http://www.why-war.com/commentary/ Important and obscure information about America's "War on Terror". en-us http://backend.userland.com/rss Why-War? 60 Nietzsche once wrote that every first nature was once a second nature. In a world where creatures are technologically manufactured, we must wonder what second nature, what animal instinct or inhuman drive, has become our primary nature. Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:08:58 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2008/01/inhuman_world.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2008/01/inhuman_world.html And what form of humanity best exemplifies our collective transformation into standing reserve? It is the consumer immersed in the virtual world of the television – that human-animal whose sole meaning is the consumption of beings and the corresponding production of a consumer identity awaiting exploitation by marketing researchers tasked with expanding consumption. Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:05:17 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2008/01/agamben_tv_barelife.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2008/01/agamben_tv_barelife.html A wise philosopher once wrote that before we can act ethically we must first learn to think. He claimed the dichotomy between theory and action is a false one and that in our age thought is the action needed most. His is a conclusion most activists resist. Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:23:08 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2008/01/mindful_militancy.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2008/01/mindful_militancy.html The activist with dreams of the revolutionary should turn to Nietzsche, Foucault and Deleuze for a philosophy that strengthens their ability to act in a way that will have the most damage on the State and the conceptual systems that form a symbiotic relationship with the State. Mon, 13 Dec 2004 17:14:06 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/12/revolutionary_events.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/12/revolutionary_events.html A reading of Nietzsche's "On the uses and disadvantages of history for life" aids the movement in formulating a critique of the consumption of information. This essay challenges several core assumptions concerning the utility of relying on historical knowledge to formulate the movement's objectives. Wed, 01 Dec 2004 20:28:01 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/12/nietzsche_history_media.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/12/nietzsche_history_media.html In my own view, war is the result of philosophies that attempt to impose a rational, uniform order on the world. I agree with Hegel’s assessment that the state will always create an enemy. However, I think that Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari draw attention to a way to exist outside of the state. I think that this "nomadic thought" exists in opposition to colonization and that what is remarkable about nomadic thought is that it is able to devise new tactics of resisting the State. Wed, 01 Dec 2004 20:04:45 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/12/kant_hegel_deleuze_war.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/12/kant_hegel_deleuze_war.html The role of the ethnographer should be to document how difference can be bridged through solidarity. An ethnography of resistance would convey how solidarity is cultivated in various situations. Having described their arrival and evaluated their success in integrating into the community the ethnographer will have conveyed what is most important: how to join a struggle in progress. Sat, 20 Nov 2004 14:32:59 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/11/geertz_solidarity.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/11/geertz_solidarity.html In experiencing the height of institutionalized military oppression, the ISMer is given access to the raw experiences necessary to pierce practical and theoretical blockages. The ISM is inherently revolutionary because the experiences that are gained strengthen what Nietzsche called “the plastic power” of an individual. Fri, 19 Nov 2004 15:06:53 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/11/practicetheory_jointheism.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/11/practicetheory_jointheism.html If the dense and moralist cigar-smoking reactionary bourgeois can transform him- or herself into a free-floating agnostic bohemian, moving opinions, capital, and networks from one end of the planet to the other without attachment, why would he or she not be able to absorb the most sophisticated tools of deconstruction, social construction, discourse analysis, postmodernism, postology? Mon, 05 Apr 2004 23:54:00 EDT http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/04/critique_run_out_steam.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/04/critique_run_out_steam.html 'Because the less people take thought seriously, the more they think in conformity with the what the State wants' we must think in a model based in the antithesis of the state's controlled flows – one of pure nomadic, deterritorialization. Tue, 23 Mar 2004 16:42:02 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/03/deleuzeguatarri_willywonka.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/03/deleuzeguatarri_willywonka.html Nietzsche's thesis that the State was created at the moment a noble race appeared as if by fate and occupied a nomadic people is complicated by D/G. Although the State expresses war, this is not the only thing created by the “war machine” nor is it the first. Mon, 22 Mar 2004 22:52:14 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/03/deleuzeguatarri_war.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/03/deleuzeguatarri_war.html The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation formerly known as the School of the Americas is a federally funded training camp supposedly teaching “proper” international relations. In truth, students of the school learn techniques for various forms of torture and gorilla warfare.Graduates from the school have been connected with the rise of several of the despots that have plagued various South and Latin American countries. Sometimes the graduates even become the despotic rulers. Sun, 14 Mar 2004 21:15:36 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/03/soa.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/03/soa.html The vampire originated as a political metaphor used to critique tyranny. In 1725 and 1732, two villages in the occupied territories of Serbia suffered an outbreak of a vampire that spurned the threat of a mass nonviolent uprising and a collective demand for respect of their cultural practices. Sat, 28 Feb 2004 21:46:26 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/02/originofvampire.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/02/originofvampire.html It had not really occurred to me that many Iraqis ever believed they were in Operation Liberate Iraq. But as I listened to people, I heard this disappointment. They did not know everything we knew. Fri, 06 Feb 2004 18:37:25 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/02/kate_iraq3.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/02/kate_iraq3.html "The Baruch College Intercollegiate Athletics newsletter, for instance, recently sloganned Sime Marnika's and Gary Etienne's unstoppable power on the court in terms of death, in an article titled "The Queens Twin Towers". It is important to note that while pre-911 occurrences of the Twin Towers as nicknames were somewhat innocent of contemporary American fascinations with death, this is no longer the case." Mon, 02 Feb 2004 21:34:56 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/02/twintowerssports.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/02/twintowerssports.html He asked for underwear, and a woman soldier brought him women’s underwear to put on. He protested again, that in Islam, it is haram (taboo) for a man to wear any article of women’s clothes (I don’t think the soldier was trying to encourage trans liberation in the Iraqi Muslim community, but if she was, her timing was pretty lousy). Wed, 28 Jan 2004 16:28:56 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/01/kateraphael_iraq1.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/01/kateraphael_iraq1.html My mouth dropped open. I said, “Are you telling me that Iraqi police just massacred 12 women, and a U.S. policeman stood and watched them?” Yes, she said, he said he didn’t have their trust to be able to stop it. Wed, 28 Jan 2004 16:24:16 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/01/kateraphael_iraq2.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/01/kateraphael_iraq2.html No longer must the citizen feign to buy into a system when their political opponents refuse to give them a voice within the system. By the very principles preached by this government, we are obligated to institute democracy and topple the system that controls us. Mon, 19 Jan 2004 20:49:56 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/01/democratize_america.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/01/democratize_america.html An End to Evil is blunt propaganda that Random House claims “will define the conservative point of view on foreign policy for a new generation—and shape the agenda for the 2004 presidential-election year and beyond.” Having finished the 280-page book in a night of furious reading, I can only agree. An End to Evil is propaganda at its most crude, most deceptive, and most damaging. Wed, 07 Jan 2004 03:12:01 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/01/anendtoevil.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/01/anendtoevil.html Bernard Chazelle is a professor at Princeton University who teaches computer science and complexity theory — a cutting edge interdisplinary approach that seeks to understand how stable social systems emerge from seemingly chaotic conditions. Here he offers a thorough analysis of Bush’s foreign policy. He is careful to note that the consensus to go to war was in no way limited to the Right — he explores how the positions of right-wing hawks are mirrored by those of “liberal imperialists.” The “humanitarian” impulse of the “White Man’s Burden” may have reemerged as the “Superpowerman’s Burden,” but it seems to have kept the same trappings of domination and racism. Fri, 02 Jan 2004 22:05:47 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/01/bushsdesolate.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2004/01/bushsdesolate.html Like the web scrubbing going on at the White House, CNN has manipulated an online Associated Press article in moderate response to the pro-American ideology it indicates. Subtle choices in news rhetoric have followed the widely-covered French ban on head scarves in public schools and hospitals. Thu, 18 Dec 2003 19:31:13 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2003/12/cnnclothing.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2003/12/cnnclothing.html In light of the capture of Saddam Husayn of Iraq, it is illustrative to look at the cheering of the media. Illustrative precisely because the public celebration betrays America’s total ignorance of the domestic political movements of non-American states, especially Iraq. Even highly educated Americans hardly have access to the actual words and speeches of the “enemy”. Instead, snippets are doled out, quotes are shortened, and the words are effectively destroyed. Tue, 16 Dec 2003 23:18:55 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2003/12/what_fatwa_islam.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2003/12/what_fatwa_islam.html While the capture of Saddam Hussein gives Bush a domestic push in the polls, it will do little to stem the tide of Iraqi resistance borne out of the US occupation. Because most of the movements in Iraq are motivated by religious leaders and a desire for Iraqi rule, the United States will be increasingly confronted with both political resistance and violence. Sun, 14 Dec 2003 21:29:30 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2003/12/capture.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2003/12/capture.html Tali Pocket, a street medic, organizer, and writer, discusses the existence of patriarchal violence within the anti-war movement. She argues that conceptions of a matriarchy are framed solely within a patriarchal context, and continue to perpetuate violence against female leaders. Sun, 14 Dec 2003 20:47:15 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2003/12/patriarchy.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2003/12/patriarchy.html "I hope that the Diebold memos will help people to see just how much control corporations and the elite have over our supposedly 'democratic' government, and that voting only serves to legitimize a failed system." Mon, 27 Oct 2003 20:13:16 EST http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2003/10/ecd3.html http://www.why-war.com/commentary/2003/10/ecd3.html