A NATO and Russian Federation War Primer

A Not Very Pleasant Memory

 [MAD] A Few Gut Wrenching Decades

 of Mutually Assured Destruction Is Still Not Enough?

Dr. Strangelove, 1963 [image]

MeanMesa became one of many watching in stark terror as the US and the old Soviet Union -- each one bristling with literally thousands of quite credible intercontinental H-Bomb delivery systems -- scratched and clawed their way through the "Great Cold War Showdown." The reach of the grisly pogrom would not have been limited to the fictional "OK Corral," either. Those weapons [from both sides] were targeting population centers right along with military assets, and the estimates at the time predicted 350,000,000 [350 Mn] casualties in the first few hours after the ICBM first stage lift engines were ignited.

MeanMesa's experience was similar to most everyone else's -- even the prospect of such a general thermonuclear exchange transformed anyone paying attention into a raging psychopath during the 24 hour a day, decades long US-NATO-Soviet-Warsaw Pact nightmare. Only a very special, certain kind of human would have any appetite for returning to anything like this.

Meet Vladimir Putin.

Just a happy-go-lucky, Russian boy [image]
Some of us "got over" what we became during the M.A.D.'s Psycho Years 

Conversations during this Cold War period were marked by an almost universal concern that the two great ideological blocs would actually do it at some point, but in more modern times one of the irritating "quips" MeanMesa encounters concerning this is that "they would never have ever actually done it." Such Pollyannism [defined more politely as an "indulgent positivity bias..."] reveals evidence of a either a seriously depressing educational failure or a gravely dangerous "re-writing" of history.

This "indulgent positivity" is "back on the geopolitical front burner" when we consider the possibilities of a 2015-2016 version of the old anguish. Two revealing examples of Russian intransigence in dealing with the possibility of ever quietly accepting the fact that they have been bested can be seen in the North Sea Fleet supply depot incident of 1964 and the ultimate "blink" when confronted with Ronnie Raygun's Star Wars propaganda. Without burdening this post with too much history, a short review of each case remains germane to understanding this topic.

Example One: In July of 1964 the Soviet North Sea Fleet's main supply depot at Severomorsk, on the Barents Sea north of Murmansk, suffered a tremendous fire. The emergency continued for several days, leaving several hundred dead and perhaps several thousand injured. When the fire had finally been extinguished, US experts were speculating that the loss in stockpiled military armament had been so large that it had reduced the Soviet Union's capacity to conduct a conventional war to around 10 days -- total.

Faced with this sudden loss of military readiness for conventional [non-nuclear] war, more than a few of the Generals in the Soviet High Command recommended that Premier Khruschev immediately initiate a first strike against the US and NATO. Thankfully, the Premier declined this advice, although the incident almost certainly led to his retirement from the Kremlin [departure from office] in October of that year. [Read more 1964 Soviet Naval Blast Called Crippling - NYTIMES]

Example Two: Reagan's ambitious Cold War gambit, called the Strategic Defense Initiative, under development in the 1980's produced a marginally credible possibility that it could effectively degrade the Soviet ICBM deterrent force by protecting parts of the Continental US from attack. The cost to the US economy was in the trillions, but the Soviets were facing a comparable expenditure to counter SDI -- if it could really function as advertised. The components of the SDI system were never particularly successful in tests, but the US Administration prepared a series of "cartoons" depicting a very successful system which would be able to counter a Soviet ICBM attack.

Faced with the "lethal PR combination" of the cartoons plus the utterly flummoxing estimates for the cost of counter measures, the Kremlin "blinked." However, this "blinking" represented an even more serious PR problem for the Soviet leadership. The vast investment already made in the Soviet ICBM fleet had been justified by the claim that being armed this way amounted to a, well, "no blinking" capability to the Soviet Union's citizens. For this reason [along with a large collection of other geo-economic reasons, as well] the old Soviet Union finally "gave up the ghost" officially in December or 1991. [Read more Did Star Wars Help End the Cold War? - RussianForces]

The point here deals much more with the psychology of Russians in general than with the nuanced behavior of the Soviet Union. [Most of the background history concerning Russia held by Americans is based on experience with the Soviets more than with the "post Soviet" leadership of the Russian Federation.] Nonetheless, we may assume that this apparent inability to accept "being bested" internationally runs with the innate Russian bloodline just as much as with the nationalist ambitions of someone like Vladimir Putin. Vlad knows all about this, and he uses it as a principle technique in his propaganda.

We must also not disregard the same type of Russian "sensitivity" in matters of what Russian citizens perceive as international respect.

Deja Vu: Crimea as Vlad Putin's Sudetenland?

Wait! Haven't we been here before?

All this would be a bit academic except that it illustrates a specific combination of "motivations" which have influenced Russian behavior in the past. The first "motivation" deals with the total inability to countenance even minor setbacks in international relations -- including a full spectrum of diplomatic, geopolitical and military affairs. The second "motivation" is a question of respect which arises from a national outlook constructed from years of having the self-perceived view of being the "second class" laughing stock of more developed countries.

MeanMesa suspects that this outlook may have begun during Czarist times, perhaps even as early as when Czar Peter invited the French to introduce "European influences" into the Russian culture. The days of the brutal Revolution, the extreme difficulties faced by the new Communist state and the disastrous and embarrassing military bumbling at the beginning of WWII have all contributed "fuel to the fire" to produce this national appetite for recognition as a "great and powerful state."

The nationalist vent of the current propaganda stream issuing forth from Moscow has taken the expected course in faux priorities such a re-establishing a Russian "sphere of influence" comparable to those of the over-extended hegemony of the Soviets and the "repatriation" of theoretically Russian ex-patriots stranded in regions which have now extricated themselves from such suffocating Kremlin ambitions.

Sudetenland - 1938 [map source]

Predictably, the "pressing urgency" for this "repatriation" can be embellished with propaganda tales of oppression and discrimination, and Moscow has lived up to its Soviet reputation by taking on this PR assault "whole hog plus the postage." Ironically, the tactics and strategy so far have a chilling similarity to those of Germany at the beginning of its WWII expansion in Europe.

One of the Third Reich's first "cross border" adventures dealt with a similar scheme to repatriate the "oppressed Germans" living just outside the nation's border in Sudetenland. When this German incursion is compared to the recent Russian incursion -- and annexation -- of Crimea, the similarities yield an unsettling prescience.

Soviet Annexation of Romania 1945 [ MoldovanView]

The Soviets took their turn at this "repatriation and annexation" tactic as they patiently began to

 expand that "sphere of influence" to encompass post-war Eastern Europe. The example of their advances into Romania illustrates this. The same approach continued to be repeated until the cold, grey bastion of the Warsaw Pact had been created.

Now, we see yet another case of the same expansionist thrust, one still based on the "tried and true" model established in the 1940's. Vladimir Putin has prepared the stage for a significant number of additional, "absolutely necessary" repatriation and annexation adventures all across the region temporarily -- at least in Vladimir's view -- excluded from Russian influence after the fall of the Soviets.

Russian "Populations" Currently Outside the Russian Federation

"Russian speaking" or "Russian People?" [WorldBulletin]

These regional concentrations of "Russians" requiring Vladimir Putin's "repatriation efforts" [Particularly the ones located in the Baltic States, Belarus and Ukraine] organize the basic map of what he hopes will become "contested regions" in his contest with NATO and the West. However, the "fly in the ointment" turns out to be a pretty good sized fly.

Putin's validation for this potential "land grab" rests on shaky logical premises. One way to express this "shakiness" is to pose the questions: 

"Are these Russians?"

"Would they even like to be Russians?" 

"Is there some empirical means to determine if a person is really a 'Russian' by these criteria?" 

"Or, does the fact that a person was once a citizen of the old Soviet Union -- willingly or not -- legitimately establish that the same person should now [and always in the future] be a citizen of the Russian Federation?"

Of course Vladimir could not, in reality, care less about all these "repatriation" priorities. All the incendiary rhetoric is nothing more than fodder for his domestic political machinations.

Mapping Out the Coming War:

The Crimea Technique

Pay attention to the details;

we should expect to see them again.

As a means to stay abreast of this developing conflict, US conventional media coverage is useless. Reporting on this has, as usual, drawn corporate war lobbyists from every smelly little rats' nest, and these types enjoy full access to the network editorial boards which will, in turn, determine what corporate media content will be provided to the domestic audience. To date this has amounted to little more than an "American version" expressing the diametric opposites of the same propaganda "talking points" being broadcast by the Russian Federation media. If there were not a calendar marked clearly with the year "2015" here in the Galactic Headquarters office, MeanMesa could easily imagine that this was actually "news content" from the depths of the old Cold War in 1975.

Still, the blog must go ahead, so MeanMesa has reviewed a comprehensive collection of net-based analyses concerning the prospects of this developing conflict. It would be far too dramatic, at least at this point, to discuss this "interest conflict" as if it were at some intermediate step in an inexorable march to a full spectrum of direct combat in a European war. There are reasonable "odds" that no combat at all will result as the inevitable resolution of these competing ambitions "play out." On the other hand there are also reasonable "odds" for the converse outcome, and these "odds" reflect probabilities strong enough to merit, if not outright concern, at least heightened diligence. [If you happen to be a blog visitor with an appetite for prophecy, all that appears in the later stages of the post, but, happily, only one will be a MeanMesa prophecy.]

Not every war in history has been finally ignited by the "yellow press," but our record of recent exceptions to this rule is not reassuring, and in this case there happen to be at least two -- and possibly more -- "state supported," institutional, "yellow presses" each one with its respective speed controls locked firmly at "frantic."

The products of all these efforts -- both Russian and Western -- are ironically similar. Both are deeply complicit in two distinctly different, national apparitions of the same jingoistic war frenzy. Both represent evidence of the worst possible actors gleefully engaging in irresponsible war promotion, dutifully serving as sold out corporate media whores while masquerading as the equivalent of expert "pleasure girls" tempting the well known fears and desires of unwary national audiences.

A much more balanced overview of this is available from NATO, itself. Please take five minutes to view this video produced by NATO REVIEW Magazine in 2014:

NATO-Russia: Uneasy Partners - NATO.int.

After watching the video, reconsider the model portrayed in the media rhetoric.

War: Everybody Wins, Right?

Pulling the lobbyist strings to keep the puppets dancing.

The US billionaires, confronted with the real possibilities of what a "shooting war" with the Russian Federation might ultimately "deliver," face a heart wrenching dichotomy. Will they profit more by selling the arms which would be required -- and consumed -- by such a conflict, or will they profit more from a new wave of "cooperative" corporate involvement in the Federation's natural resource business -- especially crude oil and natural gas, and especially crude oil  and natural gas reserves to be "developed" by the Federation's Arctic exploration program.

This is an invitation to a waltz, one to be attended by three oligarchies, one controlling the EU, one controlling the US and one controlling the Russian Federation, but there are even more "similar souls" -- hopeful spinsters and aging bachelors -- desperately smiling as they wait impatiently along the ball room's mirrors.

This slow train wreck becomes even more "testy" when one considers that US and European billionaires are tempted to use US and NATO military muscle to extort Russian Federation acquiescence to "stabilize" the distribution of fossil fuel profits currently flowing to Russia from European and Chinese energy clients. When the voices of the eager bullet and missile salesmen are added to this bellicose chorus, only the arrival of the Mad Hatter remains to complete the attendee guest list so the banquet's meal can begin.

[MeanMesa has posted about this. The Dark Side: American Billionaires and American H-Bombs - MeanMesa]

Challenger 2 Main Battle Tank - UK [image]

All the parties have been very busily arming themselves with the most lethal kinds of new weapons for decades. Remember -- even in times of relative peace and stability, weapons manufacturers have been constantly insisting on inventing and adding one new device after another to these national armories.

In the US we understand the magnitude of the cash flowing from the General Fund to these Pentagon "procurement contractors," but we are inclined to think that we are the only one of the "war players" doing this. Not the case -- the European and Russian Federation equivalents of these US war based, political power brokers are just as busy.

Sometimes this illicit ambition to influence national military policy is shockingly transparent. For example, while working very diligently to frame themselves as hapless, nuclear armed, "victims" surrounded by belligerent, ambitious neighbors, the Israelis sell 3 combat versions of their SPIKE anti- tank armament [i.e. anti-tank ordinance SPIKE anti-tank] to most of the military interests on the European "side" of this conflict.

The French raised Russian "hackles" when that government declined to sell the Russians new Mistral assault ships as previously agreed because of Crimea [Russia Pitch Poles French for Mistral Sale Renunciation- MoscowTimes and French Need Russian Approval to Sell Mistrals Elsewhere-RT], and the Russians have responded that, based on the original sales agreement, France now cannot sell the ships, already constructed, to Brazil without Russian approval of the deal.

MeanMesa's GOOGLE provides thousands of sites analyzing the likely outcome of this potential military confrontation should it materialize. A few fairly rational ones are provided here for blog visitors interested in such details.

Euro and Russia Preparing for War- TELEGRAPH

NATO Weapons Analysis-NationalInterest

[includes relevant and accurate links to analysis of other specific types military hardware]

How would a NATO Russia war play out - QUORA

There's Still Room for Some Old Time Religion

As if the cash side of this can't produce enough blood on its own.

The dirty shirt preachers of the US televangelist world will find the move from demanding war with Iran to demanding war with the Russian Federation a simple step. The burping and bellowing "GOP-Christians" in the Congress will, inevitably, fall in line to join the chorus once the "pastors" start with their explanations concerning how all of this was already foretold by St. John the Divine in his Revelations.

After all, St. John "revealed" that military forces from all the world must ultimately congeal around Israel to initiate the violent conflagration required to initiate the Second Coming, and the perfect way to energize the players for that rodeo can be a violent, bloody war all along the Russian Federation's Western border. [Interested in exploring an account of what the Second Coming might be like if it were to happen now? MeanMesa wrote an entertaining fiction dealing with this subject which is available FOR FREE as a Short Current Essays "e-book:" Secret of Paraneho Just link and enjoy!]

However, the "biblical imperative" to "justify" and "sanctify" this war is found in numerous places in the Bible's content, and -- assuredly, soon enough -- it will also be streaming forth from the myriad of domestic, tax exempt, war mongering, domestic televangelist franchises.  For example, [Ezekiel ch 38,39] 

GOD warns Iran (Persia), with Russia (Magog), and a coalition of allies (including Turkey, Libya, Sudan)will go to war and will invade Israel.  In Ezekiel 38-39 the Bible warns this coming war between Iran (Persia) and Israel will take place sometime after Israel has been re-gathered into Her land as a nation (which was fulfilled on May 14, 1948), [source]

and,

Rosh as Russia itself, Meshech as Moscow, and Tubal equated with Tobolsk in Siberia, are relatively modern interpretations, as found in the Scofield Reference Bible and some 19th and 20th century interpreters. Many recent prophetic web sites still hold to the Russia theory and presumably await a re-ascendant Russia. [source]

Additionally, of course, there is the general reference to "world ending" combat sprinkled generously through other Biblical sections -- all, no doubt, will also be added to further embellish the "deified inevitability" of this looming, modern foreign relations disaster.

Matthew 24:6 You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.

Mark 13:7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end.

Ezekiel 13:10 It is definitely because they have misled My people by saying, 'Peace!' when there is no peace. And when anyone builds a wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash;

Jeremiah 8:11 They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, 'Peace, peace,' But there is no peace.

A single MeanMesa prophecy was promised, so here it is:

"If and when this war draws closer, we will be hearing every one of the biblical warnings and more on two hundred tax free, religious television channels and in the Congress."

And, by the way, it will probably all occur in the most frenetic days of the 2016 election.

Euro and Russia Preparing for War- TELEGRAPH

NATO Weapons Analysis-NationalInterest

includes relevant and accurate links to analysis of other specific military

How would a NATO Russia war play out - QUORA

Kiev fascist propaganda

irony

world political response

US biblically political policy for second coming

Secret of Paraneho

If Iran and Russia continue to import nationals to Syria, that country could also become included. Collapse of the Assad regime would enhance the temptation.

2015 - Pandora as a Dark "Thoroughly Modern Millie?"

Pandora's Chest: 2015 Version

"Hope Springing Eternal" or "Romantic Myth?" [painting]

A note from MeanMesa: We find it a short search indeed when we seek out some overly tedious listing of the troubles in the world. One presumes that dwelling on such negative impulses is merely an indulgence, a means to pass the time while doing no real harm and inflicting no sustained injury on one's otherwise more optimistic psyche. But even this flirtation with the contents of the Lady's chest becomes somewhat more grim and even dire when the facts and figures accompany less willingly flippant.

A few of those "first demons to take flight" may merit a more sober review. History seems to plod its way toward another "pivot." Matters which are not mysteries begin to appear as matters which must be obscured for comfort. Welcome to the humanities' "garden of good and evil." Here are five short matters which seem to have "returned to her chest."

1. Humans Are Showing No Signs Of Altering Unsustainable Population Growth.

A "Patchy" History of "Reproducing" Responsibly

Blind bumbling is okay if there a little luck available.

Responding to observation and information should be the last option.

Human primates have done "quite well" for themselves when it comes to populating their way to the top of the planetary food chain. Around 72,000 BCE the human population hit one of its most severe nadirs. In southeastern Africa where most human primates had lived for centuries, the climate gradually entered a remarkably long period of drought. The availability of water, traditional food crops and game became worse and worse until the total population of humans on the planet descended to around 2,000. [Read more  here - TELEGRAPH/UK]

Since those dark days so long ago in Africa the humans have, indeed, "stepped up to the plate." Perhaps everyone simply decided that making babies wasn't such an unfairly arduous, thankless task after all.

The date scale is logarithmic. [image source]

All this good work begun in 72,000 BCE seemed to be working splendidly. By the time Thomas Jefferson had been elected the planet could boast of a human population of one billion.

However, when we look at the time scale along the bottom of the chart [below] we see that performing this task, that is, "increasing the planetary population by another billion," was showing an astonishing development of both speed, reliability and efficiency.

The "population prognosticators" furnishing the estimates for future population growth have quietly slowed the rate of the arrival of additional billions of humans after the shortest span of 12 years in 1999. No need to worry. If the additions slow to 16 years -- or even 20, 30 or 50 -- the point of this post remains uncomfortably solid. The geopolitical, economic and cultural changes required to move this "rate of addition" from where it is currently to even 50 years would require a, frankly, unimaginable level of cooperation and resources.

Population growth by the billion. [source - WIKI]

While this post could continue for pages and pages about the relentlessly increasing planetary over population, we must depart from this "facts and figures" here to make room for a few "other issues." It was important to get this part completed right away, so we might concentrate our attention on these other, associated parts of this post's topic.

2. The Global Population's Consumption Cannot Afford 

The Demand Requiring Full Productivity.

What Are All These Humans Supposed To Be Doing?

For a few hundred centuries it all looked fairly balanced.

For most of the earlier period of human development there has been no shortage of work to be done by the planet's inhabitants at any particular moment. The nature of this work has always been a mixture of tasks based on the various needs of the day. Although abbreviated histories paint a picture of "food" and "fighting" as the primary occupations of our ancestors, we can be certain that a vast array of other tasks produced necessary "consumables" all along the way.

However, generally speaking, prior to the industrial revolution the quantity of "consumables" being produced remained curiously equivalent to the corresponding quantity being "consumed." History, for example, yields few references to ancient civilizations which had produced such a surplus of food, baskets, chariots, ships or anything else that the contemporary economy began suffering from such products experiencing catastrophic price collapses.

These matters were balanced, and they were not intentionally balanced by policy or any particular ambition to balance them, but instead, they were balanced by the "organic" level of need for them and the corresponding capacity for  the production of them. Still, the industrial revolution was, just as much, also a natural human development, even though it greatly changed this traditional balance -- more or less permanently.

Masked Plague Doctors [image]

At a number of times during the "civilized" period of human habitation certain conditions interrupted this "organic" balance between production and consumption, and, as a consequence, also the "normal" measure of value associated with labor and commodities. For example, after the Black Plague had decimated the European labor force, wages increased. Higher wages were necessary to compete in the depleted labor market, but in time those higher wages became discretionary income and catapulted the European economy from its musty feudal past into the beginning stages of a middle class phenomenon.

But now, in the 21st Century, this balance seems to be a concept rapidly fading into historical irrelevancy. In the seventy millennia since the "difficulties" in Africa there has always been "enough work" to continuously consume the full efforts of the entire labor force of the planet. Everyone needed "something," and all those "somethings" required a worker to "produce" them. If there were some state similar to "unemployment" in 20,000 BCE, the consequences would have been fairly immediate extinction.

The possibility for this sensible arrangement to continue faded rather quickly after the industrial revolution's extreme advances in productivity hit the old equation. The fundamentals shifted, and they shifted in a troubling, "willy nilly" fashion. While productivity increased, the consumption markets decreased. Vast market populations probably wanted what was being produced but could not afford to purchase it. At first this was not such a problem, but that was then. This is now.

Although the "consumption power" of global markets has increased, it has not increased sufficiently to consume what is being produced. More importantly, that "consumption power" is no longer great enough to drive markets to produce what can be afforded by those vast populations. As a consequence, there are huge numbers of humans existing in economies without a "consumption pressure" which can offer them an opportunity to work and produce.

We can go ahead and call this the economic "Third World" so long as we are not too picky with our definitions.

The crowd which so habitually uses the "global market place" term to justify all sorts of horribly exploitative plans would like for us to consider these populations as potential markets "in development." They aren't. At least, they won't be any time soon. Further, these "in development" markets are not all located in distant "Third World" economies, either. They are springing up in Western industrialized nations, too.

3. A Functional Global Economy Relies On Increased "Consumption Pressure" - More Opportunities To Work.

Is It Really "Unemployment" 

When There's Nothing To Do?

Is It "Economic Development" When Mostly Nothing Develops?

The newly industrialized world created by the industrial revolution blew it.

While a small percentage of the increases in productivity went to establish a middle class, most went into the founding of dynastic family fortunes. The "missing ingredient" is revealed by the fact that practically none of the "return" of this increased productivity was directed at developing consumption markets with economies capable of purchasing the increased production.

Don't start feeling guilty. We have no reason to consider this as some sort of unactualized, discretionary, liberal "altruism." Instead, if it were ever to be undertaken, history would regard it as an imminently realistic, frantic response to avoid the economic cataclysm approaching in an otherwise inevitable future. The global economy will never work with participation stringently limited to an economically active class amounting to 20% or 30% of the global population.

Almost all of the creation of this modern result had been very nicely "finished" centuries ago. Of course the geopolitical, economic wreckage -- along with the destructive impact of the crippling, dynastic family fortunes -- remains for those of us in this century to clean up and patch back together. At least this will be our task if we don't fancy having the whole thing crash into the rocks.

By "crash" we are describing something significantly more destructive, more global and more terrifying than a mere "market correction." Even this dismal forecast has not yet added the additional "economic aggravation" of the now unavoidable economic impact of massive climate change approaching.

The rest of this world has to go back to work. The efforts to "coax" this economic resurgence into existence during the last century have failed -- in a very, very big way. Today's world has a huge unemployment problem causing a huge shortage of the discretionary income which might potentially become a future "consumption market"-- along with, for various reasons, an incredible deficit of resources available to remedy this situation. We -- in the industrialized world -- also seem to be demonstrating a shocking lack of creativity -- not to mention such an obviously flimsy grip on the reality around us. If that were not enough to "rattle our cages," we can add to this list a shocking lack of foresight and an eerie absence of any particular impulse for our own planetary economic self-preservation.

This would be the reality we unthinkingly created for ourselves. Given its history of development, this was inevitable.

4. The Modern Model For A Functional World Economy 

Is Wrong.

No Wonder This Thing Isn't Improving

Trying even harder isn't going to help.

The mere suggestion that ISIL could be undercut by promoting jobs for the young Muslims who might, otherwise, become recruits was met -- at least met in the Republican media -- with "non-negotiable" derision. However, this partisan political maneuvering really only presents half of the story.

The idea's "unmentioned" corollary is not particularly obscured. The media scheme had "traction" because a majority of Americans are quite skeptical about the possibility that the US, with or without the country's "anti-ISIL" European allies, could successfully undertake job creation in the dismal wreckage of wither Syria or Iraq. "Nation building" was an idea which never quite recovered its shine after the thinly veiled failure and painfully visible largess of the Bush W. scams in Afghanistan and Iraq thrashed through tens -- or hundreds -- of billions without noticeable results.

MeanMesa has to join the ranks of the skeptics on this one. This country might be able to accomplish "nation building" at some future date, but for now our first priority must target "nation restoration" on the domestic front. No reasonably informed "Third World" citizen could be expected to welcome the arrival of U.S. "nation builders" after considering the perilous condition of the nation sending them.

Yet, considering this proposal in a larger picture, "nation building" probably represents the most effective strategy to which we might direct the national resources we are going to inevitably assign to solving the ISIL -- and other regional -- problems in the long run. [For example, Ukraine's problem could use a little "economy building" assistance. Instead, we will probably wind up "over arming" the parties to the conflict.]

"Nation building." If only we were a little better at it! Unhappily, "free market capitalism" creates profoundly inept idealists and patently unconvincing altruists. On the other hand, that same economic model does create feckless hedge fund managers, acting in complicity through their subservient Congressional "employees," anxious to extend Wall Street's global financial hegemony to anywhere at any cost.

The part of this process that infuriates its international victims around the world is the blase', phlegmatic nature of the "gentrified market parasites" whose think tanks and lobbyists propose one scheme after another with consistently hideous consequences. That "fury" becomes the precise cultural foundation of the problems we find ourselves unable to address. The irony would be classic if it weren't covered with so much blood, fear, hatred and suffering. Unhappily, there is every prospect for more of the same in the foreseeable future.

5. The Obsolete Existing Social Culture Is Patiently Slaughtering The Planet

Could 3,000 Years of Ambitious,

 Ancient Patriarchs Possibly Be Wrong?

This might be survivable if it were just the Taliban and ISIL.

3,000 Years, Tennis Shoes, Sawz-All and Fairy Tale[IRNA]

All around the world in 2,000 or 3,000 BCE tribal patriarchs were scaring the crap out of all the illiterates in their villages with mythological tales. Each fable had a very convenient "social reaffirmation" of the unquestioned authority of the old men repeating the nonsense.

Control was everything. These old chiefs, big men, warlords, prophets and priests knew that women were, well, "more useful" and "less trouble" if they were property. Controlling sex was handy because the teenage "cannon fodder" of the next decade's tribal wars had to come from somewhere.

Naturally, the authenticity of the mythology had to be maintained at all costs. Relating it to infants still suckling their mothers' teats was fairly effective -- even when the "story line" had long ago become whimsical and impossible.

The "durability" of these uniformly destructive fantasies, their perpetual reinterpretation and their annual embellishment to conveniently demonize the patriarchs' latest competitor is a modern anomaly. The grisly aftermath might be somewhat more comprehensible if the outrages were being conducted by well fed, successful, educated sorts who had simply been indoctrinated by the latest generation of "holy men," but evidence of the "prosperity" prophesied by the ancient promises has never materialized.

The modern result is almost always no more than another string of rotting corpses. It is this in Nigeria and Congo, in the ruined Yazidi villages, in wild regions of Western Pakistan, around the Chinese Uyghurs, in the wreckage of Somalia, between the battle lines of the Sunnis and Shiites, among the crowded populations of Palestinians, Jews and Persians and elsewhere. In the quieter world in the west birth control is attacked by the Catholics and the rich Dominionists -- even in the midst of a world which already has nearly twice as many souls as it can feed.

Okay. There really may be some sort of "narrative" that can be offered up to buffer the outrages of each of these disasters and the dozens of others, but those worn out, ancient "stories" had already grown far too expensive and destructive a century ago. The planet and the human species may have continued the mechanical march into oblivion, but the human minds -- all creativity and bravery addled by these fairy tales and priests -- have become lethally ossified.

The plan was that we would continue to develop.

Each time a glimmer of hope emerged from some bunch "moving on" beyond the ancient poison, the all consuming narcotic of modern ideology lurched into the breech to guarantee that no one anywhere would start thinking straight in the momentary interregnum.

This world can no longer survive this murderous, fairy tale driven mayhem, and it's high time that the excuses stopped. There is now -- officially -- no more time to fight these ancient, theoretical battles.

Yet, looking quickly around this bleeding globe, there is no champion is sight. As of yet no one has stood up boldly to offer an alternative to this so compelling that it will free the humans from this deadlocked self-immolation.

If any of us are pondering the qualities of our next "leader," perhaps we should consider the mandates implied by these few catastrophes which seem to be unavoidably awaiting us.

MeanMesa will be posting about leadership next. Watch this space, and thanks for visiting.

Albuquerque 2014: Living in the "Kill Zone"

 Bloody Pictures - "The Quick and the Dead"

A "high desert killing field"

With A Tale of Two Cities Dickens captivated his world as he portrayed the almost paralyzing fracture of common thought -- the deep alienation -- separating London and Paris in the days before the French Revolution. It was almost as if different creatures inhabited different realities on different planets. Even the same observations yielded wildly disparate conclusions.

If he were to author a new novel, Dickens' literary cunning could play well in Albuquerque. Although sadly, not many in Albuquerque are inclined -- or even able -- to read such a book.  But so far as the alienation is concerned, all the other essential components are present.

MeanMesa has watched, fascinated, as the brutalizing scandal has unfolded, and public awareness -- again, only to the extent such a commodity can reasonably be expected from the citizens of Albuquerque -- has exploded at a quite uncomfortable, correspondingly explosive rate. Around here, it is a story with tentacles so invasive that no one has been able to simply "set it aside" in preparation for a spring afternoon's siesta.

A "justified incident" in the East Mountains [image source]

Further, when MeanMesa refers to "a tale of two cities," there is no suggestion that the city is torn between citizens who think the killing is "just fine" and those who consider it horrible.  There may be a few, barely detectable, "high desert" nuances at play out there somewhere, but not nearly enough to satisfactorily "buffer" the tale's unpleasant starkness.

The distinguishing feature between the "two bloody pictures" is, instead, one based on the depth and scope.  To pursue this distinction, MeanMesa will section this post into two discussions:  "The Small Picture" and "The Big Picture."

The US Department of Justice Visits Albuquerque

For the benefit of MeanMesa's international visitors, a collection of short, hopefully objective historical account of the events prompting all of this will be provided first.  A link is provided in each case for further reading and quotation attribution.  Additional links are provided to various articles of news coverage concerning different aspects of the story.

It is not the intention of MeanMesa to recount all available information in this post.  It is not so much about the story itself as it is about the local public response.

The New York Times

Justice Dept. Accuses Albuquerque Police of Excessive Force

By FERNANDA SANTOS, APRIL 10, 2014

[excerpts]

ALBUQUERQUE — At least 37 times in the last four years, police officers here have responded to threats with bullets, killing 23 people and wounding 14 others. On Thursday, the Justice Department weighed in with a scathing assessment, accusing the Albuquerque Police Department of a “pattern or practice of use of excessive force” that routinely violated people’s constitutional rights.

The changes called for by the Justice Department — 44 remedies in all — included extensive revisions to the department’s use-of-force policies. The term “force” would be more clearly defined, and officers would have to report to superiors when they used various tactics: choke holds, kicks, leg sweeps and tackles. Under the recommendations, officers would be trained to rely more on verbal warnings and less on stun guns, and new recruits would be required to undergo psychological, medical and polygraph examinations to assess their fitness for the job.

Also recommended: clearer procedures for handling people with mental illnesses and minimizing the use of unnecessary force against them, as well as an expansion of the number of officers trained to work with them. 

[link to original article NY Times - here.]

Daily KOS

Breaking: Brutally Frank DoJ Report Says Albuquerque Police Use Unjustified Deadly Force.

jpmassar

THU APR 10, 2014 AT 09:14 AM PDT

A 46-page report on unjustified police violence in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was just released by the Department of Justice at a highly anticipated press conference in the wake of the execution of James Boyd, a mentally ill man, by APD last month and the release of a graphic video. A few key points:

Officers too often use deadly force...
Officers use tasers on people who are non-threatening or unable to comply...
Officers use too much force on people who are mentally ill too often.

From the [DOJ] report:

We reviewed all fatal shootings by officers between 2009 and 2012 and found that officers were not justified under federal law in using deadly force in the majority of those incidents.

We have reasonable cause to believe that officers of the Albuquerque Police Department engage in a pattern or practice of use of excessive force, including unreasonable deadly force, in violation of the Fourth Amendment and Section 14141. A significant amount of the force we reviewed was used against persons with mental illness and in crisis. APD’s policies, training, and supervision are insufficient to ensure that officers encountering people with mental illness or in distress do so in a manner that is safe and respects their rights. The use of excessive force by APD officers is not isolated or sporadic. The pattern or practice of excessive force stems from systemic deficiencies in oversight, training, and policy. Chief among these deficiencies is the department’s failure to implement an objective and rigorous internal accountability system. Force incidents are not properly investigated, documented, or addressed with corrective measures. Other deficiencies relate to the department’s inadequate tactical deployments and incoherent implementation of community policing principles.

We find that the Albuquerque Police Department engages in a pattern or practice of unreasonable use of deadly force in officers’ use of firearms. We reviewed all fatal shootings by officers between 2009 and 201221 and found that officers were not justified under federal law in using deadly force in the majority of those incidents. This level of unjustified, deadly force by the police poses unacceptable risks to the Albuquerque community.

[link to original article Daily KOS here.]

Additional links:

ALIBI: [local press] about the Boyd shooting - ALIBI here.

DOJ Investigation Report - Provided by Albuquerque Journal: Findings, US Department of Justice

CBS News: (caution: contains lapel camera video) - CBS article and video

There are plenty of articles from differing points of view available in a GOOGLE search.  

"Low Hanging Fruit" - The Small Picture

Details, Outrage and Outrageous Details

The Boyd killing represented a number of things, "low hanging fruit-wise."  The deadly encounter was captured on an unavoidable, inescapable video by a lapel camera on one of the officers.  This visibility immediately moved the matter into the media, always anxious to broadcast stories that didn't require any particular journalistic reporting.  The killing was also a monument to "the straw that broke the camel's back."

The dutiful liberal side of Albuquerque's population went to the streets. [FOX reported this as a "race riot."]  There were a number of protests, a few with some violence.  Emotions were high. The Albuquerque police sent to control the protests enjoyed the unenviable position of being precisely the people the protesters were protesting.

City officials rushed to the handy microphones to pronounce the killing as "justified," citing a predictable plethora of "department regulations."  This was nothing new.  The same script, the same justifications and the same department regulations had been before that camera plenty of times in the past.  The local Mayor, Police Chief, District Attorney and a few of their familiars marched lock step into this most recent "completely routine" repetition of "We're always sorry, but we don't intend to do anything any differently."

The Mayor and his Police Chief [image source]

MeanMesa watched local television report as both of these men stated that police department protocols had been followed -- then MeanMesa watched both of them back track after the citizen protests began.

About this time the family and friends of the other corpses left behind by the APD began to speak. While it turns out that hardly anyone knew Boyd personally, dozens of the other victims had living, breathing, surviving relatives who had plenty to say.

Flying in "out of the blue," however, was the DOJ investigation findings.  This process had begun months before, and, typical for the DOJ, had been so ominously silent that no one here expected much from it.  Either by pre-arranged schedule [most likely the case], by a portentous coincidental calamity or by an "administrative nudge," the DOJ's findings were a bombshell.  Once the DOJ had "shown its hand," the corporate national media lurched into action.

Remarkably, the Albuquerque story held its own for a few news cycles amid the lost Malaysian airliner and Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Why does MeanMesa consider all of this to be "low hanging fruit?"

First, when MeanMesa uses that term, it should not be interpreted as any criticism whatsoever of the fellow citizens who stepped forth to raise hell.  No part of the effort was unimportant or unnecessary.  Every event mentioned above powered this outrage to its correct volume.

Instead, MeanMesa wants to emphasize that just about everything that "happened" on the street, in the local news casts, in the Mayor's office, at the Police Department's briefing and so on, was very much "detail oriented."  The protesters were not "standing forth" on general issues of ideology, individual preference or philosophy. There was no confusion.  An interview with any one of them would have revealed that he or she knew exactly what they were protesting and why.

Even the DOJ findings were quite detailed.  The 46 page report ran through one APD killing after the next, reaching a similar conclusion about the lack of "justification" for almost all of them. The "details" went even further.  The DOJ findings included four dozen or so "remedial" requirements for police training, use of lethal equipment and so forth.

All of this is as it should be.  The attraction of citizens to specific complaints and specific changes is completely understandable and necessary.

But, does this effort rise to "full consummation" when all the details have been noted, and all the specific changes enacted?  All that work could certainly go along way to "patch up" the tatters of  officer behavior and civilian-police department relations, but what if the essence of the problem is even more fundamental than any collection of "details" like these?

MeanMesa suspects this is the case.

It's time for the "big picture."

The "Big Picture"

Is all this violence really "just in our blood?"

MeanMesa will be the first to acknowledge that Albuquerque is in a state of "armed conflict."  Of course, this old geezer is somewhat unsettled by the prospect of taking a round in a "justifiable police shooting," now that we have all seen what that's like.  So, what's to be done?  Pack a pistol on this belt next to my cell phone?

Yes, like most people in Albuquerque, MeanMesa is armed, but the household rule is that the pistol must not be taken outside the front door.  That pistol has been cocked and chambered only once while MeanMesa's Galactic Headquarters has been resident in the city, and on that occasion, thankfully, it got "un-cocked" and "unloaded" a few minutes later.  There was an uninvited "somebody" ready to climb up the stairs in this apartment -- somebody who left with the sound of that pistol "cocking."

If you are prowling around in Galactic Headquarters uninvited, and you hear a pistol cocking, you should consider leaving.

Also, it really isn't just the police who are performing all this mayhem.  If that were the case, the problem would be far simpler to solve.  There are regions in this small city where gun fire is fairly common, mostly fellow citizens shooting at each other, but infrequently, shooting at the police or being shot by the police. There almost certainly a dull, drunken story unfolding with every sound of that distant gunfire.

None of that is particularly unique among American cities, larger or smaller than Albuquerque. However, when there is the equivalent of a mass grave being patiently filled with the grisly remains of "justified police shootings," that "uniqueness" falters.

How did we get here?

In fact, where is "here?"

"Here" is the place where we see the disgusting testimony of men driven by morals instead of men driven by conscience.  Around this particular "here," those men have guns.

Let's take a look at a few "suspicious features" of Albuquerque's "gentle drift" to growing violence.  There are plenty of issues, but for this post a general model may suffice.  We actually see evidence of a nasty pattern followed by the social culture as it slides from a reasonably settled community to an unreasonably violent one.  As is usually the case while observing such patterns, it is also both interesting and necessary to "drill down" in search of the parties most likely to benefit from the growing mayhem.

The cycle is hardly obscured, and events in Albuquerque are a sickeningly transparent copy. Similar "benefiting parties" hope to benefit from mayhem in Albuquerque in roughly the same manner as such "parties" hope to benefit from mayhem elsewhere.

If you wanted a growing distrust of government and a continuously increasing stoic acceptance for the "legitimacy" or "inevitability" of social brutality, a consistently more violent relation between citizens and police would be a great way to accomplish it.  What began as a a citizen or police shooting here or there has been transformed into the equivalent of a military combat arena.

All the associated personal relation responsibilities traditionally inherent in wearing a badge have been set aside, exchanged for far more convenient matters of fire power and the application of lethal force. The city and its police force did not migrate overnight from what had previously been a fairly traditional relationship to the militarized nightmare we have now.

That ugly transformation was a slow, steady, reciprocal process.  As the police became steadily more violent, the criminals provided by the city matched the pattern.  As the predictable likelihood of facing opposition grew more and more inclined to respond violently during police contacts, the police responded with even more violent tactics.

This bounced back and forth like a ping pong game where both players anxiously returned the ball more and more violently each time.

Now, under more normal conditions rational players -- probably on both sides -- would have consciously or unconsciously decided to "put on the brakes" at some point.  Not in Albuquerque's case.

The picture isn't complete until we add a "little something" about the phenomenal psychology which was also a necessary element of the explanation.

The Psychology of Murder and Mayhem

Behind every trigger finger, there is a mind.

We can speculate about the psychology we might have expected to encounter in what might be considered "traditional police officers."  These would be the bossy, yet approachable, authority figure types we were accustomed to four or five decades ago.  Anyone the age of MeanMesa knew policemen like this.  They were the police who rounded us up when we were being too drunk and too wild. They were the ones who were absolute experts at "reading us the riot act" as a very intentional, very memorable threat to induce us to "change our ways."

These were the police who reluctantly pitched us into the drunk tank to sober up as they were conveniently neglecting to write out a criminal complaint.  These were the ones who told us to shut up and then slammed the door so our adolescent rants wouldn't interrupt their late night gin rummy game at the station.  Then, that "riot act" was delivered quite forcefully amid the haze of our morning hang overs.

These police were definitely not afraid of us, but they didn't hate us -- although they probably got tired of repeatedly dealing with our antics.  They probably had conversations with each other which began with "I just don't know what's wrong with these kids today."

They didn't shoot us. They only very rarely ever shot anybody. They didn't scream "get on the ground."  They didn't automatically reach to un-holster their side arms.  The result was that things were pretty peaceful -- at least, compared to now.

Those old style police went to work every morning in pretty much the same state of mind as the baker or the plumber.  Not any more.  That's where the strange psychology comes into the picture.

MeanMesa has some rather troubling suspicions about the state of mind one might encounter with these new police.

The APD sends a silent message about this.  It seems as if they head out to work totally juiced up with reactionary media, ankle deep in a subconscious obsession with "manning up" to stop a hostile, destructive world intending to crush everything of value.  They don't see their role as that of law enforcement so much as being burdened with a terribly unjust responsibility of defending some ill defined geo-political end game.

What were previously merely violations of the laws are now seen as dangerous incursions on the fabric of society.  You know.  The kind one might hear in the relentless dark eschatology painted by the FOX pundits.  That kind of "media" has quietly coerced all sorts of self-esteem challenged folks with otherwise relatively pleasant lives into the synthetic mind set that they are "oppressed."

When that toxin penetrates a structure such as the APD, the healthy men with guns and badges actually begin to consider themselves "victims."  They become infatuated with the now highly embellished idea that "their lives are on the line" every second of every minute that they are on duty, an unexamined psychology which begins to "justify" just about anything.

In 2014 even the commercials indulge this same fear soaked dread.  It sells expensive cars that protect from a crash.  It sells services that protect from identity theft. It sells medicine that protects from all manner of infirmities.  Ours has become a culture of the tragically insecure, desperately seeking protection, refuge, certainty, control and authority from all the wrong places.

This is the "food" for the modern police, but it's not very nutritious food.

An equivalent sickness has infested those in control of the police.  MeanMesa has even more troubling suspicions about them, too.  The city's politicians and police chief must assume that the only folks they must satisfy are quaking and quivering in the six digit houses with fences and gates. There are a lot more people in Albuquerque than the ones who invite these "notables" for luncheon and cocktails, but when these other faces are never a part of any picture, the already tattered rights of the masses continue to evaporate.

Peering even deeper into the abyss, we see the dark absolute determinism of the evangelicals.  We see this in the mayor's office, the police chief, the district attorney and far too many of the men with badges on the street.  That toxic religious mind set erases the personal necessity of weighing the conscience behind that trigger or at the news conference where "things are justified" -- at least so long as the "department protocol" is firmly in hand, handy to replace any troublesome pangs of conscience.

Conclusions, Conclusions

Most of the audible rhetoric on this subject includes something or other about "restoring trust." That could, probably, be accomplished given sufficient time, but the "fly in the ointment" emerges when the plan to "restore trust" is only a minute departure from the plan which "destroyed trust" in the fist place. Untrustworthy people tend to remain untrustworthy. Administrative tweeking with the addition of a few palliative new protocols might establish a sort of "cease fire," but the tax paying citizens don't seem likely to have much appetite for minor corrections.

The topic came up in a conversation between MeanMesa and a quite civilized, relatively normal young Albuquerque teen.  His comment was chilling.

"The police act like that because they don't think anybody will ever shoot back."