Sidewinder

So Korea explodes what may or may not be a nuclear device. And the question nobody’s asking is… where’s Donald Rumsfeld? How strange that at this moment where one pole of the "Axis of Evil" is singing "Come and have a go, if you think you’re hard enough…" the high priest warlord of the neo-con crusade is nowhere to be seen. One of our Rumsfelds is missing… Actually that’s not all that’s missing from the neo-con war machine. The official line from the Dubya House is that they are working with the UN to address the issue. This from an administration that appointed an ambassador to the UN previously chiefly known for two things - his outspoken conviction that the UN was an institution best abolished and being the last known public adherent of the Joseph Stalin moustache appreciation society. It appears that the bullish confidence of the neo-cons in the ability of US military power to establish global command unilaterally is faltering somewhat. It seems as if the object lesson of getting their arse kicked in both Iraq and Afghanistan (where it is mainly the loyal brit attack poodles that are taking the brunt of the onslaught) has dampened this administration’s ardour for old-style nation-state based imperialist solutions. We may well be witnessing the spectacle of a transition to more multi-lateral "Empire"-style approach to governmentality by the US. The Commoner’s blog has an interesting piece on this in relation to the US seeking international cooperation in financial counter-measures and the uneasy seeking of a common ground with China. This from an administration that started out rattling sabres against China over a downed spy plane back in early 2001 before, unusually, the voice of sanity from the State Department (presumably backed up by a sober assessment from the Pentagon before Rumsfeld managed to get his "Revolution in Military Affairs" snake oil spin machine in place) put the kibosh on the idea. Where-o, where is our Donald Rumsfeld?

I include the following quote from Felix Guattari from "A New Alliance is Possible" from "Soft Subversions" because for me it sums up perfectly the only possible response to daft questions like "are you a marxist?"

"Felix Guattari: I have never taken seriously the notion that we have outgrown Marxism and that we are now on the verge of a new political era. I have never considered ideas, theories or ideologies as anything but instruments or tools. Whence this expression, which has had a certain success and has since been used by Michel Foucault, that ideas and concepts are all part of a "tool box." As tools they can be changed, borrowed, stolen or used for another purpose. So what does it mean, "the end of Marxism"? Nothing, or only that certain Marxist tools are no longer working, that others are in need of review, that others continue to be perfectly valid. Hence it would be stupid to junk them all. All the more so in that re-evaluating these concepts means re-examining them - exactly as a re-evaluation of Einstein’s theories includes a re-examination of Newton’s. One can’t say that Newtonianism is totally dead. We are dealing here with a "rhizome" of instruments; certain branches of the rhizome collapse, little sprouts begin to proliferate, etc. For me Marxism in general has never existed. I have sometimes borrowed or adapted some Marxist concepts I could put to good use. Moreover, I like reading Marx. He’s a great writer. As an author he’s unbeatable."