Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
"Death from Above"
What to do with “Death from Above” guy?
We gently coax him into reevaluating his position on glorifying and openly supporting state terror by turning his house to rubble, his family to bonemeal, his town into a mile-wide crater…
...or am I being to soft?
Thanks for the Rage this morning Mickey. I dunno what I think about that video. I suppose meatheads in the military also pump up to that kind of music, and I’m sure they get off on most of that footage. Scares the shit out of me.
Posted by Keir on from the hague 04/11 at 04:29 AMMorning all.
A cheery quote for a beautiful morning:
"If you really want to know what I feel when I release a bomb, I will tell you: I feel a slight bump to the plane as a result of the bomb’s release. A second later it’s gone, and that’s all. That’s what I feel."
(Dan Halutz, erstwhile Israeli air commander.)Posted by Mew on from london 04/11 at 04:34 AMSaw the article this morning at ICH. Good stuff.
Coming out my speakers: “How Come” by Ray LaMontagne.
My favorite song about the genocide that was the founding of the United States of America: “Don’t Drink the Water” by Dave Matthews.
Posted by Jeremy on from Taipei, Taiwan 04/11 at 06:29 AMHi Mickey, Jeremy, Mew, and Keir…
Good topic. Keir says it all. The number one job of the military is to kill people. “The chick got in the way” has been an acceptable rule of engagement for the usa since Columbus landed. It is who we are. Mass produced death is the chief export of the usa.Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 04/11 at 07:03 AMthis is nuts. it starts to get funny after 25 seconds…
Posted by michael on from scotland 04/11 at 07:23 AMI think you summed it up perfectly, Mick...excellent article. I wonder if we’ll get any angry patriots here today...that would be cool.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 04/11 at 07:45 AMFYI, a recent book that questions the morality of Tod aus Luft.
Posted by sk on from 04/11 at 09:18 AMRobert Fisk claims the US is about to start a campaign of “gated communities” in Baghdad. The plan would involve barricading entire neighborhoods and issuing ID’s for entry and exit. Fisk claims this is modelled on Petraeus’ experience with Tal Afar.
Posted by michael on from scotland 04/11 at 09:32 AMthe ‘death from above’and ‘support the troops’ people have a god complex.
Who else in history could exact such judgemental wrath.
Dont drink the kool-aid!Posted by frances on from bc 04/11 at 10:02 AMDeath from above is a mirror of class relations: more killing, wastes great. Bumper sticker seen in MA: This [needlessly large] truck runs on Iraqi blood.
Michael, the stupid people link is solid. My fave is “Who’s throwing the rocks?” Leno’s “Jaywalking” never mustered that sort of edge.
I’ve recently recommended Chuck Palahniuk, but have come down to earth: his novel “Diary” is a “Dud.”
Rage headlines the Coachella show on the 29th. Captcha sez ‘big.’ http://tinyurl.com/2tx4c5
Posted by Zen Prole on from Urth 04/11 at 11:46 AMHello Expendables. It’s sunny in NYC but rain is on the way and there’s a snowstorm in the forecast by Monday.
Excellent comments, links, etc. above but I especially loved the stupid Americans video. I doubt such oblivion is limited to a single nationality but what other country is so fun to laugh at? I may be re-posting that video soon.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/11 at 12:56 PMmickey i agree that you could make that video in most places.
however, not THIS one by the same people. its a minute and a half long and they ask americans on the street what country should be invaded next in The War Against Terror (TWAT). they also change the names of the countries on the map and ask people to pinpoint their selection. don’t they have maps in american schools??
http://tinyurl.com/28zqtyPosted by michael on from scotland 04/11 at 01:50 PMi guess what is most worrying in the second video is the casual acceptance that the ‘right’ exists to go and bomb any country they choose
Posted by michael on from scotland 04/11 at 01:54 PMdon’t they have maps in american schools??
I’m away from my PC and so don’t have the article handy (it was about faith-based ‘education’ IIRC), but I do remember reading that in a terrifyingly large percentage of US schools, no. Its a dizzying idea, having been bought up in a National Geographic house and a school plastered with wall maps and atlases. Almost as if you met someone without a navel.
Incidentally, I’ve just started reading “Confessions of an Economic Hit-Man”. In the first, biographical chapter well-educated Mr Perkins joins the Peace Corps to dodge Vietnam, and confesses his fustration at being unable to find his assigned country Ecuador on a map. Of Africa.Still, I’m not convinced the video isn’t staged. One of those true lies I guess.
Posted by mew on from LONDON BOROUGH OF LAMBETH 04/11 at 04:12 PMI saw this in the bookstore today. Two pseudo-academic floozies took Zinn’s classic work and flipped around all of its premises---all of them. Shameless. Not to say that I wasn’t before, but I’m getting really sick of the culture’s arrogance right about now.
Posted by Keir on from the hague 04/11 at 05:32 PMMickey ...
While I agree with the overall premise of your piece, you mislead(?) with your opener .. “Death From Above”
In this instance, it DOES NOT mean daisey-cutters, clusters or General Purpose ordanance.
This term is reserved solely for airborne troops who, once out of the aircraft become ‘Death From Above’. Theirs or ours, it matters not. It is still ‘Death From Above’.
Tell it like it is brother. But to remain credible, remain honest.
Posted by rgl on from Victoria, Canada 04/11 at 06:24 PMHello again, everyone.
RGL: I appreciate your point but since I lumped in everything from 9/11 to Pearl Harbor, I was hoping that readers would see I was talking about a more general definition of “death from above” (t might even include Katrina). Either way, as I’ve said many times before, my articles and blog posts are rarely complete until all comments, corrections, and addendums are heard.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/11 at 07:00 PMHey, I have a decal on my car bumper that says: “Do your duty - go AWOL.” Does anyone here know if that is protected by free speech or not?
Posted by Anita Roy on from California, U.S.A. 04/11 at 07:23 PMI had a post along the same lines yesterday (in fiction):
They’re coming after John Doe Dimslow Junior at school. Now with the deaths of Iraqi guerillas and civilians and U.S. soldiers and private mercenaries mounting every day, U.S. military recruiters are having trouble recruiting soldiers into the “all-volunteer” forces. So they have to make it more and more a mercenary military of Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine troops to go along with the private mercenaries. They have to offer cash to kill: “$20,000 bonus for enlisting, $9,000 more if enlistees ship out in the next 30 days, and even better, $70,000 for college.”
The big bucks tempted J Junior so much that he gave the recruiters the a-okay to come over to our home for a home visit. Except he never cleared it with Daddy-O, one John Doe Dimslow....Posted by Tony Christini on from 04/11 at 08:06 PM#18-Anita Roy- I think your decal is quite admirable. If I had more room on my car, I would include it among my bumper stickers, especially when I had attended rallies for Lt. Watada near Fort Lewis, Wa. People like Lt. Watada and members of the IVAW [Iraq Veterans Against the War], who received their inspiration from the under reported but incredibly moving 2006 documentary Sir! No Sir!, which focused on the GI resistance during the Vietnam War, are the true heroes of this country, but they have received almost no coverage from the mainstream media, and that includes that liberal icon, Keith Olbermann.
Posted by Erroll on from Pacific Northwest, U.S.A. 04/11 at 08:16 PMI can’t believe those videos. I’d seen the map one before. I refuse to believe people are that ignorant (I know, it’s irrational of me). I wonder how many people they approached answered correctly/intelligently compared with the ones who thought Australia was Iran.
Posted by Jeremy on from Taipei, Taiwan 04/11 at 10:54 PMkurt vonnegut R.I.P.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6547399.stm
Posted by michael on from scotland 04/12 at 02:15 AMDear Mickey,
“Death from Above”, accompanies a tattoo on the left arm of AirBorne Rangers. My husband’s read ‘Vietnam 1971-72’ 101 AIRBORNE. (Paratroopers JUMP from helos into hot zones)
He came back from Vietnam with his body in tact but suffered Post Traumatic Stress to the point of waking up screaming “the VC are coming” 10 yrs after he came home. He is now a homeless drug addict.
I stuck it out 17 yrs until I could not live another day in that hell with him.
My son is now 21, in the reserved on call up for the “rolling...what the f*** surge”. We buried his best friend Joe with a 21 gun salute in Jan after he served a yr in Iraq. His cousin is over there.
I was an army wife, I am a Mother of soldiers.FYI...I DO NOT SUPPORT...the current administration, it’s policies, the FAILED MISERABLE VA System that lets our men ROT IN HELL
when they get home, lack of VA transistional housing for homeless vets, lack of up-armoured vehicles, for our troops, AND THE MINDLESS IDIOCY OF THE MEDIA FOR NOT REPORTING THE TRUTH ABOUT THE NUMBER OF CIVILIAN CASUALTIES AS WELL AS THE SEVERITY OF CONDITIONS FOR OUR MEN AND BOYS.If I sound like a woman who has stood on soapbox and shouted...your analysis is correct. And if people want to BITCH about GLOBAL WARMING…
WHO IS MEASURING THE AMOUNT OF GASES THAT BOMBS RELEASE???They are so desperate for bodies they called up a
50 yr old Grandmother, school teacher and had her over there 6 months . Reaching low into the barrell.WHERE IS JOAN OF ARC WHEN WE NEED HER TO STOP THIS SHIT???
Posted by Deborah Winegar on from Sacramento Region, California 04/14 at 10:39 PMThanks for the passionate comment, Deborah. I do hope you’ll continue to visit this site and join in the discussions. Perhaps we can help get the truth out there.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/15 at 07:05 AM
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