10-31
Monday, November 06, 2006
L'État, c'est moi
The Belmont Club mentioned Shadow Company, the schlockumentary by Nick Bicanic and Jason Bourque, in this post of early September entitled, in English, "I am the State". Shadow Company is in line with stalinesque propaganda, which resonates in view of the men who produced that film. Bicanic graduated Cambridge with a degree in chemistry. What this has to do with film making is beyond me, but he has been dubbed a talented young fledgling film maker by Mother Jones. Bourque, as far as I can tell, directed a science fiction action film called "Game Over" which came out in 2003, starring Yasmine Bleeth. Bourque's flair for and interest in science fiction is revealing, considering who some of the more visible players are in this project. I'd like to make a few points and observations regarding some of what I've read on the subject.
Chester makes an interesting point which is lost on these people:The privatization of the War on Terror has been a de facto development, not a de jure one. A brief glance at the growth of privatizing war in this new century suggests that the market is responding to business start-ups’ rule # 1: “Find a need and fill it.”
But Capitalism is a difficult concept for french communists. Or American ones. Supply and demand? They don't know what that is.
Wretchard observes in comments:The State monopoly on the use of violence to enforce justice, like all monopolies, is tolerable only for as long as it works reasonably well. When it begins to fail due to political correctness or inefficiency, a black market for security will emerge. People who have followed Iraq the Model will note how "neighborhood patrols" soon begin to emerge where the state is perceived as being unable to provide security. The "Minutemen" on the southern border derives largely from the perception that the border patrol has failed.
I found particularly noteworthy among the observations made in that brief post at Belmont Club entitled L'État, c'est moi, that the 'solid interviews' were with "industry insiders/pundits/analysts" like Robert Pelton. That in itself is shocking, taking into consideration that he is one of those journalists constructing stories from the comfort of a hotel room sometimes even in another country, rather than on the front lines, which is where he is purported to be. This is a journalist's illusion. But that isn't anything new, that is the way journalists do it today. Very few are actually imbedded with soldiers, they're more interested in interviewing terrorists. What the Belmont Club forgot to mention in the 'solid interview' reference was the collaboration with Kathryn Cramer, the science fiction writer, that took place on that project. Ms. Cramer has now somehow morphed into a military affairs expert! This is a woman who has never been around someone in uniform..unless it was a bellhop at the Fairmont Hotel, or room service.
Hamstringing law enforcement with PC rules then reacting to the resulting public disappointment with magisterial pronouncements about the sole of legitimacy residing in the state has the effect of disempowering those who would trust the state and empowering those who would subvert it. Hence the bizarre phenomenon of laws which only restrict the law abiding, while scofflaws are more less left to scoff.
On an international scale the result is Darfur, where only the sleeping lifeguard is authorized to save the drowning man who, though capable of swimming, is prohibited from doing so.
Does this somehow relate to her illicit relationship with Joe Cafasso aka Gerry Blackwood? It does. It has to do with Cafasso's relationship with both of them, he merely received a few extra perks out of his relationship with Kathryn Cramer. Here we have a few examples of military shockumentaries, and books, based on political idealogy, international law and the UN's view that nobody has the right to defend themselves, in addition to the 'expert advice' of Cafasso, aka Gerry Blackwood, who has a Yankee White military clearance-a designation for direct access to the Whitehouse. Not that they'd ever bother to check it out, of course, but it throws a light on the question: what kind of research do these people actually do when they don't vet their sources?
But back to the duplicity demonstrated in "Shadow Company". The Belmont Club observed in that post:Going by recent events in Lebanon, Hezbollah has achieved a stature and de-facto recognition that many states would envy. It's funny how Hezbollah and other terrorist groups, though receiving money and training from states to attack other states (called "proxy warfare") are never referred to as "mercenaries".
A sad fact that is never made mention of in that film, of course. These people don't know a thing about military strategy. Not to mention their books, which were based on their un-named source-the military and counterterrorism 'expert' Joe Cafasso. Of course they would never admit that they knew he was Cafasso. They thought he was Gerry Blackwood! Who doesn't even exist!
There are several points that were made here with regard to who was involved in that project, the experts, and their credentials in the field of privatized warfare. I will close with this observation made at Hell has come with it:
Pelton writes a book about contract military soldiers, mercenaries, and infamous "characters," based on all his lengthy experience in the Afghan and Iraq war zones. Problem is that Pelton's extensive experience, like Cramer's, is mostly in science fiction. But Pelton's con is a little more polished. At least Pelton actually flies into the war zone, and stays just long enough to snap some photos, take some hair-raising video, and head back to a safe hotel in another country to write his vivid front line battle stories. Pelton had a good thing going, until Cramer convinced him to use Colonel Blackwood as a primary source for his new book. Un-named of course, after all, you have to keep those secret CIA, Special Forces, Delta Force, Ranger, Navy SEAL, spook sources highly confidential. Heck, if you didn't do that, someone might just call you and tell you that your source, Colonel Blackwood, was in reality Colonel Cafasso, who was in reality, a private in the US Army, who was thrown out for unsuitable service after a mere 44 days. On the other hand, it's more time that either Cramer or Pelton had in the army, or the navy, or the coast guard, or even as cooks for anyone in a real uniform.Cafasso himself said as Gerry Blackwood: