05-03-2014, 11:03 AM
David, I have no part in the Drago-Evica model. I've heard about it obviously, but to be perfectly frank, I haven't a clue what it is. And am not particularly interested in learning about it anyway.
I have no problem with Fisk at all. For me he seems to be one of the more enlightened middle eastern correspondents to write cynically in the mainstream UK media. I applaud him for it. He is unusual in this respect so far as I can see too.
But that is really besides the point. I don't read him as a matter of course, nor quote him faithfully. In fact, I don't "follow" any correspondent anywhere in the world - although I have a soft spot for some whistleblowers who now write for a living.
The media, for me, is largely a profession of contrived lies, disinformation and designer misinformation and more often than not, is vectored for business / political interests etc etc. I have almost zero faith in it, or for that matter most journalists too. However, every now and then, I am surprised. It is rare, but sometimes they actually do their job honestly.
I find your challenge about war being a "depletion of inventory" peculiar to be perfectly honest. It is an interesting twist, or take, on reality anyway. The "consumable" argument --- the poor starving of the arms business simply filling a human need.
The arms trade is slightly different to that of the butcher, baker or candlestick maker imo. For one thing bribery and corruption are rife. For them to sell more of their product they need wars to "deplete" it on a continual revolving basis. So wars need to be manufactured - and human nature being what it is, that ain't a hard a thing to do. Fear and greed being two principal motives of humanity. Clearly, this is not a difficult equation to understand. Remarks made by the late irrelevant and witty UK government Minister for Trade, Alan Clark, are informative in this respect. Ditto the less likeable and longer dead Sir Basil Zaharoff.
I can speak personally and in some depth about the arms trade because I spent many years as a City banker specialising in that business sector; although whether or not I'll speak in depth about those times remains to be seen. Probably not. But I do remember a particular arms dealer - a freelancer (or was he a "useful" cutout?) - a wall eyed pirate type who had a colourful career arming the middle east back in the 1980s/90s. I was young and naive back then. It was an educational time for me.
So yes, you should read my other posts in this regard. All of them. Not simply ones related to Israel. My view is that war is absolutely a for profit activity and one that I find entirely reprehensible. And Israel, very clearly, is part and parcel of this highly profitable business enterprise. But so are the other nations of the middle east too.
Arming both sides of a conflict is as old as the hills. When the British armoured brigade invaded Saddam's Iraq in 1991, they found British made armoured piercing 155mm sabot discarding shells facing them. They were lucky, in fact, as train loads of British made anti tank missiles had been reluctantly "pulled" from the same consignment to Saddam via the fig-leafed so called "Jordan Package". During the air war phase of the same conflict, American CIA representatives were still trying to convince Saddam to buy shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles.
Oh, what a lovely war...
I have no problem with Fisk at all. For me he seems to be one of the more enlightened middle eastern correspondents to write cynically in the mainstream UK media. I applaud him for it. He is unusual in this respect so far as I can see too.
But that is really besides the point. I don't read him as a matter of course, nor quote him faithfully. In fact, I don't "follow" any correspondent anywhere in the world - although I have a soft spot for some whistleblowers who now write for a living.
The media, for me, is largely a profession of contrived lies, disinformation and designer misinformation and more often than not, is vectored for business / political interests etc etc. I have almost zero faith in it, or for that matter most journalists too. However, every now and then, I am surprised. It is rare, but sometimes they actually do their job honestly.
I find your challenge about war being a "depletion of inventory" peculiar to be perfectly honest. It is an interesting twist, or take, on reality anyway. The "consumable" argument --- the poor starving of the arms business simply filling a human need.
The arms trade is slightly different to that of the butcher, baker or candlestick maker imo. For one thing bribery and corruption are rife. For them to sell more of their product they need wars to "deplete" it on a continual revolving basis. So wars need to be manufactured - and human nature being what it is, that ain't a hard a thing to do. Fear and greed being two principal motives of humanity. Clearly, this is not a difficult equation to understand. Remarks made by the late irrelevant and witty UK government Minister for Trade, Alan Clark, are informative in this respect. Ditto the less likeable and longer dead Sir Basil Zaharoff.
I can speak personally and in some depth about the arms trade because I spent many years as a City banker specialising in that business sector; although whether or not I'll speak in depth about those times remains to be seen. Probably not. But I do remember a particular arms dealer - a freelancer (or was he a "useful" cutout?) - a wall eyed pirate type who had a colourful career arming the middle east back in the 1980s/90s. I was young and naive back then. It was an educational time for me.
So yes, you should read my other posts in this regard. All of them. Not simply ones related to Israel. My view is that war is absolutely a for profit activity and one that I find entirely reprehensible. And Israel, very clearly, is part and parcel of this highly profitable business enterprise. But so are the other nations of the middle east too.
Arming both sides of a conflict is as old as the hills. When the British armoured brigade invaded Saddam's Iraq in 1991, they found British made armoured piercing 155mm sabot discarding shells facing them. They were lucky, in fact, as train loads of British made anti tank missiles had been reluctantly "pulled" from the same consignment to Saddam via the fig-leafed so called "Jordan Package". During the air war phase of the same conflict, American CIA representatives were still trying to convince Saddam to buy shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles.
Oh, what a lovely war...
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14