Sunday, April 28, 2013

The Boston bombing as a symptom of the terminal decline of the US Empire

Do you remember how crowds on Boston cheered and celebrated their "victory" when, after a week-long manhunt, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was finally arrested? 


When I saw these videos I marveled at how stupid American crowds can get, but I decided not to post anything about it since, after all, stupidity is not something worth posting about, I think.

Still, I though, what a pathetic display of incompetence and ignorance, what a total over-reaction.  First, the entire city was put on lock down something which never happened elsewhere, not in Israel, not in Ulster, not in the Russian Caucasus, not in India, not in any other city affected by a rather minor wannabe terror event.  Yes, this was a *MINOR* attack, executed by completely incompetent amateurs.   And don't take my word for it, read the excellent analysis of Israeli Haaretz reporter Chemi Shalev in his article "The Boston bombers have already scored a tremendous victory for terror" in which he mentions the "amateurish" terror of the two Chechens.

Keep in mind that according to some estimates each day of the Boston lock down cost up to 1 billion dollars to the US economy.  Yes, that is 1'000'000'000 dollars.  This is what one billion dollar look like:
One Billion Dollar is stacked on 12 standard pallets, altogether 10 million 100 USD notes
And what did the cheering Bostonians get for that?

Here is the official version of how Dzokhar Tsarnaev was arrested:

First, the cops put an entire city block in total lock down and flooded it with cops and SWAT teams.  Then they went from house to house and checked every single house, every room, everything.  Then, eventually, they declared the area safe.  Then at 5AM some guy got out of his house to smoke a cigarette or something, and he saw some blood on his boat, he looked inside and found Dzokhar Tsarnaev lying in a pool of his own blood.  He called the cops, who came and arrested Tsarnaev (that is all from memory, correct me if I missed something).

Now, if that is true, why is nobody asking why the super-dooper Boston cops and SWAT teams, assisted by many K-9 units, did not find Tsarnaev the first time around?  Did *any* reporter or commentator wonder about this, or is this just me?

Maybe the BPD deserves some rotten tomatoes tossed at them in disgust, rather than the standing ovation they got?

But that is just a beginning.

Then we learn that the BPD arrested a Tamerlan Tsarnaev look-alike, stripped him naked, and packed him away, and then they released him but nobody knows where this Tsarnaev look-alike is now.  The BPD denies any connection.  Too bad that Tsarnaev's mother categorically states that this is her son (Russian TV news station Rossia 1 report). 

Mrs Tsarnaeva on Russian TV
Now, it really would be a bad thing if this turned out to be true, would it not?

But things get even better.

Now, it turns out that the Russians warned not only the FBI but even the CIA.  The Americans are now saying that this was too little.  But that is patently false.  If the Russians did not give enough evidence to the FBI/CIA to take action against the Tsarnaev brothers, they gave them plenty enough actionable intelligence to put them under tight surveillance.  Guess what?  It turns out that the FBI did put them under some kind of surveillance which included wiretapping (again, we know that through the mother) and an interview with the two brothers.  Well, even after that the FBI/CIA folks managed to miss not only the entire preparation of the bombing but it also took them many precious hours to pinpoint the two brothers as likely suspects (after parsing the various video recordings of the bombing).

That's not all folks, it gets even sexier than that!

Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has now declared to the Georgian TV channel Rustavi-2 that it was possible that Chechen terrorists had received terrorism training in Georgia during the Presidency of US-hyperally Mikheil Saakashvili.  The latter, of course, emphatically denies any such accusations.  Now, since we know who trains the Georgians (the very same FBI/CIA/etc), it is not hard to figure out that if the Tsarnaev brothers were linked to any "Georgian" (aka "US") Chechen terror network, any reports from the Russians to the FBI/CIA would only confirm what they already knew since they, themselves, were the folks running the Chechen networks.


So what is there to celebrate, my dear Bostonians?

That your cops and SWAT teams could not find their own butts in the dark?
That your security services are unable to keep an eye even on amateurish wannabe terrorists?
That your politicians are spending billions of dollars on nothing?
That your government pays, trains and support terrorist organizations abroad?
That your absurd and paranoid laws make it possible to consider a pressure-cooker as a "weapon of mass destruction"

American "weapon of mass destruction"

This would all be very funny if it was not all deeply symptomatic of a regime in complete moral and intellectual decline.  Under the Presidency of Barak "Yes we can" "Change we can believe in" Obama the USA has become even more incompetent and at the same type evil than under his (already pathetic) predecessors.

And its not only the White House, the Congress or the cheering boneheads in Boston.  How is that for a typically American over-reaction:
Williams-Sonoma Pulls Pressure Cookers Off Shelves in Massachusetts

Following the Boston Marathon bombing last Monday in which pressure cookers were used for the explosion, the cookware giant has decided to temporarily stop selling the items in their Massachusetts stores.

Williams-Sonoma, the specialty retailer of home furnishings and gourmet cookware with over 250 stores in the United States, has pulled pressure cookers from their shelves following the Boston Marathon bombing.

"It's a temporary thing out of respect," said Kent, who is the Store Manager of the Williams-Sonoma at the Natick Mall. He referred Patch to corporate for further questions. Williams-Sonoma also has a local branch at Legacy Place in Dedham.

Pressure cookers will still be available on the Williams-Sonoma website (...)
I have a great idea:  Why not outlaw pressure cookers altogether?!  After all, there is no 2nd Amendment protecting pressure cookers.  Or is there?  Since pressure cookers are now considered as weapons of mass destruction, maybe they ought to be protected under the 2nd Amendment?

Seriously,  all these otherwise point into the same direction: a (former? actual?) super-power which shows all the signs of the mental age of a 6 year old combined with the infinite arrogance of a pimply teenager.  Think of it - in terms of "government performance" the entire Boston bombing episode is just one long and never ending FUBAR/SNAFU kind of cluster****.  They did *everything* wrong and they did *nothing* right.  Worse, that abject failure at all levels did not take their imperial arrogance down at all, not even by one modest notch.  And its all the same, presidency after presidency.  If the previous moron brought us the "freedom fries" this one brings us the "pressure cooker" as WMD.  And nobody laughs, nobody protests, there are no riots, no demonstrations.  Nothing.  Nothing at all.  Why?  Because Americans got used to this, because that absolute rule by crass stupidity on all levels has now become "business as usual", it has become normal.

All I can think of saying to the cheering idiots in Boston is this:"if you like your present, you will love your future!"

The Saker