Iran & Shadows

I see that the US and British are now scheming about going to was against Iran. They are in the process of systematically portion out the propaganda they need to do so, and it may happen within a few months. It is a predictable process, especially as the lead-in to the Iraq war is still fresh in mind for most of us.

And it appears as bizarre now as then, for a number of reasons...

They do not have sufficient available military resources as Iraq and Afghanistan takes up just about everything. It will only further destabilize the mid-east and there is no telling how far it may ripple out and which other countries may get involved. It fill further fuel the already considerable disgust people around the world experience against the US government. It will indirectly fuel hostility against Isreal among its neighboring countries, making their situation even more dangerous. It will fuel terrorism and violence against western targets worldwide - both in the form of riots and violent demonstrations and terrorism. In the US, it will further gut the non-military budget and increase the transfer of money to a vastly over-scaled military budget, already comparable to the combined military budget of all other countries.

See also the rants section written before, during and after the Iraq invasion (for instance here under "history").

In short, it will only speed up the already imminent fall of the US empire.

Shadows

Until the US - at collective and individual levels - see and acknowledge their own terrorism, they will only project it out on others, act from blind fear, and through these acts evoke in others what they fear.

There are significant things left out of the public self-image in the US, although very much included in the image most of the international community have of the US.

The main one is that US is a nation founded on genocide, and has an extraordinary long history of violence and theft on all scales - from taking the land from the native americans, to wars to expand their territory, to supporting violent takeovers of democratically elected governments, to actively supporting oppressive dictatorships, to the current and recent wars across the world to expand their economic, military and cultural dominance.

Until this is accepted and taken seriously, until this is included in the public and private self-image of americans, these shadow projections will continue, they will continue to act from these projections, and this will evoke in others exactly these same qualities. Specifically, the state sponsored terrorism will be met with other forms of terrorism.

And for myself, the questions are... What is my shadow? How do I embody the blindness I see in many in the US? How do I embody what I see them not embodying in themselves?