Alex Noble, "Barbarians"
"Barbarians"
by Alex Noble
"Some of the photos (released by the Department of Defense and ISAF overt the last few years) discuss instances of troops helping with the destruction of poppy fields. Many of the photos do not mention anything related to destruction or removal of poppies. Instead, they describe how troops “patrol” through and around the fields. In one instance, a US soldier even seems to be even helping with cultivation. In November 2009, the Afghan Minister of Counter Narcotics General Khodaidad Khodaidad stated that the majority of drugs are stockpiled in two provinces controlled by troops from the US, the UK, and Canada. He also said that NATO forces are taxing the production of opium in the regions under their control and that foreign troops are earning money from drug production in Afghanistan." - "Public Intelligence"
1. Our tax dollars at work! Oh, beautiful for specious lies!
2. Our troops are being blown to smithereens for THIS? Our troops are suffering PTSD for THIS? Our troops are coming home as paraplegics for THIS?
3. Does this explain why heroin use (world wide) is UP 93% since the US took control in Afghanistan? TRUE! (United Nations statistics.)
4. NOW I know why George Bush Senior's nickname is 'Poppy' ! (Attempt at a little humor here!) Note: Bush was our former Drug Czar.
5. Is this what our Foreign Policy is all about these days? Perhaps it is time to reread Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." Yes? If that feels like too heavy for a summer read, try Stanley Bing's satirical version, Rome, Inc. (2006) Same story. Same downfall. Same FUBAR.
6. So, let's see if I can get this straight: We have our kids dying over there in an illegal "war" in Afghanistan, where among other things we are protecting and supporting heroin production, and then that heroin gets distributed world wide where our kids and kids all over the planet regularly die of overdoses of the same drug. How's that again? What is wrong with this picture?
7. Follow the money.
8. So, on this Memorial Day, 2012, shouldn't we start asking some hard questions of those in office about what all these illegal "wars" are all about, when it is clear that they are about much more than "terrorists"?
9. Let's get our First Amendment rights back so we can speak up about these things without being afraid of being arrested and put into "indefinite detention" without due process. In fact, let's get our Constitution back, while we are at it.
10. Ah, those "terrorists"! I am reminded of one of my favorite poems by Nobel Prize Winner, C.P. Cavafy, "Waiting for the Barbarians" : Sic transit gloria mundi! These "terrorists" are a kind of excuse, aren't they?
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"Waiting For The Barbarians"
"What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?
The barbarians are to arrive today.
Why such inaction in the Senate?
Why do the Senators sit and pass no laws?
Because the barbarians are to arrive today.
What laws can the Senators pass any more?
When the barbarians come they will make the laws.
Why did our emperor wake up so early,
and sit at the greatest gate of the city,
on the throne, solemn, wearing the crown?
Because the barbarians are to arrive today.
And the emperor waits to receive their chief.
The barbarians are to arrive today.
Why such inaction in the Senate?
Why do the Senators sit and pass no laws?
Because the barbarians are to arrive today.
What laws can the Senators pass any more?
When the barbarians come they will make the laws.
Why did our emperor wake up so early,
and sit at the greatest gate of the city,
on the throne, solemn, wearing the crown?
Because the barbarians are to arrive today.
And the emperor waits to receive their chief.
Indeed he has prepared to give him a scroll.
Therein he inscribed many titles and names of honor.
Why have our two consuls and the praetors come out
today in their red, embroidered togas;
why do they wear amethyst-studded bracelets,
and rings with brilliant, glittering emeralds;
why are they carrying costly canes today,
wonderfully carved with silver and gold?
Because the barbarians are to arrive today,
and such things dazzle the barbarians.
Why don't the worthy orators come as always
to make their speeches, to have their say?
Because the barbarians are to arrive today;
and they get bored with eloquence and orations.
Why all of a sudden this unrest and confusion?
Why have our two consuls and the praetors come out
today in their red, embroidered togas;
why do they wear amethyst-studded bracelets,
and rings with brilliant, glittering emeralds;
why are they carrying costly canes today,
wonderfully carved with silver and gold?
Because the barbarians are to arrive today,
and such things dazzle the barbarians.
Why don't the worthy orators come as always
to make their speeches, to have their say?
Because the barbarians are to arrive today;
and they get bored with eloquence and orations.
Why all of a sudden this unrest and confusion?
(How solemn the faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares clearing quickly,
and all return to their homes, so deep in thought?
Because night is here but the barbarians have not come.
And some people arrived from the borders,
and said that there are no longer any barbarians.
And now what shall become of us without any barbarians?"
- Constantine P. Cavafy, (1904)
Why are the streets and squares clearing quickly,
and all return to their homes, so deep in thought?
Because night is here but the barbarians have not come.
And some people arrived from the borders,
and said that there are no longer any barbarians.
And now what shall become of us without any barbarians?"
- Constantine P. Cavafy, (1904)
"Those people were some kind of solution."
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