The American Replacement of Natural Disaster

[Minstrel Boy]

Posted this to my blog: http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2004/10/american-replacement-of-natural.html

The American Replacement of Natural Disaster


There's an interesting little book by philosopher William Irwin Thompson entitled The American Replacement of Nature, written in the aftermath of the first Gulf War ("I would have liked to be patriotic and respect my President, but it was difficult when he behaved more like the Director of the CIA than President of the Republic").

"America's esoteric destiny," Thomspon writes, "seems to be one of breaking down all the cultures of the world in preparation for a new global culture that will become humanity's second nature." He concedes that when America's asymmetrical opposition calls it "the Great Satan," it has a point: "for this second nature is so artificial, so opposite to anything that a traditional person would wish to call cultural or natural, that it appears on the horizon of the human as something inhuman, monstrous, and evil."

It's been ten years since I read the book, but I thought of it the other day when I remembered these remarks from April 28, 1997, by then-Secretary of Defense William Cohen. He had just delivered the keynote address of the "Conference on Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and US Strategy" at the University of Georgia, and had opened up the floor to a Q & A (the context for the B'nai Brith reference is a spate of hoax anthrax letters the organization had received):

Q: Let me ask you specifically about last week's scare here in Washington, and what we might have learned from how prepared we are to deal with that (inaudible), at B'nai Brith.

A: Well, it points out the nature of the threat. It turned out to be a false threat under the circumstances. But as we've learned in the intelligence community, we had something called -- and we have James Woolsey here to perhaps even address this question about phantom moles. The mere fear that there is a mole within an agency can set off a chain reaction and a hunt for that particular mole which can paralyze the agency for weeks and months and years even, in a search. The same thing is true about just the false scare of a threat of using some kind of a chemical weapon or a biological one. There are some reports, for example, that some countries have been trying to construct something like an Ebola Virus, and that would be a very dangerous phenomenon, to say the least. Alvin Toeffler has written about this in terms of some scientists in their laboratories trying to devise certain types of pathogens that would be ethnic specific so that they could just eliminate certain ethnic groups and races; and others are designing some sort of engineering, some sort of insects that can destroy specific crops. Others are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.

So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations. It's real, and that's the reason why we have to intensify our efforts, and that's why this is so important.

Did you get that? Seven years ago, the US Secretary of Defense warned that terrorists were pursuing the bioengineering of gene-specific superbugs (a step behind PNAC, which regards targetting genotypes as potentially "a politically useful tool"), the alteration of the climate, the triggering of earthquakes and even volcanoes. If we assume Cohen was serious, then we can safely presume the US is leading the world in the development and deployment of such technologies.

What reminded me of Cohen's words was the reawkening of Mount St Helen's, and the simple fact of the calender. It's October - where's our surprise?

I may be foolishly naive here, but I'm prepared to give Karl Rove the benefit of the doubt on this one. I don't believe he's sitting in a bunker beneath the West Wing pressing the "erupt" button. But it would be even more foolish if we ignored Cohen's words, and their implications. Because we are entering a period of human history - the final period, if we don't watch ourselves - in which our speaking of the natural world means little more than a nostalgic conceit. That which used to be expressly "Acts of God" are being folded into the mission of the US military.

Raising this subject invites the debunker's usual fistful of tinfoil. But in The Times for November 23, 2000, Dr. Rosalie Bertell confirms that "US military scientists are working on weather systems as a potential weapon. The methods include the enhancing of storms and the diverting of vapor rivers in the Earth's atmosphere to produce targeted droughts or floods."

Another example, this time from a 1996 Air Force research paper entitled "Weather As a Force Multiplier", when he called for an examination of "the concepts, capabilities, and technologies the United States will need to remain the dominant air and space force in the future":

US aerospace forces can "own the weather" by capitalizing on emerging technologies and focusing development of those technologies to war-fighting applications. Such a capability offers the war fighter tools to shape the battlespace in ways never before possible. It provides opportunities to impact operations across the full spectrum of conflict and is pertinent to all possible futures. The purpose of this paper is to outline a strategy for the use of a future weather-modification system to achieve military objectives rather than to provide a detailed technical road map.

A high-risk, high-reward endeavor, weather-modification offers a dilemma not unlike the splitting of the atom. While some segments of society will always be reluctant to examine controversial issues such as weather-modification, the tremendous military capabilities that could result from this field are ignored at our own peril. From enhancing friendly operations or disrupting those of the enemy via small-scale tailoring of natural weather patterns to complete dominance of global communications and counterspace control, weather-modification offers the war fighter a wide-range of possible options to defeat or coerce an adversary.

And weather is not only a force multiplier; it is a fear multiplier.

While HAARP and similar arrays diddle with the ionosphere, and our skies are increasingly streaked with man-made cirrus clouds, it's becoming difficult to find with certainty the intersection of natural and artificial phenomena. And so, the claim of a TV meteorologist, that he has begun to use the pattern recognition of "scalar weapons signatures" within cloud formations to better his forecasting record, is not as crazy as it would have sounded even five years ago.

William Irwin Thompson:

In truth, America is extremely uncomfortable with nature; hence its culturally sophisticated preference for the fake and nonnatural, from Cheez Whiz sprayed ouf of an aerosol can onto a Styrofoam potatoed chip, to Cool Whip smoothing out the absence of taste in those attractively red, genetically engineered monster strawberries. Any peasant with a dumb cow can make whipped cream, but it takes a chemical factory to make Cool Whip. It is the technological process and not the natural product that is important, for what that point is aimed at, is the escape from nature.

Sure, Americans do like to hunt and fish, but not to commune with nature; rather to knock the old bitch around to show her who’s boss.

A hypothetical question: if the United States military is determined to "own the weather," what would the test of an environmental weapons system look like?

[DrWeird]

1. How about you post this in the Meeting Room.

With all the other pseudoscience bullshit.

[Karenina]

2. Are you sleeping?

Are you sleeping?

Brother Weird?
Schläfst Du noch?

Hörst Du nicht die Glokken?
Wake up smell the Starbuck's.

Ding dang dumb
Din damn dong...

[DrWeird]

3. Ich kann dumm sein.

Aber Ich nicht mindestens glauben dieser Scheiße

[Karenina]

5. Mehr als Du vorstellen kann

PASSIERT. Jetzt. Nun. Bleibt nur offen, Schatz. ALLES geht um's Geld und zur Zeit böse Leute haben zu viel Macht and unheimlich VIEL GELD. Bitte sei offen. You may not be 'glad' you did, but you WILL be better informed.

[DrWeird]

6. Sie müssen mich begnadigen

Ich hatte nur zwei Jahre des Deutschen in der Gymnasium.

What does bad guys in powerful positions have to do with a bunch of made up bullshit about weather weapons, and chemtrails, and hypnobeams, and volcano machines, and racial viruses, and cloned hitlers, and all this other stuff?

[Minstrel Boy]

8. "a bunch of made up bullshit"

Courtesy of the likes of former Secretary of Defense William Cohen and the US Air Force.

[seemslikeadream]

4. they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, Cohen's own words

DoD News Briefing
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen
Monday, April 28, 1997 - 8:45 a.m. EDT



Q: Let me ask you specifically about last week's scare here in Washington, and what we might have learned from how prepared we are to deal with that (inaudible), at B'nai Brith.

A: Well, it points out the nature of the threat. It turned out to be a false threat under the circumstances. But as we've learned in the intelligence community, we had something called -- and we have James Woolsey here to perhaps even address this question about phantom moles. The mere fear that there is a mole within an agency can set off a chain reaction and a hunt for that particular mole which can paralyze the agency for weeks and months and years even, in a search. The same thing is true about just the false scare of a threat of using some kind of a chemical weapon or a biological one. There are some reports, for example, that some countries have been trying to construct something like an Ebola Virus, and that would be a very dangerous phenomenon, to say the least. Alvin Toeffler has written about this in terms of some scientists in their laboratories trying to devise certain types of pathogens that would be ethnic specific so that they could just eliminate certain ethnic groups and races; and others are designing some sort of engineering, some sort of insects that can destroy specific crops. Others are engaging even in an eco- type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.

So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations. It's real, and that's the reason why we have to intensify our efforts, and that's why this is so important.
more
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/1997/t042897_t0428coh.html



Ohio Wesleyan University Graduation
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen
Sunday, May 10, 1998

More than two decades ago, author Alvin Toeffler warned us that we had entered the age of future shock, where time was speeded up by events, and our culture and traditions were being shaken in the hurricane winds of change. Toeffler noted that if the last 50,000 years of man's existence were divided into lifetimes of approximately 62 years each, there have been about 800 lifetimes, of which 650 have been spent in caves. Only during the last seven lifetimes has it been possible to communicate effectively from one person to another, as writing has made it possible to do. Only during the last six lifetimes did masses of men ever see a printed word. Only during the last four lifetimes has it been possible to measure time with any precision. Only in the last two lifetimes has anyone, anywhere used an electric motor. The overwhelming majority of all material goods that we use in daily life today have been developed in the present 800th lifetime.

http://www.dod.gov/transcripts/1998/t05311998_t0510owu.html

[seemslikeadream]

7. "Vision for 2020" and "Long Range Plan."

In 1998, the US Space Command issued its "Vision for 2020" and "Long Range Plan." The "Vision for 2020" document states that because of the corporate "globalization of the world economy" there will be a widening gap between the "haves and the have-nots" and the US Space Command intends to "control and dominate" space in order to protect US "interests and investments." The "Long Range Plan" identifies means to achieve "full spectrum dominance" as envisioned in the "Vision for 2020" document.

....

USSPACECOM Long Range Plan Summary

Overview

Number one priority for US Space Command over the past 11 months. The development and production process, by design, involved hundreds of people and more than 75 organizations, including DoD, civil and commercial industry.
Captures in one place a comprehensive roadmap to enable the forces envisioned in Joint Vision 2010 and to achieve our vision for 2020. Space power is key to achieving JV 2010.
The stronger the linkage between JV 2010 and the USSPACECOM Vision, the more likely our nation will organize, train and equip the right space force of the future.
Guiding Principles

Space is an enabler of military operations. Forces depend on information. Space-based sensors will provide much of this information. Virtually all other information will flow through space at some point.
On the verge of a commercial space explosion. Industry growing 20% per year, 1000+ satellites to be launched and $500 billion to be spent worldwide over the next few years.
Space is an emerging area of vital national interest. Space is critical to both military and economic instruments of power.
We will be challenged. Adversaries will likely not confront US conventional forces. Space could be part of an attractive asymmetric strategy to inflict great damage on the nation.
Military must be ready. Our nation’s growing dependence on space cannot become a vulnerability. Protecting our freedom to use space and having the ability to deny an enemy’s use of space will grow in importance.
USSPACECOM has the lead as the single focal point for military space. The Long Range Plan is a critical step to enable us to fulfill our obligation.
Methodology

To move toward attaining the Vision, we developed four operational concepts based on the Unified Command Plan’s assigned missions, the anticipated future strategic environment and Joint Vision 2010. Our Long Range Plan identifies required capabilities, Concepts of Operation, new organizations and partnerships to achieve these operational concepts.

Operational Concepts

Control of Space: assure freedom to operate, deny the enemy. By 2020, a wholly integrated suite of space and ground capabilities provides total situational understanding of the space region along with the ability to assure access to, through, and from space while defending against all hostile threats.
Global Engagement: includes worldwide situational awareness, defense against ballistic and cruise missiles and, if directed by the National Command Authorities, the capability to hold at risk from space a small number of high value targets. By 2020, a robust and fully integrated suite of space and terrestrial capabilities provides dominant battlespace awareness enabling on-demand targeting and engagement of all ballistic and cruise missiles.
Full Force Integration: the integration of space forces and information with air, land, and sea forces and information. By 2020, space forces are completely integrated with air, land, and sea forces to the point that operational commanders exploit space assets as intuitively as their more traditional assets. Warfighters take full advantage of space capabilities as an integral part of special, joint and combined warfare.
Global Partnerships: strengthening military space capabilities through the leveraging of civil, commercial, intelligence, national, and international space efforts. In 2020, Global Partnerships will create an environment that enables the US military to achieve maximum space capabilities through enduring relationships. Partnerships may also decrease pressure on existing US infrastructure and build confidence in the conduct of coalition warfare.
Joint Vision 2010, USSPACE Vision for 2020 and the Long Range Plan

The JV 2010 fighting force will be enabled through the full exploitation of the space advantage. Dominant Maneuver, Precision Engagement, Full-Dimensional Protection, Focused Logistics, Information Superiority and ultimately Full Spectrum Dominance will be dramatically leveraged with robust space operations and matured space support. Execution of the USSPACECOM Long Range Plan will ensure our future warfighters are provided the right space capabilities to protect and defend America’s interests throughout the full spectrum of conflict.

Resourcing Issues

Lowering launch costs is key to affordable use of space. We must work this as a number one priority. Need to transfer investment to operating in space vice paying to get there.
Other avenues to pursue with vigor:

Continue to migrate missions to space
Determine space’s full impact
Create better modeling and simulation systems to assess contribution of all space systems, able to test changing assumptions and developments
Leverage advances in other sectors and burdensharing
Alternate funding strategies
Strive for continuous improvement
Best business practices, fostering competition, tighten up margins
The Way Ahead

This plan sets the course to evolve military space

to enable the armed forces envisioned in Joint Vision 2010
to protect US national interests and investments in space
The synergy from systems, technologies, concepts of operation and partnerships is key to the success of this plan.

USSPACECOM needs support from beyond the command to fully achieve the Vision. Policy issues require attention for all four operational concepts. The broad and varied members of our space community contribute to USSPACECOM’s ability to accomplish its missions. We all need clarifying policy to harness the strengths of our interdependence, improve efficiency, and ensure our nation’s continued pre-eminence in space.

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usspc-fs/lrp-fs.htm

While politicians hype the expensive plan as "Missile defense"
Military documents reveal true goals of "Star Wars" plan
September/October 2001


Myers is former commander-in-chief of the U.S. Space Command. Under him, the Space Command advanced its scheme to "control space" and from there "dominate" the earth below. The headline in U.S. News & World Report’s article on Myers’ appointment aptly referred to him as "General Starwars."

As he stated in a 1999 speech--titled "Implementing our Vision for Space Control"--the U.S. must move ahead "to implement what is essentially a framework for space control--a fully integrated framework based on partnerships with other Department and Defense and civil agencies, with industry, and with our foreign partners."

Now the general has a prime opportunity to move on that mission, serving under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, himself a huge Star Wars booster, and an administration intimately tied to the major aerospace corporations that have been promoting Star Wars and coming from the Star Wars-focused right-wing of the Republican Party.

Meanwhile, opposition to Star Wars is building. The Gainesville-based Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power In Space has organized an International Day of Protest Against the Militarization of Space for October 13. There will be demonstrations and gatherings all over the U.S. and in more than 20 other countries.

http://www.afn.org/~iguana/archives/2001_09/20010901.html