Mosquitos
"We know for sure that there is so much more to be revealed, even when we dismiss the many conspiracy theories that swirl around our body politic like malarial mosquitos feeding on the national unease" - Danny Schechter on 9/11 in Media Wars, p. xxxviii
I have been thinking about the mosquito metaphor lately in regard to the current War on Terror. I have a swampy area near my house, and as I gaze into it, I can just imagine the hordes that will rise from it this next summer. In Georgia the mosquito problem was temporarily quelled by the mid-century use of DDT, and apparently the mosquitos are on the rebound in its absence. Mosquitos are peculiar in that, unless they get very thick, they aren't really a problem until someone mentions them. The thought of mosquitos can be almost more oppressive than the bugs themselves. Terrorism, by definition, works in a similar way.
The West Nile Virus is a superb analog to the War on Terror. Though West Nile is dangerous to some extent, with a very limited number of fatalities, it is essentially a creation of media fear mongering. Like high rise office buildings, subways, and jet aircraft, mosquitos are everywhere, and the threat is continually signified, seemingly ever-present. Since September 11, more Americans have been killed by lightning than by terrorism, and yet its specter haunts us to the last person.
Noam Chomsky wrote a widely circulated essay entitled "Drain the Swamp and There Will Be No More Mosquitos," referring to a statment made by Israel's military head, Yehoshaphat Harkabi, concerning the "Palestinian Question." The metaphor has found its way elsewhere too. The idea justifies, for example, the targetting of "rogue states" and "failed states" preemptively - the swamps - in order to destroy the "breeding grounds." As water itself is perhaps replacing oil as the world's most precious resource, it, like oil, has become a weapon. Saddam Hussein, after the first Gulf War, infamously drained the wetlands of southern Iraq and displaced the 5,000-year-old and 250,000 strong culture of the Marsh Arabs, presumably to punish the Shia for the post-war failed uprising. Part of the impetus behind the Israeli wall is to claim precious aquifer access from the Palestinians. Much of the devastation resulting from the decade of U.S.-led economic sanctions against Iraq (1.5 million dead, according to the UN) was a result of an initial bombing of water treatment facilities followed by the denial of replacement parts and purification supplies.
The word "mosquito" is an anglicized version of "Miskito," the African-Indian tribes of what is now Nicaragua. In the late 18th Century, the Miskito people were the subjects of harsh British colonization, and there was an insurgent situation. While the British were battling the mosquito, they were also battling the Miskito.
The mosquito metaphor also quite aptly plays into the oil war equation. The most common anti-war slogan in the lead up to the Iraq wars in both 1991 and 2003 was "No Blood for Oil." This slogan was chanted so often, the two liquids seemed to have transubstantiated into one. The force of empire assumes that the oil belongs to U.S. corporations, and it is often said that it is the "lifeblood" of the post-industrial West. The Iraqis, with their demands for self-determination, have a habit for randomly blowing up pipelines. These tiny flying parasites cannot be allowed to drain what rightly belongs to corpulent corporate oil. All junkyard tires must be turned and sitting water siphoned away. The threat is everywhere, even within our own borders, and the war is never-ending.
I have been thinking about the mosquito metaphor lately in regard to the current War on Terror. I have a swampy area near my house, and as I gaze into it, I can just imagine the hordes that will rise from it this next summer. In Georgia the mosquito problem was temporarily quelled by the mid-century use of DDT, and apparently the mosquitos are on the rebound in its absence. Mosquitos are peculiar in that, unless they get very thick, they aren't really a problem until someone mentions them. The thought of mosquitos can be almost more oppressive than the bugs themselves. Terrorism, by definition, works in a similar way.
The West Nile Virus is a superb analog to the War on Terror. Though West Nile is dangerous to some extent, with a very limited number of fatalities, it is essentially a creation of media fear mongering. Like high rise office buildings, subways, and jet aircraft, mosquitos are everywhere, and the threat is continually signified, seemingly ever-present. Since September 11, more Americans have been killed by lightning than by terrorism, and yet its specter haunts us to the last person.
Noam Chomsky wrote a widely circulated essay entitled "Drain the Swamp and There Will Be No More Mosquitos," referring to a statment made by Israel's military head, Yehoshaphat Harkabi, concerning the "Palestinian Question." The metaphor has found its way elsewhere too. The idea justifies, for example, the targetting of "rogue states" and "failed states" preemptively - the swamps - in order to destroy the "breeding grounds." As water itself is perhaps replacing oil as the world's most precious resource, it, like oil, has become a weapon. Saddam Hussein, after the first Gulf War, infamously drained the wetlands of southern Iraq and displaced the 5,000-year-old and 250,000 strong culture of the Marsh Arabs, presumably to punish the Shia for the post-war failed uprising. Part of the impetus behind the Israeli wall is to claim precious aquifer access from the Palestinians. Much of the devastation resulting from the decade of U.S.-led economic sanctions against Iraq (1.5 million dead, according to the UN) was a result of an initial bombing of water treatment facilities followed by the denial of replacement parts and purification supplies.
The word "mosquito" is an anglicized version of "Miskito," the African-Indian tribes of what is now Nicaragua. In the late 18th Century, the Miskito people were the subjects of harsh British colonization, and there was an insurgent situation. While the British were battling the mosquito, they were also battling the Miskito.
The mosquito metaphor also quite aptly plays into the oil war equation. The most common anti-war slogan in the lead up to the Iraq wars in both 1991 and 2003 was "No Blood for Oil." This slogan was chanted so often, the two liquids seemed to have transubstantiated into one. The force of empire assumes that the oil belongs to U.S. corporations, and it is often said that it is the "lifeblood" of the post-industrial West. The Iraqis, with their demands for self-determination, have a habit for randomly blowing up pipelines. These tiny flying parasites cannot be allowed to drain what rightly belongs to corpulent corporate oil. All junkyard tires must be turned and sitting water siphoned away. The threat is everywhere, even within our own borders, and the war is never-ending.
posted by thebaffler at 3:42 PM
1 Comments:
How are the Braves going to do this year?
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