Just what makes this Homeland of tomorrow so different, so special?

There is an ancient Alexandrian proverb which says something to the effect of:
“Nothing brings great enemies closer together than a healthy, proper bout of war.”

As the Marines and the Muj perform their dark dances on the edges of the Arabian Desert, learning of each other’s greetings (“Fuck You!”, “Sa’allam”), and learning the color of each other’s blood (red, red), our own government is taking on the characteristics of the Baathist state we overthrew in April 2003. A curious spiritual cross pollination is happening as the regimes of Baghdad and Washington DC together take a deep draught on the teat of War.

Verifiying the truth of the proverb above:

The Baathist state was born of the ideal of pan-arab nationhood and linguistic solidarity. The conceptions of this state were similar to the definitions used to define new European nations at the Versailles Conference of 1918: a continuous and large-enough sustainable area populated by a similar race of people, speaking the same language). The Baathinst ideal was modernizing, nationalist (somewhat accepting of all classes and religions), and militaristic state. It was the latter tendency which proved its undoing. As its viability was left to rot on the Mid-East battlefields of 1967—it was resurrected (ba’ath appropriately means “rebirth” in Arabic) by Saddam in the form of a nation which tortured its enemies, played on racial and linguistic differences to solidify domestic rule and involved in constant military operations against its neighbors.

The recent passage of the Torture Compromise Bill, also known as codification of permissible state torture techniques, the rallying around illegal immigration to spur voter turnout in many districts and recent Congressional authorization to spend around $70 billion in Iraq and Afghanistan (good enough for about 6 months of war with each of our two closest distant neighbors) should compare well to the three tendencies of Saddam’s state as elucidated above.

Welcome to our new homeland, just like an old one.