Exit strategy suicide

[T_i_B]

Ratcheting up despair levels among undesirable groups could offer Bush and Blair the ultimate solution

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1171936,00.html

I am trying to be reconciled to the final, vital element of our happy new Bush and Blair world - pre-emptive suicide. It's the way forward, I can accept that; there are too many dreadful threats out there - terrorists, foreigners, weirdos, cripples, antisocial elements, children, the poor - and we must be rid of them. Killing them costs money, and imprisonment is even more expensive; the cheapest, kindest way forward is suicide.

Social cleansing at home is one thing, but getting to grips with enemy combatants is another. Victorian penal experiments proved solitary confinement can do wonders, and Guantánamo Bay is certainly proving that isolation, brutalisation and unending uncertainty can induce men tal instability and self-harm. Still, a fairly shoddy percentage of its 600-plus evil fanatics have made really heartfelt attempts to end themselves.

Although turning Iraq into an almost inconceivable hell has left hundreds of thousands of the UK's potential enemies mutilated, bereaved and distressed, the level of despairing outrage this is producing seems to generate suicide bombings, rather than straight suicides. This would still be useful if Iraqis only were harmed by the resulting explosions, but even this is too much to hope for; while attempts to depress Iraqis in custody are simply leading to embarrassing lawsuits, rather than an epidemic of self-murder.

Moreover, the levels of obscenely bloody chaos are proving inimical to the mental health of coalition forces; the US military is concerned about an above average suicide rate - and occasional preliminary violence - in Iraq. Given that self-harm is more likely to take place in tranquillity, we can expect that the 130,000 US troops rotating out of Iraq will join their amputee colleagues in something of a stay-at-home bloodbath. No doubt returning UK soldiers will also suffer psychological trauma that can be ignored, mistreated and left to fester. The loss of coalition manpower due to suicide is unfortunate, but both Westminster and Washington will be glad of a quick reduction in army pensions, benefits and compensation claims.

[countmyvote4real]

1. Sad and sardonic, but true.

We're all dead. Thank you, GW chimp for dooming us all in your misguided (dare I say, evil?) scheme to destroy us all.

If the US reselects * we have a direct finger pointing at our downfall. It's over. Suicide would seem like the only honorable solution.

And if Kerry wins, we still have their mess to clean up. I hope the opposition voices will do the honorable thing and go away.

[Miss Authoritiva]

2. Savage, savage truth

There is far more truth to this column than dark satire. When governments start to view sizable numbers of their citizens as superfluous, as aggravations, then "governing" -- in the best sense of the word -- has stopped. It all becomes a matter of containment (enormous prison populations in the US) and attrition (facilitating premature death through inadequate housing, nutrition, and medical care). It's mass extermination in slow motion.

[Disturbed]

3. Starve the beast.

Is that what this means? The Neocons want to bankrupt Govt. so that all social programs will have to be privatized?