costumes are just a modern-day version of Minstrelsy, that proud American tradition of racist mockery that brought us Stepin Fetchit and Charlie Chan.

And because these types of Halloween minstrel costumes are all the rage for some White people, here is one that would make an excellent last-minute costume idea: McDonald’s hilarious Gaijin mascot, Mr. James. I’m Lovin’ It!

Do you like to watch things?

Do you think that being nosy is a positive personality trait?

Did you tattle on your siblings and friends to authority figures when you were a child?

Do you like to spy on your neighbors with a high-powered telescope when their curtains are drawn and load moaning noises can be heard from their bedroom at night?

If so, the Los Angeles Police Department has just the thing for you!

It’s called iWatch. It’s a LAPD program to recruit people to report on any “suspicious activity” involving potential acts of terrorism.

iWatch is like a neighborhood crime watch program only applied to the vast metropolis that is the city of Los Angeles. The LAPD website explains:

 iWATCH, iREPORT, i KEEP US SAFE (iWATCH) is a community awareness program created to educate the public about behaviors and activities that may have a connection to terrorism.

This program is a community program to help your neighborhood stay safe from terrorist activities. It is a partnership between your community and the Los Angeles Police Department.  We can and must work together to prevent terrorist attacks.

To learn about the iWATCH program and about the behaviors and activities that you should report, view the videos and review the list of examples.  You can also read and download a brochure that explains the program.

Remember that the iWATCH program is about behaviors and activities, not individuals.

I like that last sentence. It’s an obvious disclaimer to forestall charges that the US government is (gasp) profiling Muslims.

While the LAPD euphemistically describes iWatch as a “community awareness program,” it sounds more like an example of domestic surveillance and spying.

Why?

Because America’s War on Terrorism in general is a lie. This terror war is not about “fighting terrorism” whether that be in terms of US domestic or foreign policy.

In terms of domestic policy, the War against Terror is a pretext for expanding the powers of the American regime to spy on, harass, and even imprison those people who are deemed threats to the US political establishment–all under the guise of anti-terrorism.

An example is the case of the RNC8, protestors who were charged under the Patriot Act with planning to incite a riot during the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. 

Analysis of the case, however, raises troubling issues that get swept under the rug by mainstream America or its free press. The use of terrorism to demonize political dissent or entire categories of people is something that has become largely normalized by the USA.

And in terms of the iWatch program, what’s interesting are the promotional video ads like the following:

As one blogger has noted, the video ad features a very multicultural and racially diverse mix of people exhorting citizens to spy on their neighbors … sorry … report potential terrorist activity. As such, it is symbolic of the new kinder, gentler face of the American regime and its terror war under Barack Obama:

It is much more PC and cosmopolitan to use such language and to have such a diverse and friendly slate of mostly youngish Americans reaching out to the people to scare them about terrorism and enlist them as busybodies for the national security state, but this is just warmed over Bush propaganda, given a makeover to appear less partisan and more accessible. I’m beginning to miss the days when building the anti-terror totalitarian state appeared to be the concern of a narrower demographic, and when the voices warning about the bogeymen pronounced it like this: terrists. Now we have college-educated and worldly folk of the iPod generation, and even a guy who looks like he could be Muslim, warning us all to be on the lookout for a killer under the bed. If Obama had the will and desire and opportunity, he could prove to be a more pernicious warmonger than the divisive and confrontational Bush ever dreamed to be.

While the LAPD has a list of activities that it considers suspicious, I think the following list is better (and funnier):

All in all, this iWatch program could be coming to a town or neighborhood near you, although I think they should change its name. Something catchy that best expresses what the program is all about: iSnitch.

I have to give props to Angry Asian Man. He can occasionally dig up some really captivating videos that transfix you, leaving an impression that lingers upon the mind.

The latest?  A video from Japan.

One of the things that modern technology has brought us is the marvel of the high speed camera. Sometimes costing up to $100,000, these cameras can slow down motion to such a degree that the seemingly banal actions of everyday life are transformed into the extra-ordinary, revealing detail and nuance invisible to the naked eye.

An example of this can be found in an obscure video from Angry Asian Man.

Most likely shot with a high-speed camera of some sort, the video is simple yet mesmerizing.

It’s composed of a series of shots of Asian people running towards the camera, while making wild flailing gestures and bizarre facial expressions.

Viewed in real time (and real life), these people would be considered bizarre, weird, freakish.

But seen from the perspective of the high-speed camera (and set to a groovy soundtrack) , these people are transformed into something oddly compelling–like images from a dream or a Salvador Dali painting expressed in video.

Maybe, there is even a lesson that can be applied to life from all this.

Something about how beauty can be found in the mundane, the grotesque, or even the ugly….

There was an interesting post over at Angry Asian Man about violence committed against Asian American students in Philadelphia.

While anti-Asian racism is American as apple pie, the interesting thing was that the perpetrators involved in these racist attacks were predominantly African Americans….

As documented by the Philadelphia Weekly, Asian American students at several Philadelphia high schools have been subject to not only  “name-calling, verbal threats, petty robberies, random punches in the head while walking down stairwells, and general intimidation” but also “massive rumbles where outnumbered Asian students were pummeled by packs of teens, sending several of the victims to hospitals.”

The article further notes,

Male and female Asian students—especially those new to the country, who speak little or fractured English—have been targeted over the past few years, in schools from the Northeast to South Philly, in elementary and high schools. Students and activists say that Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Pakistani and other Asian youth have been singled out, assaulted in cafeterias, hallways, on city streets, school buses and everywhere in between.

Indeed, the “culture of violence against Asian immigrants has existed for so long at some public schools that students almost accept that random beat downs are a part of life.”

As one student named Wei Chen put it, “They don’t even know you…. They just hit because you’re Asian.”

These Philadelphia schools and district administrators effectively practiced a policy of benign neglect that compelled Asian American students to launch petitions, write letters, hold meetings, and even stage walk-outs in protest.

As a result, school officials eventually began to address this violence by staging meetings with students and parents alike, increasing school security, and launching initiatives like something called the “International Welcome Squad.”

What was also notable about these anti-Asian assaults is how the Philadelphia establishment has been somewhat, shall we say, hesitant to call out the fact that the attackers are predominantly African American.

The Philadelphia Weekly article itself addresses this issue in a backhanded way: “While the victims and the school district are reluctant to lay the attacks at the feet of African-American students, the fact is that black students make up 62 percent of the total population. They tend to be the alleged perpetrators.”

The article goes on to assert that this anti-Asian sentiment is driven by general battles for turf and dominance. Sociologist Elijah Anderson is thus quoted as explaining:

The outsiders—the Asians who are making inroads—can then be called into account for any moves they make within that situation. You have race prejudice developing as a sense of group position, a proprietary claim on certain areas of the home turf…. It’s a human thing…. It could be Asians who get jumped. It could be blacks. It could be white, Italian, Jewish, whatever, if you know what I mean. This is not unique to blacks and Asians.

These attacks may be an abstract human thing, but they also involve specific forms of anti-Asian racism and violence.

If the situation had been reversed and the attackers were mostly Asian American students and the victims were African Americans, would there be such a tendency to minimize the issue of racism?

That’s doubtful.

One probable factor in cases like this one is Oppression Olympics. In general, Oppression Olympics creates a hierarchy of oppression in which, for instance, the racism suffered by one group is considered insignificant to that of another group that has greater perceived claim to historical suffering. Not surprisingly, self-styled Progressives of many stripes are particularly guilty of playing this game of Oppression Olympics.

Since African Americans have been historically oppressed by America, there is a hesitancy to fully address acts of racism or prejudice committed by African Americans against other minority groups–unless they can somehow be fit into mainstream American complaints about supposed “reverse racism.” One stark example is the anti-immigrant vitriol espoused by some African Americans.

Ultimately, America is about power–not justice. Since African Americans have more political representation and power than Asian Americans, they will have greater ability to define the meaning of these events according to their interests than Asian Americans–not unlike how White America routinely does on a much greater institutional scale.

In general, inter-minority conflict in America is something that often gets swept under the rug. America’s current racial/ethnic paradigm is still largely dominated by Blacks and Whites, with their perspectives and issues marginalizing that of other groups.

Indeed, some academics have insisted that America’s racial system is evolving towards a supposed “Black/Non-Black Divide” in which Asian Americans and Latinos will be assimilated into White America in opposition to Black America.

In other words, you have only two choices of identification.

You are either Black or White.

Or as George W. Bush would say, you are either with us or against us,

This kind of Black-White political straightjacket, however, will increasingly be untenable in twenty-first century America, as other minority groups grow in numbers and presence–and seek to develop their own independent politics.

In a bold combination of good old American ingenuity and patriotism, the USA has launched a campaign that will both protect the Homeland and provide fodder for comedians around the world.

What is this ingenious program, you ask?

Enlisting the Girl Scouts to help fight terrorism!

Believe it or not, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is organizing Girl Scouts throughout the USA to “combat hurricanes, pandemics, terror attacks and other disasters.”

This campaign is part of a government effort to make Americans better able to cope with natural and man-made disasters.

As DHS head Janet Napolitano explained, “As a former Girl Scout, I know the ‘Be Prepared’ motto well, and I look forward to working with the Girl Scouts to spread the preparedness message to all of our nation’s citizens.”

One longs for the good old days when the Girl Scouts were better known for hawking their overpriced but tasty cookies.

In conjunction with Girls Scouts USA, Homeland Security has even designed a new “preparedness badge” that girls can earn while defending the American Fatherland.

It will probably resemble some of current badges worn by Girls Scouts like in the picture below:

What patriotic American girl wouldn’t be proud to rock a kewl new Preparedness Patch?

The Preparedness Patch program itself was developed jointly by the Girls Scouts Council of Washington DC and FEMA (yes, the same FEMA that performed so admirably during Hurricane Katrina). The Council’s website describes some of the important skills that Girl Scouts are required to master like being able to:  

There is no mention if other requirements for earning this Preparedness Badge include spying on antiwar protestors or providing FEMA-style rescue and relief “help” for hurricane survivors.

As documented on the DHS and Girl Scouts USA websites, this is part of a greater institutional alliance between the US Government’s Citizen Corps program and the Girl Scouts “to advance community preparedness nationwide.”  Indeed, there is even a formal statement of affiliation between Homeland Security and Girl Scouts USA.

Ultimately, you have to ask what is the significance of this development and what is it really about?

Why would the Department of Homeland Security be working with the Girl Scouts USA in the first place?

Isn’t the very idea of this collaboration strange? It would be analogous to the Central Intelligence Agency establishing a program with the Cub Scouts!

As I see it, this partnership between Homeland Security and the Girl Scouts is reflective of the broader militarization of American society.

This militarization is often couched behind the idea of national service, which involves not only things like Americorps or Teach for America but also the possible mobilization of the populace for war crises.

There have even been suggestions that the recent Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act (or GIVE Act) is a step towards instituting a mandatory national service requirement with decidedly militaristic overtones:

The GIVE Act views military-style regimentation as a model for the nation. Its National Civil Community Corps would seek to “combine the best practices of civilian service with the best aspects of military service.” This reminds some critics of Obama’s declaration last July: “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded as the military.”

This is the larger political context from which the Girl Scout Preparedness program emerges.

As one blogger put it, “It’s nice to know that the United States now has its own version of Hitler’s League of German Girls program.”

All we need now is an Obama Youth Brigade.

“As far as the Americans were concerned, the Iraqi people were sub-human, untermenschen. You could almost split the Americans into two groups: ones who were complete crusaders, intent on killing Iraqis, and the others who were in Iraq because the Army was going to pay their college fees.”

                                – Ben Griffin, former SAS soldier.

“They make a desert, and they call it peace.”

                                — Publius Tacitus, De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae

So another September 11th has come and gone. The most recent marks the eight year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

In the USA, Sept. 11th has been designated “Patriot Day” by the American government.  It’s a kind of memorial day for the nearly 3000 people killed.  

All US flags are mandated to fly at half-staff, and Americans are supposed  to observe a moment of silence at 8:46 AM EST, the moment when the first airliner hit the World Trade Center in 2001.

The politicians make their speeches. 

The media broadcasts its tributes.

And patriotic Americans wave their flags.

But for all its nationalistic piety, this “Patriot Day” is completely misnamed. It should be called Propaganda Day.

Why?

Because Sept. 11th served as the political pretext for the USA and its allies to launch a global war of conquest based upon lies and deceit.

Without the “new Pearl Harbor” that was 9/11, there would be no Western invasion of Afghanistan and no invasion of Iraq. No Abu Ghraib torture and no Gitmo Gulag. No Patriot Act and no Homeland Security. No “Long War” that will supposedly last decades.

In short, there would no War on Terror in general.

But the most Orwellian thing? 

That would be the deception that the Anglo-American “War on Terrorism” is actually about fighting terrorism, when it clearly is not. Then there are those nagging questions about the events of 9/11 itself, which have been relegated to the realm of “conspiracy theory” by the Mainstream media and society.

All told, this Western-led war has murdered well over a million people, maimed countless more, displaced greater numbers as refugees, and destroyed entire nations in everything but name.

Afghani child turned into NATO “collateral damage.”

In Afghanistan, over 1000 civilians have been killed in the first half of 2009 alone, according to a UN report. This is up over 24% since the same period in 2008.

One of the latest atrocities committed by NATO forces was the air strike in Kunduz, where at least 90-100 Afghanis were killed in early Sept. 2009. Some of these people were incinerated alive when German troops called in F-15 missile strikes on fuel tankers below.

This is nothing new.

American and allied forces have “accidentally” bombed wedding parties multiple times, raided hospitals, and even engaged in sex trafficking at the US Embassy in Kabul.

This latter crime is similar to the sexual exploitation perpetrated by the infamous US “military contractor” company Blackwater (now rebranded as Xe) in Iraq. Only in the Blackwater case, the victims were Iraqi children.  Thus, sworn statements by former employees “describe Blackwater as ‘having young girls provide oral sex to Enterprise members in the ‘Blackwater Man Camp’ in exchange for one American dollar.’”

These things are but a drop in the ocean and do not even include the 2001 Mazar-i-Sharif Massacre in which American troops are said to have tortured and killed 3000 Taliban POWs: 

One Afghan, shown in battle fatigues, says of the treatment of prisoners in the Shibarghan camp: “I was a witness when an American soldier broke one prisoner’s neck and poured acid on others. The Americans did whatever they wanted. We had no power to stop them.”

Another Afghan soldier states, “They cut off fingers, they cut tongues, they cut their hair and cut their beards. Sometimes they did it for pleasure; they took the prisoners outside and beat them up and then returned them to the prison. But sometimes they were never returned and they disappeared, the prisoner disappeared. I was there.”

And still, this doesn’t begin to address the historic crime that has been committed by the Coalition of the Willing against Iraq–where Iraqi dead number over 1 .3 million, with 4.5 million displaced from their homes (or 1 out of every 6 Iraqis), 1-2 million widowed, another 5 million orphaned, and depleted uranium poisoning the land.  

The 2004 Fallujah Massacre, the 2005 Haditha Massacre, or the sundry acts of daily brutality meted out with numbing regularity by Coalition of the Killing in both Iraq and Afghanistan. 

They’re all part of the crime of the century.

Meanwhile, most citizens of the self-styled Free World can barely stifle a disinterested yawn, rousing only to complain that the war is no longer worth fighting because of the high cost in blood and treasure … for themselves.

But at least this war has brought Western-style democracy to the Greater Middle East!

Commenting about the Roman Empire, the great historian Tacitus once wrote, “To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.”

For our times, his insight is just as relevant, but it must updated for the Anglo-American Empire of today: “To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call democracy; and where they make a wasteland, they call it freedom.”