When the cat's away...

The Mice will play

It seems that three Latin American leaders have gone and signed a treaty without giving Washington prior notice and veto power. How rude! Don't they remember the rules? Christ, if this was the 80's...

Thankfully, it's not. Yanqui imperialism has got its "lidless eye, wreathed in flame" on other parts of the world right now. 72 Poor American Souls have been killed in resistance operations this month in Iraq, the highest total in 5 months. The media corps' hope for an "end to the insurgency" appears, of course, to be unlikely to materialise. The number of dead American soldiers - we "do" body counts for them - now stands at 2400. Just think about that number for a moment.

In the context of modern warfare, it's quite amazing: the disparity in weaponry between the Iraqi resistance and the U.S Army, the extraordinary levels which the Americans have gone to keep the numbers down, the endless, belligerent psy-ops, black ops, botched ops.

And still they can't keep the natives under control.

It must really, really piss them off.

V for...Oh, I can't be bothered.

A man whom I read, though sometimes don't understand because I don't have a doctorate in Philosophy, K-Punk, has joined the circus on V for Vendetta. He's criticizing, and he's not the first, the "watered down" content of the film.

The filmmakers, it's true, seem to have favoured a kind of catch-all liberalism instead of the comic's, presumably more "controversial", militant Anarchism.

The main criticism being that it's rather unclear what the terrorist known as 'V' is actually fighting for. We know he's fighting against the fascist regime, but what he's looking to replace it with is never discussed in the movie.

The Anarchists are, as usual, up in arms, decrying the Hollywood machine for corrupting the purity of Moore's original piece.

For what it's worth, I enjoyed the movie as a piece of entertainment. It didn't contain any especially radical or novel political content in my estimation - nothing you haven't seen in endless 'dystopian future' movies. Except, of course, for that ending - which is just about the most radical thing you're likely to see in a Hollywood movie.

Mark also elaborates on other things he's written, particularly on the difference between us rather docile British students and our raucous cousins in France.

And on the political possibilities of a radical nihilism.

Oh, and he fucking hates the Artic Monkeys - which can only be a good thing.

Thou Shall Obey

An RAF doctor who refused to serve in Iraq has been sentenced to eight months in jail and dismissed from the service.

This is a chap called Malcolm Kendall-Smith, who's a flight lieutenant in the Air Force. During his trial, he aroused the anger of lots of people by comparing the U.S invasion of Iraq with the actions of Nazi Germany. In fact, he actually used the words "moral equivalent".

He pointed out that Nazis were tried for complicity in "wars of agression" at the Nuremberg trials and that the invasion of Iraq also qualified as such - therefore any orders associated with such a venture would be de facto illegal, and he would be required not to follow them.

Sadly for him, the notion of the "law" is unimportant when compared to the needs of the army. We can't allow bad precedents. So tonight, Doctor Kendall-Smith will be languishing in a military jail.

May I suggest he watches this.

Prodi Rubbish

For once, the recent lack of posts is not down to my fecklessness. This time, the useless wankers at NTL are to blame because they gave me a broken modem, meaning I was sans broadband for a full fortnight!

Those were lonely nights, I can tell you.

Anyway, since everything is right with the world again, I thought I'd give a word on the recent elections in Italy.

The results are in and Prodi, it appears, has won by 0.1 of a percent. Considering his opponent is a crypto-fascist ex-cruise singer who's led Italy kicking and screaming into the debacle in Iraq and has overseen the worst economy in Western Europe in the last 4 years, it's hardly a resounding endorsement for L'Union, Prodi's "center-left" coalition.

It's understandable, Prodi is a figure with his own history of corruption. He's also a rather dour economics professor. And he's admitted that he's keen to push through the kind of "reforms" that've just died in France.

On the other hand, the main far left party, Rifondazione Communista (the Party of Communist Refoundation), achieved very respectable results. They got 5.8% in the lower house of the Italian parliament and 7.4% in the Senate - about 4.7 million votes in total. Coupled with 2 percent for the Official Communists, it was a decent showing, and proves the success that can be had by standing on a anti-neo-liberal, anti-war platform.

Still, there will be problems for Rifon. As part of the center-left coalition led by Prodi, they will be held partly responsible for the policies of that government. And if the policies of Prodi include, as they probably will do, neo-liberal reforms, the question will be put: are you with or against neo-liberalism?

The main reason for joining the coalition that Rifon gave was that Berlusconi was so great a threat that they had to do everything possible to ensure his defeat. They also hope, as many have before them, to have some kind of "civilizing" role on the Prodi regime.

We'll see. In fact, it's not even clear that Prodi will take over. The marginal nature of the victory has given dear Silvio scope to "challenge" the result, and a recount may even be required.