
I am strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes … It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected. - Winston Churchill (1919)
Uncivilized tribes. Offending natives. Inferior races. Lesser-grade stock. Advanced imperial powers have needed to devise creative ways to extirpate these execrable inhabitants. And you thought smallpox infected blankets and slaughtering the buffalo were effective. What about depleted uranium munitions? Poisoning the water supply? The Salvadoran option? Of course, all of these plans have been developed with only the best of intentions. Let's not forget that King Leopold of Belgium’s Central African Empire was originally called the International Association for Philanthropy in the Congo.
Churchill was really keen on using chemical weapons, because in the summer of 1920, more than 100,000 “recalcitrant Arabs” rose up against the British invaders and occupiers of Iraq. In this first Operation Iraqi Freedom, the army gassed Iraqi rebels with “excellent moral effect” while the RAF (led by Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris) relentlessly raided tribal villages. Thousands of civilians were blown apart during these “terror” raids while punitive bombing attacks on Arab villages continued throughout the decade.
In his instructive memoir that reflects on destroying Iraqi villages by “cutting off water power, the area being cleared of the necessaries of life,” British Lieutenant-General Sir Aylmer L. Haldane warned, “Burning a village properly takes a long time, an hour or more according to size.”
Direct British rule of Iraq finally ended in 1932. The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty gave Iraq formal political independence while retaining British control of foreign, defense and economic policy with military bases and a system of advisers. Iraq became “independent” in 1930 and was admitted to the League of Nations as a full member in 1932. But real power remained in British hands.
So it took the world’s most powerful empire twelve years to subjugate and control Iraq back in the day. Twelve years to test new weapons of limited and mass destruction, demoralize the Kurds, Shia, Sunni, Assyrians and Turks, carve up the region, control imperial outposts, establish a semi-colonial monarchy and secure the flow of oil.
By comparison, it’s only been five years since Operation Iraqi Freedom was authorized. Already, millions have died or have fled, the country is gradually being Balkanized, permanent military bases have been built and a puppet, quisling government has been put in place. If the Brit experience is any guide, it will be only a few more years of intensive pacification and this job is done.
I guess we can’t gas all the remaining Hajjis to encourage obedience, but to help quell insurgent attacks and to secure the realm, Pentagon scientists have been hard at work.
In fact, the Active Denial System should be ready to roll in ‘08! Not intended to kill, the weapon emits an invisible beam of high-energy radio waves that rapidly heats up water molecules just under the skin and causes a person to run like hell. It might cause cancer too!
This new tool should go a long way toward helping America defeat the terrorists.That and the robots armed with machine guns complete with Gameboy-style controller and virtual-reality goggles — thank you, Carlyle Group.
While the Wook submerges into the world of pumped breast milk, dirty diapers and kept mothers, he occasionally turns the mantle of AMEN over to The Backstop...necessarily stoned, and furious.