Monday, December 08, 2003



Giant lizards from another star

From the Independent's view from inside the "Green Zone":

As in their military bases elsewhere in Iraq, the Americans have re-created the world from which they came. Their cafeterias serve burgers with barbecue sauce, peanut butter and jelly, even lobster - all imported, not least as a precaution against poisoning. As for the banks of TV sets, if they are not tuned to American football then they will be showing the neo-conservative, war-mad Fox News. This is channel of choice for the entire US military, as it is for the CPA's Republican-appointed civilian press officers...

This is exactly what the originator of that quote was referring to when he talked about American soldiers being "maintained in self-contained biospheres, like giant lizards from another star". It's as if The Tripods have come, plonked down one of their big green domed cities in the middle of Baghdad, only instead of a methane atmosphere, the US brings Fox News... ideologically and hermetically sealed, and insulated as much as possible from the wishes of their new subjects.

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