JohnDowser's Comments

News From Antiwar.com : Russia Stops Iran From Importing Medical Isotope

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:40:43 +0000

It seems more like a black market smuggling operation highlighted by foreign press because indeed the words "isotope" and "Iran" do well for selling news. This needs only the smallest bit of encouragement, if any at all, by intelligence agencies. Where news media in general seems to fail massively in this instance is in providing easy to get by background details on the material, the medical isotope industry and the black market situation. But that is part of a larger problem: that of journalism not requiring investigation at all anymore. Just publish fast, verify briefly and remain "current". It's the problem of the "shallows".

News From Antiwar.com : Iran Hijacked US Drone, Says Iranian Engineer

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:49:29 +0000

It's not entirely impossible the Iranians purpose was to test some of their defense systems which obviously will revolve around jamming and discouraging any electronic craft, missile and drone sent their way. What you see there then is the fruit of many years of labor. The technique might not be perfect yet but can already fulfill some purpose by demonstrating a potential defense capability. Modern electronic-packed jets, drones and missiles will think twice perhaps before entering now? Makes precision bombing a way more messy affair if you cannot go in and mark the targets or the danger of your jets flying blind while your opponent will not.

Antiwar.com Blog : Obama Gives UAE New Weapons 'To Counter Iran'

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:36:15 +0000

Thanks Lion, but that's pretty well known stuff. My entry was actually playing with the neoconservative lingo like the Hudson Institute and RAND corporation has literary spit out at times. It could give some insight on how at least *some* policy wonks in the US might view the matter. And they might be right! A shift in balance will endanger the very things they are so eager to protect. No doubt about it. And they know that Iran is the hub of the day.

Antiwar.com Blog : Obama Gives UAE New Weapons 'To Counter Iran'

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:14:45 +0000

"why does the US hate Iran?" - or why do some global power brokers distrust it? Iran as current "tactical pivot" as its ascent would flip the former "pivot" Iraq into a reverse effect, with Egypt and Palestine "prices" combined will shift crucial economical and geopolitical balances in the Middle East and North Africa toward Russia and China (a danger to certain US/global trade/wars as well as US-Israel relationships). In the mean while Saudi Arabia and UAE need to be propped up economically and politically.

Antiwar.com Blog : A Nuke Too Far?

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:01:26 +0000

So much fantasy has not been broadcasted on a major news outlet since, I dunno, Orson Well's "War of the Worlds" on October 30 1938, CBS radio. Not counting Fox of course. Of course, that was radio drama and apart from some people fleeing their homes, no real damage was done. Although surely no one will run out of their house here, one can wonder how many readers and journalists will flee out of their mind by even considering in the slightest this attempt to invoke some kind of Cuba missile crisis atmosphere on us. Is this opinion piece a sign of desperation from a war conspiracy or a sign of major news outlets becoming the equivalent of Speaker's Corner, Hide Park, London? Final sign of intellectual bankruptcy in both cases.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Why Governments Make War

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:56:45 +0000

War as the systematic failure. Like with Baudrillard's "objective irony": the near certain probability systems will collapse by their own systematics. The system here being like a "systematic ideology", not only Latter Day Americanism but perhaps the more encompassing Late Modernism. War as changing agent. But not the agent of choice, not the way nature prefers: it's the darkness that sets in when changes are being prolonged for too long: systematic failures proliferate...

Antiwar.com Blog : Gadhafi is Dead, "Luckily" We Have "Implicated" Ourselves in Libya's Future

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:41:53 +0000

Leadership changes mean nothing if the underlying structure and relations do not facilitate the needed changes. It's quite possible MQ represented "golden decades" for a technically fractured Libya and the 'mad dogs' were here the rebels without a plan. Dreaming of Western money and investments flowing in. Or Russian, or Chinese.. Anything to sell their assets to, anything to repair the new rifts and damages. But if the world economy keeps tanking, this might not materialize. Enjoy the freedom to complain in relative peace for now!

Antiwar.com Original Articles : US Officials Peddle False Intel to Support Terror Plot Claims

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 07:22:36 +0000

In my experience people from Middle-Eastern countries surprisingly often wire small and larger sums money to family or receive support from family, when abroad. The family member with money feels strongly obligated to help the ones who are in need of some funding. Although it often goes from West to Middle-East, in the case of the near broke Arbabsiar it might have easily went the other way. It's a very strong cultural thing especially within Iraq and Iran, where the ones who fled or emigrated are often connected to reasonable wealthy and educated families. This broad loyalty is number one priority and obligation for these people, with hardly any questions asked. In that light the wire transfer in itself is not unlikely at all, assuming the cousin was indeed wealthy. But I'm afraid it's more likely Arbabsiar got stuck in his own web of lies and now rather goes with this to him suggested plot than just admitting it was all stemming from his own confused mind and that he thereby implicated the ones he cared for on a whim. Even assuming the wire transfer was real, it's not an unusual or unexpected thing at all. The known evidence appears still to revolve around the thoughts of one confused, desperate man who might rather die than reveal his potential grave and humiliating lack of common sense and disregard for his own family.

Antiwar.com Blog : The 'Plot': A Whiskey-Swilling, Bumbling Link to Iran

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 09:05:02 +0000

As an alternative to complete idiocy being in charge, I'm entertaining the thought - nearly a wish - that this is actually an intricate trap set by Iran's intelligence agency, setting up a dimwit fellow countryman and hoping the Washington zealots would run with it and make utter fools of themselves. To shame them, toy with them. Then again, what is worse: idiots digging their own grave and accidentally falling into it or others digging it and waiting for idiots to fall into the pit. Blindness is the case in both instances.

News From Antiwar.com : Iraq's Sadr Aims to Find Alternative to US Trainers

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 08:51:57 +0000

That sounds right on the money. Russia annulled 12 billion worth of debt in 2008, and will expect compensations in regards to oil and weapon industry. Saddam always was a loyal customer too (actually the billions of debts were caused that way). This way, a decade old strategy comes to fruition for Russia in regards to Iraq. It's also a more natural alliance, historically, politically and even culturally somewhat.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : The 'Terrorist' Who Couldn't Think Straight

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 06:38:34 +0000

The plot seems as smart-dumb to me as the Nigerian yellow-cake scheme, which magically landed into the President's general address and might have been crucial in prewar preparations. Yes, it's greasy, easy to debunk, highly doubtful and you'd think any rational official would inquire endlessly before even reaching the most modest of conclusions. However, it must have been determined long ago by insiders that Washington works according to a different set of rules and laws than anyone else. Any dimwitted engineered story is then customized to a very specific audience - and it's not you - and it's not the media. There's always some 'secret' compound to it which delays journalistic inquiry just long enough to make the item do its instant damage. Only the first weeks count! It's the same script we've seen so many times over the last decades, only the props change. The audience never does however, even as parties change seats.

News From Antiwar.com : Was Libya's Death Toll a Dramatic Overstatement?

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 11:24:44 +0000

Inflate and conquer....

Antiwar.com Original Articles : The Media Is the Enemy

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:14:36 +0000

Justin seemed a bit too quick to judge in this case: "The term Patient Zero is now used in the media to refer to the index case for infectious disease outbreaks, as well as for computer virus outbreaks, and, more broadly, as the source of ideas or actions that have far-reaching consequences." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_case Have Doctors Found Swine "Patient Zero?"". CBS News. 2009-04-29. Researchers trawl for Conficker's 'Patient Zero' - Techworld.com Law & Order: Patient Zero Episode Summary on". Tv.com. Retrieved 2010-11-03. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/25/witty_wor...

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Barbarians With BlackBerrys

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:19:56 +0000

Interesting article. One might question if the “Arab Spring” protests really were and are purely political, like Justin seems to be so certain of. Also in the Arab and Persian versions many "barbarians" and some armed militant ideologues were piggybacked onto this movement for their own reasons, at times causing terrible spectacles and police blow-back. And like in Egypt one could question the total effect of the protests when the military was never taken into the equation by the o so "savvy" crowd: leaving not much room for actual change to be implemented at all. So did we have a spectacle only? Like Antoine de Rivarol wrote about the French Revolution: "The people did not desire revolution, they only wanted the spectacle". Another stab at the causes of organized violence in modern societies, apart from nihilism and technology is the raising anxiety and stress levels of life in the fast lanes. In a society the group dynamics might be complex and "tectonic", and like volcanoes and earthquakes nearly unpredictable. It might be all a question of chicken and egg but the increasingly frantic, restless, distracted and above all disconnected world we have been creating over the decades might have created more than just a financial debt to pay back to the gods of karma and balance.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Why Is America Committing Suicide?

Fri, 5 Aug 2011 07:51:04 +0000

Justin, in what way do you not agree with the theory that "treats civilizations as organic entities which go through a process"? Decadence and militarism, the core businesses of 'empire' seem to go hand in hand with a terminal stage of what's so loosely called "civilization". It's like the rotting of a mighty tree trunk after it has fallen but somehow the awareness of the fall and the rot has not set in yet (the role of the simulacrum). Doom and gloom are not necessarily the type of vocabulary to describe this process. The "latter" stages of empire not always have been that bad. The 'grass roots" of new organisms, new 'models' are already at invisibly at work to move in or transform the old spot. A bit of the old and a bit of the new. It's the hardest thing in these times to think of a future which might work out, which will not be catastrophic for the people but only for certain "elites" and misguided ideologues. But I think this is exactly the challenge in all current exchange and debate: to be able to reach for such future, to reach for the ideas until something takes hold.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : The Crusader

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 05:57:57 +0000

As for the rise of "the mirror image of al-Qaeda", the first and most vivid exposure of this was for me at least the 2004 BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares by Adam Curtis. The only thing always lacking as evidence was the mirroring at the level of the individual, while all we saw so far was violence by state vs violence by cell. Or as Justin wrote: "The one difference is that Breivik and his fellow Knights are taking direct action, without bothering to employ the agency of government". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightma...

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Guam Libre!

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:45:23 +0000

About the "educational anecdote", these stories are quite common in all countries with extended welfare support. One could argue if this example really indicates a problem with the welfare system itself or if it's about the justice department not being able to track illegal activity from certain welfare receivers or their friends or family. Illegal income is commonly payed in goods or in larger denominations of cash spent directly on cars, cloths and phones and therefore cannot be used so easily to fuel ones credit for daily purchases. So they own or share these type of cards with each other in ways that do not have to mean welfare is being abused at all (it's likely not even their own card).

Antiwar.com Blog : Not Everyone is Someone

Sat, 21 May 2011 06:45:42 +0000

The translation seems iffy. To me the obivous point appears to be that the average bloke would not get treated by the press in this manner or would his reputation and job prospects be lost even before a trial. The remarks made by BHL must be seen in the light of the French disgust in general of the press freedom in the US when it comes to cases like this.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Shut Up, Rachel

Wed, 4 May 2011 08:18:21 +0000

A breath of fresh air, Justin's latest. How long for proper and sane reasoning itself will be declared the enemy just because it might disrupt the thriving economy of trite amusement and disconnected imagery?

Antiwar.com Blog : We Got Him -- Time to Bring the Troops Home

Mon, 2 May 2011 08:36:01 +0000

"a massive organizational headquarters, no doubt filled with intelligence about the terrorist network" Do you really think that Justin? I was under the impression AQ was all about thought leadership these days, perhaps some scattered suggestions on what to attack or what not. But even that role appeared to have been heavily diminished, replaced by mostly local concerns. I haven't seen anything coming out of BL's cave which couldn't have been done with some scattered notes, newspapers, some phones or couriers and a big vision as driver. In one of the interviews he more or less describes his role like that. The monster does not have a head, that's why it's such a monster. It's an idea, it's a code, it's about temporary operations but nothing to keep unto because it would have been tracked and hunted long time ago.