November 23, 2003
When asked about Iraq, Western leaders announce that progress is being made in all areas of occupation and attempted control. Referring to recent escalations in bombings and attacks, they point with a positive pride to the Middle East regions of Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine. Their optimism is as tangible as their deficit budgets. We are told that though the time of triumph is temporarily in transit, that the War on Terrorism is terminating to a trickle.
When queried regarding daily losses, and the increasing number of bombings, Western politicians, echoing their Generals, decry a lack of intelligence. To this, most of the world is in happy agreement. The word ‘intelligence’ is understood to be as it is defined, as a native mental ability, expressed in courteous, compassionate, prudent and rational action. Additionally, intelligence is associated with an appreciation and enjoyment of truth and beauty, a sensitivity to the great troubles of mankind. Those considered to be favoured by fortune with a quantity of intelligence are respected for their rigid adherence to high moral and ethical principles. There are those who fail to engage effectively their intelligence, preferring untruth and ugly behaviour, but they are held in low regard, their lives lacking in true humanity and friendship, and after death a quick decline into a decay of public memory.
The military leaders of the army of occupation are not using the term accurately, but this failure supports the view that it is indeed intelligence that is lacking. What the Generals mean is information, the names and locations of their enemy, especially of the leaders, along with the next planned action. Western military organisations began to make this error of language usage a number of decades ago, when they began to refer to a major division of their army as the 'Intelligence Group.'
It has long been noted that the term 'military intelligence' is an oxymoron, and there has been nothing to dispel this observation in recent decades. Within this erroneous and abusive use of language is concealed much of the mischief that bedevils the more idealistic aspects of Freedom and Democracy that are now freely floated by Western leaders as motivation and justification, desirable attributes that they possess, and now have a wish to deliver, by whatever force is necessary, to those esteemed not to have a sufficient regard.
The 'intelligence' of the military is synonymous with the ‘national security’ secrets of the democratic governments. These are secrets not kept so much for protection from some foreigner’s intent to cause harm, but are secrets kept from their own citizens, to keep them unaware of how their money is being spent, and how it is used to infiltrate foreign countries in order to manipulate and control their affairs.
There was a time when foreign governments and their borders were respected, along with their internal territory and the natural resources found on and under the ground. There was an established honour of conduct, known as the diplomatic code, that carried with it the highest ethical standards, and consequently received wide international respect. But the unquenchable desire of the military for more 'intelligence' undermined the institution of the State Departments and made buffoons of honest men attempting to maintain a decent stature in the international forum. The Secretary of State was entrusted by the people with the duty to conduct foreign affairs. Today it is the Secretary of Defense who holds a key to the Oval office.
The establishment of covert spying departments, with budgets that soon grew beyond attempted concealment and directors who acquired enormous political influence, soon began to undermine and destroy the established means of communication and commerce with foreign countries. The embassy's were forced to imbed numerous secret agents of the 'intelligence' agencies, and it became impossible to determine if an embassy employee was a diplomat/spy of ancient times, or a spy/agent of the modern era.
The US spends over USD 50 billion per year on these spying agencies, in order to gather all the 'intelligence' possible. The various spying agencies, every department having one or more, monitor all forms of communication, especially the electronic ones, seeking to know all that can be known of the world's affairs. The information secured by use of these unethical and offensive methods is delivered as soon as it can be deciphered and analysed to the leaders of the government and the military. It is sometimes delivered to the State Department, but this is an afterthought, and the private interests of capitalism have priority.
All the activity of spying is surreptitious, not only because when exposed it can be defended against, but also because the public would object to the activities associated with the collection of foreign information/intelligence; the assassination of opposition leaders, the bribery of foreign leaders, and the infiltration of foreign business and political organisations. At one time the training of foreign military officers in methods of taking political power in their country was kept secret, but this information has now been so roundly circulated that it is budgeted in open sessions of the parliament.
It is remarkable to hear today that the failures of the military are attributed to a lack of 'intelligence' (they mean information). Considering the enormous effort and expense involved, one would think there was nothing that is left unknown. Yet it is the unknown that bedevils the occupiers, who cannot say just who their enemies are, what their motivation is, what their strength is, where they get their supplies, where the funds come from, or what the next point or type of attack to expect. Basically, they are just standing or strolling about, in wait for the next bullet or bomb.
When it comes, the democratic dreamers defiantly declare they are not deterred, and are determined to drill on indefinitely in a direct and determined desire to defend Israel in its despicable demand to displace all Muslims from Palestinian land. The UN is condemned for not acting with resolve on its Iraq-related resolutions, but there is no mention of the mountain of UN resolutions condemning Israel’s actions against the Palestinians. The current policy is to use force to bring peace to the world. This policy is illustrative of the lack of intelligence lamented by the West, using its economic and military power to maintain dominance of the capitalist ideology throughout the world, primarily in order to protect the luxurious life style and high but energy-dependent living standard.
Mr. Bush, whose father was head of the CIA, was given a 41 gun salute by the aristocrats of post-empire Britain. Why not a 1,041 cannon salute? it would not have been more meaningless, not to mention wasteful. The mock Queen, managing to mend the mouldy monarchy through moment after moment of misfortune and misadventure, amid a mounting media madness of murder-mentioned and monstrous man-handling by menials, makes the most of the mansions of monarchy, must meet and mingle with a man whose mouth munches mucilaginous muck, and make mallets for him amongst the Royal masonry. The irony comes to see the leader of the successful rebels of 1776 come to the seat of the past colonial master, begging for continued forbearance in times of its own imperial misfortune, fiddling in his fingers the figurative fortification of the Empire in WWI and WWII.
It is reported that the US military leader in Iraq, his headquarters now removed to a Persian Gulf Emirate, believes that improvements in intelligence are at hand, that greater infiltrations of "the cells" of the enemy are a positive prospect. This improvement in information, he feels, will then give his invading army the ability to destroy all those individuals who oppose the occupation. In his view, they are not fighters for the freedom of Iraq from a tyrannical occupation, they are anything else but this. In this lack of understanding, or perhaps inability to mentally accept and admit, he suffers, in his own words, from "a lack of intelligence." The lack of intelligence is the common condition of the Bush government, Tony Blair and his Labour Members, and the poor misguided Mr. Howard of Australia.
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