What follows is a set of links to related articles - all of which deal with the current U.S. policy towards the rest of the world. All conspiracy theories aside, this is a rather sobering view of a dominant world power exerting its force and influence with the express purpose of acquiring and maintaining absolute control - of everything. That’s not some crackpot conspiracy theory - it just so happens to be the backbone of current American foreign policy.

The logo here is for the Air Force Network Operations Center (AFNOC) whose motto, as you can plainly see, is:

Enabling Air, Space & Information Dominance

In the middle of this logo a steel-gauntlet clad fist grips each of these elemental forces of control.

Not protection - not oversight.

Dominance.

This came to my attention a while ago but resurfaced today when I spotted, and re-visited, a couple of articles on the Wired Blogs. The first was a post on how the Air Force is now blocking access to blogs which can be read by their own troops. Not blocking the troops from blogging - although that is also happening - but blocking access to other blogs.

The second post which caught my eye was this Threat Level post on how even all the Wired blogs are now blocked. This has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with controlling the flow of information. Only approved information is allowed to pass. Another word for approved information is Propaganda. Another word for propaganda is Lies.

Seeing these posts reminded me of another from the BBC about the Pentagon’s Information Operations Roadmap, wherein they define the internet itself as an enemy weapons system. You are currently reading these words on a system which the Pentagon, and the U.S. administration, views as a threat and as an enemy which must be controlled and dominated to serve their sole purpose. I’ve posted about this before but it’s worth repeating here in this context. Here’s a quote from the BBC article:

And, in a grand finale, the document recommends that the United States should seek the ability to “provide maximum control of the entire electromagnetic spectrum”.

US forces should be able to “disrupt or destroy the full spectrum of globally emerging communications systems, sensors, and weapons systems dependent on the electromagnetic spectrum”.

Consider that for a moment.

The US military seeks the capability to knock out every telephone, every networked computer, every radar system on the planet.

Are these plans the pipe dreams of self-aggrandising bureaucrats? Or are they real?

The fact that the “Information Operations Roadmap” is approved by the Secretary of Defense suggests that these plans are taken very seriously indeed in the Pentagon.

And that the scale and grandeur of the digital revolution is matched only by the US military’s ambitions for it.

Now go read a Guardian article by Michael Meacher, a former U.K. MP and Environment Minister, that comes to us all the way from September of 2003 and yet remains as clear-eyed a view of the events in the first half of this decade as any other I have read. Meacher basically calls out the War On Terror as a bogus sham to satisfy the pre-9/11 intent of the Project for the New American Century:

We now know that a blueprint for the creation of a global Pax Americana was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice-president), Donald Rumsfeld (defence secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld’s deputy), Jeb Bush (George Bush’s younger brother) and Lewis Libby (Cheney’s chief of staff). The document, entitled Rebuilding America’s Defences, was written in September 2000 by the neoconservative think tank, Project for the New American Century (PNAC).

The plan shows Bush’s cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power. It says “while the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.”

The PNAC blueprint supports an earlier document attributed to Wolfowitz and Libby which said the US must “discourage advanced industrial nations from challenging our leadership or even aspiring to a larger regional or global role”. It refers to key allies such as the UK as “the most effective and efficient means of exercising American global leadership”. It describes peacekeeping missions as “demanding American political leadership rather than that of the UN”. It says “even should Saddam pass from the scene”, US bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will remain permanently… as “Iran may well prove as large a threat to US interests as Iraq has”. It spotlights China for “regime change”, saying “it is time to increase the presence of American forces in SE Asia”.

- and then this paragraph follows:

The document also calls for the creation of “US space forces” to dominate space, and the total control of cyberspace to prevent “enemies” using the internet against the US. It also hints that the US may consider developing biological weapons “that can target specific genotypes [and] may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool”.

The U.S. Space Forces referred to above would be the folks with the flashy logo you see at the top of this page.

Dominance.

All of this goes beyond the clumsy efforts of corporate control which lies at the heart of the failing cultural industries who seek to subvert the rule of law and gain ownership, forever and a day, of every thought so as to charge more money for the priviledge of thinking them. This isn’t about corporate or legislative chicanery. This is brute force to obtain - and retain - absolute control - of everything.

I am, in my heart, an optimist. I believe in the inherent good of people. And I know too well what we fucking monkeys are truly capable of when given even a hair’s breadth of a chance to completely screw someone else over.

It’s going to be a dark evening tonight - and not just because of the planned lights out event at 8:00 pm. I refer you to my previous post on that one. I’m going to use that dark time to reflect on what can be done - on a personal as well as a political level - to resist any force which seeks to claim dominance over my life, my actions and my world. In a way I find myself these days living more and more within the internet. Which means, I suppose, I am living within what others would consider an enemy weapons system - which they seek to control and dominate.

What would you do if, walking down the street with your groceries, you found yourself confronted by an overwhelming force determined to exert its will upon you and others?

What can any of us do to convey our determination, our resolve and our commitment to remaining free - and not Free As In Beer - what can we do?

That’s what I’m going to think about.

It’s worth thinking about - not torturing ourselves with such thoughts but applying our time and energy to considering any and all possibilities.

“Philosophy without action is meaningless.” - or so says Cicero.

We take a lot for granted in our cozy corner of this world. We need to be aware there are others who would take that from us. And not - to quote the drunken chimp W - because “They hate our freedoms.“. Fucking simpleton. No.

I have no immediate answers on this but thought it necessary to share.

What would you do?

What would you do to unclench that steel fist?

See you in the dark.

Cheers.

P. S. My troubled heart is soothed by the memory of the PBS American Masters presentation of Pete Seeger: The Power of Song. Despite the dismaying similarities of his past times with our current days it was a joy to see and listen to his life and music unfold. Seeger’s life has been exemplary, an inspiration in all ways and for all things, not just from his music but from his example. If you haven’t seen it, seek it out - and share it. Your heart will thank you.