The Hellfires of Christmas
Last week, I noted that the US had a perfect excuse for ending its drone strikes that are a long-running violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty because Pakistan had engaged in military action in North Waziristan to kill a number of TTP militants after a TTP suicide attack had killed Pakistani soldiers. The same pivotal town in North Waziristan where last week’s events were centered, Miranshah, made the headlines again on Christmas Day, as Barack Obama and John Brennan could not resist demonstrating to the world that the US is not a peaceful nation. A drone fired two missiles into a home near Miranshah, killing four “militants”. Those killed are widely believed to have been members of the Haqqani network (Pakistan and the Haqqani network do not attack one another the way Pakistan and the TTP do), but there are no reports of senior leaders being involved, so this may well have been a signature strike rather than a strike aimed at a particular high level militant. On Christmas. Pakistan’s government protested the strike as a violation of sovereignty, yet again.
Yes, those targeted by the US in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region are all Muslims who don’t celebrate Christmas, but there has often been a tradition in wars of ceasefires on religious holidays. There was a magical ceasefire on Christmas in World War I. Although the concept was rejected this year, there have been Ramadan ceasefires, both in Afghanistan and even in the skirmishes between Pakistan and the TTP.
Somehow, in thinking on the evil embodied by this act of death and destruction on the day on which Christians celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, I came across this terrific post that centers on a particularly apt passage from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. As pointed out in the post, the passage is spoken by Marc Anthony just after the assassination of Julius Caesar:
Blood and destruction shall be so in use
And dreadful objects so familiar
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter’d with the hands of war;
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:
And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war;
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.
The post I linked addresses the famous phrase “Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war” and should be read in its entirety. But the larger passage reads almost as if Shakespeare has foreseen the situation of a long-running period of drone attacks, especially when the drones carry Hellfire missiles. In Pakistan, “dreadful objects so familiar” have resulted in widespread PTSD among the residents who must live under the constant buzz of drones flying overhead.
Marc Anthony speaks of the attacks being out of revenge, and revenge has been a motivator for this and other strikes in Pakistan.
Shakespeare very nearly hit on the Hellfire name. Obama and Brennan would do well, though, to study up on the particular mythological figure that Shakespeare invokes with his mention of who comes “hot from hell”. A quick search gives us this on Ate:
ATE was the spirit (daimona) of delusion, infatuation, blind folly, rash action and reckless impulse who led men down the path to ruin.
How can the rash action and blind folly of repeated drone strikes lead to anything other than ruin for Obama and Brennan? Let us hope that they don’t drag the rest of us down with them.
Update: See Peterr’s comment below for the backstory of this beautiful song commemorating the Christmas ceasefire in World War I:
[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTXhZ4uR6rs’]
Folk singer John McCutcheon put the story of the WWI Christmas truce into a powerful anti-war song, telling the story from the point of view of an old British soldier remembering that day. I wrote about it a while back at FDL, and the concluding refrain is powerful:
(The story of how John wrote “Christmas in the Trenches” is here.)
Click through to that FDL post to hear the whole song — a truly powerful piece — that fits so well with this fine Shakespearean post.
@Peterr: Thanks, Peterr. Very moving pieces. I second the request for all to click through to the linked posts.
The assassinator-in-chief visited a military base on the day that celebrates the birth of the Prince of Peace, but I doubt that he recited the War Prayer.
by Mark Twain
@Don Bacon:
Better Maimed than Marxist
(an experiment in so-called “free verse”)
At our U.S. Navy advanced tactical support base,
on the banks of a muddy brown river,
not far from the southernmost tip of South Vietnam,
I injured my right middle finger
in a pickup volleyball game one Sunday afternoon.
Having no X-ray equipment at our little infirmary,
I had to take a helicopter ride north
to a larger Army base possessing
better medical equipment and facilities
to see if I had broken any bones in my hand.
Walking down a hospital corridor, I passed
a room full of Vietnamese patients
who had no arms or legs.
I experienced a disorienting sense of scale compression,
unexpectedly witness to already small lives made minuscule in a moment,
like seeing living dollar bills cut down to the size of postage stamps,
or sentient silver quarters shrunk to copper pennies.
Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright © 2012
Fantastic post, Jim.
Couple of things (think I’ll make two comments). It’s funny that you bring up this subject. Just a short while ago, while trying to answer a question I had about al Nusra and ISIS / ISIL, I came across this in wikipedia:
I just found that interesting. No doubt translations can vary a lot, so the “hellfire” probably isn’t the only way it’s translated into English, but this, along with what you’ve noted are just very interesting.
No doubt you’ve read the article in NYT about how we’re sending hellfire missiles and surveillance drones to Iraq, and how the CIA will “secretly” providing targeting assistance. (The source is apparently an anonymous Obama admin official leaking secrets again. We’ll be hearing about those espionage charges any minute, natch).
They claim that the Al Qaeda affiliate is self-financed.
I’ve read in the past that al Nusra and ISIS declared some kind of merger. I thought the Saudis and/or Qataris were financing ISIS and al Nusra and arming them. If so, this becomes mind boggling. CIA will be doing targeting of Saudi-backed jihiadis in Iraq but CIA will also be operating a base in Saudi Arabia to target Yemenis? Since we’re still doing drone strikes in Yemen, I am assuming CIA is still operating from that base in SA. Maybe that has changed due to our new troubles with the Saudis.
But one more thing. Speaking of Christmas bombings. In one paragraph where NYT wants to convince us about how bad ISIS has been in Iraq (and to be clear, I’m not playing that down, just making a point here) they use the fact that there was a Christmas bombing in Baghdad. Perhaps they were aware of the irony in that, and maybe that’s why they added “in Christian areas”, as if it’s okay to blow people up on Christmas in some places.
From my own experiences in the failed Western crusade to save the Vietnamese from themselves forty years ago, I can imagine how the crusaded-upon Muslims must feel towards their crusading Judeo-Christian “liberators,” something like a hearty and sincere:
How I wish some genuine journalist would ask President “Terror Tuesday” Obama, just once to his amoral ghoulish face:
“Given the world’s record you and your predecessor have established for bombing Muslim wedding parties, funeral services, and baby-naming ceremonies, how many negligent homicides do you get to claim as “collateral damage” before you must restrict yourself to only the murders you actually intend to commit?”
The hellfires of Christmas indeed.
I wonder if the drone pilots enjoyed a cup of eggnog or wassail before providing their carrion reason to groan. Or were Xtianist servicemembers excused from blotting their conscience on their Holy Day?
@Michael Murry: Thanks for sharing what you have written with us. It is so tragic that our country keeps visiting this destruction both upon our own and upon the world at large.
Wishing you whatever peace you can find in these troubled times.
@joanneleon: Thanks, Joanne. Great catch on finding the hellfire translation.
@Michael Murry:
Michael Murry, a blast from the past from a teller of truth, and a holiday present, — hello to you over there.
I find it difficult to believe the story that the U.S. is helping to defend an ally of Iran (i.e. Iraq) from insurgents, when it is doing just the opposite next door in Syria. Okay, I find it impossible to believe. Hagel and Kerry have been to Saudi Arabia recently, and I suspect that they talked about something while they were there. Something to the north.
After all, it wouldn’t be the first time that the U.S. supported Islamic radicals.
@joanneleon: My response to this news is that the sooner the Senate Intelligence Committee’s torture report is leaked the better. (Any Senators brave enough to do that?) Because:
John Brennan’s CIA = loose cannon = oh scheiss!
They are whacking the hornets nest to keep their budgets. No doubt about it.
@Michael Murry: Well done. I hope this gets widely shared.
“The Strongest Poison ever known,
Came from Caesar’s Laurel Crown.”
William Blake.
@Don Bacon: The words “flopping around” come to mind as do the words “How do I explain this to the folks at home?” Just because the US and an “ally” consult doesn’t always mean they agree. I think that Kerry is pretty clear what it means if he allows the Iran talks to collapse. The US allowed/encourage Saudi Arabia/Gulf States to try to topple Assad. Those states used jihadis to do that; now they have allied to the jihadis that are the stated enemy of the US and entrenched in the Iraq-Syria border region. American strategic arrogance exposed once again as hubris. The US in a self-created bind. It’s national interest is in re-establishing Assad’s ability to control his country in order for Malaki to control his. But re-inserting US agents or surrogates in order to do this or giving Malaki, Assad, or both drone capabilities is going to be counterproductive. The irregular units always come back to bite bigtime. It’s about time to use our secret weapon. Fly George W. Bush to Ramadi and let him go out to hold hands with the guys in the field like he did with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. He knows A-Rabs, doesn’t he?
@TarheelDem:
The US isn’t in any bind so long as it can promote instability, and also promote the downfall of Iran and its allies. The former allows a continued US influence and promotes (record) arms sales, the latter has been US policy for fifty years.
To the extent that radicals can promote these US policies, they will be, and have been, encouraged to do so. With both Assad and Maliki being Iran allies, and thus enemies of both the US and Saudi Arabia, the US strategy is clear, Hellfire missiles notwithstanding.
I understand the Hellfire air-to-ground missiles are used by Iraq to destroy al-Qaeda camps. Iraq has used up all their stock of Hellfires destroying AQ camps, we’re told, and needs more missiles to destroy more AQ camps. Iraq probably learned this warfare technique by reading about how successful the US has been with Hellfires. –heh — Watch out, wedding parties.
@Don Bacon:
Hello, Don. From this side of the pond, I have many pleasant memories of past exchanges on many topics in other discussion venues. And thanks to you especially for many incomparable Smedley Butler observations. I sincerely hope that you have found the peace and love in your life that I have found in mine. It took me many decades to make it home from America, but I finally made it. Many happy wishes to all in this forum who contribute regularly to our collective sanity. As Gandhi said of the four stages of revolutionary change: “First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.” Keep up the good work, everyone. It helps.
The bit about the people below suffering from PTSD from the constant circling of drones above reminds me of a story my landlady in Germany told me about her own experience.
She was in her early 30s with a young son at home and a husband on the Eastern Front during WWII. She lived with her parents in their gasthaus in a small village about 20 miles outside a major city. The gasthaus was a relatively large building in a tiny village and the village was on the edge of a large forested area. And it all lined up with the direction British bombers would take, coming from Britain to bomb that major city. So, it was a landmark.
When a raid was coming – the British always at bombed night – they would dispatch pathfinders in advance of the raid. The pathfinders – piloted by the most skilled crews – would go to a selected landmark beyond the target, start circling, and start dropping parachute flares. The bombers would line up on the flares – a pillar of fire, so to speak – to find the target.
They used my landlady’s family’s gasthaus as such a landmark. Again and again. And the family would be huddled in the basement bombshelter waiting for a flare to land on their house and set it alight or for bombs to fall. For hours on end. Listening to this pathfinder circle and circle some more.
As she told it, one night, the German night fighter interceptors from a nearby airfield finally shot down the pathfinder. They heard the air battle and the crash. The pathfinder pilot parachuted safely to the ground. No one ever admitted to being there but, in the way of small towns, everyone knew what happened.
He surrendered and was promptly hacked to death with farm tools.
Forty years on, she still shuddered in the telling. Not about the pilot’s fate. That was related with some level of grim “justice was done” satisfaction. Rather, it was about the plane circling and circling and never knowing if or when their number would come up.
Let slip the dogs of war, indeed. The thing is, as Snowden aptly and accurately noted, the USG has already lost. This is just making rubble bounce to, as someone upthread noted, justify their future budgets.
@scribe:
I’ll believe it. After ten or fifteen minutes of police helicopter circling in my neighborhood, I’m ready to go out and shoot at it. But somehow, the only complaints the FAA ever gets are about news choppers, which are generally much higher up and far less audible.
Newsflash. Hellfires of Christmas indeed.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/dec/27/nsa-phone-surveillance-legal-ny-judge-rules/
That’s it for me. Everything else is moot now. The USG can kiss my ass.
@bloodypitchfork:
All these attacks on personal liberties wouldn’t work without the active collusion of government judges and government lawyers. They are the scum of the earth.
In 2001, A handful of unarmed, and fanatically clever Saudi Arabians hijacked four American planes and flew them into three American buildings, killing some 3,000 people. The U.S. government — all three branches — responded by attacking the U.S. Constitution and looting the U.S. treasury while sending more than 6,000 Americans to their deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan on the pretense of depriving these countries that we did not fear of weapons they did not possess in retaliation for an attack upon us in which they did not participate.
In 2014, according to all indications, the U.S. government — all three branches — plans on continuing this ruinous insanity as far into the indefinite future as possible. Happy New Year, my fellow proles.
Jim, your Shakespeare quote reminds me of piece I read about Christopher Fry’s 1949 play The Lady’s Not for Burning, which takes place, like now, in a time of war and witch hunts.
@Jim White: Earl of Huntingdon posted a comment with link worth following re Christmas in the Trenches here: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/04/05/well-its-their-fault-for-bringing-their-kids-into-a-battle/
The radio interview of McCutcheon is now at http://hereandnow.wbur.org/section/radio/2007/12/24
@Don Bacon:quote:”All these attacks on personal liberties wouldn’t work without the active collusion of government judges and government lawyers. They are the scum of the earth.”unquote
Scum is an insult to scum the world over. They’re a putrescence mass, a walking vomit. Spineless little worms deserving nothing but the profoundest contempt. A stench, a revulsion. Bleating fools…curdled staggering mutant dwarfs smeared richly with the effluvia and offal accompanying their alleged birth into this world. Insensate, blinking calves, meaningful to nobody, abandoned by the puke-drooling, giggling beasts who sired them and then killed themselves in recognition of what they had done. The time has come to rid the planet of these wretched, vulgar little maggots. Every last one of them.
A “brilliant pebble”
A code name for a small computerized heat-seeking missile that was supposed to intercept and destroy enemy missiles
Will the NSA issue now head for the Supremos to weigh in?
I will cheering when the first drone smashes into Obama’s children’s bedroom so that he can feel the same pain that parents feel in all the countries that sonofabitch is bombing right now. As as for Obama himself, his generals, his congress, and all the troops who became war criminals (by the legal standard the U.S. prosecuted Nazi war criminals) the moment they first crossed the border into Iraq and so many other countries that never attacked us — the guillotine is too good for them.
@Bay State Librul: No, seriously? Pebbles? Because one of the funniest diaries I ever read on Daily Kos was The Emperor’s New Pebbles, where the diarist recounted the summer of 1989 when he inadvertently joined the household of an SDI physicist working for the Pentagon, who tried to explain the Star Wars missile defense project to him:
Really, read the whole thing. Not much sticks to my brain, but this did. And the comments:
Non-lying geek-speak and deep truthiness, and perpetual fabulous funding by perpetually failing fabulously upward. Just keep tossing pebbles.
(Must have fabulous enemies!)
(Thinking of Pentagon now as enemy maintenance)
@Richard: Side diary I found when I was looking for above – Ronald Reagan introducing Star Wars to us:
brilliant words, tossed to the air like pebbles to light the world
@thatvisionthing:
My father (BSME, really good engineer) said that Reagan’s program would never work.
@P J Evans: Appreciate that, thanks.