|| -----Original Message-----
|| From: joanna bujes
|| Any of you guys remember "Gravity's Rainbow"? I never cared
|| that much for
|| Pynchon -- pretty sophomoric all in all -- BUT I was impressed
|| with what I
|| took to be the main thesis of Rainbow, which was that WWII is
|| not over yet,
|| it just went underground for a couple of generations.
||
|| This thesis ran counter to what my father (a jew) would say in
|| his more
|| tender moments: "The one thing our generation accomplished was
|| the defeat
|| of the Nazis." Nevertheless, I think I agree with Pynchon.
||
|| Joanna B.
||
Ah, they don't make books like that nowadays (guess the pot's not what it used to be:)). Pynchon didn't seem to be writing about WW II in particular, though, but about war in general as an ongoing process: "There's something still on, don't call it a 'war' if it makes you nervous, maybe the death rate's gone down a point or two [...] but Their enterprise goes on" -p.628 In the 60's "war" meant Vietnam and this connotation favored a psychedelic take (one shared by the grunts in the firing line) as in Catch-22, Apocalypse Now, etc. (and G.R., of course). WW II _did_ go underground: It went "cold", to be precise. The Nazi V2 techies & the Gestapo joined the US camp in the service of US capital, with its known sympathies for Herr Hitler and its investments in Germany. SS expats collaborated with the US colonization of Latin America. Those who stayed behind in the Bundesrepublik administration became the US's official allies. Thus the historical glitch caused by Hitler's idiotic declaration of war on the US was smoothed out and old allies went to war against the real class enemy: Communism.
Reichsmarschall Rumsfeld's reference to Nazi military tactics thus harks back to the heady days of the early cold war, when Nazis were the US's prized allies, bearing deadly gifts, later to be replaced by Israel. Nevertheless, however bone-chilling Rumsfeld's apology of preemptive war may be, it's just smoke. An excuse is needed for the $451 billion worth of pork that will be scooped out of social security and handed over to US arms makers for useless expensive junk. Not that there's anything wrong with Shrubya's moronic "axis of evil" - a concept he probably came up with between watching superbowl games and fainting - it'll do just fine in these flag-waving times. Herr Reichsmarschall is just adding his victorious warrior's seal of approval, to counter peacenik Powell's hesitations.
Some humor for lost moments: The facts on much-hyped wonder weapons of recent US wars, as well as the technological lemons for which the Pentagon wants to line defence contractors' and its own pockets: http://www.counterpunch.org/fiveweapons.html http://www.pogo.org/mici/lessons.htm
Some highlights:
The incorrigible invisible veep has put Carlyle's Crusader on the shopping list, a sort of Big Bertha cannon that even the Pentagon recommended be dropped. The Comanche, which is supposed to succeed the megaflop Apache helicopter, is already a big disaster, with development 10 years and 5 billion over the target. The Apache, like the M-1 tank,spends most of its life in the service area while the A-10, the cheapest plane in the US inventory and one hated unanimously by the brass, wins the war, doing exactly the mission that the Apache should have been doing. I've tried my hand at A-10 sim games and I've blown up tanks, sunk ships, downed bombers and even the odd fighter all in one mission, frequently making it back safe and sound with half a wing, a stabilizer, and an engine shot off. It's a cheap ($12 G), old, wicked plane, and the world should be glad the Pentagon hates it :-). The M-1 tank's unrelability coupled with its shocking fuel consumption allowed Iraqi tanks to hightail it to safety while M-1's were lined up at the gas station.
Hakki