"When war becomes literally continuous, it also ceases to be dangerous. When war is continuous there is no such thing as military necessity. Technical progress can cease and the most palpable facts can be denied or disregarded." (II.9)
George Orwell, 1984, Part Two.
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"In past ages, a war, almost by definition, was something that sooner or later came to an end, usually in unmistakable victory or defeat. In the past, also, war was one of the main instruments by which human societies were kept in touch with physical reality. All rulers in all ages have tried to impose a false view of the world upon their followers, but they could not afford to encourage any illusion that tended to impair military efficiency. So long as defeat meant the loss of independence, or some other result generally held to be undesirable, the precautions against defeat had to be serious. Physical facts could not be ignored. In philosophy, or religion, or ethics, or politics, two and two might make five, but when one was designing a gun or an aeroplane they had to make four. Inefficient nations were always conquered sooner or later, and the struggle for efficiency was inimical to illusions. Moreover, to be efficient it was necessary to be able to learn from the past, which meant having a fairly accurate idea of what had happened in the past. Newspapers and history books were, of course, always coloured and biased, but falsification of the kind that is practised today would have been impossible. War was a sure safeguard of sanity, and so far as the ruling classes were concerned it was probably the most important of all safeguards. While wars could be won or lost, no ruling class could be completely irresponsible." (II.9)
George Orwell, 1984, Part Two.
1984
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People are totally ignorant for the most part that this is where we are now headed. The signs have been there for years, only they were too busy with brainless diversions like television (and stations like FOX NEWS that are accomplices in these crimes) to notice them. And now because of that, we have allowed the same indifference and hatred that was the purpose of life in 1984 to find its way into our own society. Those who hijacked our government are not perpetuators of compassion, compromise, or understanding. They are purveyors of hatred, death, war, and defeat. They are Big Brother, and they are using their 1984 doublespeak to infiltrate every area of our lives.
How could we ever have allowed a completely fictional tale to become reality? How could we simply sit while watching our Democracy slowly die in our arms? One of the answers in my view is allegiance to Party groupthink. Party groupthink diverts the mind from the better good of the country as a whole, into obsession with only the initiatives that best suit the Party. And when those initiatives are not the initatives that best suit the country as a whole, freedom is lost.
This is where we are now, and because of our denial, we are as the Pentagon announced yesterday, in for "the long war." If that is not 1984 doublespeak, I don't know what is. And those in the Pentagon who have announced this must be fairly confident that their war will be carried out as long as they have announced it will last, even though they may not be there to carry it out... or is it that they already know they will be there that they can make such a claim?
I can now then state with a fair amount of conviction that I believe we are headed for a police state. It is the only way in my mind that this "long war" could ever be continued without rioting in the streets. And that is because as such, this "long war" would eventually entail drafting our children into servitude to this oligarchy, and the people into absolute and abject poverty and despair. It will also entail finding new ways to keep the population afraid, so as to have the ability to wage war by taking away liberties that would empower people to fight those who suppress them.
These usurpers have also been successful in rewriting the past as to be able to justify their current lies and future crimes. This is classic of any dictatorship, as is the constant repeating of talking points by their Ministry of Truth, FOX NEWS. A true dictatorship cannot continue unless it has the media in its pocket, and FOX NEWS has been and is a very willing accomplice in the crimes of the Bush regime. They and the other media outlets in this country who handle these criminals with kid gloves, also have the blood of thousands of innocents on their hands. However, it matters not to them, for they have fallen victim to the lie that is now the truth, and no amount of loss of life is tragic in comparison to the work that needs to be done to see the efforts of the State realized. Be it spying on their fellow citizens... jailing them without acknowledgement of their rights...labelling dissenters as "terrorists."... forsaking all laws based on equality and goodwill...and using fear and terror to subjugate people into their, "long war."
This was also the tactic used by Joseph Stalin in his bid to consolidate power and seek world domination. It is said that from his own "war on terror", he murdered 40 million of his own people over the years he reigned with his own brand of terror and fear. Laws suspended, people taken from their homes, and false phantoms dreamed up to keep the populace in fear and perpetual war. We, the citizens of the United States of America, now face a threat just as urgent as those in Soviet Russia during the time of Stalin. The unitary executive will give Bush powers unparalleled in the history of this nation, and seek to consolidate his power over us and keep us in perpetual war long after he is gone.
This I believe is the crux of the Pentagon's "long war", and it must be exposed for what it is. There is absolutely no feasible way these plans can succeed unless a compliant population gives them credence. I read quotes from George Orwell's masterpiece 1984 now, and I shudder. Not simply because the scenes he depicts are chilling in and of themselves, but because I now see it so possible that people here could be that gullible. And worse, that people in our Congress already are.
When you have those willing to continually fund an illegal war with billions of dollars based on doublespeak and intimidation while cutting essential needs and violating core civil liberties of Americans by putting the Party over the country, you are on your way to seeing the same outcome. Therefore, instead of having online chats with people to answer nicely phrased questions about safe issues just to hold on to a base in an election year, it is time for those in our Congress to become aware of just how complicit they are in the crimes of those they enable by their compliance with this insidious doublespeak, and to truly stand up to it.
I will be sending quotes from this book to my representatives over the coming weeks, and comparing them to quotes like "long war" in order for them to see the connection. And they must see this connection now, because we are on our way to a society that I believe most of us are shutting out of our minds, because we think it can't happen here, even though it already is. We cannot allow the ending of 1984 to be our own in 2006. NO MORE FUNDING FOR THIS "LONG WAR"must be allowed. Again, Congress, fulfill your oaths.
The Pentagon's Long War
Excerpt:
Rumsfeld Offers Strategies for Current War
Pentagon to Release 20-Year Plan Today
By Josh White and Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writers
02/03/06 "Washington Post' -- -- The United States is engaged in what could be a generational conflict akin to the Cold War, the kind of struggle that might last decades as allies work to root out terrorists across the globe and battle extremists who want to rule the world, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday.
Rumsfeld, who laid out broad strategies for what the military and the Bush administration are now calling the "long war," likened al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin while urging Americans not to give in on the battle of wills that could stretch for years. He said there is a tendency to underestimate the threats that terrorists pose to global security, and said liberty is at stake.
"Compelled by a militant ideology that celebrates murder and suicide with no territory to defend, with little to lose, they will either succeed in changing our way of life, or we will succeed in changing theirs," Rumsfeld said in a speech at the National Press Club.
The speech, which aides said was titled "The Long War," came on the eve of the Pentagon's release of its Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), which sets out plans for how the U.S. military will address major security challenges 20 years into the future. The plans to be released today include shifts to make the military more agile and capable of dealing with unconventional threats, something Rumsfeld has said is necessary to move from a military designed for the Cold War into one that is more flexible.
He said the nation must focus on three strategies in the ongoing war: preventing terrorists from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, defending the U.S. homeland and helping allies fight terrorism. He emphasized that these goals could take a long time to achieve.
End of Excerpt.